Working On "The Island", Hughes Appreciation, And "The Bat Man"

Finished cutting the special effects pod for "The Ring Two" at Precision Post. I was very happy to learn that DreamWorks came back with only one very minor change to my cut. 98% was right on the mark. Wow. As mentioned, this will be included on the supplement for the forthcoming DVD so look for it.

Continuing very happily with Precision, I am now in the middle of cutting 4 making-of pods for "The Island". These are to be used as tools for international marketing of the film. The first one I dove into was a featurette on Director Michael Bay. The others will cover the principal actors, aspects of a giant shooting facility used during the filming, and a third we've been given carte blanche on a topic for. They nixed an FX and stunts pod that seems a natural here. Before all of this I was given a cut of the movie to sit down and watch. This was the first time I viewed a major studio theatrical release in advance of it's premiere conjoining with my work. However my John Hancock on the dotted line of the confidentiality contract says I can't talk about it right now. I do however plan on seeing the completed film in the theatre come July.

Got a call from The Cannery on Friday asking about my availability this coming week and into next month. I told Erica, the producer I previously worked with, that I was booked through next week but would check with Precision regarding the following weeks. I hope to continue with Precision as long as they can use me because I really like it there and the projects I work on are all A list studio theatrical films. SO lovin’ it. At any rate I feel work in general will bring me steadily into the middle of July with no problem.

Watched the MTV Movie Awards Thursday night. Great Batman opener with Jimmy Fallon catching a ride from The Dark Knight, and the “Revenge Of The Sith” gag was also a riot. Best of all, four cast members from “The Breakfast Club” assembled on stage to accept an award in conjunction with the 20th anniversary of the movie. Unfortunately Emilio Estevez and Judd Nelson were not present. That sucked. Molly Ringwald, Anthony Michael Hall, and Ally Sheedy joined up with Paul Gleeson to wild applause. However as they ran clips from the film on several giant screens this lame band called Yellowcard did a really AWEFUL rendition of “Don’t You (Forget About Me)”. And I do mean AWEFUL! I know we’re trying to pander to the younger MTV audience…who of course think the network is about dumb ass teen reality shows and the like. Not fully comprehending that at one point the “M” in MTV meant MUSIC! Now I think it means “Meaningless”. But for God’s sake just go out and sign Simple Minds to do the song, huh!

Still…fan’s love of John Hughes now classic teen films, plus some solid talk of Molly Ringwald’s approval of a script for a “16 Candles” sequel, has me thinking about a really cool event someone ought to come up with by‘06 at least. This year of course being the 20th anniversary of “The Breakfast Club” and next year being “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” 20th as well, somebody should arrange a ‘Hughes Fest’ in the Chicago suburbs where most of these films were shot. The turn out would be enormous, especially because of “Ferris”. Come on, eh! Go!

Regarding the sequel, you can’t top the original “16 Candles” of course and they shouldn’t try. I just think it would be cool to have Molly assuming one of her classic characters and be working with John Hughes once again in a GOOD movie. Just so long as Molly’s role doesn’t quickly exit into supporting-ville just for branding purposes. Yuck! It’s going to need to be something different and not a rehash to work. We’ll see. Anthony Michael Hall should have a cool cameo. Not to mention Long Duck Dong! “Auto-mo-beeele?!” Of course I haven’t seen anything yet that John Hughes is even attached. I just read USA Networks has the reins on this thing. Do cable movies ever not suck? Especially on USA, the ‘$1.98 budget’ network?! That’s right! I’d prefer a theatrical release but you know because of cable’s ongoing relationship with showing the original, this will most likely be the only place they feel it can perform well enough. Blah! I’ll still watch it with a certain amount of glee.

Went to the screening of “The Empire Strikes Back” at The Arclight last Wednesday. Once again a great crowd, especially when everyone ‘blahed’ and laughed uncomfortably as Leia kissed Luke…”well I guess you don’t know everything about women”. Great to see it with a fan audience on the big screen 25 years on. My God why is everything we know and love now between 20 and 30 years old. Jeez!

“Batman Begins” opens this week and I’m debating the merits of heading to a special midnight showing at Mann’s Chinese Theatre Tuesday night or just catch to the first evening show on Wednesday. Of course I’m working all this week that figures prominently in my plan making. The movie’s been getting some great reviews from a hand full of critics early on. This could finally be as close to target dead center a “Batman” film has gotten yet. I’m ready to be impressed.