Previews and Reviews that are Z's Views
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!
MeTV has an article that presented 11 Forgotten TV Detectives and Crime Solvers of the 1970s. Although the post is no longer available, here are three of my favorites (and some comments)…
1. Dan August (1970–71)
Dan August was Burt Reynolds second series after he left Gunsmoke. In his first effort, Hawk, Reynolds played a detective. The series ran just one season of 17 episodes. Reynolds second television outing as the lead was in Dan August. Reynolds played a homicide detective. Dan August lasted just one season of 26 episodes. It gained new life after cancellation because Burt Reynolds star was on the rise in feature films. I was a big Dan August fan.
2. Longstreet (1971–72)
Longstreet was a blind insurance investigator played by James Franciscus. Little known fact: Bruce Lee appeared in some episodes of the show! Lee played a martial artist who trained the newly blind Longstreet! Bruce Lee was what brought me to watch.
5. Toma (1973–74)
Toma was based on a real-life detective named David Toma. Toma was played by Tony Musante. Surprisingly Musante decided to quit after the first season. ABC decided to recast the role with Robert Blake. ABC then opted to dump Toma and create a new show with different characters. The new show was Baretta. I vaguely remember Toma, but I never missed Baretta!
MeTV presents 7 Darn Tootin’ True Facts about The Beverly Hillbillies. Here are three of my favorites..
1. The Critics Loathed It
If there was ever evidence of the divide between critics and the public, this is it. Few seismic hits have ever received such a drubbing in the press. According to the book Blockbuster TV: Must-See Sitcoms in the Network Era, upon the Hillbillies premiere, The New York Times deemed the show “strained and unfunny.” Variety said it was “painful to sit through.” Time decried that “the pone is the lowest form of humor.” The elitist uproar hardly seemed to matter.2. It was a Ratings Behemoth
The number are truly staggering — like being punched by a kangaroo. A mere six weeks after its debut, The Beverly Hillbillies was the most watched program on television. Between the years 1962 and 1964, the show averaged 57 million viewers. The episodes that aired January 8 and 15 in 1964 rank as the second and fourth most watched television episodes of the entire decade, respectively. The former of those, “The Giant Jackrabbit,” remains one of the most watched half-hours of all time. It ran the same day at LBJ’s first State of the Union address. Bear in mind, this show was luring around 60 million viewers at a time when the U.S. population was approximately 190 million. At some points in its run, 44-percent of all American televisions were tuned to the show.5. Sharon Tate Appeared in the Biggest Episode
Wearing a brunette wig, blonde bombshell Sharon Tate actually appeared in fifteen episodes as Janet Trego, including “The Giant Jackrabbit.” Her character was a secretary at the bank. Tate, who was close with “Jethro” portrayer Max Baer, Jr., would end up as a tragic victim of the Manson family killings. In Stephen Cox’s book The Beverly Hillbillies, director Joe Depew is quoted as saying, “When we first got her, she couldn’t even walk through the door convincingly.”
Uma Thurman has an interesting interview with Maureen Dowd at The New York Times. In it, Thurman talks about abuse from Harvey Weinstein and an automobile stunt on the set of Kill Bill that went terribly wrong. There’s video of the stunt that created a rift between her and Tarantino. Overall a worthy read.
Last week Sly Stallone posted on his Instagram the art by Tom Jung for the very first Rocky poster. This week Sly posted the poster above for a student film that he and John Herzfeld made during their days at the University of Miami. Sly describes Horses as…
…a silent film about a cowboy and Indian that were resurrected in today’s modern society.
Sadly, Horses was never released. Happily, Herzfeld went on to have a long career as a writer, director, actor and producer. Sly didn’t do bad for himself either. ; )
Sly posts a lot of cool updates on his Sly Stallone Instagram.
Den of Thieves (2018)
Director: Christian Gudegast
Screenplay: Christian Gudegast and Paul Scheuring
Stars: Gerard Butler, Jordan Bridges, Pablo Schreiber, Evan Jones,O’Shea Jackson Jr., 50 Cent, Cooper Andrews and Michael Bisping.
The Pitch: “Think The Shield meets Heat!”
Tagline: None.
The Overview: Beware of Spoilers…
Big Nick Flannagan (Butler) leads a LA Sheriff’s office strike force on the trail of an elite team of thieves who’ve staged several bank robberies executed with military precision. Flannagan’s team considers themselves a gang with badges and they’re not above doing whatever it takes to solve cases. When they find themselves head-to-head with thieves that are their equals it becomes clear that a final showdown is looming.
Den of Thieves is more than just a good guys vs bad guys or heist movie. I really liked it and the 2 hours and 20 minutes flew by. Everyone with me felt the same. It was interesting in that the most likable character wasn’t Big Nick Flannagan, yet, like The Shield‘s Vic Mackey, you find yourself pulling for him. Den of Thieves hits all the right notes and has a great twist ending that I won’t spoil. I have a feeling that Den of Thieves will be one that I like even better on subsequent viewings.
Rating:
