The Three Muskateers Getting Remade...Twice

I love studio screwups! To the great joy of classic French literature fans: There are currently two separate adaptations of 'The Three Musketeers' in the works.

The first was announced in September and is being helmed by 'Alien vs. Predator' director Paul W.S. Anderson, who is planning to add a contemporary feel and shooting in … wait for it … 3-D (similar to his Resident Evil IV). Also, like any other sensible people currently making a movie starring humans, the project’s producers were hoping to cast Taylor Lautner. Anderson is now working on the screenplay with Andrew Davies and they better write fast! Warner Bros. is going full steam ahead on their own adaptation, with 'The Men Who Stare at Goats’ Peter Straughan hard at work on the script. While there’s no director set, 'The Devil Wears Prada’s' David Frankel and 'Mr. & Mrs. Smith's' Doug Liman are on the top of the wish list.

Of course we’ve seen this epic battle of the studios before; remember Dreamworks' 'Antz' and Pixar's 'A Bug's Life'? The Illusionist/The Prestige? And isn’t 'Percy Jackson and the Olympians' and 'Clash of the Titans' pretty much the same thing?

Arkan Zakharov- Too Many Words

In recent months, Toronto-based photographer Arkan Zakharov been steadily raising his own bar. With stunning and haunting fashion spreads and editorials, short fashion films seemed a likely next step. With Aphex Twin and hints of Lee McQueen- here’s his latest short project ‘Too Many Words’.

Stop-Motion Phenomenal

Oh wow. Sometimes there are videos that I just have to put as soon as I see them, and the new single Grindin’ by Nobody Beats the Drum is most definitely one of them. Hundreds of sprayed wooden blocks, stop-framed to within an inch of their life make for an abstract feast. Although seeming like it, this ISN't animation, it's stop-motion. Six months has been spent making the next three minutes of your life an absolute joy.

Time Aint Ticking, It's Spinning

The Aspiral principle is simple, instead of a dial, a spiral and instead of hands, a ball.
Made in London and launched at the end of last year the spiral face turns slowly over a twelve hour period with a ball resting on the spiral ledge. When the clock reaches the final twelfth hour it drops through a hole to start all over again. Very nice.

Sexy Smoking

Hold on a minute... aren't we meant to be discouraging smoking these days? Judging by the amount of smoking in fashion shoots we've seen lately the answer is, apparently, no. For like it or not, smoking makes for a sexy photo, as demonstrated most recently by Lara Stone and Kate Moss in the 3rd issue of Love Magazine.

Lara Stone & Kate Moss; Love Magazine February 2010, Anja Rubik; Ellen von Unwerth, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley: DT Spain January 2010, Anna Selezneva; Vogue Nippon March 2010

VISA world cup

Fresh out of Saatchi & Saatchi HQ comes a new World Cup Visa advert. Charting the journey of one fan from armchair to dream-land, they seem to have tapped straight in to the minds of football fans everywhere, and inspire me to want to get up off my ass and go to the gym. maybe. watch full-screen.

Tarantino to Free the Slaves?

With the commercial success and impending Best Picture victory for his WWII-shortening Inglourious Basterds, it sounds like he's interested in whimsically improving history again sooner rather than later. According to the Daily News, this is Tarantino describing his next movie.

"I'd like to do a Western. But rather than set it in Texas, have it in slavery times. With that subject that everybody is afraid to deal with. Let's shine that light on ourselves. You could do a ponderous history lesson of slaves escaping on the Underground Railroad. Or, you could make a movie that would be exciting. Do it as an adventure. A spaghetti Western that takes place during that time. And I would call it 'A Southern.'" Can't wait right?

Best Olympics Ad

The Vancouver Winter Olympics kick off later today and London based Studio AKA have created this fantastic spot to accompany the BBC coverage of the event.Directed by Marc Craste and featuring the awesome illustration of Jon Klassen, the sequence follows a legendary quest by an Inuit hero who has to draw on all his skills to restore light and peace to his dark and troubled world.

RIP Alexander McQueen

Iconic British fashion designer, Alexander McQueen, was found dead after committing suicide.

Acclaimed fashion designer Alexander McQueen was found dead in his London home Thursday morning after an apparent suicide. The 40-year-old designer was famous for shaking up the fashion world with avant garde designs that often offered a socially conscious narrative. In recent years McQueen had become one of the most popular designers in fashion. His Spring 2010 collection was shown during New York's Mercedes Benz Fashion Week last September, and it became a major event when Lady Gaga debuted her single, "Bad Romance" at the show. Gaga, an outspoken fan of McQueen's work would go on to wear the "armadillo" shoes he debuted at that show in the "Bad Romance" video. McQueen was the youngest of six children. His death comes just over a week after his mother died.

NYC+The High Line

Voted best city of 2010 by Wallpaper Magazines spectrum of judges (including James Murdoch, Galliano and Almodóvar) NYC has never felt so compelling. Undimmed by the new era of austerity, its energy and creativity have merely been refocused. In this city once driven by excess, there’s a greater appreciation of quality over quantity. Not a day goes by without one-of-a-kind shops and restaurants or striking buildings springing up all around town.
And snaking its way through New York City on former train tracks, Manhattan’s “High Line” with new hanging gardens has proved a hit with both locals and visitors. With its great views and naturalistic planting, the raised promenade (ones an elevated railroad) now provides one of New York’s most uplifting experiences. All the more reason to return to the greatest city this side of the ocean.

Bleak and Disturbed- The Films of Michael Haneke

Michael Haneke is an “intellectual” filmmaker, that is, his films operate on numerous levels beneath the surface of the screen, which make his films all the more challenging and engaging – they are not meant to be “consumed” but considered without proper consequences.
He denies the traditional revelation. We don’t find out the answer at the end, as we except to with any other story. His films leave you unsettled, agitated and reflective afterwards, which is the sign of a great film(maker) when it sparks off a cerebral reaction that keeps buzzing around in your head for a few days and forces you to confront, analyze and challenge the ideas and concepts within the film. His films are bleak, disturbing and unnervingly ambiguous BUT they give you (the spectator) much needed credit and leave you thinking. Can you ask for any more from a film?
MUST-SEES: “Caché” French 2005, “The White Ribbon” German 2009, “The Piano Teacher” French 2001, “Funny Games” German/French 1997

V Love Courtney

The self-made, rough-and-tumble glamour of Courtney Love couldn’t feel more of-the-moment. In an ode to Love, whose new album is FINALLY out this month (!), V Magazine, supermodel Natasha Poly and photographer Glen Luchford pay homage to the queen of grunge.

The Bleeding CD

Hubero Kororo designed this interactive CD cover for the band Uceroz. When you open the CD packaging on the side, ink is set free and bleeds into the cover of the CD. I really like this idea.

No More Shhhhh!

If you’ve ever wanted your own private cinema, this might be the next best thing – or perhaps, even, a step up. “Silent Cinema” is a thoroughly simple concept to remove the ambient sounds of a public cinema – popcorn chomping, coughing, chatting, unwrapping – by equipping viewers with their own pair of wireless headphones. Imagine- an uninterrupted sound experience, and the ability to munch on a noisy food to your heart’s content. You can even pop off to the washroom without missing a word of dialogue. And you still get the benefit of the big screen and the communal atmosphere. Or as they call it, an individual experience, together.

The concept premiered at the Andaz hotel in London (England). Though it probably won’t become mainstream enough to make its way across the globe, and indeed there is a certain pleasure in the traditional theatre experience, it will present an appealing alternative for some. It also speaks to our current age where, for better or worse, the line between public and private experience is increasingly blurred.

Beach Boys meets David Lynch

At first, Alex Prager’s images seem sunny as an early Beach Boys song—what could be wrong with all those California blondes hanging out by the pool or silhouetted against a bright blue sky? But check out the way they’re looking at one another, the weirdly forceful body language, the waxiness behind the tans. Something’s deeply wrong in those lives, and all the saturated Kodachrome-y color and retro buoyancy in the world can’t disguise it. These new photographs, entitled ‘Weekend’ add an extra, more personal dimension to the otherworldliness: They were all shot in the L.A. neighborhood where Prager grew up, and the models’ clothes came from an actress friend of her grandmother’s.

As with previous works ‘Weekend’ continues Alex’s fascination with the retro-kitsch, highly saturated, and mind-blowingly vibrant. The result is an incredible staging of the beautiful with the crisply sterile, and will sometimes have you wondering just who or what you are looking at. It also hasn't hurt that she's chucked in a few lovely ladies smoking on car bonnets.

If you’re a David Lynch fan, this is the photographer for you.