June 02, 2008
Animation Interviews
The inspiring Michel Gagné, who maintains an impressive balance between personal projects and mainstream studio work (Pixar, Nickelodeon), discusses what he’s been doing lately in this interview.
Filmmaker Joanna Quinn and her producer, Les Mills, talk about their award-winning film, Dreams and Desires.
Absolute Madness
A futuristic world powered entirely by human feces. With the government anxious to control this sole, important source of energy, they install special sensors on its citizens’ anuses to monitor production, while controlling the populace by distributing addictive popsicles.” Sounds good to me. I've recently found the whole twisted film of this madness, you can watch the a crazy five minute clip here.
Frank Miller Assures That ‘The Spirit’ Is Not Another ‘Sin City’
In an upcoming entry in his production blog, writer/director Frank Miller addresses some concerns that fans have that his upcoming adaptation of Will Eisner 1940’s comic book series The Spirit will be a retread of Miller’s Sin City movie.After the film’s teaser trailer and outdoor banner were released last month, many people thought its look — black and white with a splash of red, placed against green scene sets — too closely resembled Miller’s co-directing venture with Robert Rodriguez on 2005’s Sin City.But Miller confirms that The Spirit is actually a full-color movie, and that he hopes to make it into a movie trilogy all its own.
The director also said that with The Spirit movie, he is trying to do what Eisner, his mentor, intended by creating “something new, witty, and exploratory” and that it will not be just like Sin City.
[THE SPIRIT] only resembles SIN CITY in that I am its director, and, well, yes, I have my ways and my proclivities. Luckily, I was able to discern three important proclivities I share with the Master. We both love good stories. We both love New York City. And we both love beautiful women.Another change that fans of the Eisner comic book series are concerned with is Miller’s decision to change The Spirit’s traditional blue hat, mask, and jacket to black. Miller explains that the Spirit’s original blue attire was the product of the limitations of pre-digital printing which necessitated everything in black be printed in blue.
Miller assures that in creating The Spirit’s look for the film, tests were run with the blue color, but that “the blue made the Spirit look like an unfortunate guest at a Halloween party.”
Going to black brings back his essential mystery, his Zorro-like sexiness. It also makes that red tie of his look very, very cool. So I made the call, with all respect to Eisner’s creation, and most importantly, to what I perceived as his underlying intention. It was an easy call for me to make. The Spirit dresses in black, and looks much the better for it.Miller’s aforementioned blog posting will be at the film’s official site soon, but for now, SSH has the first look on the upcoming ninth entry.
Via Geeks of Doom
May 31, 2008
Brains Dance
The making of this commercial here with a nice hybrid of CG imagery and puppetry:
Earthworm Jim Movie!
I've done a few new sketches and he's really fun, funny and just more solid as a character. I have a ten page feature script treatment that I just finished to get a look at the character...see what a feature might look like.I'm not going to say much more. I don't want EWJ to be all about talking up a character...I'm putting the goods down on paper. We'll give you updates over on the Interplay site and I'll probably start a blog to let all of the Jim fans in on the progress of the character, game, movie, etc.
I can only say that I really want to make him shine so you won't get some half-baked, heartless piece of crap made to exploit you for more money.
William "Will" Elder (Sep.22, 1921 – May.15, 2008)
An American illustrator and comic book artist who worked in numerous areas of commercial art, but is best known for a zany cartoon style that helped launch Harvey Kurtzman's Mad comic book in 1952.Mad publisher Bill Gaines approvingly called Elder "unquestionably the nuttiest guy who ever walked in the doors here." Playboy publisher Hugh Hefner said, "He was a zany, and a lovable one." Longtime Mad writer-cartoonist Al Jaffee called Elder "Absolutely brilliant... he was the star from the beginning. He had a feel for the kind of satire that eventually spread everywhere."
Elder was inducted into the Comic Book Hall of Fame in 2003.

Kurtzman and Elder were classmates at Manhattan's High School of Music and Art, where they were in the school's first graduating class. In the late 1940s, they teamed with Charles Stern to form the Charles William Harvey Studio, creating comics between 1948 and 1951 for Prize Comics and other publishers. At EC Comics, he inked John Severin's pencils on stories for Weird Fantasy, Two-Fisted Tales, Frontline Combat and other titles.
When Kurtzman created Mad in 1952, he immediately fixed upon Elder. Elder's wacky panels, filled with background gags, immediately attracted attention, first with "Ganefs!" in Mad's debut issue but especially in the second issue with "Mole!" The story depicted the successive efforts of prisoner Melvin Mole to tunnel away from the prison, first with a spoon, then with a toothpick and finally with a nostril hair. The wild exaggeration in this story left such a strong impression that it was often quoted ("Dig! Dig!") and even referenced years later in a Psychology Today illustration. Elder's device of separate foreground and background actions was referenced by Louis Malle in his film Zazie dans le métro (1960).According to Al Jaffee, "[Elder] could have been the world's greatest forger." Elder also had a chameleon-like talent for mimicking the precise styles of other cartoonists, which made the satiric effect stronger. This ability was showcased in such pieces as "Mickey Rodent!" (a takeoff
on Mickey Mouse and Disney in general), "Starchie!" (Archie Comics), "Bringing Back Father!" (George McManus' Bringing Up Father strip), "Gasoline Valley!" (Frank King's Gasoline Alley), and others. Such was Elder's ability that some of these parodies featured specific observations about the source materials' art styles, with Elder switching illustrative gears in midpanel (as in the sequence where "Mickey Rodent" and "Darnold Duck" literally locate the border between Disney cartooning and a more realistic drawing style. Both characters gain an additional finger on each hand as they cross over).
By all accounts, Elder's humor was compulsive. Al Jaffee described a portrait Elder once painted of his son: "It was a beautiful painting. It was all in very somber blues and black tones, very dark and brooding. After he finished it, he couldn't resist putting two little red dots on the kid's neck, as if a vampire had been there. He was always driven by the notion that something should be funny."
He was a legend, and he will be missed.From Star Wars To Firewall
Nearly two decades have passed since the fun loving, swash-buckling, scruffy looking, snake fearing, nerf herding, Harrison Ford graced the silver screen with amicable characters like Han Solo and Indiana Jones. I'm pretty sure the last time we saw him genuinely smile (sarcastic grins don't count) on camera was when Princess Leia said those three magic words: "He's my brother." What happened, Harrison- Your films have grossed over $6 billion at the worldwide box office, you're ranked the #3 biggest American movie star behind Eddie Murphy and Tom Hanks, you were in the Guinness Book of World Records as the "Richest actor alive," AND you have a spider named after you. So why the long face? Why is Harrison Ford so damn grumpy? Let's find out shall we?
1. Because everyone says he is.
2. Hollywood keeps stealing his wife and/or his family.
In an interview with Harrison he describes acting as the ability to figure out the mechanisms to create belief, behavior that the audience recognizes as cues for how they would feel if they were in the circumstances. Imagine every time you went to work you had to make people believe your family has been kidnapped or your wife has been murdered. By the end of the week you'd be downright suicidal!
3. When a tree falls in a forest, it makes the sound of hair being ripped from his chest.
4. Two divorces and four little Fords
After Star Wars and before his engagement to Calista Flockhart, Ford lived through two failed marriages. And not the typical one-month, married today divorced tomorrow Hollywood-style marriages, either, where the emotional damage can be softened with a few beers and some deep dish pizza. He was married to Mary Marguadt for 15 years, producing two kids, Benjamin and Willard. He then moved on to Melissa Mathison for another 20, with two more little ones, Malcom and Georgia. I guess he saves the "I'll die for my family" attitude for the big screen.
5. Years of repressed wedgie rage.

When Ford was a kid he was very shy and would often get beatings from his classmates. A firm believer in non-violence, he would never fight back and would bottle his rage up for years. He suffered from depression in college, describing his own performance as Sloth, until he was expelled in his final year. Thank God he discovered acting, where he was able to overcome his fears and where he was able to beat the crap out of bullies for the next 40 years!
6. Firewall�
Nuff said.
Last but not least�
7. Still gets bullied today
Harrison, if you're looking to pick up your mood, maybe check what you raked in for some of your films.
American Graffiti (1973) - $500/week
Star Wars (1977) $650,000
Clear and Present Danger (1994) $1,000,000
Patriot Games (1992) $9,000,000
Presumed Innocent (1990) - $12,500,000
The Devil's Own (1997) - $20,000,000
Air Force One (1997) - $22,000,000
Six Days Seven Nights (1998) - $20,000,000
Random Hearts (1999) - $20,000,000
What Lies Beneath (2000) - $20,000,000
K-19: The Widowmaker (2002) - $25,000,000 + 20% of the Gross
Via perimetic.com
May 29, 2008
A Cold Hard Flash Interview
Top 10 Flops Turned Classics
10. Fight Club (1999)
Considering the bullshit political backlash against this David Fincher-directed surreal satire, it’s a wonder “Fight Club” made $37 million at all. Turns out, that was just over half the film’s budget and it contributed to the head of 20th Century Fox resigning later that next year. I remember seeing our very own Kansas senator Sam Brownback on CNN talking out of his ass about how violent the movie was and holding it up as an example of Hollywood brutality for titillation’s sake. The only problem? Sam didn’t stay for the ending, so he had no idea what the hell he was talking about. He wasn’t alone. Critics were polarized, and while most noted its technical innovations, few thought its in-your-face, anti-everything message was anything extraordinary. Since its theatrical run, notices have improved, and society’s increasing cynicism has served it well. “Fight Club” has been instrumental in changing attitudes towards corporate alienation and mass advertising/brainwashing. U.K. film magazine Total Film recently ranked “Fight Club” as ‘The Greatest Film in Our Lifetime.’ The movie also single-handedly propelled Chuck Palahniuk, who wrote the novel, to great success. An independent film “Choke,” based on one of his later books, will be released in September.
9. Harold & Maude (1971)
8. Office Space (1999)
The miserable theatrical failure ($10 million) of this hilarious and telling send-up of office life is still a mystery to me. What happened to word-of-mouth successes like “There’s Something About Mary?” Where was everybody this time? I saw this one in the theater and told all my friends to see it, but it’s hard to sell a movie about a bunch of no-name losers with crappy jobs that features Jennifer Aniston in a supporting role as “the girlfriend.” Like “Fight Club” (which came out later the same year), “Office Space” broke out on DVD. Also like “Fight Club,” it was way ahead of its time, paving the way for shitty-workplace masterpieces like the U.K. and U.S. versions of “The Office.” Tons of “Office Space” phrases have now entered the pop culture lexicon. When was the last time you jokingly referred to some useless piece of paper as a TPS report, or joked that you had a “case of the Mondays,” or pointed out the “pieces of flair” on somebody’s outfit? Anyone who doesn’t recognize the power of this film is a no-talent ass clown. On the other hand, the next person who I see do the “oh face” is dead to me.7. Peeping Tom (1960)
6. Bringing Up Baby (1938)
Starring Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn, this classic screwball farce was a major disaster at the box office, and was met with harsh notices from critics. Director Howard Hawks was fired from directing his next picture for the same studio (“Gunga Din”), and Hepburn, who headed the Independent Theatre Owners Association list of “box-office poison” movie stars, was forced to buy out her contract. Fact is, Grant and Hepburn display impeccable comic timing at a breakneck pace and the “intercostal clavicle” Grant’s paleontologist is searching for in the movie has become something of an iconic reference. Every decade or so somebody tries to recreate its special kind of magic (see “Leatherheads,” “Intolerable Cruelty,” “Who’s That Girl?” and “What’s Up Doc?”), but “Bringing Up Baby” is a true original, justifying its spot at number 14 on AFI’s top comedies list.5. Donnie Darko (2001)
4. It’s A Wonderful Life (1946)
Given that it is now considered the most inspirational film ever made, it’s hard to believe that Frank Capra’s classic Christmas-set movie received mixed reviews upon its release. Capra, whose populist films were almost always blockbusters, considered the review at the time to be either “universally negative or at best dismissive.” The New York Times’ Bosley Crowther wrote that Jimmy Stewart’s George Bailey and the rest of the film’s characters “resemble theatrical attitudes rather than average realities.” During the 1980s, it seemed to be on TV every Christmas season, but now, due to recent copyright enforcement, is reduced to about two showings a year. It currently sits at number 20 on the AFI all-time list, having dropped from 11 on 1997’s list.3. Blade Runner (1982)
Coming off of the sci-fi actioner “The Empire Strikes Back” and throwback actioner “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” Harrison Ford was red-freaking-hot. So headlining Ridley Scott’s futuristic thriller was a no-brainer at the box office, right? Wrong. “Blade Runner,” based on the Philip K. Dick novel “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?,” was a slow, brooding art film about the nature of what it means to be human—not exactly what western-in-space “Star Wars” fans were expecting. The unique and detailed art direction and neo-noir cinematography that Scott spent so much time perfecting, however, paid off in the long run. Despite its original flop status, “Blade Runner” was released in many different cuts for theaters, cable TV/VHS, and finally DVD. In any version, the film is now regarded one of the original visions ever put on film and one of the most influential visual-effects films of all time. It currently resides at number 97 on AFI’s Top 100 movies of all time.2. The Wizard of Oz (1939)
1. Citizen Kane (1941)
Newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst was so offended by Orson Welles’ thinly veiled attack on him that he offered RKO Pictures $800,000 to destroy all copies and the negative of the film. The company refused, and the film now generally regarded as the best movie ever made was eventually released to much hype in 1941. Critical reception was mixed, and the movie flopped at the box office, failing to recoup its budget and crippling the boy wonder’s status as a bulletproof artist. Welles forever struggled to regain the kind of control he once had over “Citizen Kane.” The movie was nominated for several Oscars and won one (for its screenplay), but even at the ceremony, boos were heard almost every time the film was mentioned. The film, now considered groundbreaking for its time-shifting narrative and deep focus cinematography, was virtually forgotten in the U.S. until its critical revival in the late 1950s. It first appeared on Sight and Sound’s Top 10 list in 1962, and has stayed there at number one every year since. AFI had it at number 1 on both of its ‘100 Best’ lists of all time.Via Eric Melvin from Scene-Stealers.com


