Movies – Page 4 – The Designer Monologues

October 4, 2018October 5, 2018

Spooktober, Part The First

Haven’t posted here since August. So much for the plan of “getting back into regular updates.” As always, when you make plans, God laughs. In my case, the past couple of months have been filled with tons of work getting the FAR WEST manuscript finalized and ready for layout, and then entering into a seven-days-a-week grind as Laura and I started our yearly gig running the shop for our artist friend Ruth Thompson out at the Kansas City Renaissance Festival.

Exhausted Gareth is exhausted.

But, it’s now October, and as is my habit, I’m spending the month watching horror movies at night. I’ll be doing a brief look at each of the films I watch, for those so interested.

After missing the first day, I doubled up on October 2nd for my Spooktober viewing. The night’s films: THE LEGACY (1978) and MR. FROST (1990).

THE LEGACY was… OK. Jimmy Sangster script & Richard Marquand directing, so I had high hopes. Mostly opportunities left unexploited, which was frustrating. (Charles Gray and Roger Daltrey completely under-used, for example). Oddly up-beat soundtrack, complete with Kiki Dee theme.

I’d seen MR. FROST before, once. It’s not a great movie by any stretch, but effectively creepy, with Jeff Goldblum at the height of sexy-devil-ness — and this former Catholic school kid always responds to good old-fashioned religious horror.

Last night’s Spooktober viewing: NIGHT OF DARK SHADOWS, the second of the two Dark Shadows films from the early 70s.

I’d seen the first (HOUSE OF…), which adapted the Barnabas Collins resurrection story, but hadn’t seen this yet. It adapts the Quentin Collins/Angelique story.

All in all, it’s a pretty solid gothic-romance ghost/possession story, with traces of Lovecraft’s “The Case Of Charles Dexter Ward.”

A nice way to wind down my days, and keep my observance of the Darkening of The Year. Feel free to stop by throughout the month and see what I’m watching.

May 21, 2016May 21, 2016

Trek Stuff

A bunch of Star Trek related news hit this week, as you might expect from the 50th anniversary year.

And on a related note: Wow, Paramount is blowing this anniversary, aren’t they? Compare what they’re doing with how the BBC handled the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who. Paramount is doing (as far as I can tell) a single retrospective TV special later this Fall, a new installment in the JJ-Abrams-Reboot film series (with no ‘anniversary’ implications) and they’re not even launching the new series until NEXT YEAR. What the fuck, Paramount? Did the calendar sneak up on you?

Speaking of the new series, CBS showed a teaser during their Upfront presentation to advertisers this week:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXpPweAooeE

Not much there, but what is there is interesting — especially “New Crews.” Plural. That lends some credence to the rumor that this show is going to be an “American Horror Story”/”True Detective”/”Fargo”-esque anthology series, where each season is a different story with a different set of characters. I’m looking forward to finding out more about it as 2017 approaches.

It appears that CBS/Paramount wants to pivot into creating stuff for fans to be excited about, rather than suing them in court — at a Trek fan event held last night, JJ Abrams told the assembled crowd that Paramount would be dropping their lawsuit against the fan film “Axanar.”

Axanar Productions definitely crossed the line. Not in their acquisition of a studio space, which they admit will be used for for-profit ventures outside of their film (shady, but not line-crossing, IMO), but in paying themselves 5-figure salaries. Plus, the producers are, bluntly, jerks, who have basically been swaggering around clothing themselves in borrowed glory — practically daring Paramount to sue.

I’m glad to see the lawsuit dropped (although I’ll wait until an official announcement from Paramount — how wild would it be if JJ Abrams said this in order to force their hands, because he saw the PR hurting the forthcoming Abrams-produced film?) — because of the chilling effect this was having on other fan films.

Star Trek Continues (my favorite), does it right: Registered as a non-profit, books available for audit on-demand, volunteer labor, and not trying to present themselves as a source of new, modern-day Trek, but specifically emulating the look, feel, and sound of the 1966 original. Their 6th episode, “Come Not Between Dragons” debuts later this month.

UPDATE: A Buzzfeed reporter tweeted an official response from CBS/Paramount, confirming the dropping of the case, and the additional news that they’re working on a set of fan film guidelines:

And, lastly: This morning the second trailer for the new J.J. Abrams-reboot Trek film, Star Trek Beyond, was released:

I think I’m going to have to view the reboot films the way that I view pizza outside of the Northeast. The stuff you get may be perfectly tasty for what it is, but it’s not actually pizza.

I actually was excited by the potential unlocked by the first film, but then they blew it with “Star Trek Into Darkness.” I don’t have high hopes for this one. Looks like a generally acceptable blow-em-up-real-good space opera spectacle, though.

Throughout my life, I’ve been a fan of both Star Wars and Star Trek — but I have to admit, that right now, I am far more excited about what’s coming for Star Wars than I am for anything Trek-related. I’d love it if CBS/Paramount would take a page from Lucasfilm’s post-Disney-acquisition playbook, at least as far as transmedia brand management goes, but I’m not holding my breath.

How great would that be, though?

October 31, 2012October 31, 2012

A New Hope

The entire nerdosphere is buzzing about the big news that came down yesterday: Disney has purchased Lucasfilm from George Lucas for 4.05 Billion Dollars, and will launch new Star Wars films in 2015 with Episode VII. If you’re reading this blog, I suspect that your social media feeds, like mine, are overflowing with commentary about this particular turn of events. I’m sorry to add to the noise, but as someone whose initial viewing of Star Wars in 1977 set me on the path to where I am professionally today, I can’t really let something this big slide by without comment, even if it’s only for my own reference later on in life.

(A brief aside before continuing: The image at left is one that I stumbled upon a while ago, reading coverage of the big Star Wars Celebration convention. I have no idea who the artist is, or where it’s from — but I LOVE it. If you have any info, please leave it in the comments below.)

Edited to Add: Thanks to Peter Mars over on Google+: The art is called Shadows of Tatooine, by Raymond Swanland

Very briefly, to sum up: I think this is a very good thing.

Unpacking that a bit more:

Star Wars is Best When Lucas Doesn’t Have Sole Control. The two best films? Star Wars — where he had to work with a team to cut corners and work with what they had, rather than satisfying every creative detail perfectly — and The Empire Strikes Back — where he came up with the story, and other folks wrote and directed. When Lucas has control over every detail? You get the prequels. Watch the “Making Of” extras of Attack of the Clones sometime, and see a CG artist get micromanaged for days over the animation of Yoda’s brow.
Lucas is going to be a “creative consultant” on this new stuff. In his own words, he’s handing over his story outlines, and that’s pretty much about it. That’s a very good thing.
Disney Handles Its Subsidiaries Really Well. Disney owns a bunch of studios, and knows to pretty much leave them alone to do the things they do best. Miramax’s best stuff was released after the Disney acquisition in 1993. Pixar, since acquisition, has released Ratatouille, WALL-E, Up and Brave. Marvel? You might have heard that post-Disney-acquisition, they hired Joss Whedon to write and direct The Avengers, which was pretty damned good.
So, you’ll forgive me, but the nerdrage and snark about “Disneyfication of Star Wars” and such? Pretty much entirely without merit.
Kathleen Kennedy is Fucking Brilliant. The new president of Lucasfilm and the brand manager of Star Wars is the #2 producer of all time in terms of box office, behind only Steven Spielberg. She’s forward-looking and one of Hollywood’s more innovative producers — to quote Jeff Gomez of Starlight Runner:

The #StarWars storyworld will thrive in the hands of visionary producer Kathleen Kennedy, a believer in #transmedia narrative.

— Jeff Gomez (@Jeff_Gomez) October 31, 2012
Star Wars will most likely be made by people who grew up loving it. If you think about the average age of screenwriters and directors in Hollywood, and the general vibe of “geek ascendancy” which has been commented upon, as the awkward nerd of the past now find themselves in decision-making positions, it’s going to be first-generation Star Wars fans who will be making the new stuff. Folks from their 30s to 50s, raised on action figures and steeped in the same stuff that we love. Take a look at The Clone Wars cartoon, considered by many to be better than the prequel films — Lucas was producer, but the show is run by supervising director Dave Filoni, a guy born in the early 70s who grew up on Star Wars. Expect to see that sort of dynamic continue.

For the first time in over a decade, I’m hopeful about Star Wars again. I can’t wait to see what’s coming. For that alone, for the chance to remember what it felt like to really love Star Wars and eagerly await the next thing, the purchase of Lucasfilm by Disney is, to me, a great thing.

2015. Episode VII. I’m there.