Dear Weirdlings,
Welcome to this week's roundup of the weird, including kaiju, monster kink, unidentified objects, and masked killers
Movies
Do Dead Kaiju Dream of Mechanized Titans? A Brief History of Mechagodzilla (Ghoulish Media)
Carlos Daniel dives into the history of an iconic robot, one designed to be Godizilla's equal among the kaiju legends:
"As a concept, Mechagodzilla works as Godzilla’s polar opposite: Mechagodzilla is a cold-hearted machine that doesn’t flinch when performing violent actions like breaking the jaw of Anguirus. And Mecha is efficiently ruthless, having no time for silly theatrics. No taunting, dancing, or amusing flying kicks."
Brea Grant And Ed Dougherty Option The Atrocities (Fangoria)
Filmmakers Brea Grant and Ed Dougherty have optioned Jeremy C. Shipp's phenomenal horror novella The Atrocities, which will be adapted into the debut film for their new production company Squirrel Park.
Portal Movie Still Alive, in Development at Warner Bros. (IGN)
According to JJ. Abrams, the movie adaptation of Portal, the acclaimed Valve game, is still in development. The articles notes that Abrams is "excited to expand on the fertile storytelling ground of the games."
TV
Netflix's Latest Dating Series Puts Monster Kink at the Forefront (Gizmodo)
Victoria Song considers the new dating show, Sexy Beasts, in which singles "go on three dates with potential love interests, all of whom are in extensive prosthetic makeup to look like an assortment of animals."
Games
Demon's Souls: How to Make a Great Remake (80 Level)
In this massive interview, team members from Bluepoint Games go into detail about the thought process and methods of remaking a beloved game. Mark Skelton, art director, explains,
"Overall, this project really allowed Bluepoint to flex our creative muscles and create something that has our distinct signature on it. I think one of the biggest takeaways for me was being able to examine a brilliant classic game from the inside out and understand the choices made by the original team. It's like seeing an incredible magic trick, then being able to go behind the scenes and learn the brilliance and ingenuity that it took to create it, and then having an audience excited for you to perform it!"
Life & Lore
U.S. Has No Explanation for Unidentified Objects and Stops Short of Ruling Out Aliens (The New York Times)
In a new report recently released by the Pentagon, the U.S. government confirmed that it "still has no explanation for reports of unidentified aerial objects" (the government's new term for UFOs).
Literature
20 of the Best Video Game Books (Book Riot)
Including fiction, graphic novels, nonfiction, and art books, here is a comprehensive list of books with video games at their core.
Short of the Week
In "The Rule of Three," directed Elwood Quincy Walker, a "woman haunted by her OCD and intrusive thoughts must overcome herself and face her inner demons to survive the night in the event of a terrifying home invasion by three masked slashers." Walker was inspired to make the film after recognizing the start of obsessive patterns in himself. (Discovered via Short of the Week.)
