io9: kurt wimmer

Ultraviolet Goes Noir In Anime Remake

Charlie Jane Anders — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 06:30:00 PDT

Can an animated reboot make sense of Kurt Wimmer's Ultraviolet, two years later? Wimmer's visually stunning vampire-plague movie, set in a future dystopia where everything is always color-coordinated, became a confusing mess at least partly due to studio interference. And now acclaimed anime director Osamu Dezaki (Aim For The Ace!, Lupin III) is supervising an adaptation, called Ultraviolet: Code 044. It premieres on the Animax satellite channel in Japan on July 1. No word on when it hits the U.S., but here's a teaser trailer, which shows a much moodier, less candy-colored version of the saga. [Animax]

Batman + Guns / Karate = Gun Kata

charliejane — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 11:20:00 PST

Christian Bale is a master of gun-fu in 2002's Equilibrium. He practices the obscure art of Gun Kata — something apparently invented for this movie — which is sort of like karate crossed with a gunfight from an early Clint Eastwood flick. In this clip, Bale takes down a whole squad of cops who are trying to come between him and a cute puppy. Think we're kidding? In Equilibrium's dark future, all emotions are illegal and Bale is an elite government agent sworn to destroy anything that provokes emotions, including puppies. But one puppy wins Bale's heart. Yes, it's as lame as it sounds. Still, Gun Kata makes up for the rest of the film. Check out the Gun Kata video tutorial below the jump.

Gun Kata is totally scientific and based on the "traditional" trajectories of bullets. If you study this video enough times, you'll be an invincible gun-hand. Says director Kurt Wimmer, of the scene where Bale decides to waste all those cops:

For a man on film, there is no greater moment than the instant when he suddenly gives up everything he knows or thought he ever wanted and starts whipping ass for love or principle.

In other words, just one cute puppy can unleash the pistol-ninja in all of us. If it's cute enough.

Gun Kata - the Action & Fight Style of Equilibrium [Equilibrium Fansite]

The Lab Where the Cyber-Vampire Plague Started

charliejane — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 06:30:17 PST

Ultraviolet was a fantastic-looking, future-plague movie . . . that felt like the longest 87 minutes of our lives. Luckily, you can appreciate the film's gorgeous look without letting the nonsensical plot distract you. Check out this concept art for the "blood reservoir," a machine that's part of a government conspiracy vampire plague. See how the blood-sucking machine turned out in the movie's finished set, after the jump.

Every evil laboratory should have jaggedy pipes full of blood. But here you can see that the final sets had black pipes that hide the gore inside. Still, it looks pretty cool. Production designer Sung Pong Choo and art director Joel Chong have only worked on Chinese films apart from Ultraviolet.