Category: Announcements

Star Trek Premiere Not Coming to Vulcan — But Optimistic Campaign Still Considered an Overwhelming Success

from Vulcan Tourism & Trek Station:

After a long and colourful journey, the Town of Vulcan has finally received word, from Paramount Pictures, about its ambitious quest to host the movie premiere of Star Trek.

There is good news and bad news:

Bad news first: Unfortunately, due to timing and logistics surrounding the production and release details for the film, it will not be possible for the premiere to happen in Vulcan. This is largely due to the lead time the town required to rent and special order the equipment needed to put on the event; and the much shorter timelines the movie industry works with, surrounding film releases.

The Good news is that Paramount Pictures does want to involve Vulcan with the release of the film in Alberta. Although it is premature to know specific details, they have informed the town’s Tourism Coordinator that Vulcan will be invited to participate in the promo-screening of the film in Calgary. This screening will likely be scheduled for a day or two prior to the film’s wide release on May 8.

Although this may seem, on the surface, to be the end of a unique promotional campaign, Dayna Dickens, Vulcan’s Tourism Coordinator, is thrilled with the results of their efforts:

“The support Vulcan has received, for its lofty Hollywood goal — from both the government and our peers in the Tourism Industry has been overwhelming; the international media’s response to this campaign has been remarkable; and, the idea of Vulcan’s “Trekkie Tourism” has clearly caught the imaginations of the travelling public, as our visitor and gift shop statistics continue to hold strong, even through the current economic slow-down”.

Despite not being granted the premiere of the new Star Trek movie, Dickens is looking forward to seeing what Paramount Pictures has in mind to include Vulcan in its plans surrounding Star Trek’s release in May. She is confident that 2009 will be another excellent year for tourism in this little Trekkie Town on the Prairies.

For more information contact:
Dayna Dickens
Tourism Coordinator
Town of Vulcan/Vulcan Tourism
Box 1161, Vulcan, AB, T0L 2B0
Tel: 403-485-2994  Fax: 403-485-2878
dayna@vulcantourism.com
Website: vulcantourism.com

Victorious Mongoose 1902a Concealable Ray Pistol

from Weta:

An update from Dr. Grordbort’s

At last — the Victorious Mongoose 1902a Concealable Ray Pistol is now shipping from all warehouses.

Those who’ve been waiting for their pre-orders will have to wait no longer. Some have already received theirs — please read the reviews.

And if you’ve been eyeing one up — now’s the time to act! And then write your own review, of course?

Check out the Victorious Mongoose!

Good news for Doctor Who fans

from Weta:

Cyber Controller statues are now shipping World Wide. This impressive and dynamic piece has now reached all our warehouses and will reach eager pre-orderers shortly.

But wait! There’s more!

Lord President Borusa’s Headdress has started shipping in New Zealand and is not far off the rest of the world. This means the last remaining piece is the Cyberman Leader Helmet, which we’re expecting in the second quarter this year.

“The Guild” Streamy Award Nominations

from The Guild:

The Streamy Awards Nominees were announced today, and we are pleased to announce that The Guild received 11 nominations!

We were nominated in the categories:
Best Comedy Web Series (The whole cast and crew and every one of our viewers)
Best Male Actor in a Comedy Web Series (Sandeep Parikh)
Best Female Actor in a Comedy Web Series (Felicia Day)
Best Ensemble Cast in a Web Series
Best Guest Star in a Web Series (Fernando Chien)
Best Directing for a Comedy Web Series (Sean Becker)
Best Editing for a Comedy Web Series (Sean Becker)
Best Writing for a Comedy Web Series (Felicia Day)
Best Art Direction in a Web Series (Leah Mann)
Best Visual Effects in a Web Series (Doug Luberts)
Best Original Music in a Web Series (Eanan Patterson, Don Schiff)

Whew! What a great day for our show!

Thank you so much to the hard work of all our cast and crew, as well as to all of you, our viewers, each of you who have made the show a success. We’re excited to be in such auspicious company and look forward to the awards on March 28th. They will be live streamed, so we hope you can join us there!

The Official Streamy Awards Nominees

from The Streamy Awards:

The following are the official nominees for the 1st Annual Streamy Awards, honoring the best in web television from 2008, announced on March 14, 2009. The live Awards Ceremony will be live broadcast online on March 28, 2009 at 7:30 PM. Head to streamys.org to watch.

Overall Series

Best Comedy Web Series
Childrens’ Hospital
Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog
The Guild
Onion News Network
You Suck at Photoshop

Best Dramatic Web Series
2009: A True Story
After Judgment
Battlestar Galactica: The Face of the Enemy
Gemini Division
Sorority Forever

Best Hosted Web Series
Boing Boing TV
Diggnation
EPIC FU
Project Lore
Wine Library TV

Best Reality or Documentary Web Series
Amtrekker
Lo-Fi Saint Louis
The Mortified Shoebox Show
Penn Says
The Shatner Project

Best News or Politics Web Series
Alive in Baghdad
MobLogic
Monkey News Source
Rocketboom
Talking Points Memo TV

Audience Choice Award for Best Web Series
(Coming Soon — Voting Starts Monday, March 16th!)

Directing

Best Directing for a Comedy Web Series
Casanovas (Casey Casseday, Geoff Bunch)
Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog (Joss Whedon)
The Guild (Sean Becker)
The Legend of Neil (Sandeep Parikh)
Overkill: A Love Story (Joshua Sternin, Jeffrey Ventimilia)

Best Directing for a Dramatic Web Series
After Judgment (Michael Davies)
Heathens (Jesse Petrick)
Pink (Blake Calhoun)
Sorority Forever (Douglas Cheney, Chris Hempel, Chris McCaleb, Ryan Wise)
With the Angels (Mary Feuer)

Writing

Best Writing for a Comedy Web Series
Break a Leg (Yuri Baranovsky, Vlad Baranovsky)
Childrens’ Hospital (Rob Corddry, Jonathan Stern)
Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog (Maurissa Tancharoen, Jed Whedon, Joss Whedon, Zack Whedon)
The Guild (Felicia Day)
You Suck at Photoshop (Matt Bledsoe, Troy Hitch)
After Judgment (Michael Davies)

Best Writing for a Dramatic Web Series
After Judgment (Michael Davies)
Battlestar Galactica: The Face of the Enemy (Jane Espenson, Seamus Kevin Fahey, Ronald D. Moore)
Gemini Division (Andrew Black, Lawrence Frank, Brent Friedman, Joshua Stern, Jacqueline Zambrano)
Sorority Forever (Chris Hampel, Chris McCaleb, Ryan Wise)
With the Angels (Mary Feuer, Jonathan Robert Kaplan, Werner Trieschmann)

Acting

Best Male Actor in a Comedy Web Series
Amir Blumenfeld (Jake & Amir)
Rob Corddry (Childrens’ Hospital)
Nathan Fillion (Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog)
Neil Patrick Harris (Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog)
Sandeep Parikh (The Guild)

Best Female Actor in a Comedy Web Series
Felicia Day (The Guild)
Lisa Kudrow (Web Therapy)
Megan Mullally (Childrens’ Hospital)
Kristen Schaal (Horrible People)
Taryn Southern (Private High Musical)

Best Male Actor in a Dramatic Web Series
Joel Bryant (After Judgment)
Justin Hartley (Gemini Division)
Alessandro Juliani (Battlestar Galactica: The Face of the Enemy)
Seth Mendelson (Take Me Back)
Christopher Stapleton (30 Days of Night: Dust to Dust)

Best Female Actor in a Dramatic Web Series
Rosario Dawson (Gemini Division)
Taryn O’Neill (After Judgment)
Rachel Risen (The Hayley Project)
Jessica Rose (Sorority Forever)
Tara Rushton (KateModern)

Best Ensemble Cast in a Web Series
All’s Faire
Childrens’ Hospital
Dorm Life
The Guild
Horrible People

Best Guest Star in a Web Series
Fernando Chien (The Guild)
Felicia Day (The Legend of Neil)
Eva Longoria Parker (Childrens’ Hospital)
Paul Rudd (Wainy Days)
Tay Zonday (Nite Fite)

Best Web Series Host
Xeni Jardin (Boing Boing TV)
Kevin Rose (Diggnation)
Zadi Diaz (EPIC FU)
Alex Albrecht (Project Lore)
Gary Vaynerchuck (Wine Library TV)

Craft Awards

Best Editing
Backyard FX (Erik Beck)
Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog (Lisa Lassek)
The Guild (Sean Becker)
Jake & Amir (Amir Blumenfeld, Jake Hurwitz)
Tiki Bar TV (Jeff Macpherson)

Best Cinematography
The All-For-Nots (Jack Ferry)
Captain Blasto (Christopher Preksta)
Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog (Ryan Green)
The Legend of Neil (Richard E. Stark)
Pink (Alan LeFevre)

Best Art Direction
Captain Blasto (Christopher Preksta)
Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog (Alethea Root)
Gorgeous Tiny Chicken Machine Show (Pogo Saito)
The Guild (Leah Mann)
Tiki Bar TV (Kim Bailey)

Best Visual Effects
Backyard FX (Erik Beck)
Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog (Nicholas Onstad, Jesse Siglow)
The Guild (Doug Luberts)
Kirill (Oliver Smyth)
The Pop (Sevan Najarian)

Best Animation in a Web Series
Happy Tree Friends
Homestar Runner
The Meth Minute
Stickman Exodus
Zero Punctuation

Best Original Music
The All-For-Nots (Kathleen Grace, Thom Woodley)
All’s Faire (Thom Woodley)
Battlestar Galactica: The Face of the Enemy (Bear McCreary)
Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog (Jed Whedon)
The Guild (Eanan Patterson, Don Schiff)

Best Ad Integration in a Web Series
The All-For-Nots (Dodge Nitro)
Back on Topps (Skype)
Blah Girls (Vitamin Water)
Gemini Division (Windows Mobile, Cisco Systems)
Whatever Hollywood (PopChips)

Best Artistic Concept in a Web Series
Red vs. Blue: Reconstruction
Stephen King’s N
The Ten Commandments
Wreck & Salvage
You Suck at Photoshop

Social Networking with “Weird Al” Yankovic

from “Weird Al” Yankovic:

All right… even though I need to join another social networking site like I need another orifice in my cranium, I’ve decided to wake up and smell 2009… and join Facebook.

My page is at facebook.com/weirdal. If you’re my MySpace friend, why not be my Facebook friend too? Come on now — don’t make me go out and get a whole new set of friends.

Besides the argument that “that’s just what sentient organisms do now,” I got on Facebook partly for the same reason that I originally got on MySpace — there are people out there pretending to be (or at least represent) me. I assume that these people are just enthusiastic, well-meaning fans, so no harm done… but just for the record, anybody on Facebook who ISN’T facebook.com/weirdal … definitely isn’t me.

And you know what else? I just signed up for Twitter too. Yeah, I know. I figured I’d better hurry up, because somebody already snagged twitter.com/weirdal… so I’m at twitter.com/alyankovic. Feel free to “follow” me if you like, but for what it’s worth, I really don’t intend on documenting every single one of my bowel movements — and truthfully, there’s probably only 40 or 50 people that would be interested in that kind of thing anyway.

So what have I been up to other than Facebook-ing and Twitter-ing? Outside of the usual “enjoying my life” and “spending quality time with my family” stuff, I’ve been writing new songs and working on Al’s Brain.

I’ve mentioned Al’s Brain here before — it will be a pavilion and interactive exhibit at the Orange County Fair this year, the centerpiece of which will be a 10-minute 3-D movie written by, directed by and starring me. It will premiere on July 10 (the first day of the fair) and run though August 9. And then hopefully it will travel to various other places around the world after that. It looks like it’s going to be pretty cool, so if you’re going to be in Southern California this summer, try to check it out.

And I’ve been writing a few original songs — we’re looking at being in the studio in late April / early May to cut some tracks. And then my plan is to release 3 or 4 of those tracks digitally (hopefully with accompanying videos of some sort) over the course of the summer. I have no idea when the next album is coming out… but at least you’ll get to hear parts of it in the not-too-distant future.

And I’m involved with developing a few other things too, but I’m being told that I can’t spill the beans about them quite yet. I’ll keep you posted.

Tweet ya later,
Al

Dr. Grordbort’s Miniature Goliathon 83

from Weta:

By Jove! The Miniature Goliathon 83 has returned!

Galactic Gentlefolk!
We would like to thoroughly congratulate the glorious artisans and scientific titans at the Goliathon plant on having delivered the final 400 Goliathon 83 — Miniature Edition! Which means you have your chance to complete your set! These mouthwateringly miniscule weapons of mouse destruction really are the dog’s private parts. It also fills us with anticipation that a distinct humming sound has recently been emanating from the miniaturisation department. Could it really be that the initial trio soon may be joined by others? Who dares to hope?

Cocky
The Lord of insatiable trophy aggregation — Cockswain — is up to his usual under-handed trickery. You may already have spied the celluloid we’ve acquired? No? Well you should — it’s a veritable bonanza of bad taste. Please help us figure out what it all means. We’re baffled.

Tally-Ho from some of our Blunderbuss Patrons
Since the first few batches of hermetically sealed crates of Unnatural Selectors have reached their blood-thirsty new households, we’ve heard back from some of the survivors. It is obvious that this fine clientele take their sports-shooting very seriously. To arm yourself with an Unnatural Selector is not merely a disdainful nod in the direction of Darwin, the naturalist rapscallion, but of course the ultimate expression of good breeding and taste!

So after you cast your eyes longingly at the playthings of the well-heeled and well-armed — why not go check out the Miniature F.M.O.M. and the Miniature Goliathon. They still pack a better punch than a slap in the face with a wet Thrusk!

Cheerio,
William

Dr. William Young
Archivist and Historian for Dr. Grordbort’s Estate

Volunteer Crew and Extras Needed for The Legend of Neil: Season 2

from The Legend of Neil:

Hey all, we’re a little less than 21 hours away from rolling cameras on season 2 of The Legend of Neil. We’ve got a long, and ambitious shoot ahead of us over the next two weeks. We’re working with a mostly volunteer but highly seasoned crew on our meager web budgets. But it’s not enough, we need just a few more EXPERIENCED crew hands in the Grip & Electric, Art and Production Assistant Department. If you’ve got even a day or two to come out during this slow season (starting THIS SUNDAY), we’d love to have you. This is a prime opportunity for those looking to network and get a Comedy Central IMDb credit on one of the most successful web shows… well… ever! If this sounds like you, please email me your resume (even limited on set experience will do) to effinfunny@gmail.com with “VOLUNTEER CREW” in the subject.

Also we’re on the hunt for a handful of extras for a couple of scenes. If you’re looking to get in front of the camera please submit some pictures of yourself to effinfunny@gmail.com with “EXTRA CALL” in the subject. We’re looking for rough and tumble folks, so keep that in mind when sending in your pics (grimace). You’d need to be in LA available for a full 12 hour day on one of the following: March 7th, March 9th or March 11th. You will be fed and credited!

Whether you’re in town or not, I’d still like to thank you all for your support. The web is truly a collaborative medium where we get to actually work and interact with our fans. It’s pretty frickin rad and kind of gives me a boner. TMI?

Last Complete Print Set of Kubo Concept Art from The Last Unicorn for Auction on eBay

from Peter S. Beagle:

A single, long lost set of The Last Unicorn concept art has been discovered in storage and is being auctioned this week on eBay
A single, long lost set of The Last Unicorn concept art has been discovered in storage and is being auctioned this week on eBay

In 2007 Conlan Press published a limited 500-copy edition of Hidemi Kubo’s 1979 concept paintings from the animated Last Unicorn. There were five pictures in the complete set: The Last Unicorn, The Red Bull, The Lady Amalthea, Mommy Fortuna, and The Full Cast.

They sold out of all the complete sets very quickly, as well as all the individual prints of The Lady Amalthea, the Last Unicorn, and The Full Cast.

However — last week a single complete set (#295) turned up in some old convention boxes. This is the very last one there is, and the only way you can get any of the three sold-out pictures.

The set is up for auction on eBay until 8:20 AM on Sunday, March 1st, with the same starting price that the complete sets originally sold for: $75.

Want to place a bid? Here’s the link:

The Last Unicorn — Final Complete Kubo Concept Art Set

For additional information The Raven is a free email newsletter dedicated to Peter S. Beagle and his work. Sign up at http://peterbeagle.com/raven/

Knights of the Guild Micro-Podcast Posted

from The Guild:

The first Tuesday in 12 weeks there isn’t a new Guild episode, gah!

A few things to tide you over, Jenni and Kenny, creators of the official fan podcast Knights of the Guild have just posted their first micro-podcast discussing the season finale of The Guild! Check it out at iTunes or at http://knightsoftheguild.podbean.com.

Also, Doug Luberts, the special effects guru who created the finale shots of the season, posted a very interesting blog entry on how exactly he did it. Interesting behind the scenes perspective!

THIRD, Felicia Day (Codex) will be at WonderCon this weekend, Saturday February 28th, signing at the California Browncoats’ booth at 12pm and 4pm. Stop by to say hi if you’re attending!