Giant Freakin Robot

Do you feel like paying a lot of money for a piece of trash that has been buried for decades and only recently unearthed? Did I mention that it’s a piece of historical trash, sort of, depending on your perspective and what you consider important. There’s been a great deal of talk lately about the E.T. Atari cartridges that were thrown in a hole in New Mexico 30 years ago and that were dug up recently. Now, if you’re in the market for such a trinket, you can buy one to call your very own. It probably won’t work, even if you do have the appropriate console, if that’s what you’re looking for, but by all accounts, this is the worst videogame ever made, so you’re probably not missing out on much.

The Tularosa Basin Historical Society in Alamagordo, New Mexico, which organized the dig and owns all of the unearthed cartridges, recently put 99 of them up for auction on eBay. Some of these, which all come with a certificate of authenticity, lest someone pay lots of money for actual garbage, have already reached upwards of $500, which sounds like a lot for a terrible game that you can’t play.

Who knew that either a failed video game or digging through a massive pile of trash would be interesting enough to make a movie about? Let alone a movie that looks like something you might want to watch. Well, if this new trailer for Atari: Game Over is any indication, director Zak Penn’s (Incident at Loch Ness) has done exactly that.

Back in 1982, Atari was the word as far as video games were concerned. They were the pioneers, the frontrunners, the innovators, the big dogs. But in one fell swoop that all changed, almost taking the entire gaming industry down with it. When Steven Spielberg’s beloved E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial opened it connected with audiences of all ages in a way that not many films do. Atari, the giant of the business, put out a rushed, half-assed adaptation—it took five weeks, which is insane—that is widely regarded as the worst video game every made, and is largely credited for being the reason behind the temporary collapse of the video game manufacturing business in 1983.

One of the things I love most about GFR is discovering new artists or filmmakers or writers who weren’t previously on my radar and then diving into their work headfirst. Today’s particular rabbit hole (and mixed metaphors) are brought to you by artist Andy Fairhurst, who has put a new spin on beloved science fiction properties simply by approach them from a different angle: from the top down.

That Guardians of the Galaxy picture up top is one of my favorite things he’s done, just because it emphasizes something that some animator or comics artist once said, but I can’t for the life of me remember who: that a recognizable silhouette is key in creating a new costumed character. There are thousands of superheroes and villains who’ve been dreamt up over the decades, but the most iconic, the most legendary, almost all of those are instantly recognizable just from their silhouette. Or their shadow, as the case may be.

As requested The Night Skies alien. Not finished, no eyes. Cover the top of his head and tell me who he looks like. pic.twitter.com/r3PxK1T98A

— Rick Baker (@TheRickBaker) May 22, 2014

Steven Spielberg’s E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial is a certified science fiction classic, one of the best family adventure films ever made, and the title character is one of the most iconic creature designs ever to hit the big screen. But there was a time when the story of a stranded extraterrestrial and the boy he befriends hadn’t yet coalesced in Spielberg’s mind, and instead he was set to make a very different alien film: a science fiction/horror flick called Night Skies. Now makeup maestro Rick Baker has shared pictures of some of the alien designs from Spielberg’s aborted Night Skies project on Twitter, including some that definitely resemble the eventual look of E.T.

One of the worst video games ever is Atari’s 1983 attempt to cash in on what would go on to become one of the most beloved movies of all time, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. The game is so legendarily bad that all the unsold copies the manufacturer could get their hands on were buried in a landfill in New Mexico. At least that is the urban legend. But you know why this sort of rumor gains so much traction is because on occasion they do turn out to be real, and this just happens to be the case. A team has in fact uncovered a butt-ton of unwanted copies of the game.

After having problems getting approval, a documentary crew who, for some reason, wants to unearth the long-forgotten stockpile, finally got the go ahead to excavate the Almagordo Landfill in Almagordo, New Mexico. The dig was scheduled for yesterday, and now numerous news outlets are reporting that they did in fact find what they were looking for. In this case, their payday is the 14 truckloads of cartridges that were reportedly dumped and left to rot. They also apparently found one stray copy of Centipede, too.

A Clockwork Orange (1971)
In 1971, Stanley Kubrick released his follow up to 2001: A Space Odyssey with the violent, dystopian classic A Clockwork Orange. Adapted from Anthony Burgess’ best-selling novel, Kubrick challenged audiences with notions of redemption, crime, sex, and government control.

Considered one of the auteur’s best films, A Clockwork Orange earned Kubrick his third straight Academy Award nomination for Best Director, and his second for Best Picture (Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb was nominated for the 37th Academy Awards). The film that ended up winning Best Picture during the 44th Academy Awards in 1972 was William Friedkin’s The French Connection, while Friedkin also won for Best Director over the master film director.

Looking back at the films nominated for Best Picture, many argue that A Clockwork Orange was the superior film. Kubrick’s bleak tale pushed audiences to re-consider societal norms and the art of movie-making altogether. Today, A Clockwork Orange would have a slight edge over The French Connection, just in terms of popularity and legacy.

A Clockwork Orange was also nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Film Editing, but lost out to The French Connection in both categories. Stanley Kubrick never won an Academy Award for Best Director, but he was later nominated for his 1975 film Barry Lyndon and, arguably, A Clockwork Orange was his best chance at a Best Picture and Best Director Oscar. As it stands, Stanley Kubrick only earned one Academy Award in his lifetime: Best Visual Effects for 2001: A Space Odyssey. – Rudie