25,000 Feet

The Bloodiest of Valentines. Obviously the 3D cat is out of the bag. So, let me tell you this. It looks amazing. HiDef 3D is a gorgeous thing to behold. Wednesday’s arrival found myself and actress, Betsy Rue, in a van to the production offices. After a quick costume fitting it was back to the hotel where we unloaded luggage, ate, then caught another van to the set where EXT. NIGHT mayhem ensued.

I greeted a glowing but very tired Patrick Lussier. Big smiles and an even bigger hug, so big I thought I’d broken his 3D glasses. We met the ladies in make-up, I got nosy trying to sniff out the on-set juicy gossip but was shut down. I would have to prove myself before being taken into the inner circle.

Betsy and I watched actor, Tom Atkins, shoot a couple of scenes, entertained a collection of extras and stayed up as late as we could in an attempt to get our bodies and minds on the night time schedule. Then we grabbed Pat, who would later become our regular and most laid back driver, and journeyed back to the hotel for some fast sleep.

I was up by ten and hit the gym. On my first day I met actor Kerr Smith. And I was very happy about that. Kerr is a Dawson’s Creek grad. And more recently Mel and I had TiVo’d Justice for its short run and were impressed with how easily he held his own against Victor, Jenny Garner’s daddy from Alias. From early on, Patrick had given me access to the auditions. No director has ever done this for me. But that’s Patrick. And Kerr was a stand out. You know, it’s always fun to hear your words flow from the mouth of a great actor. But when that actor takes your words and delivers them in ways you never even imagined…well, that’s sort of dreamy. Anyway, since I’m an opinionated son of a Kentuckian, I, of course, shared my favorite with Patrick. Go figger. His favorite too. No surprise. Because that’s when the Hollywood machine actually works. I’m nothing special. My opinion is nothing special. But when you get a bunch of like minded people around, magic nearly always results. And Patrick is brilliant at surrounding himself with like minds. Anyway, I thought Kerr’s auditions were great. Magic beans compared to what he’s doing now. You can’t help but marvel at his performances and wonder just how long before this cat is a household name.

And speaking of dreamy…Jensen Ackles. Good lord. No fella should be that good looking. And that deep voice of his? Swoon. Mel adored him on Smallville, which led to our watching Supernatural where I was introduced to his talent. I like Supernatural. I like him in the show. But I just didn’t expect the performances I’ve been seeing. I guess I was prejudging the good looks. Sue me. We’re all bastards in our own way. His role is one of those challenging roles that can be played vanilla or stunning. It’s a risk for an actor to take on a role like this. I once saw an actor not only lose his job but I personally rewrote his character out of the script because the actor had gone with vanilla. Jensen went with stunning. I watched him shoot a scene on night two that gave me goosebumps. Patrick refers to him as a young Steve McQueen.

Jaime King was off this week so we didn’t meet. Make note of what I’m about to say because I so rarely admit fault but I had written her character a little too harshly when we first meet her. Fortunately Patrick caught my mistake and I made the fixes last week. I saw some of that footage while here. Well, not here. Currently, here is bouncing up and down in first class as we swing around a big storm. But the footage was awesome. She was stunning. Both to look at and in her performance. She is amazingly perfect in so many ways. A buddy of mine said he saw her last week and she was commenting that Patrick Lussier was the nicest director she’s ever worked with.

It’s pretty amazing just how talented this cast is. Which brings us to Edi BigLove Gathegi. If you watched House then you know of whom I’m speaking. Just before I flew in, Mel and I saw him in Gone Baby Gone. He’s a chameleon. I ran into he and Kerr near the trailers shortly after we’d shot our first scene together. In one of my attempts to sound witty while talking to actors (and trying not to let my fanboy show), I was telling Kerr and Edi that Edi’s part and their banter got both longer and better after they were cast. For the simple reason that Patrick (and myself) really liked them together. Patrick told me pretty much exactly how he saw them in his head and I went home and pretty much wrote exactly what he wanted. But when I said this to Kerr and Edi, Edi knew me only as some noname day-playing actor who had suddenly walked up and started talking like he owned the place. He was like, “Uh…I don’t see it that way.” Then turned to Kerr, “Do you?” So I tried to explain myself by saying the script used to be this and that, which did little more than baffle Edi as to how in the big wide world did this bald moron of an actor read early versions of the script? Finally, I think Edi said something along the lines of, “I’m sorry, who are you?” Which is when Kerr jumped in and said, “He’s the writer.” So, in my attempt to give these guys a compliment, I made one of them feel silly. Nice stringing together of your words, Mr. Farmer. Keep it up. You should be a writer or something. A simple, “Hey, Edi, I worked as a writer on the movie. Your and Kerr’s auditions were so good, we ended up making your scenes together bigger.” I guess that would have been too easy. Not nearly complex and confusing enough.
You know what I don’t like? Lightning at umpteen thousand feet. Don’t like them big sudden drops out of the sky much neither.

I had spoken with producer, Jack Murray, several times on the phone before meeting on set. Jack is not only the coolest looking bastard on the planet, he’s also exactly what you want in a producer. When I’m on the set, part of the fun is stealthing back and watching. It’s that whole…who you are when no one is looking. I watched Jack make the rounds. I watched Jack go out of his way to make Patrick’s job easier. He didn’t seem to be doing it for praise. He was doing because that’s what a great producer does. I’m not used to that. On my first movie the producers were the enemies. They spent ALL of their time creating obstacles for both myself and the director. Creativity dried up because we were busy putting out their fires. But on this set I saw Jack put out several fires, many before they’d even started. Many before Patrick even knew they existed. When I witness someone watching out for my brother…well…it earns my loyalty. Good man, Jack.
I met cinematographer, Brian Pearson. I knew he was something special because this wasn’t the first time Patrick had worked with him. It’s sort of amazing. They are starting to sound alike. Both soft spoken. A similar cadence to their voices. I watched a couple of playbacks and Brian’s visuals are stunning. The man has managed to make me look even better than I naturally do. I’ve always been a 10 but Brian has turned me up to eleven. While watching the playbacks I found myself wanting to make out with me. He’s just that good. And like Patrick his passion and workaholism is unending. Even at lunch their conversations would drift into upcoming shots. These are men incapable of halfassing. Phoning something in is simply impossible for them. It’s not in their nature. It’s actually inspiring to watch these two together. I think this is one of those partnerships we/they will still be talking about decades down the road.
Then there’s Gary Tunnicliffe. Gary’s a Brit with blood. His prosthetic creations are…well…just one big ol’ lighting bolt away from…It’s Alive! Alive! Gary’s a little intimidating. You’ve met those people who are jacks of all trades? Gary’s sort of like that but he’s more a King of all trades. It’s a little creepy. Not only can he mix up a mean batch of blood but he’s an incredible writer. He told me the story for a screenplay he’d written which both blew me away and made me jealous that I hadn’t thought of it myself. And then there’s the sense of humor. The man keeps you in stitches. For instance, Producer Jack brought the Coffee Guy to set one night for the crew. The Coffee Guy was exactly what you would expect…a one man Starbucks. One by one, everyone made their way over to his table to order assorted specialty coffees. Except our stuntman. Who for one reason or another couldn’t get there. So he grabbed a union radio and ordered an espresso with a pump of vanilla. Pump. Of. Vanilla. This phrase crawled up Gary’s backside and dug in like a lime carrying tick. Pump of effing Vanilla? You’re the bloody stuntman! Shouldn’t you be tossing back a shot of Wild Turkey? Not a bloody Pump of Vanilla! You’d never catch Hooper ordering a pump of vanilla. Then he proceeded to quote 73 percent of the dialog from Hooper. Before the end of his rant, the stuntman had been forever dubbed, POV (Pump of Vanilla). I love Gary. I love him because he gave me a pillow. I wish I could explain what that means. In March perhaps.

Then you have actress, Betsy Rue. Brave doesn’t begin to describe her. She came to Pittsburgh ready to work and beware any all that get in her way. She kept the crew in stitches and within three minutes of entering the makeup trailer the girls were calling her a breath of fresh air. Spunky and tells it like it is. If war breaks out on a movie set, you’d better end up on Betsy’s side or you are going to get wounded. I fully expect her to be a huge star and she’s already got that whole hiding from the paparazzi thing down.
Fact is, the whole experience was humbling. The crew is simply phenom. The actors are great. And the story is unbelievably good if I say so myself. And although I knocked much of it out of the park, the praise must go to Patrick first. Because, as always happens, great projects always end up getting screwed by studio egos. Does this mean studio executives have nothing but bad ideas? Not at all. I’ve used some great ideas that came from executives. Even the yoyos at Lions Gate came up with some good ideas from time to time. But here’s the rub. Not ALL of their ideas are good. Can they market a movie? Sure can. In fact, they excel at it. I would even go as far as saying Lions Gate is one of the best in the business when it comes to marketing. If one of their movies fails, the one department you can’t blame is marketing. The one department you can blame is development. Patrick overcame. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve watched a script reach that point where it takes a step backwards. Many times that step backwards becomes a simple freefall. I witnessed the big step backwards. I saw it happen. Patrick saw it happen. He told me he’d stop it. He told me he’d fix it. And. He did. Not only did he keep his word, but the story is actually better than before the backslide. He’s a freaking genius. Patrick, Jack, the actors…somehow they managed to get the rotting apples out of the batch. It just so rarely happens.
I’m so very proud to be a small part of this movie. As the end of the month nears, the film will wrap. Patrick and Cynthia will attack the editing and eventually Lions Gate’s Marketing will take over. I couldn’t be happier. I remember what those New Line morons did to Jason X. So nice to have access to a department that knows what it’s doing. In fact, I met Lions Gate’s Head of Marketing. She stopped at the Doubletree to pick up her friend Selena, with whom I was chatting. Earlier I noticed Selena and I had the same call time and assumed we would be riding in the same union driven van. Not so. Rightfully so, I wasn’t allowed in the grown up van. But no worries. When we got outside there was a resounding roll of thunder, the sky lit up, the heavens opened and Bob arrived. Or Roberto as he was often called when he drove Robert Duvall around. I don’t recall Bob’s proper title, but he was the union bossman. I leapt into Bob’s Mini and we sped away.
Sarah was there because both her friend and her dog are in our movie. Her dog, which I innocently referred to as, Louis the Pug, much to her horror. I had just insulted the most powerful person at Lions Gate. She promptly informed that it was, in fact, Louise the French Bully. It should be noted that the Mightie Louis’s trailer was the same size as mine. Some might be offended by this. But I know how important Mightie Louis is so I gotta think my career is on the rise. And while it would have been easy to just shove both friend and dog into the script and call it a day, they both take part and add to what will be one of the coolest set pieces in the film. Of course, this is a film with a dozen brilliant set pieces. But the point is, nothing was ever phoned in.
It was a crazy, even surreal night. All in all, I didn’t want to like Sarah, Head of Marketing, because she’s a suit. I’m just so used to suits being the enemies. But I couldn’t help it. I liked her. Because you know what I love? Competence. I love people who are good at their jobs. Not just good, but great. Sarah is great at her job. Probably the best. As a result she demands and deserves respect. You know what I don’t love? Incompetence. There are a lot of people who think their position makes them deserving of respect. Sadly, for every Sarah, there are two morons skating under the radar of incompetence. It disgusts me actually. I honestly wish I didn’t care so much because they are everywhere and hard to detect sometimes. We have a great director. A great crew. A phenomenal cast. Gary’s FX are disgustingly perfect. Paradise’s 3D is a gorgeous thing to behold. Clever writing and a top notch marketing department ready to sell this thing from Scranton to the dark side of the moon. And right slap in the middle we had some asshats who very nearly sank the boat before she left the dock. All because of ego, fear and incompetence. In a previous post I said I didn’t want to work with Lions Gate again. Isn’t that crazy? Lions Gate is a strong company. How about we just cut out the bad apples? Joe Drake? You got your ears on good buddy? That’s trucker lingo cuz I play a trucker, after all.
I’ve just grown weary of the BS. Yes. Hollywood can sell movies. And as nutty as it may sound. Bloody Valentine is going to be one of the good ones. One of the films that slipped through the minefield to become something wonderful. I just think it’s time to get rid of the mines once and for all. I’d like to think a change is coming.

Plane landed in San Francisco safely. I returned to my wife and child. We walked the ocean. We watched a Panda fight with mightie Kung Fu. And as crazy as it was…6 day weeks, 16 hour days…I didn’t really want to leave. It’s so wonderful to be a part of something when you can see it’s working. And oh was it working. Of course, I missed Mel and Izzie. They’re my life. And in the five days while I was away my daughter decided to walk. I missed it.

But even now, as it is barking up 6 AM in Pittsburgh, I wish I was there, standing in a cold wet mine shaft. Tweaking a line here and there. Or offering a smile to a weary crewman or crewwoman. Or chatting with Bomba about his 31 years working for Mr. Rogers. I mean, how cool is that? Of course, I’d want Mel and Izzie snoozing in the hotel for my return. But that’s just how I roll.