Monday, August 24, 2015

I CAME. I SAW. I LAUGHED. AND SPOILERS...

Before I begin my how "spiel" on Fantastic Four; I want to tell you the mood I was in yesterday before I decided to go see this. Cinemark, the pieces of human excrement that they are, wouldn't do anything but give me a free pass because their projector was messed up on Straight Outta Compton. In my frustrations, my fiancee and I decided to go to the Springmill Drive In to go see Hitman: Agent 47 and Fantastic Four. I was quite surprised with Hitman: Agent 47, I would need to refresh on the previous film to compare which is better. But, I liked it. But, the real fun began when Fantastic Four began to grace the screen.

Before I start to sink my teeth into this horrendous waste of $100+ million; as far as Fantastic Four goes as a Marvel property, I do somewhat like it and enjoy it. Though, as the years pass on and Marvel themselves taking it upon them to make their own movies has given me more to look forward too than the wrath of Doctor Doom and Galactus. So, where does this leave us? I did follow the production pretty closely and read about the horrible production process for this film that literally has destroyed Josh Trank's career. To be fair, I didn't care for Chronicle, so, I expected more from him.

So, we re-establish the origins and fumble it all to hell within an hour and forty minutes. The story establishes Ben Grimm and Reed Richards as being childhood friends who create a portal for outer-dimensional travel. At first Reed believes it to be China until he and Grimm are told by Professor Baxtor and his adopted Caucasian daughter, Sue, inform him that it's from another planet.

Reed is given a full scholarship, but, not Grimm for some reason. Baxtor wants Reed to build a bigger version along with someone who came up with the theory; Victor Von Doom. And in the first scene, he looks like the obese man from Warcraft episode of South Park. Which, I feel that it was probably a scene directed by Josh Trank as in all of the other scenes before the incident, he acts totally different and is an ass.

After the incident in which Grimm, Doom, Reed, and Johnny travel to the other planet; for some reason; Sue receives the abilities by some sort of blowback from them returning to Earth or something. It was never explained even though she didn't travel with them, but, hey, why not?

So, after much dragging about and Reed escapes the military installation of Area 57; we jump to a year in future with Reed running while Grimm is now a military weapon and is fighting the war on terror. After Prof. Baxtor convinces his adopted daughter to help the government to track Reed, he finally comes home. Then we're all ready towards the end and nothing has really happened and the government decides to go back to the planet to collect samples when ... VICTOR IS ALIVE!!!

Surprised? Really? He's been on that planet for a year and is still going. I don't get it. But, whatever, Doom comes back and he's a little cranky and starts killing for no real reason other than he feels that he needs too. Doom kills Prof. Baxtor and goes back to the planet and somehow after being alone for a year is able to make a portal that is sucking Earth through a portal. With no real explanation how, he has it and is trying to kill the planet. And after a quick battle that is virtually two minutes long, Doom is killed and the Earth is saved. And thus ... the Fantastic Four was born! The END!

The biggest thing, continuity wise, Kate Mara's hair! In one scene alone, her hair changed three times in like a minute. Her hair would be short and dirty blonde; then to cut to long solid bright blonde; and then cut again and then in a ponytail. It got to a point where my fiancee and I would notice that her hair would be different in shots in almost every scene that she is in. You can have a drinking game with her hair change.

The lack of story and how overall weak it is. Doctor Doom is a weak villain who dies all too easily. A real storyline that is non-existant. This film deserves to get it's ass kicked. It could have been so much and more. Josh Trank cries foul over this, I call bull. After everything, bull.

Sunday, August 9, 2015

The Man with the Broken Heart. The Dead Cinema 10.

So, back last Wednesday, my fiancee and I had the day off. She had been begging me that she wanted to go shopping to look for new clothes. We decided to go to Kohl's. As I loaded our son up in his stroller, I decided to tell my fiancee to go ahead and that I'd let her have some time to herself to shop. I asked for her iPod and began to walk away with our son. As we went in between Staples and some desert shop, I snapped the first photo.



The theater was owned and operated by Cinemark and closed in 2013. From what I could find on the internet, this theater was opened to the public in the Summer of 1989, just a few months before I was born. As we walked closer, and you cannot tell looking up close is that someone must have been vandalizing it as one of the glass doors was smashed and wood was nailed over it. When I walked up to the building itself, I saw that whoever owns the theater clearly didn't clean up the mess and shards of glass laid all over the ground. It broke my heart.

I pushed my son up to the ticket booth and snapped a photo. Honestly, the ticket booth was never really opened. A few times during the weekend during the summer, but, never during the winter. You always had to buy your tickets on the inside. Oddly, Cinemark yanked out the center speakers to communicate, leaving three hollowed out holes in the center of the glass. But they had left the three wooden wedges at the bottom of the glass where you would hand over payment and get your tickets.



The thing that really broke my heart over this theater to see the disrepair that it is in. After a year and a half, the concrete slabs on the outside ceiling are all ready crumbling apart. Upon facing the theater, on the right side where the entrance is at, I couldn't get over to the far door where the exit is because of the broken debris and I did not want to possibly endanger my infant son. The first picture is the right hand side and the second is on the left hand side.




We have had some harsh winters since the theater closed. The winter of 2013 to start off 2014 was brutal. We had the temperatures down to - 50 F. And as a dare, I walked to work in it. I had the first stages of frost bite developing in my legs, but, I walked it off and worked for ten hours that day. Last winter it was bad, but, not as brutal. This is something that I've told to my friends and co-workers and of course my fiancee, I honestly don't know which is worse, the Cinema 10 or the Cinema 4.

I think the difference is that the Cinema 4 is probably still heated and cooled by the building owners, even if it's still falling apart. I might try to get around to taking photos of it on Friday if I can find time.



Upon seeing the entrance, on the right side (facing the theater), seeing the lifeless insides almost brought tears to my eyes. The black and white tiles on the floor and walls still looked somewhat persevered and untouched. I can remember seeing countless movies and now, there is nothing. I know the final movies that I saw was Elysium and Kick-Ass 2. I know that right before they had closed, there was a screening of The Purge that was playing, It was a closed captioned copy that was for the deaf and hard of hearing. They did these types of screenings all the time and it usually was a movie that was all ready out on Blu-ray. I remember that Summer I had caught a closed captioned copy of Oblivion and it had all ready been out for a good three weeks. But, for $1, I could never resist going.

I remember telling my fiancee that when I was single after my second fiancee left me, if I had a Monday off from work, I would go kill a full day. Literally, I could take $20, and I would spend a whole day. The last time I did was probably around the end of February 2013. I want to say that I saw The Last Stand; Wreck it, Ralph 3D; A Haunted House; Red Dawn; and Skyfall.

All though, something that I noticed in the photo above, and I did make mention of it in my podcast; someone must have broken in and vandalized it as the doors to the main theater have been busted off the hinges.


I am going to bet that it was vandals and not mother nature taking back what belongs to her. The main theater is what angers me the most about Cinemark killing this theater. The reason why this theater shut down is because they didn't want to finish converting the theater to digital from 35mm. The main theater was converted to digital in 2010 after about a year I had returned from Hilo, Hawai'i. They had it and even had 3D projected in that main theater. They could have saved it. Even if it meant upping the ticket prices to say $4 or even $5, they still could have saved it.

In that photo right there where the concession stand is at, that spot where the candy display box is at was where you purchased tickets. It was just alien seeing the display signs off of the walls. In the zoomed out photo and in the next one, you'll see the light box displaying the film mylars off the walls, it is just sad.


You know, the funny thing is that Cinemark took everything out of the theater and oddly left the trash cans. There was one outside too and in the previous photos, you can see that they left the other one on the otherside and left the door open too. Very odd. In this photo above, you can see that there's a gallon of water on the stand. I don't know if that was from the possible break in or if someone working there had left it behind. The fire extinguisher is also in the previous photo by the supply room at the center of the concession stand.



Then this is from the exit on the left side. Again, the right side had debris blocking the way and I didn't want to push my son near it. The light boxes with the posters displayed in them are all gone. You can see the wall with the light box with the mylars gone. We can see the doors on the right to the main theater are still standing up. The doors on the left are to one of the screening rooms. I wish that I could have been able to get inside and see. I think to see big giant empty rooms would have been more heartbreaking. No seats, no screens, nothing...

After spending a few moments there and my son making some audible noises that he was ready to be moved around, I decided to depart from something near and dear to my heart. I decided to walk back, as a I stopped, I snapped one photo of a sign. I found it fitting as I was pushing my son.



I told my fiancee that if I was to ever become majorly successful while making movies, I would to buy one of these three empty theaters in my town and bring it back to life. I would love to see more indie and foreign movies play. Cinemark here in Mansfield has had lots of missed opportunities to bring some stuff here. They screwed us over on the last few Studio Ghibli films. I missed the Wind Rises which was Hayao Miyazaki's last film. They advertised it on their site, but, never came here. The misses and I did travel out to Columbus to see When Marnie Was There and it that had played here, they could have gotten my money.

And finally, I did a video podcast discussing it. I rambled a bit. But, if you want to see it, enjoy!


Friday, July 31, 2015

Top Secret Faux Satire Documentary Movie Shooting in September and October.

I have a secret movie in the works. We're shooting it as a faux documentary that is meant to be a social commentary on a topic that I downright fucking hate with a passion. Any of my friends and family who know me and especially all the shit that is going on, knows what this movie is. And, OMG, I will knock this movie dead. I can tell you that I will be dressing up as a pimp and will be decking myself out as a dumb ass looking pimp with a stable of hoes. It's all going to be wacky as shit.

Thursday, July 16, 2015

"City of Angels 3D" - English Language "Die Reise 3D" Prequel!

While the production has stalled for Die Reise 3D due to waiting to see if we can get international rights sold to Traumatic Possession 3D: The Tape - The Director's Cut and American Nightmare 3D. We are going to do a prequel that is in both the English and German language. That means that I will have Christin Seufert doing some text translations from English over to German for me. The only characters that might be in the prequel film is Christina Ramey as Mallory, Abby as Sara, and possibly Janet Jay as Gabrielle. That is if we can fit them all in.

The story is going to revolve around a mercenary who has been tipped off about a group of German terrorists who plan to set off a biological weapon in a major U.S. city. Once they all collide, the terrorists discover that the mercenary has a deadly ability which makes him almost unstoppable.

This was originally going to be my full length adaption of the short film Crisis. However, since Elise is nowhere to be found, I am skipping it for the time being. The plan for the full length Crisis film was to involve Mallory from Die Reise 3D. We will possibly film some stock footage in Columbus this fall around my 26th birthday this September. Some of this will be green screened as Winter will soon be setting in.

If we can get it rolling as soon as we release American Nightmare 3D this October, we can expect it around March through May at the earliest in 2016.

Monday, June 1, 2015

Going Back Head First Into the "American Nightmare 3D". Being a Dad. Buying Movie Rights. Etc.

Well, come Wednesday night, I might be getting my head shaved again since it apparently all of my hair grew back within a week and a half. We had maybe ten minutes of American Nightmare 3D edited together from what we had shot from those few days. Abby, who played Rebecca Lange in Traumatic Possession 3D: The Tape, plays my drug dealer in the film; she had all of her scenes shot in a few hours as we shot all of her lines and skipped all mine. With the exception of our last scene together in the film.

With the birth of my son, Alex, it gave me a new purpose to making movies. It gave me a reason to follow my passion so that I can spend as many moments with him as possible. For me, working retail, has been hell. I enjoy the company of all of my co-workers, but this life is NOT for me. For the past few months up until my little man was born, I had been contacting casting agents about possibly auditioning and writing and directing. And if you know me, you know that I was going after one of the greats which I did not get. It's not the end of the world, it is just simply not my time for me and the monster to meet face to face.

Being a father since he was born two weeks ago has been just amazing. My fiancee and I have been just on our toes with feedings and diaper changes and sleep! Oh, God, the sleep. My basic logic is that if I can get our son to sleep, I let my fiancee get a nap while I watch over him. As a matter of fact, I am doing that right now as I type this very blog out. That first night when he arrived was a way of us to get to know each other. He would cry out at any little thing and I was swoop him up and walk around with him. He would calm and look at me and try to figure who I am as I looked down upon him and see one of the two people that means more than anything to me.

But, as I stated above with me pursuing casting agents for movies, I was off work on vacation for eleven days. From Saturday when the labor started, to this past Wednesday, I was off work and not a care in the world was to be had. I know the trade off from working a day job is being on a set for possibly four months is worth it in my honest opinion. As much as it takes away in that one chunk, it's more worth it than being stuck at a day job that I can't tolerate any more.

And being a businessman, I have taken an interest into buying some licenses to some Bruno Mattei films and the works of the Filipino actress Yvette Yzon. For most who are unaware, Yvette worked with Bruno in his final years before his death in 2007. Two of the films that she did were just released here in the U.S; Island of the Living Dead and Zombies: The Beginning. The studio that owns most of Bruno's later films, all though I wished that they owned S.S. Girls as I have a nice 35mm print of the film which would be great for a Blu-ray release, also has one of the last English language films that Yvette did in 2010 called My Lai Four.

I've explained with Yvette that if I can get the rights, it'll be once we can get the Director's Cut of Traumatic Possession 3D: The Tape, Into the Madness: A Documentary, and American Nightmare 3D finished so we can license them out world wide. So, hopefully in 2016, we'll start rolling out home video releases to these Italian films.

And as far as what one of our next movies will be ... I don't know ... I might just have a Crisis on my hands.

Thursday, April 23, 2015

"American Nightmare 3D" DVD-R Editions, September 2015!

So, for September we're going to try to have the DVD-R editions ready for American Nightmare 3D. There will be the basic DVD-R edition with the movie only which we will be selling for $5 + S&H. This movie only edition will be in 2D and we'll use 4.35 GB DVD-R discs. The movie will contain the English audio and we'll possibly throw an English subtitle track on the film as well. No bonus material. And the aspect ratio will be in 2.35:1.

The deluxe "Bootleg" edition will be a small 100 copy pressing for $20 + S&H. It will be two or three DVD-R DL discs. We will have commentary and the isolated music score for the film itself. We will have the film presented in three or four possible ways, considering how much disc space we will have left over. You will get the film in four presentations; Red/Blue 3D in 2.35:1, 2D version in 2.35:1, 2D version which will be in 4:3 (1.33:1) for the VHS copies we make; and if we have disc space, an open matted version of the film in 16:9 (1.78:1). And of course, English subtitles and if we have time, possibly German subtitles if we can squeeze the time.

Bonus materials are yet to be determined besides the commentary and the isolated music score. But, we plan to have some stuff lined up as well for the film. We got to make this Bootleg edition sweet. Expect the online VOD release to pop up in July or possibly earlier.

Sunday, March 22, 2015

"American Nightmare 2 3D" will have Damien Frost. Takes Place During "Afterlife: Traumatic Possession 3D".

I am working on the script for American Nightmare 3D and the beautiful thing about writing this film is that it is helping me expand on Afterlife: Traumatic Possession 3D. While I am working on the story, I was thinking that Damien Frost would be a perfect addition and on top of that, add Dr. Samson to Afterlife: Traumatic Possession 3D!

The idea that I am weaving is that the parts of Dr. Samson and Damien Frost in Afterlife will be added into and expanded into American Nightmare 2 3D. A factor is that we are going to recast every character with the exception of Dr. Samson in the future two sequels. Christina is going to be playing Vanessa Carter in American Nightmare 3D and she's going to be playing the rouge character "the Villain" in Afterlife: Traumatic Possession 3D. That means we will be getting a new actress to play Vanessa in Afterlife and American Nightmare 2 3D, I am playing Carter, and we'll need a different person to play Carter in the next film.

This will also be Damien's third feature appearance and will be shot after Traumatic Possession 3D: Rebirth. That places American Nightmare 2 3D for 2017 or 2018. I will not be directing this film. Just producing, writing, and acting. That places the Damien Frost order as:

Afterlife: Traumatic Possession 3D
Traumatic Possession 3D: Rebirth
American Nightmare 2 3D


Considering that there's going to be a nine year gap between Rebirth and Afterlife, just be aware that he's slowly dying off. He is just in hiding and nothing is too notable for me. Damien will be resting up a bit and Simon Lange will be taking the spotlight again in the next few years.