NOTE: This time is only for Pittsburgh, as far as I know.
THE TWILIGHT ZONE Returns to TV on UPN
Evergreen - When rebellious teenager Jenna (Amber Tamblyn) and her family move into an exclusive gated community that her parents hope will help them better control the troubled teen, Jenna soon discovers the dark truth behind how her new neighbors deal with discipline problems.
Allan Kroeker directed Evergreen from a script by Jill Blotevogel.
One Night at Mercy - A young doctor (Tyler Christopher) is suddenly confronted with a patient who claims to be Death incarnate. When Death (Alexander) insists he wants to stop his killing ways, the doctor is forced to contemplate what life would be like without death.
Peter O'Fallon directed One Night at Mercy from a script by Christopher Mack.
Forest Whitaker presents these two chilling stories in the series premiere episode of THE TWILIGHT ZONE, Wednesday, September 18 (9:00-10:00 PM, ET/PT) on UPN.
Each week, award-winning actor Forest Whitaker will host THE TWILIGHT ZONE, which features two self-contained stories per one-hour episode. Each story regularly presents known actors as ordinary people in beyond-extraordinary situations as they enter the sometimes frightening, often intriguing, but always suspenseful and surprising world of The Twilight Zone.
UPN's new version of THE TWILIGHT ZONE will embrace the audience's fascination with the mystical and fantastical aspects of the human mind.
Forest Whitaker, one of Hollywood's most accomplished - and admired - actors/directors/producers, is starring in and producing several highly-anticipated upcoming motion pictures including Joel Schumacher's Phone Booth, with Colin Farrell, and Fourth Angel, with Jeremy Irons.
Among his many acclaimed roles, Whitaker was named Best Actor at the Cannes Film Festival (1988) for his portrayal of jazz legend Charlie Parker in Clint Eastwood's Bird, a role for which he also received a Golden Globe nomination.
Pen Densham, Mark Stern, John Watson and Ira Steven Behr are the executive producers of THE TWILIGHT ZONE. It is a production of New Line Television in association with Trilogy Entertainment Group.
HELL ON EARTH. THANK GOD
By Nick Nunziata
2004 may very well be the sexiest comic book movie year ever, if Guillermo Del Toro has anything to say about it.
I want to share with you a few things about Hellboy, his 60 million dollar adaptation of Mike Mignola's utterly classy and cool comic series.
I won't share DETAILS, but I'll do the best I can to convey the absolute joy I have for this project and hopefully satiate existing fans and help get non-fans appropriately juiced for the film.
Guillermo's a friend of CHUD. He's spoken to Kirby, Smilin' Jack, Butane, Steve, Dave, and myself on several occasions and even responded to a few folks who posted in the Hellboy thread on our message boards. We love him, and we love his movies (ESPECIALLY the last two, oh my how those rocked the pants).
After a wonderful time with the man at Comic Con, I thought I'd seen the last of him for a while.
Nope
I spent a bunch of hours with ol' Guillermo on Saturday morning at his office and a bunch more on Monday at his office and at the creature shop for Hellboy and I have a lot of cool things to tell you judging by what I saw. I will not disclose details, but I will clarify stuff and provide you with ample info on what to expect.
First of all, Drew from AICN and I hit Guillermo's nondescript office in the valley on Saturday the morning of the CHUDwest BBQ and amidst the law offices it's almost surreal to see the place where Hell forms in such a mundane setting.
Perhaps it's fitting that they're hidden right next to law offices.
Inside the office (which had Blade 2 posters and others on the walls), three men worked heartily, some of the very best in their respective fields.
Hellboy creator Mike Mignola sat at his drawing board working on a neat bit of setting for the film (filled with his usual amazing ambiance). Looking around at the dozens of fresh and mostly unseen Mignola drawings was exhilarating as skipping work and going to the beach. Mike's a pretty quiet guy, but it was obvious how jazzed he was doing all this stuff for a big film based on his baby. He was extremely cordial and I could've spent a day just gawking at his work.
In addition, Ty Ruben Ellingson was there doing some amazing concept work for the film and if you haven't heard of him (he did concept stuff for Blade 2, Spawn, Jurassic Park, and Mimic to name a few) you will. His stuff is phenomenal, just phenomenal.
The other guy there was Guillermo himself, and when he took us into the room with a wall full of artwork and pictures, the sound we all heard was Moriarty and my jaws hitting the floor.
There are creatures in this film that will blow your pants to tattered threads. There is a beast that will absolutely DWARF Hellboy. These are creatures that not only evoke the feel of H.P. Lovecraft... they practically eject the guy from his grave. They are so cool, and their physiology holds some pretty damn impressive little surprises. There were tons and tons of looks at the B.R.P.D. guys (Abe Sapian will kick your ass, and the tweaks in his design IMPROVE on the comic), the different settings in the film (this film may LOOK like it cost 175 million to make if they achieve even half this grandeur and icky coolness), and the main attraction.
Ron Perlman as Hellboy.
Two words: Holy shitwings, Kevin!
Any worries you may have had about whether he looks the part should be effectively stymied once you see his face. You won't know where Ron ands and Hellboy begins. For those who've been wondering... YES, the facial hair is there and he looks like a mean hombre.
Regarding Hellboy's shape and bizarre torso shapes, I don't know yet but Guillermo's words about the matter fill me with confidence that the protagonist we see onscreen will be a very familiar and striking figure for fans of the comics.
We gawked for a while and then entered Guillermo's office, a place filled to the gills with THOUSANDS of DVD's, tons and tons of scattered bits from his filmography, enough trade paperbacks and art books to satiate a roomful of comic geeks, and loads and loads of toys (many of them based on the worlds of Hayao Miyazaki).
There was SO MUCH STUFF, it wasn't even funny.
Guillermo, being one of the most friendly and generous denizens of this foul world, wouldn't let us leave until we each had a Blade 2 DVD, posters (oh, wait until you see the Wayne Barlowe one...), and other assorted knicknacks before leaving for grub.
We hit a place up the street and ate some wonderful stuff while discussing Hellboy, Guillermo's career, The Lord of the Rings, our mutual love for our work (he said if he wasn't a filmmaker he'd have started a movie website) and damn near everything that came to mind.
It was a very special few hours, once that turned my excitement about Hellboy from "Good gracious why must I wait, I need this to LIVE!" to "I'd better not get in a car, on a plane, or handle knives while eating because I may get hurt and somehow not be alive to see this film!". Any worse, and I'm building a damned time machine.
The only drawback is that we were late for the BBQ.
Guillermo was a gracious host and when we said goodbye I figured it'd be the junket for Hellboy until I saw him again.
"So, when are you leaving, Nick?", he asked.
"Tuesday morning", I replied.
"Oh, well I'm going to the model shop on Monday. Why don't you give me a call if you want to come", he offered back.
My stomach practically flew out my ears with happiness. Monday it was.
So, before I was to try to convince a studio that my Mythopolis idea was suitable to be a comic and/or a film... I hopped in my rented Hyundai Sonata and blazed across Los Angeles to Guillermo's office.
Mignola was there once again, no doubt creating more in a few strokes than I could in a decade. There were others, but a portly director was whom I was there to see.
Once again, Guillermo was a ray of cheer and his office was a plentiful tree of fruits both fun and exciting. While he finished some work, I looked at the concept art for Sideshow Toys' cool as glaciers figure for The Devil's Backbone (the ghost and the bomb stuck in the ground is beautiful and will be worth my $80), fondled his many discs, and leafed through his Hieronymous Bosch art book which was much better than mine.
His office could literally keep a man busy long enough to stage a real-time remake of Cast Away.
Soon enough, we left. Before we were to hit the model shop (as in, the place where the film's non CGI beasts are created), we had stores to hit.
First, we stopped by Guillermo's favorite L.A. comic shop, Meltdown. Sadly, it was closed but an amazingly annoying Rain Man clone told us their hours of operation about 60 times in succession even though we'd read them ourselves. L.A. has more nuts walking around than the ocean has starfish.
Next, we hit Amoeba records... a place almost cool enough to make me want to live out there. Before we left, Guillermo had signed an autograph and bought a DVD and I'd nabbed Tales from the Darkside: The Movie, Strange Invaders, and Amores Perros (which he helped edit).
Oh, I also told him that Mr. Bungle or Fantomas should do a soundtrack soon and his picked up the latter's Director's Cut CD to see for himself.
Next, we entered the den of creature creation. The sound they heard may have been my blood rushing to one spot quite distant from my skull.
Maquettes, CHECK. The final painted design for the film's climactic baddie, CHECK. Different sized incarnations of the other (and even cooler) villain, CHECK. Sculpts of baby Hellboy, CHECK. Abe Sapian sculpts, CHECK.
These guys are serious artists. SERIOUS ARTISTS. Guillermo has grabbed the perfect people for this film, and if you AT ALL enjoy cool monsters and larger-than-life heroes, Hellboy is going to rock your planet to floating dust.
After Guillermo signed off on some designs (he actually applied some clay on one of the designs to make sure a part of a character's costume didn't look like a penis and asked that they add a sphincter to another), he hit a ribs joint for some wonderful gruel and on the car ride back he listened to a my summaries few of the scripts I was hawking.
One in particular (the superhero one, Chaos Blooms) seemed to really spark him, and his comments were really interesting. As soon as the damn thing's written, he'll be one of the first to read it.
The conversation then shifted to other filmmakers, and we spent a lot of time on Alan Parker. He also mentioned how much he loved the 70's Mark Hamill vehicle Corvette Summer.
Get it? VEHICLE.
Anyhow, an amazing trip of fun and productivity was enhanced very much by the time Guillermo shared with me as a friend, as a fellow film and comic nut, and as a director helping share the love on his next project.
One day, I hope to be as sharp and on my game games as he is. The great thing is, his next few projects (oh, his take on The Creature From the Black Lagoon rocks...) sound like more perfect additions to his filmography.
So when they tell you that all of Hollywood is fake, feel free to tell them that they're full of shit as long as Guillermo's around.
Hellboy arrives in the summer of 2004. Start your hard ons.
The site for the HELLBOY film has added an updated interview with star Ron Perlman, even though the film isn?t set to hit screens until 2004.
The New Romulan Warbird from Star Trek: Nemesis
I take comfort in the fact that Picard, Worf, Data, Dr. Crusher, Troi and Geordi will soon return. It's been four years since Insurrection. They've been away far too long. (Come to think of it, it's been 15 years since Encounter at Farpoint debuted on the small screen ? that's a trip.) The crew, my favorite crew (yes, even more than classic Trek), returns December 13th, just over three months from now. Three months seems way off, but it's nothing. We'll be back to the future soon enough. And this time around, the Romulans take center stage.
What we have for you today is an exclusive first glimpse of the big, bad Romulan Warbird from Star Trek: Nemesis... say hello to the Valdore. When Picard sees this on the view-screen, he'll have to zoom out to get the whole effect. It's one sizable Romulan Warbird.
Dale Midkiff's The Crow-Salvation is now available for order at Amazon
The Crow - Salvation (Collector's Series)
Release date: August 13, 2002
Rating: R
Format: DVD
Our Price: $17.99
Actor Lumbly's Dreams Come True
PASADENA, Calif. (AP) Actor Carl Lumbly says meeting former South African
president Nelson Mandela was a dream-realized, a life changing experience.
In the new Showtime movie "Just a Dream," Lumbly's character dreams of meeting blonde bombshell Marilyn Monroe when she comes to his town to shoot "The Misfits" But, as a black man in 1960, Lumbly's character is afraid to try to meet the actress for fear of ruining his dream.
Other people Lumbly's dreamed of meeting include, Sidney Poitier and Earl Battey the catcher for the Minnesota Twins in the 1960s. "The people who did things I couldn't envision," he said.
Lumbly says his life's dreams have come true including having a career as an actor.
"I've had a dream of doing this work," he told reporters. "Having a family. Not becoming drug-dependent or losing my composure and striking someone out of frustration or because I have been moved to by some racist act."
Lumbly says he's one of the lucky ones to be an African-American earning a living as an actor.
"When I got into this business it was a bit of dream or seemed like one because it seemed like so many other actors of color, black men, had difficulty doing that," he said. "And I've realized by dream."
DVD: BLADE 2
By Ryan Rotten
Starring: Wesley Snipes, Kris Kristofferson, Luke Goss, Leonor Varela, and Ron Perlman
Directed by: Guillermo del Toro
Released by: New Line Cinema/Platinum Series
MOVIE:
Throttling you like a cracked-out Hollywood whore craving to turn tricks for cash, Blade II cranks up the franchise to a full-blown sensory fucking overload, out-performing the initial entry in every aspect. Unlike said crackwhore, though, the tricks turned in Blade II are a lot more fulfilling, and there's a lot more bang for your buck, thanks to director Guillermo del Toro who drastically breaks away from his more evenly paced ghostly masterpiece, The Devil's Backbone, for the hyper-kinetic vampire mayhem found in David Goyer's script.
There couldn't be a better director for the job.
After years of scouring Europe's vampire population for his patriarchal ass-kickin partner, Whistler (Kris Kristofferson), Blade's (Wesley Snipes) journey comes to an end. The old man has been found, kept alive by vampires in an embryonic holding tank, and is slowly undergoing the change. Rescued, Whistler is forced to go cold turkey in one night. On top of this family dilemma, Blade is approached by the ruling clan of the vampire nation to help dispense of a new breed of vampire: the Reapers - a mutated, viscous lot who feed on humans and vampires alike. An assassin team called the Bloodpack, originally trained to take Blade down, is assigned to the mission as well (it's horror's Dirty Dozen!). Now, they all need to set aside their grudges and work together as a team to take out the seemingly unstoppable menace.
Guillermo said, quite bluntly in his Guillermo way, during the film's cast and crew screening, If you're here for story, then get the fuck out of here, but if you're here to see gore and people getting beat up then stick around. Though I have to disagree with del Toro that Blade II lacks a story - there's one there, it just lack the depth of something like, say, The Devil?s Backbone - one thing?s for sure, the film is a non-stop, go for the throat, freight train that succeeds in amping up the horror of this action/horror genre hybrid. Doubt me? Watch the scene where the new Blade lackey, Scud (Norman Reedus), encounters a pack of Reapers on the street. Imagine those fuckers running and screeching after YOU.
Filled to the brim with homages to Hammer Films, anime, and even Frank Frazetta art, Blade II originally set out to be a comic book film through and through. Del Toro surpassed that goal tenfold. He's made the ultimate fanboy horror film.
PICTURE:
Startling clarity permeates this state-of-the-art DVD. Blacks are black and all the colors in between are incredibly rich. Combined with Carol Spier's gothic tech production design, cinematographer Gabriel Beristain and del Toro's intentions for achieving a gothic chiaroscuro is finely represented thanks to a crisp 2.35:1 widescreen transfer. Turn down the lights, blow out the candles...immerse yourself in the world of vampires.
SOUND:
Full creative use of the Dolby 5.1 Surround and loud as all hell. From the base-thumping soundtrack to the crispy embers of a roasting vampire...it'll knock you on your ass.
EXTRAS:
Where to begin with this double disc set that exclaims 13 Hours of extras. Well, know this, my dear readers: your devoted Rotten one devoured the disc in a weekend. Let's start with Disc 1
Special features included here are two separate audio commentaries and one isolated music track (to soak up Marco Beltrami's fantastic score). Commentary one contains director del Toro and producer Peter Frankfurt (whose curious jealousy comes across when del Toro mentions Hellboy as his next project). Never leaving us drifting in dead air, the duo ramble on about the film's influences, stunts, and atmosphere. Guillermo manages to get in a couple of good filthy one-liners (gotta love im) while Frankfurt consistently calls out the songs, as they're heard, that are featured on the soundtrack as if re-affirming himself that it was a good idea to stick all that ghetto music into the film. Also hear del Toro's view on the film's non-stop action: Less is more, my ass! In action/horror more is more! It's entertaining, lively stuff all around. On a more subdued note, writer David Goyer and star Wesley Snipes can be heard on commentary track two.
Onto Disc 2 onto the madness!
A cool animated menu (did I mention both discs have cool animated menus?) takes us to a simple chapter screen. Deceiving, certainly, but as you make your selection it just takes you deeper to another screen truly revealing that the disc is loaded with extras. One section, entitled the Production Workshop, features a number of documentaries and video logs like The Blood Pact, an hour and twenty-two minute docu chronicling the making of the film. Featuring interviews from all the key players of the production, it's as close to the making of the film as you can get. Strangely, you won't find any cast interviews, except for Wesley who pops in from time to time. Like the special features found on Fox's From Hell DVD, an option to go deeper into the documentary, while it's running, is given whenever a glyph appears on screen.
A documentary of sorts found in the Visual Effects department of the Production Workshop reveals an hour's worth of video logs recorded at Steve Johnson's studio that provided progress updates to Guillermo who was overseas prepping the film. Led by Johnson, the camera captures the evolution of every major physical effect in the flick including a layer by layer look at the autopsy scenario, an extensive peek at Kristofferson getting his body cast for the fake Whistler body, and the creation of the mechanized Reaper maws (my personal fave).
Also in the Visual Effects section you can find the mini-featurettes Synthetic Stuntmen and The Digital Maw. Their focus lies mainly on the hard-working CG fellas over at Tippett Studios who discuss the process of creating digital characters and digital Reaper maws.
After sitting through nearly three hours of behind-the-scenes docus, head on over to the step-by-step features that take you through Guillermo's production notebook and script supervisor Claudine Strasser's lined screenplay. Throughout del Toro's notebook you'll find nifty little doodles and conceptual sketches.
Hats off to the New Line DVD team for finally giving the script supervisor a little recognition. Now, viewers will know the pain and stress that comes with this job. You cannot fathom the excruciating detail a script supervisor needs to take tabs on, but hopefully you'll get a clue. Pages are filled with technical notes, candid photos, and quotes she heard from other members of the crew -- quotes you'll only hear on a film set, like: Not to ruin this moment of meditation, but what the fuck are we waiting for?
If you didn't think the documentaries were enough, the DVD gives you a chance to select an action sequence and follow it in it's various stages of production: original script, shooting script, storyboards, or just watch the scene being shot from a handy on-set digital camera.
Deleted/Alternate scenes (a.k.a. Sperm Removal) come with the features even though Guillermo claims most of them are crap. Commentary (with del Toro and Frankfurt) is an option with each scene.
Whew! Think I'm done? Not yet, my friend cause you've got a press kit to read, your usual assortment of trailers to sift through, and joy of joys, a Cypress Hill featuring Roni Size music video to jam to! Once you've completed that painful task head on over to the Art Gallery where you'll finds a book's worth of pre-production art from illustrator/painters like Constantine, Wayne Barlow, the Chiodo Bros. (who provide a far more detailed take on the Reaper tongue), and Mike Mignola (Hellboy creator) who pulls multiple conceptual duties on the film. Not only does he provide character concepts but he also designed a number of the sets and costumes. Talented guy.
You know what? Fuck film school. Pick up the Blade II DVD, save yourself tuition costs (hmm, $24.95 versus 18 grand?), and watch every minute of it. I'm sure somewhere in there you'll learn the business of movie making. Hell, I'm surprised they didn't show how to make a budget lay-out in there
PACKAGING:
If the original poster art is slick, use it, is what I say. Thankfully, New Line did. Hey! They've finally discarded those annoying snap-cases
