I’m still looking forward to Zack Snyder’s Sucker Punch; it looks weird, fun and slightly insane! I saw this video in my Twitter feed a couple of times and knew I just had to share it with you guys. Disney princesses mashed up with Sucker Punch. Awesome:

I really enjoyed Tron Legacy. I’m still disappointed the plot didn’t live up to the rest of the awesomeness: amazing music, gorgeous visuals and cool actors. If only the story had been better, it could have been a great movie (it’s an enjoyable movie, I find, and a pretty one, but not OMG-that-was-the-most-amazing-thing-in-the-world great).

The plot of the Tron ARG that I’d been following throughout the year before it had seemed so promising. I was expecting that to tie into the movie much much more. It somehow also just died once the movie came out. But now they’ve released the following short movie Tron: The Next Day which will appear on the DVD (kind of obvious, but: spoilers for Tron: Legacy):

Yay, Ram! This finally gives some closure to the ARG. ZackAttack was one of the members on the Flynn Lives forum, who leaked most of the Encom info. We all knew he was one of the ARG plants, but it never occurred to me that it would be one of the characters of the first movie. In case, you didn’t notice (or remember the first movie): there’s a small scene where Alan (Bruce Boxleitner) passes a co-worker who asks if he can grab some of Alan’s popcorn. He later appears in the computer world as Ram, one of the captured programs.

Now I’m excited for the next movie! Rumours are there will be 2 sort of trailers for Tron 3 on the DVD (plus this short movie) and I can’t wait to see them.

Via Bleeding Cool

Thanks to everyone that entered my birthday giveaways! I got a lot of interesting comments, but alas there can only be one winner. Well, 2 winners in this case, cause there were 2 giveaways.

So, drumroll please…

*drumroll*

The winner of a copy of Feed from Mira Grant is: Sally! With her comment:

Ooh, that looks like an awesome book. Shall have to add it to The List.

My favourite book fluctuates regularly – I read so much and love too many. I’ve just finished the Aurora Teagarden mysteries, which were an ace christmas present. If I had to pick one book that I’ve read that I particularly wouldn’t want to have not read, it would be The Hobbit. That’s a weird way of explaining it, but my favourite books are usually measured by the shelf rather than individuals 😉

And the winner of the limited edition knomo laptop bag is: Valentina! With her comment:

My favourite one was about the video games consoles shaped buildings. Made me laugh a lot!

Hope you both enjoy your prizes!

In the days leading up to the last Barcamp London (back in November) Tom Scott asked if I wanted to help out with one of his projects: You Against The World. The idea was to do a live quiz, with the 100 people in the audience answering questions (through these cool multiple-choice handheld thingies), but also allowing players online to participate. I think we even got #yatw to trend on Twitter that evening!

I got to be the co-host for the quiz, doing the behind-the-scene game control and giving random bits of info about the answers and online players:

It was great fun recording this all! I’m not great on camera (I still look like a complete idiot every time I try to smile with my braces), but that’s exactly why I wanted to do this. I still get so nervous any time I’m in front of a camera and really need to get over my nerves. And what better way than practice?

For more info about You Against The World and to see more of Tom’s projects, check out his website.

I wrote about the Twisted Princesses series by deviantArt artist Jeffrey Thomas two years ago and I only discovered now that there have been a couple additions to the series. Again they’re so dark, yet gorgeous pictures:

I recommend taking a look at the Deviant gallery with all the Twisted Princesses; there is just so much detail in the pictures, you’ve got to see them as large as possible! Plus Jeffrey has actually written background stories for each princess, explaining how they’ve turned out this way (I love the story behind Alice’s picture).

I’m always hesitant about getting too excited for movies or TV shows based on books I’ve read. It happens way too often that they turn out so disappointing and/or completely unlike the book. Maybe if you’re lucky it will turn out exactly as you imagined, but I don’t think I’ve ever really had that. So I’m curious to see how the new HBO tv series Game of Thrones turns out…

It’s based on the book series A Song of Ice and Fire by George R R Martin, and it’s turned into one of my favourite fantasy series over the years. And it is, I think, one of the most suited books to turn into a TV show. It’s practically a costume drama, but set in a world we don’t know, and without the usual fantasy trappings of elves, dwarves and annoying stuff like that. There’s quite a intricate story with (if I remember correctly) 3 different story lines set in 3 different cities for the first season. And lots of political manipulations, backstabbing and muuuurder.

Here’s the latest trailer:

A lot of the characters look spot on and I’m liking the tone of the show. The series premiere is April the 17th, and I can’t wait to see how the show does. It might have a bit of a hurdle to get over to attract “normal” people to it, but I think it could do very well.

The first book of the series A Game of Thrones is on Amazon for only £5. I never know though in these situations what to recommend: read the book first or wait for the TV series?

Back in 2008, I wrote about the Disney Dream Portrait campaign with photos by Annie Leibovtiz, and it’s been one of my most linked-to posts (check out those photos here). A couple of days ago 3 new photos for the campaign were added and again they’re so gorgeous!

It’s also interesting to see that Disney is using actors that are featured in their main live-action franchises right now: Olivia Wilde and Jeff Bridges were both in Tron, Penelope Cruz will be in the next Pirates of the Caribbean.

Where A Moment Of Beauty Lasts Forever

Jeff Bridges as The Beast, Penelope Cruz as Belle

Where Magic Speaks, Even When You’re Not The Fairest Of Them All

Olivia Wilde as the Evil Queen

Where Memories Take Hold and Never Let Go

Queen Latifah as Ursula (from The Little Mermaid)

So who are we still missing? Which Disney character would you like to see? I think we’re still missing The Hunchback and Esmeralda, Mulan, Tarzan and Jane, and then the more recent princesses like Rapunzel and Tiana. I’d love to see Mandy Moore and Zachary Levi as Rapunzel and Flynn!

I wish I had an award show or grand gala where I could wear a gorgeous evening gown like these. Instead I’m writing this blog post with a snoring cat curled up next to me, while wearing an adorable penguin pyjama (me that is, not the cat). Yeah, my life is sooo glamourous!

My favourite dress of the night was Hailee Steinfeld’s Marchesa, which she apparently helped design. It’s just so cute and adorable; for any other actress it would be too cute and adorable, but at 14 it’s perfect for her.

I initially really didn’t like Cate Blanchett’s dress, but the more I see it the more interesting it becomes. The shape is unique, yet I think she manages to pull it off.

There were a lot of red dresses on the red carpet this year, but my fave was Jennifer Lawrence’s Calvin Kline. It’s a very simple silhouette, and she looks gorgeous:

I’m not a fan of Hilary Swank or feathers, but I’m digging this dress. Just not sure if I like it on her.

Love this dress! It’s quite sparkly and you can’t see where the top actually begins, but that’s kind of why I like of this.

Now on to the ones, that I wasn’t completely convinced by, but still found interesting. Like Amy Adams in this L’Wren. I like the dress, but the chunky necklace and bracelet don’t seem to fit with it.

When I saw NIcole Kidman on stage presenting one of the awards, I remember thinking I really liked her dress. But looking back at all the photos, I can’t help but think this Dior dress looks wrong. And paired with orange shoes? I still need to look back at the footage of her presenting; it was this dress she was wearing, right?

Again, I sort of like this. It’s a great colour and an interesting design, but I’m not too sure about the boob stickers or whatever they are.

So what was our favourite dress of the night?

I managed to stay awake for the Oscars again! Is it just me or does it seem to be easier nowadays to stay awake with Twitter to keep you entertained?

I was really looking forward to Anne Hathaway and James Franco as hosts (Hathaway’s mini-bit during Hugh Jackman’s opening song was awesome 2 years ago), but I wasn’t really impressed with them. Here was their opening:

There’s some funny moments in there, but overall it doesn’t feel like the big grand opening some of the best presenters had in previous years.

I did however really enjoy Hathaway’s version of On My Own, but I haven’t been able to find a video of that to share with you guys. Plus all her dresses throughout the night were gorgeous! My take: pair Anne Hathaway with Hugh Jackman as hosts next year.

There’s also this video that the Oscar YouTube channel has released with the hosts performing Grease:

Stick around, I’ll be doing some more Oscar related posts today!

Last Tuesday we held this year’s first Movie Geeks of London meetup. It turned out to be a bit of a small meetup, but it was still great to see some familiar and some new faces. The theme of the night was the Oscars! I held a short presentation about my boxoffice project and we had Carl hold a short demo about his site Oscar Wager.

It’s a handy site for this weekend’s Oscars. The idea is that you can set up a wager, where everyone has to pick who they think is going to win (for all 24 categories). Whoever gets the most right, wins the prize. There’s also something in place in the case of a tie, but I don’t remember what that was.

So we’ve setup a Geeks of London Oscar Wager. We’re giving away 2 DVDs (most probably whatever wins Best Picture on Sunday, and one of the other Best Picture nominations) to whoever wins our Oscar Wager. Just fill in the form to enter. Keep in mind though once you’ve filled it in, you can’t edit it anymore. Entry closes (of couse) once the award show starts.