August 2

Today's the birthday of Wes Craven, and if you pay attention to movies, you probably know his name already: as a film director and writer, he's shaped the American horror film for decades, from 1972's The Last House on the Left, to the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise and the Scream series. Today, we're going to take a look at his excursions beyond the horror genre.

1982's "Swamp Thing" was his comic book movie, his attempt to show that he could handle action films, big stunts, and big-name actors (the film starred Adrienne Barbeau, Louis Jordan, and Ray Wise. The film garnered enough of a cult reputation to inspire a sequel and a popular TV series.

At one point, Craven was signed to direct "Superman IV: The Quest for Peace". Those legendary "creative differences" (with star - and eventual director - Christopher Reeve) got Craven replaced.

How did Wes Craven end up directing the Meryl Streep movie "Music of the Heart"? He demanded it. In fact, he only agreed to direct a third Scream movie if he got to direct "Music". At the time, Madonna was attached to the biopic about a music teacher in New York that was saving the world one violin at a time. Madonna and Craven had "creative differences", but Craven got to stay in his chair this time.

The film would end up nominated for two Oscars. Critics spoke well of Craven's directing, surprised by his understated handling of the film's melodrama.

"Vampire in Brooklyn" should have worked. Craven and Eddie Murphy wanted to work together; Murphy wanted something darker than his typical urban comedies, and Craven knew how to inject humor into his macabre movies. And "Brooklyn" has real-deal horror fx, plus Eddie Murphy in multiple roles; it's got the two great tastes...

...that taste kind of off. Was Murphy trying too hard to be a leading man(is it a coincidence that he got the gothic mullet look, ala Tom Cruise's Lestat one year prior?) or was he leaning too much on his comedic timing? Was Craven trying too hard to make a comedy, or did he just lose control of the film? "Brooklyn" has its fans, but most people call it an Eddie Murphy film...

Finally, we feature Craven's contribution to the motion picture menagerie known as 'Paris Je T'aime'. As befitting the theme, it's a short romantic comedy about love in Paris, and the most supernatural element is Oscar Wilde.

Apparently, this was Craven's concession to his reputation as a horrormeister. (BTW, "Paris Je T'aime" is a warm and fuzzy film, but the chapter before Craven's has a hot and savage vampiress versus Elijah Wood... so everybody's happy!)

July 16

Graham Robertson has been a professional set dresser since 1996. He's the guy (or one of the guys, depending on the size of production) that arranges the props and furniture on the set, and makes sure everything's at their marks, for continuity's sake. He's done this for movies like Rush Hour 2, My Sister's Keeper, and Star Trek. Recently, he's been busy on the television front: Monk, The Closer, Hot in Cleveland, $#*! My Father Says... That's his Hollywood career for the last 15 years...


well, except for this one thing...

In 2000, he cut together a version of the Budweiser "Wassup?" commerical, using clip from the Superfriends cartoon series:

The video clip became a bonafide viral sensation, inspiring a glut of "Wassup?" clip parodies (and this is five years before YouTube made it easy for any 7th grader and grandmother to upload.) There was talk of the co-creators (Robertson worked with Philip Stark, screenwriter of "Dude, Where's My Car" and a producer on "That's 70's Show") turning the clip into a series for Cartoon Network, but Robertson's next move was creating what the Guiness Book of World Records recognizes as the first all-green screen feature film: Able Edwards.


Shot for $30,000, Edwards was filmed with no sets over a two-week period. While in post-production, he received a visitor in the editing suite: Steve Sodebergh. Sodebergh liked what he saw so much, he became an executive producer.
Able Edwards was released in 2004; it won the Robert Rodriguez award at the Hollywood MiniDV Festival, and then...
...nothing. His experience with Able Edwards informed his book, "Desktop Cinema: Feature Filmmaking on the Home Computer." Five years later, he's keeping busy arranging furniture on sitcoms.
This is the part of the story that fascinates me. Why no second movie? Did the film's lack of box office success dissuade him? There's no website, no sign of any current distribution; did things go sour behind the scenes? Did he, after creating an entire movie with no physical sets, being writer/producer/director/editor/one-man studio- did he find more fulfillment on movie sets? Did he tell the story he wanted to tell? Did he, in the story of Able Edwards, tell his own story and fortell his own fate? Or does he have something else in the basement, bubbling under? (and is "Land of Enchantment" that project?)

Does Graham Robertson have a second act?

April 5

Fascinating character, this Dean Kamen. First off, he's the son of comic book artist Jack Kamen, whose cover art helped the EC Horror Comics line (Tales of the Crypt) anchor itself in the imagination of a generation. This has nothing to do with what makes Dean Kamen a great deal, but it's a cool trivia bit for a comic book geek like me.
Dean's energies are focused on inventing; he's amassed over 400 patents, for such inventions as the wearable infusion pump, the stair-climbing wheelchair, and the Segway. He's also started organizations to encourage science and math education in today's schools, to foster the next generation of inventors.
If anybody has a chance of winning a Nobel prize in two categories, I'd put my money on Kamen. Without his brilliance, we wouldn't have moments like this:

February 22

This one's for Thomas Jane, converted geek. Right now, he's the guy you get when you can't get Aaron Eckhart: blond, talented, chinny, leading man potential. He stars in the HBO comedy series "Hung" (not about American Idol auditioneers) and is developing another series for the SyFy channel.
But in 2004, he was offered the part of The Punisher, opposite John Travolta. He'd turned down superhero roles before (including a part in X-men; Cyclops?) but got interested when he learned how much of an anti-hero the Punisher was. After the Punisher, he jumped feet first into genre films like Mutant Chronicles, Steven King's The Mist, The Devil's Commandos... He even did a makeup test/audition for the Jonah Hex movie. On top of that, this self-described 'fanboy' started making comic books himself, writing Bad Planet and co-writing another with 30 Days of Night creator Steve Niles.
Here's an upcoming project of him that should add to his cult hero status; check out the NSFW trailer for Give 'em Hell Malone:

February 18

If you like your artwork straddling the line between cute and creepy (as opposed to just playing the two against each other for irony's sake) check out the work of Gahan Wilson. His doomed, chubby-fingered everymen faced everything from werewolves and vampires to space aliens and tentacled creatures lurking in the kitchen sink. I look at his work, and see the straight line to Rick Geary, Gary Larson, Jhonen Vasquez...
He's stuck to print, mostly, but here's a brief foray into animation, featuring Wilson's character designs.

February 13

Happy Birthday to Matt Salinger, who's borne his share of American icons. I chose to write about him because he is, until sometime in 2011, the most prominent actor to play Captain America, back in the 90's before Marvel knew how to make movies. He did the best he could with the script (and costume) he had. His most famous movie role, meanwhile, is probably as one of the Alpha jocks in Revenge of the Nerds.
In 2010, he's known as the unofficial executor of the Salinger legacy, as in J.D. Rumors swirl about a safe containing several manuscripts that Salinger wrote and never offered for publication. Still no word if they exist, or if they will - or should - be released.
Whatever happens, Matt Salinger will keep on with his vocation, acting and producing stage shows (The Syringa Tree) and movies (Let the Devil Wear Black). Meanwhile, let's wish Happy Birthday to a man who got to play a real American hero.

February 4

I haven't taken much time with these posts lately, but I'm glad I did with this one. On my rush days, I usually pick some semi-obscure guy that I at least know I'll get a cool video to post for. But the more I read about David Newman, the more he felt like the kind of guy I'm looking to feature on this blog.
For example, why does a guy born in New York City (and died in New York City) go to school at the University of Michigan? I didn't find the information that explains that. But I did find out that he co-wrote the book for "It's a Bird, It's a Plane, It's Superman", Broadway's attempt to bring Superman to the stage. The play didn't exactly fly with the public, but Newman and co-writer Robert Benton had better luck with the screenplay that became the film classic "Bonnie and Clyde"
Newman got another crack at Superman, writing the 70's film version. He ended up co-writing Superman I, II, and III; his writing partner for the films was his wife Leslie. They met at the University of Michigan, and were married for 38 years, until his death. Besides the Superman screenplays, they also produced two kids.
See, that's the life I want.
Besides Superman, he also wrote a few cult classics (Santa Claus: The Movie, Sheena, Michael Jackson's Moonwalker). But I decided to go with this clip from the documentary of the Richard Donner cut of Superman II; jump to about 5:05 to skip the behind-the-scenes talk and see some Newman-written dialogue left on the cutting room floor.

The man wrote the lines, "Come to me, Son of Jor-El! Kneel before Zod!" That's good enough for a slice of cake to me...

January 27

Today's the birthday of Peter Laird, one of the two daddies of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. He's the current curator of the brand (Eastman sold off his share at least a decade ago), and that's his full time job apparently; he doesn't even have other comics drawn besides.
I know, the only reason I'm posting this is so I can run a clip of the catchiest theme song of all time:

Yes, you heard right. This is the European version; apparently, there's no such thing as a good 'ninja' in Europe...

January 26

So if you're a comic book fan, you probably heard that Spiderman's getting a movie reboot, along with any Marvel character not already being produced by Marvel Films. Well, my favorite guy is still Superman, and he deserves a reboot of his own, something classic and less emo. This looks like a job for Michael O'Hearn. He's a four-time Mr Natural Universe title holder and the only guy to be an American Gladiator in both incarnations.
I'm not the only guy who thinks he's the man who can pull off the tights. Check out this fan film, a mock trailer for a movie called "World's Finest":

december 29

Good artists can become great artists, but how does someone become the kind of artist that expands the vocabulary of a medium itself? Somebody like comic-book artist Dave McKean?



It's folks like McKean that render the potentials in comic book art toward the infinite. When I first saw his Black Orchid mini-series, I kind of liked it, although it didn't feel like comic book art. Even now, I feel clumsy trying to describe his work, but it's its own kind of beautiful. McKean's one of the reasons we call it graphic storytelling - because it's more than cartoons in panels, just like the stories are more than superheroes in fight scenes.



He's made the leap to filmmaking, doing as he's always done, ignoring and eradicating borders. Here's a short film he made, based on one of Shakespeare's sonnets.

October 17

Couldn't decide which one to feature today, so here's a twofer:

Aqua's Rene Dif is blowing out candles today. The band took a hiatus so that they could each pursue solo careers and Rene could get over the fact that the female lead singer decided to marry the keyboard player instead. But everybody's friends again, and they're making new music.
Here's the new single they put on the greatest hits album: "Back to the 80's"


Marshall Mathers, aka Eminem, is also celebrating his birthday today. (No idea when Slim Shady's birthday is.) Yeah, he unretired this year, too. In fact, the sequel to his Relapse album, which dropped in March, is supposed to be out this November. Among the most interesting projects he was in this year was his comic book with the Punisher. (That's right: Eminem, Punisher, and a chainsaw...)
Unofficially, it's not his first appearance in a comic book. The creators of the graphic novel Wanted, which became the Angelina Jolie movie, modeled the hitman-in-training character after Eminem. (And Jolie's character was modeled after Halle Berry. Imagine that movie...)
Since I'm in a comic book mood, here's a track from the Encore album, 2004's "Mosh"