The Art of Jupiter Ascending

The Wachowski's latest major sci-fi epic Jupiter Ascending releases this friday, and the lackluster promotional campaign leading through this last week is worrisome to say the least. The film's premise was already a gamble to begin with; A galaxy-hopping-DNA-wolf-elf-assassin-princess-space-opera starring Mila Kunis and Channing Tatum? Hell, stranger things have found success. Though it also doesn't help that Warner Bros.' final trailer for Jupiter commits the cardinal sin of revealing that your movie can be adequately condensed into the space of three-minutes.

Original production schematics of the "Abrasax Clipper"

No matter how you feel (or don't feel) about the film's premise or promotion, one thing that  is unquestionably awesome about it is it's superbly audacious art direction (sort of like Syd Mead meets Final Fantasy) speared by a team of the Wachowski's long-time collaborators and a host of other industry professionals (many of whom have worked previously on such films as Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones and Man of Steel).

Warner Bros. knows the selling point of the film's release is going to be visuals; that's why they've launched this miniature online gallery showcasing some of the film's production art and costume designs. Check below the break for some of the choicest images from the selection and drop by the site itself to see the rest!

It's Happening: Starr Mazer Launches Kickstarter Campaign!

Last April, I did a write-up for Jérémie Périn's epic concept-game trailer Starr Mazer before shouting from the rooftops into the vacuum of space hoping against hope that this ludicrously entertaining mash-up of bullet-hell Shoot 'em up and pulp sci-fi point-and-click mechanics manifested into something actually playable. 

Well, it looks like the long arch of the universe is smiling in my favor because Imagos Softworks has finally launched a kickstarter campaign to bring this modern-day opus of retro gaming to fruition.

I think my spaceship knows which way to go...

The team includes Périn who's back on-board doing concept-art; The pledge page promises an original chip-tunes soundtrack courtesy of the talented Alex Mauer (Serious Sam: Random Encounter), Manami Matsumae (Mega Man), The Protomen, and Virt (Shovel Knight), a colorful host of characters, and a multi-choice branching storyline that results in interesting subsequent play-throughs.

I really don't know if it gets much cooler than this. It's like if Space Ace, Commander Shepherd, Space Dandy, and Guybrush Threepwood got mashed all up into one guy who was then thrown into a black hole and then spat out into a Gradius Level. Go back this asap!