I'm sorry, but I haven't been able to collect any news this past week that I could even pretend was Jeremiah Harm related. So instead, I'm going to summarise the first issue of Jeremiah Harm for those of you not sure whether to pick it up yet. This is mainly a summary, so there will be spoilers, keep that in mind.
If there's any other slow news week in the future (which I'm sure there will be) I'll summarise the next issues as well, along with my thoughts on them.
The first issue of Jeremiah Harms starts off not with Jerry, but with a woman named Ayoma Skiver. She's a reptilian inmate in a prison filled with intergalactic scum. She helps another inmate, a male reptilian called Dak* Moira escape. They obviously have history together, but it's not entirely clear what it is.
Upon escaping the prison with the help of *'PLOSIONS* (as seen above), the prison warden has to figure out how to get Dak and Ayoma back without getting into trouble himself. This is where Jerry comes in. He's an inmate at the same prison, and is the one who originally brought in Dak. He's the perfect man to get Dak, though the warden's got some suspicious plans to get Jerry to agree.
We meet up again with Dak and Ayoma at a distant world, Dak's fiddling with a device called a bumper (it's basically a stargate) which they will use to escape. They go to a backwater, mudball filled with primitives. No advance technology is there, no stargate bumper to bring them back. And what are they going to do there exactly? Well, isn't it obvious? They're going to destroy it. Like any good comic book villian.
Meanwhile, at the other end of the galaxy, Jerry has left prison and is questioning the local wild life on a Las Vegas like planet, and by questioning I of course mean killing everyone there till someone tells him where his informant is. Yup.
When he finally finds Fusti** Bomba, he learns that Dak is most likely off to a mudball, backwater planet. A planet designated 49. A planet known to the inmates of Jerry's prison as Earth.
And that's pretty much it. That's what happens in the first issue. It's more or less the promo that Vuorensola and his team filmed this autumn, with some obvious changes. Most likely due to having to fit as much of the character set-up as possible in a very short amount of time.
I like this comic book, it's good fun. I like the fact that there really aren't any humans/terrans around except for Jerry, and that everyone else are a pretty wide range of reptilian like creatures.There's some stuff I can't really understand why are happening, but I think that's more due to the fact that this is the very first issue of a six-issue series. Things will be revealed as we go a long, and maybe we'll even get a clearer image of what the film will be about.
I got all six issues of the comic on BOOM! Studios own iPad app, where each issue costs 99 cents (USD). And I would highly recommend you read it in preparation for the 2014 film.
Oh, and I almost forgot. MOWR 'PLOSIONS!
(Yeah, this is gonna be fun.)
*Mentioned in the promo
**Seen in the promo
Epilogue:
There are now 111 submissions for the 1,000,000 aliens needed campaign. I think the first wave has pretty much ended now, the people who got immediately inspired have handed in their stuff. Now we wait for the people who need a bit more to get inspired, and hopefully, they'll have some pretty awesome stuff as well.
The promo is now at 126,768 views and going strong!
It's still pretty early in the development of Jeremiah Harm, but Timo and his crew sure do like to tease us with details posted on a wide range of sites. This week, in the latest Director's Diary from Hong Kong, Tero Kaukomaa and Timo Vuorensola came with a very interesting tidbit of news.
Tero: Yes, and I have to add that this is a place where we are first time in our lives and I guarantee we come back here soon.
Timo: With cameras.
Tero: With cameras.
Timo: To shoot a movie!
They do not say straight out that it is Jeremiah Harm, but Jerry is definitely the next film in the pipeline for the duo, so it's as good as anything.
Iron Sky's New York was mostly filmed in Frankfurt, and seeing how Jeremiah Harm has major sequences set in New York as well, I would wager that Hong Kong would serve as its double this time round.
In an interview with GoldWoody.com Timo confirms a few things we've previously only seen in comment threads. Jeremiah Harm will not be be crowdfunded at all as the finance structure of the project is very different. It would be more hassle than it's worth to go that route, but he does not rule out the possibility for crowdfunding on future projects.
I do see why they won't do the crowdfunding, but I have to say it's a bit of a let down. I really liked how the fans could be literally invested in the film, it's an interesting way to earn funds for a project. Now that Iron Sky is starting to actually earn money, the fan investors are actually getting their money back, starting next year.
Timo also says in the same interview that they are currently in the process of casting the film. This is very exciting, and many have strong opinions about who is best suited to fill Jerry's shoes. Ron Perlman and Hugh Jackman are names often thrown around, though I must say, they are probably a bit too big names for Jerry. However, Iron Sky managed to land some pretty big German actors for many of the German parts, maybe they'll manage to get someone fairly out there for Jerry. Only time will tell.
Epilogue:
There are now 101 submissions for the 1.000.000 aliens needed campaign, far too little, methinks. You all need to get to it!
The Jeremiah Harm promo is now at 117.798 views.
Two weeks ago I reported that Dalan Musson was listed on IMDb as the screenwriter for Jeremiah Harm. This has now been confirmed on several sites. I first saw it on CinemaBlend.com and later on Variety.com.
At first I was hesitant to believe it, but pretty quick Timo himself posted a link to the CinemaBlend article on his Facebook.
Even though he doesn't specifically mention the screenwriter, Timo does more or less say that the only thing wrong with the article is that he plays heavy metal (which Älymystö does not play, they play noise-ambient-industrial trip-hop; or something like that).
As I said last time, Dalan has not had any of his scripts produced, but CinemaBlend reports that he has indeed written a script for Warner Bros for a film called Blood Wars which apparently is about vampires, one of Hollywood's dying trends. Even though none of Dalan's work has been produced so far, I have faith in him. I do not think Timo would let him have been chosen if he didn't not think he could wrote a good Jeremiah Harm adaptation.
And on a fun note, if you follow various Jeremiah Harm sites and profiles on Facebook you may have noticed that Dalan has been popping up in those various places, probing about the fan-sphere. Apparently, you can bribe him with sixty bucks to get your name sneaked into the script. Sneaky!
Epilogue
The Jeremiah Harm promo now has 108,620 views on YouTube! Congratulations to the entire team, now let's get to a million!
Welcome to another update on Timo Vuorensola's Jeremiah Harm!
Some very exciting news this week is Timo's desired release year. Last week I reported that IMDb listed 2016 as the release year, and that Timo or his crew possibly was behind it, that has now been disproved. Timo said first in a YouTube comment for the promo that he "[doesn't] know where they came up with 2016. It's not set, and I'm hoping to get it out earlier!".
Less waiting time is certainly good news, the fact that Timo and his crew doesn't control the IMDb page is less good.
I first thought that maybe 2015 would be a feasible year, a lot of sci-fi stuff is going on that year with the releases of Episode VII, Avengers 2 and Justice League, but over on Facebook Timo clarifies just how much earlier he wants it released.
When promoting his promo, a fan expresses his disappointment in having to wait until 2016 for the film. Timo is quickly on the spot and briefly says "Hopefully 2014". 2014 is certainly a lot earlier than I would've hoped. They just shot the promo this fall, 2012 is almost over and they haven't even entered production yet!
Seeing how Jeremiah Harm is a USA/Finland production within Hollywood, it's fair to reckon that the film will be released rather widespread in the USA, and if they want to make the most possible money they have to be wise about when that release takes place. If there's even a chance to be finished by 2014, I would not think that'd be in the first half. Maybe we're looking at a September or even December release?
Perhaps Timur Bekmambetov will want to release it in a similar way as Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, mid-June. It did do quite well in the box office, then again, Jeremiah Harm does not have the same budget. It's quite low compared, even though it's reported to be twice the size of Iron Sky's seven and a half million euro.
Bottom line is: Jeremiah Harm is coming, and it's coming a lot sooner than we thought. Buckle up, this is going to be interesting.
Epilogue
Jeremiah Harm's promo is now at 94,422 views on YouTube. Help it reach the 100,000 mark! Click here.
It's been a whole week since we first learned about Timo Vuorensola's next film project, Jeremiah Harm, and as you may have gathered from the title it is time for a weekly update. This will be an ongoing series of blog posts for the duration of Jeremiah Harm's pre-pre-production (present) right until the premiere and maybe a bit further. So let's go!
Jeremiah Harm now has an IMDb page, it's very sparse on new information, but it does have some interesting tidbits.
According to this IMDb page Jeremiah Harm will be released in 2016, in a post-episode seven world. I hadn't expected a year to be announced so soon, but I wouldn't bet this 2016 release is final. The page also includes a screenwriter named Dalan Musson who will adapt the graphic novels. It'll be the first film he handles on his own, let's hope he manages alright.
This site may all be bullocks, but from what I remember, the Iron Sky team was very interested in creating its own IMDb page, so it's not too much of a leap suggesting that someone within the Jeremiah Harm team has created this page
The official Jeremiah Harm website has now opened for alien design submissions, the one million aliens needed was indeed a cry for fans to design aliens and submit them. As I'm writing this they've received 27 of 1,000,000 aliens needed. There are some very good ones, and some pretty bad ones in there so far. I hope all of you reading are contemplating submitting your own designs, Jerry needs you! I bet, though, that even Jerry will pity the one that has to sweep through all those entries for the ones good enough for the film is in for a hell of a job.
I've saved the saddest for last. Iron Sky had a very neat investment program for fans, you could invest a few thousand euro into the production and help the film be made.
This time, however, this will not be the case. There are plans to be just as involved with the crowd when it comes to tasks and feedback, but they do not have any crowd investment planned. This is most likely due to how this film will be made, there will probably be more trouble than help in having to manage all those micro-investments this time.
I hope that although they won't have crowd investments, they'll still take some of the crowd funding ideas they had on Iron Sky over to Jeremiah Harm. For one, they had a lot of merchandise early on and throughout the production of Iron Sky. Albeit little, you could help the production by purchasing tees. pens, keychains, throwing discs, toothbrushes, all sorts of things. But more importantly, they had the Iron Sky Collector's Edition. It was basically a very expensive BD/DVD box set, but was a way for people to nano-invest in the production. Those box sets went on sale about two and a half years ago, and just started dropping into people's mail boxes.
A bit dry this week, but I'll keep on scouring the river that is the Internet for the gold that is Jeremiah Harm news, and I'll be back to you next week. I'll do the searching, so you don't have to.
I've followed Timo's career for a while now, and by that I mainly mean his sci-fi comedy of this year, Iron Sky. After years of devoted following I finally got to see a press screening of Iron Sky (thanks to a journalist friend) a few days before its Norwegian premiere. It was everything I ever wanted it to be, it was visually stunning, it was genuinely funny and it even served me a moral I'd normally hate in a way I loved. I went to watch Iron Sky again on its premiere. And the day after. Needless to say, I liked Iron Sky.
After years of waiting for Iron Sky, its release built a void within me. I could fill that void briefly with rewatches, but it didn't make the fact that I no longer had a Timo film to look forward to any less true. I knew Timo would make more films, but nothing was set in stone yet. The void was however filled rather quickly. It was announced that Timo would direct the cinematic adaptation of the Norwegian graphic novel "I Killed Adolf Hitler". Many were excited about this, knowing that his recent film about nazis on the Moon certainly would help in creating a splendid nazi environment for the time-travelling, Hitler-killing, comic book adaptation. We waited for more, but no real new information on the subject was released. Then, all of a sudden, Timo started asking for help on the crowdsourcing site that he helped launch with Iron Sky, Wreckamovie.
July 10th Timo shared a new Wrekcamovie project he had launched, with the very catchy title "Timo Vuorensola's Untitled Production". It was described as a full-length feature film that was in development, but nothing more substantial.
I'm working on a film that's aimed to become my first studio film in USA. I can't tell basically anything about the film at this state, because it's not clear yet if I get to do it, but it's a story based on a graphic novel I'm hoping to direct (this is not to be confused with my other production I Killed Adolf Hitler).
Right now I'm about to shoot a promo for this to take with me to the States and to present the production to the studios, and there's a bit of help I need with it.
He announces that it's a film based upon a graphic novel, but quickly sets the record straight about it not being "I Killed Adolf Hitler", it's something new. He also claims it will be a Hollywood film, people grew a bit wary over the mention of it being a studio film, but most decided to trust Timo. We believed he knew what he was doing, and if anything, he could inspire Hollywood. Iron Sky had obviously been a success, Hollywood knew that. They'd be stupid to make him do things totally differently.
Unfortunately I can't go into detail as to what the first task Timo opened on Wreckamovie was as I can no longer access it, but it was basically to create a language for an alien race of people of a lizard-like nature. Two tasks followed that I can give more information on - and more importantly links! -, the first is entitled "VOICE ACTOR: Lizard language! (Male/Female)"
You can read more in-depth about it in the link above, but the pure basic is that they wanted someone to read the lines in the lizard language previously created as a voice over. The task was opened August 21st, and closed September 1st.
The second task is called "VOICE ACTOR: Big badass (Male) (Fluent American English!)". This one obviously mattered more as it has a much more specific description than the lizard voice. It was very important that they got a completely US American accent, raspy and just over all badass. Timo gives the examples "Bruce from Die Hard, Vin from Pitch Black and Clint from everything".
They ended up not choosing anyone from Wreckamovie, and went with one found through an LA based sound studio. Timo however promised to return to Wrekcamovie with voice requests later if so needed, as many submissions were very good. They just didn't suit what Timo wanted.
Back to present day, the 13th of November, the official twitter account for Energia Productions (Troll VFX) had an automatic tweet from YouTube. A very simple one.
Judging by the name of the video, "jerry signal FINAL v2". Someone at the offices of Energia/Troll had apparently let a video upload on YouTube forgetting to alter its title to something less "technical" (and privacy setting judging by what happened next). By reflex I opened the video in a new tab, put it to HD and left it to buffer while I finished some other business.
When I finally got around to watching it I was amazed at what I saw, even though the graphics in the intro haven't been changed, it was apparent that the show had changed name from The Iron Sky Signal - which it has been called for years as it was meant to follow the news surrounding Iron Sky - to simply The Signal. Secondly Timo straight out said it wasn't about Iron Sky this time around, but rather about another project. Jeremiah Harm.
The promo talked about in his Wreckamovie project, which now turned out to be Jeremiah Harm, premiered a few days ago at a conference according to a tweet I found on twitter searching for news. WCOS2.0 - World Conference of Screenwriters.
Timo was there to talk about the crowdfunding/crowdsourcing aspect of Iron Sky, the portal Wreckamovie and the changing role of film festivals. The tweet itself was very by-the-way and informal, as if everyone knew about it.
(Original Spanish tweet)
(Google Translated tweet)
The promo that had premiered at WCOS2.0 was attached to the end of the latest The Signal episode. It's badass, it's beautiful, it's fantastical. The visuals are of supreme quality thanks to Samuli Torssonen's Troll VFX. Even this promo, with no budget, no promise of ever getting made, looks more wonderful than most of the stuff coming out of Hollywood. I know, right now, that I'll spend my next few years on this planet waiting just for this film. More so than any new Star Wars trilogy.
But, unfortunately, none of you can watch the promo just yet. As I mentioned the episode's privacy setting must've been set wrong, because when I tried to link my friends to it, the video was gone. I had foolishly closed the tab, and cannot watch it either until you guys can. So I can't go too much into detail about the actual content of the promo, I will neither say anything about what appears to be new information given by Timo in the episode, I don't want to give out any information that they don't want out, all presented here are things that are on the Internet for all for see. You just have to piece it together.
(A quick google search for "Jeremiah Harm" will show you the comic books it will adapt and the general universe the character inhabits.)
Hopefully you will all see the promo within a few days, it's already uploaded to YouTube, they just need to unprivatise it for all to view its glory. When ever they decide to open it again, I'll be there to see it all again.
I will write more about this project as it goes on, but for more continuous updates like their Facebook page, or visit the film's website, and of course follow Timo himself on twitter and Energia.
Update:
Turns out the promo was online all along at Blind Spot Pictures' official YouTube channel. Blind Spot Pictures was one of the companies producing Iron Sky and is back with Tero for Jermeiah Harm as well.
As you can see this is a badass, sci-fi story about a human bounty hunter who finally gets to go back home.
I'm a fan of the fact that they're actually trying to make alien languages and not just have everyone speak English (or Finnish - looking at you Star Wreck)
None of this is actual footage that will actually be used in the finished film. It was all filmed this fall in Finland on a budget of zero. Considering all of that, the finished film has the potential to be one of the most visually stunning films of which ever year it's released.
Update 2:
While doing all of this the whole thing has more or less gone live. I found that Blind Spot Pictures actually released the promo *just* now, I was lucky to find it. The official web site is now live with a new design and the promo at its centre. The Facebook page linked above is now officially official, they have a new twitter profile for the film and you need to make sure to subscribe to Blind Spot Pictures' YouTube account for updates. Can't dismiss that The Signal will move to that channel now.
For those of you who do Reddit, it also has an official Reddit thread.
The webpage, and the end of the promo, says they need 1,000,000 aliens. I would think, and hope, this is a reference to that this film will yet again be crowdsourced and we will all have opportunities to follow the production closely over the next few years and contribute where we can.
Update 3:
On inspection of news sites that has got official interviews Jeremiah Harm will indeed be crowdsourced in the same fashion as Iron Sky was. And if the poorly Google translated article is correct, the 1,000,000 aliens reference is apparently a cry to actually make 1,000,000 aliens for the film. If true, that is mighty ambitious. Troll VFX has certainly made big universes before, Star Wreck: In the Pirkinning is almost nothing but CGI sets, but having a million characters is something quite else. Perhaps this is where the crowdsourcing will come in the most, having a million people make one character each is certainly less time consuming than having one person make one million characters. Still, an awful lot of work to go through.
Update 4:
The Signal episode is now up, as predicted on Blind Spot Pictures' channel here.
Timo himself has also updated the blog.starwreck.com blog with the official announcement from the guys themselves, you can read it here.
I've just spent the last hour soaking up the news of Disney buying up Lucasfilms. My first thoughts were simple.
After that initial tweet I spent the better part of forty five minutes just gathering everything I could and share it with everyone who would listen, by the time the major news outlets started talking about it I started speculating on what this could mean for Lucasfilms and, perhaps more importantly, the future of the entertainment scene.
Some of the first news that followed the simple fact that Disney had bought Lucasfilm was that Disney is planning on releasing Star Wars: Episode 7 in 2015, and sequels every second, or every third, year after that. This, of course, brought a great disturbance to the force of the Internet.
The initial tweets were outcries on how Disney were going to destroy the franchise once and for all after the dreaded prequels left it crippled and begging for mercy, but fairly quickly the tides turned. People started seeing the real opportunities. People started realising that Disney weren't all bad, wasn't it after all George Lucas who had brought to life the prequels of doom? And wasn't it Disney who had brought Pixar and Marvel to the top they are today? George Lucas will be a creative consultant on the new Star Wars films, but how much will he really have to say? My guess is that George will be tucked away into a corner, occasionally being asked to come up with some ridiculous name for an aquatic starship admiral, while the new talent (which were already in place as George had retired from Lucasfilms) will run the ship with probably some new-new talent that Disney will no doubt send over.
With all of this in mind, with the thought that a new Star Wars film from Disney not being completely horrible, we can now focus on the brand new amazing things that can be brought into life in light of this transaction.
There is a lot of Star Wars stuff that has been under development lately, but the thing I'm most excited about is the gritty Star Wars live-action television series that has had a complete set of scripts for years now. The reason it hasn't been made yet is money. If it was made today it's estimated it would be the most expensive show on television, every hour-long episode is more or less a film, and will require the budget that comes with that. Others have been finding a TV channel willing to take on the high-risk series (risk because of making back money, not risk of being watched), that is now over. With Disney comes ABC, any future Star Wars TV series will no doubt end up on either Disney Channel or ABC, depending on its target audience. With the recent green-lit S.H.I.E.L.D. series set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, I have no doubt that Disney is considering bringing the Star Wars live-action series to ABC sooner rather than later. My guess is that within five years the series will be on ABC, they'll talk about it a lot up until 2014, maybe do some small preparation, and when Episode 7 determines how big Star Wars' audience is today, the series will be green-lit and brought to TV as soon as humanly possible.
The key ingredient here is that there actually still exists an audience for Star Wars in three-five years, but if there's something the last ten years have shown us it is that the audience just keeps on growing. Star Wars: The Clone Wars is now in its fifth season, and the Star Wars game universe is really fleshing out.
To be honest, if this past hour has taught me anything, it is that I have no doubt we will live in a heavily Star Wars influenced world again within five years. Cinemas, TV and games will be filled with it. Prepare yourself for the third coming.
Now, with all of this Star Wars thing sorted out, let's talk about the big picture. 2015 will no doubt be a tremendous year for Disney. I will already now claim and predict that Star Wars Episode 7 will rank in over a billion dollars, and what else is released in 2015? You're correct, Avengers 2. The sequel to the third highest-grossing film of all time, you may have heard of it. Avengers 2 will probably not make as much as Avengers, but it will still come close to the one billion dollars mark. Especially taking into account how much more films make now than they did three years ago. That means Disney will sit with two of the biggest films, from two of the biggest franchises of all time out on the same time. From 2015 onward, Hollywood is Disney's for the taking.
Sure, Marvel and Lucasfilms are the ones that will stand for making all this income, they're the ones who've done all the hard pre-work. Marvel have built up a fanbase over nearly a century, and Lucasfilms for nearly half a century, but Disney is the ones smart enough to buy them at the critical moments. Perhaps the critical moment is critical, just because Disney buys them.
Disney will no longer be known for princess and animation, they will be known for badass sci-fi in galaxies far, far away, and awestriking superheroes in the cities we live in.
What you've all just read is the beginning, of the Rise of the Disney Empire (coming to a theatre near you).
