I am not sure if this French production, Baidir, is a proposed TV series or a feature film - but it’s damn nice looking:

A “One Night Only” theatrical screening of The Haunted World of El Superbeasto is set for September 12th in about 50 movie theaters across the country. In LA it’s playing at the Mann Chinese 6. In New York, it’ll be at the Chelsea Cinemas. Most theatres are running the animated feature as a midnight show.

Theatre locations, film information and tickets are available online here.

Calling George Lucas!

Forget the fight between Avatar and Delgo - this Brazilian feature, currently in production at Cacomotion, looks like knock-off of The Clone Wars.

Tomm Moore’s highly stylish animated feature, The Secret of Kells will screen in Los Angeles one time only, at the Aero Theatre in Santa Monica, on Saturday September 26th at 4pm. It’s part of the L.A. Irish Film Festival.

The Secret of Kells, which never received an official U.S. release, was produced by Kilkenny based Cartoon Saloon. Check the trailer here. For additional information and art from the film, check director Moore’s production blog.

This new R-rated trailer for Rob Zombie’s Haunted World of El SuperBeasto still doesn’t show how depraved it really is. The DVD goes on sale September 22.

Worms is a new stop-motion family film being produced in Brazil. The project has an excellent production blog explaining what it’s about, who’s behind it, and how its going.

(Thanks, Max Winston)

The Iron Giant was released ten years ago today—August 6, 1999. Wired magazine celebrates the occasion with a commentary by Scott Thill that contrasts Brad Bird’s thoughtful filmmaking to today’s “dumb” Hollywood efforts like Iron Man and Transformers:

Big guns and fiery explosions have been Hollywood’s status quo for a long time, with mindless violence selling tickets — and a warlike message, which The Iron Giant stands on its head. Hogarth dons the requisite helmet and BB gun after his future pal wrecks the nearby woods, and the boy even salutes himself in a mirror, armed in defense of America against the Sputnik-launching Russians, before galloping off to meet the “enemy.”

But after watching the Iron Giant (voiced by Vin Diesel) scream in pain while caught up in power lines, Hogarth’s compassion is activated as he realizes that his interstellar visitor can communicate. It is something Mansley could realize himself, if he wasn’t so busy pursuing his wargasm. Yet he does not, and that is Bird’s brain at work: Consumed by what philosopher Theodor Adorno once controversially called the “authoritarian personality,” Mansley is possessed by cynicism and a quest for power. He simply cannot conceive a world where robots fall from the sky to do anything other than annihilate America.

Remember this?

Last year we posted a link for a new animated film called Freaky Flickers. Recently, Brew reader Joshua Bell decided to check the site again for any updates. What he saw wasn’t pretty.

The writer/director/animator of this mess, Cary Howe, posted the story of how his producing partners ripped him off. (The site died a week ago and Josh had to use Google to catch the links). Here’s the opening:

“This is the sad tale of how a landmark film was born and died. Late 2005 I began early tests for a possible TV series based on the Freaky Flickers toyline. By February 2009 the project had expanded to a 90 minute theatrical feature. We had a 2,800+ theater release with MGM and it seemed like nothing could stop us.

“On 6/9/09 I finished my night’s work at 12 noon. Exhausted I wished my “friend” David Kann good night/afternoon and went to bed leaving him editing in my living room. I put in ear plugs to drown out the noise of the render boxes in the next room and fell asleep. I awoke just before 8pm to a silent dark empty house. Mr. Kann and the equipment were gone as were the external hard drives with the project back ups. While I slept my business associate Peter Gantner had forced his way into my home and took everything. What made the Freaky Flickers film so unique is that it was written, directed, modeled, animated and rendered by one person with a final budget of around 250K. A first for a major theatrical release. As I write this the film is in the hands of the lawyers but the odds of it ever seeing the light of day are near zero. I entered the business in 1979 and after my experience with Freaky Flickers I can’t see myself ever making another film. On 6/9/09 not only did a film die but a career and a hundred plus unmade films passed.”

The whole sordid story is posted here. If you think the trailer above is horrid, check the footage posted on their official website.

MGM was going to release this crap? Good riddance to bad rubbish.