Joel Carroll and Jack Carter

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I’ve known Joel Carroll for several years.  Whenever I would talk to Joel about a Stallone sketch Joel would beg off because he felt he wasn’t good at capturing likenesses.

Recently Joel was sketching for charity and I hit him up again.  It was for charity so how could Joel refuse?  He didn’t and you can see the end result above.  I really like it!

You can see more of Joel’s art on twitter.

Max Allan Collins Drops a Dime

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Max Allan Collins recently spoke with The Rap Sheet and they covered a wide range of topics.  Here are a few tidbits [with a link to full interview]…

…like a lot of Americans, he [Mickey Spillane] was deeply troubled by the terrorist attacks on September 11, and I think he just had to get Mike Hammer into that fray. But as much as I like Goliath Bone, I think King of the Weeds, with its traditional crime elements, feels more like the final Hammer novel.

The amount of unfinished, unpublished material Mickey left behind was and is staggering. Even now I haven’t read every word of it.

JKP: I understand you’re also now working on a Western, based on an unproduced screenplay Mickey Spillane wrote originally for actor John Wayne. Can you fill in more of the background on that particular tale, which you’ve titled The Legend of Caleb York? MAC: …Over a Bouchercon breakfast I said, “You know what I have? An unproduced screenplay Mickey Spillane wrote for John Wayne. You guys publish Westerns, right?” And my editor sort of pounced.

The interview also covers the next Nate Heller books [and potential tv series], the Quarry books [and potential tv series – the pilot has been filmed] and much more.

The Rap Sheet interview is worth a read!

Z-View: “Brick Mansions”

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The Pitch: ”Hey, let’s do an Americanized remake of the cult classic action film District B13!”

“Let’s do it!”

The Tagline:  “Their Streets.  Their Rules.“

The Overview:   *** Beware –  spoilers are found below ***

The year is 2018.  Because of out of control crime [think The Purge on a daily basis], a part of Detroit called Brick Mansions has been walled off from the rest of the city with military police guarding the few exits in or out [think Escape from New York with two Snake Plisskens].

Paul Walker [the first Snake Plissken] is an undercover cop whose dad was killed in Brick Mansions.  David Belle is an ex-con [and the second Snake Plissken] who lives in Brick Mansions and works against the crime lord [played by Rza].

Walker and Belle find themselves as unlikely partners when a stolen neutron bomb is hijacked, armed and aimed at a US city.

The Good

  • Brick Mansions begins with a great extended action-scene with Belle doing his parkour!
  • The cast: Paul Walker [in his final completed role], David Belle [should be making more American movies], RZA, Ayisha Issa, Carlo [24] Rota,  Andreas [Riddick] Apergis, and  Robert [300, Sherlock Holmes] Maillet.
  • Every scene with Belle doing parkour is fun.
  • Ayisha Carlo and Robert Mailet were especially well cast.

The Bad:

  • The aim of almost everyone with a weapon.
  • Ayisha Carlo and Robert Mailet .
  • Characterization and rationale thought are left with the coming attractions.
  • Making RZA a “good guy” at the end.  Rza played an interesting bad guy, but let’s not lose sight that he was a really bad guy, a drug king pin who killed people without a second thought.  Yeah, he make a great mayor!
  • Cartoon violence.

The Ugly:

  • How Belle deals with crooked cops.  How Walker deals with giants.

 

Rating: 3 out of 5