Some notes on several fronts, today.
Starting with the movie. We’ve officially cast Burt Williams as Lt. Knapp. Burt is a local musician, he’s done some acting and had his own sports talk radio show down south. We’re delighted to have him aboard. We also have a name for our production company now, Rooftop Productions. If you’re in the northern Michigan area and interested in helping out, get in touch with me.
Speaking of film, I finally got a chance to see No Country For Old Men. Absolutely breathtaking. Amazing performances, wonderful cinematography and a slow, intense story that will make your insides crawl about. Should be a serious contender at the Oscars and may be my favorite film of the year.
And last, politics. I watched the election coverage carefully, yesterday. More than that, I watched the candidates. Only one stood out to me and that was Barack Obama. So I’m stepping off the sidelines and finally choosing sides. I’m with Obama.
Okay, many of you already know this, but to make it official, we’re shooting a movie this summer.
The working title is “You Can Only Do It In Black And White”. It’s a comedic murder mystery set in Frankfort, MI.
We’ll be shooting on a very low budget, guerrilla style. We should have a web site up soon and we’ll start begging for money then.
I’ll be writing and producing,
Brian Bentley will be directing,
Micah Carnes will be starring as Noah Wexford,
my wife, Tia Twigg will be doing most of the design work along with coaching and training the actors.
Cassie Frank is our Production Assistant, in charge of keeping us all organized and on schedule.
We are in the early stages of casting the rest of the flick.
More on the project as it develops….
J.J. Abrams loves the cryptic stuff (anyone who’s watched Lost knows this). So, it was only a matter of time before he took full advantage of the viral marketing craze. It seems that J.J. has a new movie coming (no, not Star Trek. Before that one.)
No one knows the actual title yet, but it’s being talked about under the code name Cloverfield. The plot is anyone’s guess, but from the trailer which previewed in front of the Transformers movie it appears to be about a giant monster attacking New York. Shot Blair Witch style.
Two web sites have been linked to Cloverfield.
Ethan Hass Was Right
Ethan Haas Was Wrong
The first is a series of flash puzzles that lead you to clues about the movie.
The second is a strange little blog that seems to be some form of propaganda for Haas’ enemies, whoever Haas is.
Various discussions around the net are centering on the possibility that the giant monster is C’thulu. I’m not convinced yet, but I guess we’ll see……
According to a rumour reported over on the Sci-Fi news wire, it looks like Neil Gaimen will be making his feature film directorial debut on an adaption of his story “Death: the High Cost of Living”. I’m normally a bit wary of such reports, but it seems that Neil is confirming it himself, over at his blog.
Good luck, Neil. Expectations are going to be really high on this one…..
So, I saw Grindhouse last night. Liked it a lot, wonderful, weird little movie. Still not sure why they actually expected to make money on it, but that’s a topic for another time. The topic for today is lying.
See, I spent some time reading various reviews online and one thing stuck out, and it’s related to something that’s been bothering me for years. The problem centers around Kurt Russell’s character, Stuntman Mike. In the first part of the Stuntman Mike storyline, Mike is drinking water. He tells another character that he’s a teatottler. Later in the film, we see him drinking whiskey.
Several reviews have listed this as a mistake on Tarantino’s part.
Several reviews have, apparently, been written by morons.
Look, this is a simple concept. When the information you’re receiving in a film is coming from a specific character’s dialogue, you have to consider the possibility that the character is lying. In this case the character has an obvious reason for lying and taking him at his word is just, well, stupid.
Too often people assume that the information that comes from a character’s lips is gospel and too often they call it a mistake when later story elements contradict what the character said.
If you run into one of these people, do me a favor. Smack them upside the head and tell them to stop it.
