The producers of the oddball Finnish “Star Trek” fan film “Star Wreck: In the Pirkinning” are back, and this time they’ve cooked up something truly original.

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Audiences fortunate enough to have already seen Juame Belaguero and Paco Plaza’s masterful first-person frightener [Rec] will likely testify that it’s the most terrifying film in the “subjective” horror trend to hit theaters since The Blair Witch Project broke box-office records nearly a decade ago – perhaps packing even more of a punch than Diary of the Dead, legendary filmmaker George A. Romero’s 2007 excursion into the increasingly popular horror sub-genre.

Now, for what may be the very first time, one of these subjective shockers is getting remade in the form of Quarantine, a stateside redo of [Rec] that attempts to translate the terrors Belaguero and Plaza’s highly-effective frightener for American moviegoers. Will the remake pack the punch of the ambitious Spanish original? While only time will tell, for the moment why not have a bit of fun comparing the newly released Quarantine trailer with the original English-language teaser for [Rec]? From the looks of things, Poughkeepsie Tapes masterminds John and Drew Dowdle’s remake has kept many of the original scares intact, a sign that may bode well for fans of the original film.

[Rec] Trailer:

Quarantine Trailer:

Midnight Ballad for Ghost Theater FTW!

Ahh, nothing like some new Drew Struzan goodness to start off the week. Feast your eyes on the final Indiana Jones: Kingdom of the Crystal Skull one sheet, brought to you by one of the industry’s best and brightest illustrators.

The artwork was unveiled at USA Today this morning and looks to be one of the hottest Internet news stories of the day.

As far as its quality goes, Struzan once again delivers a solid design, with major emphasis on the extraterrestrial influence as can be seen in the glowing crystal skull, though the illustration is a bit less graphic than expected — with less of the artist’s patented outlining on display. Other than that — love that Marion smile, as well as the return of the jungle theme once equated with the series’ art before the dusty settings of The Last Crusade.

After the jump, enjoy a bigger version of the new ad art, along with a refresh of the already released teaser poster.

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Got a high-octane action flick (perhaps of the comic book variety) that you’re looking to sell to a multiplex crowd and wondering what music to slap over that seizure-inducing, seven-frames-per-cut-maximum trailer… might we suggest the track “Hell Above Water” by the now-defunct UK electronica-goth legends Curve?

Perhaps one of the most under-appreciated and influential techno-based bands of the 1990s, Curve was the collaborative creation of guitarist Dean Garcia and Toni Halliday, and created atmospheric music that could be at once ferocious, vulnerable, sensual, and hypnotic. Don’t believe us? Take a listen to any Garbage album and try to deny that it’s a more mainstream reworking of the exact same musical model. As enjoyably poppy and radio-friendly as the music of Garbage may be, it sounds downright anemic compared to the overwhelming sonic assault of their primary influence.

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According to “sources”, mysterious though they may be, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom as the Crystal Skull is being prepped for a worldwide premiere at the celebrated Cannes Film Festival. The premiere – if it happens – will precede the film’s official release date of May 22, 2008.

If these sources are not, in fact, cruelly mucking about with our dreams, all of Indy 4’s major players, from Steven Spielberg and George Lucas, to Karen Allen and Harrison Ford, will make their first Jones-related red carpet appearance since the 1989 release of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. There will be no Nazis on the premises.

There’s been a lot of gossip and speculation over the past few days over the fact that, as Anime News Network reported, ADV films has pulled a number of trailers from its website and yanked even more titles from its online store such as Red Garden, Welcome to the NHK, and Pumpkin Scissors. ADV also announced this month that it will be shutting down publication of the major anime magazine Newtype USA, and beginning work on a new magazine called PiQ, which will cover anime as part of the larger cultural spectrum it’s supposedly a part of, including anime, manga, and video games.

Rumors are flying that ADV is about to go the way of Geneon and shut down, and unsubstantiated speculation is rampant. Some forum-based gossip even claims that ADV is bankrupt from pouring too much money into the live action Neon Genesis Evangelion movie, which began development in 2003 but has been on hold for the past three years. That all seems pretty unlikely though. If ADV is indeed trimming a whole crap load of anime titles out of their distribution list, and are going forward with a pop-culture magazine that broadens its coverage to deal with more than just anime, then it sounds like ADV is just changing focus, and tweaking its place in the market. The anime titles that have suddenly gone missing from the website are almost all relatively obscure stateside — not shows that have generated major cult followings or been snatched up by Cartoon Network. Looks like they just don’t plan on continuing to include the hardcore otaku in their consumer base. It sucks, but that’s what fansubs are for.

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