RIP Peter Falk

Legendary star of the hit television show Columbo Peter Falk has died at the age of 83 at his home in Beverly Hills on Thursday 23rd or June. he leaves behind a legacy on both the small and big screen with notable roles in such films as Husbands, The In-Laws and A Woman Under The Influence and in such television shows as Naked City, The Trials Of O'Brien and of course the title role that defined his career in Columbo.



PETER FALK 16.09.1927 - 23.06.2001

Wasteland

Wasteland is a television pilot script I have recently been researching and trying to write. It is about a psychic named Connor Song who is implicated in a young woman's murder so he not only has to solve the case to prove his innocence he must also prove his abilities to the sceptical Detective Inspector Bonnie Morran who is leading the case. I hope it will lead to a full series where Song helps the begrudging police force to solve their more complex crimes and also allow me to delve deeper into his murky past as well as his troubled relationship with his 12 year old daughter who feels detached from her father due to his unending search to discover what truly happened to his wife 6 years before when she mysteriously vanished.

It is some ways the hardest script I have ever written and in other the easiest I'll try to explain this the best I can. What is easy about writing this script is at its core it is a drama about a single parent who is trying to raise his daughter the best he can while trying to balance his work which takes him away from her all the time. He is a somewhat famous tv/ theatre psychic and bestselling author of books on the occult so his work takes him all over the UK leaving his young daughter behind in the care of her aunt and when he is home he spends most of his time trying to investigate his wife's disappearance this schedule does little to diminish his daughter's belief that he cares more about what happened to her mother than he does about her.

The hard part of writing this script is the more I research the more questions I end up with instead of answers. I have finally put in stone what psychic abilities he possesses which took many many hours of consideration and a lot of great help from a good friend of mine who has helped me immeasurably in this area. The problem is I don't as of yet fully understand the complex nature of one of these abilities completely or honestly at all. He has the ability to read tarot cards which many of you may think is relatively easy to write about but in practise it is very complex. Each set of cards has a significance and each card in that set has a significance that I just can't quite get to grips with as yet which is probably to do with the fact that I can't really seem to learn many new things these days probably to do with the brain damage I have suffered over the years which makes this aspect of the character alien to me which is devastating for a writer.

The investigation and crime within the pilot episode is not that difficult to write as I can hear the police officers voices clearly in my head and we all have the basic knowledge of how a murder is investigated. I have recently been in email correspondence with an ex CID detective from London and he has filled in many of the blanks for me without going into to much detail for obvious reasons after all I could have been a nut trying to get tips on how to get away with murder, haha. For the show to be successful in my opinion the character of Detective Inspector Bonnie Morran has to be as strong a character as Connor Song otherwise it becomes less dramatic when they have confrontations and there is less of a chance for there to be any chemistry between the characters in later episodes. I think all too often with television shows they concentrate on creating one memorable character at the expense of all the others which to me is frankly stupid and boring to watch as a viewer.

I'll keep you guys up to date on my progress with the script and with trying to get it into production. It will be a long process as I plan on writing and rewriting this till I get it as close to perfect as possible. Anyhoo that is enough for now I got to get back to writing this script and thinking of a way to make tomorrow not happen ha ha I hit the 29 mark tomorrow which many may be shocked by as they seem to think I'm 35 years old for some reason ha ha.

Thanking you

The Housebound Writer

Oscar Backlash

Actor Corey Feldman has lashed out at the Oscar organisers for leaving Corey Haim's name out of the In Memoriam  tribute at the Academy Awards on Sunday night.

Feldman told TMZ.com "Corey's films have earned the industry over a half a billion dollars and his work remains an inspiration to young artists worldwide. Corey dedicated his life to the film industry. The same industry that failed to dedicate even 30 seconds to his memory." 

A statement was released by the Oscars producers which reads, "There will always be fans and family members of those not included who will be disappointed by their omission. The Academy extends its understanding and its apologies to those who missed seeing a favourite face in this year’s feature."

Now I may not have been a fan of Corey Haim's entire body of work but I think he and his family deserved for him to be mentioned at the Awards. There have been people mentioned that may have only made 1 film in their lives during the In Memoriam at the Oscars show surely someone who made over 30 movies deserves the same respect paid to him? So as the Academy Awards didn't bother to do so I will do so here, it may not be as glitzy as the Academy Awards or even a fraction of what he deserves but if the mainstream won't acknowledge him then a little blogger like myself might as well.

Corey Haim
1971- 2010

Corey's career started in 1984 with his first role in the hit movie First Born but it was his role as Sam Emerson in Joel Schumacher's The Lost Boys that gained him international fame. He appeared in 40 movies and numerous television series in his career most notably Licence to Drive, Lucas, Silver Bullet, Dream Machine, Prayer for the Rollerboys and cameos in Crank: High Voltage and the Lost boys sequel Lost Boys: The Tribe which was to lead to a further sequel starring himself alongside his good friend Corey Feldman. Corey Haim passed away on the 10th March 2010 in Burbank, California.

Superman: The Man Of Steel Casting News

So it's now official Henry Cavill will don the infamous red cape for the Zack Snyder helmed Superman reboot. Cavill, 27,  is best known for playing the role of Charles Brandon on the TV series The Tudors. Cavill's latest film the very aptly entitled Immortals for the future Man Of Steel is slated for a US release this fall.

Znyder said in a statement: "In the pantheon of superheroes, Superman is the most recognized and revered character of all time, and I am honoured to be a part of his return to the big screen. I also join Warner Bros., Legendary and the producers in saying how excited we are about the casting of Henry. He is the perfect choice to don the cape and S shield."

There have been many rumours circulating the net as to who would be cast in this movie with everyone from the unlikely Leo Dicaprio to the likes of Mad Men's John Hamm and True Blood's Joe Manganiello but I think the casting of Cavill is a great indicator to the direction the franchise reboot is heading in. In my opinion it suggests that both Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures are intending to take the subject matter more seriously and move away from the campiness of the unpopular last incarnation of the character.

In other Superman casting news Malin Akerman (Silk Spectre 2 in Watchmen) seems to be the favourite to land the much coveted role of Lois Lane but will need to beat off stiff competition from actresses such as Gemma Arterton (Quantum of Solace, Prince of Persia) and Kate Hudson (Nine, Raising Helen) who have both been considered for the role.

Thanking You
The Housebound Writer

Another Day Another Sequel

A week has past again since my last blog post and for once I have a valid reason instead of the usual ‘couldn’t be bothered’ excuse, this time the lapse is due to the fact my Gran suffered a bad fall last weekend and had to be taken to the hospital. She has broken her right foot, bruised her hip and is understandably shaken up about it. The kind of cast she has on her foot does not allow her to walk on it so she has had to be kept in so between visiting her, worrying about her and my own health not being to great as of late I didn't have the time to post this past week.

So I missed out on talking about the casting for the new Batman flick and the online backlash that followed and various other movie related news that broke last week but family comes first you understand right? All five of you, I think it's five maybe more maybe less. I’d like to take this time to wish my Gran a speedy recovery and hopefully she will be back home soon.

Movie News

So let’s get down to movie news and first off Keanu Reeves recently revealed there is two more Matrix movies going into production and yes you guessed it they will be shot in 3D. Is it just me that didnae really think we needed a matrix 2 and 3 let alone 4 and 5? Sequels and remakes/re imaginings are all that seem to get made right now is Hollywood really out of new ideas or is this a case of the money men not wanting to finance an unknown commodity?

In happier news Ernest Borgnine, the star of such classic films as From Here To Eternity, McHale’s Navy, The Dirty Dozen, The Wild Bunch and a whole host of great films spanning the last 50+ years turns 94 years old today and is showing no signs of slowing down anytime soon as he is attached to numerous projects in development around Hollywood. So Happy Birthday Ernest and I hope to see you at the movies very soon.

Here's a movie trailer for a movie due for release on the 11 February this year and yes it's in 3D. (isn't everything these days?)

Drive Angry 3D

I'm actually interested in seeing this movie as I'm a fan of Nic Cage but the whole 3D thing really bugs me because most films aren't shot in 3D just converted so it never quite works right. 3D is just a gimmick not a technological step forward like CGI (when used right) or the THX "baffle wall" (speaker system enclosure behind cinema screen), anyhoo enough of this ramble.

Thanking you

The Housebound Writer

Mixed Bag part 4

So time for another mixed bag addition of the blog this time featuring the latest news from the UK Box office and movie news on three low budget films coming out this year. (one direct to DVD)                 
  

UK BOX OFFICE           

1. The King's Speech       £3.52m

2. 127 Hours              £2.17m

3. Little Fockers              £1.8m

(Isn't it about time this franchise focked off?)

4. Gulliver's Travels         £1.55m

5. The Next Three Days  £1.05m

Girl On A Bicycle

I came across this film by way of a referral by an acquaintance of mine who thought it was an interesting project. Here's the synopsis from the production company's website.

Synopsis
Paolo, an Italian Tour Bus driver, living in Paris and very much in love with his German girl-friend Greta, proposes marriage to her, only to encounter, the very next day, a Girl On A Bicycle, Cécile. She is a gorgeous young French woman with a glorious smile.
An Italian to his very core, Paolo finds that he is unable to get the image of this beauty out of his head. Following an almost unending series of bad advice given to him by his best friend, Jean-Michel, Paolo attempts to meet Cécile to put an end to his obsession and ends up hitting her with his tour bus. Since Cécile has two fatherless children aged four and six and now a broken arm and a broken leg, Paolo, who was reluctant to have children of his own, finds himself, not only having to care for Cécile, but to become a “father” to her children.
As Paolo races back and forth between his two lives day and night, trying to hide his misadventures with the beautiful Cécile from Greta, one lie builds upon another, until his life is totally upside-down. Will Love conquer all?
 
Doesn't really sound  like my cup of tea but a little more digging around and I discovered more about the project. It's the directorial debut of screenwriter Jeremy Leven who wrote The Legend Of Bagger Vance, My Sister's Keeper and The Notebook and features in some way or other Paddy Considine star of Dead Man's Shoe's, In America and of course Le Donk & Scor-zay-zee although this is only confirmed on IMDB not the production company's own website. In the lead role is Vincenzo Amato the star of Soundtrack, Golden Door and Respiro as well as appearing in the dreadful Did You Hear About The Morgans? We did hear about it and it was crap, lol. I still don't get what I was supposed to like about the flick other than the puzzle of what role Paddy Considine play?
 
River Of Darkness
(Direct to DVD)
 

River Of Darkness is a horror film made by North Shore Productions on a budget of $3.26m and stars 3 professional wrestlers which doesn't make for the recipe of a great film on paper or on screen for that matter. It's directed by Bruce Koehler who's previous film End Game also starred River Of Darkness leading man Kurt Angle.

Plot, eh..... em...-coughs- I think basically three giant hillbilly brothers kill a lot of people and Sheriff Will Logan (Kurt Angle) has to track them down and beat them down or something like that. Anyway it stars as I said Kurt angle the Olympic gold medalist, pro wrestler and star of End Game and also features Kevin Nash the 7 foot ex pro wrestler who appeared in The Punisher and The Longest Yard remake. It also feature Sid Eudy the near 7 foot ex pro wrestler better known as Psycho Sid and Bill Laing actor/stuntman who appeared in The Mothman Prophecies and Unstoppable.

So why do you mention this film? I hear you ask well I'm a big fan of low budget horror movies yep that's right the guy that wrote the blog post on French Cinema also loves cheap n cheerful horror who'd of thunk it? I'm also a fan of the lead in this movie and believe given the right project he could create a good acting career for himself as he has great integrity.
 
Bruce Vs Frankenstein
 
The sequel to My Name Is Bruce sees the greatest B-Movie Icon ever Bruce Campbell match wits(?) with Mary Shelley's legendary monster and I for one can't wait. As a fan of low budget horror (as stated above) I am of course an even bigger fan of it's top star Bruce Campbell who in a recent interview with the Los Angeles Times had this to say about the project.
 
Yeah, it’s “The Expendables, or more like the It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World of horror. I want to get so many horror movie stars that people can’t possibly not see the movie. I want to give them other stuff to do. I want to have Kane Hodder be very particular about what he eats. I want Robert Englund to be a tough guy, like he knows tae kwon do or something. I want to find out the hidden sides of all these people. Some will play themselves, some will play alternate characters as well. I may approach Kane Hodder to play Frankenstein. He could be Kane Hodder himself fighting himself as Frankenstein. It could be crazy. It’s a silly concocted story that we hope to do maybe in a year or so. My breaks between Burn Notice have been getting tighter because they’ve been adding episodes. They’re trying to trap me like a rat in the TV world, and I might just let them. There’s a script, it just kind of blows right now, so no one’s really seeing it. We gotta work on it. Definitely shoot it in Oregon all on a stage. It’s like the 300 of horror comedies. We want to make it a whole world. Someone’s gotta take Frank down for good.”
 
Rumours are rife on the web that Sid Haig, Robert Englund, Kane Hodder and Tony Todd will all appear alongside Bruce as well as a proposed cameo from Sam Raimi to round of the cast but nothing is signed yet. Burn Notice keeps Campbell busy these days so it all depends who is available when he gets the time to shoot it but when anyone signs on to this project I'll post the news here for the 1 or 2 people who are probably interested anyhoo..

Thanking You
The Housebound Writer                  

More Movie news

More movie news in this blog post, first up is...

THE GREAT GATSBY
Columbia Pictures are looking for a 2012 release for this adaptation of the F. Scott Fitzgerald classic novel. Although the novel is set in Midwest America it appears this film will be shot on location in Australia by Aussie native filmmaker Baz Luhrmann and will star Leo DiCaprio and Carey Mulligan who has beat out Anne Hathaway, Keira Knightley, Natalie Portman and Amanda Syfried to the role of Daisy Buchanan.

INTERSTELLAR
This is the long touted science fiction film from film making legend Steven Spielberg and based on the gravity fields theories of Kip Thorne and several hypotheses of Albert Einstein. Not to much is known about this project except the script is being penned by Jonathan Nolan brother and writing partner of Chris and is expected to be shot in 3d. Whatever else I hear about I'll post on the blog as this is definitely writing partner  got the potential to be a classic.

THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E
Steven Soderberg and Warner Brothers are set to bring the classic television series to the big screen with George Clooney reportedly set to star. The script has been penned by Scott Z. Burns and should hit screens sometime in 2012 my bet would be a Christmas release date as summer 2012 is being flooded with other big budget action films.

UNTITLED ALIEN PREQUEL
Even though this is due for a summer 2011 release not much is known about this film besides Ridley Scott is directing from a script by Damon Lindelof. Rumours are endless but the most believable of them being that Ridley Scott wants Noomi Rapace (Girl with the dragon tattoo) for the lead role along with Sharlto Copley (District 9) although with little known about the plot other than it's about terraforming, it's hard to be 100%sure on what casting rumours to trust.

THE EXPENDABLES 2
Following the success of the first Expendables movie and fan pressure for a sequel it looks like Sylvester Stallone and crew will be back for another round of 80s inspired action. Stallone will once again direct and star alongside Jason Statham, Dolph Lundgren, Terry Crews, Randy Couture and Jet Li. Also rumoured to be returning is Bruce Willis this time though as the possible head bad guy along with the rumoured Jean Claude Van Damme, Ray Park and Kurt Russell although these are just rumours at this point.

Thanking you
The Housebound Writer

Movie News

There is a lot of movie gossip floating about at the moment some of which seems very unlikely but with Hollywood you can never really rule any of it out but for now I've decided to stick to the more concrete movie news and first up is the first of two Arnold Schwarzenegger films to be getting the remake treatment.

COMMANDO
Sam Worthington will step into Arnie's shoes for this one with David Ayer (writer of Fast and the Furious, Harsh Times and S.W.A.T) handling the directing and writing honours. Strange film to remake in my humble opinion as it seems very of it's time but maybe they are planning to put a new spin on it, see what I did there trying to be positive? Let's see how long that lasts, lol.

TOTAL RECALL
This has been long rumoured to get the remake treatment and actors from Denzel Washington to Russel Crowe have been linked to it but it appears to be Colin Farrell who has landed the lead role. Len Wiseman (Die Hard 4.0) will be directing from a script by Kurt Wimmer (Law Abiding Citizen and The Recruit). Could be a great flick and Farrell is an interesting choice for the lead role.

HIGHLANDER
yep another remake of another 80's classic this time with Justin Lin (Better Luck Tomorrow and Fast and Furious) directing a script by Matt Holloway and Art Macum the writers behind Iron Man & Punisher: WarZone. Casting wise there is only rumour at this point but a strong contender seems to be James McAvoy which would make the Highlander actually played by a Scotsman for a change, oops positivity sliding.

MASS EFFECT
The popular video game title looks set to come to the big screen with a big budget to boot. A script penned by Mark Protosevich (I Am Legend, Thor and The Cell) is in development with Avi Arad (pretty much all Marvel films) producing. Casting wise Matthew Fox is one rumour another is Channing Tatum but as this film is at the very early stages of development I'd take both with a pinch of salt. With the right director and cast this could be a great franchise for the studio and with this large a fan base amassed over the two games in this series it will have to be. Well almost kept the positivity up over the blog post, almost anyhoo....

Thanking you
The Housebound Writer

Dino De Laurentiis (1919-2010)

Legendary film producer Dino De Laurentiis has died today (11th of November) at the age of 91 in Los Angeles according to several Italian media sources. He has produced more than 500 films including Serpico, Death Wish, Flash Gordon, Tai-Pan, Three Days Of The Condor, the Hannibal Lecter franchise and the 1976 remake of King Kong.

Di Laurentiis has won two Oscars, one in 1956 for Federico Fellini's masterpiece "La Strada" and again in 1957 for the Fellini directed "Nights of Cabiria" which starred Giulietta Masina. He has undoubtedly made a huge contribution to both the European film industry as well as in Hollywood and will be greatly missed.

The Gamble

A wiser man than me once said "Life's a gamble and you haven't experienced it till you take a deep breath and roll those dice", for me life has been somewhat of a long wait on my turn to roll those dice and knowing my luck I'll crap out first go, lol. The gamble I've been considering taking is to step behind a film camera for the first time in close to a decade and to film my first short film since college. Not really a gamble many would say but for me it conceivably is as a mixture of health concerns and the fact I've practically been living like a recluse all this time is playing heavily on my mind.

My back and nerve problems (loss of feeling in hands and feet) are the least of my worries it's more to do with my memory not being what it once was hell I blanked on my dog's name the other day when I was trying to get him to stop barking and the fact the trigger for my seizures is anxiety and low budget film shoots tend to be very anxious places at the best of times is but if I don't take the chance what's the alternative? I'm to out of the way of studying to go back to college and I've taken far to many knocks to the head to be a competent student. In the current financial climate nobody is hiring a 28 year old with the kind of health problems and work or lack of work history like I have. The way I see it is it's up to me to forge my future career as a screenwriter and or film maker and the best way I can see to do it is to get one of my scripts on screen and the quickest way to do so is to film it myself.



I'll have to be very creative as my budget will make most low budget shorts look like Hollywood blockbusters in comparison as I'll be financing the project myself to hopefully showcase online as the festival route is always a costly one for new film makers. It will be a real guerrilla shoot and like Robert Rodriquez did with his script for El Mariachi I'll incorporate into my script props and locations I know I can get access to. Saying that for the first time in a long time I'm actually quite excited about something and hopefully it will lead to other things down the road. Anyhoo I'll finish this blog post there on a some what upbeat note.


Thanking you
The Housebound Writer

51 without a bullet

This would have been blog post number 52 rather than 51 but as usual I was distracted over the weekend by other things and never seemed to have the time to sit down and put fingers to keys. I'm sitting here with the live coverage of the Chilean Miner's rescue attempt running on the television beside me which is 12 hours in and 13 miners have been successfully rescued and reunited with their families so far. It is events like this that really puts the minor league crap in our lives into perspective it truly is amazing the things we will let get to us and determine our moods for the day.

I recently got new glasses for the first time in 6 years and although I thought my eyesight hadn't really changed over that time I quickly discovered at my eye test that I couldn't even read the second line with my old glasses on. So a weekend of headaches and feeling cross-eyed for some bizarre reason later I'm finally getting used to the new stronger lenses but it hasn't stopped me moaning about them. As I was saying it's amazing what we complain about in life here is me complaining about having better eyesight and these 33 men have been stuck in a mine for over 60 days and they are coming out with big smiles on their faces, they have stayed so positive throughout their struggle it really makes me feel like a complete muppet for complaining at all, lol, but I'm only human after all.

I was checking out the stats page for my blog which I will admit I hadn't actually done before shockingly and was surprised and delighted to see that the joint second most popular place for my blog was Saudi Arabia. I knew the majority of my blogs' following would come from across the pond in America as I'm only really listed on American blog directories as I didn't find any UK ones that interested me but to find this blog has a following in Saudi Arabia is really cool so "shokran jazeelan" to you all, I think that was right you can never really 100% trust translation websites they rarely have Scottish slang translations right so what chance do they have of getting it right with Arabic?

In movie related news Hollywood legend Morgan Freeman is about to join an exclusive club joining fellow members Steven Spielberg, Orson Welles, Clint Eastwood, Alfred Hitchcock, Al Pacino and Meryl Streep as the Oscar-winning actor has been selected by the American Film Institute to receive the 39th Life Achievement Award, the organisation's highest honour for a career in film. A well deserved honour for a great actor in my opinion anyhoo that's enough rambling from me.

Thanking you

The Housebound Writer

Mixed bag part 3

Well it's time for another mixed bag collection of random not linked at all stories from Hollywood and elsewhere.

Movie News

Kane & Lynch has now gone into production after several false starts and a couple of Actor changes. The computer game adaptation is likely to be a Summer 2011 smash hit which may surprise those not aware of the game. Most Video game adaptations well they suck to be perfectly blunt but this one is different for two reason, reason 1= The perfect casting of Bruce Willis to play Kane and reason 2= The weird left field casting of Jamie Foxx to play Lynch a part many considered destined for Steve Buscemi or Billy Bob Thornton as the character is completely nuts.

Here's the little plot the game has, two death row inmates, one a mercenary named Kane the other a schizophrenic named Lynch, escape during a prison transport and team up to steal a fortune, I said it was a little plot, lol. The film will be Directed by F. Gary Gray who previously Directed Law Abiding Citizen, The Italian Job (crap remake) A Man Apart, The Negotiator and Be Cool and is written by relative newcomer Kyle Ward who's other credits include the yet to be filmed Hitman 2 and the Lionsgate project Deal With The Devil.

In other Movie news Brian J. Conroy's directorial debut "Darkened Bloom" is finally ready to go into production after 7 months of stalled starts after his original financial backer and distributor disowned the project after he rejected to recast the lead actor after they demanded it. Now what could this actor of done that's so bad that a financier would back out I hear you not say well I'll tell you anyway, after all look at actors like Mel Gibson, Charlie Sheen, Eddie Murphy, Kiether Sutherland have all done things that would jeopardise them if they worked in any other profession well Conroy's lead actor's brother was suspected of terrorism.

He was found innocent but apparently as this guy is his brother the financiers wanted him replaced but Brian being Brian held his ground and now after finding new financiers he is ready to start shooting in Austin Texas so if your from those parts feel free to find the set and tell him AC sent you, lol, he's a cool guy and all you Texans should be proud of him.

Football (soccer) News

East Fife 3-3 Airdrie United

Well the Scottish Football Second Division got officially underway today and the recently relegated beloved club of yours truly faced the stern test of playing East Fife not stern because they are a good team no stern because they are a dirty team and the Airdrie United squad featured players as young as 16 years old as the club is so financially strapped they are relying on former Airdrie under 19 youth players and players they have taken on loan from larger clubs who are also under 19. It wasn't the prettiest of games at times and the inexperience of the young players was evident at all of the East Fife goals although ironically it was Airdrie's most senior player Paul Lovering, 34, who sold the 3rd.

But alas with youth comes greater resolve and greater fan support and they battled back from 3-1 down to level the game and come close to winning in the dying minutes. The team left the pitch to uproarious applause from the Airdrie fans something I haven't heard for a long time. So all in all a good game and a great result for the team to build upon.

Mixed bag part 2 more mix less filler

Just a short post today guys as I have been busy trying to write an E-Book which I'll get back to talking about later but first here is some Movie News I meant to post last night.

Movie News

As I stated a few posts back the role of Bruce Banner will be recast for the upcoming Avengers movie and recast it has been step forward Mark Ruffalo. This to me is a great piece of casting and will certainly relieve a lot of fans awaiting this movie as there had been fears that Ed Norton would be replaced by an unknown for financial reasons but alas it's just as I speculated previously it's due to Mr. Norton's poor communication skills with directors shall we say to not get sued, lol.

I heard the news yesterday evening that a friend of mine named James L. Aaronson has been hired to script a new film for a major studio which is loosely based on the 1970's Italian horror film "Till The Blood Drips No More" which was about a vampire who due to hate of what he had become tries to kill himself only to be saved by a beautiful medical student who he falls in love with. The rest of the film is basically him trying not to give in to his animalistic urge to feed by draining her of her blood. The movie had a great central theme for the time but was poorly executed as it developed into gore for gore sake and that late 70's horror tradition of excessive nudity but I think the new version will be more akin to the modern Vampire tale like in "Let The Right One In" so one to look out for next year, and of course congratulations James you deserve it buddy.

Me News

It's been relatively quite of recent for me not much to report, (hehe) I have been experiencing some major back and neck pain as of late that I'm looking to get checked out more extensively very soon and I had a scary moment the other night when I lost the feeling in my legs for about 45 minutes which caused me to have a panic attack but luckily I remembered the breathing exercises my psychologist has been teaching me and that calmed me down. On the seizure front I've been having less of late (knock wood) and my memory has improved slightly so all these mind numbingly boring memory tests must actually be working for me.

On the productive front I've been suffering from terrible writer's block as of late when it comes to the E-Book I have been writing so I thought I'd tell you guys about the plot to get your feedback and to see if you think it sounds OK or not, I know this is the exact opposite thing every book about the writing process tells you to do. The story is about an ex SAS officer (a UK military special forces unit) who suffers from post traumatic stress disorder and frequent seizures due to a bullet lodged in his skull, I know I'm projecting some of my problems onto him but they say write what you know. Anyhoo he is pretty down on his luck when his old commanding officer pays him a visit to hire him to help find a missing teenage girl who happens to be his ex commanding officer's Goddaughter.

He accepts out of loyalty only as he no longer has faith in his previous talents but as the plot unfolds he has to rely more and more upon the things he did for his Country that his Country wouldn't like to know occurred, to find the girl. I weaved in possible culprits along the way I've implicated her father a powerful business tycoon, her step mother a slush and a gold digger and I've implicated various police and members of our hero's own team the problem lies with this, how do I get over the problem of him thinking like me instead of me thinking like him? What I mean is he has started to sound like me I've lost the character's voice along the way and am interested to hear if this has ever happened to any other writer's out there. I think it may have happened when I took my eye off the ball and changed the story from character driven to plot driven around the middle of the story.

Anyhoo I look forward to your comments guys.

Thanking You

The Housebound Writer

Aller au cinema

This is the first in what will become a regular feature, not that regular, possibly do it again feature on foreign films. A fellow blogger and outstanding poet Kenia Kris asked me via comment on this blog if I liked French Cinema? And if I would write a blog post about French films well the answer is yes but where to begin on dissecting the film industry of that great Country? If I started a blog post about the influences of French New Wave cinema on Hollywood in the 60s and 70s I would need to start an all new blog for my other topics.

Well thankfully another friend had the answer 'Blog about the last French film you watched and go from there, du'h', the immortal words of some girl named Emma something or other eh, eh.... Oh yes Emma Murty, lol. The last French film I watched was the modern day classic known in France as "Ne le dis a personne" and to the English speaking part of the World as "Tell No One".

Tell No One (from 2006)

The film is adapted from a novel by Harlan Coben, Coben originally auctioned the rights to his book off in Hollywood with director Michael Apted attached but after that deal fell through Coben turned to French actor turned director Guillaume Canet who had been calling Coben up for months telling him his take on the book. Coben was impressed by Canet's vision for the story and his understanding that the book was a romance first and a thriller second something Coben believes Hollywood never truly realised. Starring Francois Cluzet who also appeared in French Kiss and Round Midnight and the always wonderful Kristin Scott Thomas, this is a must see movie and a great introduction to modern French cinema for anyone interested in the Foreign Film section of the local DVD store.

The plot centres around Alexandre Beck still tortured by his wife Margot brutal murder 8 years previously, a murder for which Alex was the prime suspect. Alex soon finds himself the prime suspect once again when two bodies are discovered near where the corpse of Margot was dumped 8 years previous leads the police to reopen Margot's case . The mystery escalates when Alex receives an E-Mail showing Margot older and alive. The supporting cast is fleshed out with familiar faces from modern French cinema including Andre Dussollier, Gilles Lellouche, Philippe Lefebvre and Florence Thomassin.

In my opinion Tell No One is one of the best thrillers of the last decade and has something for everybody, romance, action, twists and great performances all through the cast a real 4/5 stars film and it is also blessed with an outstanding soundtrack.

(oh and if any of those names are spelled wrong just remember I'm Scottish I can barely spell English words right)

Future film reviews in this series will include:

Mesrine

Prophet

36 (Quai Des Orfevres)

District 13

Two Days In Paris (don't blame me, picked by Ms. Murty)

Me News

Today was my weekly visit to the psychologist which I always look forward to, no that's not at all sarcasm. Today we were talking about the "3Rs" Relaxation, Recreation and Relationships and how important for someone in my position it is to not neglect any of these. My homework last week was to fill in an hour by hour schedule of what I did and how stressed it made me to do it. This homework was slightly annoying to be honest but it gives them something to work with to see if stress affects my seizures in any way, shape or form.

The one thing I noticed about this schedule was the amount of time I actually spend writing, the best part of six hours a day not including my blog or my activity on the discussion boards. Scary amount but apparently this counts as being productive towards one of the 3Rs, recreation. The other somewhat startling statistic is the lack of sleep I get, I hadn't ever sat down and tried to work out how many hours sleep I get a night before it turns out on average this is less than two and a half hours a night.

Don't be alarmed if you are in the same boat as me on the sleep front as lack of sleep doesn't really have any long term problems associated with it other than feeling sluggish, moody and forgetful and forgetful oh wait I already wrote that, lol. The other topic discussed today was me getting angry with myself when I'm in pain this adds to the stress levels so when I get angry towards myself I'm to remember and say 'What would I say to a friend that was in this position?' I'm guessing I would say something like 'I'm sorry to hear you're so ill that must really p*** you off, eh buddy?' Maybe that's an answer I'll keep to myself and think of a better one for therapy.

Oh and as it will really annoy my good friend Emma here is a picture of Ms Murty, say cheese!

Anyhoo

Thanking You

The Housebound Writer

Review of the Redeye

I was asked via shoutbox on Blog Catalog by good friend and fellow blogger Juliana Matthews aka Ladygoodwood to review two films she had just seen on a flight as she thought I'd do a good review of them, well ego boosted I set out on my mission to complete this task. Funnily enough I actually believed I owned the first film Invictus on DVD but realised I had just picked it up in a store before but didn't buy it so I took a trip to an online DVD store and then two days later it arrived in the post and eagerly I set about watching the film and I was not disappointed.

INVICTUS

The film tells the inspirational true life story of how Nelson Mandela joined forces with the captain of South Africa's national rugby team Francois Pienaar to help unite their Native Country. Newly elected President Mandela knows all to well his Nation remains racially and economically divided in the wake of apartheid. Believing there to be only one way to unite the people of his Country through the universal language of sport, Mandela rallies South Africa's rugby team as they make their historic run to the Rugby World Cup final against the most dominating force in International rugby of that time the mighty All Blacks, New Zealand.

This is a wondrously well crafted film based on the novel "Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the Game That Made a Nation" by John Carlin and expertly reworked for the screen by screenwriter Anthony Peckham whose other screenwriting credits include "Sherlock Holmes" and "Don't say a Word" but it's in the direction of Clint Eastwood that brings this film to forefront of great films of this decade, once again Eastwood has chosen a subject matter that as an actor he wouldn't have been given the opportunity to work with and created one of his best films of his career. His career as a director is vast approaching eclipsing his historic career as an actor with this his 31st film as director and with Hoover and Hereafter which will reunite him with Matt Damon on the horizon there is another Oscar nomination or win in his not to distant future.

The central performance by Morgan Freeman is as great as you would imagine being that he was born to play this role and play the role he does. He portrays Mandela the man not Mandela the myth which is something I think most actors would fail to accomplish. His performance is filled with grace and gravitas befitting the great man he is portraying my only question is where does Mr. Freeman go from here? He's portrayed God, the President of the United States and now President Mandela what iconic figures are left for an actor of this stature to portray? I had heard of a rumoured Clint Eastwood pet project about the life of the Blues great BB King maybe this would be a great role for Freeman if he is willing to bulk up.

I was skeptical when I heard that Matt Damon had been cast as Francois Pienaar as I could barely remember him as a player and didn't really see a strong resemblance between them or think a non South African should play the role but humble pie I must eat as Damon owns the role completely. As an actor I actually do like Damon's work, The Bourne movies, Dogma, Good Will Hunting, Saving Private Ryan and in the Departed he puts in stellar performances I guess it's the whole Team America thing every time I hear his name I remember the way that puppet said it 'Mattt Daaamooon', and it makes me laugh, childish I know but it was really funny the first time I saw that movie.

I think special praise should go out to another actor who has been criminally overlooked by most reviewers of this film and that would be Tony Kgoroge who portrays Mandela's head of security Jason Tshabalala in the film. With very little dialogue for the length of screen time he has he created an incredibly well rounded character that really sticks in your mind. He also manages to do this while sharing the screen with Morgan Freeman who is putting in a career best performance which makes it all the more impressive.

Invictus was budgeted at $60,000,000 and grossed $124,479,778 worldwide and earned two Oscar nominations and is a great film even if you don't understand the rules of rugby or aren't a sports film fan in general there is so much depth to the film that there is something for everyone.

THE BOAT THAT ROCKED

The Boat That Rocked or Pirate Radio as it was distributed as by US distributor Universal is an ensemble British romantic comedy with a twist as the romance in the film is between the young British people of the 1960's and pop music. The film is very loosely based on Radio Caroline, a popular pirate radio ship with a similar history and style. Directed by Richard Curtis (Love Actually) and starring an amazing cast including Philip Seymour Hoffman, Bill Nighy, Kenneth Branagh, Nick Frost, Gemma Arterton and a surprisingly short appearance by Emma Thompson the film is about a group of rogue DJ's that captivated Britain, playing the music that defined that era and standing up to a government that believed such music was almost pornographic.

With a script written by Richard Curtis who wrote Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill, the Bridget Jones movies and Love Actually I was slightly hesitant of this film at first. I'm not a big Rom-Com fan and found the movies mentioned above to be to sappy even for my taste but as he also wrote such classic British works as Blackadder, Not the Nine O'clock News and French and Saunders I was willing to give it a go.

The film has it's moments Hoffman, Frost and Nighy are on top form as always and the rest of the cast do their best with what they are given but I felt some of the other characters where underwritten and the plot dragged a little in the middle, the 2 hour running time could and probably should have been cut to closer to 90 minutes but on a whole I found it to be very charming in a very British way. It's a 6/10 kind of film for me, I like it, just not loving it but I will watch anything with Bill Nighy in it the man is a genius.

The Boat That Rocked made $29,800,000 worldwide which is very healthy for a British comedy as British humour often doesn't translate well into other languages or other regions. If your looking for a no brainer with a couple of good laughs check it out if you're looking for something with a bit more meat on it's bones I'd go with Invictus.

Anyhoo

Thanking You

The Housebound Writer

Mixed Bag

Today's blog post is a bit of a mixed bag and contains movie news I meant to post last night so it's no longer new news so to speak. The reason for the lateness of my blog entry is actually a good one I was busy writing a guest post on a friend's blog and I'd like to take this opportunity to thank her for allowing little auld me to have that honor, so thank you Jazz.


Movie Not So New News


Ed Norton will not be appearing in The Avengers movie after Marvel revealed they plan on recasting the Bruce Banner role with an unknown actor. This has caused a very split response amongst fans of these kind of movies online on the message boards. People either don't Care as they didn't like his performance in The Incredible Hulk or they are mad at Marvels' cost cutting on their dream movie.



My take on it is there is only three reason for casting a different actor:
1. Financial
His character doesn't appear on screen enough to warrant Norton's pay check and with Samuel L. Jackson, Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth (next big thing), Scarlett Johansson, Don Cheadle, Jeremy Renner and Tom Hiddleston already in the impressive cast you can see why cutting costs is on the Studio's mind.

2. New Direction
Marvel want to take the character in a different direction or concentrate more on The Hulk than on Banner.

3. Difficult Actor

It's well documented that Ed Norton can be a difficult actor to work with unless you like your actors to confront you when you have a different take on a scene than they do, frankly I wouldn't see this as a problem myself a confrontational actor is a passionate actor and worst case scenario I would just lamp him one.

The Plot

The plot is a closely kept open secret as Marvel will neither confirm or deny Internet rumours. I see the recasting as a clear signal that the plot will centre around The Hulk as the villain controlled by Loki, a plot device that Ed Norton has been vocally against for some time but Marvel see big bucks in an on screen confrontation between Thor and The Hulk. The only problem is with casting a new actor it will be the third actor in as many movies to play the role and isn't continuity something Marvel preached about when setting up this franchise gatherer?



Me time


Today was my weekly visit to the psychologist and for the second week in a row I have come away with homework, I didn't get this much homework in High School but every little piece of the puzzle we can find can help determine a way to improve my stress and depression problems. I still find it kind of funny that a person who sits at home all day doing SFA can have stress problems but I'm told it's all part of a vicious circle of get depressed which stresses me out which makes me more depressed yadda yadda yadda anyway I got this timetable thing to fill in with every hour of the day on it. I fill in the blank spaces with what I was doing and how stressed out of 100 I was doing it. It humorously starts at 7am in the morning which is funny to me as I tend not to get up till 11am. How many of these boxes are going to be filled with "was online" or "was watching TV" do we think poeple, 1/3 or most, lol.


I went for a family excursion to a shopping mall today after dinner, parents were buying a silver wedding gift, my Brother was going to look at the magazines and X Box 360 games so I thought as my back has been calm today I would tag along. We separated into two groups upon arriving, parents went one way us kids (me 28 him 33) went another. We went to WH Smiths which I don't think will be a name my overseas readers will know, let's think how to describe it? Eh, a hell here's the link they sell this stuff:


http://www.whsmiths.co.uk/


I think that will work anyway back to the story. We were looking at the magazines my brother the video game magazines me the blues music and film magazines and when we had found some that looked interesting enough to buy, which is harder than it sounds I find, I went up to the checkout to pay. The cashier was staring at me constantly while the line was decreasing in front of me and kind of freaking me out, I was thinking have I got something on my face? Have I knocked something over? As I approached the checkout I handed my soon to be purchases over to the short smiley girl behind the counter and fished nervously into my pocket for my bank card, damn magazine prices have gone up, lol. This was our brief conversation.


Smiley Girl: Your that guy right?
Me: Whit? (I'm always so polite, lol)
Smiley Girl: Yeah yeah your that guy, right?
Me: I'm a guy yes, how much for these?
She scans the magazines and then picks up a bag.
Smiley Girl: £13.32
I place my card in the chip and pin and nervously await my pin request.
Smiley Girl: I know you.
Me: Do you? That's cool.
Enter pin, get card back.
Smiley Girl: You got a blog don't cha?
Me: Yeah that's right.
Clapping her hands.
Smiley Girl: I read your blog, I read your blog.
Me: Cool thank you.
I reach out my hand to receive the magazines.
Smiley Girl: Say it.
Me: Sayyyy What?
Smiley Girl: Your catchphrase.
Me: I have a catchphrase?
Smiley Girl: Yeah you do, at the end of every new one you write it.
Me: What thanking you?
Smiley Girl: That's it, that's my favourite catchphrase I use it all the time.
Me: Oh OK.
She nods towards me.
Me: Thanking you!
She giggles.
Smiley Girl: Haha that's manic, love it.
Me: OK bye.
Smiley Girl: Thanking you!
I smile then leave quickly, my brother finds this very funny.

As the weather has turned from sun splitting the trees to the trees getting washed away down the street in Scotland I thought I'd finish with a picture of Oscar to cheer myself up, here's one with him wearing his favourite hat.

Anyhoo here's a special one for Smiley Girl

Thanking You
The Housebound Writer

SpiderMan Revealed

-SpiderMan Reboot News-

The Marc Webb helmed do-over of the SpiderMan franchise now has it's star and he is Andrew Garfield. Garfield who has appeared in such films as the Red Riding trilogy, The Other Boleyn Girl, Lions For Lambs and The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus beat out competition from the likes of Logan Lerman, Jamie bell, Aaron Johnson and Anton Yelchin. The firm favourite for the role up until very recently was 17 year old Josh Hutchenson the star of the upcoming Red Dawn remake and Cirque Du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant seemed to be on track to take the lead and it is seen as somewhat of a shock by most for Andrew Garfield to be cast not just because of his status in Hollywood but also his age 26, as the new SpiderMan film takes place during the lead character's school days.

-In Production-

Gotham Group and LionsGate are said to be extremely happy with the Pre Production of their latest movie Abduction, the film being Directed by John Singleton centres around a young man who sets out to uncover the truth about his life after he discovers his baby photo on a missing persons website. The film stars Taylor Lautner and has a very impressive supporting cast including Maria Bello, Alfred Molina, Sigourney Weaver, Jason Isaacs and Lily Collins. Production starts on the 12Th of July and is scheduled to run till 22ND of September and is expected to be released just prior to the big summer blockbusters next year in late March early April.

LOL-Laughing Out Loud is another LionsGate production currently in Pre Production and here is the plot: In a World connected by Youtube, ITunes and Facebook Lola and her friends navigate the peer pressures of high school romance and friendship while dodging their sometimes overbearing and confused parents. When Lola's mother Anne, "accidentally" reads her teenage Daughter's racy journal, she realises just how wide their communication gap has grown. Through Hilarious and heartfelt moments between Mother and Daughter, LOL is a fresh coming of age story for modern times. These were not my words but the words of the Studio releasing this film as you could probably tell. This film stars Miley Cyrus as Lola and Demi Moore as her Mother Anne with a supporting cast including Ashley Greene and Douglas Booth and sounds like the kind of film I will give a wide berth, not my cup of tea at all but I think it will probably have a healthy take at the box office thanks in part to Ms Cyrus' tween fans.

-Casting News-

And for any of you actors/actresses out there here is a heads up on the latest 20th Century Fox and Oscar winning Director Cameron Crowe's latest film (based on a true story) We Bought A Zoo. The film is currently in Pre Production and Casting Director Gail Leven is conducting a national talent search and online open casting call for three lead roles for two teens and a child, here's a link for details:

http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-42949-LA-Acting-Auditions-Examiner~y2010m6d16-20th-Century-Fox-national-talent-search-for-Cameron-Crowe-feature-film-We-Bought-A-Zoo

Anyhoo

Thanking You

The Housebound Writer

Killer Penguins 3D

Great quotes generally come from great people be it:

(Hope these are right they are from memory)

"For to win one hundred victories in one hundred battles is not the acme of skill. To subdue the enemy without fighting is the acme of skill." by Sun Tzu

"A cynic is a man who knows the price of everything but the value of nothing." By Oscar Wilde

"A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus." By Martin Luther King Jr.

"A hero is born among a hundred, a wise man is found among a thousand, but an accomplished one might not be found even among a hundred thousand" By Plato

"All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream." Edgar Allan Poe

" What the F***, killer Penguins?" may not fit into this fine list of great quotes but it did make me laugh out loud when I read it in a screenplay I received via E-Mail from a friend of mine, maybe friend is to strong a word, acquaintance? Maybe... Nah only kidding there B. A. B. Now If you ever get the chance to check out one of his scripts I implore you to do so as they are hilarious and thankfully that is on purpose. I won't put his link up here as it will really annoy him as he hates for people to help him in his search for traffic to his blog but trust me it is themed in name and if you can find it, maybe you can read the daft words of B. A Binoculars himself AKA the Cinema Voyeur.

B.A's blog posts are about his experiences getting into Movie Premieres and test screenings and often kicked out and what he thought of the films. He butchers a lot of films in a very humorous way and at times he goes over the top but it's out of love for movies he says. I've recently been well I wouldn't call it conversing maybe interrupting chatter with him on MSN about his latest script as he wanted me to give him some feedback on it, an E-Mail ten minutes later with his script attached and off I went trying to comprehend his latest incarnation.

It started off with an explosion at an Oil Mining facility at Antarctica which leads to all these penguins getting infected with Satan's oil as he calls it and in turn they become Killer Penguins! He wants to make it in 3D even though he hates all the recent 3D horror movies but as I said he's a bit out there. Anyway I had received the E-Mail and literally fifteen minutes later he sent me another E-Mail to ask what I thought, back on to MSN I go and this is the conversation.

ME: I've just started I'm going to need like a couple of hours to really get through it.

B.A: Sure, sure so what do you think of the opening sequence? Pretty sweet right? Didn't see that coming right?

ME: To be honest with a title like Killer Penguins From Hell, I kinda didn't know what you would do for the opening but fire and ice where two images I had in my head.

B.A: Yeah big bang, fire burns the screen and the opening credits come up 'KILLER PENGUINS FROM HELL 3D', catchy isn't it?

ME: Real catchy but maybe you could just call it Killer Penguins 3D.

B.A: Oh oh thats good like it like it, what else? Hit me, give me some of your thoughts.

ME: I was wondering how much you were attached to your lead character's name?

B.A: What do you mean AC?

ME: Well it's a bit low brow even for horror, don't you think?

B.A: What Part?

ME: The whole thing she's called T**Y Gumble, don't get me wrong there B.A it's funny in a childish way but when you are trying to create suspense it's best not to have a character, your main character having a daft name.

B.A: I see what you mean, I see yeah yeah It's a good point there AC before we go on when you get to the part where we meet her sister just mentally change her name to Joan or Beth or something, OK?

ME: What's she called now?

B.A:I'd rather not say but trust me it's funny but I see your point man yeah it doesn't help the suspense and all that.

(I skim ahead and find the name, think of something completely dirty to go before Gumble and trust me it's what your thinking)

ME: So I'll get back to you on the script?

B.A: yeah no sweat no sweat, what you working on? You still writing that show about the news guys? That s*** was funny man.

ME: I wrote about ten of them then someone wrote a fan fiction episode and it weirded me out a little, who writes fan fiction for a show that hasn't been made yet?

B.A: Yeah I read that one it was funny but didn't have the same bite as the others.

ME: I actually thought when I read it, it was paced better than my episodes she really worked the whole add breaks in well and kept up the previous episodes' story arc quite well.

B.A: Yeah but she didn't keep the sick humour there, it was all about the other guys rather than the sick guys with low morals, I loved those guys man.

ME: I do too to be honest I think I wrote the characters better in those 40 page scripts than in my movie scripts which is actually depressing.

B.A: That show has to be made my friend time for you to come to LA, we got great docs over here.

ME: To expensive, and I'm not physically able but one day I'll be there.

B.A: And I'll be your tour guide.

ME: God help me.

B.A: dude that was cold cold dude come on, cold.

ME: Icy cold, what you been up to other than writing Killer Penguins?

B.A: Don't that just sing to you? Killer Penguins 3D!!!!! I was at a test screening for *********(edited to save him from legal action) it blows and with all the budget they had I didn't see it on screen.

ME: Really, what did you put on your form?

B.A: Told them it was great of coarse, duh.

ME: Why?

B.A: Cause I God damns can't stand ******** (again edited for his sake)

ME: Hehehe.

B. A is a cool guy even if he has named himself after an eighties TV character, I finished reading the script and it ends rather strangely but actually with some politic overtures which if this was ever made would catch a lot of people of guard. He does this a lot he likes to writes a B genre script and then throws in political or social commentary at the end as his wee message to the World which I actually think is pretty cool. If it was me I would tend to write the whole script around that topic rather than just putting it into the mouth of a character that has been chased by deranged penguins for ninety minutes but I think his way is actually a good idea.

Anyhoo that's enough of that, just thought it would be fun to share one of our weird conversations with you guys.

Thanking You

The Housebound Writer

Second Enquiry

Second request this time by another fellow Blogger who is a master of poetry, Kenia Kris. Kenia asked "Do you like the Coen Brothers? Could you think of a post or a series of posts talking about their movies?" well to answer the first question yes I love the Coen Brothers' unique view and filming style in fact The Big Lebowski is by far my favourite movie of all time. The second question got me thinking, what could I write that has not already been said about these four time Oscar winning Filmmakers? Well he goes I hope you enjoy.

Joel's film career started earlier than most think before his first film as Co-Director/Writer/Producer/Editor with his younger brother Ethan he found work on two low budget horror films the first of which was the little remembered Frank LaLoggia's Fear No Evil and he followed this up with working on as then unknown filmmaker Sam Raimi's career making movie The Evil Dead. On both films he was credited as assistant film Editor, he later along with his brother wrote the screenplay for Sam Raimi's less successful follow up movie CrimeWave but it was their independent film shot on a budget of $1.5 million dollars in 1984 called Blood Simple that launched them into the conscious of the film making community if not the mass movie going public.

Their follow up film would change that as they would soon become a well known commodity with screwball comedy Raising Arizona which starred Nic Cage and Holly Hunter and it was also the first in their long collaboration with John Goodman. Between their first two films the brothers made a name for themselves in Hollywood with their writing ability as they are reported to have been brought into do writing work on such 80's films as Spies Like Us, Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom, Twilight Zone: The Movie and Fletch all of which has went uncredited as writers replaced them on each project which is a shame because if you watch these films you can definitely see some of their writing on the screen.

Their first epic motion Picture was definitely Miller's Crossing which showcased a new side to the two Brothers and it's here that the filming style for future movies such as No Country For Old Men was born. With Barton Fink and Hudsucker Proxy next out of the Coen Brother assembly line in quick succession and to rave reviews it appeared they were ready to unveil there masterpiece to the world and that masterpiece was a little movie called Fargo. Shot on a budget of $7million the film would go on to gross over $49million worldwide and win big at the Oscars cementing the brothers as the new big thing in town.

Unfortunately with a great hit comes a great backlash and the Coen Brothers suffered this when their next movie and in this writer's opinion their best opened to weak box office. The Big Lebowski would go on to gross $39.5million worldwide but in the USA it was not a hit and the backstabbing began in Hollywood, was Fargo a fluke? This is what the big guns believed and the Coen Brothers' would have to make a come back quick to maintain their earlier success and the film they tried to do this with was O Brother, Where Art Now? A budget of $25million which is less than it's star could request today as his salary, the film went on to gross $45.5million it wasn't the great comeback the Brothers' would have been wanting but it was enough to rescue them from Movie Jail for another few years at least.

Their follow up picture was The Man Who Wasn't There with a budget of $20million this black and white old fashioned movie was maybe guilty of being a little to unconventional in it's style as it went on to only gross $7.49million worldwide and sent it's makers to Movie jail for a short stay. I actually like this movie and feel it's very underrated but it should have been shot on a far tighter budget or independently from a studio.

The next film they would attempt was one they weren't originally scheduled to direct in fact the original director was Ron Howard who left half way through to go shoot The Missing, they were brought in originally to overhaul the screenplay which was written by the talented Robert Ramsay and after Howard departed the project it was George Clooney who recommended the Coens to direct. The studio trying to keep Mr. Clooney happy agreed and Intolerable Cruelty was made. Budgeted at $60million to accommodate the salary of George Clooney a reported $14million the film went on to gross $35.1million worldwide at the box office but it recouped any and all losses on DVD as it was one of the biggest sellers that year.

After Intolerable Cruelty the boys took a break from Directing and decided to produce what was then a Bill Murray vehicle called Bad Santa but when Murray pulled out to star in Lost In Translation the boys hired their old friend Billy Bob Thornton. The film shot on a budget of $18million went on to gross over $60million at the worldwide box office and make Thornton into a bigger star. Confidence back the brothers decided to remake the British comedy Classic The Ladykillers which I have always felt was a major mistake. The film was budgeted at $35million and grossed $64.2million off the name value of Tom Hanks alone not the quality of the film. The original is far Superior and Hanks is horribly miscast in the Alec Guinness role. This was followed up by the musical Romance & Cigarettes which the Coens produced and Coen Brothers' film regular John Turturro Directed.

After a two year gap of pre production the brothers returned to directing with another masterpiece in the form of No Country For Old Men, shot on a budget of $25million this masterclass on directing went on to gross $159million Worldwide and relaunched the brothers' into the big leagues of directors in Hollywood. Josh Brolin was not the first person to be courted for the role of Llewelyn Moss the original choice was the late Heath Ledger but he decided to take time off from acting instead and Josh Brolin went on to own the role.

Some short films followed this as they awaited George Clooney to finish his filming commitments so they could start Burn After Reading. Burn was budgeted at only $37million due to all the lead actors taking severe pay cuts to work with the Coens, the film went on to gross $155million Worldwide.

In 2009 the brothers made a very personal film entitled A Serious Man, the film was based on their own upbringing. It was made on a budget of $7million and grossed $31million worldwide, if you haven't seen this film you should check it out, very well made and very funny. Next up for the brothers is their long awaited remake of the western classic True Grit, with a cast including Josh Brolin, Matt Damon, Jeff "The Dude" Bridges and Barry Pepper this film is shaping up to be another Oscar contender for the brothers.

They are also writing the script for the remake of The Gambit which is scheduled to be directed by Doug Liman, Suburbicon a film the brothers are looking to direct themselves and the long rumoured The Yiddish Policeman's Union which is rumoured to reunite them with John Goodman as well as starring Sean Penn.

Anyhoo

Thanking You

The Housebound Writer

Response to Comment

A comment left after the last post "Popcorn on the Cob" by The Gangster of Love asked what do I know about the Film The Rum Diary? Well here is what I know about it:

The Rum Diary is based on a novel by the late great Hunter S. Thompson, writer of "Where the Buffalo Roam" and "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas". It was produced by Dark and Stormy Entertainment the company behind the TV shows "Kidnapped" and "My Own Worst Enemy". It was shot on location in San Juan, Puerto Rico and was Directed by Bruce Robinson famed for directing "The Killing Fields" and "Withnail and I" from his own screenplay. It stars Johnny Depp as Paul Kemp a freelance journalist who finds himself at a critical point in his life while writing for a run down newspaper in the Caribbean. Paul is challenged on many levels as he tries to carve out a more secure niche for himself amidst a group of lost souls all bent on self destruction.

It co stars Aaron Eckhart, Amber Head, Giovanni Ribisi, Richard Jenkins and Amaury Nolasco. It has a budget of $45Million and has had a strange and twisting journey to the screen. At one point the film was going to be directed by and star Benicio Del Toro till financial problems arose, other actors rumoured to appear in it over the years have been Josh Hartnett, Brad Pitt and Nick Nolte. Keira Knightley and Scarlett Johansson were both up for the role of Chenault but lost out to Amber Head.

Here are the first two pictures released of the film.

It was scheduled to be released this year but has been put back 3 separate times so far and rumours suggest the studio aren't quite happy with the final cut of the Picture. I think they are probably waiting to release it during Award season or when the next Pirates of the Caribbean flick gets released to catch some of the Depp factor off that film. Hope this is helpful Gangster and keep your eyes peeled on that Neighbour of yours and The Lawnmower Man.

Thanking You

The Housebound Writer