Category: Crime

Robert B. Parker’s Angel Eyes (A Spenser Novel) by Ace Atkins is Coming!

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I read my first Spenser novel, The Godwulf Manuscript, sometime back in the mid-70’s.  My grandfather passed the paperback on to me.  From that point on I was a die hard Spenser / Robert B. Parker fan.  Every year a new Spenser novel came out and it was like catching up with an old friend.

When Robert B. Parker died in 2010 I was afraid that Spencer had died as well.  I was pleased to learn that novelist Ace Atkins had been selected to carry on Spenser’s adventures.  Spenser was in great hands and the series continued to be a favorite.

On November 19th, a new Spenser novel, Angel Eyes will be released.  Here’s the synopsis…

In the latest thriller featuring the legendary Boston PI, Spenser heads to the City of Angels to meet old friends and new enemies in a baffling missing person case that might shake Tinseltown to its core.

Ellie Sharp left her Boston family with big dreams of making it as an actress in Hollywood. But two years later, she disappears from her Silver Lake apartment without her friends or police knowing what happened. Soon after the Sharps hire Spenser to find her, another person goes missing–this time Spenser’s protege-turned-L.A. investigator, Zebulon Sixkill.

Spenser and Hawk must hit the ground running on the West Coast to follow a twisted trail into the world of drug cartels, casting couches, hedonistic parties, and a whisper network of industry players looking to take down a legendary producer. In a town where glitz and glamour are only a thin veneer over a dangerous underbelly, even Spenser will have his work cut out for him.

I can’t wait.  My pre-order is in!

“Going to the Chapel” New Crime Mini-Series Preview!

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Going to the Chapel is a new four issue mini-series written by David Pepose, with art by Gavin Guidry, colors by Liz Kramer, and letters by Ariana Maher.  Pepose describes the series as…

…Die Hard meets Kill Bill meets 3000 Miles to Graceland.

If that’s not enough to get you interested, then perhaps Syfywire’s coverage with more of Pepose’s discussion of the series, character sheets by Maan House (who also created the cover above) plus preview pages by Gavin Guidry.

Mario Puzo, Francis Ford Coppola and “The Godfather”

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Francis Ford Coppola has written a new introduction for the 50th anniversary edition of Mario Puzo’s The Godfather and Entertainment Weekly has posted it.

The new intro is worth a read for fans of the book or movie.  Here are a few tidbits:

  • Coppola didn’t want to direct The Godfather until his second reading of the novel.
  • Most of Don Corleone’s most memorable lines were really spoken by Puzo’s mother!
  • Puzo advised Coppola to never associate with real gangsters! (Which leads to an interesting “encounter” with John Gotti.)
  • Puzo didn’t like the idea of Michael having Fredo killed.
  • It was Talia Shire (Adrian in Rocky!) who came up with the idea of Michael’s wife having a secret abortion and then telling him.
  • Both Coppola and Puzo wanted the third film to be called The Death of Michael Corleone.

 Entertainment Weekly’s post is worth a read and so is Puzo’s novel!

Sly Stallone’s Next Movie & TV Projects

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The photo above comes from Sly Stallone’s Official Instagram and is one of a series of photos from the set of Sly’s next film, Rambo V: Last Blood.

Sly has several films in development and is busier than ever.  Here’s what’s in the works:

  • Hunter: Sly is set to star in the adaptation of James Byron Huggin’s best-selling novel of the same name.  This is the film Stallone fans have been hoping for, since the novel’s release as it was written with Sly in mind.  The film will be part of Sly’s Balboa Productions.
  • Samaritan: is set to star Stallone in the tale of a young boy who learns that a superhero who disappeared years ago may still be alive.  MGM and Balboa Productions will team for this one.

Sylvester Stallone and Balboa Productions have also acquired the rights to…

Source: ComingSoon.

“Year of the Dragon” Trivia

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Rob Hunter and Film School Rejects present 28 Things We Learned from Michael Cimino’s Year of the Dragon Commentary.  Here are three of my favorites…

8. While set primarily in New York City, much of the film was shot in North Carolina including the sequences on the streets of Chinatown. They recreated streets with attention to detail up to and including the angled grade of their Mott Street — the “main” street in NYC’s Chinatown — which is not actually flat. They took plaster casts of curbstones and recreated the grade for authenticity, something he says most NYC reproductions on film don’t achieve. “If you look at Ragtime, it’s flat, and that’s why it doesn’t look like New York [City]. It’s a very rocky little island.” He’s proud of their accomplishment as it even fooled Stanley Kubrick. The legendary director was given a screening in London where he told Cimino that “Chinatown looks so great.” Cimino told him the truth, and after a little bit of back and forth Kubrick realized he’d been duped. “If you can fool Kubrick, who had the best eye in the world, you can fool anyone.” The sets have been reused in dozens of films in the years since.

12. He feels Lone and Mickey Rourke compliment each other well and achieve his goal of confusing “the good, the bad, and the ugly.” He says the bad guy is attractive and likable, the good guy is neither of those things, and viewers are ultimately forced to like the good guy because of what he does.

18. He credits Clint Eastwood with his career. Cimino’s debut as writer/director, 1974’s Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, only got made thanks to Eastwood’s belief in him. The contract gave Eastwood the right to fire him after the first three days of shooting, and thankfully he never felt compelled to do so.