Guy Ritchie bouncing back? Maybe...

Could it be? Could the Great Britian gospel of gangster still have some gasps of life and garner some gold under the direction of godfather Guy?

It's been 10 years since Ritchie and producer Matthew Vaughn brought a new face to the British Crime dramedy genre with LOCK STOCK AND TWO SMOKING BARRELS, the low budget film that launched the once-promising careers of Jason Statham and Vinnie Jones, and Guy Ritchie as a young and innovative director. When Ritchie and Vaughn followed two years later with SNATCH, making their first big splash in the US market, the sky seemed to be the limit.

Enter Madonna and SWEPT AWAY. It seems that Guy's creativity and career was to go way of the title. He and Matthew Vaughn parted ways (a good move on Vaughn's party, who went on to produce and direct LAYER CAKE). Ritchie took another shot at the British Crime caper with REVOLVER, but missed horribly. Most of you probably have never even heard of REVOLVER as it had an extremely limited release Stateside after garnering low box-office numbers and atrocious reviews during it's domestic UK release (I had been living in London during it's release in 2005, and I must say that Jason Statham with long hair is just not a good look).



It seemed that Ritchie was through. Without Vaughn at his side as producer, his return to familiar territory had failed with REVOLVER. But now, three years later, Ritchie is back with ROCKNROLLA, another highly stylized, heavily postured Limey gangster flick, but from the reaction at festival screenings, this one might actually not be a stinker.

If ROCKNROLLA succeeds at coming at all close to the popularity of SNATCH, Ritchie will certainly be back on top of his game. The industry seems to have some faith in the return of Ritchie, as he's been picked up to direct the 2010 release of SHERLOCK HOLMES, a script which he also penned. No, this is not the 'other' 2010 Sherlock project staring Sacha Baron-Cohen as Holmes and Will Ferrel as Watson. Ritchie's SHERLOCK will be an action-thriller flick staring Robert Downey Jr. as Holmes and Jude Law as a less-than-bumbling Dr. Watson.

So, is Ritchie's career back on track? Possibly. But I'm holding my breath until this weekend when ROCKNROLLA hits US theaters.

CAPRICA, spin-off movie or prequel series?

The BATTLESTAR GALACTICA franchise continues to flourish since Ronald D. Moore and David Eick's 'reimagining' of the series in 2004. What initially began as a four part mini-series has now grown into one of the most critically acclaimed sci fi dramas of our generation (and without a doubt the best thing to ever grace the Sci Fi Channel's lineup).

A prequel movie event, entitled CAPRICA, has been in the works for some time now and is slated for release in December. It centers around the conflict between two families, the famed Adamas on one side, who are ideologically pitted against the Graystones. From what we can tell from rumors and the bits of leaked information, the Graystones' will become the creators of the first humanoid Cylons. Aesthetically, CAPRICA will be even more retro than BATTLESTAR before it, giving it a distinctly 50's look. The aesthetic allusion to our own 1950s has strong thematic implications, lending the 'loss of innocence' of our own invention of the atomic bomb to the Caprican's invention of Cylon technology (which eventually becomes their own doomsday device). The show seemingly also centers around Philip K. Dick-esq issues of identity and definitions of humanity, and also seems to have a sensibility that lends itself to 1997's GATTACA.

The teaser trailer for CAPRICA was released recently, check it out below:


The question is; will CAPRICA be solely a prequel BATTLESTAR movie, such as RAZOR? Or will it develop into a full fledged spin-off series?


Like RAZOR before it, which told the (slightly) prequel-ish story of the Battlestar Pegasus following the Cylon attacks on the 12 Colonies, both it and CAPRICA are stories of inevitable doom. In RAZOR, we already know that the chief officers of the Pegasus will be killed off (sooner rather than later) to make way for the Galactica crew and plot-line. Likewise, in CAPRICA, we know that eventually the Cylon uprising must occur and doomsday will arrive. However, with a story like CAPRICA, we have at least 50 years and a generation of characters for breathing room, more than enough space for a series.

Industry rumors would support this. CAPRICA began casting in May and went into production in June. By July, it was reported that they had already ordered two additional CAPRICA scripts from former BATTLESTAR writers and even one from a former BATTLESTAR writer's assistant (good for you, Ryan Mottesheard!) The general consensus is that things are looking good, and a full CAPRICA series will be green-lit shortly before the movie/pilot airs in December.

In other news, I need to get a job at NBC-Universal and try to ride this franchise into a career in quality sci fi dramas. ...Yeah, and after that I'll become JJ Ambrams protege and Executive Produce the future STAR TREK franchise with Bad Robot ...in a perfect world, maybe.

BLADE RUNNER sequel being penned by clueless industry hack

To Travis Wright; KINDLY GO FUCK THYSELF. Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) is pissed, just look at him.

So EAGLE EYE is #1 with a weekend gross that beat NIGHTS OF RODANTHE and LAKEVIEW TERRACE. Big fucking deal. That hardly qualifies as the credentials necessary to improve a timeless Sci Fi masterpiece (and if you don't plan on improving on it, than don't bother even fucking touching it).

Now here's me quoting I WATCH STUFF, quoting SLASH FILM:

It's apparently being done in association with Blade Runner co-executive producer Bud Yorkin but without prior studio approval. From [Slash]Film:

“I recently attended a Q&A session with one of the writers of ‘Eagle Eye’ after a free screening organized by the magazine Creative Screenwriting. During the Q&A, the writer said that he and whomever it was that helped him co-write the ‘Eagle Eye’ screenplay were in the process of writing a sequel to Blade Runner, and had already contacted the producers of the original, etc., etc.

Wright's co-writer John Glenn has already disavowed himself of the project, which is smart considering everyone will hate whoever does this. It feels like some stranger coming in and trying to re-marry your divorced parent, and then you find out that stranger is writing a screenplay for Blade Runner 2. "Sorry, Mom, but you're marrying an asshole."

I WATCH STUFF writer, I love you. Really, I do.

And I think that might have been my highest count of f-bombs in a post thus far. I really am that upset by this.

Update: Almodovar's Noir(ish) 'Broken Embraces'

According to Variety's coverage of the production, much the of the "shadowy look" of 'BROKEN EMBRACES' was "inspired by a series of migraines that rendered [Almodovar] ultra-sensitive to bright lights."

Thank you migraines.

Plastic Surgery Collides; Sparks Fly

Recently, Michael Jackson and Pamela Anderson have been out on a few "dates" and are apparently hitting it off.

WHAT THE FUCK???!!!

Read about it here from people who care a helluva lot more about this kind of bullshit than I do.

But while I'm at it, check out this computer generated pic of what Michael Jackson probably would have looked like at 50 if he hadn't completely fucking lost his mind and mutilated himself into some bizarre Audrey Hepburn/Liz Taylor freak-bot monster-thing that feeds on fetal stem-cells.

Almodovar to make Noir(ish) film. Blogger says "fuck yeah!"

Penelope Cruz, who earned an Oscar Nomination on her last outing with Almodovar ('VOLVER', 2006), is attached to the new project titled 'BROKEN EMBRACES' (or 'ABRAZOS ROTOS').

According to the Hollywood Reporter today, the film, which Almodovar also penned, will be "in the style of a hard-boiled, '50s American film noir." To which I say, HELL FUCKING YES!!

It'll be just like DOUBLE INDEMNITY (Billy Wilder, 1944), except Neff and Keyes will be openly gay and boning on screen, and Phyllis will probably turn out to be a tranny named Phil. And they're all addicted to heroin. AND, one of them is trying to get a Double Indemnity Clause out of an AIDS death. ...on a train, or something. EITHER WAY IT'S GAY! Oh, the drama.....



Seriously though, I'm stoked. The idea that Almodovar (a true master of melodrama, betrayal, twisted identity conflicts, and also a man with what I consider to be one of the greatest aesthetic touches of any living [and working] director,) is creating an American Noir influenced film gives me new-found reason to wish that I worked in film and not the soul-sucking television industry.

One week; two Bernies...

Not exactly a good week for comedy, or people named Bernie.

Bernie Mac, who was only 50, died this morning in a Chicago Hospital. Mac had been battling the lung disease sarcoidosis for several years, and had recently been admitted to the hospital after being diagnosed with a case of pneumonia. It is likely that sarcoidosis caused additional complications, and compounded with pneumonia, led to his untimely death.

Read more about it at Variety.

RIP: Bernie Brillstein (1931-2008)

Everything below was taken from 'Nikki Finke's Deadline Hollywood Daily'. I won't even try to touch the depth of the article she posted last night, but needless to say; Bernie was a legend in this town.

The 77-year-old Hollywood manager and movie/TV producer died tonight from complications when his kidneys failed after a long illness stemming from heart disease. Bernie Brillstein's longtime partner Brad Grey and his longtime client Lorne Michaels are making arrangements for a memorial service for next week. I'm told his funeral will be private. Like most everyone in Hollywood, I loved Bernie. Because he was that rarity in showbiz, an astute student of Hollywood history who also learned from it. And he understood the proper use of power in this town, as opposed to the abuse of power, in a way most did not.

Though his father was in the millinery business in New York, Brillstein majored in advertising and marketing in college. He scored two interviews at Madison Avenue agencies thanks to the influence of his uncle, Jack Pearl, an ex-Ziegfield Follies comedian who had become a radio star doing the voice of Baron Munchausen. But in the 1950s advertising was notoriously non-Jewish and the agencies gently hinted that to Brillstein. “They said, ‘Bernie, you’re terrific. But this is no place for you to be,’” Brillstein once said to me. “I loved them for being honest.” Instead, Brillstein landed a job in the mailroom at the William Morris office on Broadway.

After just three months, Brillstein was placed in the Morris publicity department, where his job consisted of writing bios for the agency’s biggest stars and canvassing the nightclub owners and TV bookers with flyers. When the department head retired, Brillstein, not yet out of his twenties, was put in charge. “Working in publicity in an agency is like being in charge of valet at a parapalegic camp,” Brillstein quipped to me. He was moved into commercials. So Brillstein began cold-calling the commercial bookers and pushing Morris clients for ad spots on radio and TV. With an easy laugh and honed sense of humor, Brillstein was a born “people person,” the kind strangers and colleagues alike felt they could trust the first time they met him. He easily established relationships within his new world, befriending one of his new clients, Edward R. Murrow. Brillstein personally pushed the journalist’s pioneering TV show, Person to Person. Thanks to smart decisions like that, Brillstein built his department, generally considered a loser, into a $2.5 million a year business. His success caught the eye of Morris’ powerful head of TV packaging, Wally Jordan, who brought Brillstein into the TV department to build on the connections with managers he’d forged in the commercials department. Bernie even managed to sign two clients away from then No. 1 agency MCA. The signings caught the attention of Marty Krummer, a former top agent with Wasserman at MCA who had opened a management firm with his biggest client, Jack Paar and offered Bernie a job. Brillstein liked the idea of advising and guiding a star’s career, so in 1963 Brillstein left Morris for Martin Krummer Associates. (When the two brought aboard manager Jerry Weintraub some years later, the firm’s name was changed to Management 3).

At Morris, a colleague asked Brillstein to meet with a little-known puppeteer, Jim Henson, whose acts included Kermit the Frog and Rowlf the Dog. Brillstein signed him immediately and then booked him on the Jimmy Dean Show. Two months after Brillstein left Morris, Jim Henson called and said, “I need you.” Over the next decade, Brillstein made a fortune representing not only Henson but also the producing team of John Aylesworth and Frank Peppiatt. The producers came up with an idea for a corn-pone version of Laugh-In for the country-western set called Hee Haw and, in 1969, Brillstein helped package the show to CBS. Though the network cancelled the show in 1971, Hee Haw was sold into syndication, where it ran for another 23 years, becoming the longest-running show in TV history, pulling in millions of dollars in licensing fees and making Brillstein a rich man.

In 1970, Brillstein left Management 3 and moved to Los Angeles, where he decided to go it alone. He built up a list of top comedy writers, including The Bob Newhart Show’s Tom Patchett and Jay Tarses and comedy writers Lorne Michaels and Alan Zweibel, and he packaged them all into new TV shows for the networks. By 1975, Brillstein was one of the hottest personal managers and TV packagers in the entertainment business. In that year alone, he sold both The Muppet Show, brainchild of puppeteer Jim Henson, and Saturday Night Live, created by Lorne Michaels. The story behind SNL is now legendary, but it bears repeating: when Michaels and Brillstein came to pitch the idea of SNL to NBC, the network executives simply stared at the men. “They said, ‘Who are these Jews from California?’ They absolutely hated us,” Brillstein remarked. When SNL's first show generated 200 complaints, NBC wanted to pull the plug. It was Brillstein who fought to keep it on the air. “You idiots,” Brillstein told them. “Don’t you realize you have a hit here?”

As SNL grew in the ratings, so did the popularity of its cast, and almost overnight the show produced break-out stars in Second City alumni John Belushi, Dan Ackroyd, Gilda Radner, who all relied solely on Brillstein’s managerial advice and support. The first time Brillstein met John Belushi was 15 minutes before the first taping of Saturday Night Live. Two days earlier, NBC’s legal department had sent Belushi an interim employment agreement. The actor was worried about a small clause that said NBC had the right to cancel his contract if the comedian were “disfigured.” Now, with the cameras ready to roll, the actor still hadn’t signed. An NBC executive was desperately pleading with him to sign the agreement when Belushi leaned over to Brillstein and asked, “Would you sign this contract?”

“I designed the fucking contract,” Brillstein replied. “And you can always break it.”

It was the beginning of a long and close friendship, almost like father and son. Brillstein was fiercely protective of the troubled comedian, defensive when people complained about his work habits, his unreliability and, more critically, his growing drug use. Brillstein understood obsessive behavior. During the 1970s, Brillstein had beat a gambling problem. He also liked to eat, and his weight problems had forced him into perennial attire of baggy sweaters. (Client Richard Dreyfuss called him “Shelley Winters with a beard.”)

By 1980, Belushi and Ackroyd had left SNL to become the hottest comedic actors in Hollywood. Brillstein loved making deals for them over breakfast at the Polo Lounge of the Beverly Hills Hotel. But Brillstein had made most of his money in TV. He had only dabbled in feature films and, frankly, been skewered almost every time out. He had secured a $35,000 contract for Belushi to appear in 1978’s National Lampoon’s Animal House, an enormous sum given the fact that Belushi had no film experience. Ackroyd, too, could have had a part but declined in order to keep on writing for Saturday Night Live. But like most performers, Belushi was impatient for success. He felt the fast track lay in Hollywood films. He had been in three minutes of the 1977 Jack Nicholson vehicle Goin’ South. Now Belushi and Ackroyd felt there was a future in their April 1978 SNL characters of Joliet Jake and his silent brother, Elwood. They asked Brillstein to convince Atlantic Records to produce an album for $125,000, Briefcase Full of Blues, which was released in December 1978. Then Brillstein booked the Blues Brothers to appear as the opening act in a 9-night engagement that comedian Steve Martin had scheduled at the Universal Amphitheater in Los Angeles the next fall.

Over the next months Ackroyd expanded the act into a full-length Blues Brothers movie. By then, Animal House was the No. 1 movie in the country. That summer, Belushi phoned then Universal exec Sean Daniels about the Blues Brothers, and Daniels bit. Brillstein was thrilled how it was all turning out. But he resisted Steven Spielberg's coaxing Belushi to take a part in 1941 for $350,000. Brillstein liked the money but argued against the project on the grounds that Spielberg had never done comedy and the script was not really that funny. But Belushi told Brillstein, “I can’t turn down Spielberg.”

Meanwhile, Brillstein was fighting with Universal for a bigger piece of the Animal House pie -- $60 million so far on Uni's negative cost of $2.7 million -- for Belushi and himself. Thom Mount, then head of Universal, was trying to make a 3-picture deal for Belushi. Ok, Brillstein said, but a discussion of the future might begin with the past. Why not agree to give Belushi some retroactive percentage of the Animal House profits? But Universal wouldn’t budge. In the end, Mount would only offer a $250,000 bonus for Belushi if he signed the deal -- take it or leave it. Brillstein left the office and called Belushi, who had only one demand: Get the check today. Brillstein and Belushi signed the 3-picture deal: $350,000 for 1941, $500,000 for The Blues Brothers and $750,000 for a third movie Continental Divide. Brillstein was listed as executive producer on all three movies. 1941 bombed but The Blues Brothers grossed over $100 million. Yet Brillstein’s take was only $150,000 -- peanuts, as far as he was concerned. So, in 1980, Brillstein signed with CAA's Michael Ovitz. Except for Jim Henson, Brillstein’s clients signed with CAA as well. The relationship paid off immediately: Ovitz did a deal for Neighbors guaranteeing Belushi $1.25 million, and Brillstein $400,000. “I nearly shit,” Brillstein recalled.

Managers traditionally charged 15% of a client’s salary. But Brillstein had long ago found a much more profitable way of generating income as a TV packager. Using his stable of A-list writer-producers to create projects, Brillstein would load as many of his own writers onto a show as he could, generating even more fees, and then attach himself as executive producer and sell it to a network. As executive producer, Brillstein not only collected a producer’s fee but also profit sharing and backend participation. With syndication and licensing fees, a hit show could bring in millions upon millions. Now Bernie was packaging himself into Belushi's and Ackroyd's movies as well. But unlike TV, an executive producer on a movie was for the most part an empty title. Usually it was given to someone who was in control of a project at one point and then lost it, but was still bound to the project contractually. Other times it was a quid pro quo, for example, a payback for delivering the rights to some material. In Brillstein’s case, to put it bluntly, it was a “bribe,” the price the studio had to pay him to deliver his stars. A manager putting himself in business with his own clients was, to say the least, a gray area. It could be argued that the arrangement was better for the client because it saved him paying the manager's commission. But it was also a conflict of interest. No matter how straight a manager played it, the fact that such questions could even be raised was troubling for many. But seemingly such matters did not concern Brillstein or Brillstein’s clients.

By now Bernie was having a tough time keeping Belushi’s drug problems from careening the comedian's career. Belushi by 1982 was living in a bungalow at the Chateau Marmont and hounding Brillstein for cash. The day before he died of an overdose in Bungalow 3, Belushi told Brillstein he loved him. Bernie was called when Belushi's body was found on March 5th. The ambulance rushed the actor to Cedars-Sinai. While Brillstein waited, he received the one call he had always dreaded. He dropped the receiver. He would never see his friend and client again. The remorse was overwhelming. Followed by anger over first investigative journalist Bob Woodward's book Wired blaming Brillstein and the rest of Belushi's entourage for not doing enough to help the comedian's drug addiction, and then the movie.

Ackroyd and Brillstein sold Ghostbusters with both of them attached. Brillstein had bought the rights to the screeplay from his client for $1. But surprisingly, the studios were reluctant to bite once the script went out. The screenplay relied heavily on silly slapstick and oneliners and not everybody got it. And Dan Ackroyd, who would star, had yet to prove he could carry a movie without his Blues Brothers sidekick. “Universal had it first and passed; John Landis passed; a lot of people passed on it,” Brillstein told me. “But we owned it and I was instrumental in keeping it alive.” So was Ovitz who helped structure a difficult deal with Columbia. Released in 1984, Ghostbusters quickly became the highest grossing comedy of all time.

By 1986, Brillstein had never been hotter in TV, packaging Buffalo Bill, Open All Night, The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd and The Gary Shandling Show. Brillstein had a commitment to NBC for another show and thought puppeteer Paul Fusco's and writer-client Tom Patchett's Alf might be the perfect project. Fusco, Brillstein and Patchett all met in Brandon Tartikoff’s office to present their pitch. But the presentation, as Brillstein put it, was going in the “crapper.” Then suddenly Fusco reached into a bag and pulled out Alf, who promptly exploded in a huge sneeze, then wiped his nose on Tartikoff’s arm. Stunned, the NBC executive laughed hysterically. Tartikoff grasped the marketing and licensing potential immediately and bought the series on the spot. Alf immediately shot to the top of the ratings and soon there were Alf plush toys everywhere. Brillstein had added another cash cow.

But then Brillstein's luck changed. He became embroiled in a long-running feud with Michael Ovitz and CAA. He took an ill-fated job as head of Lorimar Entertainment's new movie studio thinking it would give him the stature in Hollywood he had long deserved. But Bernie also knew the moment he gave up his management company he would lose all his clients and his power base. At the time, The Brillstein Company guided the careers of such in-front-of-the-camera talents as Dabney Coleman, Richard Dreyfuss, Peter Falk, Garry Shandling, Bronson Pinchot, Gilda Radner, Jim Belushi, Gena Davis, Andy Williams, Norm Crosby, Thelma Hopkins, Marsha Mason and George Wendt. His writer clients included Jim Henson, Pat Lee, John Moffat, Alan Rafkind, Jay Tarses, Dave Thomas, Alan Zweibel, Sheldon Keller, Buzz Cohan, Marty Passetta, Perry Rosemand, Kenny Zolms and Barry Sand. In addition, Brillstein was the executive director of five network TV series -- Alf, It’s Garry Shandling’s Show, The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd, The Slap Maxwell Story, and The Nell Carter Show.

But Brillstein, as always, had a solution: why didn’t Adelson purchase Brillstein’s company? Brillstein not only sold his management company to Lorimar for $26 million but retained control of the firm as well. To avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest even though one certainly existed, Brillstein agreed to take a salary of only $1 a year for his new position as CEO of Lorimar Film Entertainment. As Variety noted, the deal created “one heaping big show business macher.”

But soon Brillstein's representation of Ackroyd ended. Then Merv Adelson, without warning, agreed to sell Lorimar-Telepictures and all its holdings, including the movie company and Brillstein’s management company, to Warner Bros. The studio quickly folded Lorimar into Warners, and Bernie found himself out of a job. He was forced to start all over again. Brillstein took his golden parachute and decided to go back into the management business. He also took a very young Brad Grey under his wing. Together, the two were able to sign back many of Bernie’s former clients and start the careers of many new hot young ones. Slowly Grey took over the running of the company, named Brillstein-Grey Entertainment by 1991, until 2005 when Brad left to become chairman/CEO of the Paramount Motion Picture Group.

It was an incredible testament to Brillstein's legacy that, when Brillstein-Grey decided in June 2007 to rebrand itself, the talent management and movie/TV production entity paid homage to its founder and mentor by renaming itself Brillstein Entertainment Partners. Said Brillstein in the press release, “It’s been a pleasure seeing this company evolve over the past 38 years.”

And it was a pleasure to know you, Bernie.

Deep Cuts

Why can't I stop listening to this song?

Please help.

Dr. Horrible's Maniacal Marketing Scheme

Clever bastards.

Last Saturday, the Whedon's (Buffy, Serenity) released Act III of Dr. Horrible on their website for free viewing via Hulu. Later that same day, free Hulu streaming of the three part "tragicomic musical" ended, leaving us with only the pay-to-play iTunes downloads.

Their evil master-plan (yielding the Whedon's $1.99 a pop for each of the three parts,) has been a huge success, with Acts I, II, and III currently holding the top 3 'most-downloaded' rankings of ALL TV-Episodes on iTunes.

Dr. Horrible, Act II

Ok, I'm going to admit it. I love musicals. Please, don't mock me.

Act II of Dr. Horrible was uploaded today. I give it a big-thumbs up. Seriously looking forward to the release of Act III on Friday.

Give Act I a chance, it gets better with Act II.

The web-series has been a huge success so far. The creator, Josh Whedon, claims that they've been getting nearly 1000 hits per second, and Act I immediately soared to the #1 video download on iTunes (and at a cost of $1.99, no less).

Matt, brace yourself...

My friend made a rather irate post on his blog today. It seems that he's been devastated by the recently released trailer for The Watchmen.

In effort to sooth his saddened soul, I sought out the trailer for The Spirit; what I believe to be an example of graphic-novel adaption goodness, directed by Frank Miller of Sin City fame.



But my attempt to lift Matt's spirits (puuuuunnn, get it?) was ultimately quashed under the horrendous rumors of...
*drum roll please* 300 2 (as in a sequel to the homoerotic meat-head shit-fest that was 300).

WHAT THE FUCK??? Seriously Frank, what in God's name would posses you to a.) make a sequel to a testosterone-pumped costume party (answer: $$$), and b.) make a fictional sequel to a HISTORICAL EVENT (answer: ???)

The Spirit better be as good the trailers make it look. Better, in fact. Otherwise Frank Miller is going to find himself on my shit-list, right next to Zack Snyder.

Flight of the Low-Rent Super Villain

Comedy of the mundane is in.

In Flight of the Conchords fashion, Neil Patrick Harris' latest project (yes, that's Doogie Howser) is a web-series that derives it's humor from the banality of a traditionally sensationalized topic. In the case of Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, the painfully average day-to-day life of a humble super villain is explored.

And yes, it is a musical.

It purportedly began as a labor-of-love project outside the Hollywoood system, during the WGA strike earlier this year. From what I've seen so far, there isn't enough substance for the project to go anywhere beyond a limited run of webisodes. But these days, who knows?

The trailer is below. Act I (of three) is out now, and available to view on the creator's website: http://www.drhorrible.com/

Cinema Nostalgia

"The stuff that dreams are made of..."
(Ethan Hawke & River Phoenix in Explorers)

Long ago, in a time when my imagination was still both vibrant and active, there were films that, to me, made anything seem possible. These movies portrayed fantastic worlds filled with hope and heroism, clearly defined moral conflicts between good and evil, and very often had central characters no older than my pre-adolescent self.

It was a time long before the internet and cell phones were a daily part of my life. Before cigarettes, parking citations, sociopathic employers, student loans, and shaving.

But most importantly, it was a time before CGI.

Lately, memories of these films have resurfaced and caused overwhelming sensations of sudden nostalgia, longing, and loss to rattle my stomach. In effort to both validate and exorcise these feelings, I have sought shared recognition and remembrance from my peers of these forgotten films. Sadly, too many of my friends either have no recollection of these mid-80's gems, or never even saw them to begin with.

Having been raised by reformed hippies, intellectuals, and artists in San Francisco, California, I had no religious upbringing whatsoever. Instead, these films formed my base of cultural mythology.

For the sake of not beating a dead-horse, I will leave the original Star Wars trilogy off the list, as well as The Labyrinth and Short Circuit.



1.) TIME BANDITS
(Dir: Terry Gilliam, 1982)










Before the masterpiece Brazil, Terry Gilliam had already seen silver-screen success with Monthy Python & the Holy Grail. His next major directorial triumph came in 1982 with Time Bandits. The film tells the story of a band of midgets, formerly employed by God ("the Supreme Being") as a maintenance crew.

Disgruntled and under appreciated, the team steal the only map that charts holes in the fabric of the universe (there are many of course, since they "only had seven days to put the bloody thing together"). They use the map to travel through space and time, robbing both historical figures and figures of myth and legend, simply for the sake of profit, all while being pursued by a very upset Supreme Being, as well as the forces of darkness who wish to secure the map for themselves.

Told through the perspective of Kevin, a small boy whom is at first mistaken as the Supreme Being and then kidnapped, the bandits are as much guided by their map as they are by Kevin's moral compass. The film notably features appearances by Sean Connery, and John Clease as Robin Hood.



2.) THE DARK CRYSTAL
(Dir: Jim Henson & Frank Oz, 1982)











It wasn't until college that I rediscovered this Henson classic, and had the surprising epiphany that the entire story was one big drug reference.

The plot centers around the sexually ambiguous and child-like Jen, the last of the Gelflings (almost). Jen is caught in a fantasy world dominated by two forces at conflict; the stoner-like Mystics who are peaceful, slow moving and in-tune with nature, and the shrill, frightening, high-strung (and obviously evil) Skesis. The Skesis rule the planet with the power of the dark crystal (a rather direct methamphetamine reference), which they worship obsessively. The outstanding visuals and production design of Dark Crystal are reason enough to revisit this otherwise pointless film.




3.) THE NEVERENDING STORY
(Dir: Wolfgang Peterson, 1984)














Featuring the Luke Skywalker-esq Atryeu, Falcor the Luck Dragon, the Rock-Biter, and a slew of other equally amazing fantasy creatures and characters. All told through the pre-pubescent 'everyman' Sebastian.

'Nuff said.

If you don't already know and love this film, than you have undoubtedly succumbed to the Swamps of Sadness.

At all costs, AVOID THE SEQUELS!!!




4.) EXPLORERS
(Dir: Joe Dante, 1985)
Long before Bill Clinton made the saxophone cool again with his iconic appearance on the Arsenio Hall show, teenage aliens were jamming out for the enjoyment of the young River Phoenix and Ethan Hawke in Explorers.

I have long since forgotten the plot details of this film. What I can remember is a trio of middle-school aged characters who build a home-made spaceship out of the body of a 'tilt-a-whirl' carnival ride and metal trashcan. How fucking rad is that??

After being contacted through dreams and visions, they fly their spaceship into orbit and rendezvous with a pair of aliens who are obsessed with Earth's media-transmissions. The aliens are only able to communicate in english by speaking in sound-bites taken from radio transmissions, television programs, and pop-culture movies.

However, the three young explorers soon discover that the aliens are also children themselves, and have stolen the ship to joy-ride across space and visit Earth, the source of their entertainment. All hell breaks loose when papa-alien arrives to discipline them, and the movie sadly goes down-hill from there.

Worth revisiting, even if only for the sake of refreshing my memory as to the details of the plot.




5.) FLIGHT OF THE NAVIGATOR
(Dir: Randal Kleiser, 1986)










Hands down, without a doubt, the most significant and repeatedly watched film of my childhood. I'm positive that at the age of four, I demanded that my parents rent this movie for me every single weekend for several months in a row. Why they didn't just buy it on VHS is a mystery.

In fact, the reason that I first saw the original Star Wars, was because my mother had suggested it as an alternative to renting Flight of the Navigator for the ten trillionth time in a row. I promptly threw a fit in the video store (which did not end until I was at home and the Millenium Falcon was on our television screen. Star Wars then immediately replaced Navigator as my repeated rental. In fact, I was so closed-minded about renting new movies at this age, that I saw Star Wars at least a dozen times before being coaxed into renting Empire Strikes Back).

This Disney classic tells the story of David, an adolescent Florida resident who is abducted by an unmanned alien craft on the Fourth of July. David awakens with no memories of the abduction and soon discovers that eight years have past since he was last seen on Earth. Due to mysterious "time-dilation", David has not aged since his disappearance. He is taken into custody by a rather militant-like NASA, who have also captured the space-craft that returned him to Earth.

After being aided in his escape by an 80's pop-culture-loving NASA intern (played by a young and surprisingly attractive Sarah Jessica Parker), David boards the spacecraft and befriends the robotic pilot Max (voiced by none other than Pee-Wee Herman). Max's memory has been damaged and he requires the navigational knowledge contained in David's brain to return to his homeworld, implanted in David during his 8 year abduction.

Again, this by far my favorite (non-Star Wars) childhood film. And with the uber-cool liquid metal T-1000-esq spaceship, probably the only non-lame example of computer generated imagery in popular film that I can think of.



6.) THE ADVENTURES OF BARON MUNCHAUSEN
(Dir: Terry Gilliam, 1988)













The second Terry Gilliam film of great significance to my childhood, and my first exposure to meta-theatrical plot structures.

John Neville stars as Hieronymus Karl Frederick Baron Von Munchausen, decorated soldier, traveler extraordinaire and the world's greatest liar.

The significantly layered meta-fictive qualities of the film (more so even than Gilliam had achieved several years prior in Brazil) make it almost impossible, if not entirely futile, to discuss the plot in any detail here. With Gilliam's outstanding aesthetic taste and epic vision of fantasy, and with remarkably enjoyable performances from the cast (featuring Robin Williams, Eric Idle, Johnathan Pryce, and a very young Uma Thurman), The Adventures of Baron Munchausen is not a film to be forgotten.

With any luck, Gilliam's upcoming Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (coming in 2009, featuring the final performance of Heath Ledger) will bare some resemblance in theme and tone to this childhood favorite.