Deleted Scenes - Streets of Rage Reboot

There's been various attempts to make another Streets of Rage at Sega.
Some ended up completely scrapped on early stages, other became different games during production. (and perhaps we'll get to that in another "deleted scenes" post o' mine another time...)

The latest to date?

A Streets of Rage Reboot from the now defunct-Grin studios, already behind the 3D sidestroller remake Bionic Commando Rearmed at Capcom.
It seems they started working on this revival of the Megadrive classic right after BCR.

So what happened exactly?
Well, one thing really.
Grin shut down, they went bankrupt.
That is why Capcom developed Rearmed 2 at Fatshark.

Anyways, here's some in-game footage:

Source Eurogamers.
^Follow the above link to also get a look at another remake, Stryder, they were working on!

BestOf Parks & Recreation - Jean-Ralphio's "Flushed with Cash" deleted scene

Here's some deleted extended bits from a scene from Parks & Recreation, of "Jean-Ralphio" aka Ben Schwartz being awesome and improvising random bits.

No need to know the show, besides the fact that Jean-Ralphio is awesome:

Deleted Scenes - Gotham by Gaslight game

Okay, here's another one that never was.

Apparently, there was a Gotham by Gaslight video game planned at some point.
That's right, a game based on the classic Elseworld story by Brian Augustyn, BATMAN: GOTHAM BY GASLIGHT:

And it was just recently revealed by Day 1 Studio that they had been working on this concept around 2009.
But they lost THQ as publishers (this was before Warner Bros. recently started publishing its games directly), tried redesigning their game and pitch...

Anyway, this was planned for PS3 and Xbox 360.

It looks like an era-specific Arkham Asylum/beat'em up-like game.

Check out these badass pictures:

How would the Mike Mignola-drawn comic look like in 3D?

Here's the only video and in-game rendered visuals available:



Certainly, this was a very early test, but the idea, steampunk look and with the adapted weapons and gimmicks do look nice on paper at least.

Who knows, perhaps when DC/Warner will get bored with the Arkham Asylum/City series, they might actually think about adapting Elseworld comics into video games. There's lots of great concept to use in those!

Source: siliconera

Deleted Scenes - "Rayman 4"

I'm currently still playing through Rayman: Origins!
And loving every bit of it~

But before Rayman returned to his former glory in this all new mdern 2D hand drawn/animated sidescrolling platformer, the poor lil' guy was getting forgotten thanks to all those Ravin' Rabbids party games...
And the actual reason why Rayman reverted back to his roots to get back a bit of his former groove was mostly because how far had the apple fallen from the tree.

Now, everybody knows the first Rayman: Raving Rabbids game to be minigame collection for the Wii (and other systems since then), but originally it wasn't always gonna be this way.

The game actually started out as the real Rayman 4.
Right after Rayman 3, the production was launched at Ubisoft Montpellier.

The game was going to be another pure 3D platformer, this time around featuring more action and a free-roaming environment.

According to Michel Ancel, Rayman's creator, the foes would have been this time around these weird stupid rabbits that had been planning their revenge on Rayman & co since the first game, hence the revisiting areas from the past games as pictured around here.

The Rabbids would have been these antagonists who had planned an invasion since the first game ("decades before").

But then Nintendo started to show great interest in this project.
Ancel sketched out a quick concept for Nintendo's upcoming Wii, then titled "Revolution". One thing after the other, the experimenting went along, gameplay styles changed and every aspect of platforming was removed and replaced with minigames...

The final product ended up pretty far from its original design, but most was kept around and lived through the Gameboy Advance Raving Rabbids.

As you can see from all these concepts around, the game would have been a big mix of original new settings, moody atmosphere like Rayman 2 and 3's, and old levels reimagined from the 1st game.

The story would have seen Rayman facing off against The Emperor Rabbid. a brand new enemy who had kidnapped Rayman's girlfriend:

And there's a baby Globox above as well! (from Rayman 2!)

According to Michel Ancel, "Rayman will have to save the world, his girlfriend and the girlfriend of his old enemy and his old enemy too!"

Here's more on the game:

“It’s a real pleasure for me to be back working on an all-new Rayman,” said Michel Ancel. “After wrapping up my last game, the team here in Montpellier sat down to talk about having some fun with Rayman and his universe. We are running into a bit of a problem, though, because our game has been invaded by thousands of raving mad and vicious bunnies, who have apparently been preparing this assault since the very first Rayman game. We are now sending an SOS to all motivated gamers to help us get rid of them as fast as possible!” Here are a list of features you'll find in the new game!

• Combat the Ultra-Crazed Evil Rabbits – Take control of Rayman and his knack for attack to help save his world from the raving rabbids. They are mischievous, insane and completely out of control. There are several types of rabbids each with its own mischievous characteristics.
• Master and Ride Creatures – Tame and control various creatures such as sharks, eagles, rhinos, spiders and angelfish. Rayman can master each animal’s unique capabilities to help in his battle against the devious rabbits.
• Dress to Impress – Customize and disguise Rayman. Go punk, pop, rock or hip hop to infiltrate the bunnies and foil their devious plans.
• Explore the Colorful Fantastic World of Rayman – Explore amazing free-roaming environments and beautiful epic landscapes that mix real and fantastical styles to create a visually stunning experience.

The Rabbids design was more sinister-looking.
All different in shapes and sizes. Furrier. Bigger. Meaner.

Rayman would have gotten power-suits à la Mario instead of the power upgrades he gains in all the other games usually.

Anyways, it looked good on the concept.

Here's a trailer released by Ubi around an E3:



The game would have been released for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii, PC, PS2 and PSP probably.

Anyways, in the meantime we'll still have the fantastic gorgeous Rayman Origins! :/

Though with Rayman back at the front scene, Ancel said he still planned on releasing another 3D Rayman platformer.
Last December he even went as far as confirming he would like to use this scrapped Rayman 4 as basis for the new game. Though I wonder how much will be kept, since Ubisoft is currently trying to keep the Rayman and Rabbids franchise apart for the foreseeable future.

And would that make now this scrapped game Rayman 5, will it be released some other day?

Ad - Banned American Express Commercials

Remember those fun videos featuring Seinfeld and Superman for American Express?

Well there's more!
Here's another short featuring our heroes walking around the city, doing and talking about nothing:



This is a later short, as you can see (despite the poor quality of the vid' on youtube) the animations and design of Supes was much more crisper.

Why was this one banned?
Well American Express didn't had Superman's rights anymore and they didn't think about renewing it with DC Comics.
Rumor has it some more shorts were prepared, but good luck finding them on the internet!~

FanFilmFriday: Batman: Dead End

Hey guys and gals,
how are ya doin'?

I've been posting fanfilms on this blog for quite some time...and I see I haven't mentioned nor posted this great 2003 fanfilm yet... Surely most of you probably already know it, but anyways why shouldn't I give it a post here for once?

Here's Batman: Dead End!
Known colloquially on the interwebz as that "Batman Vs. Predator (Vs. Aliens)" fanfilm, it is rather a more professional take than the myriad usual fanmade videos.
And for a reason!~

Batman: Dead End was directed by Sandy Collora. It original aired at the San Diego Comic-Con on July 2003, and shortly after being released on TheForce.net made a big splash amongst fanboys and nerds alike all over the world.

It's about Batman chasing an escaped Joker into a dark alley....when suddenly a random Alien attack them both!
And it gets work when a Predator appears out of nowhere and a duel erupts between the Dark Knight and the Space Hunter....

Check it out:



This "little" movie was done with a budget of around 30'000$ by designer artist Sandy Collora.
He worked for years at Stan Winston Studios and was part of such classic films as Jurassic Park, Men In Black or even Predator 2. He designed various Predators for this flick's cult classic epic ending, many Preds which never made it into the actual movie (including this female egyptian-inspired Pred on the left).

Others more elaborated costume made it into this Batman: Dead End movie though, like that big red-masked Predator leader at the end.

He made another similar fanfilm in 2004 with World's Finest, using most of the same cast and crew. It was this time a Superman/Batman crossover.

Collora made his first debut film feature with Hunter Prey recently.

I loved this "Dead End" project! Loved it first ~6-7 years ago when I first saw it, and still adore it to this day.
Very great pacing, great use of each characters' own movie soundtrack, great angles... I mean even the fight looks better choreographed than most recent action movie scenes!!
(at least you understand what's going on here unlike any of Michael Bay's flicks...)

Kevin Smith himself said this was "possibly the truest, best Batman movie ever made"
And Alex Ross added "Batman the way I've always wanted to see him" which doesn't come as a surprise, I mean just look at him, clearly based on Ross artwork :P

You can check more of Collora's stuff, be it movies or artwork, on his own website here: http://www.collorastudios.com/

Deleted Scenes - That canceled Superman game

Did you know that when we got that modern well done Batman game, we almost a bunch of other (good?) DC Comics inspired videogames?

There wasn't just a Flash video game in the works.
We also almost got a Superman game as well!
Apparently, Factor 5 (Turrican, Star Wars: Rogue Leader, Rogue Squadron..) was working on a Supes game.
They closed in 2009.

But some of the pics of the game in development have recently surfaced on the website of artist Daveed Kaplan.

It seems the project was codenamed "Blue Steel".
We may not see any screens of what would have been like, but we can get a good look at Supes, with his huge S-symbol - which I love btw, but also some of the villains the game would have featured.
Like Lex Luthor, Darkseid (!!!), his son Kalibak, General Zod and Non as well!

I dunno for you, but this could have had some potential...
Was this gonna be Superman's first good game in a long while...?!

Here, enjoy the, oh, so few character art we have to go 'round for now:

 Click for bigger pics!

It gives us some idea what it might have looked like.... Not how it would have played liked, but I can see the strong characterization and art style already giving life to these comic book characters!

Deleted Scenes - What if... DC-Mangaverse

Comic book artist Cliff Chiang revealed on Project Rooftop he had been working on a manga/anime-inspired take on the Justice League...

Just imagine what it could have been...

This entire project ended up getting us the Super Young Team which was a team of characters inspired by the DCU's Great Ten and American Superheroes (pictured above).

But at some point, behind the scenes, it was gonna be more literal, a team of young Japanese heroes directly inspired by the Justice League itself.

All of these heroes would have been modeled after cult classic Japanese proprieties.
Cliff Chiang tells how it almost was green-light...

Check out these concepts for the various characters:

(click on the pics for larger size!)

So whaddya think of all this?
Man..it could have been so awesome! Since there's a lack of Elseworlds tales nowadays, I would have loved to see DC launch a spinoff line like Marvel's Mangaverse!
Someone needs to kick the ass of whoever didn’t approve this....

Deleted Scenes - Star Wars audition tapes

Before Star Wars was synonymous with Mark Hamill and Harrison Ford (amongst others) a bunch of other actors auditioned for the role for Han Solo.

A lot of these guys have since then become pretty famous and went on to play various other iconic characters, but back then they were all in competition for the role of Han.
Can you imagine what the SW movies would have been like with someone else than Ford in this particular role? (or what would have become of him, Lucas and Spielberg wouldn't have picked him up for Indiana Jones after that!)
The year was 1976.
A cult movie was getting ready to shoot - a movie which would change generations of movie goers, but also the way to conceive feature films, from the way to use marketing, with a wide range of inspired products, surfing on the recent baby-boom and the way to promote and finance movies (to this very day).

Various men auditioned for the role of Chewbacca's best buddy, Han Solo.
From Sylvester Stallone (which he confirmed in a recent Expandable interview) who would go on to star in the Rocky series a short while after that, but also Christopher Walken, Kurt Russell, Nick Nolte, Jack Nicholson, Al Pacino, Chevy Chase, Steve Martin, Perry King, Bill Murray, John Travolta and even Robert De Niro!
Could you imagine that? One of those guys as Han Solo?

A bunch of audition tapes found there way on youtube nowadays.
Here's some of them people were able to find:






But even...



Are you glad they went for this guy...?

CBR Untold Tales of Blackest Night

  

Remember DC's big blockbuster story arc Blackest Night?

Well here's something related, which I originally intended to post for Halloween, but kept delaying it...so anyway, here is...

(be sure to either known about or read Blackest Night before, or this book will seem pretty abstract to you :P)

Comic title: Untold Tales of Blackest Night
By Geoff Johns, Peter J Tomasi, JT Krul, Ehan Van Sciver, Ed Benes, Patrick Gleason, Sam Schlagman, Jason Fabok, Jeremy Love, Bret Booth & others.

Published by DC Comics
From 2010
Lineup Green Lantern/Blackest Night mega-event
Format: Halloween One-Shot special (as originally planned, but actually only later released on Christmas/December).

Did you like Blackest Night, did you want more of it, or at least one final look at that zombie invasion mega-event from DC?
Well, your in luck then, Untold Tales of Blackest Night is exactly here for that.

Claimed to be "deleted scenes" taken out of the blockbuster storyline. Deleted scenes they couldn't find any space on any of the other tie-ins book to squeeze these in.

Told via the "Book of Black" these stories are one last look at the longest night the DC heroes lived through this time from the point of view of some true underdogs, lesser known characters or simply the ones we forgot to stop by during the event.

Various creative teams worked on the several little chapters found in this One Shot.
The principal overlapping narrative is written by Peter J Tomasi and drawn by Patrick Gleason & Sandra Hope.
We're back with Sinestro Corps member Lyssa Drak. Trapped in Black Hand and Nekron's own "book", she narrates the tales (un)told in this book as she tries to get out of it...unsuccessfully.

The first actual deleted scene is a story about Shadowpact member Ragman, a magic based vigilante.
The story is by Geoff Johns, with the art provided by Ivan Reis & Oclair Albert.
Ragman tries to escape the Black Lanterns, the souls in his rags are awakening...
Nice little story that is a bit too short and doesn't go anywhere much. But it was a character I like I was intrigued to know what he was doing during Blackest Night, so at least it answers that.
Would have loved seeing the rest of his gang Shadowpact around though. (Blue Devil and the Phantom Stranger did appear a bit more in the actual BL story though...)

The second scene is another one done by the above crew.
It's about Flash's enemies called the Rainbow Raiders (I kid you not!), who stolen the technology of a previous enemy who called himself Rainbow Raider and who want to join the ranks of the Black Lanterns through...an odd original way....

Then there's a very nice Animal Man story by Sam Schlagman with Jason Fabok & Ryan Winn on the art.
Another characters I would have wanted to see during the actual event, very nice to finally see the adventure through his eyes.
His connection to the green and animals life is briefly touched upon, and distorted thanks to the zombie invasion.

After that is a Donna Troy story from writer JT Krul with Ed Benes lovely artwork serving it.
Well I said Donna Troy? Let's call it a Wonder Girl story, since it kinda changes direction mid-point.
This one's taking place near the end of "the night". It kinda showed a bit more but wasn't really a self contained story, more like missing pages.

A very nice little mini Scarecrow story build the bridge into the last moments of the event.
From Jeremy Love with art by Bret Booth.
At some point near the end of the event, the Lanterns elected some "deputies". This little story take place at that moment. And it was the most "Halloween-ysh" tale of the bunch.
Always fun to explore Scarecrow from time to time, at moments like these.

Finally a story that isn't taking place on planet Earth!
The last one is written, inked and colored by Ehan Van Sciver.
It follows Sinestro Corps member Karu-Sil as she battles Black Lanterns alongside a Green Lantern.

Most of these stories feel kinda rushed and either quickly end abruptly or end up leaving you for more.
They do feel like missing scenes moreso than actual "Untold Tales" as the title implies.

Lyssa Drak is back in the end for an epilogue after BN, which end up making her story seemed the more intriguing, you kinda wish you could have more and followed her onto the next coming epic story...

Overall, it was a nice little "Halloween" comic filler to read.
Though I gotta say, if you're a Green Lantern fan it might leave you wanting for more, since Lanterns barely appear in here...
(couldn't they squeeze in there, oh I dunno, a G'nort story for example??)

Most of the tales feel too constrained, some pages too close to develop anything... I wish Ragman had more than 2-3 pages!!
Strangely though, Animal Man  felt like the main story, as it counted the higher pages number of the whole bunch, (kinda ties-in to what was coming in Brightest Day after that...)

If you enjoyed the Blackest Night as a whole, you will definitively be in for a threat :P
Though consider these as some kind of "deleted scenes" spotlighting some under used DC Comics characters.

I think I would quite enjoy if DC could revisit the whole BN event for Halloween, once or twice again down the road..
(though the "New 52" reboot makes it unsure for now...we'll see in a year or two!)

I give it:

  2 / 3 Plastic-trophies!