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Enjoy the ASCII Theater - Stream Text-Based Movies in Your Terminal
Want to watch movies online for free? Give this fun experiment a shot! Though it may not be the usual HD experience you're used to. MSCHF recently launched a digital ASCII Theater online. ASCII is text-based visuals and images – using symbols and letters to create designs and objects, or in this case, entire frames of a movie. This radical NYC art collective has just launched a whole new website located at ascii.theater with instructions on how to stream and watch movies on your computer. Entirely free! All you need to do is open up your terminal on Mac (or cmd.exe on PC) and drop in the short line of code they provide, and it'll play right there in front of your eyes. Voila! There's no sound, of course, but there are subtitles. And the quality isn't great. And you can't control much. But hey you can watch the whole movie anyway! This is a clever web experiment and I dig the concept, even if it isn't really practical. Right now you can watch Barbie, though they'll switch to Hereditary soon. As a movie geek and as a computer geek - I just think this is pretty neat.
Watch: McDonald's Seen in Movies Promo for the 'As Featured In Meal'
"A Royale with Cheese." Who wants one? Or two? McDonald's is going all out with a new promotion. Even though we usually despise any shameless marketing, especially when it's for extremely unhealthy fast food (yeah it's true, sorry), this is is just too good to ignore. McDonald's has debuted a 60-second trailer along with their poster for a new "As Featured In Meal" deal. So what are they offering? "A collection of fan-favorite menu items that have made iconic appearances throughout film, television and music." Huh, okay. The trailer features some of the most iconic appearances - including The Fifth Element, Reality Bites, "The Office", Fallen Angels, The Longest Yard, and of course the "Royale with Cheese" in From Paris with Love. I have to give them props for fully embracing the hilariousness of finding every single McDonald's reference in any film from any country, including ones that kind of make them look bad, like McDowell's in Coming to America. Are they going to have anything new, or just put a different name on everything they already sell?
Watch: Making a Movie Prop - Deckard's Police Badge in 'Blade Runner'
"We're going to be printing these with the original cuts used to make them, on the original press they were printed on..." This will be one of the geekiest videos you watch all year. But that is what makes it so good. Adam Savage's Tested YouTube channel recently posted this video of Savage visiting a legendary prop shop in Hollywood called Earl Hayes Press. During his visit to the shop, the staff decide to treat Adam to a one-of-a-kind, brand new sci-fi prop "replica" of – the police badge ID card from Ridley Scott's Blade Runner (1982). Savage is a huge geek for these kind of props, and learns about how it's made. Something so simple and tiny and barely visible in the movie is made with as much care and craft as all of the sets and costumes and everything else. They make a new ID from scratch - using the exact same material, same patterns, same machinery, and same finishing techniques that were used in the 1980s when Earl Hayes Press was hired to make this exact police badge for the original production. How awesome is that?! This is movie geek heaven.
Watch: Fan-Made Classic B&W Silent Film Version of Nolan's 'Dunkirk'
"Spitfires George, greatest plane ever built." Christopher Nolan's intense war thriller about the miraculous Dunkirk evacuation at the beginning of WWII has been earning accolades and recognition on many Top 10 lists as the year comes to an end. Dunkirk really is an outstanding movie, that is so exceptional thanks to Nolan's expertise in crafting impeccable visuals to help viewers feel fully immersed in the story. YouTube channel "Like Stories of Old" has created a new version of Dunkirk that plays as an 8-minute black & white silent film. It's actually kind of perfect, they get everything right, even the music and the dialogue cards. Aside from being a cool experiment in editing, it shows just how impressive Dunkirk is as visual storytelling.
Watch: Adam Savage Tours Peter Jackson's Amazing Prop Collection
Want to geek out with Adam Savage and Peter Jackson? A video from Adam Savage's website Tested has debuted that involves Savage stepping inside of Peter Jackson's prop warehouse. Guillermo del Toro's massive collection has been in the news the most recently with his exhibition at LACMA, but Jackson has a collection of props and movie items that might rival that one. Savage and Jackson spend most of their time in this video examining the HAL 9000 faceplate from 2001, but there's other cool things hidden around. You can see one of the Ray Harryhausen skeletons from Jason and the Argonauts, and a Vogon from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, too. Jackson says he collects things from films that inspired him as a kid.
Excl: Mark Englert's 'Should we take a look inside?' Print for Alien Day
"Should we take a look inside?" In honor of Alien Day, on April 26th, we're proud to debut one of the new prints being released by Bottleneck Gallery in NYC. In partnership with 20th Century Fox and Acme Archives, Bottleneck is hosting a sold out screening of Alien at Syndicated Bk on Tuesday and releasing artwork (other prints by Laurent Durieux and Chris Skinner). We get to reveal the art designed by Mark Englert for Alien titled "should we take a look inside" - a 12"x36" screenprint with glow-in-the-dark ink. This print is awesome, and the detail on it is incredible. And the good news is that the original version will be a timed release meaning anyone can buy a copy during the 24-hour on sale period opening for Alien Day.
Fresh Art: Matt Ferguson's 'Star Wars' Saga Triptych from Bottleneck
Return to a Galaxy Far, Far Away... to buy yet another set of stunning posters for the original Star Wars saga! Brooklyn-based Bottleneck Gallery is launching another series of screen prints, this set by Matt Ferguson, for the original Star Wars saga in a timed sale on their website this weekend. We've featured a whole bunch of different Star Wars art over the last year, since everyone is in a very nostalgic mood with the new movie playing in theaters. This latest set is by an artist we've been following for a long time, known as "Cakes and Comics" - last year he did the Lord of the Rings trilogy, this year we get Star Wars. Take a look.
Play This: Crazy 8-Bit Online Video Game 'Leo's Red Carpet Rampage'
Wait, wait, wait! Someone made an 8-bit video game about Leonardo DiCaprio's pursuit of Oscar glory?! Get out of town. This is totally awesome! The video game was made by The Line Animation at Electric Theatre Collective, and involves controlling various Academy Awards contenders on a race down the red carpet to nab that glorious golden statuette before anyone else does. It was obviously inspired specifically by the well-known fact that Leonardo DiCaprio has been nominated five times for an acting Academy Award, but has yet to win one. Until the Oscar ceremony comes around in a few weeks - this is definitely worth playing. Watch a game trailer and click below to visit the site to play Leo's Red Carpet Rampage. Have fun.
Check Out Matt Taylor's Art for Mondo's 'Wrath of Khan' Vinyl Release
Beyond the darkness... beyond the human evolution... is Khan. Mondo has unveiled the artwork for their upcoming vinyl pressing of the original score for Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, released in 1982, directed by Nicholas Meyer. This classic sci-fi sequel from the 80s has a wonderful score from James Horner, some of his early work, and this special edition re-release is remastered. It's also "the extended score, featuring cues rarely released for home listening, and it's spread out across two gorgeous LPs." The art for the cover and insert was designed by Matt Taylor, and it's gorgeous, seriously. I almost want to buy this just for the art, it's that good. Images below and info on the vinyl from Birth.Movies.Death. Khaaann!!!
Today is the Day Marty Arrived in the Future in 'Back to the Future II'
The Future is Now! Today is the day. It's Back to the Future Day! Why? Because in Back to the Future II, this is the day Marty arrived in the future to help Doc Brown sort things out - October 21st, 2015. Yep, we're totally living in the future, but like, right now. To capitalize on the geeky celebration, news media the world over are going all out. USA Today has re-published the front cover of the newspaper as seen in the movie (image below). Universal is re-releasing another anniversary Blu-ray box set this week and put out a special video with the Doc himself, Christopher Lloyd. Mondo is re-releasing a new vinyl version of the trilogy's original soundtracks, plus more artwork. Strap in and get ready to go back, to the future, right now.
Watch: Video Game 8-Bit Cinema Version of 'Mad Max: Fury Road'
Your mission: Outrun the War Party! The 8-bit Cinema guys have decided to take on Mad Max: Fury Road next, turning one of this year's best movies into an NES-style video game. Or maybe SNES, because it goes up to 16-bit at times. But it's still awesome. We've featured many of these 8-bit cinema videos in the past, and they're just so much fun to watch, because it makes me really wish I still had my old NES still and this game was real. I would be playing it right now. The Doof Warrior gets his ass kicked pretty quickly with one bop on the head, but other than that, this is a full-on video game version of the plot in the movie. Enjoy!
Exclusive: Alice X. Zhang's 'Snowpiercer' Print for FAMP Art at NYCC
"We control the engine, we control the world. Without that, we have nothing." We're excited to exclusively debut the new artwork by Alice X. Zhang being sold at the New York Comic-Con coming up in New York City next weekend. FAMP Art has officially licensed and will be selling 24"x18" prints of this art for Bong Joon-ho's Snowpiercer - an archival giclee print on Somerset Velvet fine art paper. FAMP Art, located at booth #2366 at New York Comic-Con 2015, specializes in creating officially licensed, limited edition screen printed posters of foreign films, classics and more. This is their latest poster unveiling - view in full below.