Previews and Reviews that are Z's Views
This is one of those stories that if it isn’t true, it should be.
In 1951, Marilyn Monroe wore a low-cut red dress to a party.
The next morning, a columnist complained that Marilyn Monroe was “cheap and vulgar,” and would have looked more decent in a potato sack.
Marilyn’s response was the photos above.
Source: Anthony Oliveira.
Max Allan Collins was recently interviewed by Michael Barson about Collins’ friendship and collaborations with Mickey Spillane. If you’re a fan of Collins and/or Spillane, you won’t want to miss it.
Source: Crime Spree Mag.
Here’s something you don’t often see — Steranko art for The Godfather, Part II. You can see a bigger version at Cool Comic Art on Twitter.
Tara Aquino and Mental Floss present 11 Dizzying Facts About Vertigo. Here are three of my favorites…
1. ALFRED HITCHCOCK BLAMED JIMMY STEWART FOR VERTIGO’S FAILURE.
Marred by mixed reviews, the $2.5 million Vertigo did comparatively less than Hitchcock’s previous movies, and was widely recognized as a failure. Frustrated with its reception, Hitchcock partly blamed star Jimmy Stewart’s aging appearance. At the time of filming, Stewart—who had starred in Hitchcock’s three previous films—was 50 years old which, according to the director, was too old to convincingly play then-25-year-old Kim Novak’s love interest.5. AN UNCREDITED CAMERAMAN CAME UP WITH THE FAMOUS “VERTIGO EFFECT.”
According to associate producer Herbert Coleman, it wasn’t Hitchcock who came up with the film’s famous camera technique (which essentially involves zooming forward while pulling the camera backward); rather, it was an uncredited second unit cameraman, Irwin Roberts. “He didn’t get screen credit on Vertigo because they gave the screen credit to another close friend of ours [Wallace Kelley] who did all the process work on the stage,” Coleman said.9. ALFRED HITCHCOCK CHANGED THE SETTING FROM PARIS TO SAN FRANCISCO.
The French source novel, D’entre les Morts, was set in Paris, but Hitchcock believed that San Francisco was more interesting. As noted by Auiler, with the city’s vertiginous streets and hilly landscape, the location perfectly matched the film’s themes. In a city where there were such extreme physical highs and lows, awful for anyone with acrophobia, Scottie’s vertigo became a character in and of itself.
Here’s the trailer for Mask. Charles Mask Lewis was the visionary behind Tapout. From all accounts, Lewis was a generous kind human being who died way too young.
Check out the video below and I’ll bet you agree that IMDB Me is a cool idea. Willem Dafoe and an “interviewer” go through Dafoe’s film credits. Dafoe provides insight, trivia and appears to have as much fun as the viewer. I’d love to see more of these.
If Yellowstone is more Open Range than Dallas then we could be in for something.
Chris Visions created this beauty for me last year for pick-up at HeroesCon. I’d been a Chris Visions fan for some time and the opportunity to get a commission from him was one I’d couldn’t pass up.
Check out Chris’ site when you have some time to spare. You’ll be amazed at his talent!
Rocky was my first Chris Visions commission. I hope it won’t be my last.
That’s just one of the first issue covers to Hard Case Crime / Titan Comics new Mike Hammer comic series. Based on an unproduced Mike Hammer screenplay written by Spillane, “The Night I Died,” will be adapted by Max Allan Collins with art by Marcelo Salaza and colorist Marcio Freire.
For a look at other covers and some interior art click over to FlickeringMyth.
Before he died George Romero was working on a zombie novel. Daniel Kraus (co-author of The Shape of Water novel with Guillermo Del Toro) has been hired to pull together Romero’s final zombie tale. Kraus is excited about working on this project…
“I could talk all day about George. He’s the reason I’m a writer… Some of [the book] was in tremendous, publish-ready state… Other parts, near of the end of what he wrote, were sketchier, clearly intended to be fleshed out later…
“What’s exciting about the novel, though, is…It’s huge. It’s a massively scaled story, a real epic, the kind no one ever gave him the budget for in film. In a book, of course, there is no budget, and in his pages you can feel his joy of being able, at last, to do every single thing he wanted.”
The Living Dead will be released by Tor in Fall 2019. Here’s a synopsis:
On October 24th, John Doe rises from the dead. Assistant Medical Examiner Luis Acocella and his assistant Charlene Rutkowksi are vivisecting him when it happens, and so begins a global nightmare beyond comprehension.
“Greer Morgan is a teenager living in a trailer park, and when the dead begin their assault, the true natures of her neighbors are revealed. Chuck Chaplin is a pretty-boy cable-news anchor, and the plague brings sudden purpose to his empty life.
“Karl Nishimura is the helmsman of the U.S.S. Vindicator, a nuclear submarine, and he battles against a complete zombie takeover of his city upon the sea. And meanwhile, a mysterious woman named Etta Hoffmann records the progress of the epidemic from a bunker in D.C., as well as the broken dreams and stubborn hopes of a nation not ready to give up.
“Spread across three separate time periods and combining Romero’s biting social commentary with Kraus’s gift for the beautiful and grotesque, the book rockets forward as the zombie plague explodes, endures, and finally, in a shocking final act, begins to radically change.”
Sources: Entertainment Weekly and /Film.
Sly Stallone posted this image on his official Instagram page. Can I buy my ticket now?
The Last Movie Star starring Burt Reynolds (Burt Reynolds!) poster and trailer are here. I can’t tell you how excited I am to see Reynolds back on the big screen and The Last Movie Star looks like the perfect vehicle for him.
Fans of the movie Psycho have to love this alt poster by Adam Simpson. Simpson cleverly incorporates key movie moments in his design. Bravo!
The Bent poster and trailer are here! I just wish it looked better. I’m a Karl Urban fan, Andy Garcia is always a plus and who doesn’t enjoy seeing Sofia Vergara?
S. Craig Zahler is a novelist, screenwriter and movie director.
Zahler’s novels include Mean Business on North Ganson Street, A Congregation of Jackals, Wraiths of the Broken Land, and Hug Chickenpenny: The Panegyric of an Anomalous Child. I’ve read and enjoyed Mean Business on North Ganson Street. I look forward to diving in to his other novels.
At this point, Zahler is probably best known for his movies. Bone Tomahawk and Brawl in Cell Block 99 showed Zahler to be a promising film-maker not afraid to create genre films that are equal parts character study, action and horror. Zahler’s next film, Dragged Across Concrete, stars Mel Gibson and Vince Vaughn with support from Jennifer Carpenter, Don Johnson, Laurie Holden,Udo Kier and Michael Jai White. I can’t wait.
Jedidiah Ayres recently interviewed S. Craig Zahler and they talked novels, movies and more. Well done, Jedidiah!
