I missed out on a lot of news and opportunities to post lately but I just have trouble finding the motivation most of the time. For some reason death is always a motivating factor to do stuff. The death of a family member to a heart attack makes us want to improve our health, until we remember how much we really like bacon wrapped around things and deep fried pastries. Friends passing on without reaching their dreams makes us want to go back to school, start a business (or at the very least, hit on the new widow). Or in the case of this blog I get motivated to write when someone I admired for years loses their battle with disease, time or tasty Mr Gunbarrel. I've had plenty of chances this year. The great Paul Newman added his name this week, an actor who was easy to admire and talented beyond reason.

Newman entered my consciousness as a kid in "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid". He was an actor I always liked but never truly respected until he starred with Tom Cruise in Martin Scorsese's "The Color of Money". There, playing "Fast" Eddie Felson, a character he originated in "The Hustler", Newman was at home. Felson was a career triumph that earned him an Oscar and along with Newman's "Nobody's Fool" is one of my all-time favorite films. If you want to know more trivia about him, plenty of people have written obituaries. If you really want to know more about who he was as an actor, watch his films.

Recommended:

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof - 1958

The Hustler - 1961

Cool Hand Luke - 1967

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid - 1969

The Sting - 1973

Slap Shot - 1977

Fort Apache the Bronx - 1981

The Verdict - 1982

Harry and Son - 1984

The Color of Money - 1986

Fat Man and Little Boy - 1989

Nobody's Fool - 1994

Twilight - 1998

Road to Perdition - 2002

Cars - 2006

There were plenty of others so far this year, three I mentioned before.

George Carlin, an awe-inspiring figure in stand-up comedy circles and hero to doubters of faith like me. I posted a quick note about him after his death, followed by a 9 paragraph eulogy that this blog service accidentaly erased. (Grrrrrr)

Roy Scheider and Stan Winston, two men from similar backgrounds who found a life in genre pictures (one as an actor and one behind the scenes) and a special place in the life of tiny movie geek me.

...and one I didn't

Heath Ledger. You can say The Dark Knight is overrated (you are wrong). You can say it never would have made so much money without the circus of his death (you may be right). You can say his death was his own fault (no excuses made for him here). You can say all that and more but no-one will convince me that the character of the Joker was ever played better or likely ever will be. Jonathan and Christopher Nolan wrote a character that few could flesh out in such a believably enthralling maniac. His Joker is part cult leader, part "agent of chaos" and impossible not to watch. That he was able to create a persona so unlike anything we had ever seen from him (or even imagined he was capable of) is a credit to his talent and makes one wonder what else we might have seen.

Lastly, the death of my company name is detailed a bit below. The three of you that read this blog will be relieved to know it won't affect anything here. I'll still go on, posting every three months or so, don't worry.

Atomic Monkey Films

Four years ago I started this little thing called Atomic Monkey Films with a video I made for my family about our trip to Alaska. While editing the vacation footage together I started to joke with a friend about what my "big Hollywood production company" name should be. The name was picked because it sounded funny and was quirky enough to almost resemble a real business. When I was registering this domain I found that, as often happens in a country of 300 million, a business with an almost identical name existed. I considered changing the name but couldn't fathom anyone would care much considering our distance apart and the fact that we sold completely unrelated products to equally unrelated customers.

You can probably guess that I'm writing this because someone decided to care. Legal council for said company has informed me that I am the little fish and I can give up the name and the site to the big fish or wind up gasping for air on the dock. I'd prefer to fight, but just don't have the means and I'm sure they are counting on that. So at the end of this year the site will be theirs and AMF will be called something else. It's not something I look forward to. Most customers are more familiar with the name of our DVD series than our company name, but I've become attached to it. My family and friends talk about it and the title page is still used when I make videos for them.

It's a bummer to lose a bit more innocence every day but that is the world we live in. Some just make it their profession to take it from you.

Randall - owner of "?"

George Carlin 5/12/1937 - 6/22/2008

To bummed to write much about this now. Maybe later...

News link.

The Winston Effect

Creature artist Stan Winston passed away June 15th after an long battle with multiple myeloma. In a career spanning nearly four decades, Winston was a make-up designer, special effects artist, director, producer and overall master of his profession, a creature creator. In his own words "I don't do special effects. I do characters. I do creatures."

He worked in TV, Film and amusement park attractions and had a hand in some of the most groundbreaking and influential movies in history. He was, like Rick Baker, Dick Smith and George Lucas' ILM, a brand name. Films could be promoted in movie geek circles based on his involvement alone and he always raised the bar for projects he was involved with.

Like many I was aware of his work before I knew who he was. Winston worked in TV with the FX heavy series "Manimal", did costumes for the wookie family in the infamous "Star Wars Holiday Special" and worked with Rick Baker on the film "The Thing" (for which Baker won an Oscar).

Winston came to fame with a one-two punch in the early eighties with the "The Terminator" in 1984 and "Aliens" in 1986. The former would become a hallmark of his career which he would revisit four times (in 1991's "Terminator 2: Judgement Day", 1996's "T2 3D: Battle Across Time" for the Universal Studios Theme Parks, 2003's "Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines" and as a supervisor on the upcoming "Terminator: Salvation"). He also forged a lasting friendship on set with star Arnold Schwarzenegger and director James Cameron. His relationship with Cameron continued into the "Aliens" shoot where Winston was asked to continue the original nightmarish alien designs by HR Giger with a bigger, badder alien queen. He delivered. With an imposing mix of scale and insect inspired creepiness, the alien queen was the perfect adversary for Sigorney Weaver's character Ellen Ripley. Their cargo bay showdown was the stuff of legend and showed how well the practical, large scale hydraulic effects by Winston could work. He was honored for his work on "Aliens" with an Oscar for Visual Effects as well as two for "T2: Judgement Day", one for Best Make-up and another for Best Visual Effects (which he shared with ILM's Dennis Muren).

His resume continued to grow with films like "Monster Squad", "The Leviathan" and the "Predator" series before joining Steven Speilberg for "Jurassic Park". There, in a film filled with the latest in computer generated imagery, Winston showed that there was still a place for the life size practical effects. These latex covered, hydraulic powered machines were like living, breathing things that the actors could work with and react to. Once again he shared the stage with Industrial Light and Magic's Dennis Muren as they received another Oscar for Visual Effects.

Winston would be nominated by the Academy of Arts and Sciences two more times for his Visual Effects work. Once for "The Lost World: Jurassic Park" and again for "Artificial Intelligence: A.I." but "Jurassic Park" would be his last win. The attention getting cgi effects of the last ten years took some of the spotlight away from his profession but he still remained an integral part of many blockbuster films including "Big Fish", "Constantine" and this summer's smash hit "Iron Man". He founded Digital Domain, Stan Winston Studios and Stan Winston Digital and was one of only two SFX artists to have a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

In a profession filled with giant stars he created bigger ones. He took pen and paper, paint and clay, latex and steel and turned them into graceful, sometimes fearsome, moving works of art. He was an inspiration for many like myself to appreciate not only the film and the actors, but the hard work done by the men and women behind the camera. He died Sunday at his home in Malibu at age 62.

"There's nothing more important to me in my life than my family, and nothing will ever take over. I believe that's why the work shows as well as it is because my work is not a sacrifice. My work is a joy. I'm not sacrificing my family for my work. I go in and I love what I do."

We love what you do to. Thanks Stan.

But will it have construction walls?

Starting tuesday Disney's website and Google Earth will release a 3-D map feature for the parks. This new whiz-bang time waster will give people like me yet another excuse to skip weddings, graduations and funerals. The interactive map will allow users to travel through a virtual park, getting info on all kinds of attractions, dining and hotels, Eventualy, developers say visitors will be able to watch videos of rides, shows and visit rooms in the resorts.

It's nice to see a company like Disney Parks embrace free pub for their resorts, unlike Universal who go to great lengths to keep guests from using photo or video anywhere near a ride.

You can read about the map feature for yourself here.

The Art of Pixar-Disney

The upcoming release of Pixar's film "WALL-E" and the opening of the Toy Story Mania attraction on both coasts led me to revisit "The Pixar Story" on Starz tonight. If you haven't had the chance, find time to check it out. It will give any fan of not only their films but fans of animation and traditional, good ole' storytelling a new found appreciation for what they have accomplished. In an age when the dreams of our childhood seem to have been robbed by corporate giants, it's somewhat heartwarming to find that a company like Pixar can still exist.

They have made their reputation on doing simple stories that, to paraphrase Walt, are aimed not specifically at children or adults, but a place inside us all. The films released so far have drawn on the ideals and dreams of their Disney predecessors and found a wonderful balance of art and computer magic. Simultaneously keeping adults entertained without talking down to or pandering to kids, they have forged an unprecedented streak of both critically and financially successful films. There is an honesty and heart to the stories they tell and a strength of character in the people telling it that gives traditional 2D animation and theme park fans hope that the mighty Disney empire can find it's way with a little help from it's friends.

Epcot Camera Back Online

Good news for the Disney geeks out there (like me). The WeatherBug.com Epcot cam from the Swan and Dolphin Hotel is up and running again. The full day view is a cool way to watch a day at the park go by in a flash.

See it here.

Tinsletown to Rockit in Orlando

Forums have been abuzz for weeks with speculation that the Universal Studios Japan attraction "Hollywood Dream: The Ride" would make it's way to Florida soon. This Wednesday Universal (sorta) confirmed the story, announcing the construction of "Hollywood Rip, Ride, Rockit", a high-tech rollercoaster combining near-miss thrills with music and special effects.

Fears that the ride would follow the same sort of intrusive path through the park as found in Japan were unfounded as the park made clear the route would travel the southern edge of the property from Jimmy Neutron to the Citywalk lagoon and back. You can read the press release here. Much of the success of HRRR may depend largely on something Universal has been unable or unwilling to do much in their parks: technical upkeep. Too many attractions at the Universal parks fail at the little things after very strong starts. Broken animatronics (Revenge of the Mummy), broken effects (RotM, Spiderman), and a tendency to rely heavily on the use of television screens and projections that they fail to maintain. HRRR promises thrills and chills with a soundtrack you select and stage show lights and effects but what kind of experience do you have when they fail like the animatronic in the first scene of Mummy that hasn't come out of his sarcophacus in years?

I guess you just have a rollercoaster, so it better be good. I look forward to finding out.

We Don't Need Another Hero

When we last saw Max Rockatansky he was staggering in the desert, abandoned by enemies no longer interested in his death, watching the plane full of children he saved soar off towards salvation.

All that with a busted head and no ride.

Flash forward 23 years. Director George Miller recently made public plans to not only revive the Mad Max franchise with a fourth film but also with a videogame that he will co-create with God of War II director Cory Barlog.

Now for the bad news.....

Miller also made it known that unlike the delayed "Mad Max 4: Fury Road" started in 2003, this production will not star Mel Gibson. He stated in an article with Level Up blogger and Newsweek.com general editor N'Gai Croal that "He's in his 50s now--it's too old.". This is the same article in which he also reveals that a lot of CG will be used in the film too.

Ahem.......what the F? Did Miller lose his mind along with his credibility? He claims to be using a story in which Max is decades older, a story that could be infinitely more interesting than those told in recent franchise revivals, so why not use Mel? Has Miller's time spent developing the joke of a Justice League movie and it's barely legal cast convinced him that a fresher and cheaper lead is the way to go?

What about that CG? Does a Mad Max film need the slick, $100 million soul-less Hollywood treatent? What the hell is wrong with a well-made, personal story with a character we know played by the original actor and a lot of real stuntmen doing real stunts? Did we learn nothing from the incredible Death Proof car-chase? It's the actor and the story, by the way, that we are putting our money down to see. Not George f-ing Miller.

Also George, while we are on the subject of your current plans, I could care less about how good the video game tie-in turns out if this is the movie that goes with it. This comes from an every day gamer and huge fan of the first three films. What people get mad at George Lucas for doing with the Star Wars prequels and special editions is nothing compared to what you and John Carpenter are doing to your film legacies.

If the current revival of several film franchises with their original stars (John Rambo, Rocky Balboa, Indy 4) and the success they've had doesn't convince you then I'm suspicious of your motives. Kurt Russell was nice enough to be much more honest than most expected and originaly blasted the recasting of his icon Snake Plisken for the Escape From New York remake (excuse me, re-imagining --vomit--) and I applauded him for it. These characters are a part of our collective film experience and were never meant to shared or interpreted like Hamlet, Macbeth or Willy Loman. Kurt Russell is Snake Pliskin, just like Sylvester Stallone is John Rambo and Rocky Balboa, Mel Gibson is Mad Max and Martin Riggs, and Harrison Ford is Solo, Indy and Deckard.

Unlike Batman, Jason Bourne or even James Bond, these characters are forever linked to one person, one (sometimes career-making) performance. They are the combined good fortune and creative will of an actor connecting with his character and the audience. In marketing departments, toy company drawing boards and lunch box companies they may only be commerce, but for that two hours in the dark they are flesh and blood.

So what is it then? Have Gibson's recent controversial moves put him out of favor with Miller or his producers? Does Miller intend on changing the story to suit a younger actor? Do I care? Not really. Without Gibson this isn't Mad Max, it may as well be a Megaforce sequel. It is cinema-non-grata.

Special note to Ridley Scott: recast or remake Blade Runner and I will find you.

Who Needs the Kwik-E Mart? I Do.

Universal Orlando seems to be putting the finishing touches on it's Simpsons Ride. Krusty the Clown's likeness which will adorn the building's facade is on site and looks like it will be in place soon.

The ride takes the place of the Back to the Future attraction and while it's a bitter pill to lose a favorite of mine...hey, it's the Simpsons. BTTF was a fun, motion simulator style attraction that was starting to show it's age. In it's place (the rumors say) is a high-tech makeover complete with new ride vehicles, a state-of-the-art HD screen and ride system. The attraction promises to take visitors into unexplored areas of Springfield as you travel to Krusty's theme park. Expect high doses of amusement park spoofs (and maybe a few shots at Disney).

Check out IOA Central's story here.