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samnyangie · 3 years ago

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Since people liked rsl interview on dps, I’d like to share one of my favourite interview by him. I think it’s one of those rare interview where he wasn’t joking around that much but discuss acting quite seriously haha

So enjoy:DD

(Credit)

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1990 New York Times

Young Actor's Life Has the Makings of a Movie

by Lynn Mautner

New York Times

May 20, 1990

It would make a good movie. A 15-year-old sophomore at Ridgewood High School is playing the Artful Dodger in the musical ''Oliver'' with the school's theater group, New Players, when he is discovered by a casting agency secretary and whisked off to Broadway and the movies.

That's exactly what happened to Robert Sean Leonard, now 21, and a star of the 1989 film ''Dead Poets Society,'' which received an Oscar for best original screenplay.

''My mother took me to New Players' summer performances when I was 10,'' he said, ''and I loved the camaraderie of people, rehearsing and singing. I began spending more time there, painting signs and moving furniture, and soon became an element of the company, with small roles in 'The Miracle Worker,' 'Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat,' 'Barnum.' ''

Starting as an understudy for three roles at the New York Public Theater (he never got on stage), Mr. Leonard amassed credits that include ''The Beach House'' with George Grizzard for the Circle Repertory Theater, television movies, ''Brighton Beach Memoirs'' and ''Breaking the Code'' on Broadway, plays at the West Bank Cafe on 42d Street and the recent ''When She Danced'' at Playwrights Horizons.

He has just completed a part as Paul Newman's and Joanne Woodward's son in the movie ''Mr. and Mrs. Bridge,'' filmed in Kansas City, to be released in August. ''I age from a 15-year-old Eagle Scout to 22, coming home from World War II with a mustache,'' Mr. Leonard said.

Mr. Leonard, who received a general equivalency diploma when he was 17, lives in New York City and attends Fordham University between performances. Soon to return from the Cannes Film Festival with his fellow actors in ''Dead Poets,'' he is next scheduled to go into rehearsal for the film ''Married to It,'' a romantic comedy.

Q. Do you remember when you decided on an acting career?

A. I never decided to pursue an acting career. It just has happened. I still think it's going to stop and I'll have to get a real job soon, but I'm afraid to question it because if I do, it will disappear.

Q. How do you think your theater experience in high school has helped you?

A. It was a great teaching experience that prepared me in a lot of ways. We did 10 shows in 10 weeks, so there was no time to think about method. It was running for the stage, hoping you'll make it in time for your entrance. In Steven Soderbergh's new book of his diaries when directing the film ''Sex, Lies and Videotape,'' he said that on a film set there should always be a chain of command, but never a chain of respect.

At New Players, those three to four years, everyone was given the same respect. You had to, because you'd be the lead one week and painting sets the next. That's a luxury that is not available in New York, unfortunately, because of the unions. You're an actor and that's it.

Q. Have you taken any acting lessons? Do you recommend them for others?

A. I've taken two classes - a video acting class to help me get from stage to film, with Marty Winkler, currently my manager, and an acting class at H. B. Studios.

Acting classes are tricky. It's like asking someone in therapy if they'd recommend going to a psychiatrist. For some people it's great; for some it's not necessary; for some it's harmful. The best way to learn acting is just to do it.

There's a danger to the classroom, because it's safe, and you can get addicted to it. The clique of people are there, and you might tend to remain with them and never go out on your own. So it can give you the safety net which can eventually strip away your courage to go out and really try. On the other hand, you can get a wonderful teacher who brings out the best in you and gives you the courage to go out and dazzle everybody.

Q. You went from high school to Off Broadway. What were your feelings and fears during your first professional performance?

A. The first time I performed in New York - in ''Sally's Gone, She Left Her Name'' - I played Michael Learned's son. I think I was too young. I wasn't even aware of reasons to be afraid. I was just there for the fun of it. Fresh out of New Players, I knew it to be fun. I've never worried about lines. In ''Brighton Beach'' I should have been tense, because it was Broadway. I was nervous, but not racked - more excited.

Q. What do you enjoy most about acting?

A. The people, and opportunities to learn, to travel, both physically and emotionally. To look at people other than myself and try to figure out what makes them tick.

Olivier said you never play a villain; you play a man considered to be a villain; that you have to justify everything he does first; you have to know that what you are doing is right and find a way to make it right - even murder.

I just played a conceited piano player in ''When She Danced,'' and I had to figure out what would make a person be conceited and make that O.K. with me. I learned where conceit comes from - from confidence and talent.

Worst thing you can do is play someone and judge him at the same time, saying: ''Here I am. I am so conceited.'' First you have to understand why you're that way so that people interpret you as conceited.

Q. Do you consider acting an escape?

A. I don't look at performing as escaping, as really becoming another person and leaving my problems for two hours, so I don't have to deal with me, because I don't become another person. I work, so that when I am working, in a way it is me at my best. I'm not leaving myself; in fact, I'm more focused on myself than ever. I don't become that person, but I fully understand him, fully explore him, as to why he does what he does and justify it.

You can't play a fool to play Bottom, who's the opposite of fool in Shakespeare's ''Midsummer Night's Dream.'' What makes people fools is that they're completely confident in what they're doing. They don't think they're fools; they think they're right on track, which makes them so funny and makes them look like fools.

Q. Who influenced you the most?

A. I have not had one person or experience that stands out that's a turning point. Every step in acting relies heavily on the one before. Everything I've learned colors everything I have known before, and suddenly changes it.

I have learned a little bit from everyone I have known, whether about acting itself, or living and working as an actor. Like a good detective novel, for every clue that is solved, two more appear. Every time I learn something, it opens two other doors. In ''Dead Poets,'' the rooftop scene, where I throw the desk set off, was improvised. Are instincts then a part of acting?

Q. Are there desirable qualities to have as an actor?

A. Concentration, perseverence, lack of inhibitions. There's no room for self-consciousness on stage. Also, there is an element in acting that is not fair. Whatever talent is, part of it can be learned and part can't. There are people that audiences like to watch or don't. In Soderbergh's book, he says that talent plus perseverance will equal luck. But I don't know what talent is; it is beyond definition.

Q. Do you learn by watching other films and plays? Your own? Other people?

A. Sometimes I watch for directing; sometimes for performing. There are lines in ''Dead Poets'' I would do differently, if given the chance. For example, Todd said: ''You talk and people listen to you, Neil. I am not like that.'' I answer, ''Don't you think you could be?'' I think I could have made it clearer. I don't get much from observing strangers, because although I see what they do, I don't know where they're coming from.

Q. What are the main differences between stage and film work?

A. I feel that as an actor, you should start in theater, to learn the process of creating a character, in rehearsal. Film is an arena for people who already know that, because on the set they expect you to know the character inside out.

Film work is harder, because this tangible part has to happen in your head before filming takes place. And it's more solitary. You create your character alone, without the give-and-take of other actors.

Q. What tips would you give young, aspiring actors?

A. Read plays aloud with friends at home; do any work you can do in high school. Hang out with jocks, leatherheads, and see what makes them work. Don't be a theater rat and only talk to actors. Read a lot. You really have to feel it; really want it; then take it. Don't take no for an answer. Seize the day.

___________________________

There’s another one I really want to share as well, I’ll bring it with me at some point:))

#robert sean leonard #rsl #theatre #acting #interview #I love how he ended the interview with seize the day

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jrueships · 3 years ago

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(Hands you detective au)

WOW!!! OMG THANK U!!!

IWBFIEB im /j of course fr thank u for this ask I've had a detective kinda au in my mind 4EVER.. multichapter pg/kawhi detective au... I won't write it yet because uhhhh looks at mountain of wips... looks away.. but YEA it's definitely a THOUGHT. My hatred of c0ps vs my love for detective aus.... FIGHT!!!

But BASICALLY the idea I have with the detective au is like... kawhi leonard was just some guy looking for a job to support his adopted son, Terance. One day he helped with a crime near his house and badda Bing badda bang! A detective agency liked his 'eccentric' thought process. It's basically a play on monk/Sherlock where detectives find a guy who thinks different than them so they make him do everything basically LMAO.. except kawhi doesn't Want to so everything. Despite being known for his austere exterior, the deaths stack onto him. He really hates his line of work but just suppresses it all deep down. To his quiet dislike, he ends up climbing higher into the forensic ranks due to his knack of solving cases. He gets pushed up from Arson with Kyle Lowry, a funny but kind of sad little fellow who misses his old partner transferred to another state agency, to Vice (AKA drugs) with Paul George.

Paul George isn't your ordinary humbug black and white detective. Though he did carry a pack of cigarettes and a lighter with his own initialed insignia, he only carried it for Style Points and Aesthetic. He takes most his cases with a grain of salt, just glad to be getting a good pay. He shows up to scenes wearing flashy, expensive suits and a cute hat with a bow. His shoes are always shiny and his baby blue corvette (fitted with it's own radio and sirens) is worth more than Kawhi's shitty apartment. He's flashy and shines his badge to all the ladies. A failed actor, He's obsessed with acting like his job is a movie and he the handsome main character.

He's recently new to the job, having moved up to replace Damian Lillard -- who suddenly quit. Paul's vain and jealous of Kawhi having quicker success than him just for 'being weird'. He constantly shoots offhand comments and let's Kawhi know who's the leader in this forced partnership. Kawhi could honestly care less.

I think I want chapter 1 to be them getting to know each other whether they want to or not. Chapter one is pg's big asshole era so it starts off with them getting sent to their first case together by the commissioner. The commissioner gives his complaints to kawhi rather than pg so that gets pg all annoyed. Insert a bunch of sarcastic and biting comments here. This continues even in the car ride, with Pg lowkey trying to flex his flashy accessories and higher authority to Kawhi's silence. Then the car stops at a red light and who do they see but Damian Lillard driving his rinkadink motorcycle. He quit to become a private investigator, saying he won't work with corrupt cunts. He throws Kawhi his number, flips off paul, and tells them Goodluck on their criminal case before speeding off before the light hit green.

This sends Paul back into a spiel, ranting to Kawhi about how Stupid Dame was and how he must be outta his mind. Then he starts putting up dumb ground rules to reestablish his superiority like rule 72 always say I'm right. Rule 56 always tell me I look sexy rule 57 always follow that up with a no homo though rule- You get it. That goes on for a Long while, and when pg is finally done he looks back at Kawhi, who hasn't said a single word since getting in the car, and asks if he has any questions. Kawhi nods and asks "can you turn on the radio."

Pg does. Reluctantly. But only because his voice was starting to get sore from all that talking.

Chapter 2 ... I am still thinking. I have a case in mind for them to solve but... it's a lot to think!

But I really want there to be a scene where they have to chase a runaway culprit but his sprinklers turn on so pg refuses to run through them and get him. So he just kinda points at the culprit's retreating form and barks at kawhi like "gO GET HIM!!! THAT'S MY MONEY RUNNIN OUTTA THE BUILDING, YOU BOZO!!"

And I want there to be a scene where pg and kawhi are scoping out a suspect at a diner so they have to squeeze really close together in a booth and snoop in a dark corner. Pg ask kawhi to light his cig for him (while it's in his mouth that's very important) ... they start bonding a bit. Kawhi talks a little. Pg starts noticing that kawhi isn't this kinda special golden boy detective but just a guy whos trying to make a decent living. He comforts kawhi after he sees a bad body.

I also want a scene down the road where kawhi gets shot and the closest place for treatment is his apartment so pg drives (and kawhi gets blood all over his nice car MAN!! "Leonard I swear you're gonna live and you're gonna wash this SHIT off my car, man!!") him home and kicks open the door to start getting to work on healing that wound. Kawhi is more concerned with not letting Terance see him like this... pg shows his Caring side and is really nice to terance.. gives him his badge to play with in another room. Also hands him his sketchpad he uses to draw the suspects so he can doodle away. Mandatory terance asking if Paul is kawhi's boyfriend. Mandatory Paul dodging the question by saying he has to go help dad-KAWHI. And he does and paul REALLY realizes that kawhi is just some guy who just thinks different but that doesn't make him any better or worse than pg and it's like "oh. Maybe he's not so bad..."

And YEAH. I think I want the end to have a twist. Blah blah they find out the agency is corrupt (probably take money from drug dealing gangs to not bust em all). They both end up quitting detective work to join Damian's private agency to put a stop to dirty work.

BUT YEAH!! Those are my ideas for it!!! Kinda long I dunno!!!! Ummmm ! Yeah! Lmao! Buddycop dynamics have me by the THROAT 😭

#pg/kawhi #ted drabbles #they are a found family sir!!!!#pg probably ends up selling his car for more financial support #and he has kawhi and terance move in with him #and it ends with them getting kyle to join their private instigators group #so hes like YEAH but first i need to phone someone...#(demar(#YEAH #a little cheesy but most detective movies are i think so i can play on that vibe #thank u for handing me this #this FOOD #ted asks #little anons hand me aus like im a duck and theyre handing me bread

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marcuspedersen-nz · 4 years ago

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1- Time Crime

(by Christopher Jones)

The year was 2040, nine years after the bust. They had called it the new El Dorado during the boom, but what could they call it now? Greymouth: the open orifice of a corpse humming to the tune of its own death rattle. It was a city trying to hold onto, yet somehow forget, the glory of years gone by; to settle at last to humble death, while the last of its flesh was consumed by collectors, as debtors made a hasty exit, and all those who had come to ride the wave were gone, leaving an overweight economy and too many high-rise buildings to sustain its rotting core.

I arrived during the tumult of a spring storm. There was quite some turbulence but the air hostesses didn’t seem very worried, and that was good enough for me. The one on my aisle was very made up, with tight blonde hair, a sweet chubby face and her skirt came down to just below her knees. They say that when it rains here it really rains, but they also say you get used to it. The pilot had to circle three times waiting for a window of visibility before finally bringing the DC-20 down to land.

I met my rental car agents outside the terminal building. I had ordered a manual four-wheel drive, apparently the only one in town. The mainstream companies which crowded the interior dealt only in the new generation of foolproof automatics, and besides there was a limited supply of large vehicles without prior notice. I knew what I would need, so I looked around on the internet until I hooked up with these guys, Smack Car Rentals, and at the last minute arranged for them to meet me at the airport. Before going outside into the din of the weather I let my local contact, Police Inspector Jack Martin, know that I had arrived. He gave me the address of where to meet him.

The dark day was just coming onto dusk, and I waited there for a moment sheltered from the rain by the large overhead canopy until a small silver Suzuki Swift drove up. A tall, handsome man of about 30 got out, quite a flashy type with black hair and dark brown eyes. He introduced himself as Paul Bartley, “We spoke on the phone, Mr Jones. Sorry about the delay,” he said, putting my cases into the back and opening the passenger’s door for me to enter, “Your Range Rover is at the office. I need to check you in.” It was here that I felt the first inexplicable glitch, like a shudder through my reality that showed I wasn’t there by accident. This was no false alarm.

I got in and he said as the car drove towards the CBD, “I’d apologise for the weather, Mr Jones, but it’s beyond the powers of my control. This is the West Coast, after all.”

“Yes,” I nodded, “It’s a narrow strip of land between the coast and the Southern Alps. When the prevailing westerly comes off the ocean loaded with water, it hits the mountains and dumps its load, leaving the east in drought while the west has more rain than it can handle.” He laughed as though I had told some kind of joke, so I added, “Call me Chris.”

The office on Mackay Street was one of several on the second floor of an old two storey building standing between taller, shakier buildings built during the 2020s. It was accessed by a narrow flight of steps which took us up to a shabby lobby with several doors to various offices. The sign above the door we entered read, “PPS Bartley Real Estate, Smack Car Rentals and P. Bartley Detective Agency”. He indicated for me to stand at a counter which was obviously used for the car rental side of the business, “Would you like tea or coffee?” he offered, and I shook my head.

Looking at the real estate display board, I noticed one property stand out from the others. It had a note saying, “Serious Viewers Only. No Tourists!” which piqued my curiosity. I then recognised the red shed on the photo from my research files as being the location of one of the Blondino murders. The thought of that recognition gave me a second inexplicable glitch; a feeling like déjà vu. I asked, “How is the real estate business doing these days?”

“It’s a good time to buy,” he said, “People shy away from a market in a slump, but think about it. You wouldn’t buy your groceries like that, would you? You wouldn’t wait till prices rocketed before you rushed down to the supermarket. No, you’d grab what you could while everything’s on sale. So why treat real estate any different? There are plenty of good bargains to be had around here.”

“What about this one?” I asked.

“That’s the Thompson property; a real bargain. If you’re interested, come back tomorrow when the office is open and we’ll talk business. You honestly could not go wrong.”

He entered my details into the computer, such as driver’s licence and credit card numbers, and printed off some papers for me to sign just in time for a second, younger man to enter. “It’s all fuelled and ready to go. I’ve put your cases on the back seat,” he said, he looked so similar to Paul Bartley that he was obviously his younger brother. He wasn’t quite so flashy and he wore a wedding band. He handed me the key attached to a bright orange key-ring with the Smack logo on it and said, “Diesel only. It’s just outside.” So I looked nonchalantly at the window as the rain came crashing down even harder, and bade them farewell.

I set the navigator to Power Road and pulled out from the curb. The good thing about cars of the era before everything became self-driving was that you felt like you were actually driving, and not simply a passenger in the driver’s seat. Even by 2040 the majority of cars practically drove themselves, but they weren’t fully driverless so it kind of made you feel like you were there but not there. Of course they already had the technology for self-driving but public suspicion had pushed for legislation that prevented its general implementation. Only vehicles that used special lanes such as freight and taxi were permitted to be driverless.

I took a left on Tainui Street, up past the traffic lights at the railway crossing, and turned right at the roundabout. After a few kilometres Tainui Street became High Street, and the rain eased off to a trickle. It was already full night. I passed the Oasis Hotel on my left, which I was booked into but would check in later, and proceeded for another 3.2 kilometres before turning left onto Power Road as the navigator directed. I drove up a steep hill to the house at number 32, where there was a police cordon in place. A modified white Camry and a standard patrol car with flashing lights awaited there for my arrival.

Reaching into my case for the gaga meter I noticed an umbrella on the back seat, so I decided to make use of it. There were four men, two in uniform and two detectives, standing beside the Camry. They took notice of me as I got out, clutching the meter, fumbling about with the umbrella which didn’t seem to want to open. It came up all of a sudden and almost sent me tripping over my own feet. The detectives walked over to greet me, putting out their hands and the older, obviously more senior of the two said, “I’m Police Inspector Jack Martin, this is Police Inspector David Walton. You must be Special Agent Christopher Jones.” I gave him and his partner the firm handshakes they wanted, showed them my badge, and Jack indicated towards the house, “We didn’t expect you would arrive tonight.”

He wore a thick coat and the water ran off his head but he acted as though it was nothing more than a slight inconvenience, which it probably was. He was a well built man of about 40 years, with a trimmed black moustache and a very friendly manner. David Walton was much thinner and younger, with brown hair and ginger moustache. Jack said, “Forensics were here this afternoon. So far, despite the blood being human, there’s no indication that the murder took place here. The bodies of the residents, Janine Hoffstad and her daughter Susan, were found in bush about 20 minutes out of town, and the blood isn’t theirs. They were strangled, and there’s every indication that they were murdered there. Personally, I wouldn’t have alerted you, even if it does look occult. It’s the computer that does it. It’s an algorithm. I hope you haven’t wasted your time. She’s the daughter of a crime boss.”

“It’s better to be safe than sorry,” I said, “And call me Chris,” but I could tell just by looking at the exterior of the yellow weatherboard house that I had already been there. It’s like the glitches. It’s what we call the ripple effect, and you develop a sense for it when you’ve been in the job for long enough. Think of it like a stone being dropped into a pool of water, and the ripples radiate out from the epicentre, repeating the trauma, which brings about the sensation of repetition. Some call it déjà vu, but for most people only the very strong pulses are felt, where they feel the ongoing effect of a great surge through the fabric of their lives.

Inside the house I switched on the meter and took a reading of the hallway with immediate indication of gaga. Jack Martin pointed to a door at the end of the hallway, “The interesting stuff is this way.” I nodded. “What does that thing do exactly?” he asked.

I said, “It measures gaga.” He nodded.

The lounge room at the end of the hallway came up with very strong readings. The light was dim, but at the turn of a dial Jack made it very bright. There was a pentagram painted from blood on the cream carpet of an otherwise fairly ordinary lounge. A black leather sofa and two matching lazy-boy armchairs were set facing a plasma television screen which took up most of the wall they faced. There was a strong scent of very sweet perfume like an overture to the senses with an undertone of musty dampness, and the rancid stench-like odour of rotting meat barely perceptible. At each point of the pentagram were two items, which mostly looked like they belonged to a woman, or a young girl, or both. “What exactly is gaga?” asked Jack as the meter hissed, almost off the scale.

At the closest point of the pentagram were a Barbie doll and a deck of cards with the golden pick logo of Inangahua Resort Casino at Reefton. The next point in a clockwise direction had a red badge with the picture of Daffy Duck on it, and a lady’s smart-watch with a blue strap. The third point had a postcard of a snowy mountain with three serrated peaks, that is, Mt Owen, and a brown felt hat with splotches of mud and a red flowery band. At the end of the fourth point was a CD album Sugar Sweet Candy Water by the Aloe Veras, and a small plastic daffodil of the type they sell to raise money for cancer research. At the final point was a Lenovo tablet with star and flower stickers on it, and a bottle of Le Frais perfume, with the lid not pressed on properly and so most of its contents had spilled onto the carpet.

I said, “To put it simply, gaga measures the difference between what is real and what is unreal. Think of it as the difference between matter and antimatter. The action of matter normally flows in nominal resistance to the reaction of antimatter, like a wave held in balance. When the wave becomes discordant, shadow waves appear, which is what we call a ripple effect, measured in units of gaga. You follow me?” He raised his eyebrows. “Okay, just think of it as telling me that something illegal has taken place here and the sooner that I deal with it the better it will be for everybody, so it’s good I got here when I did.”

“How bad is it? Should we be worried?”

“It’s bad, as bad as it gets. I need to bag these items.”

“What are they for? It is occult then?”

I nodded, and picked up the brown felt hat. There were strands of long blonde hair on the inside. Turning over the postcard there was, “Dear Mummy,” but nothing else written on it. I turned on the tablet and the screen saver was the same photo of Mt Owen as on the postcard. It asked for a pin and I tried a few basic combinations but they didn’t work.

I said, “Certain items become charged with gaga. We call them talismans. It’s occult in as much as ritualistic procedure was used to create the talismans, but occult is just a layman’s term for the process of manipulating the fabric of the space-time continuum, that is, the normal flow of matter and antimatter. Of course it’s highly illegal, but we have our methods. This crime took place here, but not the here as we see it, the here that exists somewhere else. All we see is the exhaust of an event and the only way to fix it is to find the source of the tear and stitch it up.”

“But should we be worried?”

I shrugged, “No, I think we’ve caught it in time. Good work.”

We came away and to my surprise the night had cleared. Everything looked washed, serene, and clean, with a starry sky and the near full moon glowing high above the ranges to the east. To the north the seven towers of Greymouth’s CBD were sparkling like they were something beautiful, to be proud of, but dread filled me because I knew they were more like the embers of a fire that had not quite been extinguished, and just the slightest wind would bring up the flame to consume it all like a dragon’s breath.

The city had been born of gold, and gold had destroyed the city, with a hundred and seventy years between to grow, to languish, and hope for better times. Their motto, “Our time will come again,” seemed like presentiment during the 2020s boom as many believed their time had finally arrived, but the problem with gold is that too much happens all at once, and when the gold is gone everything must collapse back into itself. Back in the 1860s it hadn’t mattered so much because there was only a limited amount that a town could grow with such means as steam ships and sailboats. But it was a different story during the 2020s, as the 2030s proved and the year 2040 was about to conclude; the devastation to be visited upon this city would be more than the sum of its components.

That was “Chapter One” of The Woman in the Brown Hat, a sci-fi fantasy detective novel by Marcus Pedersen.

Available on Amazon as an e-book and paper book: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08RW59M7G

For more information see: https://www.facebook.com/ToroPopularFiction

For reviews see: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/56531729-the-woman-in-the-brown-hat

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pixie-mage · 5 years ago

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PsychTube - A Crossover Oneshot I forgot I wrote until today

"Dude, get your coat on and grab your keys. I've found the only job we're ever gonna need for the rest of our lives."

"Jack?! How the hell did you get in here?"

"Mark. C'mon. When has any door ever really been locked for me?"

"...good point."

Jack grinned cheekily and closed Mark's office door behind him, dropping his motorcycle helmet into the chair across from his friend's desk. He didn't bother asking for permission as he yanked open the top drawer of the filing cabinet in the corner and started rifling through the snacks he knew were hidden there.

"I have work to do, Seán," Mark made an annoyed face as his eyes followed his friend's path around the room. "You can't just - drop by like this."

"What? They're paying you to play video games?"

Mark blinked and stared.

"How did you–?"

"Left hand space bar, right hand arrow keys?" Jack smirked back over his shoulder, then pulled a small bag of Bugles from the drawer and elbowed it shut. "Fuckin' easy. Ask me a harder question."

Mark huffed and Jack watched with a chuckle as he quickly clicked away from his game of Space Invaders. The engineer sat back in his office chair, adjusting his tie and squaring his best friend with a questioning look from behind his glasses.

"What do you want, Jack?"

Jack leapt to life again, dancing on the spot and punching the air with his free hand.

"I told you! I found the perfect job for us! We'll never need another job again!"

"Oh yeah?" Mark scoffed, chuckling a little despite himself. "You mean just like the last fifty-seven jobs you've held?"

"Those were different," Jack shrugged, ripping into his bag of delicious salty snack goodness. "Clearly different. I took half of those jobs just to say I had the experience. This job is perfect."

"You said the exact same thing when you started your band in college. And again when you got that job driving the Wienermobile."

"That was for the hot dogs!" Jack protested, then shoved a handful of Bugles into his mouth. "An' 'esides–" He swallowed and sat on the edge of Mark's desk, ignoring his friend's cry of indignation when one of the pharmaceutical files there almost toppled to the ground. "Raised to the Ground was fucking amazing. The only reason we didn't reach stardom is because somebody wanted to quit the band when they graduated."

The bitterness in his voice was evident, but it didn't last long. It never did, with Jack. He was almost always in a ridiculously good mood, and if he wasn't he was damn good at cheering himself up with ridiculous humor and video game references.

"And what about YouTube?" Mark retorted, raising an eyebrow. "You claimed it would make us millions, just because a few other gamers got big. What happened to that, huh?"

"Hey!" Jack pointed accusingly at Mark. "I'm still a youtuber! Just because my schedule doesn't give me time to record and edit and post shit every single day, doesn't mean I'm not a youtuber. I have...like. Ten thousand subs. That's pretty damn good."

"Your schedule is empty, Seán, you don't have a job."

"Which is why I'm telling you about this one!"

Mark tugged off his glasses and rubbed at his eyes, sighing wearily. For a moment, a brief moment, he contemplated refusing to even listen to Jack until after he had clocked out...but in the end he indulged his friend.

"Alright, enlighten me," he muttered, placing his glasses back where they belonged. "What amazing job are you planning on jumping into now?"

"You and me," Jack began, setting aside the Bugles and using his hands to express himself, gesturing between himself and Mark. "Are going to start our own psychic detective agency."

Jack's grin was sly and excited, his hands held out as though framing an invisible rectangular sign with the words on it.

Mark blinked. Then he grinned too, one that was forced and sarcastic.

"Oh," he said evenly, pretending to endorse the idea. "Of course. Psychic detectives. No further explanation necessary. Let me just get me coat–"

Mark began to stand, pretending to do as he said he would, before immediately settling back into his seat and getting back to work. Real work. No games this time. He had due dates coming up, dammit. But Jack didn't move. He was still grinning excitedly, clearly thinking Mark would be just as enthralled as he was.

"...but you're not getting your coat, Mark," he pointed out.

"Uh, no. No I'm not Seán."

"C'mon, Mark!" Jack whined, swiping up the Bugles again and shoving the half-finished snack into his jacket pocket. "Don't you get it? This is the perfect job! It's a way I can finally use my gift, and it'll be full of adventure and thrills and mysteries–"

He hopped up off the desk and rounded it, standing across from Mark and planting his hands at the top of his computer monitor. The action caught his best friend's attention and Mark glanced up at Jack from over his glasses, the light from the screen reflecting off the lenses.

"And what if I told you," Jack continued, grinning, "that the police think I'm a psychic and have already asked us to consult on a missing person's case."

"You're serious?" Mark asked, staring at Jack more fully, his hands going still against the keyboard.

"Yes, I'm serious!" Jack slapped the top of the monitor, his grin widening. "You know the Paul brothers?"

"You mean those douchebag celebrities that live in that mansion uptown?"

"Yes. Them." Jack nodded. He knew Mark was starting to get hooked...so now all he had to do was drag him in completely. "Logan Paul went missing a few days ago. His father contacted the police, but there's no sign of who did it or why. No ransom note, no phone call - Logan Paul just up and vanished into thin air. Both him and his dog Rika."

"They took the dog?" Mark asked, looking absolutely astounded and a little offended. "Why would they take the dog? What did that dog do to them?"

"See?!" Jack waved his hands in Mark's direction. "This is why I need you! To remember things, and take notes, to keep me on track. You know how...distracted, I can get. Sometimes. A lot."

Mark had settled back in his chair, his palm dragging across his mouth in thought and his eyes lingering on the desk. He was contemplating this, Jack knew....he was on the brink of caving. All he had to do was land the final blow. Jack stepped back from Mark's desk and causally tucked his hands in his pockets, plucking his motorcycle helmet from its resting spot in the chair.

"...and you could prooobably talk to the forensics guys," Jack shrugged nonchalantly, plucking another Bugle from his pocket, pausing to speak with it hovering right in front of his mouth. "I mean we'll have clearance to talk to anyone from the police department so–"

And he tossed the snack in his mouth with a smirk. He knew Mark didn't really want to be a pharmaceutical salesman. He had majored in biomedical engineering, but the job openings had been few and far between when he had graduated. So instead he had ended up here, in a job that could one day side-step into what he really wanted to do...and if there was even a chance that speaking with some forensics experts on the force could gain him some much-needed connections, Jack knew Mark would be completely sold.

So when Mark's gaze snapped upward with a brilliant grin on his face, Jack knew his friend had fallen for his plan hook, line, and sinker.

"I'm in."

Psychic detectives it was.

#jacksepticeye #markiplier #psych #fanfic #fanfiction #jacksepticeye fanfic #markiplier fanfic #psych fanfic #psychic!jacksepticeye #writing #psychtube

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justforbooks · 5 years ago

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I’ve just got back from a lovely week’s holiday. I always look forward to selecting a book or two to take away with me on holiday, and this year I selected a couple of novels by authors who were well recommended but new to me, namely The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster and I, Claudius by Robert Graves (the second of which I am still reading).

I had looked up a bit of information about Paul Auster and his trilogy in the past, and thought it sounded intriguing so thought I’d give it a go. The work is described as detective fiction, which is not a genre I am very familiar with (my only previous excursions into such territory being books such as The Postman Always Rings Twice, The Nine Tailors and The Moonstone).

The three novels that make up the trilogy, City of Glass, Ghosts and The Locked Room, were originally published separately (in 1985, -86 and -86 respectively) but are now generally published together in a single volume, as in the case of my edition pictured below.

So, what are the books like? Well, let me start at the beginning – here is the opening sentence of City of Glass:

It was a wrong number that started it, the telephone ringing three times in the dead of night, and the voice on the other end asking for someone he was not.

A brilliant opening. This immediately draws you in and makes you want to find out more. As we read on, we discover that the man our narrator is referring to is a chap called Quinn, who is a writer. In fact Quinn is a writer of mystery novels which feature a private-eye detective called Max Work. However, these mystery novels are written under the pseudonym of William Wilson, and no one – not even his publisher – knows who the real writer of the novels is. Then, as if all this was not complicated and confusing enough, Quinn starts to receive phone calls from someone urgently wanting to speak to a Mr Paul Auster of the Auster Detective Agency.

Initially Quinn tries to put the person off, telling them that they must have the wrong number, but after he has hung up the phone we read:

For a brief moment he regretted having been so abrupt with the caller. It might have been interesting, he thought, to have played along with him a little. Perhaps he could have found out something about the case – perhaps even have helped in some way. ‘I must learn to think more quickly on my feet,’ he said to himself.

And so, when the caller rings back later on, Quinn decides to assume the role of Paul Auster, and take on the case. Thus begins a crazy adventure where the truth always seems to be just out of reach, as fact and fiction, chance and will are all mixed up together in this highly original and inventive tale.

Ghosts is a kind of Kafkaesque story where one character (a private eye called Blue) is hired by an unknown man (White) to spy on another unknown character (Black). Here, there is also a play on the tension between what is known / knowable and what is unknown / unknowable as Blue obsessively shadows Black, coming up with various different hypothesis and scenarios along the way, yet never really having confidence in any of them. I won’t spoil the ending by writing too much more here, but this is a powerful if nightmarish tale.

Then there is The Locked Room. This is quite different in style to the first two novels as it feels much more like a realistic account than the more quirky, parody-like feel of the first two novels. I also found that I developed a much closer relationship with the narrator in this book, as you really get inside his head.

To give a very, very brief summary of this book, a man called Fanshawe has gone missing some months ago and is now assumed to be dead. His old school friend (the narrator) is contacted by Fanshawe’s wife and asked if he will review and potentially help publish some writing that Fanshawe had secretly written. The narrator reluctantly accepts and then discovers that his old friend’s work is superb and it soon gets published and receives good reviews. Over time the narrator then becomes romantically attached to his old friend’s wife and even ends up marring her and becoming a father figure to the child she had with Fanshawe. However, one day a letter turns up which throws everything into chaos.

All three stories are well written – full of mystery and subtlety. However, as good as the first two books are, for me the brilliance of this trilogy is really established in the final book, which is both superb in it’s own right, and also cleverly ties in and makes sense of different strands from the first two books as well. I thoroughly recommend this trilogy.

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at http://justforbooks.tumblr.com

#JUST FOR BOOKS

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pinkgirl94 · 7 years ago

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SOKOKU -Underworld’s Nightmare- Prologue

This is my first BSD fanfic & still writing right now. Please give me your impressions, opinions or whatever about my writing. I’ll be glad to read them. Enjoy reading!

Sokoku

In Japanese, it means Double Black. For what I know, it is a duo formed for annihilating people with no self-pity, filled with black hearts.

Black is a symbol of evil, blindness, mystery, death, sins and other meanings I can find especially in literature.

In Bungo Stray Dogs, black and white are the color representatives that stand out to me throughout the story. Yokohama, a port city in Kanagawa prefecture, where the story is set.

During the day, when the sun rises above and lights the world, people come out of their house and start their own tasks like a colony of ants come out of their nest and do their duty.

Students attend to their school and study, company men and women went to their office to report their duties, shops, cafes and other places open for business, and vehicles drive on the road.

The city is just like a normal one, like any other places in my view but behind it there is a dark side when the sun goes down and a gloomy but aesthetic full moon shows up. At night, many criminals crawl out from the shadow to pursue their sins of crimes.

There are some groups which have a few special ability users like the Port Mafia. Those group of ability users are the kind of people to control and terminate the people who will get in their way. They are dangerous people but not all of them are that kind.

Because of these crime activities, the government already made a department, known as Special Ability Department, that specializes in monitoring the ability users in the whole nation, even foreign ability users who will come to visit. The department also has ability users for handling the cases regarding that matter.

Other than a government department, there are also a few other organizations which also have ability users to use their ability for good especially solving crimes that normal detectives and the police cannot do such as Armed Detective Agency.

In Yokohama, the government, along with military police, handle the cases at day. At night, the criminal organizations take over the city.

The city is always in the midst of war between special ability organizations. In order to reach the balance and peace of the city, a certain person named Natsume Soseki made his plan by, as a start, created a duo. A strong but dangerous duo.

Fukuzawa and Mori

At first, both of them never knew nor met each other before. Fukuzawa Yukichi used to work at the government as a bodyguard. He was a lone wolf who never wanted to work with anyone until he met a young boy named Edogawa Ranpo.

Mori Ogai was an underground doctor who, had his own clinic, worked in the slum where poor and street rats stay. He always bring a doll-like little girl named Elise to his office and spoils her all the time and always by her side.

How did they met?

Twelve years before an establishment of Armed Detective Agency, Natsume gave Fukuzawa a request for protecting Mori. No clear answer why he gave that kind of request but, in order to establish his agency, he accepted it and met him at his clinic for the first time.

They seemed to be never clicked each other. For example, Mori acted indifferent toward Fukuzawa about his fighting skills will become dull and Fukuzawa felt annoying on that. But once in a blue moon, when they faced their enemies, the two of them finished them off like a tornado destroy everything in a flash.

At one night, Mori captured by the foreign criminal gang from South America. The gang captured him because he was an information broker so they will require his knowledge of Port Mafia’s armory location by torturing him. Fukuzawa then came to their hideout and save Mori.

It was impossible for a man get through tight security filled with armed men but, for Fukuzawa, he killed them all easily. After that, it was Mori’s turn to kill other men in the same room as him.

Fukuzawa uses his katana to kill the enemies and Mori hiding his bloodlust to trick them until he took out his scalpel to either slice or throw at their throat. Both of them are the unstoppable that even the top assassins cannot lift his finger to stop them.

This is how the first generation of Double Black, Fukuzawa and Mori, formed by Natsume. As a writer, I will write the continue tale of them in the first chapter, about finding the true purpose of their fighting alongside together before they become the leaders of their respective organizations.

Dazai and Chuuya

They were the second generation of Double Black under Mori’s care but worked for Port Mafia. These two were not much different when in comes to fight together but, in terms of strategy and fighting style, they were much crueler than Fukuzawa and Mori.

One is a man in mummy-like bandage around his body who showed his inner demon himself and the other is a great fighter with his incredible gravity control ability. All people of the underworld knew them as the worst enemies they have ever encountered.

At the age of fourteen, Dazai picked up by Mori as a patient for attempting suicide. He always a type of person who continuously attempts his suicides but failed many times, always got himself hurt whether by those attempts or by accidents. Mori then brought Dazai along as a witness for his assassination plan.

To kill Port Mafia's predecessor.

Mori told Dazai a cover story and so that he became a new boss of his organization as his own. He kept him safe and alive in order to avoid the suspicious of the predecessor's assassination. To gain the whole organization's trust toward him.

One year passed.

Ever since Mori became a boss, rumors about him assassinated the predecessor spread around the Port Mafia. He even heard a rumor about the predecessor, who supposedly dead and properly buried, was alive and caused ruckus in their turf. If anyone learn about his assassination plan, then his position as a boss will be lost.

So Mori leave the investigation of predecessor to Dazai and, during his investigation, that is how he met a young boy as the same age as him, Nakahara Chuya, previously knew as King of the Sheep.

Chuuya is a natural fighter who only uses his legs to brutally kick his opponents like how he kicked Dazai when they first met. He never use his hands to fight until now. He also possess a special ability to manipulate gravity around him and his enemies will be crushed suffocating by touching him even the slightest hit.

When Chuya captured by Dazai, thanked to his ability-nullification ability, and Hirotsu, another ability user and the person who tag along for the investigation, Mori decided to let Dazai and Chuuya to investigate together.

Both Dazai and Chuuya disagreed together at first but Mori explained that things will work well by working together, with Dazai’s nullification and Chuuya’s fighting skills and ability, so they ended up investigate together. All that time, they always arguing and fighting each other like the small brats fighting over the small problems.

Throughout their investigation, they confirmed that the predecessor was not actually alive but it was a being called Arahabaki, known as a god of calamity, that can shape-shifting its body controlled by another ability user. Chuuya revealed himself that Arahabaki they saw was not a real one but actually himself because of his past.

Chuuya’s past is not a happy memory not because he was abused or tortured by someone nor started a harsh life like any characters you have seen in other stories who met their unfortunate fate. He was an empty shell, mere human body.

Eight, years ago, Chuuya was born as a vessel to Arahabaki and sealed away by the Japanese military. One day, two men, Arthur Rimbaud and Paul Verlaine, infiltrated the military base to take Arahabaki’s power but failed because Arahabaki was fully freed.

Arahabaki now merged with Chuuya and made his own personality and will but they lost their memories before the age of seven. Chuuya only recalled someone reached out to his hand and freed him from the seal.

Dazai and Chuuya found who controlled Arahabaki. It was Rando, a Port Mafia executive and his real name is Arthur Rimbaud, with his ability called “Illumination” that conjure hyperspace subregion. He joined Port Mafia in order to find Chuuya and kill him but failed to do so because Dazai and Chuuya defeated him in the end.

On Rando’s final breath, he gave Chuuya his final wish which is to keep living as a human being. Chuuya accepted his wish and still keeping onto him after that.

One month later.

Dazai finally became a mafioso and executive and made his own squadron. Chuuya also became a mafioso and even received Rando’s hat from Mori as a custom way of officially joining by giving a piece of clothing.

For the sake of continuing the event of their tale, I am going to write a chapter about an event when they fight against an enemy organization and made a debut as Sokoku which you never seen or read in the original work.

Atsushi and Akutagawa

Atsushi is an orphan and main protagonist of the series. At first, he had a low self-esteem, always considered himself useless by the people from his former orphanage especially the headmaster himself. After Dazai pick him up from the riverside while he was in a state of starvation, he recommended him to join the Armed Detective Agency and his life changed after meeting new people and slowly gain his self-worth.

Akutagawa is one of the antagonists and a member of the Port Mafia. He calls himself as Port Mafia’s dog and the agency members refer him as the most troublesome and dangerous ability user to be captured. Like Atsushi, he is an orphan along with his younger sister, Gin. They were raised in the slums of the city with other orphans. After the orphans were shot dead by a group of criminals and only him and her sister survived, Dazai picked them up, giving him a reason to live, to become stronger and get a praise from his teacher.

Their first meeting started with a bounty. The Port Mafia received an info from the Guild, a North America special ability organization, about a weretiger that needed to be captured with a big reward and that weretiger is Atsushi. They attempted to capture him a few times but Atsushi still be saved and protected by the detective agency.

In the last resort, Akutagawa successfully captured Atsushi and ready to deliver but Kyoka, a former assassin who became a detective agency member, tried to save him. Seeing her self-sacrifice for him in Atsushi’s eyes made him to save her and fight Akutagawa. That is when he finally begin gaining his self-confidence.

Both Atsushi and Akutagawa are always fighting in both physical and oral for their different resolve. Atsushi, who sacrifices himself to gain his right to live, and Akutagawa, who seeks an approve from a certain person, are likely same to gain something but different in terms of characteristics and morals.

During their final fight against Francis Fitzgerald, the Guild’s boss, they always arguing over their resolve like the stray dogs barking each other for finding out who is right and who is wrong and Francis saw them that way.

Which is why Dazai forced them to work together to defeat the boss and test his theory if their power have the potential to become a stronger duo than the previous Double Black pairs and he is right all along. Francis defeat with their combined abilities.

With Atsushi’s white tiger ability and Akutagawa’s black beast Rashomon, both of them are an unstoppable pair and that is the start of the new generation of Double Black, Shin Sokoku. Their tale of their fight is yet to end as I will write which they will face a new antagonist after the three-way war.

These three pairs are ferocious groups. Each character have different ideals and believe but their bond of fighting alongside is much stronger than we thought. When their tale is about to unfold, what are their string of fate lead to? Please enjoy reading them.

#fukuzawa yukichi #mori ougai #dazai osamu #nakahara chuuya #nakajima atsushi #akutagawa ryunosuke #soukoku generations #soukoku #shin soukoku #my fanfic #bsd fanfic #bungou stray dogs

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blackkudos · 6 years ago

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Danny Glover

Danny Lebern Glover (born July 22, 1946) is an American actor, film director, and political activist.

Glover is well known for his leading role as Roger Murtaugh in the Lethal Weapon film series, The Color Purple (1985), To Sleep with Anger (1990) and Angels in the Outfield (1994). He also has prominent supporting roles in Silverado (1985), Witness (1985), Predator 2 (1990), Saw (2004),Shooter (2007), 2012 (2009), Death at a Funeral (2010), Beyond the Lights (2014) and Dirty Grandpa(2016). He has appeared in many other movies, television shows and theatrical productions, and is an active supporter of various humanitarian and political causes.

Early life

Glover was born in San Francisco, California, the son of Carrie (Hunley) and James Glover. His parents, postal workers, were active in the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), working to advance equal rights. Glover's mother, daughter of a midwife, was born in Louisville, Georgia and graduated from Paine College in Augusta, Georgia.

Glover attended George Washington High School in San Francisco. He attended San Francisco State University (SFSU) in the late 1960s but did not graduate. SFSU later awarded him an honorary degree. Glover trained at the Black Actors' Workshop of the American Conservatory Theater.

As an adolescent and a young adult, Glover suffered from epilepsy but has not suffered a seizure since age 35.

Career

Glover originally worked in city administration working on community development before transitioning to theater. He has said:

I didn't think it was a difficult transition. Acting is a platform that can become a conveyer for ideas. Art is a way of understanding, of confronting issues and confronting your own feelings—all within that realm of the capacity it represents. It may have been a leap of faith for me, given not only my learning disability (dyslexia) but also the fact that I felt awkward. I felt all the things that someone that's 6'3" or 6'4" feels and with my own diminished expectations of who I could be [and] would feel. Whether it's art, acting or theater that I've devoted myself to I put more passion and more energy into it.

His first theater involvement was with Conservatory Theater, a regional training program in San Francisco. Glover also trained with Jean Shelton at the Shelton Actors Lab in San Francisco. In an interview on Inside the Actors Studio, Glover credited Jean Shelton for much of his development as an actor. Deciding that he wanted to be an actor, Glover resigned from his city administration job and soon began his career as a stage actor. Glover then moved to Los Angeles for more opportunities in acting, where he would later go on to co-found the Robey Theatre Company with actor Ben Guillory in honor of the actor and concert singer Paul Robeson in Los Angeles in 1994.

Glover has had a variety of film, stage, and television roles, and is best known for playing Los Angeles police Sergeant Roger Murtaugh in the Lethal Weapon series of action films, starring alongside Mel Gibson and Gary Busey . Later he once again starred with Busey in the blockbuster Predator 2. He also starred as the husband to Whoopi Goldberg's character Celie in the celebrated literary adaptation The Color Purple, and as Lieutenant James McFee in the film Witness. In 1994 he made his directorial debut with the Showtime channel short film Override.

Also in 1994, Glover and actor Ben Guillory formed the Robey Theatre Company in Los Angeles, focusing on theatre by and about Black people. During his career, he has made several cameos, appearing, for example, in the Michael Jackson video "Liberian Girl" of 1987. Glover earned top billing for the first time in Predator 2, the sequel to the sci-fi action film Predator. That same year he starred in Charles Burnett's To Sleep with Anger, for which he won the Independent Spirit Award for Best Male Lead.

In common with Humphrey Bogart, Elliott Gould and Robert Mitchum, who have played Raymond Chandler's private eye detective Philip Marlowe, Glover played the role in the episode "Red Wind" of the Showtime network's 1995 series Fallen Angels. In 1997, under his former production company banner Carrie Films, Glover executive produced numerous films of first time directors including Pamm Malveaux's neo-noir short film Final Act starring Joe Morton, which aired on the Independent Film Channel. In addition, Glover has been a voice actor in many children's movies. Glover was featured in the popular 2001 film The Royal Tenenbaums, also starring Gwyneth Paltrow, Anjelica Huston, Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson.

In 2004, he appeared in the low-budget horror film Saw as Detective David Tapp. In 2005, Glover and Joslyn Barnes announced plans to make No FEAR, a movie about Dr. Marsha Coleman-Adebayo's experience. Coleman-Adebayo won a 2000 jury trial against the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The jury found the EPA guilty of violating the civil rights of Coleman-Adebayo on the basis of race, sex, color and a hostile work environment, under the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Coleman-Adebayo was terminated shortly after she revealed the environmental and human disaster taking place in the Brits, South Africa, vanadium mines. Her experience inspired passage of the Notification and Federal Employee Anti-discrimination and Retaliation Act of 2002 (No-FEAR Act). As of 2013 the No Fear title has not appeared but The Marsha Coleman-Adebayo Story was announced as the next major project of No Fear Media Productions.

Glover portrayed David Keaton in the film The Exonerated - a real-life story of Keaton's experience of being arrested, jailed and then freed from death row.

In 2009, Glover performed in The People Speak a documentary feature film that uses dramatic and musical performances of the letters, diaries, and speeches of everyday Americans, based on historian Howard Zinn's "A People's History of the United States".

Glover played President Wilson, the President of the United States in 2012, a disaster film directed by Roland Emmerich and released in theaters November 13, 2009. In 2010, Glover participated in a Spanish film called I Want to Be a Soldier. In 2012, he starred in the film Donovan's Echo.

Planned directorial debut

Glover sought to make a film biography of Toussaint Louverture for his directorial debut. In May 2006, the film had included cast members Wesley Snipes, Angela Bassett, Don Cheadle, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Roger Guenveur Smith, Mos Def, Isaach de Bankolé, and Richard Bohringer. Production, estimated to cost $30 million, was planned to begin in Poland, filming from late 2006 into early 2007. In May 2007, President of Venezuela Hugo Chávez contributed $18 million to fund the production of Toussaintfor Glover, who is a prominent U.S. supporter of Chávez. The contribution annoyed some Venezuelan filmmakers, who said the money could have funded other homegrown films and that Glover's film was not even about Venezuela. In April 2008, the Venezuelan National Assembly authorized an additional $9,840,505 for Glover's film, which is still in planning.

Public appearances

Glover appeared at London Film and Comic Con 2013 at Earls Court 2 over 2.5 days during Friday 5th to Sunday July 7. He participated in a panel discussion in McComb, Mississippi on July 16, 2015. The event, co-sponsored by The Gloster Project and Jubilee Performing Arts Center, included noted authors Terry McMillan and Quincy Troupe.

On January 30, 2015 Glover was the Keynote Speaker and 2015 Honoree for the MLK Celebration Series at the Rhode Island School of Design (Providence, RI). Glover used his career and personal story to speak on the topic "Creativity and Democracy: Social Change through the Arts."

Personal life

Glover purchased a 6,000-square-foot (560 m2) house in Dunthorpe, Oregon, in 1999. As of 2011, he no longer lived in Oregon.

On September 2, 2009, Glover signed an open letter of objection to the inclusion of a series of films intended to showcase Tel Aviv at the Toronto International Film Festival.

On April 16, 2010, Glover was arrested in Maryland during a protest by SEIU workers for Sodexo's unfair and illegal treatment of workers. He was given a citation and later released. The Associated Press reports "Glover and others stepped past yellow police tape and were asked to step back three times at Sodexo headquarters. When they refused, Starks says officers arrested them."

Activism

Civil rights activism

While attending San Francisco State University (SFSU), Glover was a member of the Black Students Union, which, along with the Third World Liberation Front and the American Federation of Teachers, collaborated in a five-month student-led strike to establish a Department of Black Studies. The strike was the longest student walkout in U.S. history. It helped create not only the first Department of Black Studies but also the first School of Ethnic Studies in the United States.

Hari Dillon, current president of the Vanguard Public Foundation, was a fellow striker at SFSU. Glover later co-chaired Vanguard's board. He is also a board member of The Algebra Project, The Black AIDS Institute, Walden House, and Cheryl Byron's Something Positive Dance Group. He was charged with disorderly conduct and unlawful assembly after being arrested outside the Sudanese Embassy in Washington during a protest over Sudan's humanitarian crisis in Darfur.

Glover's long history of union activism includes support for the United Farm Workers, UNITE HERE, and numerous service unions. In March 2010, Glover supported 375 Union workers in Ohio by calling upon all actors at the 2010 Academy Awards to boycott Hugo Boss suits following announcement of Hugo Boss's decision to close a manufacturing plant in Ohio after a proposed pay decrease from $13 to $8.30 an hour was rejected by the Workers United Union.

On November 1, 2011, Glover spoke to the crowd at Occupy Oakland on the day before the Oakland General Strike where thousands of protestors shut down the Port of Oakland.

Political activism

Glover was an early supporter of former North Carolina Senator John Edwards in the 2008 Democratic presidential primaries until Edwards' withdrawal, although some news reports indicated that he had endorsed Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich, whom he had endorsed in 2004. After Edwards dropped out, Glover then endorsed Barack Obama. In February 2016, Glover endorsed Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Glover was an outspoken critic of George W. Bush, calling him a known racist. "Yes, he's racist. We all knew that. As Texas's governor, Bush led a penitentiary system that executed more people than all the other U.S. states together. And most of the people who died were Afro-Americans or Hispanics."

Glover's support of California Proposition 7 (2008) led him to use his voice in an automated phone call to generate support for the measure before the election.

On the foreign policy of the Obama administration, Glover said: "I think the Obama administration has followed the same playbook, to a large extent, almost verbatim, as the Bush administration. I don't see anything different... On the domestic side, look here: What's so clear is that this country from the outset is projecting the interests of wealth and property. Look at the bailout of Wall Street. Why not the bailout of Main Street? He may be just a different face, and that face may happen to be black, and if it were Hillary Clinton, it would happen to be a woman.... But what choices do they have within the structure?"

Glover wrote the foreword to Phyllis Bennis' book, Challenging Empire: How People, Governments, and the UN Defy US Power. Glover is also a member of the board of directors of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, a think tank led by economist Dean Baker.

InternationalAfrica

Glover is an active board member of the TransAfrica Forum. On April 6, 2009, Glover was given a chieftaincy title in Imo State, Nigeria. Glover was given the title Enyioma of Nkwerre, which means A Good Friend in the language of the Igbo people of Eastern Nigeria.

Caribbean and Haiti

On January 13, 2010, Glover compared the scale and devastation of the 2010 Haiti earthquake to the predicament other island nations may face as a result of the failed Copenhagen summit the previous year. Glover said: "...the threat of what happens to Haiti is a threat that can happen anywhere in the Caribbean to these island nations... they're all in peril because of global warming... because of climate change... when we did what we did at the climate summit in Copenhagen, this is the response, this is what happens..." In the same statement, he called for a new form of international partnership with Haiti and other Caribbean nations and praised Venezuela, Brazil, and Cuba, for already accepting this partnership.

Iraq War

Danny Glover has been an outspoken critic of the Iraq War before the war began in March 2003. In February 2003, he was one of the featured speakers at Justin Herman Plaza in San Francisco where other notable speakers included names such as author Alice Walker, singer Joan Baez, United Farm Workers co-founder Dolores Huerta and Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland. Glover was a signatory to the April 2003 anti-war letter "To the Conscience of the World" that criticized the unilateral American invasion of Iraq that led to "massive loss of civilian life" and "devastation of one of the cultural patrimonies of humanity". During an anti-war demonstration in Downtown Oakland in March 2003, Glover praised the community leaders for their anti-war efforts saying that "They're on the front lines because they are trying to make a better America.... The world has come together and said 'no' to this war – and we must stand with them."

Venezuela

In January 2006, Harry Belafonte led a delegation of activists, including Glover and activist/professor Cornel West, in a meeting with President of Venezuela Hugo Chávez, with Glover calling Chávez "remarkable". In 2007, the Venezuelan government allotted $18 million to Glover for a film about a slave uprising in Haiti with Hugo Chávez hoping "to mobilise world public opinion against imperialism and western oppression". Glover was also a board member of TeleSUR, a media network primarily funded by the Venezuelan government.

During the beginning of the 2014 Venezuela Protests, Glover shared his support to Chávez's successor, President Nicolas Maduro, calling members of his government "the stewards" of Venezuela's democracy. Glover also told Venezuelan government supporters to go fight for the sovereignty of Maduro's government.

Music

Glover has become an active member of board of directors of The Jazz Foundation of America. Danny became involved with The Jazz Foundation in 2005, and has been a featured host for their annual benefit A Great Night in Harlem for several years, as well appearing as a celebrity MC at other events for the foundation. In 2006, Britain's leading African theatre company Tiata Fahodzi appointed Glover as one of its three Patrons, joining Chiwetel Ejiofor and Jocelyn Jee Esien opening the organization's tenth-anniversary celebrations (Sunday, February 2, 2008) at the Theatre Royal Stratford East, London.

Honors and awards

Utah State University

In 2010, Glover delivered the Commencement Address and was awarded an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Utah State University.

Starr King School for the Ministry

Also in 2010, Starr King School for the Ministry awarded the Doctorate of Humane Letters (Litterarum Humanarum Doctor), in absentia, to Mr. Glover. His call to humanity to see itself as the recipient of a legacy of caring and commitment that began with prior parental and religious communities and that it should carry on for the sake of those who will follow are in alignment with Starr King's values. Mr. Glover was awarded the doctorate specifically for his long history of passionate activism, including support for the United Farm Workers, UNITE HERE, The Algebra Project, The Black AIDS Institute, as well as his humanitarian efforts on behalf of the Haiti earthquake victims, literacy and civil rights and his fight against unjust labor practices. Mr. Glover is co-founder and CEO of Louverture Films, dedicated to the development and production of films of historical relevance, social purpose, commercial value and artistic integrity; we honored his commitment to using film to lift up and advance social justice issues, such as his then recently released project "Trouble the Water", a documentary about New Orleans in the aftermath of hurricane Katrina.

Glover has had a close association with Starr King School through his role as guest lecturer in its course on Non Violent Social Change and lending his support and presence to events sponsored by Starr King's Masters of Arts in Social Change (MASC) program.

Deauville American Film Festival

He was also the recipient of a tribute paid by the Deauville American Film Festival in France on September 7, 2011.

Wikipedia

#Danny Glover #07-22

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aion-rsa · 4 years ago

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Upcoming Must-See Movies in 2021

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It’s 2021. Finally. If you’re reading this, it means you’ve hopefully gotten through the wreckage of last year unscathed and are ready for a brighter future. And if you’re also a movie lover, this certainly includes a trip (or 20) back to the cinemas.

Sure, theaters were technically open in some places last fall, but the moviegoing season has largely remained dormant since March 2020. Yet given good news about vaccines starting to become available, and an absolutely stacked 2021 movie release calendar, we have reasons to be cautiously optimistic.

Indeed, 2021 promises many of the most anticipated films from last year, plus new surprises. From the superhero variety like Black Widow to the art house with Wes Anderson’s The French Dispatch, 2021 could be a much needed respite. So below is just a sampling of what to expect from the year to come…

The Little Things

January 29

One of the year’s earliest high profile releases is also the first of WB’s film slate on HBO Max. The Little Things is a serial killer thriller in the old school mold. It also boasts a brutally talented cast that includes Denzel Washington and Rami Malek as the detectives, and Jared Leto as the killer. As the latest movie from John Lee Hancock (The Founder, The Alamo), this looks like the type of star-led seediness that used to dominate the multiplex.

Maclolm and Marie

February 5

Assassination Nation writer-director Sam Levinson returns for a decidedly stripped down and intimate character study about two people on the threshold of their lives changing–and perhaps splitting apart. With Zendaya and John David Washington in roles unlike anything we’ve seen the pair in before, they play a couple returning home after the premiere of Malcolm’s (Washington) first movie. He’s on the cusp of life-changing success as a director, but when confronted by Marie about past secrets and hard truths… the night takes a turn.

Judas and the Black Messiah

February 12

It’s kind of hard to wrap one’s head around the annual “Oscar race” in a year when little trophies don’t seem so damn important, but Warner Bros. feels strongly enough about this movie that it’s getting it into theaters and on HBO Max right in the thick of the pandemic-delayed awards season. And judging by the marketing, it’s bringing heat with it.

Shaka King directs and co-writes the story of Fred Hampton (Daniel Kaluuya), who became the chairman of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party in the late 1960s and was murdered in cold blood by police in 1969. LaKeith Stanfield plays William O’Neal, a petty criminal who agreed to help the FBI take Hampton down. This promises to be incendiary, relevant material — and it’s almost here.

Minari

February 12

Lee Isaac Chung directs Steven Yeun–now fully shaking off his years as Glenn on The Walking Dead–in this semi-autobiographical film about a South Korean family struggling to settle down in rural America in the 1980s. Premiering nearly a year ago at the Sundance Film Festival, where it won both the U.S. Dramatic Grand Jury Prize and the U.S. Dramatic Audience Award, Minari had a quick one-week virtual release in December, with a number of critics placing it on their Top 10 lists for 2020.

Its story of immigration and assimilation currently has a perfect 100 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes, with critics lauding its heart, grace, and sensitivity. A few of ours also considered it among 2020’s best.

Nomadland

February 19

Utilizing both actors and real people, director Chloé Zhao (The Rider, Marvel’s upcoming Eternals) chronicles the lives of America’s “forgotten people” as they travel the West searching for work, companionship and community. A brilliant Frances McDormand stars as Fern, a woman in her mid-60s who lost her husband, her house, and her entire previous existence when her town literally vanished following the closure of its sole factory.

Zhao’s film quietly flows from despair to optimism and back to despair again, the hardscrabble lives of its itinerant cast (many of them actual nomads) foregrounded against often stunning–if lonely–vistas of the vast, empty American countryside.

I Care a Lot

February 19

A solid cast, led by Rosamund Pike, Peter Dinklage, Chris Messina, and Dianne Wiest, star in this satirical crime drama from director J. Blakeson (The Disappearance of Alice Creed). Pike plays Marla, a con artist whose scam is getting herself named legal guardian of her elderly marks and then draining their assets while sticking them in nursing homes. She’s ruthless and efficient at it, until she meets a woman (Wiest) whose ties to a crime boss (Dinklage) may prove too much of a challenge for the wily Marla. It was one of our favorites out of Toronto last year.

The Father

February 26

Anthony Hopkins gives a mesmerizing, and deeply tragic, performance as Anthony, an elderly British man whose descent into dementia is reflected by the film itself, which plays with time, setting, and continuity until both Anthony and the viewer can no longer tell what is real and what is not. Olivia Colman is equally moving as his daughter, who wants to get on with her own life even as she watches her father’s disintegrate in front of her.

We saw The Father last year at the AFI Fest and it ended up being a favorite of 2020; Hopkins is unforgettable in this bracing, heartbreaking work, which is stunningly adapted by first-time director Florian Zeller from his own award-winning play.

Chaos Walking

March 5

This constantly postponed sci-fi project has become one of those “we’ll believe it when we see it” films until it actually comes out. Shot nearly three and a half years ago by director Doug Liman, Chaos Walking has undergone extensive reshoots and was at one point reportedly deemed unreleasable.

Based on the book The Knife of Letting Go, it places Tom Holland (Spider-Man: Far From Home) and Daisy Ridley (The Rise of Skywalker) on a distant planet where Ridley, the only woman, can hear the thoughts of all the men due to a mysterious force called the Noise.

Raya and the Last Dragon

March 5

Longtime Walt Disney Animation Studios head of story, Paul Briggs (Frozen), will make his directorial debut on this original Disney animated fantasy, which draws upon Eastern traditions to tell the tale of a young warrior who goes searching for the world’s last dragon in the mysterious land of Kumandra. Cassie Steele will voice Raya while Awkwafina (The Farewell) will portray Sisu the dragon.

Disney Animation has been nearly invincible in recent years with other hits like Moana and Zootopia, so watch for this one to be another major hit for the Mouse.

Coming 2 America

March 5

The notion of whether nostalgia-based properties are still viable has cropped up repeatedly in the last few years. However, streaming, which is where Coming 2 America finds itself headed post-COVID, makes golden oldies much safer. This sequel—based on a 32-year-old comedy that was one of Eddie Murphy’s most financially successful hits—sees Murphy back as Prince Akeem, of course, along with Arsenio Hall returning as his loyal friend Semmi.

The plot revolves around Akeem’s discovery, just as he is about to be crowned king, that he has a long-lost son living in the States (we’re not sure how that happened, but let’s just go with it). That, of course, necessitates another visit to our shores—that is, if Akeem and Semmi presumably don’t get stopped at the border. The film reunites Murphy with Dolemite is My Name director Craig Brewer, so perhaps they can make some cutting-edge social comedy out of this?

The King’s Man

March 12

This might be a weird thing to say: but has World War I ever seemed so stylish? It is with Matthew Vaughn at the helm.

An origin story of sorts for the organization that gave us Colin Firth and the umbrella, The King’s Man is a father and son yarn where Ralph Fiennes’ Duke of Oxford is reluctant about his son Conrad (Harris Dickinson) joining the war effort. But they’ll both be up to it as the Duke launches an intelligence gathering agency independent from any government. It also includes Gemma Arterton, Matthew Goode, and Aaron Taylor-Johnson as charter members.

Oh, and did we mention they fight Rasputin?

Godzilla vs. Kong

March 26

Here we are, at last at the big punch up between Godzilla and King Kong. They both wear a crown, but in the film that Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures have been building toward since 2014, only one can walk away with the title of the king of all the monsters.

Admittedly, not everyone loved the last American Godzilla movie, Godzilla: King of the Monsters, but we sure did. Still, Godzilla vs. Kong should be a different animal with Adam Wingard (You’re Next, The Guest) taking over directorial duties. It also has a stacked cast with some familiar faces (Kyle Chandler, Millie Bobby Brown, and Ziyi Zhang) and plenty of new ones (Alexander Skarsgård, Eiza González, Danai Gurira, Lance Reddick, and more).

It’ll probably be better than the original, right? And hey with its HBO Max rollout, questions of a poor box office run sure are conveniently mooted!

No Time to Die

April 2

Nothing lasts forever, and the Daniel Craig era of James Bond is coming to an end… hopefully in 2021. In fact, delays notwithstanding, it’s a bit of a surprise Craig is getting an official swan song with this movie after the star said he’d rather “slash his wrists” before doing another one. Well, we’re glad he didn’t, just as we’re hopeful for his final installment in the tuxedo.

Director Cary Joji Fukunaga is a newcomer to the franchise, but that might be a good thing after how tired Spectre felt, and Fukunaga has done sterling work in the past on True Detective and Maniac. He also looks to bring the curtain down on the whole Craig oeuvre by picking up on the last movie’s lingering threads, such as 007 driving off into the sunset with Léa Seydoux’s Madeleine Swann, while introducing new ones that include Rami Malek as Bond villain Safin and Ana de Armas as new Bond girl Paloma. Yay for the Knives Out reunion!

Mortal Kombat

April 16

Not to be deterred by the relative failure of Sony’s Monster Hunter in theaters at the tail end of 2020, Warner Bros. is giving this venerable video game franchise another shot at live-action cinematic glory after two previous tries in the 1990s. Director Simon McQuoid makes his feature debut while the script comes from Dave Callaham (Wonder Woman 1984, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings) and the cast includes a number of actors you’ve seen in other films but can’t quite place.

The plot? Who knows! But we’re guessing it will feature gods, demons, and warriors battling for control of the 18 realms in various fighting tournaments. What else do you want?

A Quiet Place Part II

April 23

The sequel to one of 2018’s biggest surprises, A Quiet Place Part II comes with major expectations. And few may hold it to a higher standard than writer-director John Krasinski. Despite (spoiler) the death of his character in the first film, Krasinski returns behind the camera for the sequel after saying he wouldn’t. The story he came up with apparently was too good to pass up.

The film again stars Emily Blunt as the often silenced mother of a vulnerable family, which includes son Marcus (Noah Jupe) and deaf daughter Regan (Millicent Simmonds). However, now that they know how to kill the eagle-eared alien monsters who’ve taken over their planet, the cast has grown to include Cillian Murphy and Djimon Hounsou. While the film has been delayed due to the coronavirus outbreak, trust us that it’ll be worth the wait. Is it finally time for… resistance?

Last Night in Soho

April 23

Fresh off the success of 2017’s Baby Driver (his biggest commercial hit to date), iconoclastic British director Edgar Wright returns with what is described as a psychological and possibly time-bending horror thriller set in London. Whether this features Wright’s trademark self-aware humor remains to be seen, but since the film is said to be inspired by dread-inducing genre classics like Repulsion and Don’t Look Now, he might be going for a different effect this time.

The cast, of course, is outstanding: upstarts Anya Taylor-Joy (Queen’s Gambit) and Thomasin McKenzie (Jojo Rabbit) will face off with Matt Smith (Doctor Who), and British legends Diana Rigg and Terence Stamp. And the truth is we’re never going to miss one of Wright’s movies. Taylor-Joy talked to us here about finding her 1960s lounge singer voice for the film.

Black Widow

May 7

Some would charitably say it arrives a decade late, but Black Widow is finally getting her own movie. This is fairly remarkable considering she became street pizza in Avengers: Endgame, but this movie fits snugly between the events of Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War. It also promises to be the most pared down Marvel Studios movie since 2014’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and that’s a good thing.

In the film, Scarlett Johansson’s Natasha Romanoff is on the run after burning her bridges with the U.S. government and UN. This brings her back to the spy games she thought she’d escaped from her youth, and back in the orbit of her “sister” Yelena (Florence Pugh). Old wounds are ripped open, old Soviet foes, including David Harbour as the Red Guardian and Rachel Weisz as Nat and Yelena’s girlhood instructor, are revealed, and many a fight sequence with minimal CGI will be executed.

How’s that for a real start to Phase 4? Of course that’s still assuming this comes out before The Eternals after it was delayed, again, due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Spiral

May 21

Chris Rock has co-written the story for a new take on the Saw franchise. Never thought we’d write those words! The fact that it also stars Rock, as well as Samuel L. Jackson, is likewise head-turning. It looks like they’re going for legitimate horror with Darren Lynn Bousman attached to direct after helming three of the Saw sequels, and its grisly pre-COVID trailer from last year.

Hopefully this will be better than most of the franchise that came before, and given the heavily David Fincher-influenced tone of the first trailer, we’re willing to cross our fingers and play this game.

Free Guy

May 21

What would you do if you discovered that you were just a background character in an open world video game—and that the game was soon about to go offline? That’s the premise of this existential sci-fi comedy from director Shawn Levy, best known for the Night at the Museum series and as an executive producer and director on Stranger Things. Ryan Reynolds stars as Guy, a bank teller who discovers that his life is not what he thought it was, and in fact isn’t even real—or is it? We’ve seen a preview of footage, so we’d suggest you think Truman Show, if Truman was trapped in Grand Theft Auto.

May 28

Just when you thought this never-say-die franchise had shown us everything it could possibly dream up, it ups the stakes one more time: the ninth entry in the Fast and Furious saga (excluding 2019’s Hobbs and Shaw) will reportedly take Dom Toretto (Vin Diesel) and his cohorts into space as they battle Dom’s long-lost brother Jakob (John Cena, making a long-overdue debut in this series). Michelle Rodriguez, Tyrese Gibson, Chris “Ludacris” Bridges, Jordana Brewster, Helen Mirren, and Charlize Theron all also return, as does director Justin Lin, who took a two-film break from his signature series. Expect to see the required physics-defying stunts, logic-defying action and even more talk about “family” than usual.

Cruella

May 28

Since Disney has already made an animated 101 Dalmatians in 1961 and a live-action remake in 1996, it is apparently time to tell the story again Maleficent-style. Hence we now focus on the viewpoint of iconic villainess Cruella de Vil, played this time by Emma Stone. She’s joined in the movie by Emma Thompson, Paul Walter Hauser, and Mark Strong, with direction handled by Craig Gillespie (sort of a step down from 2017’s I, Tonya, if you ask us).

The story has been updated to the 1970s, but Cruella–now a fashion designer–still covets the fur of dogs for her creations. This is a Mouse House joint, so don’t expect it to get too dark, and don’t be completely surprised if it ends up as a premium on Disney+ in lieu of its already delayed theatrical release.

Infinite

May 28

This sci-fi yarn from director Antoine Fuqua (The Equalizer) stars Mark Wahlberg as a man experiencing what he thinks are hallucinations, but which turn out to be memories from past lives. He soon learns that there is a secret society of people just like him, except that they have total recall of their past identities and have acted to change the course of history throughout the centuries.

Based on the novel The Reincarnationist Papers by D. Eric Maikranz, this was originally a post-Marvel vehicle for Chris Evans. He dropped out, and the combination of Fuqua and Wahlberg hints at something more action-oriented than the rather cerebral premise suggests. The film also stars Sophie Cookson, Chiwetel Ejiofor, and Dylan O’Brien.

The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It

June 4

James Wan is already directing a new horror film this year so he’s stepping away from the directorial duties on the third film based on the paranormal investigations of Ed and Lorraine Warren (Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga). That task has fallen to Michael Chaves (The Curse of La Llorona), so expect plenty of the same Wan Universe touches: heavy atmosphere, superb use of sound, and shocking, eerie visuals.

Details are scarce, but the plot—like the other two Conjuring films—is taken from the true-life case of a man who went on trial for murder and said as his defense that he was possessed by a demon when he committed his crimes. That’s all we know for now, except that, intriguingly, Mitchell Hoog and Megan Ashley Brown have been cast as younger versions of the Warrens.

Ghostbusters: Afterlife

June 11

With the 2016 Ghostbusters reboot criticized (fairly) for its lack of imagination and castigated (unfairly as hell) for its all-female ghost-hunting crew, director Jason Reitman–finally cashing in on the family name by returning to the brand his dad Ivan directed to glory in 1984–has crafted a direct sequel to the original films.

Books

Ghostbusters: Afterlife – Who is Ivo Shandor?

By Gavin Jasper

Movies

The Greatest Movie Sequels Never Made

By Jack Beresford

Set 30 years later, Afterlife follows a family who move to a small town only to discover that they have a long-secret connection to the OG Ghostbusters. Carrie Coon (The Leftovers), Finn Wolfhard (Stranger Things) and Paul Rudd (Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania) star alongside charter cast members Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson, Sigourney Weaver, Annie Potts, and, yes, Bill Murray.

In the Heights

June 18

Lin-Manuel Miranda’s first Broadway hit musical gets the big screen treatment (by way of HBO Max) from director Jon M. Chu (Crazy Rich Asians). Set in Washington Heights over the course of a three-day heat wave, the plot and ensemble cast carry echoes of both Rent and Do the Right Thing. While a success on the stage—if not quite the cultural phenomenon that Miranda’s next show, Hamilton—it remains to be seen whether In the Heights can strike a chord with streaming audiences.

Luca

June 18

Continuing its current run of all-new, non-sequel original films started in 2020 with Onward and Soul, Pixar will unveil Luca this summer. Directed by Enrico Casarosa–making his feature debut after 18 years with the animation powerhouse–the film tells the story of a friendship between a human being and a sea monster (disguised as another human child) on the Italian Riviera. That’s about all we have on it for now, except that the cast includes Drake Bell and John Ratzenberger.

Pixar’s recent track record has included masterpieces like Inside Out, solid sequels like Toy Story 4, and shakier propositions like The Incredibles 2, but we don’t have any indication yet of what to expect from Luca.

Venom: Let There Be Carnage

June 25

Can anyone honestly say that 2018’s Venom was a “good” movie? A batshit insane movie, yes, and perhaps even an entertaining one in its own nutty way, but good or not, it made nearly a billion bucks at the box office so here we are.

Tom Hardy will return to peel more scenery down with his teeth as both Eddie Brock and his fanged, towering alien symbiote while Woody Harrelson will fulfill his destiny and play Cletus Kasady, aka Carnage, the perfected hybrid of psychopathic serial killer and red pile of vicious alien goo. Let the carnage begin!

Top Gun: Maverick

July 2

It’s been 34 years since Tom Cruise first soared through the skies as hotshot pilot Pete “Maverick” Mitchell, and he’ll take to the air once more in a sequel that also features Val Kilmer, Jennifer Connelly, Miles Teller, Jon Hamm, and more. The flying and action sequences from director Joseph Kosinski (who worked with Cruise on Oblivion) will undoubtedly be first-rate, but the studio (Paramount) has to be nervous after seeing one nostalgia-based franchise after another (Blade Runner, Charlie’s Angels, Terminator, The Shining) crash and burn recently.

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

July 10

With Shang-Chi, Marvel Studios hopes to do for Asian culture what the company did with the groundbreaking Black Panther nearly three years ago: create another superhero epic with a non-white lead and a mythology steeped in a non-Western culture. Simu Liu stars in the title role as the “master of kung fu,” who must do battle with the nefarious Ten Rings organization and its leader, the Mandarin (the “real” one, not the imposter from Iron Man 3, played here by the legendary Tony Leung). Director Destin Daniel Cretton (Just Mercy) will open up a whole new corner of the Marvel Cinematic Universe with this story and character, whose origins stretch back to 1973.

The Forever Purge

July 9

One day nearly eight years ago, you went to see a low-budget dystopian sci-fi/horror flick called The Purge, and the next thing you know, it’s 2021 and you’re getting ready to see the fifth and allegedly final entry in the series (which has also spawned a TV show). Written by creator James DeMonaco and directed by Everardo Gout, the film will once again focus on the title event, an annual 12-hour national bacchanal in which all crime, even murder, is legal. How this ends the story, and where and when it falls into the context of the rest of the films, remains a secret for now. Filming was completed back in February 2020, with the film’s release delayed from last summer by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Space Jam: A New Legacy

July 16

There are two types of folks when it comes to the original Space Jam of 1996: those who were between the ages of three and 11 when it came out, and everyone else. In one camp it is an unsightly relic of ‘90s cross-promotional cheese; in the other, it’s a sports movie classic. Luckily for kids today, NBA star LeBron James was 11 for most of ’96, and he’s bringing back the hoops and the Looney Tunes in Space Jam: A New Legacy.

The film will be among the many Warner Bros. pics premieres on HBO Max and in theaters this year, and it will see King James share above-the-title credits with Bugs Bunny. All is as it should be.

Uncharted

July 16

An Uncharted movie has been a long time coming. How long you might ask? Well, when the idea of an Uncharted movie first started getting bandied around Hollywood, the earliest game in the series just launched to rave reviews in the PlayStation 3’s first year. We’re now on PlayStation 5(!), and Mark Wahlberg has gone from angling to play young hero Nathan Drake to starring his wisecracking sidekick, Victor “Sully” Sullivan.

Still, we’re here with an Uncharted movie finally in the can. Directed by Ruben Fleischer (Zombieland, Venom), the video game movie stars everyone’s favorite web-head, Tom Holland, as Drake, a pseudo-modern day Indiana Jones. Whether it lives up to that older franchise’s storied legacy remains to be seen (especially given its gaming roots), but one thing’s for sure, Holland will get to show off more gymnast skill thanks to Uncharted’s famous parkour iconography.

The Tomorrow War

July 23

An original IP attempting to be a summer blockbuster? As we live and breathe. The Tomorrow War marks director Chris McKay’s first foray into live-action after helming The Lego Batman Movie. The film stars Chris Pratt as a soldier from the past who’s been “drafted by scientists” to the present in order to fight off an alien invasion overwhelming our future’s military. One might ask why said scientists didn’t use their fancy-schmancy time traveling shenanigans to warn about the impending aliens, but here we are.

Jungle Cruise

July 30

Disney dips into its theme park rides again as a source for a movie, hoping that the Pirates of the Caribbean lightning will strike once more. This time it’s the famous Adventureland riverboat ride, which is free enough of a real narrative that one has to wonder why some five screenwriters (at least) worked on the movie’s script.

Jaume Collet-Serra (The Shallows) directs stars Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt down this particular river, as they battle wild animals and a competing expedition in their search for a tree with miraculous healing powers. The comic chemistry between Johnson and Blunt is key here, especially if they really can mimic Bogie and Hepburn in the similarly plotted The African Queen. If they can sell that, Disney might just have a new water-based franchise to replace their sinking Pirates ship.

The Green Knight

July 30

David Lowery, the singular director behind A Ghost Story and The Old Man & the Gun, helmed a fantasy adaptation of the Arthurian legend of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. And his take on the material was apparently strong enough to entice A24 to produce it. Not much else is yet known about the film other than its cast, which includes Dev Patel, Alicia Vikander, Ralph Ineson, and Kate Dickie–and that it’s another casualty of COVID, with its 2020 release date being delayed last year. So this is one we’re definitely going to keep an eye on.

The Suicide Squad

August 6

Arguably the most high-profile of the WB films being transitioned to HBO Max, The Suicide Squad is James Gunn’s soft-reboot of the previous one-film franchise. It’s kind of funny WB went in that direction when the first movie generated more than $740 million, but when the reviews and word of mouth were that toxic… well, you get the guy who did Guardians of the Galaxy to fix things.

Peacemaker: Suicide Squad Spinoff With John Cena Coming to HBO Max

By Mike Cecchini

Movies

The Suicide Squad Trailer Promises James Gunn’s “1970s War Movie”

By David Crow

Elements from the original movie are still here, most notably Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn and Viola Davis’ Amanda Waller, but the film promises to be weirder, meaner, and also sillier. The first points are proven by its expected R-rating, and the latter is underscored by its giant talking Great White Shark. Okay, we’ll bite.

Deep Water

August 13

Seedy erotic thrillers and neo noirs bathed in shadows and sex are largely considered a thing of the past—specifically 1980s and ‘90s Hollywood cinema. Maybe that’s why Deep Water hooked Adrian Lyne (Fatal Attraction, Indecent Proposal) to direct. The throwback is based on a 1957 novel by the legendary Patricia Highsmith (The Talented Mr. Ripley), and it pits a disenchanted married couple against each other, with the bored pair playing mind games that leave friends and acquaintances dead. That the couple in question is played by Ben Affleck and Ana de Armas, who’ve since become a real life item, will probably get plenty of attention close to release.

Respect

August 13

Respect is the long-awaited biopic of the legendary Aretha Franklin, with the Queen of Soul herself involved in its development for years until her death in August 2018. Authorized biopics always make one wonder how accurate the film will be, but then again, Aretha had nothing to be ashamed of. Hers was a life well-lived, her voice almost beyond human comprehension, and the only thing now is to see whether star Jennifer Hudson (Franklin’s personal choice) and director Liesl Tommy (making her feature debut) can do the Queen justice.

Candyman

August 27

In some ways it’s surprising that it’s taken this long—28 years, notwithstanding a couple of sequels—to seriously revisit the original Candyman. Director Bernard Rose’s original adaptation of the Clive Baker story, “The Forbidden,” is still relevant and effective today. Back then, the film touched on urban legends, poverty, and segregation: themes that are still ripe for exploration through a genre touchstone today.

After her breathtaking feature directorial debut, Little Woods, Nia DaCosta helmed this bloody reboot while working from a screenplay co-written by Jordan Peele (Get Out). That’s a powerful combination, even before news came down DaCosta was helming Captain Marvel 2. And with an actor on-the-cusp of mega-stardom, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, picking up Tony Todd’s gnarly hook, this is one to watch out for.

The Beatles: Get Back

August 27

Peter Jackson seems to enjoy making films about what inspired him in his youth: The Lord of the Rings, King Kong, his grandfather’s World War I service informing They Shall Not Grow Old. So perhaps it was inevitable he’d make a film about the greatest youth icon of his generation, the Beatles. In truth, The Beatles: Get Back is a challenge to a previous documentary named Let It Be, and the general pop culture image it painted.

That 1970 doc by Michael Lindsay-Hogg zeroed in on the band’s final released album, Let It Be (although it was recorded before Abbey Road). Now, using previously unseen footage, Jackson seeks to challenge the narrative that the album was created entirely from a place of animosity among the bandmates, or that the Beatles had long lost their camaraderie by the end of road. Embracing the original title of the album, “Get Back,” Jackson wants to get back to where he thinks the band’s image once belonged.

Death on the Nile

September 17

Murder on the Orient Express (2017) became a surprise hit for director and star Kenneth Branagh. Who knew that audiences would still be interested in an 83-year-old mystery novel about an eccentric Belgian detective with one hell of a mustache? Luckily, Agatha Christie featured Poirot in some 32 other novels, of which Death on the Nile is one of the most famous, so here we are.

Branagh once again directs and stars as Poirot, this time investigating a murder aboard a steamer sailing down Egypt’s famous river. The cast includes Gal Gadot, Armie Hammer, Letitia Wright, Tom Bateman, Ali Fazal, Annette Bening, Rose Leslie, and Russell Brand. Expect more lavish locales, scandalous revelations, the firing of a pistol or two, and, yes, more shots of that stunning Poirot facial hair.

The Many Saints of Newark

September 24

The idea of a prequel to anything always fills us with trepidation, and re-opening a nearly perfect property like The Sopranos makes the prospect even less appetizing. But Sopranos creator David Chase has apparently wanted to explore the back history of his iconic crime family for some time, and there certainly seems to be a rich tapestry of characters and events that have only been hinted at in the series.

Directed by series veteran Alan Taylor (Thor: The Dark World), The Many Saints of Newark stars Alessandro Nivola as Dickie Moltisanti (Christopher’s father), along with Jon Bernthal, Vera Farmiga, Corey Stoll, Ray Liotta, and others. But the most fascinating casting is that of Michael Gandolfini—James’ son—as the younger version of the character with which his late dad made pop culture history. For that alone, we’ll be there on opening night… even if that just means HBO Max!

Dune

October 1

Could third time be the charm for Frank Herbert’s complex novel of the far future, long acknowledged as one of the greatest—if most difficult to read—milestones in all of science fiction? David Lynch’s 1984 version was, to be charitable, an honorable mess, while the 2000 Sci-Fi Channel miniseries was decent and faithful, but limited in scope. Now director Denis Villeneuve (Blade Runner 2049, Arrival) is pulling out all the stops—even breaking the story into two movies to give the proper space.

Movies

Dune Trailer Breakdown and Analysis

By Mike Cecchini

Movies

What Alejandro Jodorowsky Thinks of the New Dune Trailer

By Mike Cecchini and 1 other

On the surface, the plot is simple: as galactic powers vie for control of the only planet that produces a substance capable of allowing interstellar flight, a young messiah emerges to lead that planet’s people to freedom. But this tale is dense with multiple layers of politics, metaphysics, mysticism, and hard science.

Villeneuve has assembled a jaw-dropping cast, including Timothée Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Oscar Isaac, Josh Brolin, Stellan Skarsgård, Dave Bautista, Zendaya, Charlotte Rampling, Jason Momoa, and Javier Bardem, and if he pulls this off, just hand him every sci-fi novel ever written. Particularly, if relations between the director and WB remain strained…

Morbius

October 8

Following the monstrous (pun intended) success of Venom, Sony Pictures is making its second attempt to mine Spider-Man’s universe of villains with the dark tale of Dr. Michael Morbius (Jared Leto), whose efforts to cure himself of a fatal blood disease turn him instead into a blood-drinking anti-hero. Morbius has been lurking around the Marvel Comics canon since 1971, often either sparring or teaming with Spidey, and it remains uncertain whether he’s got the cache to carry a movie on his own. In addition, can Leto wash away the bad taste left behind by his tattooed and grilled Joker in Suicide Squad?

Halloween Kills

October 15

2018’s outstanding reboot of the long-running horror franchise—which saw David Gordon Green (Stronger) direct Jamie Lee Curtis in a reprise of her most famous role—was a tremendous hit. So in classic Halloween fashion, two more sequels were put into production (the second, Halloween Ends, will be out in 2022… hopefully).

Movies

Halloween: A Legacy Unmasked

By David Crow

Movies

How Jason Blum Changed Horror Movies

By Rosie Fletcher

Curtis is back as Laurie Strode, along with Judy Greer as her daughter, Andi Matichak as her granddaughter, and Nick Castle sharing Michael Myers duties with James Jude Courtney. Kyle Richards and Charles Cyphers, meanwhile, will reprise their roles as Lindsey Wallace and former sheriff Leigh Brackett from the original 1978 Halloween (Anthony Michael Hall will play the adult version of Tommy Doyle). The plot remains a mystery, but we’re pretty sure it will involve yet another confrontation between Laurie and a rampaging Myers.

The Last Duel

October 15

What was once among the most anticipated films of 2020, The Last Duel is the historical epic prestige project marked by reunions: Ridley Scott returns to his passion for period drama and violence; Matt Damon and Ben Affleck work together for the first time in ages as both actors and writers; and the film also unites each with themes that were just as potent in the medieval world as today: One knight (Damon) in King Charles VI’s court accuses another who’s his best friend (Adam Driver) of raping his wife (Jodie Comer). Oh, and Affleck plays the King of France.

With obviously harrowing—and uncomfortable—themes that resonate today, The Last Duel is based on an actual trial by combat from the 14th century, and is a film Affleck and Damon co-wrote with Nicole Holofcener (Can You Ever Forgive Me?). It’s strong material, and could prove to be one of the year’s most riveting or misjudged films. Until then, it has our full attention.

Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins

October 22

While the idea of a Hasbro Movie Universe seems to be kind of idling at the moment, corners of that hypothetical cinematic empire remain active. One such brand is G.I. Joe, which will launch its first spin-off in this origin story of one of the team’s most popular characters. Much of his early background remains mysterious, so there’s room to create a fairly original story while incorporating lore and characters already established in the G.I. Joe mythos.

Neither of the previous G.I. Joe features (The Rise of Cobra and Retaliation) have been much good, so we can probably expect the same level of quality from this one. Director Robert Schwentke (the last two Divergent movies) doesn’t inspire much excitement either. On the other hand, Henry Golding (Crazy Rich Asians) will star in the title role, and having Iko Uwais (The Raid) and Samara Weaving (Ready or Not) on board isn’t too bad either.

Eternals

November 5

Based on a Marvel Comics series by the legendary Jack Kirby, the now long-forthcoming Eternals centers around an ancient race of powerful beings who must protect the Earth against their destructive counterparts (and genetic cousins), the Deviants. Director Chloe Zhao (fresh off the awards season buzzy Nomadland) takes her first swing at epic studio filmmaking, working with a cast that includes Angelina Jolie, Gemma Chan, Kit Harington, Salma Hayek, Richard Madden, Brian Tyree Henry, and more.

Movies

Upcoming Marvel Movies Release Dates: MCU Phase 4 Schedule, Cast, and Story Details

By Mike Cecchini and 1 other

Movies

The Incredible Hulk’s Diminished Legacy in the Marvel Cinematic Universe

By Gavin Jasper

In many ways, Eternals represents another huge creative risk for Marvel Studios: It’s a big, cosmic ensemble film introducing an ensemble that the vast majority of the public has never heard of. But then, it’s sort of in the same position as Guardians of the Galaxy from way back in 2014, and we all know what happened there.

Elvis

November 5

Obviously we’ve all seen musical biopics before—too many after Walk Hard broke the formula down—but Elvis promises to be something different. A new passion project from Baz Luhrmann, the filmmaker behind Moulin Rouge!, Romeo + Juliet, and The Great Gatsby, Elvis is expected to be a radically stylized account of Elvis Presley’s rise to all shook up fame. With an impressive cast that includes Tom Hanks as manager “Colonel” Tom Parker and Kelvin Harrison Jr. as B.B. King, and with up-and-comer Austin Butler as the King of Rock and Roll himself, it should be a hell of a show.

King Richard

November 19

Will Smith’s King Richard promises to be a different kind of biographical film coming down the pipe. Rather than being told from the vantage of professional tennis playing stars Venus and Serena Williams, King Richard centers on their father and coach, Richard Williams. It’s an interesting choice to focus on the male father instead of the game-changing Black daughters, but we’ll see if there’s a strong creative reason for the approach soon enough. The film is directed by Reinaldo Marcus Green (Monsters and Men, Joe Bell).

Mission: Impossible 7

November 19

Once upon a time, the appeal of the Mission: Impossible movies was to see different directors offer their own take on Tom Cruise running through death-defying stunts. But then Christopher McQuarrie had to come along and make the best one in franchise history (twice). First there was Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation and then Mission: Impossible – Fallout. Now McQuarrie and company have set up their own separate quartet of films with recurring original characters like new franchise MVP Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson) across four films.

Movies

Audio Surfaces of Tom Cruise Raging on the Set of Mission: Impossible 7

By Kirsten Howard

Movies

Mission: Impossible 7 – What’s Next for the Franchise?

By David Crow

Thus enters M:I7, the third McQuarrie joint in the series and first half of a pair of incoming sequels filmed together. The first-half of this two-parter sees the whole crew back together, including Cruise’s Ethan Hunt, Ilsa, Benji (Simon Pegg), Luther (Ving Rhames), and CIA Director Erika Sloane (Angela Bassett). They’re also being joined by Hayley Atwell and Pom Klementieff, but really we’re all just eager to see what kind of insane stunts they can do to top the HALO jump in the last one.

West Side Story

December 10

Steven Spielberg has just two remakes on his directorial resume: Always (1989) and War of the Worlds (2005). While the former is mostly forgotten and the latter was an adaptation of a story that has been filmed many times, his upcoming reimagining of West Side Story will undoubtedly be directly compared to Robert Wise’s iconic 1961 screen version of this classic musical.

A few numbers in previous films aside, Spielberg has never directed a full-blown musical before, let alone one associated with such powerhouse songs and dance numbers. His version, with a script by Tony Kushner, is said to stay closer to the original Broadway show than the 1961 film—but with its themes of love struggling to cross divides created by hate and bigotry, don’t be surprised if it’s just as hard-hitting in 2021. Certainly would’ve devastated last year….

Spider-Man 3

December 17

Sony has finally gotten to a “Spider-Man 3” again in their oft-rebooted franchise crown jewel (technically though this film is still untitled). That proved to be a stumbling block the first time it occurred with Tobey Maguire in the red and blues, but the company seems undaunted since Tom Holland’s third outing is expected to bring Maguire back—him and just about everyone else too.

Movies

Spider-Man 3: Charlie Cox Daredevil Return Would Redeem the Marvel Netflix Universe

By Joseph Baxter

Movies

Spider-Man 3 Adds Benedict Cumberbatch’s Doctor Strange

By Joseph Baxter

With a multiverse plot ripped straight from the arguably best Spidey movie ever, 2018’s Into the Spider-Verse, Holland’s third outing is bringing back Maguire, Andrew Garfield’s Spider-Man, Alfred Molina as Doc Ock, Jamie Foxx as Electro (eh), and probably more. It’s a Spidey crossover extravaganza that’s only missing a Spider-Ham. But just you wait…

The Matrix 4

December 22

Rebooting or continuing The Matrix series has always been a tough proposition. While the original Matrix film is one of the landmark achievements in science fiction and early digital effects filmmaking in the 1990s, its sequels were… less celebrated. In fact, directors Lily and Lana Wachowski were publicly wary about the idea of ever going back to the series. And yet, here we are with Lana (alone) helming a project that’s been a longtime priority for Warner Bros.

Movies

The Matrix 4: Laurence Fishburne “Wasn’t Invited” to Reprise Morpheus Role

By John Saavedra

Movies

The Matrix 4 Already Happened: Revisiting The Matrix Online

By John Saavedra

The Matrix 4 also brings back Keanu Reeves, Carrie-Anne Moss, and Jada Pinkett Smith. This is curious since Reeves and Moss’ characters died at the end of the Matrix trilogy—and also because Laurence Fishburne’s Morpheus did not, yet he wasn’t asked back. We cannot say we’re thrilled about the prospect of more adventures in Zion after the disappointment of the first two sequels, but we’d be lying if we didn’t admit we’re still curious to see the story that brought Lana back to this future.

The French Dispatch

TBA

Wes Anderson has a new film coming out. Better still, it is another live-action film. While Anderson’s use of animation is singular, it’s been seven years since The Grand Budapest Hotel, which we maintain is one of the best movies of the last decade. Anderson is working with Timothée Chalamet and Cristoph Waltz for the first time with this film, as well as several familiar faces including Saoirse Ronan, Willem Dafoe, Tilda Swinton, Léa Seydoux, Adrien Brody, Owen Wilson, Jason Schwartzman, and, of course, Bill Murray.

The French Dispatch is set deep in the 20th century during the peak of modern journalism, it brings to life a series of fictional stories in a fictional magazine, published in a fictional French city. We suspect though, if Anderson’s last two live-action movies are any indication, it’ll have more than fiction on its mind–especially since it’s inspired by actual New Yorker stories, and the journalists who wrote them! We missed it in 2020, so here’s hoping it really does go to print in 2021!

Other interesting movies that may come out in 2021 but do not yet have release dates: Next Goal Wins, Don’t Worry Darling, Nightmare Alley, Antlers, Blonde, The Northman, Resident Evil, Red Notice, Those Who Wish Me Dead, Army of the Dead.

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frustratedcastingdirector · 7 years ago

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Mark Ruffalo's career is in full swing. His starring role in ‘Zodiac' is just the start.

Author/Byline: BARRY KOLTNOW Orange County Register March 2, 2007

When pressed, Hollywood producer Bradley Fischer will concede that Hollywood producers occasionally lie. For instance, when they tell you that a certain actor was their first and only choice for a particular role, they're usually lying. More often than not, a role is filled by the first competent actor who accepts the part. "I know people always say that, but I swear that it's true in this case," the producer said with his hand raised, pleading his case. "Mark was always our first and only choice." Fischer said he respects Mark Ruffalo's work from their collaboration on last year's "All the King's Men," but he said has been a fan since he first saw the actor in the 2000 film "You Can Count on Me." Ruffalo, 39, was cast by Fischer and director David Fincher to play a real-life San Francisco homicide detective whose investigation and stalking of a serial killer becomes a personal obsession in "Zodiac," which opens today. "Most directors and producers never say they need a movie star. That's something you might hear from the marketing department," Fischer said. "What most directors and producers say they need is an actor, and Mark is one of those actors who directors and producers always go to when they need one of the best in the business." High praise, indeed, for an actor who believes that as recently as five years ago, he was considered "damaged goods" in the movie industry. Fresh off his triumphant turn in the 2000 film "You Can Count on Me," Ruffalo was diagnosed with a brain tumor. Surgery was successful, but he was out of action for 10 months, which is a lifetime for an actor just coming off his big break. "Right after the movie, lots of offers were coming in, but then my career completely cooled off," he said. "There was no work at all, and rumors were circulating that I had AIDS and leukemia. Some people actually heard that I was dead." Ruffalo credits two directors – Jane Campion and Isabel Coixet – for resurrecting his career by giving him major roles in their films, "In the Cut" and "My Life Without Me." It wasn't the first time a director had saved Ruffalo from oblivion. It was a chance meeting with director-playwright Kenneth Lonergan in 1986 that, literally, dragged Ruffalo out of a Los Angeles bar and into show business. Ruffalo wasn't drinking in the bar; he was working in it as a bartender. In fact, the aspiring actor tended bar in Los Angeles for nine years while trying to get his foot in the proverbial show-business door. The most frustrating aspect of his bartending career was that he was working in one of Hollywood's hippest nightspots, the bar at the legendary Chateau Marmont hotel. "It was a horrible period," he said, the pain still evident in his voice. "I was interfacing every night with everyone I wanted to be. All the young working actors hung out there, and there was a lot of resentment on my part. My friends used to call me Bit 'O Honey, because I was really bitter about these actors having the jobs I wanted, but I always acted sweet to them. "I admit that I'm pretty much one of those glass-is-half-empty kind of guys, rather than the glass-is-half-full guys. I even take it a step further by saying: 'And look how small the glass is, too.' In my heart, I hoped that something would happen, but deep down I kept thinking that it was never really going to happen for me." When he met Lonergan, the two men hit it off, and Lonergan asked Ruffalo to star in a one-act play he was directing in a small Los Angeles theater. That one-act play eventually expanded into the well-received off-Broadway play "This Is Our Youth," and Ruffalo's performance garnered rave reviews. Lonergan later cast Ruffalo opposite Laura Linney in the film he was directing, "You Can Count on Me." Ruffalo, who lives in Los Angeles with his wife and two children, was born in Kenosha, Wis., but spent his high school years in Virginia Beach, Va., before the family moved to San Diego. He set out on his own for Los Angeles, where he attended acting classes and auditioned for roles he didn't get. "I was too tall or too short, too ethnic or not ethnic enough," he said. "There was always some reason for them to say no to me." But his career is in full swing now, with three films awaiting release, not counting Fincher's "Zodiac." The new film also stars Jake Gyllenhaal as Robert Gray-smith, then-editorial cartoonist at the San Francisco Chronicle whose two books on the Zodiac case are the basis of Fincher's film, and Robert Downey Jr. as Paul Avery, the newspaper's colorful crime reporter whose obsession with the serial killer almost destroyed him. Ruffalo's character, homicide detective Dave Toschi, also became obsessed with the mystery murderer who terrorized the Bay Area starting in 1968. He is believed to have killed at least five people, and boasted of his dastardly deeds in letters sent to local newspapers. He taunted law-enforcement agencies and dared them to catch him. Fincher, who grew up in the area but was only 7 years old at the time of the first killings, says he has only fleeting memories of the terror that gripped the northern part of the state. He does, however, remember riding in school buses accompanied by a police escort. The director has traveled this path before, making a serial-killer movie in 1995 called "Se7en," but this film is different. Unlike his earlier film, "Zodiac" does not follow the killer, but rather the investigation of the crimes and the pursuit of the killer. "David (Fincher) was not interested in repeating himself," producer Fischer explained. "He wanted to make a movie about how this killer got under these people's skins. This is a movie about obsession." The producer said he never doubted the filmmaker's choice for the actor who would play Toschi, who was the inspiration for the character played by Steve McQueen in the 1968 film "Bullitt," right down to his upside-down shoulder holster. But the brilliance of the casting choice was confirmed after he set up a meeting between Ruffalo and Toschi. "Mark shadowed Dave all day and, when he returned to L.A. that night, he was speaking exactly like Toschi. It was eerie." Sitting in his Westwood hotel suite, the soft-spoken Ruffalo needs no prodding to jump into a dead-on, but respectful, impression of Toschi, who is in his 70s but works full time for a Bay Area security firm. "The man is remarkable," Ruffalo said. "He still dresses to the nines, and he has managed to maintain his dignity, even though the case did not end as he had hoped." For the record, no one was ever charged or prosecuted for the Zodiac murders, although investigators privately were satisfied that they had found their man. "In his heart, Dave Toschi knew that the suspect he was chasing was the right guy," Ruffalo said. "But it doesn't matter what he believes. He's a good cop and, like any good cop, he needs solid evidence to make a case. "He spent so many years on this case, only to have it end in frustration. To maintain your dignity after an ordeal like that makes Dave Toschi an amazing character to play." Mark Ruffalo: partial filmography "You Can Count on Me" (2000) "The Last Castle" (2001) "View From the Top" (2003) "In the Cut" (2003) "My Life Without Me" (2003) "We Don't Live Here Anymore" (2004) "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" (2004) "13 Going on 30" (2004) "Collateral" (2004) "Just Like Heaven" (2005) "Rumor Has It" (2005) "All the King's Men" (2006) "Zodiac" (2007)

#mark ruffalo #zodiac #bit o honey #openimageinnewtab

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chiseler · 8 years ago

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Bridging Noir and The Beats: JONNY STACCATO (1959)

Following the 1956 publication of Allen Ginsberg’s “Howl,” the 1957 publication of Jack Kerouac’s On the Road, and the national spotlight that was suddenly focused on these potentially dangerous Beats and the throng of young followers who tried to emulate the lifestyle and mindset, it didn’t take long for the mainstream media to exploit the scene as it could.

The beatniks were easy—just give a character a goatee, a beret, a set of bongos, a mouthful of incoherent poetry and a jazzy score and you were all set. Suddenly drive-ins saw a flurry of quickie low-budget beatsploitation pictures, which for the most part were standard genre films (murder mysteries and juvenile delinquent movies), but featuring affected types who hung out in coffeehouses and said “daddy-o” a lot.

In those terms, 1959 was a watershed year, witnessing the release of Charles Haas’s The Beat Generation and Roger Corman’s A Bucket of Blood, as well as the arrival of Bob Denver as that beatnik’s beatnik Maynard G. Krebbs on TV’s The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis.

As easy as beatniks were to satirize, it was much more difficult for the mainstream (especially on television) to get a grasp on the original Beat mentality that lay beneath the co-opted cartoon affectations. It’s certainly understandable—the Beats weren’t exactly striving to be understood by the mainstream, after all—but NBC came close that same watershed year with the premiere of a new weekly series, Johnny Staccato. In historical and cultural terms, the show worked as a bridge between the fading postwar ennui and paranoia that spawned film noir and the new youthful openness and countercultural energy of the Beats. The connection is locked in place with a jazzy score composed by Elmer Bernstein, who’d fired the first hesitant noir jazz salvo with his score for 1955’s The Man With the Golden Arm.

John Cassavetes (who admittedly only took the role to help finance his own film projects) brings an easygoing streetwise cool to the titular role, playing a jazz pianist in the house combo at Waldo’s, a funky Greenwich Village bar. In each half-hour episode, Staccato finds himself embroiled in a noirish scenario, complete with a voiceover that dances the line between the hardboiled and the hep. Staccato knows everyone, it seems, from cops and stoolies to musicians, low-rent gangsters, immigrants, newstand operators, writers, artists and penny-ante thieves, so is the neighborhood’s go-to guy whenever one of his countless bohemian friends needs protection, help in clearing their name, or anything else that might come up. He’s smooth, he’s calm, and he’s as rational and honest a Johnson as you’ll ever hope to find. Although he has a knack for prying into other people’s business, he knows how to keep his mouth shut. The terms “Beat” or beatnik” never come up save for one episode in which he tries to track down a missing poet (played by Christopher Walken’s older brother), but Staccato is the embodiment of Beatness, whether trying to save a young couple from a black market baby ring or unmask a crooked storefront preacher who’s been preying on the poor and vulnerable. And all of it without a single “daddy-o.”

In Thomas Pynchon’s novel Inherent Vice, pot-smoking hippie private dick Doc Sportello holds Staccato (a clear inspiration for the character) up as a shamus on a par with Spade and Marlowe, if not greater. And despite all the hepcat trappings, the character actors who make guest spots (Elisha Cook, Charles MacGraw, etc.) only further solidifies the show’s noir pedigree.

Though filmed on a Hollywood soundstage for a major television network, the characters who populate each episode represent a melange of believably misbegotten and forsaken mid-century Village denizens.

It’s my guess that in 1959, however, an ultra-hip, wise, countercultural hero who only turned to the cops when absolutely necessary, a guy who was trying to help people out simply because he was a stand-up guy, as well as the assorted lowlifes he dealt with every week, were still too alien and threatening to family audiences at home.

So halfway through the first season, the producers began tinkering, trying to force the show and the character of Staccato into more familiar and comforting molds, beginning with the opening credits. Suddenly the original cool but up-tempo credit sequence was sharply punctuated with a shot of Staccato smashing a window and firing a gunshot at some unseen enemy. Just as suddenly, it seems, not only was the character an officially-licensed, gun-toting private detective working hand-in-hand with the cops, he was a Korean War vet to boot. While prior to the shift he’d mostly been helping out lost souls who’d gotten in over their heads, now he was after powerful mobsters, counterfeiters, hit men and occasionally getting caught up in Cold War shenanigans. You know, things the audience at home could better understand. And while we’re at it? Yeah, that whole “pianist in a jazz club” thing? Our marketing shows those places still make people kind of uncomfortable. I mean, don’t negroes hang out in those places? And all those jazz musicians are a bunch of hopheads, aren’t they? So maybe we could just kind of edge that whole scene out of the show, okay? We don’t want to make our sponsors nervous.

In midstream the show abruptly became a straight and familiar detective series, with a much higher ratio of fistfights, gunplay and general action. Still, it was a schizophrenic one, my guess thanks to those scripts greenlighted before the tweaking began. Sometimes he’s a licensed private dick with a gun, sometimes not. Sometimes he’s a Korean vet, sometimes not. Sometimes he’s tight with the cops at the local precinct, sometimes the mutual open disdain leads him to avoid the cops at all costs. And sometimes he’s a professional jazz musician who investigates crimes in his spare time, and at others there’s nary a hint of Waldo’s or his musical career.

For it all though, and for all the shifts and changes and discrepancies in the character’s background, Staccato himself remains an earnest constant, at once finger-popping and intense, thanks exclusively to Cassavetes’ performance. He clearly understood (even if he hated doing the show) who the character was supposed to be from the beginning, and never wavered from that. It’s also interesting to note that, regardless how comforting and familiar the network heads tried to make the show, it remained surprisingly downbeat. More often than not the people Staccato is trying to protect end up dead, and those whose names he’s trying to clear reveal themselves to be guilty as hell. Which I guess can either be read as brutal honesty about a cruel, ugly, and meaningless world, or a cynical comment on the part of the producers warning viewers they’re better off bringing their troubles to the officially sanctioned authorities and federal agencies like proper citizens, instead of counting on some damn beatnik for help.

The final episode of the series is telling, with the writers at once giving the producers what they wanted, while at the same time spitting in their face. Four years earlier, we learn, a renowned Soviet classical pianist defected with his wife during a concert tour of the US. The elderly couple has been on the run and in hiding ever since, pursued by relentless dirty commie assassins. So you got a simple Us vs. Them Cold War scenario that allowed true blue viewers at home to wave little American flags. The pianist finally gets a regular job at Waldo’s, where the assassins find him once again and, well, things don’t end on a happy note. Much of the episode is a hearkening back to the show’s origins, with most of the action taking place within the club, and jazz and classical music playing throughout. Staccato himself plays only a minor role here for the most part, but after the pianist and his wife are gunned down in the street, Staccato’s closing VO is unusually bitter. The assassin got away, and though he hints at an ongoing storyline, he says someone else is going to have to take care of it. People are going to continue killing each other, but he wanted nothing more to do with it himself. “I’m finished,” he spits as the closing credits role. In short, he’s turning his back on the Beat sensibility that drove him to try and help the forgotten and the gutter trash. Nope, from that point on he was just looking out for number one, like any real American. The producers likely saw that as ending on a high note, with that dirty beatnik finally coming to see the light and redeeming himself in the eyes of the general public and the sponsors.

After a single twenty-seven episode season, the show was cancelled, but the original spirit was resurrected shortly thereafter in the form of Route 66. Meanwhile the cheap beatsploitation caravan rolled on in 1960 with Paul Frees’ The Beatniks and Ranald MacDougall’s questionable adaptation of Kerouac’s The Subterraneans, which were much easier for the masses to understand.

by Jim Knipfel

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nadadjordjevich · 8 years ago

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Girls Gets Job Loses Boy

Women, work and romance in the movies.

Quick—think of a movie where the male protagonist gets fired at the end of a movie. No, he doesn't die, but at the end, he is left without a job. Sure, there are plenty of films that start that way, but is the crisis resolved with an unemployed man? How about a movie where a man is forced to choose between a woman and a job? You know, a movie in which at the end the man has to choose either to be successful in his career or to be successful with his wife. He can't have it all. Thought of one? Let me know, because I couldn't think of a single Hollywood film in which men face the choices presented to women in most films involving career women today.

Fifty years after one of the most dramatic changes in the economics of the 20th century, the increase in the number and types of women in the workplace, Hollywood is still ambivalent and culturally unready to let go of old myths. According to recent census statistics, in close to 80 percent of all marriages both the husband and the wife work, and in just over 40 percent the wife makes about the same as or more than the man. Yet in most films of the past thirty years, women seem unable to hold onto both their careers and their men. Today's mainstream movies don't involve present-day choices, but throwback fantasies, when women had to choose between economic power and relationships.

If you're a working class girl who becomes powerful fighting the status quo, the odds are against permanent romance. A decade after the Pretty Woman limousine ride that took her out of her ghetto and away from the oldest profession to be supported by Richard Gere's wealthy businessman, Julia Roberts plays street-smart Erin Brockovich who loses her Hells Angels hottie when she dedicates herself to her new career fighting corporate greed. Her babysitting man feels that she just doesn't have enough time for him. Of course, we have seen this before. In Norma Rae (1979), another true story of a proletarian do-gooder with a promiscuous past, Sally Field's textile worker awakens to union organizing while her new husband complains of neglect and is unsupportive of her work.

If you're a successful, ethical career woman, you will lose your lover. Barbara Streisand's activist radio producer loses her writer husband played by Robert Redford after insisting that "people are their principles" in The Way We Were (1973). And then there's another producer played by Holly Hunter, in Broadcast News (1987), who, early in the film, complains that "she is starting to repel people that she is trying to attract" until she finally charms good-looking anchorman William Hurt. Despite the hopeful condom tucked into her purse, their relationship is pretty chaste, consisting of one kiss and plans for vacation that doesn't pan out. By the end of the film, the two men in her love triangle have made other permanent arrangements: Albert Brooks' Aaron is married with a son, and William Hurt is engaged to a look-alike fiancée. While Hunter claims to have some "fella" in the wings, we don't see any sign of permanence, and she is probably doomed to lonely success.

And if you're an unethical career woman, you'll be even lonelier. First, you will create chaos, unknowingly or consciously, in the families of the men you desire, and then you will be punished by desertion, death, or perpetual singledom. Sally Field's reckless journalist in Absence of Malice (1981) causes a suicide and loses Paul Newman's affection. In Fatal Attraction (1987), Glenn Close's stylish editor loses her mind -- not to mention her career -- when she desperately goes after her one-night-stand who is happily married to a stay-at-home wife. And then there's Faye Dunaway's news producer in Network (1976) who destroys the marriage of the crotchety editor played by William Holden while she looks forward to the on-air suicide of broadcaster Howard Beale as a ratings boost. On a lighter note, the successful restaurant critic played by Julia Roberts tries and fails to break up her best-friend's marriage to Cameron Diaz's college dropout and soon to be stay-at-home wife in My Best Friend's Wedding (1997).

If you lose your job at the hands of a man, you may be able to work it out. In Jerry Maguire (1996), Renee Zellweger is a single mom who quits her job to follow the sports agent played by Tom Cruise into his own agency. She soon loses that job when Cruise's company fails, and it's only after she is no longer working for him that he turns around to tell her that she "completes him." In You've Got Mail (1998), Meg Ryan is put out of business when Tom Hanks' tycoon opens up a Barnes & Nobles-like mega -bookstore that takes over her Upper West Side neighborhood. After she has fired all of her employees and is forced to shut down her store, she not only does not harbor ill feelings toward the man who put her out of work, but begins a friendship with him at Starbucks, the take-over coffee chain that has put hundreds of little coffee shops around the corner out of business.

So what's a modern movie woman got to do to keep a man and a job around here?

For one thing, pretend to be somebody you're not. In Working Girl (1988), Melanie Griffith portrays a big-haired secretary with "a head for business and a bod for sin," who takes over from her thieving boss by faking her position in the firm and stealing her boyfriend. And in Down with Love (2003), Renee Zelweiger's best-selling author develops an elaborate scheme of entrapment involving the development of a female prototype of a confirmed bachelor.

For another, stop being so damn smart. In Bridget Jones's Diary (2001), another Zellweger vehicle, her speech at a literary event is a disaster, making her look stupid and ridiculous in front of Britain's literati, as does her pratfall in front of the television audience when she slides down the pole of a firehouse as a would-be reporter. Yet super-hunk barrister, Mark Darcy, played by super-hunk Colin Firth dumps his intelligent colleague for the inarticulate and intellectually challenged Bridget.

And if you are smart, carry a gun, work with animals, or serve food. While the love story is not crucial in Coen brothers' films, both Fargo (1996) and Raising Arizona (1987) feature married policewomen, and Sandra Bullock's "ugly duckling" detective turned beauty queen gets her man in Miss Congeniality (2000). In a lesser-seen Roberts' movie, Something to Talk About (1995), husband Dennis Quaid tells wife Roberts that he cheated on her not because he felt neglected by her pursuit of her career, but because she'd failed to complete her passion. If she had pursued her own dream of being a big animal veterinarian, he claims, he wouldn't have had an affair. In the end, Roberts takes veterinary classes and their romance rekindles. And, in The Truth About Cats & Dogs (1996), talk-show vet played by Janeane Garofalo finally gets the guy (after, incidentally, pretending to be someone else). Jennifer Aniston' waitress in the comedy Office Space (1999) gets and keeps a boyfriend. And, in the Martin Scorsese flick Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974), another harried waitress, played by Ellen Burstyn, lands Kris Kristofferson's sexy rancher.

Interestingly Kristofferson's character was dropped when the movie was made into the television series "Alice," as the writers recognized that perpetual dating is more intriguing than coupledom - at least when it comes to female leads. Certainly the most successful career women on television, Mary Richards and Murphy Brown, never had the permanent love of a good man. Even in "Sex and the City," the landmark series featuring career women over the age of 35, it wasn't until the finale that all four female characters resolved their search for love, with Carrie Bradshaw finally landing paramour Big after quitting her job. Compared to Hollywood, however, that's progress, since 50 percent of "Sex"'s women had both a job and a man at the end. It's obvious that in a series goals can't be achieved if you want to keep the viewers hooked.

But why can't a woman have it all in a two-hour movie? Why, in the world of happy Hollywood endings, are women's choices unreflective of modern society? Why, for example, when adapting the novel, Under the Tuscan Sun (2003), did the filmmakers change the book's ending to successful female writer loses man?

Movies are million-dollar enterprises built on prevailing concepts of what people want to see. This is why men without jobs are not part of most films. Perhaps in the same way that movies do not reflect the reality of race and diversity in American society, Hollywood believes that audiences are not ready for a culture of powerful women who do not have to make simple choices between a man and a career. As our movies have only slowly begun to echo some of the diversity present in modern America, perhaps we can anticipate new narrative structures in the romantic feature film. The success of independent films like My Big Fat Greek Wedding (2002), whose female lead finds both a successful career and a loving relationship, may demonstrate to producers that audiences are ready for a woman who has both a career and a man. And I look forward to a time when Hollywood will mimic modern reality in showing that the dominant paradigm is not woman gets job, loses man, but working men and women trying to work it out.

First Printed in On the Page magazine. Reprinted with permission.

#Women Movies Working Hollywood #internationalwomensda #film #romantic comedy

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newagesispage · 4 years ago

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AUGUST 2020

PAGE DEB

There is a limited series coming to Showtime ,Blackbird: Lena Horne and America.

*****

Barack Obama joined a zoom call to Crip camp for the 30th anniversary of Americans with Disabilities act.** Hearing Obama, Clinton and even Bush speak as they remembered John Lewis reminds us how calming it can be to hear inspiring words.** Feel bad that Jimmy Carter could not attend since it was in Georgia. We miss ya.**John Lewis put his own words out there in the NY Times on the day of his funeral. He also wrote letters over the last couple of months to many activists to continue the fight.

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Racism is so American that when you protest it, people think you’re protesting America. – Romy Reiner

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Check our Smartless, the new podcast from Sean Hayes, Jason Bateman and Will Arnett. Each episode one of the hosts brings a surprise guest that answers questions.

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Opening some states is like opening a ‘peeing’ section of the pool. –Neil de Grasse Tyson

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Rumor is that Dave Chappelle will be on Letterman’s next batch of Netflix shows, My next guest needs no introduction.

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Check out the album Grandpa Metal from Brian Posehn, Brendon Small, Scott Ian, Al Yankovic, Corey Taylor and Jill janus.

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Reports have come thru that Brett Kavanaugh wanted the Supreme Court to avoid decisions about abortion and Trump’s financials.

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The Redskins have become the Washington Football team.

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Hulu will bring us Nine Perfect Strangers with Nicole Kidman, Melissa McCarthy and Michael Shannon.

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Days alert: I wish Bonnie would turn out to be Adrienne. If the switch was made when she chose Justin over Lucas,that would explain a lot. Eve is back for revenge but Ciara and Hope will find Ben. Will it be too late? I hope this brings Shane and Teresa back to town. Allie will have a boy but who is the Father? Rumor is that it could be Theo Carver or Parker Jonas or Tripp Dalton. Will Eli and Lani have twins? Sarah and Xander will reunite??

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Spencer Grammer was stabbed while trying to break up an altercation in NY. She is on the mend.

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The Green Banana is a sort of 425 foot bright blue sink hole that has been found off the coast of Florida. Divers say it is about 155 feet below the surface.

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The Department of Homeland Security has more law enforcement capability than all other branches combined.** Why aren’t the storm troopers working on real crime?? Fingers crossed for no more Trump troops for “Operation Legend.”

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Jim Jordan says that, “Big tech’s out to get conservatives.” The top performing FB posts that day: Ben Shapiro 2. Fox news 3. Dan Bongino 4. CNS news 5. Ben Shapiro 6. Ben Shapiro 7. Fox news 8. CNN 9. Blue lives matter

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2 million Americans do not have running water.

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Actor Bryan Callen has been accused of sexual assault.

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Breonna Taylor is on the cover of O.** The WNBA has dedicated their season to Breonna and the Black Lives Matter movement.

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Epix has brought us a sort of new look at Manson with Helter Skelter: An American Myth.

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Southern Crossroads has a slogan: Rednecks for Black lives!!

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Louis De Joy, the new Postmaster General has apparently shut down sorting machines and cut overtime so that mail carriers must leave mail behind.

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David Duke is permanently banned from Twitter.

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The Emmy noms are here: Netflix broke all previos records for number of noms. Leading the pack was Watchmen, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Ozark, Succession, The Mandolorian, SNL and Schitt’s Creek. The best drama category is the toughest with The Mandolorian, Ozark, Succession, Better Call Saul, The Crown, The Handmaids tale, Killing Eve and Stranger Things. Best supporting actor in drama and comedy is tough including Kieran Culkin, Giancarlo Esposito, Matthew Macfayden, Andre Braugher, Tony Shalhoub, Kenan Thompsonand Daniel Levy. The limited series or movie supporting actress is loaded with goodies too like Holland Taylor, Uzo Aduba, Margo Martindale, Tracey Ullman, Toni Collette and Jean Smart. How can you pick?? The 72nd Emmy’s will be hosted by Jimmy Kimmel.

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A new low: College Covid parties in Alabama to see who can get it. I think we need to crack down on education because we have some pretty stupid people in this country. Why do we want to work the medical professionals within an inch of their lives??** 155 thousand dead. The total cases have dipped slightly but fatalities are up. ** Pelosi has issued mandatory mask order for the house.** In the new covid bill they want 1.75 bill for a new FBI building that will stay in the same place that it now stands?? This surely couldn’t be because it is across the street from the Trump hotel and he does not want competition and likes his special locale. **The Senate decided to take a long weekend and not deal with it until August. How do so many not care about their fellow man??** The longer it takes to get the virus under control, the more business’s we lose forever.

*****

The Catherine’s clothing chain is closing.

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We need more detective shows with real stories about cops that don’t do things by the book. We have all heard of the fucked up crime scenes like Jon Benet Ramsey or Jeff Macdonald and we know that is just the tip of the iceberg.

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There have been shootings all over the country at various gatherings which should not even have been held.

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There is a long history with these vipers, Bill Barr’s Father hired a 20 year old Jeff Epstein to teach at Dalton. He was a high school drop out with no degree.** The usual suspects, Nugent and Baio et al.will speak virtually for Trump at the Republican convention.** Contrary to what the administration said, Paw Patrol was not cancelled.** You knew he would get around to wanting to postpone the election. Too bad for him congress has to agree and if they can’t work it out then the speaker may have to take over.

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Shep Smith has joined CNBC.

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Colin Kaepernick’s life will come to Netflix from Ava Duvernay. **

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The world hates us so much right now. We’ve been ruined in more ways than we know.** What kind of shithole President wishes a child sex trafficker well?

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Billy Eichner will play Paul Lynde in Man in the Box.

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The U.S. has told the Chinese consulate in Houston to shut down. Is this because of intellectual theft?? Now China has moved us out of our consulate there.

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Fairfax County will rename Robert E. Lee high after John Lewis.

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The Reagan foundation has asked the Trump campaign to stop raising money off of his name.

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I’ve been begging everyone for years; please wear a mask! –Emo Phillips** CVS and Wal Mart no longer require masks!!

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The company, Tele Tracking that took over control of the covid info is owned by Chris Johnson. The 10 mil contract went to the NY real estate dude.

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Funny how everything is a handout besides generational wealth.

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Hooray to the Yankees and the Nationals for taking a knee before the game.** Trump claims he was busy with Covid and could not throw out the first pitch. Come to find out, he was not asked. He made it up.

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Favre and Trump golfing, yea, that sounds about right.

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A company can keep women from birth control if there are religious or moral objections. About 126 thousand women will lose coverage.

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Lt. Col Vindman had been approved for promotion but the President would make the final decision. The brave hero decided to retire.

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The Supreme Court ruled that Trump can’t block his records being released. It is in the public interest but Trump can try again to block with different tactics.** They also ruled that most of Eastern Oklahoma will remain Native American land.** The Esselen tribe of Monterey county have reclaimed land on the Big Sur coast that was theirs 250 years ago. This was a cooperative effort between them, the California natural resources agency and a conservancy group.

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Trump calls the Black lives matter in front of Trump tower, “a symbol of hate.”** Cops shot, Cops killing civilians, mask confrontations: The mental illness in this country is officially off the charts.

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Biden claims he will use the Trump tax cuts to pay for 5 million new jobs in products and technology. The Dems released their agenda that touts free child care.** 100 days before the election, Brad Parscale was demoted. Jared puts his friends in high places and it goes on.** They say John Kasich will speak for the Dem convention. **

*****

Hey Seth Meyers: I LOVE the sea Captain!!

*****

Muddy Water’s former Chicago home at 4339 S. Lake Park Ave. will be a museum.

*****

Sen. Tom Cotton called slavery, “a necessary evil.”

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Still advertising on Fox news: Verizon, Noom, Allstate, Pfizer, Ancestry, Honey, Poshmark, Purple and Sanofi. ** And we know never to eat Goya again.

*****

Jean Smart will star in Miss Macy.

*****

Oprah mag will stop print.

*****

It is so Scary Clown: The only thing the enemy can’t stand is being laughed at. –Mark Twain

R.I.P. all the Covid victims, Nick Cordero, Hugh Downs, Ennio Morricone, Bill Field, the elephants of Botswana, Ronald Schwary, Charlie Daniels, Mary Kay Letourneau, Max B. Bryer, Kelly Preston, Naya Rivera, Ben Keough, Phyllis Somerville, Grant Imahara, Emitt Rhodes, Regis Philbin, John Lewis, John Saxon, Peter Green, Malik B., Herman Cain, Alan Parker and Olivia de Havilland.

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mikemortgage · 6 years ago

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Canada’s cybersecurity firms keep turning to the U.S. for funding, leaving us without a homegrown leader

Canada has a rich history of innovation, but in the next few decades, powerful technological forces will transform the global economy. Large multinational companies have jumped out to a headstart in the race to succeed, and Canada runs the risk of falling behind. At stake is nothing less than our prosperity and economic well-being. The Financial Post set out explore what is needed for businesses to flourish and grow. You can find all of our coverage here.

A couple of years after co-founding eSentire Inc., Eldon Sprickerhoff was funding the fledgling cybersecurity company using an early round of financing and a line of credit he took out on his house.

The Waterloo, Ont.-based firm was growing by 15 per cent a year, but it wasn’t enough to compensate him for the endless hours he was spending to get it off the ground. He was faced with a dilemma.

“When I co-founded the company, I owned 50 per cent of shares of a pie that had practically no market value,” he said in a recent interview. “If I’m putting this much effort into it, I need a bigger payoff than running a mom-and-pop consulting shop or security company.”

To get there, Sprickerhoff followed a path that is becoming the norm in the domestic cybersecurity space and for many other high-tech startups: He sold a majority stake to a New York-based private-equity firm, specifically Warburg Pincus LLC, reportedly for upwards of $100 million.

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Innovation Nation: AI godfathers gave Canada an early edge — but we could end up being left in the dust

“If you really want to keep up with your better-funded competitors, you’ve got to figure out how to build a sales plan, how to build a sales pipeline,” he said. “I’m not saying it’s impossible, but it’s very difficult to do this if you don’t have a war chest.”

Today, eSentire has more than 450 employees across five offices in Waterloo, New York, Seattle, London and Cork, Ireland, and has an international reputation for having pioneered managed detection and response services, in which incident response teams seek out and eliminate cyber threats for clients.

In its field, eSentire is considered an innovator. But to some observers, it exemplifies a concerning trend, that is, Canadian companies with huge potential being snapped up by larger U.S. firms or investors before they can grow into full-fledged homegrown success stories.

In the cybersecurity space, the evidence is overwhelming. An analysis of TSX, TSXV and CSE listings reveals only three publicly traded Canadian companies entirely devoted to cybersecurity. Combined, the market caps of Absolute Software Corp. ($355 million), Hilltop Cybersecurity Inc. ($4.5 million) and Quantum Numbers Corp ($6.5 million) make up 1.2 per cent of the most valuable U.S. cybersecurity company, Palo Alto Networks Inc. (US$22.7 billion).

(BlackBerry Ltd. is continuing to expand and focus on its cybersecurity division, most notably through its $1.4-billion acquisition of California-based Cylance, but the rest of the industry still does not see it as a pure cybersecurity company.)

Tyson Johnson, who is chief operating officer of CyberNB, a government of New Brunswick mandated agency that aims to grow the province’s cybersecurity space, said there are a number of factors contributing to the disparity between the U.S. and Canada. But what he always ends up circling back to is the consistent intervention from the south of the border.

For example, International Business Machines Corp. in 2011 absorbed Q1 Labs, a company founded in Fredericton, N.B., and turned it into its own security intelligence team. Japan’s Trend Micro Inc. in 2009 bought Ottawa-based Third Brigade when it only had 50 employees. Two years ago, Nielsen Holdings PLC came calling for Sentrant Solutions, another Fredericton-based company, just three years after it was founded. The financial terms of these deals were not released.

Johnson is concerned that the pattern of deals means a Canadian leader may never emerge in the sector, but he’s also worried about what that means for the country from a safety perspective.

eSentire president and chief operating officer Paul Haynes, left, and founder and chief innovation officer Eldon Sprickerhoff, right, stand in the company’s server room.

Canada, as a House of Commons committee heard in February, has been a target of consistent cyber attacks due to its NATO membership. But the government does not currently have a company it can rely on that uses Canadian-developed, -operated and -owned technology to fend off cyber crime and would have to rely on third parties in case of an attack. And with a third party, there’s always the chance of back doors being deployed, Johnson warns, or of these companies and their technology being used against Canada.

“What’s to say that the great technologies Canadian companies start up and innovate in today don’t get purchased and invested in by nations we are not as friendly with tomorrow?” he said.

Securing funding in Canada has proven to be challenging for many cybersecurity executives who feel like they may not have a choice but to look outward.

Like eSentire, most cybersecurity companies in Canada are built from the ground up when an entrepreneur such as Sprickerhoff has an idea for a new product or service.

It’s relatively easy to secure funding in Canada when you’re still developing a startup, Sprickerhoff said, because there are several angel investors willing to offer support.

According to the National Angel Capital Organization, 43 angels poured $162.6 million into 505 investments in 2017. That’s up from 2016, when 35 groups invested $157.2 million into 418 investments.

Moving into the scale-up space — where companies such as Q1 Labs, Third Brigade and Sentrant Solutions were before being sold — can create a different challenge.

As companies look to secure more capital, they’re left with fewer partners who are willing to fund them, Sprickerhoff said. Even in an early investment stage, it became more difficult for eSentire to secure “sweet spot” investments between $1 million and $5 million.

“There’s maybe only a dozen that would be willing to do a deal,” he said.

And there are only “two or three” that invest in the $15 million to $20 million range, he said. If they’re not interested, companies have little choice but to widen their scope outside Canada.

Case in point, eSentire once relied on two U.S. partners, Warburg Pincus and Edison Partners, to raise US$47 million to incorporate artificial intelligence into its managed detection response technology.

SecureKey Technologies Inc. founder Greg Wolfond is facing similar hurdles with funding, but is adamant that his company has a “Canada first” mindset.

“The belief in Canada is, ‘Let’s get lots of startups going,’” Wolfond said. “Let’s get a million dollars to this one and a million dollars to that one. These million-dollar companies aren’t going to give you broad and rich and deep cyber defence. You need scale-ups … that can scale to the size of big multinational companies.”

“There isn’t a mentality of let’s help the scale-ups and build a domestic cyber security practice and that’s really important,” he added.

The Toronto-based company, which specializes in software that assists major institutions to digitally verify the identities of their clients, is much smaller than eSentire — SecureKey has 97 employees in Toronto, San Francisco and Florida offices — but Wolfond has been able to keep his majority stake while finding major Canadian investors to help the company grow.

In Canada, SecureKey has found investors in each of the big six banks, as well as Desjardins Group, Rogers Communications Inc. and BCE Inc. “We’re a bit of an anomaly,” Wolfond admitted. That doesn’t mean he’s ignored U.S. funds completely as both Visa Inc. and Mastercard Inc. are two of his largest investors south of the border.

As Wolfond continues to grow his company, he may also reach the point where he’ll be faced with added pressure coming from the U.S. — either in the form of a company attempting to acquire it or an investor looking for a majority stake.

What would help keep companies such as SecureKey in Canada, Wolfond said, is additional investment from the federal and provincial governments.

Critics like Wolfond, Sprickerhoff and Johnson often describe the U.S. as thinking of cybersecurity as an extension of its military. Canada, however, has yet to get there, they said.

In its 2018 budget, the federal government announced it would be increasing its investment in the sector to $500 million over five years. The funds will primarily go towards ensuring the government and its agencies are safe, while also funding the creation of an RCMP unit to focus on cybercrime.

On Tuesday, the government proposed investing another $144.9 million over five years to continue to protect its cyber systems in finance, energy, telecommunications and transport sectors.

The government will also be funding innovation — the main concern brought up in a public consultation was that it needed to find a way to “ensure that startups and innovation born in Canada stay in Canada.”

The budget specifically mentions driving investment, cyber research and development, but does not specify how it will do so or how much funding — if any — will actually reach companies such as eSentire and SecureKey.

But where the Canadian government falters, the U.S. is more than happy to step in. Not-for-profit venture-capital group In-Q-Tel Inc. was launched in 1999 — 11 years before Canada even developed a cybersecurity strategy — and invests in companies producing technology for military use, particularly that of the Central Intelligence Agency.

In-Q-Tel currently funds two Canadian cybersecurity companies: Magnet Forensics Inc., based in Waterloo, and Interset Inc., headquartered in Ottawa. The amount In-Q-Tel invested is unknown, but the firm’s investments usually range between US$500,000 and US$3 million — a respectable investment for both startups and scale-ups that doesn’t involve a stake of the company being sold. There is no equivalent in Canada.

Worse, even to cybersecurity executives such as Wolfond and Sprickerhoff, is that the governments — federal and provincial — lean on larger firms such as IBM for cybersecurity services instead of contracting locally.

“It’s generally easier for me to get on a plane and fly to Hong Kong in 15 hours than it is to fly an hour to Ottawa and do business,” Sprickerhoff said. “We have a Canadian inferiority complex for our tech. Nobody ever got fired for buying IBM.”

The decision to outsource cybersecurity, Wolfond argues, is not just contributing to the exodus of companies, but of individual talent.

He hears it from the youngest talent any time he travels to Waterloo and walks around the local university campus. “They have this expression,” he said, “Cali or bust.”

For those making it, the move isn’t so bad.

When Sandy Bird co-founded Q1 Labs in Fredericton, his dream was to make one sale. He did much more than that, transforming the company into one of the hottest startups at the time and fielding multiple offers for a merger. He settled on IBM.

The entire Q1 Labs team became IBM’s security division with Bird helping to lead it as its chief technology officer, a role that often saw him splitting his time between India, Singapore and the U.S. “I had a job anyone would die for,” he said.

Q1 Labs had about 100 employees working in one Fredericton office when he made the sale. Now, under IBM that number has grown to about 300 he estimated.

There was no disappointment about losing the company he helped start or about giving up on not being able to build it to the point where he may have considered taking it public. That didn’t make the company a failure. In his eyes, it can’t be, considering it resulted in solidifying his own position in the sector, bringing additional jobs to Fredericton and seeing Q1 Labs’ technology become a leader in the market.

Some companies just aren’t meant to be taken public, he said, especially when they’re only earning in the low millions in sales per year and growing at a smaller rate. The better move in that case may be to look for an acquisition, he said.

After leaving his job at IBM, Bird decided to jump back into the private space when “my wife found me counting screws in the garage one day and sorting them into buckets and said you better go back to work,” he said, laughing.

Along with Brendan Hannigan, Bird’s Q1 Labs co-founder, they launched Sonrai Security Inc., which focuses on protecting cloud-based data, in 2017.

Like he did when he was at Q1 Labs, Bird has continued to turn to U.S. investors: “Why not go to the U.S.?” he asked.

Bird sees U.S. investors as a positive for the cybersecurity space. It’s a glass half-full mindset. Instead of sending stakes of Canadian companies to the U.S., he sees the move as bringing U.S. dollars to Canada.

He’s still not sure about an IPO, and neither are Sprickerhoff or Wolfond, although all three agree they would like to see one happen.

One thing Bird is sure of is that he won’t hesitate to pull the trigger on another sale if an opportunity such as IBM comes up and is the play that makes the most sense to him, his company and employees.

And Canada’s cybersecurity sector will remain without a champion.

Financial Post

Email: [email protected] | Twitter: VicF77

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