August 2010 Archives   15 Years Of Xena Warrior Princess - Remembering The Warrior & Her Bard By MaryD on August 31, 2010 7:42 AM As many of you know this coming September (4 September 1995) will mark 15 years since our beloved show was born. Can you believe it's been 15 years! We have new fans coming in every year which is fantastic. Tell me the first time you saw this show and what it meant to you and how it changed your life. I will be posting the responses on AUSXIP. Try not to write an epic novel <g>; one or two paragraphs on how this show had an impact on your life. Remembering The Warrior & Her Bard Name First Last Email Email won't be posted. What was the first episode you saw and how did it impact your life. Image Verification Please enter the text from the image: [Refresh Image][What's This?] Spartacus Blood and Sand Score CD Pre-Order For September Release By MaryD on August 28, 2010 8:45 AM Spartacus: Blood & Sand - O.S.T. [Soundtrack] You can pre-order from Amazon.com Composed by: Joseph LoDuca # Audio CD (September 21, 2010) # Number of Discs: 1 # Format: Soundtrack # Label: Varese Sarabande Betrayed by the Romans. Forced into slavery. Reborn as a Gladiator. The classic tale of the Republic’s most infamous rebel comes alive in the graphic and visceral new series, Spartacus: Blood and Sand. Torn from his homeland and the woman he loves, Spartacus is condemned to the brutal world of the arena where blood and death are primetime entertainment. But not all battles are fought upon the sands. Treachery, corruption, and the allure of sensual pleasures will constantly test Spartacus. To survive, he must become more than a man. More than a gladiator. He must become a legend. Reported by Annie Smith The Evil Dead DVD & Blu Ray Review By MaryD on August 28, 2010 7:53 AM The Evil Dead was directed by Sam Raimi and was produced by Rob Tapert. The film itself started from a 8mm short film entitled “Within the Woods” which got Raimi, star Bruce Campbell and Producer Robert enough financial supporters and such to make a full-length motion picture, originally to be titled “Book of the Dead“. High Def Disc News has a very comprehensive review of the DVD and Blu-Ray with the extras listed. Watch Trailer | Read Review Spartacus Resources Links Directory Redesign By MaryD on August 27, 2010 3:14 PM AUSXIP Spartacus Resources / Links Directory has been redesigned. Here you will find great resources related to Spartacus – Official Sites, Social Networking and Fan Related Resources. Do you have a Spartacus related site? Would you like to submit your site for this directory? If so, please use the ADD URL form to submit your site. Your submission will be checked before it is added to the directory. A link back to AUSXIP Spartacus would be cool but not required for inclusion into this directory. AUSXIP reserves the right not to post links to sites containing nudity or torrent sites with Spartacus episode downloads, illegal downloads or other media. Click here for more info Spartacus in Turkey Starting 15 September By MaryD on August 27, 2010 9:14 AM Lots of happy fans around in Turkey as Spartacus will now be shown there starting on 15 and 19 September on two channels! Received the following news from Esra which is slightly overjoyed by the news: Spartacus is coming to Turkey finally!! its coming to 2 channels: e2 on 15 Sept and Cnbc-e on 19 Sept! Im totally over the moon!!!! :))) There will be a Spartacus behind the cam airing on 8 Sept on channel e2.. FEARnet Announces Premiere Date for Zombie Roadkill By MaryD on August 25, 2010 8:01 AM Academy Award-Nominated Actor Thomas Haden Church Featuredin Made-for-Digital Series from FEARnet and Ghost House Pictures Los Angeles, CA, August 23, 2010 – FEARnet, the world’s premier destination for horror, thriller and suspense movies, announced today Zombie Roadkill will premiere on October 4, 2010 on FEARnet.com. FEARnet will debut the first two episodes of this new original series brought to you by Ghost House Pictures on October 4th, and then release one new episode of the six-episode series daily. The terrifyingly twisted new series will also play on the FEARnet On Demand VOD network with the first three episodes of the series becoming available on October 14th and the final episodes becoming available October 21st. Ghost House's partners Sam Raimi and Rob Tapert, together with Jim Burns shepherded the project along with Ben Ketai and Sarah Donohue as Executive Producers. Innovative director David Green helmed the project penned by Henry Gayden. The horror-comedy features Academy Award-nominated actor Thomas Haden Church (Spider-Man 3, Sideways, Wings) as a tough as nails Park Ranger who teams with an unsuspecting teenager, played by David Dorfman (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Ring films), to escape a cursed stretch of highway that resurrects roadkill in the form flesh eating zombie animals. Zombie Roadkill follows a group of college kids driving on an unfamiliar winding road through a national park. The group is heading for a fun weekend away, but when they accidentally run over an unsuspecting squirrel, everything takes a dark turn and they quickly discover that this is no ordinary road. In fact, the woods are alive with the undead: wronged woodland creatures that have been reanimated as vengeful, murderous zombies! The series’ claw-scratching action unfolds over six episodes, each 4-5 minutes in length. Aaron Lam of Ghost House Pictures produced the series. Frank Langley and Tom Bacho of Quantum FX (Where the Wild Things Are, Star Trek, Watchmen) brought the terrifying creatures to life. Zombie Roadkill also stars Toni Wynne, Jeff D’Agostino, Cherilyn Wilson, and Michael Blaiklock. About Ghost House Pictures Ghost House Pictures was formed as a joint venture between filmmakers Sam Raimi, Rob Tapert, Nathan Kahane and Joe Drake creating a production label dedicated to the financing, development and release of films in the horror thriller genre. The company has achieved success with five consecutive #1 releases, starting with the 2004 remake of THE GRUDGE, starring Sarah Michelle Gellar, which has grossed $188 million worldwide; THE GRUDGE 2, which opened at number one in October 2006; Stephen T. Kay's BOOGEYMAN, starring Barry Watson, THE MESSENGERS, from acclaimed filmmakers Oxide and Danny Pang (THE EYE), which was released in February 2007; and David Slade's 30 DAYS OF NIGHT, an adaptation of the popular comic about vampires descending on an Alaskan town. Most recently, Universal Pictures released DRAG ME TO HELL in May 2009. The film, which was written and directed by Sam Raimi, stars Alison Lohman and Justin Long. Spartacus Premiere Episode Ratings in New Zealand By MaryD on August 23, 2010 6:05 PM The ratings from last night's Spartacus premiere (the unedited version unlike their Aussie cousins) are now available: Most watched on the BOX Spartacus Blood and Sand: 35,720 (9:30pm - 10:40pm) Ratings for the Aussie premiere (which was episode 1 and 2) garnered 341,000 viewers Source Are Obsessive Fans Ruining the Internet? By MaryD on August 20, 2010 8:14 PM Brent Hartinger from AfterElton.com recently interviewed me as part of an article about Fans and fandom. The article is called Are Obsessive Fans Ruining the Internet? It's a fascinating look at how fans can cross the line between being a fan and being a fanatic. This issue has been getting progressively worse and some sites won't cover certain shows because of the caustic response from fans of that show. I truly believe that fandom in general can do amazing things but there are those who cross that line. Have a read of Brent's article which is very well written (and not because he interviewed me as part of the article!) Click here to read article Rob Tapert and Spartacus - NZ Listener Magazine 21-27 August 2010 By MaryD on August 16, 2010 9:48 PM NZ Listener August 21-27 2010 Vol 225 No 3667 Swords, sex and sandals with Spartacus by Sarah Barnett There’s plenty of red in Rob Tapert’s Kiwi-made Spartacus, but the American husband of Lucy Lawless (who plays Lucretia) says it’s only a little gratuitous. From the set of Spartacus: Blood and Sand (Sky D05, Sunday, 9.30pm), executive producer Rob Tapert is confident Kiwis can handle the uncut version of this swords, sandals, sex and swearing melodrama: “I’ve seen what’s on local television.” Tapert is as good as local these days. After discovering New Zealand as a filming location for shows such as Xena: Warrior Princess, he has continued to roll camera here – and he married Lucy Lawless. The set this time? An Auckland warehouse. One hundred and fifty extras today, 250 tomorrow, with digital effects to come to transform it into ancient Capua, Rome. Our hero, Spartacus (Andy Whitfield), is a Thracian warrior sold into slavery after crossing the wrong Roman (Craig Parker), and winding up in the glad­iatorial arena. Parker and Lawless have major roles beside UK import John Hannah, and Michael Hurst pops up in the director’s chair – these ancient Romans often speak with a Kiwi inflection. There were, it’s fair to say, middling reviews in the US, although they began to turn around as the series went on. Some reviewers, Tapert says, “recanted by episode 13. We felt good about that.” It’s a long way from Tapert’s early days with fellow executive producer Sam Raimi, making the Evil Dead films on a shoestring, even mixing their own blood. Or perhaps not so long – there’s still plenty of blood, but rather than being mixed set-side, this is filmed exploding in glorious arcs in front of green screens to give it that vivid, comic-book effect seen in flicks like 300. Spartacus is, in other words, decadent, debauched and ghoulishly stylish. “There’s only probably two times in the first 13 episodes that, looking back on it, I feel we did something gratuitous,” Tapert says. “The rest of it, everything had a reason, and decisions about blood or gladiators fighting – that’s more about a ballet in a kind of chop-socky Japanese kind of fashion.” Article submitted by Barbara Davies Spartacus Season 1 DVD News & Promo Video By MaryD on August 13, 2010 11:40 AM Received the following from PR promoting the release of Spartacus: Blood and Sand Season 1. Check out the great video! Spartacus: Blood and Sand Season 1 Pre-Order DVD | Pre-Order Blu-Ray Executive produced by Rob Tapert, Sam Raimi, Joshua Donen and Steven S. DeKnight, “SPARTACUS: BLOOD AND SAND - The Complete First Season” on DVD and Blu-ray™ promises to take fans even deeper into the deadly brutality of gladiator games and the decadent machinations of Roman society with hours of bonus features delving behind the scenes into the making of a modern epic, including interviews and commentaries from the actors and filmmakers, augmented with rare production footage exploring the series’ ground-breaking visual effects, production and costume design. Enhanced digital effects have been added to several of the episodes, and as a Blu-ray™ exclusive, four episodes have been personally selected as “Directors’ Cut Extended Episodes,” featuring content too risqué, even for cable TV! The bonus features on “SPARTACUS: BLOOD AND SAND - The Complete First Season” are anything but spartan. Hours of featurettes, behind-the-scenes footage, audio commentaries, interviews, and outtakes will get the “thumbs up” from the casual Thracian to the die-hard Roman! DVD and Blu-ray™ bonus features:   Featurettes: Gladiator Camp, History Rewritten, Make-up Effects, The Hole, And more! Audio Commentaries Episodes with Enhanced Digital Effects Behind-The-Scenes Footage Bloopers Trailers Exclusive Blu-ray™ bonus feature: Four “Directors’ Cut Extended Episodes” personally selected by Executive Producer Rob Tapert PROMO VIDEO Spartacus in Australia 18 August 2010 By MaryD on August 3, 2010 7:44 AM Australia's GO! (Channel 9's digital channel) has announced the airdate for the movie length screening of Episode 1 and 2 for 18th August 2010 at 9:30 pm. Spartacus: Blood and Sand is rated MAV for its Strong Violence and Sex Scenes. To get everyone in the mood, GO! has decided to make Spartacus BaS part of a week of Gladiator-themed entertainment including the movies 300, Troy and Alexander. Source Read More Archives