Wow. Lionsgate bought Summit and is planning to extend the Twilight movies beyond the books.
I doubt they’ll get RPattz and KStew back, though.
Posts Tagged ‘Movies’
Even More Twilight?
Posted in books, movies, paranormal romances, vampires, wtf, tagged kristen stewart, lionsgate bought summit, lionsgate buys summit, Movies, Robert Pattinson, twilight, twilight movies on January 14, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
Sharktopus! Cannibal Holocaust!
Posted in horror movies, movies, wtf, tagged B-movies, blair witch project, cannibal holocaust, found-footage films, found-footage horror, horror movies, monster movies, Movies, roger corman, shark attacks, shark week, sharks, sharktopus on August 3, 2011 | 2 Comments »
By far the most fun movie I’ve seen this summer is Sharktopus.
Granted, I really haven’t seen many movies this summer. I’ve mostly just been hanging out with friends, going out to lunch, and fighting with this young-adult paranormal romance I’ve been writing since January (the book is winning the fight, by the way).
As you know, I have to see EVERY horror movie known to man, so I did see an interesting one a few months ago: Cannibal Holocaust. Made in 1980, I think it was the first “found footage” film and an obvious influence on Blair Witch Project, which didn’t come along until 20 years later.
The premise is that a documentary crew goes into the jungle to film cannibals and, well, their footage is found a year later. The movie is notorious for not only its stark brutality, but also for the fact that several animals were actually killed on camera.
I am not necessarily recommending this film, because if it’s something you’d like, you’ve probably already seen it and I don’t want to be responsible for traumatizing any of you.
Also, the acting by the people who find the footage and watch it to see what happened to the crew is laughably bad. They give “who farted” looks while watching reel after reel of acts that are absolutely horrifying.
My First Bieber
Posted in celebrities, movies, music, tagged beiber, bieber, Bieber brat, bieber CSI, bieber helgenberger, justin bieber, Movies, music, never say never justin bieber, never say never movie, pop stars on May 20, 2011 | 1 Comment »
Until last night I didn’t know anything about Justin Bieber except for his haircut. (Pro tip: Having a mop-top hairdo and starting your band name with a bee-sound will equal fan mania such as the world has never seen.)
I always get a sense of people rolling their eyes about the Biebs, I guess because he’s a teenybopper and so insanely popular.
As usual what gets lost is the music.
I wanted to know more about him, so I watched Never Say Never, a quasi-documentary about his career leading up to a landmark performance at Madison Square Garden that sold out in 22 minutes.
I was surprised at how gifted he is. He’s an amazing drummer and guitar player, and of course can sing and dance. He started out as a street performer and on YouTube, and you don’t get much more merit-based than that. No, I am not joking. You can dislike his music or his persona, but you can’t argue with them–they weren’t manufactured; they were elected by popular vote.
Bieber himself is extremely engaging and seems to have fairly decent people around him, although I was appalled by his vocal coach who said he sometimes whines about not being a normal 16-year-old. She basically tells him to can it, because “this is your normal.” Yikes, he’s just a kid. An incredibly rich and famous one, true, but everyone should be allowed whining time, especially a teenager.
I would have liked to see an actual bratty, age-appropriate meltdown (but with power and money) in the film, but sadly none was forthcoming since Never is nothing if not promotional.
That doesn’t stop people from looking for bratty behavior, though. According to the HuffPost:
Bieber made his fictional TV debut with a two-episode arc on “CSI” last year, and according to co-star Marg Helgenberger, the kid who played a troubled teen was, off-camera, a trouble-making teen.
“I shouldn’t be saying this but he was kind of a brat [on the set],” Helgenberger told French Magazine Le Grand Direct Des Medias.
“He was very nice to me,” she continued, “but he locked one of the producers in a closet.”
Bieber had this–very mature–response via twitter:
“it’s kinda lame when someone you met briefly and never worked with comments on you. I will continue to wish them luck and be kind.”
I give the kid a lot of leeway. I know adults whose behavior at work is much worse than locking people in the closet as a prank.
Val Kilmer: Straight to DVD?
Posted in celebrities, movie reviews, movies, music, oldies but goodies, wtf, tagged actors, Blood Out, Bob Calhoun, Movies, salon, The Doors movie, Val Kilmer, Val Kilmer Blood Out, Val Kilmer Doors movie, Val Kilmer Jim Morrison on May 1, 2011 | 2 Comments »
Val Kilmer
If you’ve never seen The Doors, you should definitely see it for his performance as Jim Morrison (he does his own singing, too). He was also good in Heat and really cute in Top Secret!, a spoof that put him on the map.
According to his website, he thinks nudity is inappropriate, even “innocent” nudity.
I think I’m intrigued.
Tormented Teens! True Crime! IFC! Kevin Smith!
Posted in Cinemas, Los Angeles Memoir, Seattle Cinemas, writing, writing life, tagged IFC, Independent Film Channel, Kevin Smith, memoirs, Movies, paranormal romances, seattle's neptune theater closing, writing, writing life, young adult novels on February 25, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
Good God. I’m coming into the home stretch with my young adult paranormal romance.
I’ve written 175 pages in the past six weeks. That is lightning-fast for me, because I am not a speedy writer. I really wanted to get to 300 pages and finish by March 1, but sadly it looks like that is not to be. Damn February and its short number of days. It would have been so excellent for me psychologically to be done before I flip the calendar over, but there’s no way.
Oh, but I love my characters and their swooning and their problems and their magic! Good times. I cannot wait to start editing. I haven’t let myself read anything I’ve written so far, so it will all be (sort of) new to me when I read it–the second week of March, I guess.
After the YA PR is written, I will attempt to get on the Stephen King-recommended schedule of writing in the morning and editing in the afternoon.
The next project I want to write will either be the L.A. memoir (which I think I’ve written 200 pages of?) or my self-publishing experiment, which I’m thinking may be part of a true-crime book I wrote from 2008-2010. No one knows what to do with it, including me. I tried to integrate a relationship memoir with this ripped-from-the-headlines story and… it hasn’t worked yet. Although everyone who’s seen it has said it’s an intriguing idea.
Also, I’m getting a lot of love from the independent film community and I’m not quite sure why that is. Big sloppy love right back at ya, though, guys. I’m a great believer in the cosmic flow or whatevs, so there must be a reason that in the past couple months I’ve 1) Broken a news story about a classic Seattle theater closing, 2) Been mentioned by the Independent Film Channel and 3) Been given a pep talk by one of my favorite filmmakers, indie upstart Kevin Smith.
I don’t know what it means, but it means something and I’m gonna figure it out after this teen novel is done.
Until we meet again, I’ll be off surfing the universal waves and typing ’til my arms fall off.
Self-Published Troll Book to be Adapted by ‘District 9′ Scribe
Posted in books, movies, paranormal romances, publishing news, tagged amanda hocking, amanda hocking switched, books, district 9, ebooks, film, hocking switched movie, Movies, self-published books, self-publishing, self-publishing amazon, switched film, switched film adaptation, terri tatchell, trylle trilogy, young adult books on February 16, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
Huge Hollywood news out of the getting-hard-to-ignore self-publishing realm.
So when she couldn’t get a traditional book deal, Amanda Hocking wrote and self-published the Trylle trilogy. It’s a cute, fast-paced paranormal romance about trolls and a seemingly regular teenaged girl who gets called back to become queen of their kingdom.
Minnesota twenty-something author Hocking is a true self-publishing success story, and has sold something like 500,000 of her books directly through Amazon in less than a year.
Today she announced that the first book in the series, Switched, which I loved, by the way, is going to be adapted into a screenplay by Terri Tatchell, who penned Best Original Screenplay nominee District 9.
This kind of independent, enterpreneurial stuff just thrills me.
Congratulations, Amanda, and I cannot wait to see über dreamboat Finn on the big screen.
Mini bucket list progress report: The Matrix
Posted in bucket list, movie reviews, movies, tagged bucket list, dystopian, dystopian films, dystopian movies, film, keanu reeves, keanu reeves in the matrix, matrix, Movies, sci fi, sci fi movies, seinfeld is unfunny, seinfeld is unfunny tv trope, the matrix on February 15, 2011 | 5 Comments »
I could only make it through a little bit of The Matrix. I just have to start owning the fact that I fucking hate dystopian sci-fi unless it’s Blade Runner. Or Brazil. But not this.
I really like Keanu Reeves, too, but the film just seemed silly to me, probably in part because I’m coming in too late in the game and so many things have borrowed from it that now the original seems derivative. [There's a trope named for this phenomenon, but I'm too lazy to look it up. Like when someone had only seen Seinfeld in rerun form and they're like, "This has all been done before," when at the time it was first shown it hadn't.]*
Even though I can’t say I truly gave it a chance, I at least attempted to give it a chance.
So that’s #3 on my mini-bucket list that I have to complete before Mad Men comes back.
I also tried to rent Faster, Pussycat from Blockbuster and hilarity ensued. That’s a post for when I have more time because it really was very funny.
* Okay, that trope is literally called Seinfeld is Unfunny.
Kevin Smith to Distribute Red State on His Own
Posted in horror movies, movies, tagged film, horror movies, john goodman red state, Kevin Smith, kevin smith horror movie, Kevin Smith Red State, Kevin Smith Sundance, melissa leo red state, Movies, phelps red state, Red State, red state horror movie, Red State movie, Red State Sundance, Sundance Festival on January 23, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
According to the Hollywood Reporter, director Kevin Smith bought his own $4 million horror film Red State for $20 instead of auctioning it at Sundance as promised.
Smith plans to take the movie on the road himself prior to its October release.
Smith said that he had never intended to get into the business of the movie industry — noting that he’s simply a “fat, masturbating stoner” — but the state of the industry essentially forced his hand.
Seattle Landmark Neptune Closing Update
Posted in Cinemas, movies, Seattle, Seattle Cinemas, tagged Landmark Neptune closing, Landmark theaters closing, Movies, Seattle Neptune Theater closing, Seattle Theater Group Neptune, STG takeover Neptune on November 29, 2010 | 2 Comments »
There was an announcement from the Landmark Theaters CEO this morning that the Neptune Theater in Seattle is closing in February 2011.
I called the corporate office of Landmark Theaters and they said that they have no plans to close 30 other theaters as I reported the other day, but their spokeswoman also said that it was news to her that the Neptune was closing, so there you go.
I will share with you that one of the rumors I heard was that it was an aggressive buy, not a case of STG bailing the theater out.
The Unfair Beauty of Being Shiloh Fernandez
Posted in celebrities, movie reviews, movies, paranormal romances, tagged Amanda Seyfried, ashley greene, Deadgirl, Movies, Red Riding Hood, Red Riding Hood 2011, Robert Pattinson, Shiloh Fernandez, Skateland, twilight on November 28, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
There’s this actor I’m obsessed with, Shiloh Fernandez. He looks and acts like Joaquin Phoenix and I mean that in the best possible way.
He was in this really inappropriate, really great indie film called Deadgirl a few years ago. He was also the dreamy boy-next-door in another indie film, Skateland, where he was the romantic interest of Ashley Greene (Twilight). I just love him.
Anyway, you probably don’t even know who this guy is, but he was the fourth choice to play Edward in Twilight. And I was thinking of how acting, like writing, is not so much unfair as uneven.
How being fourth in line for a role like the lead in a major franchise doesn’t net you for instance, one-quarter of the money and opportunities that Robert Pattinson gets.
It reminds me of writing. Because when some book gets 10 times the accolades mine did or sells 10 times as many copies, I expect to open it and see that the craftsmanship of the writing is 10 times better. That the author is literally and measurably 10 times funnier.
And sometimes that doesn’t happen. And yet hopefully things even out eventually.
Most people will first see Shiloh in the Red Riding Hood update March, 2011. He’s apparently the bad-boy woodsman who Amanda Seyfried’s parents don’t want her involved with. Also, maybe his big break is closer to his near-miss than it appears: from the trailer it looks like he may be a werewolf.
