Filmgoers Jason Harris, Nick Cato, and Matt Schwartz during the Necon movie panel.
NEHW members Michael Arruda, L.L. Soares, Nick Cato, and Jason Harris preparing for the movie panel started.
Cinema Knife Fight writers Michael Arruda and L.L. Soares.
DVD Snapshot writer Jason Harris and CKF writer Nick Cato.
Writers Craig Shaw Gardner, Jason Harris, Nick Cato, and Matt Schwartz.
NEHW Co-chair Stacey Longo and member L.L. Soares.
The NEHW table during Necon’s Authors’ Night.
Author L.L. Soares.
Authors and NEHW members Nick Cato and K. Allen Wood at Authors’ Night.
The view in front of the NEHW table at Authors’ Night.
Authors K. Allen Wood and Stacey Longo at the NEHW table at Necon 32.
NEHW Director of Events Scott Goudsward.
Author and NEHW member Peter N. Dudar signing a copy of his book, A Requiem for Dead Flies.
Mark Angevine and F. Paul Wilson conversing during Necon’s Authors’ Night.
David Bernstein talking with author Jeff Strand during Authors’ Night.
Author and NEHW member Laura Cooney.
Author and NEHW member John McIlveen.
Artist and Illustrator Cortney Skinner listens to fellow Necon camper Mattie Brahen.
Author Lisa Mannetti tries to squeeze in-between authors Elizabeth Massie and Heather Graham.
Author and NEHW member Peter N. Dudar getting ready to bowl at Dudek Bowling Lanes in Warren, Rhode Island.
NEHW member Barry Dejasu watches as fellow member Jason Harris bowls. Photo by Stacey Longo.
Writer Sheri Sebastian-Gabriel with a look on her face like a deer caught in headlights. Photo by Stacey Longo.
Author Peter N. Dudar (A Requiem for Dead Flies). Photo by Stacey Longo.
Necon campers from left to right: Peter N. Dudar, Steve Dorato, Barbara Gardner, and Sheri Sebastian-Gabriel. Photo by Stacey Longo.
A group shot of the bowling team bookended by its two cheerleaders. Photo by Jillian Booth.
Who Was That Masked Man? panel at Necon 32. From left to right, panelists Hank Wagner, John Mcllveen, Bob Booth, and Jack Haringa.
Friendly Neighborhood Comics in Bellingham, MA.
The trip to the Northeastern Writers’ Conference (Necon) took a stop in Bellingham, MA. at the Friendly Neighborhood Comics. It wasn’t a stop for comic books, but a few collections of Batman comics were bought. The stop was made to meet the store’s owner, Ernie Pelletier, Jr. and to look over the store since there will be an Epitaphs signing on Saturday, Oct. 6.
A group of Necon campers waiting for a table at Scampi’s.
From left to right: NEHW members L.L. Soares, Peter Dudar, Christopher Irvin, and Steve Dorato. Necon camper Mark Angevine is behind Soares’ right shoulder and author Laura Clooney can almost be seen behind Dorato.
Happily fed campers.
Campers hanging out in front of Rhode Island University’s Conference Center and Hotel in Bristol, Rhode Island.
A portrait of the late Les Daniels, who died last November, done by Artist Cortney Skinner.
Part of the NEHW tables at Necon.
Another part of the NEHW table.
A group of NEHW members’ books.
The Dark Knight Rises movie poster. (courtesy of Warner Bros.)
HE SAID: The Dark Knight Rises does not advance Christopher Nolan’s Batman franchise. It’s the weakest of the three movies. In his defense, it’s hard to outdo yourself when your last endeavor included Heath Ledger’s performance as the Joker.
The movie starts eight years after The Dark Knight with a memorial for Harvey Dent in front of Wayne Manor. Batman hasn’t been seen since the fateful night of Dent’s death and Bruce Wayne has become a recluse with a limp.
Director Christopher Nolan portrays main villain, Bane, with the right respect, unlike Bane’s portrayal in Batman & Robin. This is the character that in Batman: Knightfall, the serial that ran in 1993, orchestrated the assault on Batman, then broke his back.
Nolan chose Tom Hardy (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) to play the ex-communicated member of the League of Shadows, the organization created by Ra’s Al Ghul. Hardy was superb as Bane. He was the right size and had the right muscle mass. The only problem is you can’t understand him 90 percent of the time. Since Nolan and his brother Jonathan wrote the screenplay, you would think they would want their words heard and understood by the audience.
Anne Hathaway (Alice in Wonderland) dons the mask and claws of Catwoman in Nolan’s franchise. Her portrayal is right up their with Michelle Pfeiffer’s performance in Batman Returns. Nolan captures the character quite well. There should have been more of Catwoman, though.
L-r: Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox and Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne in Warner Bros. Pictures’ and Legendary Pictures’ action thriller The Dark Knight Rises. (courtesy of Warner Bros.)
Nolan’s script abounds with in-jokes such as when Morgan Freeman’s Lucius Fox shows Bruce “the Bat” and he tells him it does come in black. This is in reference to the scene in Batman Begins where Bruce asks Fox if “the tumbler” comes in black. It also brings the franchise full circle by mentioning Ra’s Al Ghul, who was the villain in Batman Begins. Nolan also shows scenes from the first two movies to show how his trilogy is connected. It’s just too bad the movie couldn’t have had a better connection to the greatest of the previous two movies.
SHE SAID: The Dark Knight Rises clearly draws from the very first scene of the first movie, in which Thomas Wayne asks “And why do we fall, Bruce? … So we can learn to pick ourselves up.” Everything takes a tumble in this film – Commissioner Gordon’s reputation falls, Bruce Wayne has a spiritual fall, and the city of Gotham itself is set up for a fall. What’s a dark knight to do? Get up and save the day, of course. The problem is that all of these redemptions take waaaaay too long.
This movie spends too much time cutting between the looming threat of Gotham’s destruction and Bruce Wayne’s climb out of the depths of darkness, only to emerge a better man (with a hot new girlfriend in a catsuit to boot.) Anne Hathaway makes the Catwoman character all her own, and I have to agree with Jason that she could’ve used more screen time. Michael Caine (Inception) is still formidable as Alfred, but his presence is sorely missed for a good chunk of the movie. Morgan Freeman (The Shawshank Redemption) and Gary Oldman (Bram Stoker’s Dracula) are also still fantastic as Lucius Fox and Commissioner Jim Gordon, respectively. Joseph Gordon-Levitt is introduced as John Blake, a troubled cop who wants to do the right thing. While his performance is fine, it’s not difficult to figure out where he fits in with the Batman legacy.
L-r: Tom Hardy as Bane and Christian Bale as Batman. (courtesy of Warner Bros.)
It would be hard for any D.C. Comics villain to follow in the footsteps of the late Heath Ledger’s delectable Joker, so don’t hold it against Tom Hardy that his Bane falls short. This baddie goes from terrifying to tepid in an instant once his full backstory is revealed; plus, it doesn’t help that his face gear makes him practically unintelligible. However, if it’s hand-to-hand combat and things blowing up that makes a movie great for you, this one has plenty.
Jason and I concur: three out of four stars.
Writer and director Eric England talks about Madison County, his first horror movie; his first movie ever.
England said that this is his version of “a backwoods slasher movie.”
“I wanted to do something that was faithful to all the films that had come before it, but also tries to stand on its own two feet.”
He drew inspiration from several different places, including things that had happened to him and from the local legends he was aware of in Arkansas, where he filmed Madison County.
The idea for England’s movie came to him when he was 14, he said. He wrote the script back in 2009 and the movie was released last year.
“The idea for Madison County had been sitting in my brain for years before I ever sat down to put it on paper.”
He is planning a follow-up to his $75,000 first movie, and this time he will give audiences more of prolific serial killer Damien Ewell’s history.
“I always planned for Madison County to be part of a much bigger picture. I don’t want to beat people over the head with exposition, but I’ll definitely hint at information about his origins,” England said about his movie.
His serial killer is not a supernatural being under that mask, he said.
“He’s 100 percent a human being. If you cut him, he bleeds. If you hit him with a shovel, he goes down. Under the pig head, he’s just a man.”
It took him under two years from the written word to filming. He had gone through almost 10 different producers and teams of producers before the finished product came to be.
“A lot of promises were made and never made good on, so I eventually went off and made a little experimental movie called Hostile Encounter in November of 2009.”
His experimental short inspired producer Daniel Dunn to find financing for film to make “a bigger film which was ultimately Madison County.”
There are many movies that have inspired England.
“My favorite movie of all time is Scream. I like a lot of really weird movies. Everything from The Sound of Music to Last House on the Left to American Pie. It’s hard to pinpoint where my brain gets inspiration from.”
Along with favorite movies, he has some favorite directors that include Alfred Hitchcock, Wes Craven, Quentin Tarantino, and David Fincher. He also likes Tim Burton’s older stuff.
He is currently working on a few projects, the Hitchcockian thriller Roadside and a psychological-horror-sex-thriller called Contracted. He also attached to direct a studio film, which he couldn’t talk about.
“I’m kind of a workaholic.”
Editor’s Note:
This article also appears on the DVD Snapshot website. Click here to check out other interviews, dvd reviews, and contests.
Three-time Oscar-winning filmmaker Oliver Stone is back with a new thriller, Savages, which is reminiscent of one of his previous hits, Natural Born Killers.
Savages starts off with a voiceover by Blake Lively (Green Lantern), who portrays Ophelia, but has shorten it to “O” for a number of reasons. She states that she may or may not be alive by the end of her story, which was is a device used in American Beauty (1999). Except in that movie, the character of Lester tells the audience he’s already died.
O introduces Chon and Ben who are in the drug business. Ben, portrayed by Aaron Johnson (Kick-Ass), is the brains behind their superior marijuana and Chon portrayed by Taylor Kitsch (X-Men Origins: Wolverine) is the muscle that deals with problems that arise. Since he is an ex-Navy Seal and ex-mercenary, this makes him well equip to deal with these problems that make-up about one percent of their business. The other 99 percent is violence-free.
Chon, O and Ben live an idyllic life in Laguna Beach in a scene from Savages. Picture courtesy of Universal Pictures.
O, Chon and Ben make-up a post-modern family except in this family O is the girlfriend for both men. O states the men together make-up the perfect guy. The men have no problems sharing her. There is great chemistry between these three actors, which keeps you hoping that they are all alive at the end of the movie.
Their lives become endangered when their operation comes to the attention of the Mexican Baja Cartel, headed by the ruthless Elena “La Reina” portrayed by Salma Hayek (From Dusk Till Dawn). The cartel wants to form a partnership with Ben and Chon, who decline her invitation. This causes O to be kidnapped by Elena’s enforcer, Lado portrayed by Benicio Del Toro (Traffic), who brings a menacing demeanor and look to his role. Earlier in the movie, Lado is shown dealing harshly with a cartel lawyer whose client went to prison. By knowing how lethal Lado is, it puts O in a more precarious situation when she is his prisoner.
There were moments where Stone seems to have been inspired by Quentin Tarantino (Kill Bill, Vol. 1). Those inspired elements are the picture going from color to black and white a few times and his choice of music. One piece of music, “Psycho Killer” by Bruce Lash played after a scene where Lado talked to Elena about killing Chon and Ben. Del Toro has the look of a killer and is only slightly held in check by his boss. Stone made an excellent choice in music for this scene, which is a talent Tarantino has.
The movie is based on Don Winslow’s best-selling crime novel of the same name that was one of The New York Times’ Top 10 Books of 2010. Recently, Winslow released The Kings of Cool: A Prequel to Savages, which is available in paperback on Amazon for $16.50.
Stone fills Savages with intense and funny moments along with a few action scenes. All together the movie is an entertaining thrill ride.
Jackie Lewis, of Berlin, CT., shows off her zombie tattoo, her very first tattoo. Photo by Jason Harris.
Zombie fan Jackie Lewis. Photo by Jason Harris.
The white board showcasing the event’s authors. Photo by Jason Harris.
A view of the South Windsor Strawberry Fest and Craft Fair set-up. Photo by Jason Harris.
Author Rob Watts holding his book, Huldufolk. Photo by Jason.
Vernon resident Colin Grieve sporting his new zombie face-paint. Photo by Jason Harris.
Illustrator Jesse Young behind one of the NEHW tables at the South Windsor Strawberry Fest and Craft Fair. Photo by Jason Harris.
A NEHW table at the Strawberry Fest. Photo by Jason Harris.
Harry & Hio’s Woodworking LLC at the South Windsor Strawberry Fest. Photo by Jason Harris.
Another view of the NEHW table at the craft fair. Photo by Jason Harris.
Authors Kristi Petersen Schoonover and Stacey Longo. Photo by Jason Harris.
Faye Benedict, of Coventry, dressed as Strawberry Jam. Photo by Jason Harris.
Author Rob Watts autographs a book for Granby resident Laura Begin while her daughter looks on. Photo by Jason Harris.
Items designed by Specialty Metal Products. Photo by Jason Harris.
NEHW members from left to right: Jesse Young, Robert J. Duperre, and David Price. Photo by Jason Harris.
Artist Jonathan Morel standing behind his woodcarved products. Photo by Jason Harris.
The NEHW met Morel at a craft show in New Haven in May.
Author Stacey Longo looks at two customers as they browse through NEHW members’ books. Photo by Jason Harris.
The Malachite Gem Stone table at the Strawberry Fest. Photo by Jason Harris.
The Malachite Gem Stone owner, Thomas Balokosiabi, of Enfield, said the skull in the above picture is $1500.00. You can view more of his works on his website, www.tbmalachite.com.
Malachite Gem Stone owner Thomas Balokosiabi. Photo by Jason Harris.
Author Stacey Longo talks with fan Marilyn Migliore, of East Windsor, as Author David Price looks on. Photo by Jason Harris.
Carrie Barri, owner of Tipsy Tower, LLC. Photo by Jason Harris.
Barri, of Carolina, RI., in the above photo is holdering her invention, which she received a patent for in February after it was approved last September. To see her invention and what it does, check out her website, www.tipsytower.com.
The musical entertainment at the Strawberry Fest. Photo by Jason Harris.
Puzzles by Howard “Skip” Wiley, owner of Harry & Hio’s Woodworking LLC. Photo by Jason Harris.
More products by Howard “Skip” Wiley. Photo by Jason Harris.
A tupperware container vendor. Photo by Jason Harris.
A different view of the South Windsor Strawberry Fest and Craft Fair. Photo by Jason Harris.
Dallas stars Jordana Brewster and Julie Gonzalo. Photo by Jason Harris.
Dallas is set to return to television Wednesday night for a new generation to learn about the Ewing clan.
Jordana Brewster (The Fast and the Furious) and Julie Gonzalo (television series Veronica Mars), two of the stars of the new series, recently came to Boston to promote the show.
Gonzalo said they were excited about the new series and shooting at Southfork.
“I don’t think it has set in that it’s such a big deal until now when the shows about to roll out,” Gonzalo said.
The original Dallas debuted in 1978 as a five-part mini-series and ran for fourteen seasons until 1991 on CBS.
Brewster and Gonzalo didn’t watch the original series until they got the job in the new one, they said. They have watched three seasons so far.
“We weren’t born when it came out,” Gonzalo said about the original Dallas.
They weren’t born until the third and fourth seasons came out. Brewster was born in 1980 and Gonzalo in 1981. Another obstacle to watching the show was the fact that they weren’t living in the United States.
“I grew up in a different country until 1990,” Gonzalo said.
Gonzalo and Brewster were living in Argentina and Brazil respectively.
The “beauty of the show” is the fact that you can see where these characters are 30 years later, which “no other show has ever done,” Gonzalo said.
The new show gives people a chance to see how the Ewings’ children turned out, Brewster said.
“Cynthia [Cidre] wrote an amazing script with great, well-crafted characters and many, many twists and turns so it was heavily plotted … ,” Brewster said.
Audiences will see for themselves tomorrow night at 9 p.m. on TNT. The first season has ten episodes. The pilot was shot in April 2011 while the rest of the season was shot between last October and this past February, Brewster said.
The shows’ stars are contracted for six seasons, which is standard for a television contract, Brewster said.
Gonzalo said it’s up to the audience and how it is received if the show continues past the first season. She said that after the season wrapped Patrick Duffy kept saying ‘only 13 more to go.’
Brewster said Duffy has “the Midas touch” when it comes to working on television.
Gonzalo thinks in Duffy’s entire television career he has only been unemployed for two months, one month between The Man from Atlantis and Dallas and another month between Dallas and Step by Step.
When asked about Duffy, Larry Hagman, and Linda Gray, the original stars of Dallas, Gonzalo said Duffy is like their dad, Gray like their mom, and Hagman is like a “funny uncle.”
Hagman, who “has had such a colorful life,” had the best and greatest stories, she said.
“We had a sense of family the minute we all met,” Gonzalo said.
Dallas starts Wednesday night with a two-hour episode airing on TNT at 9 p.m.
Editor’s note:
To read Stacey Longo’s review of the new series, click here.
What do actors Denzel Washington, Ryan Reynolds, and Nicolas Cage and directors Simon West and Antoine Fuqua all have in common? They all have worked on projects written by David Guggenheim.
Guggenheim’s first screenplay, Safe House, was just released on DVD this past Tuesday. This was his first spec script sold.
“I got spoiled with this one.”
According to Guggenheim, a spec script is a screenplay written by someone who is not getting paid for it.
“You can spend a year of your own time and still not get paid. But the good news is that you have a fully completed script as opposed to a pitch where you go in with a sort of broad idea. This is a good way of packaging your whole story.”
The screenplay was sold in February of 2010, which was two years and a day before it was released in theaters, Guggenheim said. It took him about three months to write it.
“I was running out of time. I had a kid literally coming around the corner. If I didn’t sell something I wasn’t sure if I would be able to sustain a full-time job and full-time family and a writing career.”
If a screenwriter is living in New York, a spec script is the way to break into Hollywood and get people excited, he said. He had been writing them for 10 to 12 years before selling his first one.
“I couldn’t even process what was happening,” Guggenheim said about the sale of his first screenplay.
According to Wikipedia, Safe House was Washington’s second highest grossing movie to date. Guggenheim is “really proud of [his movie].”
“I didn’t think it would make $40 million opening weekend. I’m happy people liked it.”
He believes Washington was the first one cast in the movie and Reynolds was cast second.
“I can’t imagine anyone else doing it,” Guggenheim said about Reynolds portraying Matt Weston. “I think you see a totally different side of Ryan that you don’t usually get to see.”
Guggenheim has been inspired by a number of Hollywood writers such as Robert Goldman, Robert Towne, Lawrence Kasdan, Shane Black, and Joss Whedon. He considers all these writers, “character driven writers who have written huge action movies.”
“All these guys are amazing teachers.”
He considers Shane to be living the writer’s life, whom he considers a person who went off to write his own movies, which started with Lethal Weapon.
“I like that his scripts are his voice,” he said about Black, who is “generating new original material.”
Whedon’s name came up because Guggenheim had recently seen The Avengers, which he considers “incredible writing.”
“This is writing you try to achieve.”
The advice to would-be writers is always “write what you know,” he said. He claims he “doesn’t really know that much.” He does have five movies from the 1970s that have inspired him. Those movies are Three Days of the Condor, The Parallax View, Marathon Man, All the Presidents’ Men, and The Conversation, which Guggenheim considers “incredible.”
His advice to writers is to “keep writing.”
“If one script doesn’t work for you, it doesn’t mean you are not a good writer. That script had issues. Learn from that and keep writing. Just don’t give up.”
Guggenheim has worked with Tony Scott and Ron Howard and is working with McG right now, but would love to work with Stephen Spielberg, he said. He loves working with other writers too.
“Those are my idols,” he said, referring to other writers. “I get much more nervous about meeting writers that I have been following then, like, the biggest director in Hollywood.”
This screenwriter doesn’t have any other aspirations other than to write.
“I would prefer just sitting in a room writing …”
Along with his next movie Stolen, which is in post-production, directed by West and starring Cage, he is co-writing a novel, Exile, with his friend, Nick Mennuti, which will be published by Little Brown.
This article appears on the DVD Snapshot website.
