Well SXSW is upon us again, bringing the most amazing convergence of film, tv, music, and interactive products imaginable. For the newly initiated, SXSW is actually three conferences all happening at the same time taking up almost 2 weeks and nearly all of downtown Austin. It also holds a special place in my heart, as my first official article for BigShinyRobot was a roundup of SXSW four years ago.
Because we’re friendly here in Austin, we made sure to bring out the overcast skies and the light drizzle to welcome our guests, many of whom came in from the Bay Area, Portland, or Seattle, to help them feel right at home.
The Interactive and Film festivals got off to a bang today with several major events, not the least of which are the premieres of Evil Dead and The Incredible Burt Wonderstone, both of which I will give their own separate review.
But today for me was mostly a day of seeing a lot of friends, old and new, at events like an Aaron Schwarz Memorial town hall meeting hosted at the Interactive conference, or a long sojourn over at the Palmer Events Center at the Screenburn Arcade.
I’ll begin there. We were treated to a special preview by Nintendo of some of their new games and gear, and… well, I take back some of what I said in our previous haranguing of Nintendo. First, got to play Lego City Undercover, which is just as fun as it seems. It deftly melds the Lego video games tropes of breaking things and building them with a GTA-esque storyline and cityscape. Actually, driving in this game reminded me more of Crazy Taxi than anything, but maybe that’s because I was a terrible driver and intentionally trying to run over pedestrians and break things. One thing that got me, though, was when I hard to start using the Wii U Gamepad as a scanner to search for hidden blocks… I got frustrated and gave the Gamepad back to my host. I’m sure I would’ve gotten the hang of it, but I just felt like a moron doing this in front of a bunch of people also waiting for a turn to play. But overall, fun.
I also got hands on Monster Hunter, and that game looks amazing. But is hella hard. After getting my ass handed to me over and over by a huge primeval bunny, I was done. Also played the 3DS version a little bit. Fun, but this game deserves the majesty of a big effing screen.
But my favorite 3DS discovery was the new Castlevania game, available now for download. Basically a side-scroller with some 3D elements, it blended the old Castlevania I loved from the NES days with shiny graphics and new cool moves and items.
Also got to play a bit more of The Wonderful 101 and Pikmin 3, both of which are incredible. Addictive, simple, beautiful, and heavy on the fun factor—limitless in potential in some ways. These games can’t come out fast enough.
I also got treated to a nice panel from the folks at Bioware about Star Wars: The Old Republic. Nothing really new, except a strong defense of their choice to go Free to Play during the Q&A. It’s obvious they’ve been feeling the heat, but they also promise, without having gone into too many details that they can’t reveal, that going f2p has been a big financial success because that is simply where the market for MMORPGs is right now.
And then I jumped in my car and raced uptown to the Mondo Gallery to see some amazing limited edition artwork inspired by Game of Thrones. And here you go with some of the best ones:
Oh yeah, did you see those beers? That’s right. Custom Game of Thrones-inspired beer. Not being a drinker myself, I have no idea if it was good or not. But the folks I was with were really enjoying it. If you want to get your hands on one of these pieces of art or some of that beer, I’ve pasted the full press release before.
Then I fought terrible Austin traffic back downtown to get to the Paramount to check out The Incredible Burt Wonderstone and Evil Dead. Both of these deserve their own reviews, so watch for those later today. But briefly:
Wonderstone? Awesome. Funniest movie of the year so far. Jim Carrey delivers his best performance since Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.
Evil Dead? If you love the Evil Dead movies, you will love this. Will general audiences embrace this? I’m not so sure. A huge bloody mess. In a good way.
See you tomorrow, where I get to see Joss Whedon’s Much Ado About Nothing. Yay! And a panel from Comixology highlighting their new path for creator-owned properties to publish on their platform. Double yay!
MONDO LAUNCHES COLLABORATION WITH
HBO’S “GAME OF THRONES”
FOR GALLERY EVENT AND POSTER SERIES
Austin, TX— Monday, February 25, 2013 — Mondo, the collectible art division of Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, is partnering with HBO’s “Game of Thrones” for a poster series and gallery event running March 8 – March 14, 2013. The gallery will be open to the public on March 8 from 7:00 – 10:00pm with regular hours to follow for the show’s duration. The Mondo Gallery is located at 4115 Guadalupe St. in Austin, TX.
Last year, Mondo and HBO’s “Game of Thrones” collaboration at San Diego Comic-Con was a huge success and this series takes that partnership to the next level with a wide range of spectacular original works and poster art from dozens of Mondo’s world renowned artists including Craig Drake, Daniel Danger, Jason Edmiston, Horkey, Jock, Phantom City Creative, JC Richard, and Ken Taylor. This special gallery event will also launch a Mondo poster series for the acclaimed HBO series, with 8 limited edition screen prints that will be available for purchase. The exhibit will feature the first two posters in the series along with original fine art. Following the gallery exhibit, two posters will be released digitally each week leading up to the “Game of Thrones” Season 3 premiere on March 31, 2013.
“GAME OF THRONES is a favorite of ours at Mondo. The gallery event is intended to honor the show’s attention to visual detail and the beautiful world that George R.R. Martin has imagined and series creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss have brought to life. After the success of our San Diego Comic-Con initiative with HBO in 2012, we thought this was a perfect fit. We hope the fans feel our work has done justice to the show,” says Mondo CEO Justin Ishmael.
The gallery event will also see the premiere of Brewery Ommegang’s new “Game of Thrones” beer where attendees, 21 and older, will be the first to taste the new beer. Launching in tandem with the season three debut on March 31, Iron Throne, a Blonde Ale, is the inaugural beer in the series and the result of a creative partnership between Ommegang and HBO. The collaboration is focused on developing unique beers that tie into themes and nuances of the medieval-like fantasy realm of Westeros. Iron Throne is a delicate, but piercing Golden Blonde Ale with Noble hops, a nod to having a Lannister currently on the Throne. The beer will be nationally available on draft and in 750ml bottles, for the suggested retail price of $8.50 per bottle, beginning in mid to late March and will be followed by the launch of additional beers.
About Mondo
Mondo is a division of the Alamo Drafthouse championed for bringing art back to movie poster design. Utilizing the talents of world-class artists and designers, Mondo produces limited edition, screen printed posters based on all things film, television and comic properties including Star Wars, The Avengers, DC Comics, Back to the Future and Universal Monsters. In addition to stunning artwork for beloved and future classics, Mondo also releases time-honoured and contemporary movie soundtracks on vinyl, such as Drive, as well as VHS re-issues. Based in Austin, TX, Mondo operates out of a permanent gallery space hosting regular exhibitions featuring a blend of breathtaking original artwork and limited edition screen prints. Having worked with filmmakers such as Guillermo del Toro, Wes Craven, Zack Snyder and Duncan Jones, Mondo has also partnered with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences to further archive and preserve the company’s growing collection of original film posters.
About HBO
Home Box Office, Inc. is the premium television programming subsidiary of Time Warner Inc. and the world’s most successful pay TV service, providing the two television services – HBO® and Cinemax® – to approximately 114 million subscribers worldwide. The services offer the most popular subscription video-on-demand products, HBO On Demand® and Cinemax On Demand® as well as HBO GO®and MAX GO®, HD feeds and multiplex channels. Internationally, HBO branded television networks, along with the subscription video-on-demand products HBO On Demand and HBO GO, bring HBO services to over 70 countries. HBO programming is sold into over 150 countries worldwide.
GAME OF THRONES: Based on the popular book series “A Song of Ice and Fire,” by George R.R. Martin, this hit Emmy®-winning fantasy series chronicles an epic struggle for power in a vast and violent kingdom. Members of the ensemble cast for the second season included Emmy® and Golden Globe winner Peter Dinklage, Michelle Fairley, Lena Headey, Emilia Clarke, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Kit Harington and Richard Madden. Executive produced and created by David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, the ten-episode third season begins March 31.
About Brewery Ommegang
Brewery Ommegang, part of the legendary Belgian brewing family, Duvel Moortgat, opened in 1997 to craft-brew fine Belgian-style ales. The brewery creates six ales year-round, as well as an extensive and imaginative range of seasonal and specialty ales. The beers have won a national following by connoisseurs of fine beer and are distributed in 44 states and internationally. Ommegang is located on a 136-acre farmstead in Cooperstown, New York, USA and now features a beautiful new 100-seat café, a well-stocked brewery store, and an annual calendar of public events.
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