"The Ring Two" DVD, Arclight Screenings, & Comic-Con On The Horizon

Work continues on the special effects featurette (or pod) for "The Ring Two" DVD at Precision Post. A first rough cut went out the door today with comments expected from DreamWorks on Monday or Tuesday. Delivery is Friday, June 10. Plus I completed some revisions on that promo for the Martin Laurence movie "Rebound". At this point it looks like work will continue through next week completely. No official word on what happens from that point.

This has been great! Plus I just found a much easier way to Precision Post avoiding the freeways and cutting 15 minutes off my trip. I now have some major new high profile stuff to add to my resume but still need to inquire about grabbing copies of some of these projects for my reel. Hopefully.

Attended the screening of "Aliens" with Stan Winston and Gale Anne Hurd Tuesday night followed by an AFI screening of the original "Star Wars" (screw the 'Episode' in the now official title shit!) on Wednesday. After Stan and Gale were introduced it was revealed that some extra special guests were in the house. Lance Henriksen walked out to everyone's surprise. They spoke briefly about the film, moments before the lights dimed. But not before someone brought Stan Winston a large bucket of popcorn and escorted him to his seat to watch the feature with the rest of us. He sat in the row behind me on the other side of the auditorium. Can you imagine coming for the screening only to find that Stan Winston would be sitting next to you? Too cool. As they hinted at more surprises before the movie began I scanned some people standing over near the wall on the right of the auditorium. Suddenly I realized one of them was Jennette Goldstein, Vasquez herself! Unfortunately after the movie ended it was revealed she had to go home and attend to her daughter. We all let out a huge disappointing sigh.

Of course it was great to see "Aliens" again on the big screen with a very enthusiastic audience. People applauded at all the great moments plus laughed and applauded whenever Bill Paxton said any of his famous lines..."GAME OVER. MAN!". The biggest reaction of course was when Ripley strode out in the power walker and shouted, "get away from her you BITCH!".

After the show Stan, Gale Anne Hurd, and Lance Henriksen returned to their director's chairs below the screen to answer pre-determined questions from the audience. One directed to Stan was what he thought of the effects in the new "Star Wars". He said he loved Yoda but there were a number of other things he did not like, not specifying what those were. Finishing up about an hour later, people from the audience were allowed to approach for autographs, etc. I had Stan Winston and Lance Henriksen both sign my ticket. I asked Stan what other aspects of "Sith" he did not like. He said visually the film looked amazing and beautiful, but the performances were very wooden adding that a number of fine actors had been put to waste.

The AFI screening of "Star Wars" Wednesday night was an equal treat although there was no Q&A of course. Ran into a couple of people from Autonomy who I had a feeling would be there, including Andy the senior editor. We'll be seeing each other again next week for "Empire". The audience again was very pumped for the film, applauding the appearance of every major character. Han got the biggest response. Plus I flat out booed when Greedo shot at Han first, echoed by several others in the theatre. Everybody laughed at the obsurdity. This BTW was the '97 Special Edition version, not the DVD version from last fall. So the gap between Greedo's shot and Han's response was much broader. Great night, and overall a great week in general.

I've now officially made my hotel reservation for Comic Con in San Diego, July 14-17. Yes!! My registering for the full four days of the event itself will happen this week. I'm finally going for the first time! Last year of course I'd forgotten the event dates only to discover it had just started the day I became aware of it. D'OH! At that point it was too late to make arrangements. I have a double room at the Sheraton San Diego Hotel & Marina 1/2 block from the convention center. So I'm basically opening up the floor to anyone who may want to share the room. I'll be going just the same by myself if there are no takers...just wanted to put that out there for consideration. I'm aware there's another event going on the week before for some folks...but who needs that? ;)