Sean Pertwee Talks Slingers
December 22, 2009
On the set of the Slingers sizzle, Sean Pertwee talks to writer, Mike Atherton about his thoughts on our TV project and their shared love of 2000AD.
FREE eBooks Available on iTunes
December 21, 2009
Our Vernon Bright series of eBooks for the iPhone and iPod touch are now available to try completely free!
The Vernon Bright books are written by internationally known children’s authors, Steve Barlow and Steve Skidmore who have already sold hundreds of thousands of printed books.
Each free eBook contains one chapter of the full book and a sample quiz to test your knowledge.
Find out what happens in the rest of the story by purchasing the full version for just £1.19.
Click here to launch iTunes and see our full range of eBooks on the App Store.
FREE Festive eBook Now Available
December 14, 2009
Our latest eBook for the iPhone and iPod touch is now available to buy on the App Store.
Who’d Be A Dog At Christmas is a FREE eBook written by Tiny Tim, a scruffy but loveable mongrel who loves to rap! Find out what happens when he’s awoken early by the sounds of excited children on Christmas morning, and the trouble he gets into when Granny comes to visit!
For a bit of extra festive fun, this eBook also includes a Christmassy quiz about dogs at the end!
Click here to launch iTunes and see our full range of eBooks on the App Store.
AVATAR Review
December 14, 2009
Slingers writer, Mike Atherton, was lucky enough to attend the world premiere of James Cameron’s AVATAR last week. He published one of the very first reviews of the movie for TWITCH, which we thought we’d share here. Tickets are on sale already… go, go go!
I just got back home from the world premiere of Avatar here in London. It’s safe to keep reading. You are entering a spoiler-free zone.
I wasn’t expecting much. I attended the 15 minute IMAX preview a few months back and out of context what I saw was pretty. Very pretty. The immersive technology was an obvious step up, but the scenes with the marines came across as just weird on the eye and the sequences with all the alien fauna gave me flashbacks to James Mason clambering through mushrooms forests in Journey to the Centre of the Earth. But what really had me worried was the story.
There’s a lot of that same worry online. Avatar is often mentioned in the same breath as Ferngully: The Last Rainforest and Dances with Wolves, and then there was *that* South Park episode. I arrived this evening to a blue carpet event (I see what they did there) surrounded by press and the stars of the film, actually surprised at the invite to be honest. Because I’ve been very cynical online. I’m not sure if it was oversight on the part of SKY MOVIES HD who invited me or just simple faith in the movie, but it was stressed to me that I should be as honest as possible in the review. So here goes.
All those worries are completely justified. There’s hardly a single moment of truly original story telling up on the screen. The characters are developed exactly as you think they will be and key moments at the climax of the movie are sign posted clearly early on. If you think you’ve already seen James Cameron’s Avatar then there’s a good chance you’re right. And none of that matters.
It’s the combination of story and technology that reeled me in. The visual depth of the 3D technology is not completely immersive on its own, but Cameron understands that. The opening sequence seems timed to let your brain get around the eye candy while the introduction to Sam Worthington’s Jake Sully slowly begins to draw you in. By the time I met Sigourney Weaver the 3D element had settled down and simply felt comfortable. By the time I met the Na’vi I was immersed. And somehow the story had me too.
I’m a story guy so usually I like to be surprised. If I can work out where a movie is going then I get annoyed. But because Avatar’s plot, to me at least, was so familiar I actually began to concentrate on how well Cameron had constructed it. By the time the first simple arrow-head bounced off a gun ship I was enthralled. Because I knew what was coming and that Cameron was going to execute it with a steady eye and confidence not only in the technology, but also in the cast.
I’m a hard guy to please and being a fan of Twitch for years I know its readers have a rabid love for cinema. But I’m the guy who thinks the Jedi should be edited out of Star Wars at the same time the elves and hobbits get scraped away from Lord of the Rings. I found Dr Manhattan’s blue penis hard to swallow and the last cat person I fell in love with was Natassja Kinski. Avatar was never going to work for me. Yet for 150 minutes this evening James Cameron had me in the palm of his hand.
Snigger away. But this is the important part: Next week a kid who hasn’t seen Dances with Wolves is going to sit down wearing a silly pair of spectacles and be blown away. By the time he or she gets to my miserable jaded age, the effects here will look as old fashioned and as dated as anything I choose to rewatch for the umpteenth time in my DVD collection. But I collect those movies for a reason. So right now I’m jealous of that kid and what he or she is going to experience many years from now in the same way I’m jealous of the first kids who got to see King Kong back in 1933.
But if none of that sways you, just buy the ticket for Michelle Rodriguez and Stephen Lang. They steal the show.
Slingers Gets Web Buzzing
December 9, 2009
It’s been an exciting time for the Slingers team, as interest in the TV project was ignited across the web after award-winning comic book author, Warren Ellis posted a link to our sizzle reel over on director Steve Barron’s website.
Referring to it as “your new favourite TV show”, Warren’s post sparked a flurry of comments, blog posts and tweets around the world.
John Rogers, creator and writer of hit US TV show, Leverage tweeted:
We’d already noticed that some Leverage fans had taken a shine to Slingers by interacting with Mike on Twitter. It’s been great to see what these very early supporters of the show had to say once they’d seen the characters come to life – if only for a few minutes.
We’re still compiling all the feedback almost a full week later, but we did a get a massive kick out of Duncan Jones, director of the critically acclaimed movie, Moon describing the show as: “Where you need to be”.
So far Slingers has been mentioned on:
The conversation around the show has continued on countless blogs and forums and Slingers has had some very interesting people in Los Angeles reaching for the phone. With well over 50,000 views of the sizzle reel on Vimeo and counting, the positive reaction to Slingers has been overwhelming to say the least!
We’ve also been lucky enough to have been mentioned in the same breath as shows that we’re huge fans of here in the Sleepydog office.
A massive thank you to everyone for their fantastic encouragement and support.
We’ll be posting more news on Slingers in the coming months, and have also setup a Facebook page to share updates on the project. Watch this space!
New eBooks available on iTunes
December 9, 2009
Our latest eBooks for the iPhone and iPod touch are now available to buy on the App Store.
Sebastian’s Quest by Cindy Jefferies follows the time-travelling adventures of a young boy in a mysterious house.
Millie and Bombassa – Dizzy D.I.Y. by Shoo Rayner is a beautifully illustrated story about a lazy but loveable rhino and a sweet but sensible bird.
Louise Cooper has written the ‘Heart of…’ series, a spine-tingling collection of five Gothic romance stories packed with mystery.
Priced at just £1.19, each eBook also includes an interactive bonus quiz to test your knowledge!
Click here to launch iTunes and see our full range of eBooks on the App Store.
Windmill Lane Pictures
December 8, 2009
Sleepydog CEO, Toby Moores recently paid a visit to Windmill Lane Pictures, Ireland’s largest and longest established film and television post production house.
Take a look at their online archive and showreels to see some examples of the great work they’re doing, but it was Gary Shore’s film, ‘The Cup of Tears‘ which really caught our eye.
This genre splicing fantasy combined Weiss Cam, slow motion footage, HD and high resolution Matte Painting to achieve the eventual look.
I’m sure you’ll agree, the results are stunning!