On display: Obadiah Stane’s (as portrayed by Jeff Bridges) armored alter ego, Iron Monger, from the motion picture Iron Man

• See Iron Man Mark III prop
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I had always held out some hope that Peter Jackson’s Halo film project would see the light of day, despite its vanishing act. I saw the Halo short films by Neil Blomkamp as a reel to the studios, as assurance that it was safe to put the money back on the table. On the other hand, the possibility of the scenario being “Well, the film’s not happening, what should do with all this stuff?” also seemed equally real, but my optimism held. News of other Halo film projects proceeding ahead be damned!

As you’ll hear in the latest Weta Cast from Richard Taylor himself:

As everyone listening in knows, we very sadly had the Halo film that we had been working on for so many months disappear. For various reasons, it didn’t get made last year.

With the man’s remarks on the situation, I can finally put that idea to bed. Hollywood, that was as good of a chance as you’d ever had with Halo (which in itself had a great chance of being the first ‘good’ video game movie), and you blew it, nice going guys. The interview is centered on Mr. Taylor’s art direction role on Weta’s new Halo collectibles, but it branches off in all sorts of interesting directions.

There’s also a nice interview (and if you’re like me– an introduction) with Weta Workshop designer Paul Tobin conducted by Daniel Falconer. You’ll not find better designer on designer action for the money!

And finally, a few of the miniature Goliathon 83 Rayguns are now available to order from their site, should you be in the UK or NZ.

• Check out Weta’s latest podcast
• Get thyself a mini Goliathon 83

On display: Batman’s vehicles: the Tumbler and Bat Pod, from Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight

• See Part I: Batman, Joker costumes, Bat Pod, clown masks
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On display: Costumes and props used by Brendan Fraser, Maria Bello, Jet Li, and Michelle Yeoh in the motion picture, The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor

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Director Zack Snyder and co-creator Dave Gibbons are joined by the Watchmen: Malin Åkerman (Silk Spectre II), Billy Crudup (Dr. Manhattan), Matthew Goode (Ozymandias), Jackie Earle Haley (Rorschach), Jeffrey Dean Morgan (The Comedian), Carla Gugino (Silk Spectre), and Patrick Wilson (Nite Owl) at Comic-Con 2008.

Zack Snyder: Watchmen has been knocking around Hollywood for a while. I was in post on 300 and got a call from Warner Bros. asking me if I would be interested in making this into a movie. And I said yeah…. seems like a crazy idea. Once they asked me, I kinda felt responsible; even if I said no, they would’ve moved on and then whatever happened to the movie I still would’ve had my chance and if I blew it… (more…)

On display: Heath Ledger’s Joker costume from the motion picture, The Dark Knight

On display: Christian Bale’s Batman costume

On display: The Bat Pod

On display: Joker henchmen masks

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Dr. Manhattan, Nite Owl, Ozymandias, The Comedian…Rorschach– the fans have waited long for this one.

Trailer for Zack Snyder’s The Watchmen debuts exclusively at Empire Online, Warner Brothers has killed the link, sorry!

[[updated]] Apple comes through with HD quicktime goodness.

On display: Princess Nuala costume worn by Anna Walton, Prince Nuada costume worn by Luke Goss, Troll Market fishmonger from the motion picture, Hellboy II: The Golden Army

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The hilarious, affable and sincere key holder to the Tolkien film franchise discusses Hellboy, Halo, Weta, The Hobbit, how Pan is a fraud and why he’s on edge when having tea with Doug Jones!

Guillermo Del Toro: Thank you very much, here I am to answer anything you want to ask or throw shit at me, whatever you want. I’m here. Thank you very much for coming, and let’s proceed. (more…)

Just a day after Weta not so subtly teased us with a hint, comes the unveil for the Reepicheep statue in their Prince Caspian line. Sculpted by Greg Tozer and limited to 500 worldwide.

I love what Weta has done with their second go-round in Narnia, scaling back the scope, trimming the fat as it were, with the omission of static maquettes and a severe edition size revamp; 300-500 for Caspian as compared with the thousands of Wardrobe.

‘Listened to fans’, they’ve humbly suggested… I think that’s great fan service, but it wouldn’t surprise me that the decisions came internally as a more logical approach that makes more fiscal sense. In any case, what matters is that it’s resulted in a tighter lineup where every piece shines brighter.

Still, it’s not all peaches and cream in the state of the franchise. A too-long two and a half year gap and a bizarre summer slot amounted to major blunders on Disney’s part; A thumb-twiddling failure to capitalize on the massive momentum which amounted to a staggering lost of nearly half the audience. Caspian will end up grossing roughly 50% of what Wardrobe did, both domestically and internationally.

To say the least, this will not please many of those involved, least of all, the financiers. How much faith will Disney hold to Narnia?

• Reepicheep for pre-order at WetaNZ