TV Obits: Justman, Mullany, Myers, Altman
A roundup of TV people from in front of the camera and behind the scenes who have passed away.
- Robert H. Justman: He was a producer on the original Star Trek and Star Trek: The Next Generation. Other shows that Justman produced include Mission Impossible, The Adventures of Superman, Search, MacGruder and Loud, and Then Came Bronson. He was also a production manager on the original Outer Limits. He died of Parkinson’s Disease at age 81. (Oddly, this is the third Star Trek veteran to die in the past few weeks.)
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Mitch Mullany: He was a stand up comic who starred in the WB series Nick Freno: Licensed Teacher. He also hosted the ABC reality show All American Girl and appeared in Hangin’ With Mr.Cooper and The Wayan Brothers, as well as the films The Sweetest Thing and The Breaks. He died of a diabetes-induced stroke at age 39.
- Farlan Myers: He was a composer who not only wrote commercial jingles for companies such as Hunt Foods and Ford Motor Company, he also wrote the theme song for Our Miss Brooks. He worked for over 60 years in the entertainment business, from ad agencies to television to film. He died at age 89.
- Sophie Altman: She created the classic game show It’s Academic, which pitted high school students against each other in a test of knowledge. Altman’s show ran in Washington, but several other cities around the country have adapted the show and made their own. She died at age 95.
Video: American Teen
American Teen is without a doubt the best film of the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. In my opinion, it’s the first documentary with mainstream appeal. The movie was in an intense bidding war between Fox Searchlight and Paramount Vantage, with Vantage taking home the goods. American Teen follows four high school students through their senior year. If Fast Times at Ridgemont High were a documentary, it would look something like American Teen. Check out the Sundance Channel’s Meet The Filmmaker segment on the film, which features a couple clips. I hope Vantage will put together a kick ass trailer soon enough, so you guys can better see what everyone is talking about.
Sundance Movie Review: Assassination of a High School President
Assassination of a High School President is a murder mystery set in a high school, without the murder. Assassination of a High School President will likely be compared to Brick in every review you read, and every conversation you have about te flick. Yet, Assassination is not a copy of Brick, in fact, it was written before Brick. Imagine if John Hughes had made Chinatown set in a High School. So where Brick was a hardcore film noir story set in the world of high school students, Assassination is a high school movie with a noir mystery storyline.
Brett Simon’s debut feature is set in an intricate, hilarious, twisted world set inside St. Donovan’s private school. Not quite the 90’s, 80’s or 70’s, Assassination is set in an alternative universe where cellphones don’t exist, students type on Apple IIe’s, yet references to the Iraq war and Chuck Palahniuk. Reece Daniel Thompson is Bobby Funke, a sophomore reporter for the St. Donovan’s school newspaper. When the SAT tests go missing from the High School Principal’s safe, Funke goes all Woodward and Bernstein, tracking his own private watergate, following the mystery twist after twist. Assassination’s lightning quick dialogue is nothing short of brilliant. Even Mischa Barton couldn’t ruin this movie, as much as she tried with her O.C.-level acting skills (wait, should the wording still be “skills” when I’m obviously being derogatory?)
The world of this story is so masterfully created. From the production design, to the characters, Assassination feels like a living breathing parallel universe where the characters talk in voice over. While each character has a very specific story purpose, you feel like each character has an extensive back-history, comparable to the characters in the universe of The Simpsons or Groundhog Day. Bruce Willis turn as the crazy High School principal is also worth noting.
If there is one fault, and it is a minor one, it involves the film’s conclusion. Like most mystery stories, the resulting explanation at the end of the story never lives up to the intense build-up. Assassination is no different in that respect. But don’t get me wrong, you will not for a second feel cheated. You will leave the theater after seeing this film knowing you underpaid for your ticket.
Brett Simon has traveled the festival circuit with his short films, including Sundance, where his short film The Sailor’s Girl premiered in 2005. He’s a successful commercial and music video director (which includes the award winning “Somebody Told Me” for The Killers). Unrelated but noteworthy, Screenwriters Tim Calpin and Kevin Jakubowski are former production assistants on South Park.
Assassination is one of the most interesting films I’ve seen in the last couple years.
Comic-Con Preview: 20 Minutes of Beowulf 3D
Last night a movie theater full of film press packed a big digital theater in downtown San Diego to watch 20 minutes of Robert Zemeckis’ Beowulf. Screenwriters Roger Avary and Neil Gaiman were on hand to field questions following the screening. The screening started late because the theater was at the end of a multi-level labyrinth they call an outdoor mall. Security was tight - we weren’t allowed to take in our camera, iPhone, or even digital audio recording device. We are the first public audience to see any of the footage so it seems reasonable enough. Although I’m not sure what someone would do with blurry handheld footage of the double processed 3D footage. I assume such footage would be totally unwatchable.
They began the screening with the movie trailer which is now online. Gaiman, in a Superman’s Dead t-shirt, told the crowd to put on their “magic beowulf glasses.” Te lights went out and the trailer played in digital 3d. I won’t focus long on the trailer since it’s now public, but I will say that it was definitely much better in 3D. At one point the blood sprays off the screen at the audience, which is a cool effect.
Neil promises that Beowulf will be the biggest 3D release ever, simutanously being shown in IMAX 3D, Real D on digital screens and in normal Dolby. Avary talked about the 10 year journey from script to screen and gushed over how “It’s like somebody reached inside my brain” and put the images on screen. He jokingly explain that he wanted to make the film to make the story easier to understand for future generations of high school students.
They then showed us the entire second reel of the film, which was almost 0 minutes in length.
“The reason why we’re showing you the second reel is because it’s the only thing that exists,” explains Gaiman, who says the rest of the film is just data.Gaiman explained the set-up of Reel #1. A hole has opened and a monster named Grendel has started eating people because he hates the noise. Beowulf comes across the sea with his huge group of men to battle the monster. He strips down and says he will fight the monster with no weapons. Beowulf nearly defeats the monster and that is where Reel #2 starts.
Gaiman said that “Beowulf is the oldest story in the English language.”
Avary added: “told with the most modern technology.”
The two have a comic chemistry. Avary is always stepping over Gaiman’s words and apologizing. Gainman offers quick quips in return.
Reel 2 begins with Beowulf kicking the cut off arm of Grendel. It’s instantly impressive. The animation in Beowulf’s face, and the skin imperfections is the most realistic human facial animation to date. But you still have that weird motion capture movement. Which I’ve always found really odd since logically motion capture should result in more realistic movement, right? But instead you get some very robotic movements at times. This is not to say that Beowulf isn’t a vast improvement over Final Fantasy and the Polar Express, because it is. The technology is unfortunately not there yet. However, the 3D technology is absolutely amazing.
Beowulf and crew return to be rewarded by the King. Grendel’s mother attacks the town and Beowulf is pissed that he was never told about the mother. The king looks exactly like a digital copy of Anthony Hopkins which asks the question (which was asked later) why do all the work involved in motion capture animation if you’re just going to give the actor the same look? I come from a school of thought which believes that the characters should be there only to support the story. And having a character look like an actor is not conductive of that goal. This is one of the reasons that Pixar is so successful. They hire the actors purely based o who would be a better fit for the character.
Beowulf enters the watery cave alone. This is the scene from the trailer where Ray Winstone’s character wades through the water in the dark cave.He finds a cavern full of treasures and yells “show yourself!” and “What are you!?” A tail quickly flew by the foreground. “Are you the one they call Beowulf” Finally we she the monster. The monster is basically Angelina Jolie with a long ponytail which turns into a dragon like tail. She rises up from the water and it’s very clear that Angelina Jolie is very nude (except slightly covered up). Everyone was in awe at how real and hot she looked. “What do you know of me demon!?” “Under your armor you are as much a monster as my so Grendel.” She strokes his sword in a very sexual way explaining that it’s been a long time since a man has visited her. He hand melts his sword. She offers Beowulf a deal which would make him the greatest and longest living king to ever live. The clip ends with them kissing.
Gaiman says that’s the genius of Robert Zemeckis, before taking questions from the crowd.
“What do you want to know? We will answer or we will lie!”
He confirms that the film was 100% motion capture: “They wore those suits all those dots on them, looking much like the cast from tron.”
Avary explained that the motion capture technology allowed Bob to do full takes without any cuts which translated into some incredible performances: “That’s performance capture. It’s digitally enhanced acting.”
Someone asks the question: why do the motion capture and animation if you just want the characters to look like the actors that portray them. Gainman explains that Beowulf doesn’t, which I think was a lame answer. He saw that the aging of Beowulf in the film would not be possible without this technology. He then makes a good point: “If you have John Malkovich or Anthony Hopkins, why not?” He wondered out loud how the Academy will react. Will digital versions of actors get award recognition?
Roger explained that he grew up loving Legend and Excalibur, and that Beowulf was the one story he connected with in High School. It hit him that no movie was ever made of the story and put it on his list of ideas. Then when Avary was fired from the big screen adaptation of Gainman’s Sandman “for being too honest about his intentions and ideas”, he studied the story again and asked Gaiman to co-write the film with him,
Avary compares the story of Beowulf with the game of telephone. The resulting story has more than a few plot holes which forced him to be creative to cover up. Neil and Roger wrote the script in a two week stretch in Mexico in May 1997, while drinking bad Mexican beer by a pool, passing floppy discs between them. Zemeckis read the script and for years wanted Avary to direct it, but eventually took on the task himself.
They joked that the original dragon fight was very talky and lacked much action because they wrote it with a small budget in mind. Zemeckis hired them to rewrite the film and encouraged them to “go wild”.
Gaiman also confirmed that they are aiming for a PG-13 rating despite the violence, blood and previously discussed nudity of Angelina Jolie. I’m wondering if they can pull this off. He reiterated the previous statement that they are planning to release an unrated version on DVD at some point.
Avary praises Zemeckis for having a writers mind and having the creative collaborative excitement that some directors lack.
Gaiman describes the footage: “For me it felt like wandering around in a graphic novel.”
He sad that the technology is getting better every day and this may be the bet way to do Sandman, whenever that actually happens. He praised the 3D technology as being a revolution for cinema: “This will actually be a reason to go to the cinema again.”
They then showed a teaser which showed quick cuts of all the cool moments from the reel and trailer.
I was impressed by parts of the presentation but the motion capture technology is clearly not there yet. The people still have that creepy zombie look and at times have unnatural movement. The 3D could be key to getting people to see this film in the theater. It will be interesting to see if audiences are interested enough to see this story on the big screen.