andPOP - Pop Culture With Substance

In my travels with andPOP I’ve interviewed just about everyone. From Matt Damon, to Katy Perry and Jeff Dunham, I’ve met some of the most famous people on the planet. So one would hope that I no longer get the pre-interview jitters. Until recently, I was thrown off my game by Watchmen’s leading lady, Malin Akerman. I nearly passed out. I wish I could say I was kidding. She was so attractive I started acting like a nervous eighth grader. However, once I got past the voice cracks and nervous laughter, I got a hold of myself.

What’s more surprising is that she was equally as nice as she was attractive. While Malin was getting her make-up touched up, she actually wanted to talk to me. She asked how long I had been working in the industry and how I liked my job. What’s even stranger is it seemed like she was genuinely having a good time. I was starting to worry that some of my questions may sour the mood. READ MORE »

After all the anticipation and hubbub, the weekend is coming to an end and the box office results are in: Watchmen (No. 1) grossed $55.7 million during its first frame, according to early estimates from Media by Numbers.

For a movie that did not revolve around high-profile celebrities, that amount of money is a solid sum.  According to ew.com, Watchmen premiered in more theatres (3,611 to be exact) than any other R-rated movie in history, and it averaged an impressive $15,413 per venue, despite a potentially problematic long running time.  It also scored the biggest debut of 2009 so far.  Otherwise the previous numbers, Watchmen did not actually fulfill the general expectations that it’s hype predicted.  It was merely the fifth-best opening ever for an R-rated movie.

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Here’s the complete list of the Playstaion Store Update for March 8, 2009.

It’s week four of the “PSN Spring Fever” section of the PlayStation Store, featuring games, trailers, and themes available for download!

Highlights this week include:

Watchmen: The End is Nigh!

Street Fighter Arena Category
In this custom category, we gather all Street Fighter themed items to commemorate the launch of Street Fighter costumes in Home!
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I saw Watchmen with a friend who had finished Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ masterwork last week, and both of us had the same reaction: what would someone who hadn’t read the novel think of it? It’s a meticulous, impressive-looking movie, directed with obvious reverence for the source material and care for the film being created, but it was impossible for us to be fully engaged by the story, because we kept comparing every shot, every line, every choice director Zack Snyder made, to the comic.

Here’s my theory – someone who hasn’t read Watchmen will be blown away by this film, because it reproduces the comic’s central appeal: You’ve got your heroes, you’ve got your villains, you’ve got your costumes and gadgets and action sequences and grandiose plans to take over the world, all wrapped in a solid noir mystery; but for those demanding more from their literature (and Watchmen is literature – that’s a fact, not an argument), there’s more – literate philosophy, silver-age-style artwork packed with details wrapped in more details, a chilling comic within the comic, and more atomically detailed backstory and alternate history than you can shake (insert obligatory Dr. Manhattan genitalia reference) at.

Much of that is retained in this translation. What’s lost, at least for viewers like me and my friend, is the unmistakable sense that you’ve witnessed art. Finish the book and you know you’ve read a classic; finish the film and you know you’ve seen a great movie (or at least a film made by someone who wanted to make a great movie), but you haven’t seen art.

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Jordan loves movies but Watchmen really struck a chord with him. Was it the beautiful and talented Malin Akerman who has a fantastic performance in the film? Was it the amazing plot? Was it the fact that Jordan always wanted to be a super hero? All of the above are true. Check out our interview with Malin and Jordan’s brief stint as a super hero.

My Chemical Romance is set to cover a classic Bob Dylan tune for the upcoming “Watchmen” movie.

Director Zack Snyder told MTV News that MCR frontman Gerard Way, being a “huge fan” of the graphic novel on which the film is based, made the first move.

“Honestly, he contacted me, just as a fan,” Snyder said of Way, who studied at the School of Visual Arts in New York City and is working on a comic-book series for Dark Horse called “The Umbrella Academy.”

“[He wanted] to say like: ‘I hope the movie’s cool.’ And then we went, ‘Hey, maybe we can do something.’”

Snyder, who previously directed the epic “300,” revealed that they are currently working with MCR on putting together a song for the end titles, with one of the possible covers being “Desolation Row” off of Dylan’s 1965 album “Highway 61 Revisited.”

The director said he has listened to some of the band’s initial Dylan demos and described them as “pretty freaking cool.”

MCR’s cover aside, the movie’s soundtrack is set to feature original versions of songs from the ’60s through to the ’80s, including Jimi Hendrix and Simon & Garfunkel.

Created by Alan Moore, the “Watchmen” series was first published from 1986 to 1987 and revolves around a group of unconventional superheroes who are forced to confront a conspiracy.

The graphic novel made it onto Time Magazine’s 2005 list of “the 100 best English-language novels from 1923 to the present,” where it was praised as “a heart-pounding, heartbreaking read and a watershed in the evolution of a young medium.”

The movie, starring Patrick Wilson, Billy Crudup and Jeffrey Dean Morgan, will hit theatres in spring 2009.