The “I Am Vengeance” Trailer is Here!
The I Am Vengeance trailer is here. Take John Wick, add Get Carter and a dash of humor and you have I Am Vengeance. I wonder if folks will eat it up. I’m down for an order.
26 Things We Learned from Tom Cruise and JJ Abrams’ “Mission: Impossible III” Commentary
Rob Hunter and Film School Rejects present 26 Things We Learned from Tom Cruise and JJ Abrams’ Mission: Impossible III Commentary. Here are three of my favorites…
5. That’s Abrams’ voice on the phone calling Hunt at the party. His hands also cameo as the coroner removing the explosive charge from Lindsey Farris’ (Keri Russell) dead head.
14. They couldn’t control the area for the scenes shot around the actual Vatican, and crowds gathered which caused interruptions. “So what we did is about a block and a half away from this location we set up a phony shoot, and we had three girls in bikinis and three old women dressed as nuns, and we had a camera and we had a tent. We pretended to be shooting something.”
20. “Listen carefully to the flute,” says Abrams during the scene where Musgrave mouths his support to a secured Hunt. “It’s the Mission: Impossible theme.”
The New “Mayans MC” Trailer is Here!
Since we’re looking at trailers, here’s a new one for Mayans MC!
“Better Call Saul” Season 4 Poster and Trailer are Here!
Here’s the Better Call Saul season 4 trailer. Boy, it seems like it’s been forever since season 3 ended. Looking forward to more Saul and company.
The “Cold Skin” Poster and Trailer are Here!
The Cold Skin poster doesn’t do much to sell the movie, but the trailer interests me enough to want to watch it.
9 Things You May Not Know About Billy the Kid
Evan Andrews and History.com present 9 Things You May Not Know About Billy the Kid. Here are three of my favorites…
The Kid’s first arrest came for stealing clothes from a laundry.
Henry McCarty’s first run-in with the law came in 1875, when he assisted a local street tough known as “Sombrero Jack” in stealing clothing from a Chinese laundry. Henry hid the loot in his boarding house, but was arrested after his landlord turned him in to the sheriff. The crime only carried a minor sentence, but rather than face punishment, the wiry youth escaped the jailhouse by shimmying up a chimney. McCarty then fled town and embarked on a career as a roving ranch hand, gambler and gang member. He became handy with a Winchester rifle and a Colt revolver, and in August 1877 he killed his first man during a dispute in an Arizona saloon. That same year, he adopted the alias “William H. Bonney” and became known as “Billy the Kid” or simply “The Kid.”
He played a prominent role in a frontier feud.
Billy the Kid first earned his reputation as a gunslinger in 1878, when he participated in a bloody frontier war in Lincoln County, New Mexico. The conflict centered on a business rivalry between British-born rancher John Tunstall and a pair of Irish tycoons named James Dolan and Lawrence Murphy. Dolan and Murphy’s outfit—known as “The House”—had long held a monopoly over the dry goods and cattle trades in Lincoln County. When they tried to intimidate Tunstall’s upstart operation, the Englishman enlisted the Kid and several other gunmen to protect his property. The tensions finally boiled over in February 1878, when Tunstall was murdered by a posse organized by Sheriff William Brady, a supporter of The House.Following Tunstall’s death, the Kid and several other former employees organized themselves into a vigilante group called “The Regulators” and swore revenge. In what became known as the “Lincoln County War,” the Regulators assassinated Sheriff Brady and spent the next several months shooting it out with The House’s forces. In July 1878, the feud reached its climax with a deadly, five-day firefight in the town of Lincoln, after which the Regulators disbanded and the two sides sealed a flimsy peace agreement. The Kid left the war with a reputation as one of the West’s most skilled gunmen, but he remained wanted for the murder of Sheriff Brady. He would spend the rest of his life on the run from the authorities.
The Kid made a famous jailbreak.
In late 1880, Lincoln County Sheriff Pat Garrett tracked the Kid to a cabin in Stinking Springs, New Mexico, and forced his surrender. The outlaw was found guilty of the murder of Sheriff William Brady and confined to the Lincoln courthouse. He was scheduled for a date with the hangman, but on the evening of April 28, 1881, he engineered the most daring getaway of his criminal career. During a trip to the outhouse, the Kid slipped out of his handcuffs, ambushed a guard and shot the man to death with his own pistol. He then armed himself with a double-barreled shotgun and gunned down a second guard who was crossing the street. Once in control of the courthouse, the Kid collected a small arsenal of weapons, cut his leg shackles with a pickaxe and fled town on a stolen horse. News of the brazen escape was soon reprinted in newspapers across the country, making the Kid the most wanted man in the West.
The “Overlord” Trailer is Here!
Overlord. Hmmm. Mixing World War II and horror. Interesting. I think I’ll give it a shot.
19 Things to Look for the Next Time You Watch “Die Hard”
Sean Hutchinson and Mental Floss present 19 Things to Look for the Next Time You Watch Die Hard. Here are three of my favorites…
10. THERE ARE SOME REAL FALLS.
In the scene where McClane makes an epic jump into an elevator shaft, the stunt man was supposed to grab onto the first vent—but missed completely. The resulting footage shows the actor slipping further down the shaft. McTiernan and co-editor Frank Urioste kept it in the final cut because it made the scene more harrowing. (Craig – Check out the video of the elevator fall footage at Hutchinson’s post.)
19. HOW DID MCCLANE KNOW GRUBER WAS A BAD GUY?
In the scene where McClane unwittingly stumbles on Gruber—who identifies himself as Bill Clay and puts on a convincing American accent—it’s never made 100 percent clear how McClane realizes that Clay isn’t who he says he is. Chalk it up to a NYPD-veteran hunch, or a deleted scene.Gruber’s watch allegedly tips McClane off before he hands the terrorist an empty gun, but nothing about the watch is introduced in the actual movie. There was supposed to be a scene where Hans Gruber and his team synchronize the exact same watch they all wear, and, according to screenwriter Steven E. De Souza, “When Bruce offers the cigarette to Alan Rickman, Bruce sees the watch. You see his eyes look at the watch. That’s how he knows that he is one of the terrorists.”
The timepiece scene was cut, but the audience never really noticed the plot hole.
12. HANS GRUBER AND HIS GOONS DON’T ACTUALLY SPEAK GERMAN.
Americans might think the German language that Gruber and his goons speak to one another sounds legit, but it’s actually gibberish. The grammar, diction, and pronunciation don’t actually match up. In the German release of the movie, Gruber’s group were described as being from “Europe” instead of Germany.
Weirdly enough Willis was actually born in West Germany to an American father and a German mother.
The “Patient Zero” Poster and Trailer are Here!
Here’s the poster and trailer for Patient Zero… not to be confused with Jonathan Maberry’s Patient Zero a highly recommended novel of the same name.
You know I’m a sucker for a well-done zombie film. Patient Zero just might fit the bill.
10 Facts About Steven Spielberg’s “Duel”
Sean Hutchinson and Mental Floss present 10 Facts About Steven Spielberg’s Duel. Here are three of my favorites…
1. THE MOVIE WAS INSPIRED BY A REAL-LIFE INCIDENT.
Author and screenwriter Richard Matheson based his original novella, which first appeared in the April 1971 issue of Playboy, on an actual road rage incident. Matheson had played a round of golf on November 22, 1963, the same day President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. On his car ride home, and in a daze after receiving the terrible news, he was ruthlessly tailgated by a truck driver.Matheson initially pitched the idea to TV producers but, after it was rejected numerous times, he decided to put his real-life incident into prose form. In order to gather details of the open road, Matheson set out from his home in Ventura, California with a voice recorder in hand and simply described what he saw. Those descriptions of the desolate landscape ended up in the novella.
3. DENNIS WEAVER’S WORK WITH ORSON WELLES GOT HIM THE LEAD IN DUEL.
For the lowly protagonist, David Mann, Spielberg hand-picked character actor Dennis Weaver because he loved his performance as the jittery and feeble hotel night manager in Orson Welles’s 1958 film Touch of Evil.
Weaver drove more than 2000 miles while shooting his scenes, and did many of the stunts himself, including the dangerous phone booth scene at the “Snakerama” gas station in a single take.
Of working with the rookie director, the veteran Weaver later said, “I gave him the benefit of the doubt. I said, ‘There’s no reason for me to judge him because of his age. Let’s see what he does.’ And he did extremely well … I really think it’s one of the most creative jobs he’s ever done.”
10. SPIELBERG HAS REVISITED DUEL MORE THAN ONCE—AND PEOPLE HAVE STOLEN FROM HIM, TOO.
Duel was something of lucky charm once Spielberg’s career began to take off, and he’d continually reference parts of the movie in subsequent films.The Snakerama gas station seen in the film also appears in Spielberg’s 1979 World War II comedy, 1941, with actress Lucille Benson again appearing as the proprietor. The two elderly people Weaver tries to flag down in a car also appear as helpless motorists in Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
But it wasn’t all good luck. Spielberg was not happy when stock footage of both vehicles was later used in an episode of the television series The Incredible Hulk, titled “Never Give a Trucker an Even Break.” The recycled footage was completely legal since the show was also produced by Universal
11 Surprising Facts About “In the Line of Fire”
Jennifer M. Woods and Mental Floss present 11 Surprising Facts About In the Line of Fire. Here are three of my favorites…
3. AT ONE POINT, ROBERT REDFORD WAS ATTACHED TO STAR.
Though Clint Eastwood will forever be associated with the role of ultra-dedicated Secret Service agent Frank Horrigan, he was hardly the first choice for the role. As the script made its way around Hollywood over the years, a number of other actors were either attached to or offered the project, including Robert Redford. Dustin Hoffman, Sean Connery, James Caan, Tommy Lee Jones, and Val Kilmer were among the other names wanted for the role of Horrigan.
6. FRANK HORRIGAN WAS INSPIRED BY ONE OF JFK’S SECRET SERVICE AGENTS.
Though the movie is a work of fiction, main character Frank Horrigan was partly inspired by Clint Hill, one of John F. Kennedy’s Secret Service agents who was on duty the day the 35th president was assassinated in Dallas. In 1975, Hill sat down for an emotional interview with Mike Wallace on 60 Minutes, where he broke down and admitted that he felt responsible for what had happened that terrible day.“I still feel today a sense of failure and responsibility because that was our job: to keep the president safe, to protect him at all costs,” Hill said. “And on that particular day, we were unable to do that.” Much of Horrigan’s desire to right that wrong came from Hill’s interview.
8. WOLFGANG PETERSEN WAS A LITTLE INTIMIDATED BY CLINT EASTWOOD.
Though he was already a highly acclaimed director with two Oscar nominations on his resume (for writing and directing 1981’s Das Boot), Petersen admitted that the idea of directing a Hollywood icon like Eastwood was a slightly terrifying prospect.“I must admit, I was initially a bit intimidated at the prospect of directing Clint, but any fears I had disappeared after our first meeting, and once we started shooting he never challenged my direction,” Petersen told the Los Angeles Times. “At the beginning he told me, ‘I won’t interfere, but if you want my advice I’ll be there for you—otherwise I’ll leave you alone.’ I took up his offer and consulted him a lot.”
Max Allan Collins Video Interview!
Max Allan Collins is the subject of a video interview with Mr. Media. It’s worth a listen.
Jon Pinto Casts Paul Newman as Aquaman!
Dream casting can be a fun game when played with friends. Can you imagine Bruce Lee in The Matrix? How about Alfred Hitchcock’s Halloween starring Kim Novak and Robert Mitchum?
Jon Pinto and some of his friends were riffing on Aquaman and decided that Paul Newman would be the ideal lead for a movie made back in the day. Of course Sidney Poitier and Ann Margaret would co-star! You can see an ocean-sized version of Pinto’s poster by clicking over.
We need more of these, Jon!
Journey’s End by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko
Earlier today we looked at 10 Of History’s Most Cartoonish Deaths. The story Journey’s End by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko is the perfect follow-up. You can read the entire story thanks to the fine folks at The Bristol Board.
“Rocky” by JC Richard from Grey Matter Art Ready for Framing!
A couple of weeks ago I posted that Grey Matter Art, under license from MGM, was set to release a new officially licensed, limited edition screen print featuring “Rocky” by artist, JC Richard. As you can see I can’t wait to get mine framed and up!
If you’re interested in getting a print here are the details:
“Rocky” by JC Richard
12″ x 36″ hand-numbered screen print
Regular Edition: 150/40.00
Variant Edition: 75/50.00
Printed by: D&L Screenprinting
This poster is released through www.greymatterart.com
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