I’ve wanted to write about James Bond for a while. A few weeks ago, the internet was blessed with the release of Adele’s Skyfall for the new James Bond. Before I knew Adele was attached to the theme song, there was song called “Rumor Has It,” she did from her 21 album. When I listened to it, I knew she had great potential for a Bond song ala Shirley Bassey (and that’s a tough act to follow). At the 2:21 mark of Rumor Has It, the music and tempo switches to a slower beat and then she utters the line, “All these words whispered…”, this harkened me the days of Carly Simon and her song “Nobody Does it Better,” from The Spy Who Loved Me. And then, oddly enough Adele gets her own James Bond song.
After watching the video several times, I’m okay with it and I was glad to hear the little James Bond theme riff in the music. Having said this, the last two Bond songs, “You Know My Name,” by Chris Cornell and “Another Way to Die” By Alicia Keys and Jack White where interesting to listen to but for some reason, when a James Bond song does not include the name of the movie in the song itself, I’m somewhat missing it. Hell, A-ha managed to sing The Living Daylights in their song and in A-ha fashion made this one of my all time favorites. Now, I’m not saying that this trend has to continue but I just feel that there’s a stronger connection between the song and movie which binds them both good and bad.
Going back to Adele, the opening line is, “This is the end,” which I’m hoping is code for Daniel Craig‘s last outing as James Bond. If you have read my blog before on this subject, you’ll know my dislike for Craig’s Bond. For some unknown reason both Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace justified another Bond movie with Craig. While I was sad to see Pierce Brosnan no longer with the Bond franchise, I was very happy with the replacement after I saw Layer Cake. If you have not seen it, I highly recommend it as I saw Daniel Craig as James Bond which I thought I would see in the movies when Daniel took over. For example, just like when I saw the original The Saint, (not the Val Kilmer crap) with Roger Moore I could see the 007 role. There wasn’t much of a change with Moore from The Saint to James Bond. An yet, Daniel performance was totally lackluster from Layer Cake to Casino Royale. Except for one or two scenes of action, which I admit were great, I enjoyed him more getting hit in the balls in Quantum of Solace. Payback sucks, Craig. Where’s my Bond?!? Skyfall on the surface appears to be another slick bond production and I am willing to see it in the theaters but if this fails to deliver to my expectations, I will start a campaign to get rid of Craig as Bond. I am all for different actors to bring something unique and new to the role but Craig has gone through the motion and not delivered the goods.
Starz remains mum on whether it will be a part of the show’s future
by MICHAEL HINMAN, posted Oct-31-2011 Source: Digital Spy
Kelsey Grammer was just two episodes in on his series “Boss” when Starz excitedly hit the start button for a second season. But when it comes with “Torchwood,” all that can be heard from the premium cable channel is silence.
And fans of the “Doctor Who” spinoff might not be able to expect more than that.
“I don’t know if there will be more,” Executive ProducerJulie Gardner recently told Digital Spy. “The things about there being more or not — you look at ‘Torchwood’ and it’s always had such a labyrinthine history.”
“Torchwood” premiered in 2006 on BBC Three, and earned a second season that moved it to BBC Two. For the third season, however, BBC opted to dispense with a full season, and instead do a five-episode miniseries that aired on consecutive nights on BBC One to critical acclaim in 2009.
The series then went dark for a couple of years while BBC looked for an American producing partner. The Fox network was first onboard, but then bailed on the project before Starz stepped in to produce 10 episodes.
I am not surprised to hear this news. I as well as many other fans of Torchwood where left wondering – WTF. After watching Series 3 – Children of Earth, which is amazing, how could Torchwood top itself? Apparently, Series 4 could barely scratch the surface of what made the series great in the first place let alone surpass the high bar they set themselves on Children of Earth. I believe the American-izing of this BBC show was the first mistake. I know that the story premise needed to have a global perspective but in doing so, it lost the very essence of what make Torchwood fun to watch. The old Torchwood crew of Jack and Gwen had the old chemistry but it was not enough to gel the newest members Rex and Esther into the fold. I miss the old gang: Suzie, Ianto, Owen and Toshiko.
As I recently rewatched Quantum of Solace, all I can say is that it’s watchable if you really pay attention. The first time around, I was playing with my computer late at night with this Bond flick playing in the background. All I remember: action, action, action, then nothing, nothing, nothing, then back to action, action, action; but none of it mattered. So, I gave it another go a couple of years later and watched it from beginning to end without the computer. All I can say, I really hate Daniel Craig’s Bond.
Okay, let me re-phrase my comment. Through out the years of watching the different Bond actors, I’ve paid attention to the various roles before they each took on the role of 007. For example, I’ve several The Saint episodes for Roger Moore. The several b&w episodes were really cool and could see why Roger was tapped. His character on the show was not all that different from his version of Bond. As for Timothy Dalton, I remembered him from the role of Prince Barin in Flash Gordon. And don’t forget Pierce in Remington Steele – though I never saw the show, he did look the part of Bond. As for Daniel Craig, I thought his performance in Layer Cake was outstanding. While the casting news about Daniel was more a joke in calling him James Blonde, I thought screw that. If anyone saw Layer Cake, the comments were just sour grapes. But then, we get Casino Royale.
After a promising opening sequence and rousing opening song and then the longest card in history. Snore-fest galore. What in the hell happened to the James Bond series that I grew up with? Yes, the series was formulaic but Bond over the years was reinvented and but Craig’s Bond was devoid of all emotion, charisma and “Bond-ness”. Yes, I know it was a “reboot” but this did not come across as Batman Begins, Young Indiana Jones or even Star Trek.
Moving on to Quantum of Solace which had several firsts: first duo for a Bond song and the first direct sequel which takes place minutes after the first one. Unfortunately, these firsts did not help this Bond outing to get any real traction. While I will admit to some incredible action shots but since I could not connect to this Bond in any way, shape or form. Now, with the news of the newest Bond film, I find myself not really caring this time around. Take a look at the article below for the latest news on Bond.
Posted on Tuesday, August 30th, 2011 by Russ Fischer
Here’s a bit of wild speculation about Bond 23 — or possibly not so wild, depending upon how much faith you place in various online translations and reports. Hint: in this case, be cautious. But let’s lay out the steps that have lead some to suspect that the twenty-third James Bond film may be based in part on the most recent Bond novel, and share with it the rather awkward title Carte Blanche. (Which is, I have to say, not anywhere near as awkward as Quantum of Solace. And, not being as awkward, it probably won’t inspire a very funny song by Attack the Block director Joe Cornish.) Read on for the steps that lead to the speculative conclusion…
Bleeding Cool kicks things off by being Google alerted to a story about Serbian cellist Jelena Mihailovic in Blic Online, which says that she was hand-picked to “write the opening score for the new James Bond film, entitled Carte Blanche.”
We start off in 2005, Joss Whedon was signed on to write and direct Wonder Woman. While this sat well with me since Joss knows who to write and direct strong female leads, the studio on the other hand had other ideas and kicked Joss off the protect. I did find some interesting illustrations of what the new Wonder Woman would have looked like.
In 2007, director George Miller was undertaking a JLA movie before the writer’s strike. Click here to check out this early blog I did in 2007 about some casting news and a pick I thought who would work well as the new Wonder Woman and there was talk about Jessica Biel. A few days later, the news I discovered was the Theresa Palmer was the new Wonder Woman in the JLA movie. Click here to read more. And then, there was a recasting with Theresa in so much that she would be playing another character in the DC universe but in the end the writer’s strike killed the plan.
Last year, we had news about Wonder Woman not on the big screen but on the original tv screen which the great Linda Carter heralded many years ago. Word today, the news is not good as even the David E. Kelly could not get this project off the ground either. So, this begs the question, would want to see this Amazon on the big or small screen? And, who would be worthy to fill the boots of Wonder Woman?
Proposed ‘Wonder Woman’ TV Series Meets More Rejection
Posted by The Movie God | January 9th, 2011 at 3:17 pm | Trackback
This past October we were informed that after many failed attempts to turn Wonder Woman into a popular movie franchise, DC Comics would be teaming up with Warner Brothers TV and top-tier showrunner, David E. Kelley, in hopes of developing a new TV series based on the popular comic book heroine.
Sadly, for fans of the superhero who have been itching to see her in some form of modern live-action entertainment, this day will not come any time soon.
After writing a spec script for the pilot episode, Kelley and friends set off to make their pitch to the various networks. Fox turned them down, as did ABC, who are owned by Disney, the company that purchased Marvel for $4 billion. You can see where that might be an issue.
This is one of the most classic horror movies that treats this film like a living comic book. thanks to Romero’s directing talents. There are interesting shots framed for moments of pending doom and lavish lighting schemes that enhance the fun of watching this movie. On the flipside, during a recent watching of The Warriors director’s cut, Walter Hill claimed his film was always as a comic book. Sadly, his updated treatment failed to convey a tenth of Creepshow does so well and almost ruined his own film. (More on this next month blog.)
Like with most Horror movies, there is one or two elements which the premise of the story works off from. With this anthology, we get three different elements: fear, disgust, and horror itself.
Prologue
A young boy named Billy (Joe King) gets yelled at and slapped by his father, Stan (Tom Atkins), for reading a horror comic titled Creepshow. His father tosses the comic in the garbage to teach Billy a lesson, but not before threatening to spank him should Billy ever get caught reading Creepshow comic books again. Later after he tosses the comic book away, Stan reminds his wife (Iva Jean Saraceni) that he had to be hard on Billy because he cannot believe all the “crap” that’s in the book. He closes out the discussion with the reason why God made fathers: to protect their ways of life and their children. As Billy sits upstairs hating his father, he hears a sound at the window, which turns out to be a ghostly apparition, beckoning him to come closer.
The element here would be fear. Billy does have an abuse father figure in his life. For me, the scene reminded me of my own uneasy relationship with my biological father. While he never hit me, I was in fear of him and seeing this scene just serve to remind me. And no, I did not see any apparitions outside my window.
“Father’s Day”
(First story, written by King specifically for the film)
Seven years ago, an elderly patriarch named Nathan Grantham (Jon Lormer) was killed on Father’s Day by his daughter Bedelia (Viveca Lindfors), gone mad from the murder of her husband which Nathan orchestrated. Bedelia bashed her father in the head with a marble ashtray as he screamed for his cake. Third Sunday of June, seven years later, his ungrateful, money-grubbing relatives, including Aunt Bedelia (now taken to drinking), get together for their annual dinner on Father’s Day. Nathan Grantham comes back as a revenant to get the cake he never got, and kills off his relatives one by one. The end scene shows an undead Nathan (John Amplas) carrying Aunt Sylvia’s frosting-covered head on a platter, rattling “It is Father’s Day, and I got my cake.”
The element here would be horror and fear. Having your own father come back to life from out of the grave is enough but killing your relatives because you want to have your cake is just too creepy. Little cameo of Ed Harris was cool to see again but I forgot how much white people can’t dance – Ooh the horror.
(Second story, originally titled “Weeds”, adapted from a previously published short story written by King)
A dimwitted backwoods hick (Stephen King) thinks a newly discovered meteorite will provide enough money from the local college to pay off his $200 bank loan. Instead, he finds himself being overcome by a rapidly spreading plant-like organism that comes off the meteorite and begins growing on him after he touches a glowing green substance within (resulting in the sketch’s famous quote: “Meteor shit!”).
Unfortunately, while the story was too schlocky with King’s own performance, there wasn’t much of any horror aspect. Still, there was a bright spot which is due to an uncredited cameo by John Colicos. Those who know there scifi history will remember this name as original Baltar in Battlestar Galactica. And to boot, he was Kor, the Klingon that appeared in the Original Star Trek series and later replayed the same character in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
“Something to Tide You Over”
(Third story, written by King expressly for the film)
Richard Vickers (Leslie Nielsen), a coldblooded, wealthy husband, stages a terrible fate for his unfaithful wife, Becky (Gaylen Ross) and her lover, Harry Wentworth (Ted Danson) by burying them up to their necks on the beach, below the high tide line. He sets up closed-circut TV cameras so the lovers can watch each other die. Richard is in for a surprise of his own when the people he murdered return as waterlogged, seaweed-covered zombies intent on getting revenge of their own.
This story has the most fear out of all the stories. My fear is being so deep underwater, then looking up and the seeing a massive creature looming above me. Hell, I couldn’t go on the Disney’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Seas ride without a panic attack. Granted this story had nothing to do with my fear except of being trapped underwater. Having re-watched this, I felt the anxiety of Harry (Ted) trying to conserve his air intake. The fear worked for me on this level.
(Fourth story, adapted from a previously published short story)
A mysterious, extremely lethal creature is unwittingly released from its crate in this suspenseful and gory monster story. Hal Holbrook stars as mild-mannered college professor Henry Northrup, who sees the creature as a way to rid himself of his drunk, uncouth, and emotionally abusive wife, Wilma (Adrienne Barbeau). (The monster in the crate was nicknamed “Fluffy” by the film’s director, George A. Romero)
The obvious element is horror. This is one of the best stories from this movie and a wonderful performance by Adrienne Barbeau-bot as “Just call me, Billy”. While the beast looks a bit hokey towards the end, the little bits we see throughout this piece plays into the horror of what is in the crate.
“They’re Creeping Up On You!”
(Fifth and final story, written by King expressly for the film)
Upson Pratt (E.G. Marshall) is a cruel, ruthless businessman whose mysophobia has him living in a hermetically sealed apartment, but finds himself helpless when his apartment becomes overrun by endless hordes of cockroaches.
The final element is pure disgust. Having lived in NY for ½ my life, I detest those cockroach bastard as much as Prat but thank god, I did not end up like him. What is more scary is how much these insects outnumbers us will how much longer they will last long after we’re all gone. You can’t fight nature because it will always find a way to win.
Epilogue
The following morning, two garbage collectors (Tom Savini and Marty Schiff) find the Creepshow comic in the trash. They look at the ads in the book for X-ray specs, a Charles Atlasbodybuilding course. They also see an advertisement for a voodoo doll, but lament that the order form has already been redeemed. Inside the house, Stan complains of neck pain, which escalates as Billy repeatedly jabs the voodoo doll while Stan screams in agony.
As for the theater, Loews American which is now known as The American, was my favorite places to go throughout my childhood in Parkchester. During the summers, they would run Disney movie marathon which was way before the advent of videotapes. What also made this theater special was size of it all. Back in my day, there was only one theater and one theater screen with a balcony to boot. So as time went on, I had watch the remake of King Kong in the 70′s, Popeye, The Howling, and sadly, Superman III.
There was this one time, not in band camp, but rather I received a call from a girl. Apparently, she knew who I was but I could not recognize the girl over the phone. She never gave me her name but was interested in seeing me. So, I picked this theater to meet and I remembered standing there under the marquee with freezing cold rain. She never showed up and she never called again. Ah, junior high memories.
So me being a dork, it was a friday night where I was on my way out to see Creepshow with my friends including Michelle. Just as I was turning off my tv, the trailer for Creepshow appeared. I was so excited that I called up Michelle what I just saw because she of all people would get me. To boot, on the other side of this shot, she lived very close to this theater.
Five Michigan State students venture into the hills and mountains of Tennessee to spend a weekend in an isolated cabin. There they findThe Book of the Dead (a fictional Aztec/Canaanite text, unrelated to the EgyptianBook of the Dead), otherwise known as the Nyturan Demonta. While searching the basement of the cabin, the students find and play a tape recording of demonic incantations from the book, unwittingly resurrecting “Kandarian” Demons. The characters are then possessed one by one, beginning with Cheryl Williams (Ellen Sandweiss), after she is hypnotized by the song of a Demon and lured into the forest at night. Alone and far from the safety of the cabin, theDemon proceeds to possess the trees of the forest, which come to life in a snake-like fashion and brutally rape her. Cheryl escapes the trees and is chased by the Demon all the way back to the cabin, where no one believes her story and assumes that she was attacked by a wild animal. Her brother, Ash Williams (Bruce Campbell), decides to drive her into town where she can stay the night. They discover that the only bridge is completely destroyed and the supports are bent into the shape of a claw-like hand.
Soon thereafter, Cheryl, having been infested by a Demon during the rape, dies and becomes a deadite (a corpse that is used as a vessel for the Demon that has possessed it) and stabs Linda (Betsy Baker) in the ankle with a pencil. Scotty beats her with the blunt end of his axe and kicks her in the cellar; he then locks her in the fruit cellar, but afterward Shelly (Theresa Tilly) enters her room and is killed and possessed by a Demon that crashes through the window; now a deadite, she becomes psychotically vicious and attacks Scotty (Hal Delrich), who dismembers her with an axe. Scotty then leaves to find a trail out of the woods.
Ash goes to check on Linda, but finds that she too has become possessed by a Spirit. Scotty returns, but has suffered massive injuries inflicted upon him by the possessed trees. Before losing consciousness he tells Ash there is a trail in the woods. Linda revives momentarily from the possession & Ash drags her outside and locks her out of the cabin. He goes back to check on Scotty, but finds that he died from his injuries. Linda later returns as a deadite and tries to stab Ash, but Ash stabs her through the chest with a dagger. Ash drags her outside to dismember her with a chainsaw, but finds that he cannot bring himself to do it, and simply buries her instead. She rises from the grave and, after a violent struggle, Ash beheads her with a shovel. He returns to find the cellar door open. He enters the cellar, to find shotgunammunition and returns to the upstairs. He hears a noise from Shelly and Scott’s bedroom. With the shotgun, he goes in to investigate and suspects Cheryl may be in the closet. Cheryl jumps at the window a demon had earlier broken through and tries to take the shotgun from Ash, grabbing at it wildly. Ash shoots her in the chest, but it does not seem to have any effect. Ash then proceeds to barricade both the front and back doors. He runs back into the cellar to find a box of shotgun shells and experiences a strange series of events including the cellar filling with blood and hearing voices. Cheryl tries to attack Ash through the door, but he shoots her and then barricades the door.
Meanwhile, Scotty’s dead body suddenly revives to reveal that he has been possessed by a Spirit, only to have his eyes gouged out by Ash after a brief struggle. Ash notices thatNyturan Demonta has fallen near the fireplace and is starting to burn. Ash sees that Scotty’s body is starting to burn as well, giving an allusion that disposal of the book into the fire will also destroy the Demons. Before he can reach it, however, Cheryl successfully breaks in through the front door and easily knocks him down. Scotty then pins Ash to the floor while Cheryl grabs a fireplace poker and repeatedly hits Ash in the back with it. Ash manages to grab the book after several attempts, using the necklace he had given to Linda earlier in the film, and throws it directly into the blazing flames just as Cheryl raises the fireplace poker to impale him. The Demons leave the bodies of Cheryl and Scotty, and their corpses become inanimate and fall apart over the course of several minutes just as dawn breaks, leaving Ash as the only survivor. He heads outside and stands in front of the cabin for a moment, thinking he has survived the ordeal. An Unseen Evil speeds through the forest, breaks its way through the cabin doors, and descends upon Ash, who screams in terror as the film ends.
This is truly a classic low-budget film that relied on performances from the actors in makeup and creative camera work. Sam Raimi, who we love his directorship for the first two Spiderman movies, (there is no third Spiderman movie, right?) shows how masterful he truly is in creating a unique story with wonderful gore and blood feast for the eyes. This is not one of those typical teens stuck in the cabins out in the woods that most horror movies rely on. The Evil Dead takes it one step further to create scenes like the demon rape in the woods and one of the best dismemberment with an axe and with a shovel and hell, there is even decent claymation where the demons were being destroyed.
Other horror movies are rarely as creative and innovative as The Evil Dead. However, many years later in 1992, there is Dead Alive (a.k.a. Brain Dead) by pre-Lord of the Rings Peter Jackson. Talk about have some great fun watching gore on the screen. Both films showcase each director’s talents with over the top action. Going back to The Evil Dead, we get two more sequels which were played more for laughs, which is still great, but this movie was able to spawn off a musical treatment. Take a look at the video below.
Next, the great thing about The Evil Dead is that we get Ash, played by Bruce Campbell, who is not the strong male lead we have come to love in the next two sequels. Normally, the horror genre rarely has a male protagonist which is interesting to note. We have seen countless times where the antagonist would be male like Michael Meyers (Tony Moran) in Halloween going after Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) the protagonist or Freddie Krueger (Robert Englund) going after Nancy Thompson (Heather Lagenkamp) in A Nightmare on Elm Street. Having Bruce in the reverse position really breaks from the stereotypical female role which stands this film apart from all other horror movies. ( I can’t think of another movie with a male protagonist, can you?)
And to put this all in context, here is another theater that I would visit in the Bronx was called The Palace. Talk about a rundown theater in the Bronx – sounds like a double negative but actually, I had some great times there. Never mind that the movie was rated R and I was underage. Just as long as I had money and didn’t cause much of a ruckus there was never any problems. At this theater, I watched the original Halloween in 1978 (more on this later), Cat People (more on this as well) and Caligula in 1982. Yes, I saw the unrated version of Caligula on a date with a girl (Josephine B.) who transferred with me from the same junior high school to the same high school. What sucked was that she had to take her younger brother with us. This was so wrong on many levels but hey, we got to kiss once but after the movie was over.
First impressions: We get to see Linus act under the direction of the “New Boss” to close down Dharma offices. This office in Guam could be one of many or the start of many scenes Linus will have to perform. What is interesting is how Linus offered to answer one question from each soon to be unemployed employees. One of the questions was about the Polar Bears on the island. While I am not going to discuss the details, I will say that I am still left with more questions about their presence on the island and yes, the bears are not your friend (It’s in the video clip). However, the bulk of this short video is taken up by a Dharma orientation dvd which was great but not exactly what I had in mind about the Hugo/Linus new partnership.
Next, we see Linus visiting Walt in the Santa Rosa Mental Health Institute. He is trying to convince him that he has work to do and to help his father. Those who followed the series will remember that Walt’s dad Michael could not leave the Island for his past sins. Although he is dead, Linus insists that Walt can still help him. At the end of this scene, we finally get to see Hugo who is offering him a job – which is THE JOB. This left me more anxious to learn what happens next but the show is over; no mas.
So, do we care what happens after the long and complex series of Lost? If so, do you think another tv series – spinoff – would work? Or should the series be done differently such as a comic which would make sense since Walt was into comics at the beginning of the series. I for one would love to see the later come to play as this could a very unique product that is not all about superheroes.
What does Mad Men have to do with this blog or have anything in common with scifi? Well, there are several connection to Mad Men but for me, sometimes its more than just the connection. Sometimes you have to give yourself a break comics, movies, and crappy scifi movies. Not that I love watching my genre to death but there are times where you have to expand your horizons. I am always of the mind to expand an actor’s work. For example, Jeff Bridges is in the upcoming Tron Legacy and if I were to not check out his previous acting outings, I would be missing out on some great talent. Luckily, aside from the 1976 Kong remake, there was Starman (I know, scifi but…), Tucker, The Fisher King, and Fearless. There are others but I am going to explore his career later this year before I see Tron. What I am getting at, take a look beyond scifi and be captivated.
Since Mad Men is going on its fourth season, I am still in search of the Carousel moment. If you have been a faithful watcher of this series then you will know what I am talking about. If not, this YouTube clip above will give you a taste of a brilliant and unsurpassed moment in television history (To me, it is a classic moment in tv history.) When Don Draper (Jon Hamm) pitches the ad about Kodak’s Carousel Slide Projector he does it in a way that is touching and heartbreaking at the same time. I don’t want to explain the whole series, the whole mise en scene is spot on perfect from the casting to the lighting. I can not get enough of this show simply because it is so well done.
Alright moving now to the scifi connection, sort of, Jon Hamm will be in the upcoming Zack (300, Watchmen) Synder’s Sucker Punch (which I’m sure there will be more news coming from Comic Con.) Here is a brief description:
Zack Snyder is in production on “Sucker Punch” for Warner Bros. through Cruel and Unusual Films. He will direct and he co–wrote the screenplay along with Steve Shibuya, adapted from Snyder’s original story. Deborah Snyder will produce, with Wes Coller executive producing for Cruel and Unusual Films. “Sucker Punch” is an epic action fantasy that takes us into the vivid imagination of a young girl, whose dream world provides the ultimate escape from her darker reality. Unrestrained by the boundaries of time and place, she is free to go where her mind takes her but her incredible adventures blur the lines between what’s real and what is imaginary…with potentially tragic consequences. Born from the creative mind of filmmaker Zack Snyder, the film features ensemble cast including Emily Browning, Abbie Cornish, Jena Malone, Vanessa Hudgens, Jamie Chung, Carla Gugino, Oscar Issac with Scott Glenn and Jon Hamm.
Zack Snyder is returning to the Imax format as Warner Bros. Pictures has slotted “Sucker Punch 3D” into a March 25, 2011 release on the super-sized screen. The booking, alongside the conventional release for “Sucker Punch 3D,” is part of a recent 20-picture distribution deal between Warner Bros. and Toronto-based Imax through 2013.
This next connection is a stretch but you will have to bear with my insanity. In season three, Don encounters Mr. Conrad Hilton, (you know, the hotels and the slut Paris). Don comes up with an almost “Carousel” pitch which I thought was very clever but this next YouTube clip show what Don missed.
Don did not give Mr. Hilton the Moon and lost the account. Had he the hindsight, he should have said these two words: “Product Placement.” Huh? Exactly, product placement. In episode above, the time frame was September 1963. Now, if you look below, from the classic Stanley Kubrick 2001: A Space Odyssey, we see a Hilton in space very near the Moon; which came out, (drum roll please) in April 1968. Granted, some 5 years later it’s not exactly the perfect fit but the whole idea of product placement in a futuristic movie would have been the perfect way to capture the imagination of their target audience and thereby saving the account for Sterling Cooper.
So, too much? WTF? I really don’t care if you get what I’m saying but do yourself a favor, watch this series from the beginning; you will thank me later. In closing, you know a series has made it when you see a parody of the series on another show. Take a look at the Simpson’s Mad Men opening. Very cool.
I know that the news doesn’t appear to be a definite but come on. I don’t want to know that come 2012, the year everything gets destroyed, that we may have another new Doctor. Granted, I can see this as a ploy to increase angst and fan worship to get him a better contract. However, if he claims that Hollywood is calling him, two words, Jeffrey Hunter.
Those who are familiar with the Star Trek lore will recognize the name of Hunter as Captain Christopher Pike in the first Trek pilot. When the studio passed on this pilot but ordered a second, Jeffrey opted out to concentrate on his movie career. We then get William Shatner as Captain Kirk and the rest is scifi history. With Jeffrey, studio contracts were become a thing of the past and Jeffrey had a less than stellar career from then on. I’m not saying this can happen to Matt but we know that there is a finite time limit to play the role of the Doctor. Having said this, this is only a couple of times we can use the “Regeneration” for another Doctor. I think this would be a big blow to the franchise where they could have continued the series for another 10 to 20 years for a new generation of fans.
The UK press is reporting that Doctor No. 11, Matt Smith is looking to leave the role after his sophomore year on the program. Metro.co.uk reports: …a friend of his told The Sun of his big American dream which is likely to shock BBC bosses: ‘Matt plans to quit after the next series.’ ‘He is eager to try new things and thinks Hollywood be … Read More
Okay, it’s been a while since I did a separated @ birth posting but with the 4th of July coming up I thought this would kinda make sense. So, what does the pre-White House and pre-Death Star have in common… well nothing. Nothing except for this fact while watching HBO’s John Adams with Paul Giamatti. During this mini-series, Adams was elected as the 3rd President of the United States. The White House was being constructed and when we see this image, I felt like I was watching the construction of the Death Star in Star Wars Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith.
You may say that this is a stretch but I strongly encourage you to watch John Adams if you haven’t done so. While this is a non-scifi programming, we do get Paul who is an incredible and one of my favorite actors. If you know Paul’s career like I do, we can see him in Tim Burton’s Planet of the Apes which Paul was a treat to watch. He voice the character of Tim the Gate Guard in the funny Robots film with Ewan MacGregor. (You see the connection? Thank me and Six Degrees of Separation.) And finally, he was Inspector Uhl in The Illusionist with Ed Norton (The Incredible Hulk). (Soundtrack fans check out Phillip Glass’s score – top-notch.)
Going back to the John Adams series and the 4th of July there is a special connection which I had no idea. At the end of Adams life, he died on the 4th of July 50 years after America gained its independence. An even more wow moment is that Thomas Jefferson, a friend of Adams, also died on the same day. With all this great bit of info, you need to go watch John Adams over the 4th of July weekend. Again not scifi but still great entertainment. Below, I’ve included a YouTube clip showing the visual effects from the series. I was floored watching the video and so will you.
Like with most Horror movies, there is one or two elements which the premise of the story works off from. With this anthology, we get three different elements: fear, disgust, and horror itself.
As for the theater, Loews American which is now known as The American, was my favorite places to go throughout my childhood in Parkchester. During the summers, they would run Disney movie marathon which was way before the advent of videotapes. What also made this theater special was size of it all. Back in my day, there was only one theater and one theater screen with a balcony to boot. So as time went on, I had watch the remake of King Kong in the 70′s, Popeye, The Howling, and sadly, Superman III.
