Monthly Archives: March 2012

Mar 14 2012

Author Forecasts a Warm, Dark Future in New Story

This article originally appeared in the Monday edition of the Journal Inquirer, a newspaper out of Manchester, Connecticut.

JI editor forecasts a warm, dark future in ‘The End of Ordinary Life’

By Julie Ruth

The year is 2028. An Alaskan bush pilot is flying an electric plane. The Arctic Ocean is ice-free because of global warming. The U.S. has been in an economic slump ever since the banks collapsed in 2008, and things are coming to a head. That’s the backdrop for Journal Inquirer Associate Editor Daniel Hatch’s latest science fiction story, “The End of Ordinary Life,” which appears in the May issue of Analog: Science Fiction and Factmagazine.Hatch, who’s published more than 20 works of science fiction in Analog, Absolute Magnitude, and other publications, opens his latest science fiction story in southeast Alaska, where his lead character, Tom O’Reilly, discovers that each of his four girlfriends has disappeared. When he later finds himself uprooted against his will as well, O’Reilly realizes that what he has known as “ordinary life” is now over.

“I have been living in the shadow of the economic collapse, and the bill is finally coming due,” O’Reilly says.

The story explores the consequences of global warming and a longterm economic slump following the 2008 banking crisis.

“It’s a pessimistic projection that we don’t fix the things that are wrong with the economy, and they get worse,” he explained. “All kinds of solutions out there are easily attainable but nobody wants to touch them because they will interfere with the profit stream of the big corporate players.”

Hatch is a longtime contributor to Analog, which has been around since the 1930s, the Golden Age of science fiction, when there were dozens of fiction magazines.

Analog is known as the “hard science fiction” magazine, where stories are driven by science rather than characters, said Hatch.

He got the idea for the story after reading a report prepared for the U.S. Navy that predicts that the Arctic Ocean will have no ice during the summer within the next 20 years.

“It said we’re going to have an extra ocean to deal with, and we should start making plans now.” The report included things the Navy should watch out for, like terrorists and arms smugglers coming through Canada.

Hatch said he discovered science fiction in first grade, when he found “Danny Dunn and the Weather Machine” in the library, a novel about a teenager who discovers a device that can make small clouds and miniature rainstorms.

Like many teenage boys in the ’60s, he was reading science fiction novels voraciously.

He wrote his first saleable science fiction story during a stint in the U.S. Coast Guard in Cape May, N.J., after finding a book in the library. Written in 1929 by John Gallishaw, who taught at Harvard, it was called “20 Problems of the Fiction Writer.”

“I still have it; I never took it back,” he said. Which is just as well, since the book is no longer in print.

At the University of Connecticut Hatch prepared for his writing career.

“I studied all the things science fiction writers should study: Shakespeare, history, journalism,” he said. “Because you’re writing grand narratives about the meaning of life in the universe, man’s place in the universe.”

After graduating in 1980, he worked for the Connecticut State News Bureau and The New York Times before joining the Journal Inquirer in 1988.

Hatch said the story is also an excuse to write about flying, one of his passions, though he learned flying through the Microsoft Flight Simulator program, rather than by spending actual time in the air.

After Hatch submitted the story, his longtime Analog editor, Stanley Schmidt, sent him an email: “I don’t remember your ever saying anything about being a pilot, or living or traveling in southeastern Alaska, but if you haven’t done those things, you sure know how to research a story. I’ve done both, and this feels real!”

The May issue of Analog magazine featuring Hatch’s story will be available at Barnes & Noble stores.

The issue is also available on Barnes and Noble’s Nook and Amazon’s Kindle.

Mar 13 2012

Epitaphs Giveaway

Win a copy of Epitaphs: The Journal of the New England Horror Writers, Vol. 1, the first anthology of the NEHW.

Tracy L. Carbone, editor of the anthology and co-chair of the NEHW, is sponsoring the giveaway of three copies of Epitaphs on Goodreads. Click here to enter. The contest runs until March 19.

Mar 10 2012

Ode to Channel 56

This originally appeared on author and NEHW member David Price’s blog.

Ode to Channel 56

by David Price

What makes a science fiction fan? It’s a good question, right? The short answer is a simple one. It’s all about the imagination. While I believe everyone is born with one, some people’s imaginations seem to atrophy from lack of use. It helps to have parents who encourage its use, because not all do. Fans of speculative fiction, that all-encompassing term that includes fantasy, science fiction, and horror, have over-active imaginations. We’re dreamers. Do we daydream a lot? Sure. Do we let our minds wander on to things that many people would not consider important? You bet we do. It’s who we are, and where would the world be without the dreamers? Still stuck in the Stone Age, that’s where.

Okay, so it all has to start somewhere. Someone or something has to have nurtured that imagination at an early age. I am going to give a good chunk of that nurturing credit to an independent Boston television station, WLVI, channel 56. Funny, how you can’t appreciate some things until long after they are gone. I grew up in the 70s, and was raised on broadcast television. We didn’t even get cable until 1980 or so. Channel 56 was a UHF station, that ran a lot of syndicated series and old movies. So what did they air? Only some of the most amazing programs a young mind could soak in. My favorite was the original Star Trek series. My mother was a fan too, so this was something we could enjoy together. Star Trek was not perfect, by any stretch of the imagination, but it remains one of my all-time favorite shows. If I happen to be flipping channels and see Kirk, Spock, Bones, or Scotty, I will always stop and watch the rest of the episode. How many shows or movies can you say that about?

Growing up in the 70s was exciting for someone who dreamed about life “out there” and reaching for the stars. Star Trek was so inspirational for me. It hadn’t even been ten years since we first landed on the moon. NASA was actively exploring our moon with the Apollo program and our solar system with the Pioneer, Voyager, and Viking programs. Star Trek seemed like just a taste of what we might find out amongst the stars. Who knew, right? I wanted to be an astronaut right up until I entered college. I wanted to find what was out there. Kirk and the crew of the enterprise were responsible for those dreams just as much as our own space program was.

There was another series, however, that gave us some different ideas about what the future could hold for humanity. This series also aired on channel 56. It was called The Outer Limits. It gave warnings about the future, about contact with alien races, and about man’s ever improving technology. It was scary. Like The Twilight Zone, there was usually a moral associated with each story; a moral that said something about humanity. It was a much darker message and not as hopeful as Star Trek, but I took it all in, just the same. As a matter of fact, I even told myself, one day, I’ll be a scientist, but I won’t make those kinds of mistakes. I’ll be one of the good ones.

On Saturday afternoons, The Outer Limits led into one of the greatest programs that channel 56 had to offer. This was the show they labeled “Creature Double Feature.” As you might have guessed, this creature show aired giant monster, horror, and sci-fi movies. All those Japanese monster movies were great, especially Godzilla. That big, mutant dinosaur was nature unleashed. Godzilla was like the earth saying to the people of earth, “You know what? I don’t like your cities and pollution. I’m gonna stomp ‘em. Your military power? Pathetic. I’m gonna swat it away.” Godzilla was large and in charge. How could you not love that?

Another major sci-fi influence I can remember from channel 56 was Lost in Space. I know, I know, it was a very campy show after the first season. Still, I really loved that robot. There was just something about the robot which made the whole show for me. The robot was heroic, selfless, funny and often displayed more emotion than Mr. Spock. The best moments of the series were often between the once-evil, but now-bumbling Doctor Smith and the robot. He remains my all time favorite robot. “Warning! Warning! Danger, Will Robinson!” Classic stuff right there. I like it when robots show us how good humanity should be. The kinds of robots in Lost in Space and The Iron Giant, and also Data from Star Trek: The Next Generation are the ones that have always appealed to me. If mankind could create something noble like that, it might just say something good about us, and our future.

Speaking of Star Trek: TNG, it is the last sci-fi show that channel 56 broadcast, I will discuss. I was a little older when this show came out. I was out of high school and was reading mostly horror at the time. It didn’t really grab me right away. I kind of half-heartedly watched season one. I didn’t even start watching season two right away. It wasn’t until a friend of mine brought it up and said season two was much better that I even bothered with the second season. Once I did though, I got hooked. The original Star Trek was about what strange, alien, and sometimes familiar life forms we might find once we travelled to the stars. TNG was different, though, because it was more about what humanity’s place in the universe could be. Even in the face of a fearsome threat like the Borg, Picard and his crew used the human spirit to be a force for good and a defense against the darkness when necessary.

These are the shows and movies that WLVI, channel 56 in Boston, brought to me. Everything I have ever read or seen has influenced me, as a dreamer and a writer, in some way. I will remember fondly the part of my childhood that channel 56 influenced. I have even heard that fans still contact the station asking them to bring back Creature Double Feature. I can understand that. If the Syfy channel broadcast stuff that was half as good as channel 56 used to, I’d have more respect for them. I can’t imagine that the disaster movie knock-offs they show constantly are making any of today’s kids look towards the stars. At least, I can consider myself lucky enough to have been exposed to shows that made me think and dream. Thank you channel 56.

Mar 9 2012

Controversial Horror Director Uwe Boll completes Profane Exhibit segment

Press Release

Harbinger International Films has great news concerning our film, The Profane Exhibit, an anthology of 13 international short films of extreme horror, produced by David Bond and Manda Manuel. Director Uwe Boll has completed his contribution to the film, the creepy and subversive short, Basement, starring Caroline Williams (Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2), Tara Cardinal and horror icon Clint Howard. David L Tamarin, General Counselor of Harbinger, attended the shoot and expressed his concern that the material might be too strong for mass consumption. “The film is about evil that is absolutely real. There are no zombies, and the only monster is of the human variety. The film takes you to a very dark place. Viewers need to prepare themselves for this one.”

Boll’s film is about the corruption of a family in a world where things are not always what they appear to be. A world where monsters parade as family men and home is another word for hell. In an ideal suburban home which could best be described as boring and ordinary a horrible secret exists deep in the basement. Howard and Williams play a married couple with an ordinary life – except for the fact that they keep their starving and abused daughter in a locked basement room that she has not left in years. In this perverse nightmare scenario that is unfortunately based on fact, all the young daughter (Tara Cardinal) wants to do is go outside and into the sun. Instead she must endure daily cruelties. This is a tale of sexual depravity and psychological torture, and a subversive look at the depraved realities of suburban life.

Boll, director of films such as Stoic, Rampage, Seed, Postal, Attack on Darfur, and more, has once again turned his eye on the nature of evil and corruption. Other directors for the film include Richard Stanley, Marian Dora, Yoshihiro Nishimura, Sergio Stivaletti, Ryan Nicholson, Michael Todd Schneider, and Andrey Iskanov. Many more to still be announced

Mar 8 2012

Interview with Actor/Comedian Kevin Pollak

This article originally appeared on the DVD Snapshot website.

Interview: Actor/Comedian Kevin Pollak

by Jason Harris

Necessity is the mother of invention and the reason why Columbus Circle came to be.

“This is the most ridiculous example of the necessity being the mother of invention,” said Kevin Pollak in a phone interview.

Columbus Circle, which he co-wrote with the movie’s director, George Gallo, came about when producer Christopher Mallick’s financing for a remake of a Korean movie fell apart when the Korean government took back the movie rights in 2009, Pollak said.

This bad news came to Mallick as he was at the Cannes Film Festival celebrating the movie, Middle Men, with its cast that included Giovanni Ribisi, who is also in Columbus Circle, and Pollak.

Since Mallick already had two apartment sets built in Los Angeles for his now defunct remake, Pollack told him he would come up with an idea that night and they would go over it on the 11-hour trip home the next day to figure it out.

He was up most of the night coming up with the story for Columbus Circle, which concerns an heiress portrayed by Selma Bair, who is holed up in her apartment and no one knows who she is, and the couple who move into the apartment across the hall from her.

You can read the rest of the interview by clicking here.

Mar 7 2012

Perfect Conditions

This entry came from NEHW member and author Bracken MacLeod’s website.

Perfect Conditions

by Bracken MacLeod

Recently Jonathan Franzen created quite a dust-up when he said that “the ‘impermanence’ of e-books is incompatible with enduring principles” (or something to that effect). I’ve already weighed in with my opinion of the Tastes Great/Less Filling debate when it comes to e-readers versus dead tree books and really am not interested in saying any more. However, Franzen did have something else to say which intrigued me enough to make further comment.

The acclaimed author … has said in the past that “it’s doubtful that anyone with an internet connection at his workplace is writing good fiction”. He seals the ethernet port on his own computer to prevent him connecting to the internet while he writes, also removing the card so he is unable to play computer games and wearing noise-cancelling headphones to prevent distraction. [emphasis added] source

I admire the luxury of being able to drop out entirely and simply be in the work. In the past I had a similar attitude toward distraction. I used to only be able to create when conditions were just right (that’s what I told myself anyway). You get the idea–fussing about with ideal setting as a means of procrastination. Distractions outside (or inside) could derail me for minutes or hours. Not any more, however. I’m done with all that. And since I’ve gotten rid of the perfect setting nonsense I’ve been much more prolific.

I wish I could say that my rejection of the Goldilocks conditions (not too noisy, not too hot,1 just right) for creativity was borne of discipline and a desire to just sit down and do the work, no matter what. But if I am to be honest, it was my son’s doing. Since adding a baby (nearly a toddler) to my life, all I need to be creative is enough time to open Scrivener and start clacking keys (or outlining, or editing, or whatever). And that’s the last remaining luxury of the full-time parent/writer. Fuck feng shui! All I need is time.

At this moment, time seems ample compared to when I was lawyering, for instance. The kid sleeps a few hours a day (I know that’ll change, don’t bother commenting about it) and I work. The sounds of the city buses and the gas station outside don’t bother me (most of the time), I don’t need to find the perfect mood music–although it does help me with “flow”–and most of all, if I only get to write for ten or fifteen minutes at a time instead of several uninterrupted hours I still feel like that was a success. It’s unclear to me whether being a stay-at-home parent has fragmented my ability to focus or solidified it. All I know is that my first book took four years to write and my new one only took two and a half months.2

The change came easier than I expected mainly because I was forced into it. Now, the only precursor to work that I absolutely require is coffee. I still can’t write in a cafe, however. I’m too busy eavesdropping, listening for dialogue.

1 I like the cold. It feels like being alive, where sweltering heat just reminds me of being ill.

2 I attribute the improved quality of my work to taking classes at Grub Street in Boston as well as the fantastic help of my writing circle. The speed is all the boy, however.

Mar 6 2012

Pictures from the NEHW Get-Together in New Hampshire

Pictures from the NEHW Get-Together in New Hampshire

by Jason Harris

Director of Events Scott Goudsward set-up a NEHW get-together at the Portsmouth Brewery this past Saturday. It was a success. The brewery is located at 56 Market Street in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

From left to right: Morven Westfield, Tracy Carbone, Bracken MacLeod, Lucien MacLeod, and Heather MacLeod. Photo by Jason Harris.

From left to right: Karen Dent, Roxanne Dent, and Stacey Longo. Photo by Jason Harris.

From left to right: David Price, Denny Price, and Karen Dent. Photo by Jason Harris.

From left to right: Tracy Carbone, Bracken MacLeod, Lucien MacLeod, Heather MacLeod, and Chris Irvin. Photo by Jason Harris.

From left to right: Chris and Jen Irvin. Photo by Jason Harris.

Mar 3 2012

A Conversation with Author Jan Kozlowski

This entry appeared on author and NEHW member Kate Laity’s website.

Writer Wednesday: Jan Kozlowski

by Kate Laity

My pal and fellow Horror in Film and Literature lister, Jan Kozlowski, first fell in love with the horror genre in 1975 when the single drop of ruby blood on the engraved black cover of Stephen King’s Salem’s Lot hypnotized her into buying it. She sold her first story, Psychological Bacchanal to the EWG E-zine in 1997. Her short story, Parts is Parts, won awards in both the International Writing Competition sponsored by DarkEcho’s E-zine and Quoth the Raven’s Bad Stephen King contest. Another short story, Stuff It, was sold to an independent film producer and went into production as a movie short called Sweet Goodbyes. Her short stories have appeared in: Remittance Girl’s A Slip of the Lip anthology, Lori Perkins’ Hungry for Your Love: An Anthology of Zombie Romance and Fangbangers: An Erotic Anthology of Fangs, Claws, Sex and Love.

She is extremely proud and excited to announce that her first novel, Die, You Bastard! Die! debuted February 7, as part of Lori Perkins’ new horror line, Ravenous Shadows, edited by the legendary John Skipp.

Q: What do you write on? Computer, pad o’ paper, battered Underwood? Give us a vivid picture.

I do the majority of my writing on my cherished MacBook Pro laptop. I tend to turn my MacBook on at 6:30 a.m. and don’t shut down until 9 p.m. or later most days [Ed: Hmmm, you can shut them down?]. If I either get stuck or get a jones to feel pen against paper, I’ll pull out my old white L&M Ambulance Company clipboard loaded with scrap paper and start scribbling. The board is a souvenir of my days as an urban EMT in Hartford, CT and I keep it around as a reminder of what I COULD be doing for a living.

Q: Do you listen to music while you write? Does it influence what you write?

I almost always listen to my local Dinosaur (Classic) Rock radio station when I’m working. Since Die, You Bastard! Die! is such an ultra violent story, I tried putting together a play list of heavier metal like Avenged Sevenfold (my granddaughter’s favorite band), Testament, Broken Hope, Disturbed, but I ended up distracted by the unfamiliar songs. Listening to the rock I grew up with in the 70’s like Bob Seger, The Eagles, Bruce Springsteen and Aerosmith, with a little Tom Waits, Frank Zappa, Nathan & the Zydeco Cha-Chas, Bon Jovi and Bacon Brothers thrown in via iTunes works best for me.

Q: Do you write in short bursts or carve out long periods of time to work? Is it a habit or a vice?

For me, writing is a business. I’ve been freelancing since I was about 12 and sold articles about raising tropical fish to my hometown newspaper. For the past 15 years or so I’ve run my own freelance writing shop doing all sorts of business and web related writing, editing and research work. Over the past two years, I’ve slowly been moving away from the business projects in order to focus on my horror fiction, but whether I’m writing fiction or non-fiction my work style is the same….commit to the project and write until the client, the editor or I’m happy with the finished product.

Q: What writer would you most want to read your work? What would you want to hear them say?

That’s already happened…on one of the drafts of Die, You Bastard! Die! I think I managed to gross out my editor, legendary Splatterpunk King, John Skipp! Now if I can, one day, pay Dean Koontz back for the creeps he gave me with his novel Whispers, I’ll die a happy writer.

Q: On the days where the writing doesn’t go so well, what other art or career do you fantasize about pursuing instead?

When I was a little girl my grandfather used to tell me stories about his adventures working for a funeral home during the pre-embalming fluid days. I always thought I would have loved working in mortuary sciences, but when I was going to school women weren’t exactly welcomed into the funeral services industry. Now that times have changed and we have a first class Mortuary Sciences degree program at our local college, I’ve always thought that would make a fabulous Plan B, even now at age 50+.

Q: What do you read? What do you re-read?

I try to read a little bit of everything. I get some great ideas from newspapers and magazines. I just discovered and am now devouring Mad Money Wall Street guru, Jim Cramer’s books. I try and read as much classic horror like Robert Bloch, M.R. James, Fritz Leiber, H.P. Lovecraft, Richard Matheson, Edgar Allan Poe and J.N. Williamson as possible. I also try to keep up with who’s publishing today beyond Bestsellersaurus Rexes Stephen King and Dean Koontz. I’m a huge fan of Edward Lee, Neil Gaiman, Joe Hill, Joe R. Landsdale, Jonathan Maberry, Elizabeth Massie, Yvonne Navarro, Weston Ochse, Monica O’Rourke, John Skipp and Andrew Vachss.

I rarely find time to re-read anything unless I’m researching a specific writing technique, like how Jonathan Maberry handled the fight scenes in his Pine Deep trilogy or how Dean Koontz ramped up to the reveal of the cockroaches in Whispers.

Q: Where did the idea for Die,You Bastard! Die! come from? Do you have a surefire way of sparking inspiration? And is that an awesome title or what?!

The idea for Die, You Bastard! Die! came out of a lovely dinner Ravenous Shadows publisher Lori Perkins and I had during the 2011 Northeast Writer’s Conference, known as NECON. Lori mentioned she was looking for a story about an adult child coming home to take care of her abusive parent and it matched up with a story I had been kicking around for years about a survivor of childhood sexual abuse coming home to deal with her past. After the conference I got home, wrote up the proposal, Skipp green-lighted it and we took off from there. I realize that’s not the way most writers get a book deal but it goes to prove that if you consistently put the hard work in, you WILL find yourself at the right place, at the right time with the right story.

Writing inspiration and story/character/plot ideas are everywhere if you’re open to them…and my motivation for being open to them usually is based on my memories of being paid $5 an hour to be projectile vomited on as an EMT or waitressing at Friendly’s for .60 below minimum wage.

John Skipp raves about this book:

Die, You Bastard! Die! is one hard-as-nails crime story indeed, with a crime at its core so heinous it boggles both mind and soul. That said, it is also a horror story, a mystery, and an insanely taut suspense thriller. Categories are funny like that.

But human monsters don’t get more humanly monstrous than Big Daddy. And it don’t get much rougher and tougher than Jan Kozlowski’s violently matter-of-fact, emotionally ass-kicking, downright incendiary son of a bitch.
I love this book, and stand behind it 100%. Hope it blows you away, as it did me. And has you coming back for more.

Drop by Jan’s blog or website and follow her on Twitter. Find her on Facebook and check out her Amazon author page. Thanks, Jan!

Mar 2 2012

The Newest Muppet Adventure Coming to DVD this Month

Press Release

The Biggest Muppet Adventure Ever Comes Home!

The Must-Own Movie For The Entire Family Debuts

on Blu-ray  Combo Pack, Digital and

On-Demand March 20, 2012

Debut Release Offers Fans the Full Movie Soundtrack with DVD Release and

as part of a ‘Wocka-Wocka’ Pack for the Ultimate Muppets Experience!

BURBANK, Calif., January 19, 2012 –– One of the year’s best-loved family comedies and among the best reviewed films of 2011, Disney’s The Muppets, starring Jason Segel, Academy Award-nominee Amy Adams, and favorite celebrity couple Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy — debuts March 20 on Blu-ray Combo Pack, DVD, Digital Download and On-Demand formats. A must-own movie the entire family can enjoy, Disney’s The Muppets in-home release includes the DVD and music soundtrack packaged together and also offered as the ultimate Muppets experience, a ‘Wocka-Wocka Value Pack,’ which contains the movie on Blu-ray high definition, DVD and Digital Copy (three discs), plus a download card which allows fans to own all the songs from the film’s hugely popular soundtrack.

Disney’s The Muppets Blu-ray Combo Pack, with its flawless picture and pitch perfect sound, comes with a fantastic slate of bonus content including the laugh out loud “The Longest Blooper Reel Ever Made (In Muppet History––We Think).” The exciting release also includes the hilarious featurette “A Little Screen Test on the Way to the Read Through,” which follows Jason Segel, Kermit, The Great Gonzo, Fozzie Bear, Miss Piggy and others as they get ready for the first day of production, and much more fun.

“Blu-ray is a great way to bring the Muppets into your home without having to worry about cleaning up after us,” said Kermit the Frog, commenting on the announcement. “And the behind-the-scenes extras are a revealing tell-all look at what it took to bring our movie to the big screen. It’s a must-see for fans of bloopers, flubs and slip-ups – which pretty much describes our act.”

Miss Piggy is equally thrilled at the movie’s Blu-ray release, “Now you can watch moi whenever you want! Ooh! Lucky vous!”

Additional fun-filled features on Disney’s The Muppets Blu-ray include a groundbreaking industry first — ‘Disney Intermission,’ a hilarious all-new feature that allows viewers to press Pause on their remote control and watch as the Muppets take over the screen and entertain until the movie resumes playing. The release also includes “Explaining Evil: The Full Tex Richman Song,” an extended version of the rollicking rap song by villain Tex Richman (Academy Award winner Chris Cooper) who provides the hilarious backstory of why he hates the Muppets. Audio commentaries with screenwriter and star Jason Segel, director James Bobin and screenwriter Nicholas Stoller are also included.

With the Muppet’s signature irreverent comedy, songs and dancing, Muppet fans of all ages will cheer as the gang reunites to put on a benefit show to save the crumbling Muppet Studios from being razed by nefarious oil baron Tex Richman. New fans and long-time devotees will find the rainbow connection when they bring Disney’s The Muppets into their very own homes.

3-Disc ‘Wocka-Wocka Value Pack’

(1-Disc Blu-ray + 1-Disc DVD + Digital Copy + Soundtrack Digital Download Card)

Includes:

Ø The Longest Blooper Reel Ever Made (In Muppet History––We Think) – A laugh out loud look at the actors’ funny gaffs and gags from behind the scenes of making Disney’s “The Muppets.”

Ø Disney Intermission – Groundbreaking Blu-ray feature. Pausing a movie will never be this much fun, as the Muppets take over the screen every time you stop the disc!

Ø Scratching The Surface: A Hasty Examination of the Making of Disney’s The Muppets. Hosted by unit production manager monster J.G., the cast and crew take a behind the scenes look at making Muppet and movie history.

Ø Explaining Evil: The Full Tex Richman Song. Rapping his way through the story of his miserable life, Tex tells audiences why he turned out to be such a rotten guy.

Ø A Little Screen Test on the way to the Read Through. This hilarious footage follows the Muppet gang as they go to their first table reading of the script.

Ø Eight Deleted Scenes

Ø Audio Commentary with Jason Segel, James Bobin and Nicholas Stoller

Ø The Combo Pack also comes with the popular theatrical spoof trailers

Ø The Complete Soundtrack

2-Disc Combo Pack (1-Disc Blu-ray + 1 Disc DVD)

Includes:

Ø The Longest Blooper Reel Ever Made (In Muppet History––We think).

Ø Disney Intermission

Ø Scratching the Surface: A Hasty Examination of the Making of Disney’s “The Muppets”

Ø Explaining Evil: The Full Tex Richman Song

Ø A Little Screen Test on the Way to the Read Through

Ø Deleted Scenes

Ø Audio commentary with Jason Segel, James Bobin and Nicholas Stoller

Ø Hidden Easter Eggs

1-Disc DVD + Soundtrack Digital Download Card

Includes:

Ø The longest Blooper Reel Ever Made (In Muppet History––We Think)

Ø Complete Soundtrack

1-Disc DVD

Includes:

Ø The Longest Blooper Reel Ever Made (In Muppet History––We Think)

Digital Bonus Exclusive Includes:

Ø Inside Walter’s Trailer. Take a peek inside Walter’s star trailer as he prepares to play his big role.

 

DISC SPECIFICATIONS:

Street Date: March 20, 2012

Release Formats & 3-Disc Blu-ray with Soundtrack (‘Wocka-Wocka Value Pack’) =

Suggested Retail Pricing: $49.99 U.S./$56.99 Canada

2-Disc Blu-ray = $39.99 U.S./$46.99 Canada

1-Disc DVD with Soundtrack = $34.99/$41.99 Canada

1-Disc DVD = $29.99 U.S./$35.99 Canada

High Definition Digital = $39.99 U.S./$44.99 Canada Standard Definition Digital = $29.99 U.S./$35.99 Canada On-Demand = check with your television provider or favorite digital retailer for pricing

Feature Run Time: Approximately 103 Minutes

Ratings: U.S.: PG/CANADA: PG (Bonus material is not rated) Aspect Ratio: Blu-ray: 1.85.1

DVD: 1.85.1

Audio: Blu-ray 5.1 DTS HD-MA; 5.1 and 2.0 Dolby Digital

DVD: 5.1 and 2.0 Dolby Digital 4

Social Media Stay connected with the latest news and information on Disney’s The Muppets.

• View exciting trailers, games, video clips and more at http://www.Disney.com/Muppets

• Like us on Facebook at http://www.Facebook.com/Muppets

• Follow us on Twitter @MuppetsStudio

Film Synopsis

On vacation in Los Angeles, Walter, the world’s biggest Muppet fan, his brother Gary (Jason Segel) and Gary’s girlfriend, Mary (Amy Adams), from Smalltown, USA, discover the nefarious plan of oilman Tex Richman (Chris Cooper) to raze Muppet Studios and drill for the oil recently discovered beneath the Muppets’ former stomping grounds. To stage a telethon and raise the $10 million needed to save the studio, Walter, Mary and Gary help Kermit reunite the Muppets, who have all gone their separate ways: Fozzie now performs with a Reno casino tribute band called the Moopets, Miss Piggy is a plus-size fashion editor at Vogue Paris, Animal is in a Santa Barbara clinic for anger management, and Gonzo is a high-powered plumbing magnate.

Disney’s The Muppets is directed by James Bobin (Flight of the Conchords, The Ali G Show) and produced by the Academy Award-nominated team of David Hoberman and Todd Lieberman (The Fighter, The Proposal) with a screenplay written by Segel & Nicholas Stoller (Get Him to the Greek), who also serve as executive producers along with John G. Scotti and The Muppet Show veteran Martin G. Baker. Bret McKenzie, who created, co-wrote, executive-produced and starred in the hit HBO television series “Flight of the Conchords,” is the music supervisor as well as the writer/producer of three original songs. Original score is by Christophe Beck, Michael Rooney is the choreographer, Rahel Afiley is the costume designer, and James Thomas is the editor. Steve Saklad is the production designer, and Don Burgess, A.S.C., is the director of photography.

About Walt Disney Studios

For more than 85 years, The Walt Disney Studios has been the foundation on which The Walt Disney Company (NYSE: DIS) was built. Today, the Studio brings quality movies, music and stage plays to consumers throughout the world. Feature films are released under four banners: Walt Disney Pictures, which includes Walt Disney Animation Studios and Pixar Animation Studios; Disneynature; Marvel; and Touchstone Pictures, which includes the distribution of live-action films from DreamWorks Studios. Original music and motion picture soundtracks are produced under Walt Disney Records and Hollywood Records, while Disney Theatrical Group produces and licenses live events, including Broadway theatrical productions, Disney on Ice and Disney LIVE!. For more information, visit http://www.waltdisneystudios.com.

Mar 1 2012

The Challenge of Using Description in One’s Story

This entry originally appeared on Alex Lukeman’s blog, The Independent Writer.

Realism and Description

by Alex Lukeman

I received a wonderful comment this morning from a reader about my newest book, The Seventh Pillar (you can check it out by clicking on the cover picture to your left). Part of the book is set in the desert wastelands of the Western Sahara. I try to make the settings and details of my books accurate and real enough so the reader can picture him/herself right there, in this case with sand and heartless rock under their feet and heat beating down from a sky as intense and vivid as my imagination and experience can make it.

The reader had not been to the part of the desert I used in the book, but she had spent time in Saudi Arabia and she felt like she was there, with my characters, under that relentless sun and endless sky. Her comment made my day because it meant that I had succeeded in what I had tried to do, make the reader FEEL like she was THERE, where it counts.

Realism. Description. The challenge we face as writers to transport our readers to the worlds of our imagination, wherever and whatever they may be. It is unlikely my reader will ever find herself in a place where very bad people want to kill her, at least I certainly hope not. The magic of realistic description took her there.

I think one of the great challenges of story-making is knowing how much description is enough, or when it is called for. Too much, the reader goes to sleep. Too little, there is no context for the actions of the characters. It’s like the three bears–too hard, too soft, just right.

Complicate that by the kind of book it is. Some books linger forever. The Naked and the Dead (remember that one?). East of Eden. The Sun Also Rises. The Grapes of Wrath. Somehow we become imbued with a sense of time and place that stays even when the details of character, plot and story become hazy. Although I hated the book (not too strong a word), The Road comes to mind. Cold Mountain. And I really like Calumet City for crime noir urban grit.

These books are as different as can be from one another in setting and intent, but they all have incredibly skilled description of time and place as a core strength.

Good description is far more than the color of the sand or the haze over the mountains. It’s a sensual experience when you get it right. You hear and feel the rustle of the wind, see the ominous beauty of a desert sunset and smell the heat coming off the barren lands around you. As much as possible, all senses are involved.

WARNING: OPINION ALERT
Unless you are a Steinbeck or a Thomas Wolfe,
exercise caution.

When I write, the draft is always full of extraneous description which must be edited down to essence, something the reader can digest and feel while the story moves on. I can wax rhapsodic about almost anything (one of the things I love about blogging is that you can get away with clichés like that). But how much does a reader need?

Take a descriptive passage from whatever book you are working on out of context and open it in a new document. Read it again, out of context. Does it put you where you want the reader to be? If the reader didn’t know the plot or who the characters were or what was happening, would that passage stand on its own? Does it feel real? If the answer is in doubt, perhaps you should rethink that description.

Michael Connelly is one of my favorite contemporary authors, for many reasons. Often he has his protagonist Harry Bosch standing on the deck of a precariously perched house in one of the canyons of LA. Each time, I get a new sense of the place even though I’ve stood on that deck with Harry through many books. Connelly doesn’t need pages to make it work. He’s a master of essence.

That’s a challenge for all of us.

Write Like A Champion today.