This'll be one of the last posts I put up on here. This sort of turned into my place to rant and rave about things and I've gotten annoyed with it ... I might keep it up for the sake of doing that, but for now, friends ... please re-link to:
http://artofduze.blogspot.com/
Thanks!
Thursday, September 20, 2007
Sunday, September 9, 2007
Indiana Jones and the ... Title of the 4th Film!
So our good friend Shia announced over at the VMa's today that the new Indiana Jones movie will be called:
.... ready for it?
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.
I'll be perfectly straight in saying that I was REALLY REALLY rooting for Kingdom of Gods and that I'm disappointed with this title. Sounds like a video game or bad Sci-Fi Channel miniseries.
That being said ... I have faith in Spielberg that this film will be phenomenal. I hope the rumors about the Ark somehow being involved are true and that Abner is still alive.
If not, I hope that the title will sink in and this will end up being a great film. Personally I'm hoping for a bookend to the series, tying a lot in to the first movie, or at least characters in that one.
.... ready for it?
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.
I'll be perfectly straight in saying that I was REALLY REALLY rooting for Kingdom of Gods and that I'm disappointed with this title. Sounds like a video game or bad Sci-Fi Channel miniseries.
That being said ... I have faith in Spielberg that this film will be phenomenal. I hope the rumors about the Ark somehow being involved are true and that Abner is still alive.
If not, I hope that the title will sink in and this will end up being a great film. Personally I'm hoping for a bookend to the series, tying a lot in to the first movie, or at least characters in that one.
Friday, July 27, 2007
Indy 4
(right click and view picture alone ... sorry some get cut off)
yes ...
yes!
yyyyyes!!
YESS!!
YYYESS!!!!
Double YES!!! OMG!!
and finally ... HOLY JEEZE! yyyyYYYYYEEEESSSS!!!!!
yes ...
yes!
yyyyyes!!
YESS!!
YYYESS!!!!
Double YES!!! OMG!!
and finally ... HOLY JEEZE! yyyyYYYYYEEEESSSS!!!!!
Monday, June 25, 2007
CALARTS ... 48HR Film ... and Jungle Cruise
My topics today have nothing to do with one another .... but I'm too tired to write 3 blogs.
CALARTS:
So for the past few weeks I've been working with my buddies cleaning and painting the cubicles over summer at CalArts ... A pretty sweet gig if I do say so myself. But I have to say this: The Ldge .... I don't know what the hell goes on there, but that place was disgustingly dirty ... I'd never want to cube out there - no offense to all the great talent that over there but ... DAMN!
48 Hour Film Project:
This weekend, a bunch of us entered into the Los Angeles 48 Hour Film Project. We spent the past few weeks prepping, getting gear and trying to mentally prepare for no sleep. Things didn’t go exactly how I’d have liked them to, but I think the final product is a pretty well put together film that’s entertaining and meets what we set out to do.
We missed a few shots and there are parts that could have been reworked or been stronger … but for 48 hours? I’m satisfied.
There was a lot of fighting over the story that ran way too late into production. We just didn’t have the time for it, and we ended up overstaying our welcome at Chris and Neysa’s apartment because of it. Big thanks to them, btw.
Anyone who wants to go see it, please do! The more people we get to the theatre, the more votes we can get in to win awards! It’s a good film too, just contact me for further details.
The project is really fun tho, for those of you who don’t know about it. Basically ….
On Friday night, we meet in Hollywood with all the other 80-something teams to draw a genre out of a hat. We got “Spy Movie”. Then at the last second, they tell all of the groups 3 elements that had to be in their film. This year it was:
1) Character – Frieda or Frederick Nailo
2) A bumper sticker
3) And the line, “Hey, my mom gave me that”
So we had an interesting time meeting those requirements. We made a film that loosely could be considered “spy”, and thanks to Dave and Jesus, we have an amazing flash title credits sequence that is really going to set us apart, I think. And on top of that, based on other people’s work – I feel like our film is going to be one of the few that has any real character in it.
And finally … The Jungle Cruise:
I’m scared about this. I just read an article online that said after the success of the Pirates movies, Disney is basically moving down the line and making another ride into a movie franchise. Their target for assassination this time: The Jungle Cruise.
Cherish that image, people. I have a sick feeling in my stomach that the movie will be a success and they’ll ruin another classic attraction with modifications to the ride and insertion of out-of-place characters from the movie that steal the scene and ruin a timeless/classic attraction.
The script is being handled by the writers who write all the cheesy dialogue for Smallville and who worked on part of Spider-Man 2 .. again over the top cheesy … which MIGHT work because the ride has cheesy joke captains, but it might come off bad. My first choice would be Steve Martin or Will Ferrell for the lead (one of which worked on the original ride as a skipper – as I’m sure many other actors have after them).
Again .. I’m just really … worried. That’s one of my favorite rides, as was Pirates which I now lack enthusiasm for.
The article talked about how the ride was partly inspired by the John Huston movie “The African Queen” which I really hope they go to for reference.![]()
Sucks too because I’ve been working on a great script for a Jungle Cruise movie too … but that might work in my favor in the long run. The movie might suck and ten or twenty years from now I can remake it … The Haunted Mansion too, for that matter.
Hmm, maybe I can negotiate a deal to get Jack Sparrow and all of them repositioned or removed from the Pirates ride too. LoL.
C’mon Lasseter, don’t you see how that ruined a timeless ride?! Just talk to Marc Davis’s wife, she came and told us all about it (this being after having my own opinion about it, really solidified it for me, though).
So that’s been my life the past few weeks. Going to see Rats soon! Very excited! And going to Arizona! :-) I need a vacation!
CALARTS:
So for the past few weeks I've been working with my buddies cleaning and painting the cubicles over summer at CalArts ... A pretty sweet gig if I do say so myself. But I have to say this: The Ldge .... I don't know what the hell goes on there, but that place was disgustingly dirty ... I'd never want to cube out there - no offense to all the great talent that over there but ... DAMN!
48 Hour Film Project:
This weekend, a bunch of us entered into the Los Angeles 48 Hour Film Project. We spent the past few weeks prepping, getting gear and trying to mentally prepare for no sleep. Things didn’t go exactly how I’d have liked them to, but I think the final product is a pretty well put together film that’s entertaining and meets what we set out to do.
We missed a few shots and there are parts that could have been reworked or been stronger … but for 48 hours? I’m satisfied.
There was a lot of fighting over the story that ran way too late into production. We just didn’t have the time for it, and we ended up overstaying our welcome at Chris and Neysa’s apartment because of it. Big thanks to them, btw.
Anyone who wants to go see it, please do! The more people we get to the theatre, the more votes we can get in to win awards! It’s a good film too, just contact me for further details.
The project is really fun tho, for those of you who don’t know about it. Basically ….
On Friday night, we meet in Hollywood with all the other 80-something teams to draw a genre out of a hat. We got “Spy Movie”. Then at the last second, they tell all of the groups 3 elements that had to be in their film. This year it was:
1) Character – Frieda or Frederick Nailo
2) A bumper sticker
3) And the line, “Hey, my mom gave me that”
So we had an interesting time meeting those requirements. We made a film that loosely could be considered “spy”, and thanks to Dave and Jesus, we have an amazing flash title credits sequence that is really going to set us apart, I think. And on top of that, based on other people’s work – I feel like our film is going to be one of the few that has any real character in it.
And finally … The Jungle Cruise:
I’m scared about this. I just read an article online that said after the success of the Pirates movies, Disney is basically moving down the line and making another ride into a movie franchise. Their target for assassination this time: The Jungle Cruise.
Cherish that image, people. I have a sick feeling in my stomach that the movie will be a success and they’ll ruin another classic attraction with modifications to the ride and insertion of out-of-place characters from the movie that steal the scene and ruin a timeless/classic attraction.
The script is being handled by the writers who write all the cheesy dialogue for Smallville and who worked on part of Spider-Man 2 .. again over the top cheesy … which MIGHT work because the ride has cheesy joke captains, but it might come off bad. My first choice would be Steve Martin or Will Ferrell for the lead (one of which worked on the original ride as a skipper – as I’m sure many other actors have after them).
Again .. I’m just really … worried. That’s one of my favorite rides, as was Pirates which I now lack enthusiasm for.
The article talked about how the ride was partly inspired by the John Huston movie “The African Queen” which I really hope they go to for reference.
Sucks too because I’ve been working on a great script for a Jungle Cruise movie too … but that might work in my favor in the long run. The movie might suck and ten or twenty years from now I can remake it … The Haunted Mansion too, for that matter.
Hmm, maybe I can negotiate a deal to get Jack Sparrow and all of them repositioned or removed from the Pirates ride too. LoL.
C’mon Lasseter, don’t you see how that ruined a timeless ride?! Just talk to Marc Davis’s wife, she came and told us all about it (this being after having my own opinion about it, really solidified it for me, though).
So that’s been my life the past few weeks. Going to see Rats soon! Very excited! And going to Arizona! :-) I need a vacation!
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Walt's ORIGINAL vision for EPCOT
For those of you who weren't aware ... Epcot Center was never supposed to be a semi-entertaining theme park. Walt had originally planned something else. Something amazing and revolutionary!
For Walt, EPCOT was the next logical step in the evolution of making dreams come true at the Disney Company. For him, he saw that it was high time to take everything he'd learned and put it to use.
Let's think about this. Walt started out making cartoons for theater houses. They were a great success, so he made more and started honing in on what REALLY drove the audience: Characters. In came Mickey and the gang, and his cartoons were a league above the rest. Then he figured he could make a feature length cartoon. The odds were against him, but Walt saw through that and into the future he'd help shape. He had an uncanny sense of what was coming up next and what would work. Features took off like no other hand have become the Disney Classics we know today.
So after that, he built upon everything he'd learned from creating cartoons and made live-action films, and even television shows. Not just any old shows either, he basically started what's now become the Discovery Channel animal documentaries with his True Life Adventures. And in addition ... before television even went to color, Walt knew that eventually it would go to color, so he spent the extra money to film in color. AGain, ahead of the game.
So he kept building upon what he last did ... the next step: Disneyland! And we all know how successful that was. In fact, it was so successful in entertaining, feeding, transporting and moving people in an almost city-like paradise, it's still a success today and has expanded into a vast theme park enterprise the world around, even extending to cruise lines and whatever else they'll come up with in the future.
But the sad part, for me to hear at least ... is that the future wasn't going to be just theme parks.
Walt wanted to build on everything he'd learned from his parks > films > shows > animation > shorts ... and put it into effect in REAL LIFE. Walt Disney World was supposed to be just that, the real world ... Walt's world. Not to say he'd rule the world or anything, but it was his vision of a successful and happy future for everyone. Not a theme park enterprise.
EPCOT was supposed to be the Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow. That's right, a real working city where nothing was fantasy anymore, but it was real life. This would have been an experiment in Urban planning and living, that I think would have been a tremendous success and spawned a whole new way the world structures and manages their cities.
Unfortunately, no one had the exact vision that Walt had in his mind. He saw the whole thing laid out on the ceiling of his death-bed ... and died about 10-15 years too early to get the project rolling. I can only imagine that it ended up being his last unfulfilled wish.
Here is a video he made months before he died, promoting the idea:
Part of it may come off as unrealistic or even Communistic, but I honestly believe that the idea would have been successful, that it would have ironed out any bumps and through trial and error and that the way we live today would have been forever changed for the better.
For more information, you can visit www.Waltopia.com - If i ever have the means, I am going to try to fulfill Walt's dream the way he intended it to be.
For Walt, EPCOT was the next logical step in the evolution of making dreams come true at the Disney Company. For him, he saw that it was high time to take everything he'd learned and put it to use.
Let's think about this. Walt started out making cartoons for theater houses. They were a great success, so he made more and started honing in on what REALLY drove the audience: Characters. In came Mickey and the gang, and his cartoons were a league above the rest. Then he figured he could make a feature length cartoon. The odds were against him, but Walt saw through that and into the future he'd help shape. He had an uncanny sense of what was coming up next and what would work. Features took off like no other hand have become the Disney Classics we know today.
So after that, he built upon everything he'd learned from creating cartoons and made live-action films, and even television shows. Not just any old shows either, he basically started what's now become the Discovery Channel animal documentaries with his True Life Adventures. And in addition ... before television even went to color, Walt knew that eventually it would go to color, so he spent the extra money to film in color. AGain, ahead of the game.
So he kept building upon what he last did ... the next step: Disneyland! And we all know how successful that was. In fact, it was so successful in entertaining, feeding, transporting and moving people in an almost city-like paradise, it's still a success today and has expanded into a vast theme park enterprise the world around, even extending to cruise lines and whatever else they'll come up with in the future.
But the sad part, for me to hear at least ... is that the future wasn't going to be just theme parks.
Walt wanted to build on everything he'd learned from his parks > films > shows > animation > shorts ... and put it into effect in REAL LIFE. Walt Disney World was supposed to be just that, the real world ... Walt's world. Not to say he'd rule the world or anything, but it was his vision of a successful and happy future for everyone. Not a theme park enterprise.
EPCOT was supposed to be the Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow. That's right, a real working city where nothing was fantasy anymore, but it was real life. This would have been an experiment in Urban planning and living, that I think would have been a tremendous success and spawned a whole new way the world structures and manages their cities.
Unfortunately, no one had the exact vision that Walt had in his mind. He saw the whole thing laid out on the ceiling of his death-bed ... and died about 10-15 years too early to get the project rolling. I can only imagine that it ended up being his last unfulfilled wish.
Here is a video he made months before he died, promoting the idea:
Part of it may come off as unrealistic or even Communistic, but I honestly believe that the idea would have been successful, that it would have ironed out any bumps and through trial and error and that the way we live today would have been forever changed for the better.
For more information, you can visit www.Waltopia.com - If i ever have the means, I am going to try to fulfill Walt's dream the way he intended it to be.
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