Disney Marvel acquisition (with added Sinestro)

Disney are going to own Marvel Entertainment. Four billion.

OK, so "this transaction combines Marvel`s strong global brand and world-renowned library of characters including Iron Man, Spider-Man, X-Men, Captain America, Fantastic Four and Thor with Disney`s creative skills, unparalleled global portfolio of entertainment properties, and a business structure that maximizes the value of creative properties across multiple platforms and territories".

Which is all well and good. But what we all really want to know is - "What would Jeremy Irons look like playing Sinestro in the new Green Lantern Movie..?"

Jeremy Irons without much make-up there. Just shine a pink light on his head and get him to grow a little moustache. Sorted. He's probably a wee bit cheaper than Daniel Day Lewis too.

Personally, my money's on Antonio Banderas.

Not quite pointy enough, it's true, but it's amazing what they can do with prosthetics these days.

And while we're at it...

Hal Jordan (Green Lantern) : Ryan Reynolds (confirmed)
Guy Gardner : Stephen Baldwin (unconfirmed)
Kilowog : Clancy Brown (voice)
Actually, scrap that, they're not having Kilowog in the movie at all. Ch'p does all the training.
Kyle Rayner (2nd sequel only) : Freddy Rodríguez
Carol Ferris : Kate Beckinsale
Clark Kent (cameo) : Him from Smallville
Alan Scott : Any other available Baldwin.

Oh yeah. I know that wasn't really about the Disney Marvel acquisition. Should have probably titled the post 'Irons Sinestro pic".

Ryan Reynolds as Green Lantern

Well, let's see if Ryan Reynolds ends up sticking with the Green Lantern movie (who knows - see What Does Ryan Reynolds' 'Green Lantern' Role Mean For 'Deadpool' Movie?). In the meantime - here's my quick attempt at a teaser poster for the Green Lantern movie.



Not much of a tease, it's true - actually kind of gives the whole thing away. But anyway. Just a bit o' fun.

Check out my fake Green Lantern movie trailer on YouTube too!

Daily Mail rubbish

Just spotted this load of old nonsense from the Mail - "BBC weatherman warns people of Kent to prepare themselves for temperatures of -99C"

Really?

No, of course he didn't.

Sure enough the map showed -99... it's happened a few times over the years and I'm surprised it took the Mail this long to pick up on it.

The live graphics will show a figure of -99 when there's a problem with the data reaching the graphics. Normally it'd be picked up by a human being and corrected to something more likely. That's kind of the point. It's a deliberately impossible figure, obvious to everyone (even Mail readers) that there's been an error.

Even so, that didn't stop the Mail padding out the flimsy story with record low temperatures and raiding the stock images for a picture of Antarctica to help explain the concept. And to think the BBC gets accused of 'dumbing down'.

Strangely the Telegraph ran the same story using instead a great big moon-faced picture of Dan Corbett.

In other news, BBC admit another hilarious weather blunder. This time a typo results in a very hot temperature.

Jesus if this keeps up my sides are going to split.

TV Graphics Showreel

I've just put an alternative version of my television graphics showreel on YouTube. This version includes some clips from the BBC Arabic TV channel branding which was the last project I was working on at the BBC before I left for the good life in Ireland! In most other respects it's identical to the Flash version on my TV graphics web site - and includes clips from BBC General Elections, BBC Weather and various other broadcast design projects.

I'm linking here also to check whether the little hack works to get the high quality YouTube video embedded.



If you want to link to the high quality version of a YouTube video you need to add '&ap=%2526fmt%3D18' into the embed code after 'rel=0'. The 'HQ' symbol doesn't seem to light up - but I'm pretty sure it's the higher quality version that's playing.

Link to the Mike Afford Media YouTube Channel - TV Graphics, Weather Graphics, Elections, Web Video

Things that made me chuckle (1)

I've always been a big fan of 'The Onion' - there's a handful of their regular columnists that are guaranteed to raise a smile (Gorzo The Mighty, of course, and Larry Groznic). But best of all is Smoove B (Love Man).

I just came across this masterpiece :

Smoove B's Political Goals For 2009

"Smoove is not a political man. However, during the most recent election, something changed for Smoove. He has found a purpose. A new desire.

I will make Michelle Obama my woman, body and soul."

Read the whole thing here.

Genius.

Martin Campbell - Green Lantern Movie

As I mentioned in an earlier post it seems a Green Lantern movie is just a little bit closer to getting off the ground. Despite Greg Berlanti (Broken Hearts Club, Dawson's Creek, Brothers and Sisters) being linked to the project, the latest rumour is that Martin Campbell, the director of James Bond movies 'GoldenEye' and 'Casino Royale' has been approached to bring the story of Hal Jordan to the screen.

Ryan Gosling has been linked to the title role, but with Martin Campbell on board who knows, perhaps 007 Daniel Craig might be persuaded to play the test-pilot-turned-galactic-policeman. Campbell is currently directing Mel Gibson in a remake of Edge of Darkness (which he directed for the BBC in 1985) - scheduled for a 2009 release.

Variety's story has been picked up by the movie sites, so it looks like we may finally get to see the long-awaited Green Lantern movie in a year or two.

Be sure to check out my Green Lantern movie trailer on YouTube

1911 Census - more family tree details revealed

I've just looked at some records from the recently released UK 1911 Census (at www.1911census.co.uk)

So far I've discovered that my grandmother on my Dad's side was known as Lizzie in 1911 (when she was 6), and that my Mum's grandmother on her Mum's side was called Kate.

I tried searching for my Mum's father, to find out who his parents were - but there were about 50 results for his name and birth year, so I might need more credits...!