Donald Westlake’s Ventures in Movies and TV

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The Mind of Donald E. Westlake by Levi Stahl takes a look at Westlake’s ventures into screenwriting and the adaptations of his work for movies and television. It’s worth a look.

Did you know Westlake wrote a screenplay adapting Hammet’s Red Harvest? Sadly it was never made.  Neither was Westlake’s James Bond screenplay.  It’s no secret that Lee Marvin played Westlake’s most popular character Parker on the big screen, but did you know…

 

…that Between Point Blank, in 1967, and Parker, in 2013, Parker (usually under other names) was played by Lee Marvin, Robert Duvall, Jim Brown, Mel Gibson, Jason Statham, and, strangest of all, Anna Karina…

I didn’t.

18 Things We Learned from the New “Waterworld” Blu-Ray

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Max Evry and ComingSoon present 18 Things We Learned from the New Waterworld Blu-Ray.  Here are three of my favorites…

Jack Black is in this movie.
In one of his earliest film roles, comedy superstar Jack Black portrayed the soot-faced Smoker airplane pilot who attacks The Mariner only to get his plane caught on the trimarand’s mast. He’s only in a few scene and is barely recognizable due to the heavy amount of dirt make-up he wears.

Kevin Reynolds did the big explosion stunt himself
One of the major stunts in the film is when Kevin Costner shoots down a wire using a hook as a massive explosion erupts behind him. At first production would not allow Costner to do the stunt, fearing for the actor’s life. To demonstrate that it was perfectly safe for Costner, Reynolds performed the stunt himself.

The Waterworld stunt show at Universal is still going!
Originally opening at the same time as the film in 1995, Waterworld: A Live Sea War Spectacular is a live stunt show featuring the Atollers being attacked by Smokers. It is still active to this day at Universal Studios Hollywood, Universal Studios Japan, and Universal Studios Singapore.

When Jim Steranko Re-Cast Nick Fury and the Agents of S.H.I.E.LD.

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Brian Cronin’s When Jim Steranko Re-Cast Nick Fury and the Agents of S.H.I.E.LD. at CBR.com is well worth a read. 

But before you click over, let’s have a little fun. 

Cronin contends that Steranko based his version of Nick Fury on an actor famous for his athleticism and rugged good looks.  After reading the article, I agree!

As a bonus, Cronin also suggests that the blonde guy with the big smile in the lower right on the cover above is another famous actor from the same time period.  And, again I think that he’s right.

Do you have any ideas who those two actors could be?

 

10 Shocking Facts About The Black Dahlia, Hollywood’s Most Famous Unsolved Murder

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Kristin Hunt and Mental Floss present 10 Shocking Facts About The Black Dahlia, Hollywood’s Most Famous Unsolved Murder.  Here are the three I found most disturbing…

THERE WAS NO BLOOD FOUND AT THE SCENE.
The naked body Bersinger discovered was in horrifying condition. In addition to being cut completely in half at the waist, and having her intestines removed, Short’s mouth had been slashed from ear-to-ear, giving her face a ghastly, semi-smiling appearance known as a Glasgow Smile. Her body had also been washed clean before it was left to be found. Despite the severe mutilation, there was no blood at the scene, leading police to conclude that the young woman had been murdered somewhere else, drained of blood, then cleaned before the killer dumped her body.

SOME LINKED THE CASE TO THE CLEVELAND TORSO MURDERS.
When Short’s death became national news, police officers in Cleveland felt an awful sense of déjà vu. Between 1934 and 1938, a serial killer had terrorized their city, claiming 12 victims—all of whom were grotesquely dismembered. Some theorized that the Ohio serial killer and Short’s murderer could be the same person, especially since—like Short’s killer—the perpetrator of what came to be known as the Cleveland Torso Murders was never caught.

GEORGE HODEL IS ONE OF THE MOST NOTORIOUS SUSPECTS.
One of those names is George Hodel, a physician who ran a venereal disease clinic in Los Angeles in the 1940s. According to The Guardian, Hodel was on a list of six primary suspects in the Black Dahlia case, and the LAPD even bugged his home during the investigation. But Hodel—who died in 1999—gained more recent notoriety when his son, Steve Hodel, accused him of killing Short in the 2003 bestselling book Black Dahlia Avenger: The True Story.

Steve claims his father’s handwriting matches strange letters the police received, supposedly from the killer. He also uncovered photos of a woman who resembles Short in his father’s personal photo album, and believes Hodel’s medical background would explain the precise, clinical cuts on the body. But some have discounted Steve’s claims since he started linking his father to other infamous unsolved murders, including the Zodiac killings.

John Byrne Batman Art and Studio Tour!

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The John Byrne Batman drawing above is being used as a variant cover on an upcoming issue of Detective Comics.  What makes it more interesting is that the art was a fan’s commission that DC Comics liked enough to request to use as a cover.

While we’re on the topic of John Byrne, did you see the video of his studio on Syfy?  If you missed it (or would like to see it again) check out the video below!

Thomas Boatwright’s “Rambo III” Stick Fighter!

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Above is Thomas Boatwright’s art of Sly from Rambo III.  If you like what you see (or love it as I do) then you may want to check out the video below of Boatwright creating it!

Over the years I’ve gotten several Stallone pieces from Thomas.  Click on the link to see what has been posted so far… there are more to come.

If you’d like to see more of Thomas Boatwright’s art check out his blog and his instagram. Send him some love.

9 Facts About Project Blue Book, the Government’s Top-Secret UFO Program

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Lucas Reilly and Mental Floss present 9 Facts About Project Blue Book, the Government’s Top-Secret UFO Program.  Here are three of my favorites…

THOUSANDS OF REPORTS WERE COLLECTED—AND SOME HAVEN’T BEEN EXPLAINED.
By the time Project Blue Book was closed, officials had gathered 12,618 UFO reports. Of those, 701 were never explained. Nearly half of those unidentified UFOs appeared in 1952 when a whopping 1501 UFOs were sighted. (Interestingly, that following year, it became a crime for military personnel to discuss classified UFO reports with the public; the risk of breaking the law could mean up to two years imprisonment.)

THE PROJECT’S DESIRE TO DISMISS UNIDENTIFIED PHENOMENA BOTHERED ITS SOLE SCIENTIST.
Project Blue Book had one consistent scientific consultant, astronomer Dr. J. Allen Hynek. In 1968, Hynek wrote: “The staff of Blue Book, both in numbers and in scientific training, is grossly inadequate … there is virtually no scientific dialogue between Blue Book and the outside scientific world … The statistical methods employed by Blue Book are nothing less than a travesty” [PDF]. Hynek held Quintanilla in particularly low regard, saying, “Quintanilla’s method was simple: disregard any evidence that was counter to his hypothesis.”

IN 2007, A NEW GOVERNMENT INQUIRY INTO UFOS WAS LAUNCHED.
Between 2007 and 2012, the U.S. government spent $22 million on a new UFO study called the “Advanced Aviation Threat Identification Program.” (Nowadays, UFOs are called UAPs, or “Unidentified Aerial Phenomena”: You can watch one here.) This January, more than three dozen of the program’s studies became publicly available, revealing the government’s interest in everything from warp drives to invisibility cloaks.

On a related note, I’m enjoying the History Channel’s Project Blue Book .

The Best Twist Endings in Movie History

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Tim Grierson and Will Leitch at Syfy.com tried to answer the question of what were The Best Twist Endings in Movie History.  They picked the following their top five:

5.  Life (2017)
4. The Others (2001)
3.   Planet of the Apes (1968)
2.  Fight Club (1999)
1.  The Sixth Sense (1999)

Their list isn’t bad but I would have included a few which didn’t make their cut.  Here are my top 5:

5.  Psycho (1960)
4.   Primal Fear (1996)
3.  Shutter Island (2010)
2.  The Usual Suspects (1995)
1.  Planet of the Apes (1968)

The 17 Best Director Cameos in Movie History

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Josh Spiegel at Syfy.com ranks his choices for The 17 Best Director Cameos in Movie History.  Using just Spiegel’s list here are my top three…

  • Roman Polanski, Chinatown (1974)

  • Mel Brooks, Blazing Saddles (1974)

  • Alfred Hitchcock, North By Northwest (1959)

…followed by 3 that didn’t make the list.

  • Sylvester Stallone, Staying Alive (1983)

  • Francis Ford Coppola, Apocalypse Now (1979)

  • Alfred Hitchock, Lifeboat (1944)

Everything You Need to Know About “Rambo V: Last Blood”

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Padraig Cotter at ScreenRant has posted what he believes to be Everything You Need to Know About Rambo V: Last Blood.

The article does a good job of covering the film and is worth a read.  Here are a couple of tidbits that stuck out to me…

  • The star planned to adapt the novel Hunter for Rambo V, which finds a legendary tracker being tasked by the government to track down a feral, man-made monster. Hunter leads a team of mercenaries after the creature, which seemingly cannot be killed.  Since Hunter and Rambo are essentially the same character, Stallone felt the book would make a strong basis for a sequel.

    When Stallone later pitched this version on Ain’t It Cool News, it was met with swift derision from fans, so he soon scrapped the concept; that said, it was recently confirmed he plans to adapt Hunter as a solo movie.

Although at first look, Rambo and Hunter are similar (and the adaptation would have been fairly easy), I was glad that the decision was made to scrap this idea.  I’m even happier that Sly plans to adapt Hunter as a solo movie.

  • First Blood author David Morrell revealed in an interview that, around the time Stallone was working on Creed, he got in touch about working on a script that would mark a “soulful” final journey for John Rambo. The pair collaborated on this concept, which Morrell says would have contained action, but it was more about a man who had spent his life at war contemplating his past.

    The author feels this undiscovered Rambo V concept could’ve garnered awards recognition, but when Stallone took it to producers, they rejected it and wanted to focus on the human trafficking story instead. It appears the star wasn’t happy with this, as Stallone later announced his retirement from both the Rambo and Expendables franchises.

Morrell is not only the creator of Rambo, but an outstanding, award-winning author.  It would have been very interesting to see the direction he took Rambo.  Morrell still owns the rights to publish any Rambo stories but has elected to tell other stories.

With all that said, click over and check out Everything You Need to Know About Rambo V: Last Blood.

Fuel to the Fire: The Art of Tomer Hanuka

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Art fans will be glad to hear about the publication of Fuel to the Fire: The Art of Tomer Hanuka.

Discover the magical realism that makes Tomer Hanuka so popular in this exceptional art book celebrating the award-winning illustrator’s comic-inspired art.  Fuel to the Fire is a massive 300-page monograph filled with illustrations and comic book art that has graced the pages of The New York Times, The New Yorker, Rolling Stone, Criterion, and more.  This long-awaited monograph showcases Hanuka’s most iconic and exclusive masterpieces, including all of his famous covers for The New Yorker and his award-winning recreations of movie posters (The Graduate, Star Wars, Akira, and every Kubrick film).

I can’t wait to get a look at this  baby!