Posts Tagged ‘talent’
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Jun17
A PERFECTIONIST WITH ACCESS TO THE NECRONOMICON
June 17th, 2005 |
(7 votes, average: 8.71 out of 10)
When people go to see Batman Begins this weekend, there will be rave reviews of how the undead Laurence Olivier knocked it out of the park with his cameo appearance. Mark my words.
Quick note: Be sure to place your bids on the auction I’m having for an original piece of artwork over on eBay. There are only 2 days left, so be sure you don’t miss out on the action. I was really pleased with how this piece turned out and hopefully it will make one of you very happy to own it.
Now, onto the comic!
Is it relatively clear that the angry director in today’s strip is Christopher Nolan? I’m always a little paranoid when it comes to my celebrity caricatures. Especially when it comes to celebrities people aren’t very familiar with. EVEN MORE ESPECIALLY when it’s a director with only 3 films under his belt.
That’s why I’ve included this handy picture for reference. That, kids… is Christopher Nolan, director of Batman Begins. See? We learn something new every day!
It’s insane the level of talent Nolan has attracted to his relaunch of the Batman franchise. Who cares if Morgan Freeman admitted to taking the role strictly for the money? This film has Oscar winners and nominees littered all over the place like used bubble gum.
I suppose Nolan’s pedigree directing and writing the extremely intelligent Memento and his confident handling of the remake of Insomnia would inspire some confidence. But wouldn’t David S. Goyer’s name on the script raise a few eyebrows of suspicion? Let’s face it – Blade: Trinity was not Bridge of the River Kwai.
Of course Goyer brought us good films like Dark City, but I would say that was more a success for director Alex Proyas, whose amazing visuals sold that film to me lock, stock and barrel. Meanwhile, Goyer’s credits are more bad than good. After all, this was the man who penned the Nick Fury: Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. TV movie starring… wait for it… David Hasselhoff. So Goyer has some sins to answer for.
Still, from the sound of things, his Batman Begins script is very strong. All the feedback I’ve been hearing since it opened to $15 million on Wednesday has been positive. MORE than positive, actually. “Enthusiastic” would be more like it.
This has been pure torture for me, though. Because I am trying to stay away from spoilers. I accidentally read a preview that gave away the ending shot between Gary Oldman’s Detective Gordon and Christian Bale’s Batman – naturally setting the stage for the sequel. But even with that nugget of information, I’m far more interested in the unfolding of the mythology – just to see if they get it right.
The reason I haven’t seen the movie yet is because Cami is pursuing her MBA and started her summer semester this week. She’s taking a condensed course that will rocket her through her workload in something like 7 classes. The bad news is, she’s been out of the house most of this week. An evening class on Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 5PM until 10PM, plus an ALL DAY class from 8AM to 5PM tomorrow, then back to the evening class routine next week and she’ll be done.
In the meantime, she’s too exhausted to go out and see movies. Understandably so! So I am left patiently waiting from her to come down from her education O.D.
She’s told me to go ahead and see the movie without her. And even though I will probably see Batman Begins multiple times, I don’t roll like that. I’ll wait. For me this isn’t a movie that it would be nice for her to see. I think it’s a movie she SHOULD see. If it’s as good as everyone says it is, maybe it’ll open the door a little wider for her to understand my adolescent admiration of these characters.
And a little understanding between husband and wife never hurts, right? ;D
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I kind of painted myself into a corner with today’s comic because, originally, the set up required there to be some kind of massive upset at last night’s Academy Awards ceremony. The only problem, there were no real upsets! Pretty much everyone who was supposed to win, did. There weren’t really any awards handed out that I was upset with. I didn’t finish watching the show thinking anyone was snubbed or robbed. So I had to reconfigure the point I was making a little bit, but I think it comes off well.
Discussing today’s comic with Cami, I actually hit up a little mini-arc that addresses some of the politics behind the Oscar voting as well as attempt reveal some truth about persona biases.
That sounds pretty lofty. It’s not high-concept, or anything. I’m just trying to give you the head’s up that there will be a mini-arc this week. So if that gives you an excuse to come back to the site on Wednesday and Friday, feel free to use it.
Thinking back on last night’s show, the only real upset I can recall is French actress Marion Cotillard winng her first Academy Award for her portrayal of singer Edith Piaf in La Vie en Rose. Then again, Best Actress is always a crap shoot anyway. And – not to be xenophobic – the award hardly ever goes to an American actress, so I just kind of ignore it.
I was pleased beyond reason that “Falling Slowly” from Once won Best Original Song. Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova’s performance made me want to stop what I was doing and watch Once all over again – easily my favorite movie last year.
Beyond that, nothing much to get excited about. Certainly it was obvious that there weren’t any huge blockbusters or A-level celebritires like Tom Hanks or Julia Roberts being celebrated. I’ll be curious to read about the ratings sometime today.
But when your Best Picture nominees include downers like There Will Be Blood and No Country For Old Men, it’s likely to ostrisize the casual movie goer. Maybe that’s a good thing? More left over for the die-hard fans?
We discussed these issues and more on a special Sunday night recording of The Triple Feature over at TalkShoe. Gordon, Joe and I hopped on the line immediately after the Oscar telecast wrapped up and we shared our immediate impressions. You should really think about downloading a copy of the show. We kept it brief – 30 minutes since we recorded on a day we don’t typically record. It’s a good introduction to what we do. If you have a chance, give us a listen!
That said, we still have ANOTHER broadcast going on this evening. The three of us will be talking about NEW movies tonight including Be Kind, Rewind, Vantage Point and the recent multiple cast announcements for the upcoming Wolverine: Origins.
So be sure to tune in tonight at 9:00 PM CST for another episode of The Triple Feature! See you there!
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Apologies for the lack of a news post on this comic. I stayed up late Tuesday night producing it and had to crash before writing the blog. I planed on completing it when I got back from work Wednesday night, but crashed out because I was really sick with chills and everything. I slept something like 13 hours last night. Crazy.
Things are a little nutty right now because of the new job I started on Monday, so I appreciate your patience while things fall into place.
About the comic, I know that I did a Shia LaBeouf comic a couple of days ago, but the kid keeps screwing up in such unspectacular ways, he makes it too easy not to comment on it. If you click on that link and read the story about his parking mishap, be sure and check out the note someone taped to his car. Perhaps a candidate for PassiveAggressiveNotes.com?
Not much else to add. Like I said, I’m a little scattered this week. But thanks for your patience. I hope to see you here Friday!
Later!
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