Next Club Meeting: August 12, 2017, at the Wood Dale Public Library from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
The Animatrix Network is an anime & manga fan club located in the Southwest suburbs of Chicago, Illinois. We usually meet on the fourth Saturday of each month (except when holidays or conventions coincide). The meetings are free and open to the public. Join us for a day filled with anime.
This site provides news, reviews, commentaries, and previews of the world of anime and everything it inspires, such as live-action films, comics, music, art, and other weird things to enjoy and contemplate.
Ready Player One welcomes director Steven Spielberg back to the sci-fi genre after over a decade away. Based on the Ernest Cline novel, the movie casts Tye Sheridan as a virtual-reality player who’s intent on finding a hidden fortune left by game guru Mark Rylance. Ben Mendelsohn, Lena Waithe, and T.J. Miller co-star in the movie, which will be out next March. Will Spielberg find the virtual-reality setting to be as high-stakes and murderous as Jessica Fletcher once did? Stay tuned!
Comic-Con reveals the newest trailer for the new Thor movie.
Imprisoned on the other side of the universe, the mighty Thor
(Chris Hemsworth) finds himself in a deadly gladiatorial contest that
pits him against the Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), his former ally and fellow
Avenger. Thor's quest for survival leads him in a race against time to
prevent the all-powerful Hela (Cate Blanchett) from destroying his home world and the Asgardian civilization.
[Source: Yahoo!News] Yesterday, major movie news broke from San Diego Comic-Con when The Hollywood Reporter wrote that, public denials to the contrary, Warner Bros. was looking for a way to replace Ben Affleck as Batman immediately after the release of this fall’s Justice League — meaning that Matt Reeves’ upcoming The Batman would feature a new star in the Dark Knight’s cape and cowl. Given that Affleck is at the center of the studio’s entire DC Extended Universe, such a move would have major reverberations for the superhero series’ future. And today, on stage at Comic-Con on behalf of Justice League (and alongside his co-stars Gal Gadot, Jason Momoa, Ezra Miller, and Ray Fisher), Affleck shot those rumors down.
In front of an audience eager to hear how the Oscar winner might confront the growing speculation that his big-screen crime-fighting days were numbered, Affleck made it clear that he had no intention of giving up duties as Gotham’s protector, stating:
“Let me be very clear. I am the luckiest guy in the world. Batman is the coolest f**king part in any universe. … It’s f**king amazing.”
Then, bluntly talking about an upcoming collaboration with Reeves (whose last film was the critically acclaimed War for the Planet of the Apes), Affleck — who was originally slated to write and direct The Batman, before stepping aside in both capacities — stated that “I would be a f**king ape on the ground for Matt Reeves.”
After Affleck proclaimed, “How many people in their life get to come to Hall H and say, ‘I’m Batman’?” the panel concluded on a high note, with the debut of a brand-new trailer for the forthcoming tentpole (watch it above). While Justice League has undergone significant changes in recent months, with director Zack Snyder handing over directing duties to Joss Whedon, the latest promo — full of action and banter — was well received. Plus, it ended with the return (albeit just off screen) of Henry Cavill’s Superman, following his “death” at the end of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.
Justice League arrives in theaters on November 17.
Disney XD's animated series Big Hero 6, picks up immediately following the events of the Walt Disney Animation Studios' Academy Award-winning feature film and continues the adventures and friendship of Hiro, the fourteen-year-old orphaned tech genius and Baymax, his very special plus-sized inflatable healthcare companion. Big Hero 6: The Series U.S. Premiere Fall 2017. As the new kid at San Fransokyo Institute of Technology, Hiro faces daunting academic challenges at the prestigious “nerd school” and the social trials of being the “little man on campus.” Luckily, Hiro has his brains, his ingenuity and his best friend bot to help him find his way. But it’s off campus where things get dangerous. Along with neat freak Wasabi, bubbly mad scientist Honey Lemon, fanboy Fred and no nonsense Go Go, the friends form an unlikely, but awesome super hero team – Big Hero 6. Together they face madness and mayhem as a colorful array of science-enhanced villains threaten San Fransokyo.
Missing San Diego Comic-Con this year? Don't fret! Nerdist and Whitney Avalon (Princess Rap Battles) is here to take you on a magical/musical journey through Con!
A N I M A T R I X N E T W O R K Saturday, July 22, 2017
Wood Dale Public Library
"Don't take any strange detours this weekend!"
Main Meeting Room, 10:15 am to 5:00 pm
10:15 - 11:05Macross Delta 25-26 [End]
11:05 - 11:55Re:Zero - Starting Life in Another World 20-21
11:55 - 12:45Gamers! 1-2
12:45 - 1:35 Princess Principal 1-2
1:35 - 2:15Club Meeting / Announcements
2:15 - 2:40Little Witch Academia (2017 TV series) ep 9 2:40 - 3:30 Saga of Tanya the Evil 1-2 3:30 - 3:55 Restaurant to Another World 1 3:55 - 4:45 Made in Abyss 1-2
All anime presented are fan-subtitled unless otherwise noted.
Our next club meeting will be at the Wood Dale Public Library, Main Meeting Room (on your far right as you enter the front doors), from 10:15 AM to 5:00 PM (until the library closes).
There is public transportation available. A Metra train-stop is located within walking distance.
Please note: If you are driving, please park your car on the south side of the building (not the front) in order to make room for other library patrons.
[Source: HollywoodReporter] Martin Landau, the all-purpose actor who showcased his versatility as a master of disguise on the Mission: Impossible TV series and as a broken-down Bela Lugosi in his Oscar-winning performance in Ed Wood, has died. He was 89.
Landau, who shot to fame by playing a homosexual henchman in Alfred Hitchcock's 1959 classic North by Northwest, died Saturday of "unexpected complications" after a brief stay at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, his rep confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter.
After he quit CBS' Mission: Impossible after three seasons in 1969 because of a contract dispute, Landau's career was on the rocks until he was picked by Francis Ford Coppola to play Abe Karatz, the business partner of visionary automaker Preston Tucker (Jeff Bridges), in Tucker: The Man and His Dream (1988).
Landau received a best supporting actor nomination for that performance, then backed it up the following year with another nom for starring as Judah Rosenthal, an ophthalmologist who has his mistress (Anjelica Huston) killed, in Woody Allen's Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989).
Landau lost out on Oscar night to Kevin Kline and Denzel Washington, respectively, in those years but finally prevailed for his larger-than-life portrayal of horror-movie legend Lugosi in the biopic Ed Wood (1994), directed by Tim Burton.
Landau also starred as Commander John Koenig in the 1970s science-fiction series Space: 1999, opposite his Mission: Impossible co-star Barbara Bain, his wife from 1957 until their divorce in 1993.
A former newspaper cartoonist, Landau turned down the role of Mr. Spock on the NBC series Star Trek, which went to Leonard Nimoy (who later effectively replaced Landau on Mission: Impossible after Trek was canceled).
Landau also was an admired acting teacher who taught the craft to the likes of Jack Nicholson. And in the 1950s, he was best friends with James Dean and, for several months, the boyfriend of Marilyn Monroe. "She could be wonderful, but she was incredibly insecure, to the point she could drive you crazy," he told The New York Times in 1988.
Landau was born in Brooklyn on June 20, 1928. At age 17, he landed a job as a cartoonist for the New York Daily News, but he turned down a promotion and quit five years later to pursue acting.
"It was an impulsive move on my part to do that," Landau told The Jewish Journal in 2013. "To become an actor was a dream I must've had so deeply and so strongly because I left a lucrative, well-paying job that I could do well to become an unemployed actor. It's crazy if you think about it. To this day, I can still hear my mother's voice saying, 'You did what?!'"
In 1955, he auditioned for Lee Strasberg at the Actors Studio (choosing a scene from Clifford Odets' Clash by Night against the advice of friends), and he and Steve McQueen were the only new students accepted that year out of the 2,000-plus aspirants who had applied.
With his dark hair and penetrating blue eyes, Landau found success on New York stages in Goat Song, Stalag 17 and First Love. Hitchcock caught his performance on opening night opposite Edward G. Robinson in a road production of Middle of the Night, the first Broadway play written by Paddy Chayefsky, and cast him as the killer Leonard in North by Northwest.
In Middle of the Night, "I played a very macho guy, 180 degrees from Leonard, who I chose to play as a homosexual — very subtly — because he wanted to get rid of Eva Marie Saint with such a vengeance," he recalled in a 2012 interview.
As the ally of James Mason and nemesis of Saint and Cary Grant, Landau plummets to his death off Mount Rushmore in the movie's climactic scene. With his slick, sinister gleam and calculating demeanor, he attracted the notice of producers and directors.
He went on to perform for such top directors as Joseph L. Mankiewicz in Cleopatra (1963) — though he said most of his best work on that film was sent to the cutting-room floor — George Stevens in The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965), John Sturges in The Hallelujah Trail (1965) and Henry Hathaway in Nevada Smith (1966).
Landau met Bruce Geller, the eventual creator of Mission: Impossible, when he invited the writer to an acting class. Bain was in the class as well, and Geller wrote for them the parts of spies Rollin Hand and Cinnamon Carter. Landau earned an Emmy nomination for each of his three seasons on the series.
He could have starred in another series.
"I turned down Star Trek. It would've been torturous," he said during a 2011 edition of the PBS documentary series Pioneers of Television. "I would've probably died playing that role. I mean, even the thought of it now upsets me. It was the antithesis of why I became an actor. I mean, to play a character that Lenny [Nimoy] was better suited for, frankly, a guy who speaks in a monotone who never gets excited, never has any guilt, never has any fear or was affected on a visceral level. Who wants to do that?"
Landau found a kindred spirit in Burton, who also cast him in Sleepy Hollow (1999) and as the voice of a Vincent Price-like science teacher in the horror-movie homage Frankenweenie (2012).
Martin Landau and his wife Barbara Bain on the set of Space: 1999
"Tim and I don't finish a sentence," Landau told the Los Angeles Times in 2012. "There's something oddly kinesthetic about it. We kind of understand each other."
Landau played puppet master Geppetto in a pair of Pinocchio films and appeared in other films including Pork Chop Hill (1959), City Hall (1996), The X-Files: Fight the Future (1998), Rounders (1998), Edtv (1999), The Majestic (2001), Lovely, Still (2008) and Mysteria (2011).
On television, he starred in the Twilight Zone episodes "Mr. Denton on Doomsday" and "The Jeopardy Room," played the title role in the 1999 Showtime telefilm Bonnano: A Godfather's Story and could be found on The Untouchables, Bonanza, Gunsmoke, Maverick, Wanted: Dead or Alive, Wagon Train, I Spy and The Man From U.N.C.L.E.
More recently, Landau earned Emmy noms for playing the father of Anthony LaPaglia's character on CBS' Without a Trace and guest-starring as an out-of-touch movie producer on HBO's Entourage. He portrayed billionaire J. Howard Marshall, the 90-year-old husband of Anna Nicole Smith, in a 2013 Lifetime biopic about the sex symbol, and starred for Atom Egoyan opposite Christopher Plummer in Remember (2015).
And Landau appeared opposite Paul Sorvino in The Last Poker Game, which premiered at this year's Tribeca Film Festival.
"If one could examine his DNA, it would read ACTOR," Bain said in a statement. "He embraced every role with fire and fierce dedication. Playing Bela Lugosi in Tim Burton's Ed Wood was his loving tribute to all actors and garnered him a well-deserved Academy Award. His work was his joy and his legacy."
Landau worked as director, teacher and executive director at the Actors Studio West. He has been credited with helping to guide the talents of Huston, Warren Oates and Harry Dean Stanton in addition to Nicholson.
A documentary about his life, An Actor's Actor: The Life of Martin Landau, is in the works.
Survivors include his daughters Susie (a writer-producer) and Juliet (an actress-dancer) from his marriage to Bain; sons-in-law Roy and Deverill; sister Elinor; granddaughter Aria; and godson Dylan. Donations can be made to the Actors Studio West.
[By Mike Barnes, The Hollywood Reporter] George A. Romero, the legendary writer-director from Pittsburgh who made the 1968 cult classic Night of the Living Dead for $114,000, thus spawning an unrelenting parade of zombie movies and TV shows, has died. He was 77.
Romero’s 1978 sequel Dawn of the Dead was made for $1.5 million and grossed $55 million. He followed that by writing and directing Day of the Dead (1985), Land of the Dead (2005), Diary of the Dead (2007) and Survival of the Dead (2009), a decomposing body of work that earned him the nickname Father of the Zombie Film.
Romero also penned a new version of Night of the Living Dead, released in 1990, that was directed by Tom Savini, his longtime collaborator and horror effects guru. (And Dawn of the Dead was remade by Zack Snyder in 2004.)
Some film scholars and horror enthusiasts contend that social commentary — specifically salvos against the military and materialism — lurked within Romero’s films. Most of his work was shot in Pittsburgh, where Romero attended Carnegie Mellon University.
Night of the Living Dead, the story of seven strangers trapped in a farmhouse besieged by a lynch-mob posse of staggering zombies, devastated/delighted audiences at the time of its release, its stark and grainy black-and-white cinematography imbuing it with a documentary realism.
Romero and his nine other investors, including co-writer John A. Russo, had cobbled together $6,000 to start production on the film, then titled Night of the Flesh Eaters. It premiered at the Fulton Theater in Pittsburgh on Oct. 1, 1968, and quickly caught on as a staple of midnight screenings around the country. But most of the profits eluded the investors because of a mistake by the distributor.
“We lost the copyright on the film because we put it on the title,” Romero explained in “Night of the Living Steelers,” an installment of NFL Films’ Timeline series that premiered in October 2016. “Our title was Night of the Flesh Eaters; they changed it to Night of the Living Dead.
“When they changed the title, the copyright bug came off, so it went into public domain [and] we no longer had a piece of the action. Everybody had a copy of Night of the Living Dead because they were able to sell it without having to worry about royalties going to us.”
Night of the Living Dead was rare for its time in that it featured an African-American actor (Duane Jones) as a hero in a mainstream movie.
After directing the box-office failures There’s Always Vanilla (1971), Hungry Wives (1972) and The Crazies (1973), Romero, looking to make ends meet, produced a series of TV documentaries that focused on such Steeler legends-in-the-making as Mean Joe Greene, Franco Harris, Terry Bradshaw and Rocky Bleier.
He returned to the zombie milieu with Dawn of the Dead (this time with copyright intact), which was filmed at the Monroeville Mall outside Pittsburgh. “This was the first indoor mall we had ever seen,” he said in the Timeline documentary. “I said, ‘Wow, this is a temple to consumerism. There’s my topic.’ ”
Once, during an AFI screening of Night of the Living Dead, he was asked what terrified him. “I don’t have any supernatural hobgoblins that I worry about,” he said. “What scares me is life.”
George Andrew Romero was born Feb. 4, 1940, in the Bronx. As a teen, he was crazy about movies, especially the Michael Powell-Emeric Pressburger opera fantasy The Tales of Hoffmann(1951). To watch it, he had to rent a movie projector and a print of the film from a movie house in Manhattan.
“They had one print,” he recalled. “Whenever it was gone, I knew the guy who had it. And when that guy came in and it was gone, he knew who had it. And that guy was Marty Scorsese. … We were the only two people who rented Tales of Hoffmann.”
Romero studied art and design at Carnegie Mellon, graduated in 1960 and started a commercial production company, Image Ten Prods. He made a Calgon detergent ad that lampooned the 1966 film Fantastic Voyage and did a segment for the kids show Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood that showed the host preparing to have a tonsillectomy.
All that helped pay for the camera his team used to shoot Night of the Living Dead. Money was tight, so the basement of his company’s office on Fort Pitt Boulevard in Pittsburgh doubled as the farmhouse basement in the movie.
Romero’s other work included Knightriders (1981), a mayhem movie with combatants jousting on motorcycles; Creepshow (1982), modeled after horror comics and scripted by Stephen King; Monkey Shines (1988), a psychological thriller revolving around a killer simian; The Dark Half (1993), where a writer’s alter ego aims to take over; and Bruiser (2000), about a man who finds his face transformed into a blank mask.
Romero also dabbled in the world of comic books with the limited Marvel series Empire of the Dead.
Glimpses of the man himself can be seen in many of his films, and he had a cameo as an FBI agent in Jonathan Demme’s The Silence of the Lambs (1991).
Thanks to Romero, Pittsburgh has been called the “Zombie Capital of the World” and each year hosts an event called Zombie Fest, complete with a brain-eating contest.
“I used to be the only guy in the playground, I was the only guy doing zombies,” he said in the Timeline doc. “Then all of a sudden The Walking Dead happened and it became mainstream. And now they’re all over the place.”
Disney on Saturday unveiled plans for a "Star Wars"-inspired hotel, which Walt Disney Parks and Resorts chairman Bob Chapek called "the most experiential" luxury resort they've ever done.
"It's unlike anything that exists today," Chapek said at a panel during D23 Expo, the company's Anaheim-based biennial convention. "It is 100% immersive."
The mock-ups shared by Chapek showed guests in "Star Wars" attire and rooms in which "every single window has a view into space."
The hotel will be built at Walt Disney World in Orlando.
"We feel this could be the start of something very, very big," Chapek said.
There is not yet a target opening date for the "Star Wars" resort.
Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge
The announcement about the hotel came after Chapek revealed more details about the "Star Wars"-inspired lands coming to Disneyland and Walt Disney World, including the official name, "Star Wars": Galaxy's Edge.
"The name represents all the unknown adventure [inside the lands]," Chapek said.
Galaxy's Edge will feature two attractions, one that will put riders inside the Millennium Falcon and another will put riders on a Star Destroyer's hangar bay.
The 14-acre lands will also feature a cantina and cameos from "Star Wars" characters like BB8, Chewbacca and Captain Rex, a character from Star Tours, a former Disney simulator ride.
Chapek called the lands "a living place" where "your choices matter."
The first expansive look at Galaxy's Edge came at the start of D23, when a model of the land was put on display to the public.
"Star Wars": Galaxy's Edge will open in 2019, first at the Anaheim, California location then in Orlando, Chapek said.
The Parks and Resorts panel followed what was already a "Star Wars"-filled weekend at D23.
Earlier on Saturday, the stars of the upcoming "Star Wars: The Last Jedi" appeared to present a new behind the scenes look at the making of the film at a star-packed presentation. And on Friday, Mark Hamill and the late Carrie Fisher were honored as Disney Legends.
UPDATE: July 21, 2017
When Disney goes, Disney goes all out. After sharing a sneak peek of the Star Wars Land attractions coming to both Disney World and Disneyland, we finally got an official name for it and even more facts at 2017's D23 expo. Walt Disney Parks and Resorts Chairman Bob Chapek broke the news that the sections of the park themed after the movies will be called Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge. We learned even more information about what's to come and put it together so fans can get their facts straight and start planning their adventures for the 2019 opening.
1. The lands will feature two major attractions. Disney says these attractions will "put guests in the middle of a battle between the First Order and the Resistance." The rides promise to be fully immersive experiences for park-goers. They will be the largest single-themed land expansion at the parks, at 14 acres each.
2. One attraction will be huge! One of the two main attractions is designed to make guests feel like they're on a Star Destroyer inside a hangar bay. Disney says that "it's an attraction built on a scale we've never done before."
3. The second attraction will give guests the opportunity to fly the Millennium Falcon. Guests will be working to complete a mission and will pilot the ship, shoot blasters, and prepare for hyperspace. How you do on the mission holds and how you perform the skills will earn extra galactic credits. Bringing the ship back "banged up" could put you on the list of a bounty hunter. "End up on Harkos's list and you may face a problem if you show up at the local cantina," says Disney.
4. There will be a cantina! Rex, the troublesome pilot from the previous version of another Disney attraction, will take on a new role in this new land as the DJ at the cantina.
5. There will be characters everywhere! Guests will also encounter many familiar faces inside Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge, like BB-8, Chewbacca, and even members of the First Order.
6. The opening date is just around the corner. Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge will open in 2019, so fans just have to wait a bit longer! The Galaxy's Edge will first open at the Disneyland Resort and then later in the year at the Walt Disney World. There are no specific dates - yet.
