Joss Whedon on Reboots/Reunions, Binge-Watching & More!

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Joss Whedon (Writer – Director – Producer – Actor) makes some interesting observations in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter.   Two things that stuck out for me were Whedon’s thoughts on reboots/reunions and binge-watching tv episodes.

Whedon on reboots/reunions…

“I see a little bit of what I call monkey’s paw in these reboots. You bring something back, and even if it’s exactly as good as it was, the experience can’t be. You’ve already experienced it, and part of what was great was going through it for the first time.”

Whedon is on point.  As much as we want to bring back favorite favorites, it is so difficult.  There has to be some growth or we’re getting more of the same and we’ve seen that.  And Whedon is so right — part of what was great was experiencing it for the first time.

 

Whedon on binge-watching tv episodes…

 

“…the more it (television watching) becomes lifestyle instead of experience. It becomes ambient. It loses its power, and we lose something with it…I would not want to do it. I would want people to come back every week and have the experience of watching something at the same time… I loved event television.”

 

Technology has made movie and television watching less of an event.  I love the convenience of being able to record and watch what I want when I want, but when was the last time watching something became an event (not counting live broadcasts)?  When I was a kid, The Wizard of Oz was shown once a year and you’d better be in front of the tube when it was broadcast.  I can still remember the thrill of being allowed to stay up late to watch it, or Hitchcock’s The Birds.  The series finale of The Fugitive was another tv event that was huge.  So was the murder of JR, a new episode of All in the Family.

 

Binge-watching takes away the event feel.  Not only that, because the series is available ANY time you want, there is less of a pull to watch it.  My wife and I tuned in every week for Longmire.  When it switched to Netflix, we followed but now we could watch it whenever.  We have a full season yet to be watched.  Same with Daredevil.  I’ve yet to watch a single episode of House of Cards or Luke Cage.  What’s the rush?  They’ll be there when I’m ready.

 

Rocky and Mickey Limited Edition Maquettes

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Have you seen these Rocky and Mickey limited edition statues coming from NECA?

These limited edition maquettes (statues) are based on a famous stopmotion commercial from the late 1990s that starred Rocky and his trainer Mickey in puppet form. Even in stylized form, those two had selling power!

 

 

Working from the actual puppets used to make the commercial, we’ve reproduced Rocky and Mickey as extra-detailed maquettes. Rocky stands approximately 12″ tall and has fabric boxing shorts. Mickey stands approximately 10″ tall and features fabric hat and clothing.

 

Both statues are in accurate scale to each other and have movable eyes that can be positioned in various directions.

 

Comes with two display bases. Limited to 1500 pieces worldwide

Any of my deep-pocket buddies wondering about an early birthday or Christmas present for me… now ya know.  ; )

15 Revival Series We Want That Will Never Happen

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Padraig Cotter and ScreenRant present 15 Revival Series We Want That Will Never Happen.  Using just Cotter’s list, here are my top 3 suggestions…

  • Frazier – I loved the series and it could be fun to revisit the characters to see how they’ve matured.
  • Firefly –  I came to Firefly after it had already been cancelled, but really enjoyed it.  Yeah, I’d tune in if it came back.
  • Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles – I’d bet they could even get Arnold to guest occasionally now!

Breaking Bad and Seinfeld were two shows that I absolutely loved and they made their wanted revival list.  Not for me though.  For Breaking Bad the story has been told.  And told very well.  Leave it alone.  As for Seinfeld, it is a classic comedy series.  Perhaps the greatest comedy series ever.  The finale is a stain on the memory of Seinfeld and a revival would just look like grumpy middle-agers complaining.

How about these three series that didn’t make the cut, but I’d revive in a heartbeat if given the chance:

  • Justified: There are more stories to tell for Raylan Givens… even if they don’t involve Boyd Crowder… although they could.
  • The Shield: Bring back Vic Mackey!
  • The Twilight Zone:  We need a good anthology.  Twilight Zone was the best.

 

21 Movies I’m Embarrassed to Admit I Love

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Germain Lussier and io9 present 21 Movies I’m Embarrassed to Admit I Love.  Using just Lussier’s list, here are my top 3 movies…

  • Armageddon – is an action/adventure by way of a disaster movie wrapped around a love story.  Yeah, it’s over the top but what do you expect when you send deep water oil drillers into space to save the world?
  • Independence Day – is another over the top combo disaster film by way of alien invasion… and that’s before we even get to Randy Quaid cropdusting an alien spaceship to death.
  • Twister – is a disaster movie that gets crazy even before we see the flying cow.  But like Armageddon and Independence Day are fun rides.

Although they didn’t make the list, two movies that would have are The 13th Warrior and Babylon A.D.  — love ’em both even if no one else does!

Ken Meyer Jr.’s Ink Stains 44: Gulacy, Starlin, Simonson and More!

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If you’re a fan of fanzines, then you’ve got to check out Ken Meyer, Jr.’s monthly column Ink Stains.  Each month Ken (who is an amazing artist) posts… well, let’s let Ken explain…

I have a collection of over 200 fanzines from the 60’s-80’s that I plan to scan and talk about, one at a time. I hope to have some of the participants answer a few questions. Many of those participants are established comics professionals now, while some have gone on to other things. I will show a few snippets from each zine and give you a link to download a pdf of the whole thing, which I hope all of you will do!

For Ink Stains 44, Ken took a look at Whizzard 12, 13 and 14 from 1979 – 1981 from Marty Klug.

Whizzard 12 features –

  • Walt Simonson cover
  • Jim Starlin frontpiece (seen above)
  • Interviews with Simonson, Starlin, Michael Golden and Mike Nasser
  • Spot illos by Rick Burchett, Terry Austin
  • Indexes for Simonson, Starlin, Golden and Nasser
  • Fan art and articles

Whizzard 13 features –

  • Interviews with Marshall Rogers, Craig Russell, Tim Conrad, Steve Gerber and         Don McGregor
  • Indexes for Russell, Conrad and Rogers
  • Art by Conrad, Rick Burchett and art pulled from comics by Rogers, Russell
  • Fan art and articles

Whizzard 14 features –

  • Mike Nasser/Terry Austin cover
  • Interviews with Paul Gulacy, Dick Giordano and Mike Nasser
  • Indexes for Gulacy
  • Centerspread by Paul Gulacy
  • Art by Rick Burchett, Ken Meyer, Jr., Mike Nasser and others

Boy, did these bring back memories.  I owned all of these fanzines back in the day.  Ken points out in his Ink Stains article that Whizzard was more focused on interviews than art and that art is timeless.  As I looked back over these issues (which I loved at the time) I kept thinking I’d have loved to seen more art.  Still, it was great to revisit them.

Ah, the memories of the glory days of fanzines.  Thanks to Ken Meyer, Jr. for making these available!

18 Things We Learned from John Carpenter’s “Rio Bravo” Commentary

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Rob Hunter and Film School Rejects present 18 Things We Learned from John Carpenter’s Rio Bravo Commentary.  Here are my three favorites…

2. Hawks is Carpenter’s favorite director, and this is one of his favorite films ever made. He’s long credited it with being the inspiration for his own Assault on Precinct 13.

8. Robert Mitchum’s brother, John, plays the bartender in the scene where Chance and Dude enter the bar in search of the wounded bad guy.

9. The belt buckle Wayne wears during the film was a gift from Hawks upon the completion of their first film together, Red River. It features the brand from the ranch his character owned in the film.

 

The Real Reason ‘Hudson Hawk’ is So Bonkers

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Even Hudson Hawk‘s most devoted fans would admit that the movie goes waaaay over the top.

Guess what?  It wasn’t always meant to be like that!

During filming of Hudson Hawk, testing on Bruce Willis’ previous movie, The Bonfire of the Vanities, showed that audiences loved Willis.  They were even going to re-edit Bonfire prior to its release to make Willis’ role bigger.

Suddenly Bruce Willis had much more say on Hudson Hawk so it kept getting wilder and wilder.  I’m not complaining since I’ve always enjoyed Hudson Hawk but it is interesting to consider what it would have been like as a more conventional heist film.

Check out  The Real Reason ‘Hudson Hawk’ is So Bonkers by Fred Topel at /Film for the complete lowdown.