Marvel Comic Based Theme Park Set For Middle East

My comments are below. Here's the full article, posted on my birthday, March 20, from ThrillNetwork.com:

After two years of negotiating, Marvel Entertainment Inc., will be teaming up with Dubai based Al Ahli Group to develop a $1 billion theme park scheduled to open in 2011.

Manhattan based Marvel, best known for comic book figures like Spider Man, The Fantastic Four and The Incredible Hulk stated that this would be the first destination theme park in the Middle East. Marvel is also holding talks about additional projects in the Middle East.

David Maisel, Chairman of Marvel Studios and a member of the Office of the Chief Executive, Marvel Entertainment, said, "We are launching a long term relationship with the Al Ahli Group to bring the Marvel Universe to Dubai with this exciting new theme park development. Al Ahli Group has both an impressive team of theme park, entertainment and hospitality executives and the financial strength to leverage that expertise into a world-class destination resort experience unparalleled in the region. We are very pleased to be a part of this exciting initiative and look forward to a successful partnership with Mohamed Khammas and the Al Ahli Group."

The project supports Marvel’s push to become a stand-along film studio after paring up with major film studios like 20th Century Fox.

For more information on this story, please see New York Business.

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One commenter called the city "Bubai" which sounds like a fun porn-based theme park. Its well worth listening to another commenter who laments the Middle East's reputation, something we do often from here in Israel. And the construction of Dubai is insane... I've got a New Yorker article with incredible photographs of the building boom. Money, tourists... bring it on! And stop off in Israel while you're in the neighborhood. Highlights from the comments on this story's web page:

"Enter a 'WTH?' here." [What The Hell]

"If you think the Middle East is a bunch of terrorists running around with guns, you are wrong. The Middle East contains one of the biggest tourism markets in the world. They build islands in the shape of palm trees and the world, skyscrapers that will rotate 360 degrees, and they are planning on building the largest hotel in the world with 6,500 rooms. "
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dubai

Dreaming in Cels

Thanks to a gift from my brother, last night we watched the brilliant film Waking Life. This film is kind of like Slacker, but taken to a new beautiful level. I recognized a few of the locations, including the boat-car, and some of the star cameos. The DVD has lots of great extras too! Nice one.

Wired magazine online has photo coverage of the 2007 New York Comic Convention. Check out the costumes and how Gary Coleman looks pretty dog-tired. He too cleaned up well in an animated version (see him as a kung fu fighting security guard on the Simpsons).

Also from Wired, an interview with Zack Snyder, director of Dawn of the Dead and the forthcoming 300, based on the graphic novel by Frank Miller (Sin City, etc.). The article says that Snyder will be helming Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' Watchmen, based on one of the greatest modern books around (and I can't wait for Moore and Kevin O'Neill's latest volume of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen).

Here is a gallery of photos from 300, including comic page-to-screen comparisons of some shots. Looks beautiful and exciting. Finally, I present here a review of 300 (I don't think it will spoil anything) that transcends the boundaries of geek reviewdom into the realm of classic comic literature. From Aint-It-Cool-News:

I just saw a movie that’ll give your eyes boners, make your balls scream and make you poop DVD copies of THE TRANSPORTER. It’s called 300. I don’t know what the title has to do with the movie, but they could’ve called it KITTENS MAKING CANDLES and it’d still rule.

It’s about these 300 Greek dudes who stomp the sugar-coated shit out of like a million other dudes. I have a feeling that a lot of high school sports coaches are going to show this film to their teams before they play. Also, gay dudes and divorced women are going to use screen captures for computer wallpaper.

The movie takes place about a million years ago, and it’s sort of like a prequel to SIN CITY. Except way less guns and cars but twice as much skull splitting. If you watch this movie and go into a Taco Bell, and say to the cashier, “I need some extra sauce packets” guess what? You’re getting twenty sauce packets because your face will punch him in the brain.

I can’t spoil the plot because THANK GOD THERE ISN’T ONE. Just ass kicking that kicks ass that, while said ass is getting kicked, is kicking yet more ass that’s hitting someone’s balls with a hammer made of ice but the ice is frozen whiskey.

TWO COOL THINGS ABOUT THE MOVIE AND ONE THING I DIDN’T LIKE:

COOL THING ONE:
HEAVY METAL DURING BATTLE SCENES

Who gives a shit if the music isn’t historically correct? LORD OF THE RINGS could’ve used some Journey. This movie has that chu-CHUNG kind of metal that you hear in your head when your shift supervisor at Wetzel’s Pretzel is telling you that you’ll have to stay for clean up and you wish you had a sock filled with quarters in your hand.

COOL THING TWO:
FOES, MINI-BOSSES AND A BIG BOSS

Basically, the Greek dudes are fighting these Persian dudes, but the director, who must have a dick made of three machine guns, does it all like a video game. The Greeks fight every death metal video from the last ten years. There’s wave after wave of giants, freaks, ninjas, mutants, wizards, and a hunchback who looks like he’s got Rosie O’Donnell on his back.

Would I have been happy if Dom DeLuise from HISTORY OF THE WORLD, PART I had shown up? Maybe, but this movie more than makes up for that glaring oversight.

NOT SO GOOD THING:
DUDE NUDITY (“DUDE-ITY”)

These are Greek times, when there were a lot of naked women around. And there are some naked women in this film, but almost every naked woman scene has a muscular dude giving the screen an ass picnic. Dude-ity is something directors put in their movies so people will think they’re serious, I guess, and not just throwing in naked hotties.

Any directors reading this – IT’S OKAY TO JUST THROW IN NAKED HOTTIES.

Can’t someone make a movie about naked Amazons and call it PAUSE BUTTON?

My final analysis is 300 the most ass-ruling movie I’ve seen this year, and will probably be the King of 2007 unless someone makes a movie where a pair of sentient boobs fights a werewolf.