Random mumbling is good for the soul

After a heady couple of weeks, wowing his adoring fans in the dirty metropolis, Adam returned to his manor for a couple of BUGs in Norwich but such is the generosity of his nature and heartfelt community spirit, he also shoehorned an arts centre opening into his schedule. I would link the picture here but I don't want to get my special blogging privileges revoked. I'm looking at the picture - well, it's more of a glance than a look - and I'm thinking two things, neither of which are complimentary. 1) are those sexy, beautifully honed pectorals, does he just need to make a trip to Rigby & Peller or does Louise sub for his smaller engagements now? 2) If the kids weren't all sitting down, would we be have been able to find him in the crowd?

The good ol' Norwich Evening News had a little review of Adam's BUG.

If you're living on limited means but really don't want to make do with on-line Adam and Joe Show viewing, you can pick up their delicious Best Of DVD for a paltry £ 1.53 via this link with no postage costs. It's worth it for the menu silliness alone. If you're flush with the bucks but have some straggling friends and family who have not yet embraced the oeuvre, at that price you can afford to lay in a supply of these to hurl at random visitors in a effort to kick start their journey into delectable daftness.

The BBC have finally assigned The Persuasionists into the graveyard shift but if I'm keeping my glass half full, at least it's been moved to the traditional "BBC2 Comedy Night" of Thursday.

In case you got as far as reading all of last week's blog entry, you'll no doubt want an update on Adam's Australia Song. I'm happy to report it had gone way past the 100k by the next morning and has had more than a thousand hits since then. In a happy coincidence, a Twonvo Edgar Wright started about the change of certificate on [what I like to call Joe's] Fuzzball Rally prompted a link to Joe's Cake Flushing video the next morning and such is the popularity of those Big Talk boys, that they have had nearly 10,000 views since the weekend. That will no doubt give some kind of obnoxious salve to Joe's ridiculously competitive nature, if he's not too busy to notice, that is. There's an enjoyablly related sketch here too.

I dutifully listened to Andrew Collins and Richard Herring on Saturday. They're entertaining enough but I can't see any justification in them managing to get their ruddy podcast farther up the list than Adam and Joe's has been in months. It must have something to do with new subscriptions. They just don't have the sparkle and cohesive rapport we enjoy from our boys but they make fine individual contributions and raise a few titters & cultural reference pleasurebytes. Perhaps if they'd just heeded some of the notes Joe took the time to furnish on the blog, I might have been more impressed.

There was a mid-week 6Music blog entry from James squishing the Black Squadron commands together. Perhaps you can spot yourself or a fellow squadron member in there somewhere.

Joe's film would seem to be progressing nicely. Big Talk have finally got a page prepped for it which is good news but I am slightly less excited that so far this project has gone from americanizing (americanising) 'estate' into 'block' for the title and now the blurb refers to 'housing project' instead of 'estate'. I'm thrilled that they're thinking big enough to embrace those dirty yankee doodle dandies but I do struggle with the assumption that their target audience might be in need of a translation. Perhaps I'm lucky enough to have only encountered fairly bright Americans but I'm sure audiences aren't going to expand exponetially because their lingo has been pandered to.

I could be wrong but I think the IMDB page was updated with a couple of effects guys. It says there's been no update since 15th Jan but I don't think I noticed those names last week. I mused that some of the alien action might be shot out of the country but perhaps not.

Finally, there has been great excitement this week as a lovely YouTuber pleasured us with some 'lost' XFM material. Lazybones, over at the Adam and Joe Forum spotted the uploads of "Each Passing Minute" and so far Benjamin has made three shows available that have hitherto only been a sticky memory pudding.

These are audio only but follow the trail from part one here, onto parts two and three.

Attack the Block update!

If it's in Empire, then it must be true.
I thought production was farther down the line than this but I'm not complaining. I happen to be free in February if they need me!

It’s been circling for a while, but today it was finally confirmed that Attack The Block, the sci-fi comedy that will mark the directorial debut of the taller half of Adam & Joe, Joe Cornish, will start filming in February.
Edited to add that Joe also confirms this during his Arts Attack interview at The Roundhouse which was recorded a week earlier.

The story of a gang of Sarf London teenagers who are forced to defend their tower block from alien invasion, Attack The Block will see the culmination of Cornish’s increased involvement in the movie world.

Lately, for example, he’s co-written, with Edgar Wright, the screenplay for Steven Spielberg’s The Adventures Of Tintin: The Secret Of The Black Unicorn, and is still working on the script for Wright and Marvel’s Ant-Man. Attack The Block, though, is a solo screenplay from the man who once narrated Empire’s short-lived TV show, Orange & Empire At The Movies.

Word on Cornish’s screenplay has been stellar for a while now, and we’re already looking forward to this one. The film will be a co-production between Big Talk and Optimum Releasing, with Nira Park and James Wilson producing. Edgar Wright is one of the film’s executive producers, along with Matthew Justice, Tessa Ross, Will Clarke and Jenny Borgars.

“Attack The Block is one of the most inventive and entertaining scripts we have ever read and a great project to kick off the relationship [with Big Talk],” said Will Clarke, CEO of Optimum Releasing. “We look forward to seeing the film come alive and thrilling audiences around the world."

Love the way they are using Joe's gorgeous bed-head picture.

Optimum Releasing is good news. They've gone from strength to strength over the last few years. I bloody love some of their choices. They've got a nice little trailers channel on YouTube and that.
Will it be too much to hope that we might get some Paul/Scott Pilgrim stylie production treats thrown at our stupid, eager, net-gazing faces?

The main thrust of the news is about the Optimum/Big Talk handshake.
This from Screen International.

The first film out of the deal will be Joe Cornish’s directorial debut Attack The Block, which will be launched at the next week’s American Film Market. Developed by Big Talk, and backed by Film 4 and UK Film Council, Attack the Block is about a gang of South London teenagers defending their tower block against an alien attack.

......and Variety.

The first project to come out of the Big Talk-Optimum deal will be Joe Cornish's "Attack the Block," about a gang of South London teenagers defending their tower block against an alien attack. Cornish's screenplay was the subject of keen interest in the U.K. film industry earlier this summer with studio interest in acquiring the project before Optimum topper Will Clarke prevailed.

THR has it covered too but it's all the same press statement waffle really.

Joe Cornish's directorial debut "Attack The Block," which will debut to buyers at next week's American Film Market via Studio Canal's sales arm, will be first out of the new look pact between the three.

What a delicious luxury for a British film with a debut feature director going in front of the cameras with distribution deals potentially in place.

Big ol' hearts going out to Cornballs.

This blogger has brought together all the little nibbles we've been sampling over the months. At first glance, the only omission is the lovely Robin Cooper AudioBoo and the little podcast reference to when Joe was storyboarding in August.

An attractive young woman walks home through dark, dangerous streets in south London. She falls into an ambush. Five ghoulish, hooded youths surround her— they take her mobile, her purse, her engagement ring, but they want more. Just then, a fireball explodes out of the sky and destroys a nearby parked car.

From the wreckage emerges a vicious little alien that the youths hunt down, kill and triumphantly parade back to their block. But their adventure is not over. The night is still young and the attack on the block has only just begun…

Surely, it can't be long before the IMDB entry edges out of "In Development" status so that the fan-buzz can begin.