Category Archives: Movies & TV

Jesus.

Every so often, I see a flicker of light through the black clouds of the mass human soul…

Lisa de Moraes in her column in The Washington Post on Peter Jackson:

And, you have to admit, even 43 million viewers would be an incredible accomplishment for a four-hour broadcast that was monopolized by a fat, rumpled, dreary little man — given that most people watch the Academy Awards to spend quality time gazing on beautiful, slender, glamorous and, at least superficially, interesting movie stars.

Then again.

SERENITY SOARS

WOO HOO! IT’S OFFICIAL!

Universal Gives Serenity the Green Light
Source: Variety
Wednesday, March 3, 2004

Universal Pictures has greenlit Serenity, the feature film based on Joss Whedon’s Fox TV series Firefly, which was canceled in late 2002 after just 11 episodes.

Deals are in place for Whedon to direct and for the original cast of the TV show to reprise their roles. The film, budgeted in the mid-eight figures, is scheduled for a June start and should be ready for a 2005 release.

Whedon said the film will be released under the title Serenity to give it some distance from the TV version. He said he went out of his way while writing the project to make sure that it is accessible to audiences who never tuned into the series. The movie is set about six months after the TV show left off, and centers on two passengers on board the ship who attract trouble to the crew.

The studio has closed a deal with Nathan Fillion to return as Capt. Malcolm Reynolds. Other original cast members Gina Torres, Morena Baccarin, Jewel Staite, Adam Baldwin, Sean Maher and Summer Glau are also in place.

“Ballad of Serenity
Composed by Joss Whedon
Performed by Sonny Rhodes
(Click image above to hear song)

Take my love, take my land
Take me where I cannot stand
I don’t care, I’m still free
You can’t take the sky from me

Take me out to the black
Tell them I ain’t coming back
Burn the land and boil the sea
You can’t take the sky from me

There’s no place I can be
Since I found Serenity
But you can’t take the sky from me

How to kick George Lucas in the gnards.

Well, as we all know, George Lucas is a tool. As such, he’s insisted not only on tooling around with his flashy new crappy movies in the Star Wars series, he’s repeatedly re-tooled the original good ones (as well as Return of the Jedi).

He’s repeatedly said the hell with those of us who made the series successful in the first place, most of whom really would prefer him to keep his ham-fisted attempts at revision to himself, and has no respect for the folks like John Dykstra who created at-the-time cutting edge special effects to make his vision come to the life, but now are having their historical and wonderful work relegated to Lucas’s circular file for eternity.

I will never release the original versions, quoth George. Not even alongside my new “better” versions.

And now, apparently Frank “Shawshank Redemption” Darabont turned in a marvelous script for the fourth Indiana Jones flick, a script that Spielberg and Ford really like…and Lucas said nah. It’s not up to his standards, doesn’t hold a candle to Episode 1: The Fucking Mess, Espisode 2: Attack of the Crap, or even the classic Howard the Duck.

Well, fuck ‘im.

The original Star Wars trilogy is due on DVD this year. The bastardized CGI versions, not the actual beloved originals. Han doesn’t shoot first. And Lucas will make a billion dollars off them anyway because the fans will buy them even if they want the real ones.

Don’t. Do. It.

If you buy this set, you give Lucas no incentive to provide the originals. You do your part in screwing over Dykstra and his team as their effects are replaced with digital effects that don’t even look as good as the original effects did. And you do your part in giving old George a far more comfy retirement than he really deserves.

Know what you should do? Download the originals on BitTorrent or Kazaa or Limewire or one of those bootlegging services. They’re out there, and they’re rips of actual laser-disk versions, so they’re even digital and widescreen. And they’re bits of history Lucas promises never to let us get our hands on, so you’re not even taking money from his pocket since he doesn’t intend to sell them. Download them, burn ’em onto disk, watch ’em. Share them with your kids, so they can see what George Lucas once had in him (or what his collaborators like Lawrence Kasdan and Irwin Kirshner had in them). And don’t buy the DVDs.

Who knows, if enough fans take this route, maybe the old bastard will ultimately cave in to market forces and give us the originals.

Download the real things.

Don’t buy the damaged versions.

Enjoy Star Wars and kick Lucas in the fiduciary gnards.

It’ll be all good.

Who’d Win?

This week’s (grand) episode of Angel (goddamn WB) brought us, in an aside, an argument about who would win in a fight, an astronaut or caveman.

Didn’t we see this resolved (albeit messily) in the last presidential election?

Astronaut beats caveman, barely. Then caveman asks tribal elders who won and they, being cavemen as well, say caveman won.

To celebrate, caveman run around world conking heads.

Astonishing

Look at the comment someone posted under the entry below regarding Firefly.

It’s a grass-roots ad for Mel Gibson’s Jesus flick, and against those who are protesting it for its alleged anti-semitism.

It’s bald-faced and has the sort of subtlety we love in our Christian fanatics.

Normally, I’d delete it, since it’s got absolutely nothing to do with anything I’ve discussed on the blog (though I’ve been mulling a comment about Gibson and his flick), but I find it an amusing enough piece of spam I’m going to leave it. The fact that I’m already somehow getting spam on here is actually a positive sign that somebody is reading.

And, Kyle…as far as Gibson’s Jesus movie is concerned, I can only go on what I’ve heard from all the parties so loudly shouting about it, and I have this to say:

It sounds like a brilliant piece of work.

It sounds like as dedicated a bit of proselytizing as a Lani Riefenstahl flick.

It sounds like an unrelenting bath in extreme violence, and I’m fine with that, since it’s in context, but I don’t particularly want to sit through it.

It sounds likely that it really is anti-semitic, considering the brand of Catholicism practiced by the Gibson clan.

I’ve always really like Mel Gibson and had a lot of respect for him, but he seems to be going off the deep end. His saying he wanted that reporter’s intestines on a stick and wants to kill the man’s dog didn’t give me confidence he was approaching this topic in a rational manner.

Bush’s America will make this movie HUGE.

And, Kyle, kiss my ass. My blog’s not here for your purposes, it’s here for mine.

You can’t take the sky from Joss.

Things are crappy on the Angel front, but Joss Whedon’s brilliant Firefly is still flying, in spite of having been canceled by Fox before it even completed its first season. First, a really fine set of DVDs collecting all fifteen existing episodes and cool extras came out (mandatory viewing if you have a brain), and then reports were that Universal had wisely bought the rights and hired Joss to write and direct a Firefly feature film for theatrical release.

Recent developments on that front are very promising.

First, Joss has reportedly finished a script. One more finished piece of writing by Joss Whedon in the world is always a good thing.

Then, back on the 17th, a poster on one of the sites tracking Firefly matters had this to say:

This weekend through professional contacts at a trade show, I was able to spend an hour or so with someone who does licensing for Universal.

I brought up the movie project rather slyly, and this is what she said:

1. Definitely in the works.

2. First film meeting was last week.

3. Working title is “Serenity.” (“That’s the name of the ship,” she said.) :-)

4. They are “very excited to be working with Joss Whedon.”

The latest is that not only is Serenity now actually listed on the “Coming Soon” list at Universal’s web site (along with Peter Jackson’s King Kong), Universal has registered the web domain name “serenitymovie.com.”

So, The WB and Fox may be full of fuckwits, but there are still at least a few folks out in L.A. with some class and brains.

Ummm…Isn’t This Supposed To Mean You’re Doing Something Wrong?

Lightning strikes Jesus on Gibson’s Christ film set

The actor who plays Jesus in Mel Gibson’s film The Passion of Christ has escaped injury after being struck by lightning during filming.

The incident, in which The Rock and The Count of Monte Cristo star Jim Caviezel did not sustain an injury, is the second bolt to hit the set of the movie in Italy.

The film has drawn complaints from religious leaders. Jewish leaders say it suggests Jews were responsible for Christ’s death. Conservative Catholics who have seen the film have called it a powerful rendering of the hours leading up to Christ’s Crucifixion.

The crew was on a remote location a few hours from Rome when the storm occurred.

“I’m about a hundred feet away from them,” producer Steve McEveety said, “when I glance over and see lightning coming out of Caviezel’s ears.”

Both Caviezel and his assistant director Michelini were struck. The main bolt hit Caviezel and one of its forks hit Michelini’s umbrella.

Neither of the men sustained injuries in the incident.

Michelini has been nicknamed Lightning Boy after being struck twice by lightning during the filming in Italy. He had already suffered light burns on the tips of his fingers in an earlier incident during filming on a hilltop in the town of Matera.

© Associated Press

The O.C., Navi Rawat, and Bone-Saws

I’ve recommended The OC to some of you, and after last night’s episode, well, I’m forced to admit, I need to recommend it again. The series is a sheer delight, a rich folks/po’ folks California soap opera, a genre I roundly despise, and yet, I love this show. It is smart and funny and almost constantly enjoyable. I rarely finish watching an episode without a grin, even if the episode has been a traumatizing one for its characters. There is a lightness of spirit and depth of wit in this show I don’t really think any other show approaches. The only thing in memory that immediately springs to mind is Northern Exposure, though this isn’t magical realist like that was.

Last night, Ryan, the tortured young tough, ran into his old flame, Theresa, from back in the ‘hood. She’s been on once before, and she’s lovely, smart, and witty, as she should be. What I didn’t realize as I watched it was, she’s played by Navi Rawat, who gave a blistering performance as Dana in the Angel episode “Damage” a few weeks back. Dana being the possibly demon-possessed, super-strong chick with a bone-saw making her way through the L.A. night to a momentous encounter with Spike & Angel. Ever since, I’ve been saying Joss Whedon should spin Dana off into her own show; the lass was that damn good.

navi1

An actress to watch.

HELLBOY IS HELLA GOOD

Forgive me for saying “hella.” Sometimes I get meme-flu. I’m better now.

Inspired by the upcoming Hellboy movie, I took steps to fix my lack of knowledge about the title character. I knew he was a creation of comic artist (and writer) Mike Mignola, whose shadowy, Kirby-esque work I’ve really liked over the years. Nobody else draws like Mignola.

I’d never really looked at Hellboy, though, because it looked like it was perhaps some weirdness-for-the-sake-of kind of thing. That and I rarely ever read comics anymore for sheer grumpy financial reasons (as in, a $4 comic that’ll take me 8 minutes to read is less entertainment for the moola than a $7 paperback that’ll take me a few days).

Little did I know that Hellboy wasn’t just a grand adventure strip, it’s pure pulp. And we’ve established I loves me some pulp.

Reading several Hellboy tales over the past week, I found them to be great fun, soaked in Lovecraftian atmosphere, told with great wit. What really surprised me, though, is that reading Hellboy is like reading folk tales or myth, because Mignola starts in those realms and builds his stories the way a good shaman would build a lesson tale.

And Hellboy himself is quite a character. He’s supposed to be a key figure (on the wrong side) in the Apocalypse, but, well, he refuses. So he fights the good fight against creatures much like himself. Oh, and his right hand is this great big slab of red rock, sometimes called “The Right Hand of Doom,” and it holds the power to end the world, and while he’s not inclined to use it that way, others are, and sometimes try to get it off him.

Great stuff.

Can’t wait for the movie.

EDIT: If you’d like to read some of this stuff for free, check out the e-comics at http://www.darkhorse.com/zones/hellboy/downloads.php . Also, the “Animation” bit is very cool.

SMILETIME

Okay, so last night’s Angel wasn’t exactly creepy, except maybe the opening, but it was definitely original. Not to mention just damn funny. H.P. Lovecraft meets Sesame Street…

And hey, hot werewolf!

What a great freaking episode.

I hate the WB. Dark Shadows my ass.

If I come up with any specific comments about the episode, I’ll post them in the “comments” section under this entry, so folks who haven’t seen it won’t have it spoiled for them.

Cream Rises

From a press release about Angel’s centennial episode WAY back on January 21:

ANGEL is currently The WB’s second highest-rated series with adults 18-34. The series was created by Academy and Emmy Award-nominated writer Joss Whedon, along with David Greenwalt. Whedon serves as executive producer, along with Sandy Gallin, Gail Berman, Fran Rubel Kuzui, Kaz Kuzui, Jeffrey Bell and David Fury. The series stars David Boreanaz, Alexis Denisof, J. August Richards, Amy Acker, James Marsters and Andy Hallett. “You’re Welcome” was written and directed by David Fury. ANGEL is a Mutant Enemy, Inc. and Kuzui/Sandollar production in association with Twentieth Century Fox Television. The series is currently in its fifth season.

Second highest rated among their most cherished demographic? A darling of the critics?

Shit, get that thing off the air immediately! We need something…something like…

A new version of Dark Shadows maybe…

I say again: fuckers.

Well, I’m always on the lookout for a chance to winnow my TV viewing, and the sole silver lining in the cancelation of Angel is it opens up an hour of my time every week. That being the case, and the WB’s ass-headedness so evident, I won’t be bothering with any new stuff they offer, unless it’s from Whedon.

But we will be left wanting…

TV Guide’s Matt Roush on Angel:

February 17, 2004
I go away for a week to escape the winter chill, and look what happens. WB cans Angel midway through its fifth season, leaving fans of cool, dark fantasy bereft. Some of us are still dealing with the demise of Buffy the Vampire Slayer last spring, and that one was long planned! This unfortunate dusting of Angel confirms rumors that had been circulating since before the 100th-episode celebration, but it still comes as something of a shock. If there’s an upside, it’s that Joss Whedon and his crew appear to have been able to muster up some sort of suitable season/series finale, so we won’t be left hanging.

But we will be left wanting.

Buffy, and to some extent its spin-off Angel, helped put WB on the map — much as The X-Files was key in establishing Fox’s network identity. I still remember my shock when I first put in the tape of the Buffy pilot, with expectations that couldn’t be lower — after all, I’d seen the movie. I wasn’t counting on much from the series or from the mini-network that up until then had little to recommend itself. (This was before Felicity, Dawson’s Creek and Gilmore Girls, mind you.) Sarah Michelle Gellar’s delightful performance as the spunky slayer, the warm wit and wisdom of Whedon’s worldview, and the dynamic presence of David Boreanaz’s soulful Angel (who would prove himself to be a leading man capable of carrying a series of his own), all were revelations to me.

Over the years, I have come to expect a certain level of quality from WB, and I have also become accustomed to the network not making that many regrettable programming decisions. Losing Buffy to UPN was one, letting Angel go before its creative team was ready is another. I will miss this world terribly. I think WB will come to miss it as well.

It’s yet another body blow in a discouraging season for fans of offbeat TV. How many more reluctant goodbyes will we be forced to make to our favorite series before this year is over?

NO WITNESS

Steve Antczak is an old friend of mine, and a fellow member of the struggling writer club. Together we wrote an adventure screenplay called “Blood of Eden,” which came under consideration to become the next Die Hard flick a couple years back, and actually got us a bit of buzz in the trades. For what that was worth.

While I was working on getting Greensleeves filmed, Steve was also getting into independent film, and where my project went south when a principal actress moved to Texas on us without filming some key scenes (and leaving us with 85% of a good movie), Steve wrote a short film that got made and brought in its wake funding to expand the short into a feature. The movie is No Witness, it’s been shot, and will be in limited release here in Atlanta in April, to be followed by a DVD release.

I haven’t seen the flick yet, but I know the basic idea behind it, and it’s very cool. And hey, Corey Feldman!

You can get more info about it, and about the premiere, here.

GODDAMNIT.

A statement from The WB:
For the last seven years Angel and Buffy the Vampire Slayer have been cornerstones of our network. The sum total of the work done on those shows has produced some of the proudest moments in our history. Like some of the great series that are leaving the air this year, including Frasier and Friends, the cast, crew, writers and producers of Angel deserve to be able to wrap up the series in a way befitting a classic television series and that is why we went to Joss to let him know that this would be the last year of the series on The WB. We have discussed continuing the Angel legacy with special movie events next year, which is still on the table. In a perfect world, all of these details would be completed before this information went to the press so that we could be definitive about the show’s ongoing future. But in any case, we did not want to contemplate this being the last year of Angel without giving the show the option of crafting their own destiny for this character and for this series. David Boreanaz continues to be one of the finest, classiest and friendliest actors we have had the pleasure to work with and we hope that the relationship furthers from here. The same can be said for all the actors and producers on the show.

Fuckers.

ANGEL ALIVE & WELL

Last season, Angel nearly lost the “un” part of his “undead,” at least regarding the life of the series bearing his name. An enormous fan campaign saved it from cancellation, and this season has shaped up to be a very strong, innovative one (not that the previous seasons blew, because they were mostly very good, but there have been consistency problems). Apparently people are noticing. A fan on the boards at Ain’t It Cool posted:

My local affiliate announced (on their news segment after last week’s episode) that Angel is the WB’s second highest rated program. Isn’t that something? To go from the verge of cancellation at the end of last season to the WB’s second most popular show. Seriously, it needs to be renewed.

This reinforces other references I’ve seen to the show doing well this season, so hopefully we’ll get to watch Angel brood and stomp evil a few more years.

Now, if only Joss’ll get someone to let him spin Dana from a few episodes back into her own show…

SERENITY to fly again

From aintitcool.com:

Buzz inside certain Los Angeles law firms suggests that talent contracts are being hammered out, and they’re timed around a May start for an upcoming Universal feature about a starship captain, a space hooker, a mysterious preacher and a pair of fugitives named Tam. The bad news: under the scenario discussed, “Firefly: The Movie” wouldn’t hit multiplexes until late 2005.

All goooood.