Category: Celebs

Twilight Zone: “Two” [Season 3, Episode 1] / Z-View

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Twilight Zone: “Two” [Season 3, Episode 1]
Original Air Date: September 15, 1961

Director: Montgomery Pittman

Writer: Montgomery Pittman

Starring: Charles Bronson and Elizabeth Montgomery.


The Overview: Beware of Spoilers….

Bronson and Montgomery play two soldiers who have survived an apocalyptic battle.  Everyone else in the city [maybe the world] is dead.  For five years each of the soldiers has been struggling to survive.  Then they discover each other… and the fact that they from opposing armies.

Rating:

30th Anniversary Interview with Frank Miller: The Dark Knight Returns

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Although it’s hard to believe, this year marks the 30th Anniversary of Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns.

CBR.com sat down for a short but informative interview with Frank Miller that’s worth a read.  Here are a couple of tidbits…

When did you realize that it really was something that people were going to be talking about for decades to come? Was there a moment where you thought, “We’ve created something bigger than I ever expected”?

It was an ongoing set of surprises. You go up to bat and you take your best shot. This one turned out to be a homer. But I didn’t expect it to keep on rewarding like this. Now, it’s become apparent that it’s going to be something that we can enjoy revisiting again in the future.

 

When you see how influential your original take on Batman was, and the kinds of things that stuck forever: the way you did narrative dialogue captions over thought balloons, a lot of the approaches to the character. And now we’re seeing things like “Batman v Superman,” where we’re seeing a lot of imagery that comes directly from your pencil. What has that come to mean to you over the years? You’ve seen just how much people embraced what you did, sometimes swiped what you did?

I mean, I’ve learned a lot since doing the first “Dark Knight.” I learned a lot about life too. Instead of resenting, as I first did, when they would take some of the stuff in the movies — I resented and I thought, “Oh I’m being ripped off!” — I’ve come to realize that what I did was a piece of an overall collective work that’s evolving and changing as time goes by. I didn’t make up Batman, I just contributed to the myth. And now they’re using some of my stuff to take it in their own direction. God bless them as well.

June Vigants and Jimmy Bobo

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June Vigants created the Sly as James Bonomo aka Jimmy Bobo from Bullet to the Head piece above.  June was doing sketch commissions through the mail and although I’d never met her, I liked June’s art and decided to commission a few pieces.  I wasn’t disappointed.  This is the first with more to be posted!

You can see more of June’s art here and here.

Jon Jones vs Daniel Cormier on Instagram

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Jon Jones, who many consider to be the best pound-for-pound MMA fighter of all time, has a real dislike for the current champion, Daniel Cormier.  

Jones beat Cormier when they fought, but Cormier won the title when Jones was relieved of it after some bad personal decisions resulting from drugs and run-ins with the police.

Cormier and Jones will fight for the title on April 23rd.

In an effort to get under Cormier’s skin, Jones posted the photo above.  Not to be outdone, Cormier responded with the one below.

In this contest, Cormier wins by decision.

Source: MMA Fighting.

13 Mysterious Facts About “The Maltese Falcon”

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Eric D. Snider and Mental_Floss present 13 Mysterious Facts About The Maltese Falcon.  Here are three of my favorites…

2. IT WOULDN’T EXIST IF HIGH SIERRA HADN’T BEEN A HIT.
John Huston, son of popular stage and screen actor Walter Huston, was a successful scriptwriter for Warner Bros. in the late 1930s, earning Oscar nominations for Dr. Ehrlich’s Magic Bullet (1940) and Sergeant York (1941). When he asked the Warners for a shot at directing, they agreed (and even let him choose the project himself), but only if his next script was a hit. That was High Sierra, starring Humphrey Bogart, directed by Raoul Walsh, and released in January 1941. Fortunately for Huston, it was a success, and the Warners kept their word. The Maltese Falcon, also starring Bogart, was shot that summer and released in the fall. It was the first of five movies Huston and Bogart would make together.

4. HUMPHREY BOGART’S ICONIC RAPID-FIRE DELIVERY WAS THE RESULT OF A STUDIO NOTE.
Detective Sam Spade had a lot of speeches, which the Warners felt tended to slow things down. They asked Huston to pick up the pace by having Bogart (and the others) talk faster. Huston, eager to please on his first film, took the note to heart and instructed everyone accordingly. When the film was a hit, the rat-a-tat pace became one of the hallmarks of film noir.

5. IT GOT AWAY WITH USING AN OBJECTIONABLE WORD, PROBABLY BECAUSE THE CENSORS WEREN’T COOL ENOUGH TO KNOW IT.
Sam Spade uses the word “gunsel” three times in reference to Wilmer, the hitman who works for Kasper Gutman, a.k.a. the Fat Man. Hammett used the same word in his novel, but only after his editor objected to the word he used first: “catamite,” which is a young man kept by an older man for sexual purposes. While Hammett’s novel identified Cairo (Peter Lorre’s character) as a homosexual and hinted at it for Wilmer and Gutman, this term was considered too explicit. Hammett replaced it with “gunsel,” which his editor assumed meant “gunslinger” or some such. But it didn’t. Gunsel—from the Yiddish word for “little goose,” and passed along in American hobo culture—was merely a synonym for “catamite,” but was too new to be familiar. Hammett got away with it in the book, and it slipped past the Production Code censors when it popped up in the screenplay. Because of Hammett’s usage, the word came to take on “gunman” as a secondary meaning. But make no mistake, it wasn’t Wilmer’s possession of a firearm that Sam Spade was referring to.

15 Incorruptible Facts About “The Shield”

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Roger Cormier and Mental_Floss present 15 Incorruptible Facts About The Shield.  Here are three of my favorites…

1. THE CO-CREATOR OF LOST THOUGHT THE NETWORK WOULD CHANGE THE PILOT.
Damon Lindelof, co-creator of Lost and The Leftovers, remembered reading Shawn Ryan’s pilot script for The Shield and always waiting for Vic Mackey to become an Andy Sipowicz-type, or “a good guy despite his gruff exterior.” Instead, he read the ending where Mackey murdered an Internal Affairs rat in cold blood. “And when I read that, I thought to myself, ‘Shawn Ryan will never get this ending on the air,’” Lindelof recalled to the Chicago Tribune in 2008. (Spoiler alert: Lindelof was wrong.)

4. ERIC STOLTZ WAS OFFERED THE LEAD.
Eric Stoltz was offered the lead role and—and almost took it.

5. FX EXECUTIVES WERE NOT SOLD ON MICHAEL CHIKLIS.
The network knew Chiklis for his even-tempered roles in The Commish (1991-1995) andDaddio (2000). Against his agents’ advice, Chiklis took six months off from acting and lost 57 pounds. For his The Shield audition, he shaved his head. “When I heard his name mentioned, I thought he was wrong for the role,” Kevin Reilly, FX’s then-president of entertainment told The New York Times. “I knew him as a soft, cuddly guy physically and emotionally. He came in with this shaved head and his biceps, and he just chewed through the scene. He blew us away.’

13 Riotous Facts About “V for Vendetta”

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Roger Cormier and Mental_Floss present 13 Riotous Facts About V for Vendetta.  Here are three of my favorites…

3. ANDY AND LANA WACHOWSKI WROTE A SCRIPT FOR V FOR VENDETTA BEFORE THEY WORKED ON THE MATRIX TRILOGY.
The Wachowskis acquired the rights to V for Vendetta in the mid-1990s, then promptly wrote their own screenplay. After directing the three Matrix films, the Wachowskis weren’t interested in returning to directing right away, but they did make alterations to their Vendetta script, including moving the story forward in time and making Evey older.

5. ALAN MOORE DECLINED TO WATCH THE FILM, OR BE CREDITED ON IT.
Moore had read the screenplay and considered it “rubbish.” Moore believed DC Comics and the film industry had knowingly stolen from him. Conversely, David Lloyd praised the movie moments after he had seen it for the first time, declaring it a “fantastic representation” of the work they did, according to McTeigue.

4. IT WAS JAMES MCTEIGUE’S DIRECTORIAL DEBUT.
James McTeigue was first assistant director on the Matrix movies, as well as on Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones (2002), and was picked by the Wachowskis to take charge. “A lot of the filmmaking process is about trust, and at the point that those guys said, ‘We want you to direct it,’ they were about trusting me to go off and give it the vision it needed to be directed with, so they kind of left me alone,” said McTeigue. “They were there if I needed them, and sometimes I’d go, ‘Hey, what do you think about this?’ and they’d put their two cents worth in, and I could either take it on board or leave it at the door.”

20 Things We Learned from the “Street Kings” Commentary

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Rob Hunter and Film School Rejects present 20 Things We Learned from the Street Kings Commentary.  Here are three of my favorites…

5.  Keanu Reeves did all of his own stunts.

11. He [Director David Ayer] recalls reading the script and being happily surprised by the turn where Ludlow’s vengeance mission against Det. Washington (Terry Crews) is interrupted by the two shooters sent to kill him. “I was caught unawares, and as a writer I’m supposed to catch this stuff ahead of time.”

16. The foot chase was filmed in a gang area, but they never had any problems during the shoot. “We were really open with the community, and we had an open set. We didn’t have security guards telling people to keep away. We let the kids in the neighborhood sort of walk through the set and look at the equipment and let people talk to us, and Keanu’s really open and really gracious and likes to hang out and talk to people. He’s not one of those guys who hides out in his trailer between takes.”

11 Lucky Facts About “Dirty Harry”

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Matthew Jackson and Mental_Floss present 11 Lucky Facts About Dirty Harry.  Here are three of my favorites…

2. FRANK SINATRA WAS SET TO STAR.
The idea that anyone but Clint Eastwood could play Harry Callahan seems strange, but a number of other stars were considered for the title role first, among them Steve McQueen, Robert Mitchum, and Frank Sinatra. Sinatra was actually attached to the film at one point, but pulled out because of an injury to his hand. So Eastwood stepped in, and the rest is history.

7. EASTWOOD DID HIS OWN STUNTS.
For the scene in which Harry chases down Scorpio, who has kidnapped a busload of children, the character is required to leap from a trestle bridge onto the top of the moving bus. If you watch the scene carefully, you’ll notice that it’s not a stuntman making the leap. Eastwood did it himself.

8. EASTWOOD DIRECTED ONE SCENE HIMSELF.
During one night of shooting, Siegel had to miss work because of the flu, leaving the production without a director. So Eastwood took over. The scene in which Harry confronts a suicidal man on the roof of a building was directed by Eastwood.

Tony Burton – R.I.P.

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Tony Burton best known as Duke Evers, Apollo Creed and later Rocky Balboa’s trainer died last night at the age of 78.

Although Duke Evers was my favorite of all the roles, Mr. Burton played, I was also partial to his portrayal of Wells in the original Assault on Precinct 13.  Any movie or tv show was improved with a Tony Burton appearance.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to Mr. Burton’s family, friends and fans.

Z-View Twilight Zone: “Mr. Dingle, the Strong” [Season 2, Episode 19]

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Twilight Zone: “Mr. Dingle, The Strong” [Season 2, Episode 19]
Original Air Date: March 3, 1961

Director: John Brahm

Writer: Rod Serling

Starring:  Burgess Meredith, James Westerfield and Eddie Ryder.

The Overview: Beware of Spoilers…

Luther Dingle [Meredith] spends most evenings at the local pub trying to relax with a beer.  Sadly Dingle is often called to settle ever-escalating arguments between another patron and the bartender.  Somehow Dingle always ends up the loser.

Invisible aliens visiting our planet see what is happening to Dingle and decide to give him super strength.  Dingle becomes a local celebrity… for a while.

Burgess Meredith saves this episode.

Rating:

5 Things You Didn’t Know About Josephine Baker

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Ethan Trex and Mental_Floss present 5 Things You Didn’t Know About Josephine Baker.  Here are three of my favorites…

1. SHE WAS A SPY.
When World War II rocked her adopted France, Baker didn’t simply move to a more peaceful country. Instead, she stuck around and did her part for the war effort. Since she had initially publicly supported Mussolini’s invasion of Ethiopia, the Axis powers mistakenly thought she was “one of them,” and Baker took full advantage of this misconception.

In fact, her fame made her the perfect spy. When Baker would travel Europe while touring, she obviously had to carry large quantities of sheet music with her. What customs officials never realized, though, was that a lot of this music actually had secret messages written on it in invisible ink. Fawning immigration officials never thought to take too close a look at the diva’s luggage, so she could sneak all sorts of things in and out of countries. On some occasions, Baker would smuggle secret photos of German military installations out of enemy territory by pinning them to her underwear.

This invaluable intelligence work eventually helped Baker rise to the rank of lieutenant in the Free French Air Force, and when the war was over she received both the Croix de Guerre (a first for an American woman) and the Medal of the Resistance in 1946.

2. A DUEL WAS FOUGHT IN HER NAME.
Lots of stars have devoted fans, but how many would be willing to fight a duel for their favorite diva? In 1928, a Hungarian cavalry officer and an Italian count did just that in Budapest. According to a contemporary account from Time, “the ogling and attentions of Hungarian Cavalry Captain Andrew Czlovoydi became too fervently gallant to be stomached by La Baker’s manager, Count Pepito di Albertini.” Rather than just ask Czlovoydi to knock it off, the Count took the reasonable step of challenging the soldier to a sword-fighting duel.

Fittingly, the two duelers met in a cemetery for their showdown while Baker cheered on the Count from a perch atop a tombstone. According to Time, the two men battled with swords for a solid 10 minutes before the Count took a light blow to the shoulder. At that point, Baker intervened and forced the two men to set aside their differences.

3. IN HER FORTIES AND FIFTIES, SHE ADOPTED A DOZEN CHILDREN.
Celebrities adopting children from underprivileged backgrounds may be old news at this point, but what Baker did in the 1950s is still shocking and fascinating. In an effort to combat racism and provide an example for the rest of the world to follow, Baker started adopting orphans from all corners of the world.

Baker started by adopting two Japanese children, and kept going until she had assembled a family of 12 children from a variety of countries and ethnicities. Baker dubbed them “the Rainbow Tribe,” and lived with the children in her chateau in southwestern France.

As part of her efforts, Baker also turned the chateau into a sort of resort/theme park with a multicultural theme, but it didn’t catch on quite as well as Epcot did. By 1968, the operation was hemorrhaging money, and Baker’s creditors had to sell the mansion out from under her.