More Old West Zombies in Rotten!

Zombies and the Old West seem to be the current trend lately. The Western is becoming something of a go-to genre to plop the undead into. Don't get me wrong, I love a good Zombie Western as much as the next guy (Undead Nightmare and others), but as I scour the aethernet for fresh material for the Emporium it seems like the most common "Weirdness" I come across is...Zombies. Joe Casual-Weird-West-Fan might not realize it with all of the flesh eaters popping up lately, but the Weird West is so much more than just Zombies (Thank goodness for Cowboys and Aliens!) Over the next few months Ill be doing posts about the glut of Zombies in the Old West as I come across more and more of those little fellers.

(Actually as a side note, some reviews of Undead Nightmare actually thought the idea of Zombies in the Old West was a really weird idea, and some even mocked it. It got to the point where Rockstar Games had too defend their position with examples of the Weird West in popular media. Kids nowdays.)

With all of that said, however, there are actually some very interesting Zombie Westerns I want to report on soon, such as a new film I JUST heard about last night called Revelation Trail, which Ill talk about in a few weeks.

...but until then...

Mark Rahner, Robert Horton, and Dan Dougherty have come out with a post civil war Weird Western comic called Rotten published through Moonstone comics. The artwork looks really nice, and I'm interested in getting my hands on the first trade paperback to see how the story reads.

The story synopsis sounds pretty interesting: Meet William Wade, Civil War vet, reluctant secret agent answering to President Rutherford B. Hayes, and zombie-hunter! In Reactivated, Agent Wade begins his mission with partner J.J. Flynn in a mining town locked down in a labor dispute and a siege of the undead. Plus, the two agents go undercover in an isolated, snowbound, debauched Army fort under slow attack by the undead - uncovering a Donner-like party and the fact that the wretched things are arising in different species everywhere. Collecting the first six issues of Moonstone's acclaimed zombie-Western epic with an edgy topical bite.


They put together a trailer for the book that looks, brutal and scary and really really good, so I cant wait to check the book out:



Yowza!

Rotten even has its own WEBSITE that has samples of the artwork and other stuff for the curious to check out. You should also keep an eye out at the Amazon Page for when the trade paperback is finally released.

The Wild Wild West Returns to Television!

This news is a little old, but I wanted to post about it anyway because I have a feeling it's going to be big. Deadline.com is reporting that former CSI executive producer/co-showrunner Naren Shankar and Battlestar Galactica developer/executive producer Ron Moore are planning on rebooting the Wild Wild West for CBS. This is very good news, if you have seen Moore's new version of Battlestar Galactica you know that he can reinvision a property in a very new and interesting way! I hope he brings this much love to The Wild Wild West.

Long time readers of the Emporium know that I have a love/hate relationship with the film version of Wild Wild West. It should have been an amazing film. It had the chance to not only redefine Western Steampunk, but to be the pioneering film for new generation of Weird Western films. In many ways its gorgeous look at and the amazing machines might have saved it from being totally forgotten. The humor, for the most part, fell flat on its face and making the main villain, Arliss Loveless, a racist just made him incredibly uninteresting. He had plenty of motivation for destroying the United States without being a cartoon stereotype also...but one thing the film did do right is lay the groundwork for what a great Wild Wild West TV show could look like!

I hope Moore and Shankar take their cue from the film in terms of design and fantastic Steampunk machines, and put the humor and story into the capable hands of good writers.

Until then however, HERE is the original story at Deadline.com. I will be following it very closely, so expect to hear more when I do!

Rango...A Weird Western?

I had known about Gore Verbinski's Rango a few months ago. There was a teaser trailer with the main character running around the desert in a Hawaiian print shirt. With Johnny Depp doing the voice, and the way the first poster was designed, it looked a little like an animated version of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas with funny animals (which, now that I think about it, would have been pretty darn cool).

A bigger trailer was released today that showed more of the film, and now it looks like something else, an all out Weird Western; or at least a standard western with animated animals. With a name like "Rango" I should have suspected. Regardless, its a gorgeous looking film and I felt it was worth showcasing here. It really seems too get the Western look right.

...but, is it "Weird"? Now you can decide that for yourself! Rango opens March 4th.

Undead Nightmare, The VGAs, a Soundtrack, and a review!

It was a big night at the Spike TV Video Game Awards on Saturday for Red Dead Redemption. It picked up 4 of the 9 categories it was nominated for, including Best Score (which I can personally say is great), Best Song (Far Away by José González), Game of the Year, and Undead Nightmare took home the award for Best DLC. It was a great night for Westerns (and Weird Westerns!) .....at least on the Video Game front.

The Official Synopsis:
When former outlaw John Marston wakes up at his farmhouse, he finds a world gone insane: overnight, deranged hordes have overrun the towns and outposts of the American frontier. In a desperate attempt to save his family, Marston must traverse a world torn apart by chaos and disorder, using every skill he has to survive long enough to find a cure.

For anyone who hasn't picked up Undead Nightmare, (and isn't as interested in the main Red Dead Redemption game) now is your chance to see what all the fuss is about. Rockstar has released Undead Nightmare as a stand-alone disc. It has the entire world created for Red Dead except mutated into a Zombie Apocalypse of Undead Nightmare, and you dont need the first game to play it. From personal experience I can say that Undead Nightmare is a GREAT game. It works best as a final chapter to the main game. Characters and situations play carry over from Red Dead and the humor of the game comes from your familiarity with the things you've seen before. Its also the reason the game works on a horror level. Seeing the towns and landscapes that you've become familiar with in the first game, so strangely different, firmly puts you into the shoes of John Marston as he deals with what has happened his home.

However if that stuff doesn't matter, Undead Nightmare is a great Zombie Western all on its own. It has plenty of scares and laughs (and frequent frustrations) to make it a fun experience for first time players. It might even pique the interest of some to pick up the original, a wise investment in my humble opinion.

The music in Red Dead is great, and the music in Undead Nightmare is equally great, yet different. In some of the quieter scenes the soundtrack is full of bass harmonicas and strange alien chirping....almost as if the landscape itself were making the noises. There is even a track of music that reminds me of the creepy whistling from High Plains Drifter, very appropriate. Other times, especially during fight scenes and in action areas, the soundtrack breaks into some groovy 70s rock tracks that fit the scene perfectly. Its as if you are watching a cool 1970s Italian Zombie Western.

They just released the Soundtrack to Undead on iTunes, and its great. You can pick it up there or you go HERE and listen for yourself. Make sure to check out the the stand out track Bad VooDoo by Kreeps, which I posted below, you won't be disappointed! The game and soundtrack don't take them selves too seriously, but even so the scares come honestly.



My final analysis on Undead Nightmare is if you are looking for a great Zombie Western video game, and dont care about not being familiar with elements of the previous game, you can't beat it. When I first started playing it I loved it more than the original game, however by the end I found I loved it only just as much. There are some tough parts that I wouldn't want to do again (cleaning out the graveyards becomes increasingly difficult as the waves of Zombies become nearly endless by the final round). Also it is nice to go back to the original game sometimes, after awhile it gets a little tiring constantly having to look over your shoulder for a surprise Zombie attack (but honestly, I probably wouldn't change a thing). For the price this is an absolutely fantastic game. Music, graphics, gameplay all carry over flawlessly from the first game. The story is good, and spending more time with John Marston is always a plus.

If you have a game console and you haven't picked this or Red Dead up yet, shame on you...but now is your chance to make amends. And if you are a fan westerns and Weird Westerns, Double shame! Well worth the price and very, very fun. Plus, sometimes its just so satisfying to go out onto the plains, riding around on your horse and shootin' zombies!

I give it 4 out of 5 Bloody Spurs

More stuff on Cowboys and Aliens!

It was fortunate that they released the new international poster for Cowboys and Aliens today. I was planning on posting a trailer commentary that Jon Favreau did and now I can kill two birds with one stone!

I love the new poster, I think I actually like it more than the first one. It feels like its in the vein of the original except that the "Cowboy" is clearly Daniel Craig now. I'm also liking it's style with the silhouetted figure rimmed with light, I hope all of the characters get posters like this!

If you click the image above you can see a bigger version!

Also, a couple weeks ago, MTV sat down Jon Favreau and had him do commentary on the trailer. There is some interesting stuff here as he talks about the film and some of his thoughts on certain decision he's made.

On another level, its interesting that MTV is doing this. As far as I know they haven't had other directors commentate on their trailers....Is it possible? A hotly anticipated Weird Western? I dont think there's any doubt about that, the trailer has surely caused a splash.

Personally I think this film is going to be huge, and will quite possibly reinvigorate not only the Western (as I'm certain True Grit might do too) but the Weird Western as well as studios start rushing to get that Cowboys and Aliens money. Lets just hope it does fall into a pit of crappy cheaply made films (we have enough of those already) but only time will tell...Until then enjoy!

Movie Trailers - Movies Blog

New Poster and Trailer for Cowboys and Aliens!

The first poster for Cowboys and Aliens has been released and I gotta say...WOW! I was just reading a snippet of interview with Harrison Ford (where he quickly mentioned this movie) and he was saying that the film starts off very much a strong Western, then suddenly has a strange new element added too it, and then goes back to being a very strong Western again, except with this new element in the mix (the very definition of "Weird West" if you ask me). This poster feels very much like that. You have the dynamic cowboy pose, a gorgeous desert landscape, and a wristband made from alien technology. The poster says it all, and it looks great!.......but lets just hope the film is just a dynamic. This film is one of the strongest hopes for the Weird Western genre to come along since Wild Wild West (which, coincidentally, there is also some new news about that I'll report on later this week)

Its possible too that, with the release of the first poster, there might be a teaser trailer coming very soon. Ill keep you guys posted on the details!

Also, if you click on the above picture, you can check out the details in a larger format!

EDIT: So, quite unexpectedly (sort of), the new teaser trailer for the film was released today. Wow! It starts off with a bang and gets better throughout. Everyone looks great! AND We get our first look at Harrison Ford as Woodrow Dolerhyde (and Keith Carradine is in this?! Awesome!). I think the trailer will make a big splash, it looks great.

They've opened up the official movie site and there are pages to Twitter sites, Facebook, and Blogs....basically anywhere that people are talking about the movie and everyone seems to love it. Also there are pages with new images, videos and downloadable stuff. Keep it bookmarked, I'm pretty sure they will be updating quite frequently until the film is released next July.

Until then check out the trailer!

Tom Hardy to hunt Vampires in Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter?

For one reason or another I haven't reported on the book and impending film version of Seth Grahame-Smith's Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter yet. I guess I was thinking it isn't really a "Western" so it doesnt really fit in here at the Emporium. Its pretty East coast (About as East Coast as it gets with it being Washington DC and all) and even with Lincoln growing up in Kentucky and Illinois it doesn't get much further then the Mid-West.....but it's a Civil War-era Vampire Hunting movie and, when put that way, I had to say something about it.

The book was written by Seth Grahame-Smith, who also wrote Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, and takes a look at the Lincoln no one knew about, the Lincoln that was a highly accomplished Vampire hunter. As I looked through it at the book store I expected a fictional narrative of Lincoln's life except with the added addition of him being a Vampire Hunter.....but the book is structured more like a true life account, using doctored photographs, journal entries, and written accounts to paint a "true" portrait of Lincoln's secret life.

Before I knew about the book, however, I'd heard about the movie, which is being produced by Tim Burton and directed by Timur Bekmambetov (who directed Night Watch, Day Watch, and Wanted) and last week they reported the first bit of casting. Tom Hardy is being pursued for the role of Henry Sturgess, a vampire who rescues sixteen year-old Abraham Lincoln from a vampire attack and trains him in the ways of vampirism to help him become a more effective hunter. Sounds VERY interesting!

I'll report more on this as I hear it but until then have a look at the trailer they did for the book back in February, hopefully the movie will be this good!