Welcome to August, everybody! There has been a lot going on since last we spoke so let's get to it, shall we?
What have I been reading, you ask? I have recently started a series that I should have read years ago, but for reasons that are inexpiable, I never did. I'm talking about Tarzan Of The Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs. I read the first two books back in high school and just stopped for reasons only an ignorant high school kid could tell you. I have been a huge fan of the ape-man for as far back as I can remember and after telling myself that I'll get around to reading the books eventually, that day finally showed up. I can't recommend this book enough. There's a reason it's a classic! Go pick it up today!
I started a new job last week. I'm now working at Aldi stocking shelves, running the register and all of those other things that go along with working in a grocery store. It's not glamorous but it pays better and has more hours than baby sitting drunk people ever did. I'm enjoying the process of picking up a new skill set, although sometimes I feel like Stanley the bellboy. I almost thought I had a new project in the works until it occurred to me that i was just remaking a classic. Oh well, more on that later.
Things on the movie front haven't been as fruitful as usual, partly due to lack of interest and I've been in research mode so my tastes have been all over the place. Although, comedy seems to be the common denominator running through the list, so if you're a comedy fan you might find this next part interesting, if not, just skip ahead and I'll see you in a couple of paragraphs or so.
As I mentioned before, The Bellboy is one that I've seen and enjoyed lately. It was written, directed and produced by Jerry Lewis who also stars in it and has a cameo. A couple of things you might not know about The Bellboy-Lewis always got credit for inventing the video assist, THIS is the movie he created it for, AND he did it before the invention of video tape so he basically had video screens all over the set so he could see what the camera saw wherever he happened to turn his head. He also did The Bellboy out of necessity to save Cinderfella from being released as a summer movie. He had everything set for Cinderfella to be released as a holiday movie, that was its sole purpose, but Paramount needed a movie, a Jerry Lewis movie, for their summer release schedule. Lewis told them that they would have a movie for the summer but they had to promise to release Cinderfella at the holidays. This was January. He wrote a 140 page script in 9 days while doing two shows a night. What did you do today?
Cafe Society is the new Woody Allen film. It's worth your time and is more memorable than his last film, Irrational Man (oh yeah, that was his last film, wasn't it?). While I appreciated the ending, it did teach me how I don't want to end my next film, more on that later.
Cinderfella is one that I had to revisit after hearing everything about it in The Bellboy dvd. It's enjoyable and has some great bits (the ring inscription cracks me up just thinking about it) but, personally, I thought the ending felt forced. Lewis the writer takes for granted that you know the story so he can fast forward to the ball without the details but, when I'm expected to believe that the princess falls obsessively head over heels in love with this guy after one dance, it just didn't gel for me. Watch it and tell me what you think.
I discovered Kiss Of Fire at the library while just randomly walking around. You might find it under another title, Claudine's Return. It was made back in 1998 and stars Christina Applegate. Storyline wise, it'll hold your attention if there's not much going on around you but it's really a character study. I haven't seen one of those in a long time and, while it was refreshing, I don't feel the need to go back. Again, lesson learned:this is what I don't want my next project to be.
At first I held off on seeing The Legend of Tarzan because of a bad preview that showed CGI apes and flashbacks of his childhood. With no sound, it just looked like another origin story movie which I really didn't want to sit through again. Eventually, I saw a different preview and realized there might be a little more to it so, curiosity got the better of me and I went. I did enjoy it and recommend it, especially if you have kids, they'll think it's cool and you might just enjoy it too. Yes, there is way too much CGI but at least there are no Phil Collins songs and unlike Tarzan And The Lost City, you don't walk out thinking it was okay, sort of. If nothing else, at least it inspired me to finally get off my ass and read the books.
I'm just going to recommend The Man Who Loved Women and let you decide if you want to see the Francois Truffaut or Blake Edwards version. Surprisingly, both are good. Maybe you still have some Haterade tainted memories of the Edwards version, but let that go, it's time to judge the movie on its own merits and not a misleading preview.
A Midsummer Nights Dream, the movie I'm working on with IX Productions, is almost finished with principle photography. The goal is to be wrapped by September. It's looking pretty good and sounding even better. It should be making an appearance at a film festival near you by next year.
After watching The Bellboy and Cinderfella, I had to revisit The Nutty Professor. This is definitely one of my favorite Jerry Lewis movies and if you haven't seen it lately, you need to fix that.
Last, but by no means least, we only have one scene left to film in Order 86. That's the good news. The bad news is that we're blowing up a car and city councils get really touchy when you use words like blow up and fire. We're hoping to be wrapped by September as well, God willing and the river don't rise (or the mayor says no).
With the latest project so close to being complete (and by complete I mean that we still have a few months of post production work), I've been looking around for our next project. Depending on which one of us you talk to, it could be a fantasy film or a western. However, dragons and horses are expensive. What to do, what to do? I have this idea for a crime thriller, but apparently its not ready yet because there's a comedy idea that keeps gaining dominance. At first I just wanted to write it down to get it out of the way but I keep coming back to it and thinking that maybe it's not the box office harakiri that I originally thought it was. Right now, I have an outline and I've started a rough draft. Maybe I should do two shows a night, I feel comparatively lazy.
There are just a couple of more things in closing before you're done with me. For the series watchers, check out Alias Smith And Jones. Well, check out season one and most of two when, unfortunately, Pete Duel committed suicide and Roger Davis was forced to take over the role of Smith due to contractual obligations with the network. This is an early series that was created by Glen A. Larson and Roy Huggins took over. It's interesting to see where these guys started to find their rhythm before moving on to other more successful shows.
Also, I've recently been involved with a couple of web series. I was an extra in an episode of Captives that's being put out by Collective Vision Studios. I was originally supposed to be a reporter but wound up being a cop (the eternal typecast). Technically, I play two cops since in one scene I'm walking away from the camera and in the next scene I'm walking around the scene facing the camera. You get bonus points if you spot me just out of focus in the background of another scene with my "partner" Amber Dawn. We were supposed to be looking serious and busy but in reality she was just showing me some youtube clips of her past work (shhh, don't tell the director).
The other web series is called Group and it's put out by IX Productions. I'm doing my standard role of recording sound. It's a comedy and the episodes aren't that long so if you get the chance check it out. Captives is more dramatic and runs a little longer than five minutes but still worth the time.
Well, it looks like that's my month in review. Hopefully next month I'll have better news so until then...
