Howard Chaykin Interview!
Howard Chaykin is the subject of an excellent interview with Tripwire Magazine.
13 Arresting Facts About “Cops”
Jake Rosen and Mental Floss present 13 Arresting Facts About Cops. Here are three of my favorites…
6. THE SUSPECTS NEED TO GIVE THEIR PERMISSION TO APPEAR ON THE SHOW.
Contrary to popular belief, being arrested doesn’t absolve anyone of his or her right to not be filmed for a national television show. Producers on Cops have to get releases signed by arrestees and suspects. If they’re already handcuffed, the crew can follow them to jail and get them to sign there. Langley has said that proper timing is key when it comes to getting their permission—during a fight is a problem—and estimated that 95 percent of everyone filmed signs a waiver to appear. According to Langley, they simply want to be on television.
8. THE CREW HAS HAD TO JUMP IN.
The official Cops crew policy is that camera and microphone operators are there only to observe: They’re not allowed to interfere with anything going on. The exception, Langley says, is if an officer’s life is in danger. In one instance, a suspect was about to secure an officer’s weapon when the sound man put down his gear and jumped in; another show staffer administered CPR to a woman in need. He was a paramedic; the officer didn’t know the technique.
1. JOHN LANGLEY THOUGHT OF THE IDEA DURING A COCAINE BUST.
The producer was in charge of a crew covering a real-life drug raid for a 1983 documentary called Cocaine Blues when inspiration struck: He thought it would be a good idea to have a no-frills chronicle of the everyday experiences of police officers. While the concept (then titledStreet Beat) was simple, no one shared Langley’s enthusiasm. He was repeatedly told no show without a narrator, music, or plot could succeed.
Twilight Zone: “Nothing in the Dark” [Season 3, Episode 16] / Z-View
Twilight Zone: “Nothing in the Dark” [Season 3, Episode 16]
Original Air Date: January 5, 1962
Director: Lamont Johnson
Writer: George Clayton Johnson
Starring: Gladys Cooper, Robert Redford and R.G. Armstrong.
The Overview: Beware of Spoilers…
An old woman is afraid Death will take her if she leaves her apartment. She has food delivered and never opens the door until no one is around. Death has come calling before but she never lets him in. When a police officer is shot and left to die outside her door she is faced with a dilemma…
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12 Great Facts About “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly”
Matthew Jackson and Mental Floss present 12 Great Facts About The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Here are three of my favorites…
9. IT’S TECHNICALLY A PREQUEL.
Careful viewers of the “Dollars Trilogy” will note that, though it’s the final film, The Good, The Bad and The Ugly actually takes place prior to the other two films. Among the clues: Eastwood acquires his iconic poncho, worn in both A Fistful of Dollars and For a Few Dollars More, in the final minutes.
11. EASTWOOD TURNED DOWN A FOURTH FILM.
By the end of The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, Eastwood was done working with Leone—a famous perfectionist—and had resolved that he would form his own company and start making his own movies. Leone, on the other hand, wasn’t necessarily done with Eastwood. He even flew to Los Angeles to pitch him the role of “Harmonica” (ultimately played by Charles Bronson) in Once Upon a Time in the West. Eastwood wasn’t interested.
12. JOHN WAYNE WAS NOT A FAN OF EASTWOOD.
Before Leone’s Westerns hit America, heroic gunfighters were almost always portrayed as men who waited for the villain to draw their guns first, the idea being that these were men who wouldn’t kill unless they had to. Among these heroes was John Wayne, whose career was winding down just as Eastwood’s was heating up. According to Eastwood, director Don Siegel (who made several films with Eastwood, including Dirty Harry) once tried to get Wayne to be more like the “Dollars Trilogy” star during the filming of Wayne’s final film, The Shootist. Wayne, it turns out, was not a fan of Eastwood’s more ruthless Western style.
Twilight Zone: “A Quality of Mercy” [Season 3, Episode 15] / Z-View
Twilight Zone: “A Quality of Mercy” [Season 3, Episode 15]
Original Air Date: December 29, 1961
Director: Buzz Kulik
Writer: Rod Serling from an idea by Sam Rolfe
Starring: Dean Stockwell, Albert Salmi, Rayford Barnes and Leonard Nimoy.
The Overview: Beware of Spoilers…
World War II is days from ending. A ragged group of battle-weary soldiers on the front line get a new Lieutanant [Stockwell] who hopes to make a name for himself no matter the cost to his men.
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Sylvester Stallone’s 15 Biggest Movies – Ranked Worst To Best
Ben Bussey over at What Culture takes a look at Sylvester Stallone’s 15 Biggest Movies – Ranked Worst To Best.
The list is based on box-office not adjusted for inflation which may cause some surprises — the original Rocky doesn’t make the cut. The list makes for fun reading so have at it.
Twilight Zone: “Five Characters in Search of an Exit” [Season 3, Episode 14] / Z-View
Twilight Zone: “Five Characters in Search of an Exit” [Season 3, Episode 14]
Original Air Date: December 22, 1961
Director: Lamont Johnson
Writer: Rod Serling from a short story by Marvin Petal
Starring: Susan Harrison, William Windom and Murray Matheson.
The Overview: Beware of Spoilers…
An army major, a ballerina, a clown, a hobo and a bagpiper wake up to find themselves in a strange round room. The walls are sheer and high, but there is no roof so if they could some how make it up and over they could escape. But escape to where?
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Hell’s Club 2: Another Night
Last September, I posted Hell’s Club is the coolest thing on the net right now. The editing choices on this video are amazing. Join me as we travel to…
… a place where all fictional characters meet. . Outside of time, Outside of all logic, This place is known as HELL’S CLUB, But this club is not safe…
Join me once again as we return for Hell’s Club 2: Another Night…
Dee Fish and Barney Ross
Dee Fish gave me her very cool take on Sly as Barney Ross at HeroesCon 2015. Gotta love it! You can see more of Dee’s art here.
Twilight Zone: “Once Upon a Time” [Season 3, Episode 13] / Z-View
Twilight Zone: “Once Upon a Time” [Season 3, Episode 13]
Original Air Date: December 15, 1961
Director: Norman Z. McCleod
Writer: Richard Matheson
Starring: Buster Keaton, Stanley Adams and James Flavin.
The Overview: Beware of Spoilers…
In 1890, Woodrow Mulligan [Keaton] is a janitor cleaning up a scientist’s lab when he tries on a time-machine helmet and is transported to 1962.
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Twilight Zone: “The Jungle” [Season 3, Episode 12] / Z-View
Twilight Zone: “The Jungle” [Season 3, Episode 12]
Original Air Date: December 1, 1961
Director: William Claxton
Writer: Charles Beaumont
Starring: John Dehner, Walter Brooke and Jay Adler.
The Overview: Beware of Spoilers…
Back home in New York City, after a year in Africa overseeing a major construction project, Alan Richards [Dehner] discovers his wife secretly placed a charm to ward off evil spells in his coat pocket.
His wife was afraid because a witch doctor had placed a curse on Richards and those working on the project which was destroying their land. Richards leaves the charm on the bar as he heads home and it isn’t long before dangerous things begin to happen.
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10 Hardcore Facts About “New Jack City”
Andrew LaSane and Mental Floss present 10 Hardcore Facts About New Jack City. Here are three of my favorites…
1. IT WAS MARIO VAN PEEBLES’S DIRECTORIAL DEBUT.
Mario Van Peebles—an actor and the son of filmmaker Melvin Van Peebles—has admitted that making his debut as a feature director with New Jack City was tough. He had directed episodes of shows like 21 Jump Street and Wiseguy, but the film was a different beast, especially in terms of the tone. “It’s tricky,” he told The Morning Call. “New Jack is a dangerous movie to make, I didn’t want to do a direct glorification of the Tone-Loc lifestyle. I had to be careful about that. I thought about the old Scarface movie, which was probably meant as a deterrent to crime because it depicts all the violence of that kind of lifestyle. But for kids who don’t have any way out, ‘Live Fast and Die Young’ is like a motto. For people with no opportunities, gangsters become role models.”
5. ICE T WAS LUKEWARM ON THE IDEA OF PLAYING AN UNDERCOVER NEW YORK CITY COP.
After he was given the script and realized that his character, Scotty Appleton, was a cop, Ice T was hesitant. His lifestyle and his music represented the exact opposite of what he would have to play on screen. “I started to survey all the people around me, people whose opinions I trusted the most,” Ice T wrote in Ice. “‘Yo, I got offered this movie role,’ I said over and over. ‘But here’s the thing: they want me to be the man. I thought my old crime partners might start laughing. Or snap my head off. But they all had the same response. They got these puppy faces, turned real quiet for for a moment, then asked me, ‘Word? Ice, could I be in the movie?'”
6. MARTIN LAWRENCE WAS THE ORIGINAL POOKIE.
Chris Rock’s portrayal of the drug addict Pookie earned him praise from Roger Ebert and other reviewers, but he was not the first choice for the role. In a recent interview about the legacy of New Jack City, screenwriter Barry Michael Cooper revealed that comedian Martin Lawrence had the better audition and had secured the part. “He’ll admit it himself, his audition wasn’t great, at all,” Cooper said of Chris Rock. “Martin Lawrence, he came in and killed that audition. The person taping had to shut the camera off; everybody was on the floor [laughing].”But shortly before production began, Lawrence’s mentor and fellow comedian Robin Harris passed away. “He didn’t take it well,” Cooper said. “He stepped out of the movie, and that’s when they gave the role to Chris Rock.” Lawrence later referenced the film in an episode of his sitcom, Martin, dressing like and quoting Snipes’ Nino Brown character while dragging around a stuffed dog.
Twilight Zone: “Still Valley” [Season 3, Episode 11] / Z-View
Twilight Zone: “Still Valley” [Season 3, Episode 11]
Original Air Date: November 24, 1961
Director: James Sheldon
Writer: Rod Serling from a story by Manly Wade Wellman
Starring: Gary Merrill, Vaughn Taylor and Mark Tapscott
The Overview: Beware of Spoilers…
Confederate Scout Joseph Paradine [Merrill] enters a town deserted except for an old man and a Union Army unit frozen in place in the middle of the street. The old man is a warlock and since he is dying, willing to pass along his powers to Paradine. With his new powers Paradine plans to change the course of the war.
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14 Flesh-Eating Facts About “Cabin Fever”
Jennifer M. Wood and Mental Floss present 14 Flesh-Eating Facts About Cabin Fever. Here are three of my favorites…
6. THE SAME STUDIOS THAT PASSED ON PRODUCING THE FILM ENGAGED IN A BIDDING WAR FOR THE FINISHED PRODUCT.
Though Roth’s original plan for the film was to sell the script and have a studio produce it, no one was interested in buying it (hence the aforementioned eight-year process of getting it made). But a successful showing at the 2002 Toronto International Film Festival changed all that: the film sparked a bidding war, with Lionsgate ultimately emerging victorious. Roth was paid $3.5 million for the film, and promised $12 million in prints and advertising. Of the many studios competing to acquire Cabin Fever, most had already passed on producing it.
8. PETER JACKSON WAS A FAN.
After hearing about Cabin Fever from several of his The Lord of the Rings collaborators, Peter Jackson requested that a print be sent to him in New Zealand, where he was filming The Return of the King. Impressed by what he was seeing, Jackson shut down production on his own film—twice!—to screen Cabin Fever for his cast and crew. Eventually, Jackson invited Roth to The Lord of the Rings set, where he offered to supply Roth with a quote about the film for his production materials. It read: “Brilliant! Fantastic! Horror fans have been waiting years for a movie like Cabin Fever. I loved it!”
9. QUENTIN TARANTINO DECLARED ROTH “THE FUTURE OF HORROR.”
In a 2004 interview with Premiere, Quentin Tarantino talked at length about his admiration for Cabin Fever, and called Roth “the future of horror.” The admiration was mutual. Tarantino and Roth would go on to become good friends and regular collaborators. In addition to directing Thanksgiving, one of the fake trailers in the middle of Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez’s Grindhouse, and playing Dov in the film, Roth had a major role as Sergeant Donny Donowitz in Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds (2009).
Twilight Zone: “The Midnight Sun” [Season 3, Episode 10] / Z-View
Twilight Zone: “The Midnight Sun” [Season 3, Episode 10]
Original Air Date: November 17, 1961
Director: Anton Leader
Writer: Rod Serling
Starring: Lois Nettleton, Betty Garde and Tom Reese
The Overview: Beware of Spoilers…
The Earth has come out of orbit and is moving ever closer to the sun. Most people have headed north or south to delay the inevitable. With the city abandoned, with no police, no running water or fresh food deliveries, a pair of women are struggling to survive in their city apartments.
An armed man breaks in looking to steal what they have and we come to discover things are not as they seem.
Contains a classic Twilight Zone twist ending.
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