Movies
[Toy Fair ’12] Part One: NECA Nabs ‘Prometheus’ Rights, ‘Walking Dead’ Season Two Comes In Zombie Head!
While it’s still unclear if NECA has anything new to show on the convention floor (other than a ginormous Ivan Drago prototype that I’d kill for), the toy company continues to work its way deep into our hearts with the announcement that they’ll be releasing action figures based on Ridley Scott’s forthcoming Prometheus, the prequel to Alien arriving in theaters June 8. It’ll be nice to venture out of the gross AvP territory that was milked to death — and it’s about timer we’ll be able to get our hands on a Space Jockey (and to think, they should be sized correctly). They also revealed that they’ve extended licenses for classic Alien and Predators, so clear more shelf room (this means it’s time to sell those stupid McFarlane Toys airy Tale figures, hear me?)
Anchor Bay is using Toy Fair to announce the second season of “The Walking Dead” for Blu-ray. The season comes featuring an exclusive zombie statue case created by McFarlane Toys, says MTV, who also p[provided a first look inside. Based on an actual television zombie bust designed by Emmy Award-winning Special Effects Make-up Supervisor and Co-Executive Producer, Greg Nicotero and KNB EFX Group. No release or extras have been announced yet.
In addition, Diamond Select Toys has joined forces with Robert Kirkman to produce a new line of Minimates based on his “The Walking Dead” comic book series. Check out a promo images inside.
From EMCE Toys comes the above “Working Stiffs” bobbleheads, along with the below pictured “A Very Scary Christmas” caroling cadavers snowglobe. They’re also producing a line of cute plush dolls called “Shock Puppets” by artist Ophelia von Gray. Get more on their Facebook page. 
The trailer for Ti West’s upcoming adaptation of A Christmas Carol raised a lot of eyebrows when it dropped earlier this week. While plenty of folks initially dismissed Ebenezer as a derivative project meant to cash in on the recent wave of unnecessary prequels that expand the backstory of beloved characters (such as 2023’s Wonka), Charles Dickens’ original novel already made a point of exploring Ebenezer Scrooge’s origins in detail – meaning that this new film is likely just a particularly faithful adaptation of the source material under a different name.
Couple that with the fact that the movie is being helmed by a genuine horror auteur and I think it’s safe to say that the latest iteration of the first modern ghost story is in good hands.
That being said, one detail that immediately jumped out at me during the brief teaser (other than a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it nod to Johnny Depp’s iconic bedroom death scene from the original A Nightmare on Elm Street) is the fact that many of Ebenezer’s ghosts appear to have been directly lifted from the iconic John Leech illustrations that accompanied the first edition of Dickens’ novel.
Here are a couple of stills from the trailer compared to the original artwork:
The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come in ‘Ebenezer’ and ‘A Christmas Carol’
The Phantoms in ‘A Christmas Carol’ and ‘Ebenezer’
Marley’s Ghost in ‘Ebenezer’ and ‘A Christmas Carol’
Mainly working with old-school wood and steel engravings that would later be transferred to print, Leech was instrumental in crafting the iconic look of history’s most influential phantoms – especially since Dickens is said to have been deeply involved with the creation of these so-called “comic illustrations.”
And since the novel is commonly said to have popularized spiritualism in Victorian England, much of the ghostly iconography that we still see in genre media to this very day (including some of Ti West’s previous films) can be traced back to the author’s partnership with Leech.
Ebenezer won’t be the first A Christmas Carol adaptation to borrow heavily from these designs, but I can appreciate how Ti West is incorporating an important part of horror history into his latest film.
Ebenezer will be available in theaters starting November 13.
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