Isegoria

DreamWorks to make 'Ghost' in 3-D:

DreamWorks has acquired rights to the Japanese manga “Ghost in the Shell” with plans to adapt the futuristic police thriller as a 3-D live-action feature.

Story follows the exploits of a member of a covert ops unit of the Japanese National Public Safety Commission that specializes in fighting technology-related crime.

Created by Masamune Shirow, “Ghost in the Shell” was first published in 1989. It went on to generate two additional manga editions, three anime film adaptations, an anime TV series and three videogames. The second anime film, “Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence,” was released in the U.S. by DreamWorks in 2004.

Ollie Johnston, the last of Disney’s Nine Old Men, has died at age 95:

Walt Disney lightheartedly dubbed his team of crack animators his “Nine Old Men,” borrowing the phrase from President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s description of the U.S. Supreme Court’s members, who had angered the president by quashing many of his Depression-era New Deal programs.

Although most of Disney’s men were in their 20s at the time, the name stuck with them for the rest of their lives.

Perhaps the two most accomplished of the nine were Johnston and his close friend Frank Thomas, who died in 2004 at age 92. The pair, who met as art students at Stanford University in the 1930s, were hired by Disney for $17 a week at a time when he was expanding the studio to produce full-length feature films. Both worked on the first of those features, 1937′s “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.”

Johnston and Thomas and their families became neighbors in the Los Angeles suburb of Flintridge, and during their 45-minute drive to the Disney Studios each day, they would devise fresh ideas for work.

Johnston worked as an assistant animator on “Snow White” and became an animation supervisor on “Fantasia” and “Bambi” and animator on “Pinocchio.”

He was especially proud of his work on “Bambi” and its classic scenes, including one depicting the heartbreaking death of Bambi’s mother at the hands of a hunter. That scene has brought tears to the eyes of generations of young and old viewers.

“The mother’s death showed how convincing we could be at presenting really strong emotion,” he remarked in 1999.

Johnston’s other credits included “Cinderella,” “Alice in Wonderland,” “Peter Pan,” “Lady and the Tramp,” “Sleeping Beauty,” “101 Dalmatians,” “Mary Poppins,” “The Jungle Book,” “The Aristocats,” “Robin Hood” and “The Rescuers.”

Johnston wrote a number of books with Frank Thomas, but their Illusion of Life is considered the bible of animation.

Segel and Stoller take on Muppets:

Disney has enlisted scribe-thesp Jason Segel and helmer Nick Stoller to create the next Muppet movie for the studio.

Segel and Stoller will write the script and Stoller will direct.

Segel, who graduated from Apatow-produced skeins “Freaks and Geeks” and “Undeclared” got his first sole writing credit on the Apatow-produced “Forgetting Sarah Marshall.” Universal releases the pic, which Stoller directed, on April 18.

In “Sarah Marshall” Segel’s character writes a “Dracula” musical performed by puppets. Those cloth creatures were custom-made by the Henson puppeteers, and the experience emboldened Segel to pitch his concept for a Muppets movie when he was invited in for a general meeting with exec Kristin Burr. Segel got a deal in the room and enlisted Stoller to co-write and direct the project.

Segel and Stoller just made another U deal to co-write the comedy “Five-Year Engagement,” with Stoller helming and Segal starring.

Segel, from the CBS laffer “How I Met Your Mother,” next stars in “I Love You, Man” at DreamWorks.

In case you don’t immediately recognize Jason Segel and Nick Stoller, Segel played crazy boyfriend Eric in Undeclared, and Stoller wrote the episodes that focused on him.

This could be excellent. Or just really, really odd.

Oh. My. Gawd. If that image means anything to you, you must listen to KROQ Roq of the 80s right now.

Wil Wheaton explains in more detail:

Well, for those of us who are determined to live in the past, when each day brought new episodes of The New Detective and Rodney on the Roq was introducing us to strange new acts like The Vandals and Dramarama, I present Kroq of the 80s. The playlist is what you’d expect from classic KROQ: Devo, Depeche Mode, INXS, Boingo, Blondie, etc., but what makes it truly awesome are the old station IDs and drops from classic KROQ personalities like Freddie Snakeskin and Scott Mason.

(Hat tip to GeekDad.)

Wikihistory is a (very) short story by Desmond Warzel that extends the notion of a wiki change log to a popular SF trope, time travel.

Take a look.

(Hat tip to Mike.)