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A lot of gamers would know Uwe Boll. He’s the guy who directed several movie adaptations for video games such as House of the Dead and Alone in the Dark. He’s also the brains behind the new Far Cry movie.

Despite his long history in making movie adaptations of video games though, Boll doesn’t seem to be Blizzard’s prime choice for making the World of Warcraft movie. In fact, as MTV reports, they practically laughed at him when he offered to do so.

Boll recently got into contact with Paul Sams of Blizzard to make the movie. Boll relates the reply he got was a flat-out denial:

We will not sell the movie rights, not to you…especially not to you. Because it’s such a big online game success, maybe a bad movie would destroy that ongoing income, what the company has with it.

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Thank goodness Uwe Boll won’t get his hands on this popular game to make a movie. It’s been a good six or seven months, I’d say, since I pulled myself from the clutches of WoW (although I still have my level 70 toon just in case…), but still, if it was made into a movie, I’d prefer it be made into a good one. Blood Rayne was a serious letdown.

For all the Uwe Boll haters, the comment “not to you… especially not to you” has to be extremely humorous and rewarding.

I have one purpose and one purpose only for posting this movie trailer for Wargames 2 : The Dead Code.  It sucks and you have now been warned.  Here’s another once great title smashed to bits by a crappy follow-up that MGM should be ashamed and embarrassed to release.

Wal-Mart Abandons Online Movie Downloads Less Than a Year After Launch

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has closed an online movie download service it launched less than a year ago.

The retreat for Wal-Mart, which accounts for about 40 percent of all DVD sales, follows the company’s 2005 decision to abandoned efforts to build an online DVD rental service. The world’s largest retailer instead turned its rental service over to Netflix Inc.

Wal-Mart still operates a music download service and continues to sell CDs and DVDs at retail stores and over the Internet for shipping by mail.

A message on Wal-Mart’s video download Web site said the store closed Dec. 21. The Web site said customers who already have bought movies could continue to watch them.

In a statement, Wal-Mart spokeswoman Amy Collella said the company closed the store after Hewlett-Packard Co., which provided the software running the site, “made a business decision to discontinue its video download-only merchant store service.”

Wal-Mart did not say whether it would attempt to start the service again using a different company’s software.

Officials with HP did not immediately return a request for comment Friday morning.

If anyone reading this site remembers the cs-kilrathi counter-strike days, Tylder Durden from that server is contributing to a new spot on the web.

We’re just a couple of movie enthusiasts that decided we could review movies just as well as anyone else. That’s what we keep telling ourselves anyway.

We’re going to post reviews as often as we can and as much as we can. Unfortunately, we don’t really have access to early screenings…yet..but we’ll keep you as up-to-date as possible. We’ll even throw in some movie news for you to sink your teeth into.

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Dreamworks co-founder Jeffrey Katzenberg has announced that there will be a Shrek 4 (2010) and Shrek 5, but THAT IS IT!

“It’s a finite story, has been from the beginning and I think that’s part of its integrity, part of its strength, that we’re not thinking this up as we go,” he told The Age. “Ultimately we will come back to understand how Shrek arrived in that swamp. We will reveal his story.”

So there you have it. We have a prequel story to look forward to, and who knows what else. Oh yeah, and there is that Christmas special, and the theme park ride and… okay, realistically, the Shrek franchise will never truly end - will it?

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Ewwww….not so sure I’d wanna see this one!

Variety is reporting that Brian Lynch is writing for a live action movie based on the popular Sims games.

“The Sims has done an interactive version of an old story, which is what it’s like to have infinite power and how you deal with it. Given that that’s an old story, you can imagine how easily that would translate to traditional story telling,” said Rod Humble, head of The Sims Studio.

Well it’s my understanding that people who play the Sims already make Sims movies (in game). I’m not sure how interesting a live action Sims movie would be.

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The Transformers are on their way to Earth July 4th, 2007.

I wonder who will be more likely to want to see the film, the kids of today or the kids of 1984 when Transformers first took Earth by storm. If the previews are any indication, both.

Trailer via Youtube below. Additional video links as well as high-res pics can be found by visiting the source.

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Widescreen Collector’s Edition DVD
(2 DVDs)
Retail $26.98
Available 08/21/07

Features:
Deleted Scenes with Commentary by Director Joss Whedon
Extended Scenes
Outtakes
Take a Walk on Serenity
The Green Clan
Joss Whedon Intro
We’ll Have a Fruity Oaty Good Time!
Feature Commentary with Director Joss Whedon and Cast Members Nathan Fillion, Adam Baldwin, Summer Glau and Ron Glass
Feature Commenary with Director Joss Whedon
A Filmmaker’s Journey
Future History - The Story of Earth That Was
Re-lighting the Firefly
What’s In a Firefly?
Session 416
Sci-Fi Inside: Serenity

Video:
Widescreen 2.35:1 Color (Anamorphic)

Audio:
ENGLISH: Dolby Digital 5.1
ENGLISH: DTS 5.1
SPANISH: Dolby Digital Stereo
FRENCH: Dolby Digital Stereo

1. Word processors never display a cursor.
2. You never have to use the space-bar when typing long sentences.
3. Movie characters never make typing mistakes.
4. All monitors display inch-high letters.
5. High-tech computers, such as those used by NASA, the CIA or some such governmental institution, will have easy to understand graphical interfaces.
6. Those that don’t have graphical interfaces will have incredibly powerful text-based command shells that can correctly understand and execute commands typed in plain English.
7. Note: Command line interfaces will give you access to any information you want by simply typing, “ACCESS THE SECRET FILES” on any near-by keyboard.
8. You can also infect a computer with a destructive virus by simply typing “UPLOAD VIRUS”. (See “Fortress”.)
9. All computers are connected. You can access the information on the villain’s desktop computer even if it’s turned off.
10. Powerful computers beep whenever you press a key or the screen changes. Some computers also slow down the output on the screen so that it doesn’t go faster than you can read. (Really advanced computers will also emulate the sound of a dot-matrix printer.)
11. All computer panels operate on thousands of volts and have explosive devices underneath their surface. Malfunctions are indicated by a bright flash of light, a puff of smoke, a shower of sparks and an explosion that causes you to jump backwards.
12. People typing on a computer can safely turn it off without saving the data.

BitTorrent is launching a legal, paid media distribution system, the BitTorrent Entertainment Network. Essentially an online store that will compete other stories like iTunes, the new BitTorrent Network will have over 5,000 titles. TV shows will be $1.99 an episode, and users will be able to watch them as much as they want. Movies will be $2.99 or $3.99, and will time out 30 days after download, or 24 hours after the user begins playing them.

In other words, there will be heavy DRM on BitTorrent files. While the existing peer-to-peer BitTorrent file sharing network will be employed to distribute content, the B.E.N. files that it will be sending around won’t play free and clear. You’ll need to authorize them on your computer so you can play them. B.E.N. files use Windows Media DRM.

Since the BitTorrent Network relies on DRM-protected files, and doesn’t let users “own” movie downloads, it’s unlikely that it will put as big a dent in illegal file trading as the movie companies hope it will. While many users may be happy to pay a few bucks for an evening’s entertainment, those who want to own a file that doesn’t expire, or who want to move the file between devices (laptops, Macs, media centers, portable players, etc), will still have to resort to either buying hard copies of films or using BitTorrent the old-fashioned way: downloading illegally copied movies.

The B.E.N. uses the BitTorrent P2P network as a distribution mechanism to lower costs of sending around large files. Other online video sites are already using this concept: The Jaman and Joost clients download pieces of files from other users when they can.