"X-Men: The Last Stand", Midnight Show Tonight

I'm into my second week at Sparkhill and things are going really well.

Working on two pieces; one for the "24" Season 5 DVD about music composer Sean Callery, and another for a forthcoming 'behind the scenes' book of digital stills from the show taken by cast and crew that will include a companion featurette on DVD. My name will be in the credits on both of these, BTW!

Tonight I'll be heading to Mann's Chinese Theatre for the 12:01 am showing of "X-Men: The Last Stand" which I am very happy and very relieved is getting good reviews.

In the meantime, Precision Post as well as The Cannery are both asking when I'll be done with my current project. Unless Sparkhill has anything for me further (here's hoping) then I'll probably head to Precision since they have a more firm start date for their project.

Full updates on all of this, plus a wrap up of my work with KO Creative, going into this weekend. Work's been pretty hectic and my mind has not been able to wrap around typing here until now.

But Wait There's More! A 2nd Trailer At KO!

As the first cut of "Venus And Vegas" was nearing completion at KO Creative, Ronda said they had another trailer for me to work on! Woohoo!! This is a Bollywood film entitled "Provoked" and stars Aishwarya Rai ("Bride & Prejudice"), Miranda Richardson, and Naveen Andrews ("Lost"). Needless to say I'm thrilled to be working on my second job for KO! On the film's website they have an area where you can view two trailers. Both of these say 'coming soon' which means what I'm cutting will more than likely appear there sometime soon. And to top it all off they have a 3rd project for me to do some fine tuning on. A preview for "The Horror Chronicles", an independent anthology of films.

I am SO on a roll! Let's hope and pray that this continues. Being that these three projects are for the Cannes Film Festival, they all have a deadline of this Friday, May 12. Today the writer and producer of "Venus And Vegas", Eddie Guerra, came by to add some comments to a short list of changes he wanted to make. His credits include a couple of teleplays for "CSI: Miami". Had a great session with he and Tim who is the head of KO. Really felt like I showed my client rapport side which is also very important. He loved the trailer and I did some on-the-spot changes quick and easy that went over very, very well. An hour later after he left, Tim came by one more time to say I did a great job. 'Thank you God for this amazing day', I say to myself as I buckle in for the drive home.

There has also been a number of job openings lately on Media-Match.com, a really fantastic and useful job site that allows you to post your resume for prespective hiring post house to view, either through contacting them or on their own. One such listings was for a DVD content editor just posted this morning by Sparkhill, a marketing post house that has produced some DVD heavy hitters; "Fantastic Four", "The Day After Tomorrow", The "Alien" Quadrilogy, "School of Rock", "King Kong (1933)", "The Passion of the Christ", "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow", "Daredevil", "24", and the upcoming release of Oliver Stone's "World Trade Center"...just to name a few.

So guess what?!!! I received an e-mail from them this afternoon saying they liked my resume and want me to call tomorrow about cutting a few making-of pods for the "24": Season 5 DVD. Color me in! This now opens another door that working at Precision Post started by my editing the "Corpse Bride", "The Island", and "The Ring Two" DVD supplements.

May 4, 2006. The day The Great Announcement was made!

Yes true believers (oh wait that's somebody else), the ORIGINAL UNALTERED VERSION of the "Star Wars" Trilogy is AT LAST coming to DVD on what is now a holy day of obligation: September 12, 2006!

Now, we can all do a whole lot of bitching about Lucas' manipulation regarding whether these would ever see the light of day. I always felt if they did decide to release the originals it would be on some humungous boxed set of all six films; maximum dollar value for George.

I think the carrot baiting thing really sucks on Lucas' part. Considering he owes his fortune, Skywalker Ranch, and ILM to the many, many, many fans who prayed at the altar of The Force for decades. Meanwhile, tucked away in some vault has been the remastered versions of all three unaltered films which were released in 1993 on Laserdisc. I myself have the 9 disc boxed set edition which I have clung to all these years fearing the worst. Over the past 8 years it's started to show it's age a bit. Laser rot has affected the beginnings of at least three sides of the discs. This is when the glue that keeps the laserdiscs together begins to break down slightly, causing tiny white speckling on the video image. It can get worse over time.

NOW it doesn't matter!!!

It was stated in the press this week that the transfers to this new DVD set will not be by 2006 standards, but 1993 standards. Ah ha! I knew it! For years I've been thinking if Lucas doesn't want to put a lot of time, energy, and money into revamping the uncut ones, why doesn't he just take the remastered versions, magnificently upgraded with brilliant picture and surround sound, and release those on DVD?! Simple, right? Based on that comment regarding 1993 that's exactly what they will be doing, and that's absolutely fine.

Just give me the damned things and continue making all the revisions you want! Yes I think it was cool to see the "Star Wars" Trilogy with 'a few new surprises'...CG and all. Great, amazing job and some of those new shots are super cool. Of note: The Millennium Falcon turning away from The Death Star after blowing Vader into space, plus all the surviving ships rotating away from the impending explosion. I love that. But at the end of the day make the originals available for everyone who grew up on them, mmm-kay! Like what Spielberg did with "E.T.". Maybe he finally went over to George's house for dinner and said, "come here, Francene! Here's a little advice...".

They'll only be available until December 31st? That's cool, just give me 15 minutes in Best Buy on September 12 and I'll never bother you again.

September 12, 2006: Holy Day Of Obligation. God Bless It!

Look, Up In The Sky...over The Outback!

Less than 2 months to go until THIS hits theaters! Give this 10 second looped GIF a chance to load, and see the entire Australian Coca-Cola Ad at Kal-El.org! One of THE BEST Superman info web sites.