Green Lantern Movie Starts Shooting Next Spring

Just the other day I went down to my local comic book store to pick up some issues of Mark Millar's War Heroes. While there I got into a discussion with my friend who happens to be a big Green Lantern fan. He had seen that concept art that we posted a while back and said that if it got made, it would be an awesome movie. Earlier today I caught up briefly with producer Donald De Line, who is developing the Green Lantern film, and asked him for an update. He told me that "a new draft of the script came in" and they're "gearing up to start shooting early spring." While it's not confirmed, he added that "it's coming together and I'm excited about it. Hopefully we'll make it to start gate. We're really close - really close."

It sounds like as long as everything continues to stay on track, this will be shooting next year. And that means we'll definitely see that Green Lantern movie that all the fans have been waiting for, or so it sounds like. Latino Review's El Mayimbe got a chance to check out that script that was turned in recently and gave it a very positive review, saying "fanboys are gonna love the shit out of it." His version differs slightly from the one IESB reviewed a month ago as well. You can read El Mayimbe's full review of the script, but I just love this little snippet about the story and want to feature that on its own.

"The structure adheres closely to what I call - the 'superhero origin movie paradigm.' In Green Lantern's case, Hal Jordan has to overcome his selfishness and self pity over the death of his father Martin Jordan which takes place early in the script. Hal Jordan for the first 20 pages or so is a prick. The story follows the Green Lantern origin closely and cinematically speaking – IT WORKS."

It's great to hear that a beloved comic book character is actually getting a worthy adaptation. It sounds like this ain't no Fantastic Four - this is the real deal and this is the real Green Lantern movie that everyone wants to see. De Line confirmed again that Greg Berlanti, of "Everwood" and The Broken Hearts Club, will be directing. I've been anxious for updates on this because I've got a good feeling it's going to be one of the big movies of 2010 and with script reviews and news like this, it's well on its way to becoming that. I know I'm not the only one who is anxiously waiting to find out who they cast as Hal Jordan. And although I'm excited now, I just hope Berlanti can do a good job with such an intergalactic concept.

Music for only $0.14/song at SoundsBox!

SoundsBox is a relatively new music site starting in late June 2007. With its friendly customer service and their willingness to please the customer, this shop is a standout with me. I look forward to their daily new arrivals, because they are usually different than other sites that I go to. They also have very prompt arrivals of new releases in mainstream as well as independent releases.

The site’s goals are to offer quality downloads at the cheapest prices possible, to maintain site availability to their customers and they are proud of their prompt releases on new material.

Pricing / Payment Options / Bonus Schemes

SoundsBox has a very fair pricing policy at only 14 cents a download, with a 10% added bonus, if you buy the whole album. They will also give you up to 45% bonus on $100 deposit. At the present time they are accepting Master Card and Visa credit cards as payment.

Music Catalogue

When looking for a music site my first criteria is its catalogue. The catalogue of Soundsbox consists of 35,100 artists, 2,000,000 songs and 142,500 albums.

They also have many new independent releases that I also see on eMusic, as well as very prompt releases of all the mainstream releases that I am also interested in. This, to me, creates a well balanced catalogue that keeps me going there daily, keeps me interested and draws me in.

Audio Formats / Bit Rates

SoundsBox has a sampler that samples in full quality 90 seconds - but as of now only works properly in IE. They have said they will fix this to work in Firefox as well. Until then you can use the Firefox add-on: IE Tab to make the site fully functional.

The site administrators say that their average download is 192 vbr. It varies on some of the older titles but on newer titles I see more consistency in quality.

Personally, to my ears, their downloads all sound of good quality, which says to me that they use excellent source material. Most importantly their downloads are DRM free, which means you can use them anywhere you choose.

Interface
SoundsBox is an attractive site but with a bit too much flash content for my taste. It has an interface that helps you find the contents of its catalogue. You must point and click to a letter in the alphabet and it will take you to all the artists under that chosen letter. Unfortunately you can not input an artist or an album in the search box, because it does not work properly. I have been told that this will be fixed at the end of the year, when they intend to make site upgrades.

Another way to search is by genre: click on the browse by genre tab and you will be taken to another page with various genres and sub genres, a quite impressive list. On that page you will also find new releases. I prefer to have the new releases on the front page, because this is one of the great draws to this site.

On the album page you can find out such information as release date, total time, genre, time, file size and bit rate. Everything you need to know before making a purchase. One small problem is that I find page loading is a little slow with IE. Using Firefox will speed up your page loading, when visiting Soundsbox.

Support / Assistance

The assistance at Soundsbox is excellent and very responsive. I like that “hands on” approach to customer service. When you make a request, usually in a day or so, you will see it appear on the site. You feel that you are being listened to, and at the same time help to develop the site into a place you want to visit.

Technical questions and results may take a little longer; but from personal experience I can tell you, it will be worked out. This is one of the reasons, I am such a big fan of the site.

Conclusion

If you are looking for a music site that offers great new diverse releases, great customer service and music at a great price, then Soundsbox is a place you might like to spend some time with. They are a relatively new site, so I’m personally looking forward to their future development and growth. I know if they continue on their current path, we (the music lovers) have a great deal to look forward to.

The Digg Files: I Want To Believe

- Time is our enemy!
- What’s this supposed to mean?
- Something that I’ve been afraid of and haven’t had to face until now.
- What? What!?! Just say it.
- It is not that simple .. I have 6 arms! But who believes that crap anymore?

- Well, they do at the Digg community, apparently… I had a visitor today… The Digg wants your help finding a missing story.
- Well, I hope you told them to go screw themselves?
- They say ‘all is forgiven. That they’ll drop all charges against you if you come in and help them solve this case.
- The Digg community will forgive me? They put me on trial on bogus charges and tried to discredit a decade of my work. They should be asking me for my forgiveness.
- I think they are. Desperately.