"Wolverine"!!!!!!!: Let the summer movie season begin!

All set for the midnight screening of "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" tonight at The Arclight. Heading into the home theater now to watch "X2: X-Men United" as a primer. I'll have my review up tomorrow.

Last day here at Happy Hour

Found out this morning my trailer was approved by the studio. And with only one change...woohoo! So here I sit waiting my final day out. They wanted me to sit tight in case something else came along today, but I'm thinking this will be it for right now.

Tomorrow at least I'll be able to sleep in since we're going to the midnight show of "Wolverine" at The Arclight tomorrow night. Can't wait!

Happy Hour shortened

Looks like I may be wrapping this project tomorrow. There haven't been any notes back from the studio on my first cut (completed Friday) and it's looking more and more like any changes could be minor. Changes that one of the staff editors could easily handle. Originally I was scheduled for two weeks.

Plus, they don't have anything more for me to do following this. So I could conceivably be out of work, hopefully for only a short time. We're right in the zone where everything explodes work wise each year, so I'm not too worried. Just need to keep working right now. If this does happen, although things can change on a dime in this business, I'm still feeling confident that I'll be back here soon.

"Back To The Future" Cast Reunion Weekend Roundup

Wow! What a great weekend! The Hollywood Show event at The Marriott in Burbank was definitely a much larger one then when I peaked in for Bionicon two years ago! Lots of dealers, lots of stars, and of course, lots of fans like these guys!

The center piece of course was the "Back To The Future" trilogy. And when we arrived in the midday on Saturday, things were very much in full swing. Right outside the convention center in the parking lot there were at least twenty DeLoreans parked side by side! Some were original cars and others were movie re-fits with incredibly detailed props and electronics installed by the fans who owned them! We spent just the first forty five minutes checking all of these out and talking with some of the owners who were happy to show off their beauties.

Inside we found a good sized dealer's hall with many stars from TV and film, including porn star Ron Jeremy, who Rebecca managed to get a photo with! But the one thing we wondered about was where were the BTTF stars. Well, there was a whole area just for them, as well as the official BTTF.com booth and other merchandise, memorabilia, and props on display.

At the end of a very long line was Christopher Lloyd sitting at a period desk with period lamp. Behind him was a fireplace hearth with framed photos of Isaac Newton, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Edison, and Albert Einstein, just like in the movie! To his left sat Lea Thompson who was also signing autographs.

Across from them were a number of BTTF actors and actresses, including Elsa Raven (left, with me) who portrayed the woman taking donations to 'save the clock tower!' in the first movie.

It was also great to finally meet some of the people who host BTTF.com, including Stephen Clark, the founder of the site. At their booth, we each bought one of the Kubrick Doc Brown figures, which were selling fast. On Sunday they were all gone.

Saturday night there were some rumblings that Michael J. Fox might show up for a photo op. He was scheduled to appear at UCLA Sunday afternoon to promote his new book, and that was to begin at 3pm. So if he was going to pop in, it probably would be anytime before 2pm. Sure enough, as we arrived Sunday midday, a few folks outside the venue told us he was inside right now! We hurriedly bought our tickets for the day and made our way down to where Christopher Lloyd had been signing on Saturday. Sure enough, THERE HE WAS!!! Looking great and steady as a board. I remember him saying in an interview a year or so ago that with the Parkinson's, some days are good and some days are bad. And it all depends on how much medication it will take to control his uncontrollable movements. This definitely seemed like one of his better days, as he greeted fans for about an hour and a half before heading to UCLA. Unfortunately we missed his photo op with Christopher Lloyd and Lea Thompson, but no matter. The main thing was that we got to see him, and we did! I was able to take a couple of photos from a distance. Only one of them came out any good. However, Rebecca managed to get a good one which I will post shortly.

We were so glad to have attended this! Plus, on Saturday night when we were taking some pictures and talking with other fans outside the convention center, the converation turned towards next year marking the 25th anniversary of the first movie. Apparently there had been some studio promotional people from Universal in attendance who were taking notice of the turnout for this event, commenting on how they wanted to be much more involved next year for that very anniversary.

I mentioned to the other fans that some type of a gathering at the Puente Hills Mall, the location for The Twin Pines Mall, in City of Industry, CA about forty five minutes from where I live, would be a great way to connect with this milestone. I'd visited there when I first came to LA. Maybe a screening of BTTF at 1:15am on October 25th? That would be so awesome! We'll see what happens between now and then...

You can check out more photos from the event by clicking here!

Double feature of "Aliens" and "The Abyss" with...HOLY SHIT, JAMES CAMERON!!!

Once a week I peruse filmjerk.com to see what classic film screenings are happening around Los Angeles. As I ran down the list today, spotting "The Road Warrior" in 70MM at The Egyptian Theatre, I came across a listing for a double bill of James Cameron's iconic films at The Aero Theatre. And to my utter amazement I read the Q&A guest line which read 'with James Cameron in person!'.

Oh. My. God!

Quickly I went to Fandango to buy, buy, buy, hoping and praying the show had not sold out yet....AND IT HADN'T! WOOHOO!!! I am now the proud holder of tickets to the evening! My entire day has been made! I am SOOOO HAPPY!!!

And yes, I also picked up tickets for "The Road Warrior" as well! There's going to be a "Back To The Future" triple feature at The Aero the night after the Cameron films. Gotta get tickets for that! Tickets, tickets, tickets! But I have to say the James Cameron screening is definitely much higher up on my list right now.

"Terminator: Salvation" tickets PURCHASED!

Got 'em! Was the first one in, grabbed the seats I wanted. Midnight show, May 21st. Yay! Now I can go to bed...zzzzzzzz.

Here I sit...waiting for tickets

I've been given the impression that tickets for "Terminator: Salvation" just might go on sale at The Arclight sometime around midnight tonight. And of course I want those prime seats for the May 21st midnight show.

For the past two years, Arclight has put tickets up for sale one month out from major summer releases. Last year it happened with "Iron Man", "The Dark Knight", and "The Incredible Hulk", just to name a few. Incredibly, tickets for "Wolverine" and "Star Trek" were available right after the midnight show of "Watchmen" in March.

So here I am, ready to buy. Ready to start refreshing the Arclight page every thirty seconds. Sure, I'm not gonna die if I don't get the right seats for the right show. It's just a sense of fun and personal pride to get the best seats in the house first.

Tick, tick, tick...twenty minutes to go.

Gearing up for the "Back To The Future" reunion

This weekend is the special event in Burbank that will feature a reunion of some of the cast members from all three "Back To The Future" movies. Most notably Christopher Lloyd and Lea Thompson. Plus they'll be having one of the DeLorean time machines on display as well. Will definitely be going for at least one day, Saturday, and attending the 'Enchantment Under The Sea' dance that night. Whether this is a large or small event, I think we're gonna have fun! Once again, check out full details here.

Working and waiting

Working away at Happy Hour Creative, waiting for tickets to go on sale for the midnight show of "Terminator: Salvation", and thinking about Comic-Con. Also enjoying the nice weather...temperature wise, comfortably sunny days. Spring like. The winter was especially cold for Southern California this year.

"Star Trek": Oh, it's gonna be SOOO GOOOD!!!

I know I haven't seen the new "Star Trek" yet, but still have some pretty negative views of the new movie. As far as I'm concerned, the trailers speak for themselves. The mentality seems to be let's have giant overblown space battles with Kirk and Spock high five-ing one another.

I'm getting really sick of several critics, including the ones from The Hollywood Reporter and UK's The Mail, stating 'fans of the original series will not be disappointed'. I'll be the judge of that! There are a lot of folks out there...purists like myself...who are having severe issue with this reboot. Now, call my purist views an unfortunate wall that'll blind me from really enjoying this movie. I see that and can agree with it. It's just that we're dealing with something so iconic that it deserves a certain amount of respect for the sake of the material and for the sake of the fans. There's either a fine line one walks in bringing the beginnings of the original crew to the screen, or there's the trash can where one throws out most of the staple content and 're-imagines' everything. This seems to be the latter.

Ugh! There's that awful word! 'Re-imagine'.

First day back at Happy Hour

YAY!!! Working at Happy Hour Creative once again!

Had to call first thing yesterday morning to find out when they wanted me to start. They acknowledged the communication blip on their end in not getting back to me on Friday, and did want me to come in right away. So I am set now for at least two weeks of work. Here's hoping this sprouts into a longer haul. No indication yet, but I think somehow it will.

Star sighting

Since I've been working on the revamp my reel, plus getting a few things squared away at home (checking things off on a good sized list), I really have not been out much for the past few days. So I decided to take a drive and have lunch at Fudrucker's. As I sat down at the very front of the place to people watch as I ate, suddenly I caught someone who looked kinda familiar walking by. The profile view turned towards me briefly and I could finally make out that it was actor Sam Rockwell! Who, of course, is working on "Iron Man 2" right now. Cool!

He could've just come out of The Arclight which was practically right next door. Walking with him was a woman a little taller than he was (he's not a big guy) and with straight blonde hair. I didn't get a good look, but I wanna say it might have been Gwyneth Paltrow. Maybe. Of course she has two kids so she might not have been going to the movies with a co-star on a Sunday afternoon. Yet it still looked a bit like her.

I ate the rest of my lunch with a smile, thinking how much I appreciate living in this town and doing what I do.

Happy Hour: Still waiting on confirmation

Didn't hear back from Chris at Happy Hour over the weekend either. Not really sure what to do tomorrow. He said it would be starting right away, but that they needed to get some assets together, load footage, etc.

At this point, since there's been no confirmation to be there tomorrow, I'm going to get up as though I had to be there for 10, then give them a call after they open to see what's happening. I'm sure the project will at least begin early this week.

Call from Happy Hour Creative: Work next week!!!

Finally got a call back from Chris at Happy Hour, after he mentioned there being a couple of projects in the pipeline coming soon. I began to realize that the phone wasn't ringing because he just didn't know anything yet.

He felt we might need to start this thing over the weekend and would give a call later in the afternoon to confirm. Never heard back from him, so at this point I assume I'll be heading in on Monday. The project, a sales trailer for an upcoming Summit Entertainment feature film, will last for two weeks. Summit produced "Sex Drive" and "Twilight".

I'm hoping that after this is complete there will be work enough to keep me around heading into the summer. May is right around the corner and that is, of course, traditionally the month where the work flow really kicks into gear. Chris did say a lot of projects were coming in suddenly, so here's hoping!

"The Matrix": Has it really been 10 years?!

10 years ago, on March 30, 1999, the film industry as we knew it changed forever. And even though that might seem like a cliched statement, just about all of the effects movies you see now have some connection to "The Matrix", both large and small.

I was in Vermont working at Edgewood Studios when a couple of us decided to head down to the one theater in Rutland and check out this new Keanu Reeves movie. It looked pretty out there and action filled. But no one had any idea at the time how it would literally turn everything on it's ear.

My favorite moment in the movie, and one that I literally said 'holy shit' out loud in the theater the first time I saw it, is after Trinity drops Morpheus and Neo on the roof of a building while desperately trying to keep control of the damaged helicopter she's flying. The moment happens as Neo looks up and you see the helicopter's shadow pass over him. "Trinity!", he says. Then the reverse angle reveals the helicopter going over the side of the building and disappearing. All in slow motion. To this day, the hair stands up on my arm whenever I watch that.

"The China Syndrome": 30 years later

Was trying to decide on a movie to watch last night when Stephen Bishop's song "Somewhere In Between" came up randomly on my iPod while I was driving home. It was the only piece of music created for "The China Syndrome", and it's hard to believe this movie came out 30 years ago last month! Wow.

So last night's screening became a 30th anniversary nod to a film that eerily came out only twelve days before the real life catastrophe of Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania. Quite ironically, a physicist in the movie says that the China Syndrome would render "an area the size of Pennsylvania" permanently uninhabitable. I remember being in the theater right after Three Mile Island and hearing gasps come from the audience when this line was uttered.

The absence of a music score only added to the chills this movie generated, especially when the climactic TV news live feed turns to color bars and then cuts to black. The credits roll in complete silence for the duration.

What's next?

Today is my last day at Cannery Agency working on the season 2 DVD for "Gossip Girl". Not sure what I'll be doing next. Still waiting to connect with Chris at Happy Hour and find out if they have anything or me this week. I'll definitely call at lunch today.

"Ladyhawke"...where's the special edition?

Watched "Ladyhawke" (one of my favorite movies) last night for the first time since I've had the Da-Lite screen. From the very first frame I was amazed at how bad the transfer looked. I had watched this DVD on a larger sized television before and it seemed fine. However, blowing it up to 80 x 45 inches really took a toll on the clarity.

The print seemed grainy, and the actual digital transfer to disc was somewhat poor. Not to mention the fact that the aspect ratio from side to side didn't even fill out the entire screen. There were a few inches of black on the right and left. That's when I turned over the box and was reminded of when this was released: 1997. Wow! I had forgotten that this movie was one of the first to be released on DVD when the format was just getting started twelve years ago! The difference, of course, between discs being produced today and back then is like night and day. And I'm not talking about extras or even menus. Just the quality of the movie itself.

Now, even more so, I'd really like to see a special edition come out. With all the releases and re-releases of hundreds of titles over the years, I'm amazed this never got the follow up treatment. There's definitely a cult followng for "Ladyhawke" and maybe some of the fans should get online and show their support somewhere.

"The Shark Is Still Working" screening in LA

Since JawsFest on Martha's Vineyard in 2005 (celebrating the 30th Anniversary), a couple of independent filmmakers and rabid "Jaws" fans have been shooting and editing a documentary about the lasting impact of the original film on filmmakers, everyday people, and pop culture in general. The roster of people they interviewed who actually worked on the film is definitely impressive: Spielberg, Dreyfuss, Scheider, Peter Benchley, John Williams, and that's just for starters. They also talk with some "Jaws" fan Hollywood directors like Bryan Singer, Robert Rodriguez, Kevin Smith, and M. Night Shyamalan, among others. Plus, just about the entire cast still living appears!

I've been anxiously awaiting this movie, and will finally have the opportunity to see it on the big screen before it's released on DVD. This will be during the LA United Film Festival on May 2. For more details click here.

Work possibility with Happy Hour Creative

Fingers crossed! Just spoke with Chris at Happy Hour. They may have something for me starting sometime next week that could possibly last two weeks. Sales trailers for a couple of upcoming studio films.

He asked if I would call on Friday to confirm and that there's no guarantee of ths actually happening. Still, I'm hopeful.

In the meantime, I'm approaching the home stretch on the "Gossip Girl" Season 2 DVD at Cannery Agency. The cut is due this coming Friday. It'd be great to swing right into the next project at the place I'd most like to be next week.

"The Day The Earth Stood Still": My latest work on DVD today

This was the project I cut at New Wave Entertainment last November and December. The featurette I worked on is entitled "Unleashing Gort", which chronicles the various and crazy incarnations the iconic robot went through before settling on what eventually ended up in the movie. It's now available on DVD! Click on the box art for a larger image, or click here for more DVD details.

Ridding the world of nuclear weapons...sounds familiar

Among the numurous larger-than-life tasks our hopeful leader has outlined to attack and conquer, President Obama has stated this week that he intends to rid the world of nuclear weapons. I think this is an admirable plan, and one that should actually happen. Our new 'superman' in The White House is exactly what we need right now.

But right away I'm reminded of someone who did just that twenty years ago. Well at least in the movies. Now all Obama needs is a giant net to fling those warheads into the sun! Wooooo!!!!!

It's kind of cool that Obama continues to follow in the footsteps of The Man Of Steel. And I really doubt he's going to bomb like "Superman IV".

"We can't live in fear, and I can't stand by and watch as we stumble into madness of possible nuclear destruction. And so I've come to a decision. I'm going to do what our governments have been unwilling or unable to do. Effective immediately, I'm going to rid our planet of all nuclear weapons." - Superman addressing the United Nations.

Cannery update: beginning my third week

The way things are going right now on the "Gossip Girl" Season 2 DVD, I'll probably be here at Cannery Agency for the rest of the week. There's more content to be added plus a few more episodes arriving here that need to be sifted through. This is certainly a good thing financially. Plus I get my first check for this project tomorrow. YAY!!!

3D is a gimmick

I actually agree with Director Michael Bay's comment that 3D is a gimmick...nothing more. The studios are making it out to be the next big thing and point to recent hits that have been released in 3D. Rah bah bah, I say! When they can make a three dimensional movie where you don't have to wear glasses and it's used for even the most basic character movie as well as big Hollywood blockbuster, then it'll be a major step forward in cinema.

Frankly, I'm amazed that 3D movies have returned. They try to resurrect this format almost every decade failing to make it permanent time and time again. And I don't care what size your IMAX screen is either. Click on the photo for more of Michael Bay's thoughts on the matter.

"Wolverine" online leak: Let's have some respect!!!

Of course we've all heard by now about how "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" leaked online last week. Here is a portion of the comments I made on MovieWeb.com.

I wish the fanboys out there who download bootlegs would have a lot more respect and turn away from doing this shit!!! These are the same people videotaping trailers and special content at Comic-Con. Even after they're nicely and respectfully asked not to. KNOCK IT THE FUCK OFF!!!

People like that are just ruining the whole experience of seeing movies like "Wolverine" in the theater. Not just for themselves but others who might be turned away by their reviews. The loss of revenue that follows will absolutely affect people's jobs and careers in the industry, and I am one of those people! I'm tired of these little fucks who think they can do whatever they want (regardless of consequence) to the very movie industry they so worship. Of course I worship it too, and LOVE seeing advanced footage the studio officially releases. But there are boundaries of consideration and respect when it comes to this kind of abuse.

This just continues my love/hate relationship with the fanboy community. I love them because they are good, fun, talented, passionate, creative people who worship movies, sci-fi, and comics. But when they take something away from me and others who share my enthusiasm, I'm really frustrated and furociously annoyed at them!

I could have watched "Wolverine" online. It was right there in front of me, and yet I chose not too. I have my tickets for the midnight show at The Arclight. That's where I want to watch it for the first time...period!

Early return to The Cannery

Got a call from Cannery Agency asking if I would come in today. A few episodes from "Gossip Girl" Season 2 showed up yesterday. I've returned earlier than expected to add clips from those to the piece I'm working on. Then I'll be heading back here on Monday as originally scheduled. Not sure for how many days after that, but it could still be through the mid week.

"Gossip Girl" DVD update

Still waiting for the studio to send the last ten episodes for Season 2 over to The Cannery. Content from those are pivotal to the piece I'm working on. So I've been told to take a break for the rest of the week to allow those to arrive and be loaded into the system. I'm due back in on Monday to continue for three days to complete the first rough cut.