Category: Celebs

Donald Westlake’s Ventures in Movies and TV

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The Mind of Donald E. Westlake by Levi Stahl takes a look at Westlake’s ventures into screenwriting and the adaptations of his work for movies and television. It’s worth a look.

Did you know Westlake wrote a screenplay adapting Hammet’s Red Harvest? Sadly it was never made.  Neither was Westlake’s James Bond screenplay.  It’s no secret that Lee Marvin played Westlake’s most popular character Parker on the big screen, but did you know…

 

…that Between Point Blank, in 1967, and Parker, in 2013, Parker (usually under other names) was played by Lee Marvin, Robert Duvall, Jim Brown, Mel Gibson, Jason Statham, and, strangest of all, Anna Karina…

I didn’t.

18 Things We Learned from the New “Waterworld” Blu-Ray

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Max Evry and ComingSoon present 18 Things We Learned from the New Waterworld Blu-Ray.  Here are three of my favorites…

Jack Black is in this movie.
In one of his earliest film roles, comedy superstar Jack Black portrayed the soot-faced Smoker airplane pilot who attacks The Mariner only to get his plane caught on the trimarand’s mast. He’s only in a few scene and is barely recognizable due to the heavy amount of dirt make-up he wears.

Kevin Reynolds did the big explosion stunt himself
One of the major stunts in the film is when Kevin Costner shoots down a wire using a hook as a massive explosion erupts behind him. At first production would not allow Costner to do the stunt, fearing for the actor’s life. To demonstrate that it was perfectly safe for Costner, Reynolds performed the stunt himself.

The Waterworld stunt show at Universal is still going!
Originally opening at the same time as the film in 1995, Waterworld: A Live Sea War Spectacular is a live stunt show featuring the Atollers being attacked by Smokers. It is still active to this day at Universal Studios Hollywood, Universal Studios Japan, and Universal Studios Singapore.

When Jim Steranko Re-Cast Nick Fury and the Agents of S.H.I.E.LD.

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Brian Cronin’s When Jim Steranko Re-Cast Nick Fury and the Agents of S.H.I.E.LD. at CBR.com is well worth a read. 

But before you click over, let’s have a little fun. 

Cronin contends that Steranko based his version of Nick Fury on an actor famous for his athleticism and rugged good looks.  After reading the article, I agree!

As a bonus, Cronin also suggests that the blonde guy with the big smile in the lower right on the cover above is another famous actor from the same time period.  And, again I think that he’s right.

Do you have any ideas who those two actors could be?

 

Thomas Boatwright’s “Rambo III” Stick Fighter!

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Above is Thomas Boatwright’s art of Sly from Rambo III.  If you like what you see (or love it as I do) then you may want to check out the video below of Boatwright creating it!

Over the years I’ve gotten several Stallone pieces from Thomas.  Click on the link to see what has been posted so far… there are more to come.

If you’d like to see more of Thomas Boatwright’s art check out his blog and his instagram. Send him some love.

The 17 Best Director Cameos in Movie History

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Josh Spiegel at Syfy.com ranks his choices for The 17 Best Director Cameos in Movie History.  Using just Spiegel’s list here are my top three…

  • Roman Polanski, Chinatown (1974)

  • Mel Brooks, Blazing Saddles (1974)

  • Alfred Hitchcock, North By Northwest (1959)

…followed by 3 that didn’t make the list.

  • Sylvester Stallone, Staying Alive (1983)

  • Francis Ford Coppola, Apocalypse Now (1979)

  • Alfred Hitchock, Lifeboat (1944)

Everything You Need to Know About “Rambo V: Last Blood”

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Padraig Cotter at ScreenRant has posted what he believes to be Everything You Need to Know About Rambo V: Last Blood.

The article does a good job of covering the film and is worth a read.  Here are a couple of tidbits that stuck out to me…

  • The star planned to adapt the novel Hunter for Rambo V, which finds a legendary tracker being tasked by the government to track down a feral, man-made monster. Hunter leads a team of mercenaries after the creature, which seemingly cannot be killed.  Since Hunter and Rambo are essentially the same character, Stallone felt the book would make a strong basis for a sequel.

    When Stallone later pitched this version on Ain’t It Cool News, it was met with swift derision from fans, so he soon scrapped the concept; that said, it was recently confirmed he plans to adapt Hunter as a solo movie.

Although at first look, Rambo and Hunter are similar (and the adaptation would have been fairly easy), I was glad that the decision was made to scrap this idea.  I’m even happier that Sly plans to adapt Hunter as a solo movie.

  • First Blood author David Morrell revealed in an interview that, around the time Stallone was working on Creed, he got in touch about working on a script that would mark a “soulful” final journey for John Rambo. The pair collaborated on this concept, which Morrell says would have contained action, but it was more about a man who had spent his life at war contemplating his past.

    The author feels this undiscovered Rambo V concept could’ve garnered awards recognition, but when Stallone took it to producers, they rejected it and wanted to focus on the human trafficking story instead. It appears the star wasn’t happy with this, as Stallone later announced his retirement from both the Rambo and Expendables franchises.

Morrell is not only the creator of Rambo, but an outstanding, award-winning author.  It would have been very interesting to see the direction he took Rambo.  Morrell still owns the rights to publish any Rambo stories but has elected to tell other stories.

With all that said, click over and check out Everything You Need to Know About Rambo V: Last Blood.

The 21 Best Action Movies That Still Hold Up Today

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Philip Pirrello has compiled a list of The 21 Best Action Movies That Still Hold Up Today.  Pirello’s list contains the movies you’d expect, although we probably all would disagree on the order.

For the record, my top three films from the list would be (in alphabetical order):

  1. Cliffhanger
  2. Point Break
  3. Terminator 2

Several actors made two appearances on the list: Tommy Lee Jones, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Will Smith, Wesley Snipes and Sly Stallone.  Only two actors had three appearances and they may surprise you (they did me): Keanu Reeves and Harrison Ford!

Sean Phillips’ Jimmy Cagney!

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Sean Phillips is an amazing artist as you can see from his James Cagney piece above.  The art appears with an article on Angels with Dirty Faces by Kim Morgan that will appear in Criminal #2 dropping on February 12th.

The great thing about the Criminal comic series by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips is that each issue is packed with a great comic story PLUS bonus features and art.

Source: Kim Morgan.

Which ’80s Action Character was the Deadliest?

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I imagine that many of our regular readers will get a kick out of Evan Hopkins’ The 20 Deadliest ’80s Action Movie Characters Ranked.  Evans’ list is a good one.

Some actors had multiple characters who made the list.  Chuck Norris had 4, Arnold Schwarzenegger had 3, Sly and Mel Gibson had two characters.

Sly Stallone’s Rambo came in first place and Cobra showed up at #11 and you know I won’t argue that.  🙂

R.I.P. – Andrew Vanja

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Andrew Vanja, one of the producers behind the Rambo franchise has died at the age of 74.  Vanja’s producing credits include many of my favorite films including: First Blood, Rambo, First Blood, Part II, Angel Heart, Extreme Prejudice, Rambo III, Total Recall, Tombstone, The 13th Warrior and many others.

Thanks for the hours of entertainment, Mr. Vanja.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to Andrew Vanja’s family, friends and fans.