X-Files 3 is a definite maybe

I know everyone out there who saw the X-Files: I Want to Believe and wasn't impressed will roll their eyes, but I don't care. With 2012 looming on the horizon, and the show's mythology targeting that date for an end-of-the-world alien colonization, it's just enough to keep hope alive in the franchise despite lackluster box office earnings for the second movie last summer.

Frank Spotnitz (X-Files Producer) responded to the XF3 possibility question at a book signing on Feb. 21, 2009 by saying "I will be very surprised if there isn't another X-Files movie before 2012." [view video of the response]

Yay!

The second movie didn't completely bomb, and it did turn a profit. Plus, a lot of fans said that they were disappointed that it wasn't an epic alien flick like this possible third one promises to be. Blah, blah, blah, I don't care. Just put Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny in it, stamp a big X across the movie poster, and at least one fan, I, will watch it no matter what.

I still want to believe

The X-Files: I Want to Believe movie apparently had a rather bad opening night. It's still a little early, but I saw at least one source reporting a $5 M Friday. That's not good, but is it really surprising? Hollywood seems to have sabotaged any chance it may have had. They released it one week after the juggernaut The Dark Knight, and the same people would watch both. It'd be different if it were a romance, comedy, or a kids movie, but it's a thriller catering to geeks. When you only have $10 in your pocket, you have to choose.

What's more is that they released it on the same weekend as Comic-Con! What's up with that? Who thought it would be a good idea to release it on the same weekend that your core audience is busy doing something else? It was only given a $30 M production budget, which is fine because that's all it needed as a non-epic standalone thriller, but you could tell Hollywood had low expectations for the film from the beginning.

I sense a conspiracy : )

What's really sad is that the movie is really good. Really good if you're a fan of the television show, and not that bad if you're just into the genre of suspenseful thrillers. It's obviously written for the fans, with all the easter-eggs they'd be looking for -- even the actress who played Mulder's kid sister in the television show, all grown up, has a cameo appearance in a different role. There's numerous guest stars from the television show who made an appearance in the film. But after all the nods to fans, it still feels like an X-Files episode without the fandom. After we get through all the gratuitous nods and explanatory devices, you have the actual plot, and you feel like you're just watching an episode of the series. That's what I was looking for, and it delivered on that. It was classic, gritty, X-Files, reminiscent of the early seasons.

There's some things I would have changed. I'm not a 'shipper (fans obsessed with Mulder and Scully's relationship). So, I would have downplayed that part of the story. But I understand that's what fans wanted.

Here's the thing: I still want to believe. I want them to make more! If I can't have the television show, I'd like to have an episodic movie once per year, or at least every other year. There's no reason why this film should have had low numbers. The audience base is still there. We still want these stories. The story itself I would give a B- to. The only thing keeping this from being a viable franchise is that you can't let Hollywood sabotage it like they did this time around. If it hadn't tried to be a summer blockbuster, and had opened maybe around Halloween when fans are not distracted by Batman and Comic-Con, I guarantee we would be looking at higher box-office numbers.

Is it too late to inspire more films? Will Hollywood realize their mistakes and see that there's financial incentive to make more, given the right circumstances? Will there be an X-Files 3?

I want to believe.

There's plenty of material to work with. In the television series, we were given December 22, 2012 as the date when the aliens would begin colonization (Mayan calendar reference, of course). That's not too far off. Hell, I could write the scripts.

You never know, Hollywood realized their mistakes with Hulk (2003), fixed them, revamped and did amazingly well with The Incredible Hulk (2008). With the X-Files, it's not the movie that's broken. It's just the release date and marketing.

The Dark Knight: Excellence in movie titling

I applaud Warner Brother's ability to think outside the box in titling the sequel to Batman Begins as The Dark Knight. This is the first Batman movie title to not have "Batman" in it. You could imagine a sense of unease among movie execs that not everyone out there would get that we're still talking about Batman, so it must have taken some convincing to go with the less recognizable title.

Like it matters, really; All the movie houses still put "Batman" up on the marquee : )

Still, it is something to be applauded. The Dark Knight has long been Batman's moniker. Frank Miller used it in 1986 to pen the graphic novel The Dark Knight Returns. Not only is it an appropriate title from that standpoint, but the entire plot seems to have been written around the possible title. There's several themes in the movie involving "Dark Knight"...

(Minor spoilers)

• The night is darkest before the dawn. We're told that Batman has all but cleaned up the streets and made Gotham a safer city, ushering in the dawn of a new era of order in the city. With the introduction of District Attorney Harvey Dent, Batman may even be no longer necessary to ensure the crime-free order sticks. Then... Joker comes on the scene and all hell breaks loose. The night is darkest before the dawn.
• What makes a white knight and what makes a dark knight? Harvey Dent is characterized as Gotham's "white knight", a man who can fight for the city and its people without wearing a mask. Incorruptible. Batman is, of course, presupposed to be the "dark knight", a vigilante and morally deficit defender of the city.
• Who is which? Is Harvey Dent as squeaky clean as he should be to be considered Gotham's "white knight"? Is Batman as dark and morally deficit as he could be? Who exactly is Gotham's White Knight, who is the incorruptible defender of the city? I won't spoil it for you, but its definitely NOT the Joker.

The entire movie centers around these themes. It's the perfect title. Good on them for sticking with it over pandering titles like Batman: The Dark Knight or some other intelligence-insulting title that I'm sure was suggested.

The other dark knights

While this weekend the entire known universe of movie goers are clamoring over The Dark Knight (as well they should be), it's important for me as a fan of both Batman and the X-Files television series to remind the world that next weekend two other night stalkers will be in theaters nationwide.



You must see this film (or else I'll use government mind-control reversed engineered from alien technologies, delivered through black oil attached to honey bees tended by clones, to make you watch it).

X-Files 2 finally gets a title: "I Want To Believe"

Die-hard X-Files fans will instantly recognize the title of the long awaited sequel as the slogan on Mulder's poster in his basement office. The X-Files: I Want To Believe. "It's a natural title," Chris Carter said in a recent interview. "It's a story that involves the difficulties in mediating faith and science... It really does suggest Mulder's struggle with his faith." Yeah, yeah, yeah, just post a trailer already! The Xfiles.com site is looking a little bare, although it is sporting a really cool theme graphic of the intrepid duo's shadows forming an "X" behind them. Very cool. This movie better not suck.

Persistence pays

Persistence pays. I was busy when they walked the red carpet, but hung out late and was able to get their autographs as they left the theater (click for larger image). George Clooney's sig is below his left leg in the photo and Renee Zellwegger's is across Clooney's right arm/chest.

As one guy in the crowd commented: "[Renee] is hotter than fish grease."

I'm like, what does that even mean? Apparently it's really hot. Think fish fry and remember that this is Kentucky and not Hollywood : )

Live streaming video of George Clooney in Maysville!

I have live streaming video of Downtown Maysville Kentucky, broadcasting all day in anticipation of George Clooney and Rene Zellwegger's red-carpet premiere of Leatherheads tonight (starting at 7pm) at the Washington Opera House. Okay, so right now (6:30 AM) it's just pointing out my window, but as the day progresses I'll be moving it to get a better shot. Tune in and check it out:

[Video removed after the event]

Leatherheads premiere a go for Maysville

It's official. Nick Clooney confirmed on Monday that the Universal Studios film Leatherheads, starring George Clooney, Renee Zellwegger, and The Office's John Krasinki, will be premiering at the Washington Opera House here in Maysville, Kentucky, on March 24th. I doubt I'll be able to get tickets because the place only seats 400, and 75 of those seats are apparently already taken. That's OK, though, because as WKRC reports, George and his co-stars will be hanging around for events the following day (25th) as well. I'm fairly certain I'll run into them considering the Opera House is literally two blocks down the street from where I live. I met George before when he was here for the Rosemary Clooney Festival a few years back, but I'm anxious to see Renee Zellwegger and John Krasinki -- like awesome! For those not familiar with the area, The Washington Opera House is the over 150 year old recently renovated theater we visited in Episode 8 of From Maysville. We're supposed to go back sometime next month for a late-night ghost hunt.

What's my age again?

I eagerly await the day when I'm old enough to wear a Fedora without looking dorky.

Words are flying out like endless rain into a paper cup

The local theater sucks and never plays anything interesting, so I had to wait for the video release of Across the Universe, a film I've been waiting for since seeing the trailer last summer. I watched it last night, and it instantly shot to the top of my list of favorites. I've always said that if they made a movie about me, I'd want it to look like a music video. I'd rather it look like this. Here's the blurb from Ebert:

Across the Universe, from director Julie Taymor, is a revolutionary rock musical that re-imagines America in the turbulent late-1960s, a time when battle lines were being drawn at home and abroad. When young dockworker Jude (Jim Sturgess) leaves Liverpool to find his estranged father in America, he is swept up by the waves of change that are re-shaping the nation. Jude falls in love with Lucy (Evan Rachel Wood), a rich but sheltered American girl who joins the growing anti-war movement in New York's Greenwich Village. As the body count in Vietnam rises, political tensions at home spiral out of control and the star-crossed lovers find themselves in a psychedelic world gone mad. With a cameo by Bono, Across the Universe is "the kind of movie you watch again, like listening to a favorite album." (Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times)

In case you didn't guess from the title, the movie is set (brilliantly) to the music of The Beatles. Here's one of the trailers:



And one of my favorite scenes (though just one of many):



I usually say go rent this movie. You should buy this one.

X-Files 2 publicity photos released

First publicity photos released from the new X-Files sequel coming out in July. Everything's hush-hush, naturally, but they've gone back to their roots, favoring the "monster of the week" format that made them successful versus the long running X-Files mythology of aliens colonizing the planet in preparation for a hostile take over. They've also gone back to Vancouver to film the sequel, which is where all of the early X-Files were filmed. That's cool, because there's only so much you can do in the desert outside of LA, as the last couple of seasons of the show demonstrated.

Apparently no one ages in Hollywood either. It's been six years since the final episode of the television series and the intrepid paranormal agents look like they've been frozen in alien carbonite and thawed out just to film the sequel. It must be all that hybridation going on.

The film is still untitled, but a production crew is working in Vancouver under the codename "Done One". There's no official statement that Done One is X-Files, but it's not that hard to figure out. Us X-Files fans are trained to look for clues. The director listed on the Done One roster is a Rich Tracers, a clever anagram for Chris Carter.

Done One. That doesn't sound very enthusiastic, does it? Oh well, the real enthusiasm lies in the die-hard X-Philes like myself – who've been waiting six friggin' years for a sequel! All I can say is that it's about time, and I hope everyone stays onboard so that ten years from now, when they're filming X-Files: Infinity, the production will be called "Done Twelve".

If the scanner sees only darkly

I finally got a chance to watch A Scanner Darkly, and wasn't disappointed. I started watching it for the art, because that's what everyone hyped up. It's animated, but based on live action. I watched for the art, but stayed for the plot. I must have missed that it was based on a novel by Philip K. Dick or I would have seen it sooner, definitely.

Since it was art that motivated me, let me cover that first. What makes this form of animation unique is that they start with actual live action footage of actual actors actually doing stuff -- Keanu Reeves, Robert Downey Jr., Winona Ryder, and Woody Harrelson in this movie. They then run that film through a bunch of filters that create blotches of color and strong outlines, similar to what you'd see in a graphic novel. It's a neat, surreal effect but a little hard to follow. That is, your mind is constantly switching back and forth between what it thinks is live action and what it knows is animation. It's a few minutes into the film before your mind compensates and you can comfortably watch it.

I don't know why they billed it as a breakthrough animation technique. You can easily copy the basic idea using Adobe Flash's trace bitmap feature. It'd still require some post production, but the point is it's not that much different. It's also been done before. A few years back they used a similar technique to create the movie Waking Life, a film about the bizarre state of lucid dreaming, or being conscious and aware while dreaming (I'll have to come back to lucid dreaming later because it's something I'm really into). It's been done before, but not as well, so I guess in that sense it was a breakthrough. It did look awesome.

So I think the style of the film, animated, was actually a plot device as well. The story takes place in a not-too-distant totalitarian future where every aspect of people's lives is monitored in a 1984 sort of way. There's an ultra-addictive drug that's seeped into society, simply called "Substance D", and the main character, Bob Arctor (Reeves), is both an undercover detective working to stop the spread of Substance D, and a dealer/addict to it as well. As the story progresses, Arctor begins to lose his own identity and display schizophrenic behavior. A main theme of the movie is identity. As the main character finds himself in a surreal world and mind that he is increasingly unable to identify with, the similarly surreal style of the film becomes all the more brilliant.

Like I said, the movie is strongly about the main character's struggle and ultimate inability in understanding his own identity, all the while feeling a lack of control over the events that are happening to him, and being constantly watched by electronic scanners embedded everywhere. It is in this despair we get the best line of the well-written screenplay:

Whatever it is that's watching, it's not human, unlike little dark eyed Donna. It doesn't ever blink. What does a scanner see? Into the head? Down into the heart? Does it see into me, into us? Clearly or darkly? I hope it sees clearly, because I can't any longer see into myself. I see only murk. I hope for everyone's sake the scanners do better. Because if the scanner sees only darkly, the way I do, then I'm cursed and cursed again. I'll only wind up dead this way, knowing very little, and getting that little fragment wrong too.

Good stuff. Go rent it.

Indiana Jones and Batman share the theaters again

The most searched for video on the web right now is the teaser for the new Batman movie: The Dark Knight, set for Summer 2008. I don't know if anyone has made the connection yet, so I'll go ahead and put it out there, but the last time Batman shared the theaters with Indiana Jones was the summer of 1989 (Batman and Last Crusade). That was the summer I moved from Atlanta, Georgia, to Cincinnati, Ohio. It was a good year for movies (same year Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure came out. Party on dudes!). I had a crush on the girl who lived down the street and was a bit sad about moving. Of course all I remember today is the Batman t-shirt she wore the last time I saw her. Priorities, eh? : )

I had a lover’s quarrel with the world

A philosophy for life, via A Love Song For Bobby Long:

*****

Some people reach a place in time where they've gone as far as they can. A place where wives and jobs collide with desire. That which is unknowable and those who remain out of sight. See what it is invisible and you will see what to write. That's how Bobby used to put it. It was the invisible people he wanted to live with. The ones that we walk past everday, the ones we sometimes become. The ones in books who live only in someones mind's eye. He was a man who was destined to go through life and not around it. A man who was sure the shortest path to Heaven was straight through Hell. But the truth of his handicap lay only in a mind both exalted and crippled by too many stories and the path he chose to become one. Bobby Long's tragic flaw was his romance with all that he saw.

And were an epitaph be my story,
I’d have a short one ready for my own.
I would have written of me on my stone:
I had a lover’s quarrel with the world.

– Robert Frost

*****

Yep. That about sums it up.

It's not the years. It's the mileage.

Just found out today that my friend who works on special effects is doing work on the new Indiana Jones movie! I have no idea what any of it entails. It's all hush hush and stuff, but I am so excited. Drooling to see it anyway, but now I have this flimsy (ok, lame) connection to it. I really need to move out to California.

Raiders of the Lost Ark is the very first movie I ever became obsessed with as a kid. I had myself a fedora by the age of eight I think. I even wanted to be an archaeologist until I realized how boring that actually is, not at all adventure-filled, no whips, no idols. Still, I was a slacker student sleeping through most of high school but always managed straight A's in history. That's all because of Indiana Jones.

Indiana Jones in the early years, Huckleberry Finn through my teens, and Kerouac by my twenties. Don't ask me how, but those guys made me who I am today.

I don't think it's gay to say that Ford looks damn good for his age. If I look as good as him when I'm — what is he 60? — I'll be happy. I don't even look that good now, but I'm hoping the wine effect will kick in (not liver damage, but ripening with age). Of course Indiana Jones the character is immortal.

Favorite Indiana Jones quotes: "It's not the years. It's the mileage." and "That's why they call it the jungle, sweetheart."

If you wanna make movies, join the crowd

When I was nine years old, I made a stop action movie with my dad's camcorder and couple of G.I. Joe action figures. Is nine too old to play with toys? Nevermind. Anyway, I made this movie and it totally rocked. My mom said so. I created a storyline where the Joes had to bust this guy out of a South American prison because he had key information on a cocaine drug lord or something. I even made this styrofoam prison with kabob stick bars and a breakaway wall (for when they busted him out). I carved the wall into tiny bricks of styrofoam and rigged it with thread so that when I pulled the string the whole wall came down. A puff of baby powder sealed the effect of C-4 demolitions.

I'd love to make a movie today, but unfortunately I'm lacking in time, money, and I also sort of don't have any talent for it : ) Maybe I could pull off a Clerks, but unfortunately as an adult you have to impress more people than your mom. Sounds like a broken dream, eh? Fear not my friends. Now I, you, or anyone with the mere desire can participate in a full-length feature film that will one day appear in actual theaters.

It's called A Swarm of Angels, and it is the first (that I'm aware of) open source movie project. Participants not only fund the movie collectively, but also participate in the creative process of writing it, filming it, and releasing it. It's the entire process of making a Hollywood film, but the tasks are crowd sourced to a global community of members. Right now A Swarm of Angels is moving into phase 3 of 5, producing the trailer for the movie and completing the development. Even if you don't get in on this one, I'm sure there's more to come.

Fulfill your childhood dream of making a movie. Check out A Swarm of Angels

Yipee kay aye model maker!

A friend of mine works in Hollywood as a special effects, model/prop maker. I knew he did some work on the upcoming Live Free or Die Hard movie, so I sent him an email asking what parts his crew were involved in. He replied...

A lot of our stuff is in the trailer: the car jumping into a helicopter, the plane sequence, the freeway chase, the semi truck explosions, the elevator sequence, and more. It's looking pretty nice.

Um, yeah. Check out the trailer. It's friggin sweet.



I'm in the wrong business. I don't get to blow anything up : (

Ah well. Yipee kay aye model maker!

I like the stuff that doesn't suck, part 2

Continuing with filling out pages in my profile, next up: Movies.

This is another difficult one to put a finger on. I can't point to a specific genre and say I like that because, really, I like everything from popcorn blockbuster action summer hits to drama, comedy, horror, ganster films, spy versus spy and so on. Even the genres that I don't like, like musicals, I like some of, like Chicago. Not a big fan of Grease, though, because I'm not gay.

I can't really list off all the movies I like either. They make so damn many.

I am a fan of special effects. What computer graphics-guy isn't? I can't say that I like all special effects driven movies, however, especially those that sacrifice other elements in favor of a really cool look, like Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow and Final Fantasy. I did love the look of the parts I stayed awake through. By comparison, Sin City and 300 didn't suffer anything for their look. No surprise there, Frank Miller was involved.

Kind of related note: I like animated films, like Shrek and the Pixar du jour, but when the industry releases six or so of these a year I kind of lose interest in any of them.

So if I like everything some of the time, and nothing all of the time, are there any good guidelines to go off? Absolutely. There's some actors, actresses, and directors that I'll give a fair shake to everytime. That's not to say I like all their movies, but I'll watch all of them at least once in a benefit of the doubt. Peter Jackson and Quentin Tarantino as directors have earned that from me. Steven Soderbergh as producer. George Clooney, Johnny Depp, Anthony Hopkins, Nicholas Cage, and Kevin Spacey as actors. Cate Blanchett, Kate Winslet, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Naomi Watts are actresses off the top of my head. There's probably more that I can't remember right now; these are just examples. I'm sure I'm forgetting somebody.



Speaking of consistency, I always check the lineup at Focus Features. They're the ones who released (my favorites of those I've seen so far): Being John Malkovich, Traffic, The Shape of Things, Swimming Pool, Sylvia, 21 Grams, Lost in Translation, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, The Door in the Floor, The Constant Gardener, The Ice Harvest, and Hollywoodland. That's a lot of great flicks from one place.

There's a lot of films that I like that you may have never heard of because I like a lot of indie films. Watch IFC. Good stuff there. I don't snub the mainstream movies, though. I was first in line at the midnight openings of the Matrix, Lord of the Rings, and Harry Potter films. It was a lot easier when I was a kid. Raiders of the Lost Ark all the way.

Films that most of the people I know don't like, but I really do: American Beauty, I Heart Huckabees, Napoleon Dynamite and [a lot of others] ahem, Titanic. Anyone who doesn't like those films should be eaten by a liger. It's pretty much my favorite animal.

All set for the shakes

Got rid of all the smokes last night and the cigars today. The cigars were definitely peer pressure. I only started smoking those after watching the Sopranos (damn you Gandolfini!). I was a little worried, then, that I wouldn't have any bad habits. I don't want to be a puritan. Then I remembered that I'm absolutely obsessed with coffee. That's a bonus! I know way too much about what makes the perfect cappucino. Having a fallback bad habit helps in getting rid of the truly detrimental habit.

I'm all set to wait out the 72 hours. I'm such a baby though. I'm treating it like detox, like a heroine habit. I'm fully expecting shakes and hallucinations of babies crawling across the ceiling.

I love that movie, by the way, Trainspotting.

My favorite quote (Renton narrating):

Choose Life. Choose a job. Choose a career. Choose a family. Choose a fucking big television, choose washing machines, cars, compact disc players and electrical tin openers. Choose good health, low cholesterol, and dental insurance. Choose fixed interest mortgage repayments. Choose a starter home. Choose your friends. Choose leisurewear and matching luggage. Choose a three-piece suit on hire purchased in a range of fucking fabrics. Choose DIY and wondering who the fuck you are on Sunday night. Choose sitting on that couch watching mind-numbing, spirit-crushing game shows, stuffing fucking junk food into your mouth. Choose rotting away at the end of it all, pissing your last in a miserable home, nothing more than an embarrassment to the selfish, fucked up brats you spawned to replace yourselves. Choose your future. Choose life... But why would I want to do a thing like that? I chose not to choose life. I chose somethin' else. And the reasons? There are no reasons.

I'm such a baby : ) People do this all the time.

Jumping the shark and other strange fictions

So I was watching Will Ferrel's movie, Stranger Than Fiction, last night and got to thinking about my own life as a narrative. In the movie, Harold Crick (Ferrell) comes to realize that his life is the subject of a book, and that everything he does is part of the plot. He hears a woman's voice narrating his tiniest of actions. When he tries to do nothing at all - stop the plot - a demolition crew knocks through the wall of his apartment. In other words, when he tries to avoid the plot, the plot comes to him.

My life is a book, that much is certain. I even narrate at times. Especially when I look back at all the little things in my life and how they could have been different, it reads like a book.

The question is, is it a novel or a collection of short stories?

I'd like to think it is a collection of short stories because of endings. In a book, you have a clear beginning, an arc, and a clear ending. Life's not really like that. It's hard to point to a spot in the plot and say, there's the ending. The different chapters in my life I can easily do that. They are so book-like it's sad. Everything from the characters, to plot unfolding, to themes, to backstories - I mean, it's all right there.

The problem is when I think of my life in terms of one really long novel. I'm not dead, so there's no real clear ending. It still reads like a book, but the plot is disjointed. Worse, there's some question of whether the plot ran its course long ago.

In television, this is called "jumping the shark". You know, that famous point in Happy Days where Fonzy, dressed in a leather jacket while water skiing, attempts to jump a shark. It made no sense. The moment is universally condemned as one of the worst in TV history. Happy Days was all downhill from there. Everyone says that is the point where Happy Days had run its course and everything after was grasping at straws. Jumping the shark, in recent years, has become a metaphor for the one moment where the plot should have stopped but instead kept going.

As a collection of short stories, or even as a series of movies with recurring characters and never-ending sequels, all is well. It's a happy little life filled with daring adventures.

But as one long novel, I shudder to think: "Has my life jumped the shark?"