Wendago

The feature MY BLOODY VALENTINE has received a pending “R” rating from the MPAA.
Reason:
For graphic, brutal horror violence and grizzly (grisly) images throughout, some strong sexuality, graphic nudity and language.

Okay, nuff said about the above. But my how I love when Dave gets pissed off!
Golly Ms. Molly. I sure do know how to piss off the Jensen fans. Well, some of them anyway. Them which I will from now on refer to as “Military Jensen” or perhaps “Force 10 from Ackles” or better yet, “Saving Jensen’s Privates”. Either way, they come down on you like a ton of Winchesters if they feel you have wronged their man. And why pray tell? What did wittle oh me do to piss’em off? To deserve such hateful emails? Such venom?

Simple. I suggested in my personal (although slightly public) journal that the Acktor would make a great Rex in the movie version of Nightmare Academy. Meant no harm. Meant no offense. But apparently the militant faction of the New Jensen Nation considers his acting in a kid’s movie beneath him. Well. Shame. On. Me. Thank you sooo much for correcting my misguided self. Consider my opinion changed! And while we’re at it, what in the world were Richard Harris, Maggie Smith, Robbie Coltrane, Warwick Davis, John Hurt, Jason Isaacs, Kenneth Branagh, John Cleese, David Thewlis, Michael Gambon, Julie Christie, Timothy Spall, Emma Thompson, Miranda Richardson, Gary Oldman, Ralph Fiennes and Alan Frackking Rickman thinking? That silly little Harry Potter thing was soooooo beneath them.
EDIT: It is the wee hours on the morning of my daughter’s second birfday and my little email account has been flooded so I thought I’d jump on here and thank everyone for the well wishes…and…offers to hunt down those that may have wronged me. Thank you. Not necessary but thank you. As I mentioned in a comment to Reaper, the majority of the emails concerning my last post were positive. But three were negative and two were…well, more than a little nasty. So, that said, of the millions of Jensen supporters I guess I lashed out at two. Hey. I was pissed. I’m human. :) But I should have made the numbers clear. My bad. In truth I’m diggin the majority of you knuckleheads and can honestly say I’ve made some lifelong friends in the fanpool since this journey began. In fact, I even secretly navigated a couple of you to the set during the shoot (safe to say now I suppose since the shoot is over). Anyway, thanks again. Warmed my bitter heart to have so many of you willing to go to war on my behalf. But all is well. Don’t go hurtin’ nobody. :)

And since I’m now in a nefarious mood I might as well continue ranting. So my buddy Patrick gives an interview in which the questioner asked if Patrick had thought about a sequel to Bloody Valentine. Patrick was honest. There was no positioning or PR or press releases. He simply said, yeah, we’d thought about it. We’d talked about it. Spend six to twelve months together and you talk about alot of stuff. But the next thing I know dozens of sites are reporting, “Director already talking sequel! And commenters are tossing in their 2 cents, “Wow, it’s too early to be thinking sequel.” Well, let’s see. We just spent six months to a year of our lives making a movie that we happen to like. With actors we happen to like. And in that six to twelve month period if we discuss a sequel, if we talk ideas, isn’t that a good thing? Isn’t it good to be prepared? Or should we wait to see if the movie is a success and then phone it in cuz by that point there’s no real time to meet the arbitrary studio imposed deadlines that will no doubt crop up due to industry greed? Matrix II and III anyone?
You tell me. What would have been the correct answer? Patrick, have you thought about a sequel? NO! Someone mentioned the word sequel and I immediately shouted NO. For the love of Jesus and all the little children in the world, DO NOT talk about a sequel until the movie has been released and we get clearance from the blowhard know-it-alls in the world!
If you take issue with my attitude then I say to you what I said to J3ns3ngirl71, “Lose my email.”
So, what’s new in Bloody Valentine news? Well, I’ve seen several cuts of the film and it just keeps getting better and better. And I just watched the trailer this morning! Oh. My. I’m geeking out! It’s 1996 again and I just saw Arnold driving onto the Universal Lot with his stoggie. Needless to say, I am on the north end of excited.

A month or so back I popped into LA to be interviewed for the documentary, “His Name Was Jason: 30 Years of Friday the 13th”. It was fun but I don’t think any amount of time will change my opinion about Jason X. It could/should have been better. Yes, I know there are some out there who love it. Some who have had their lives changed for the better due to the dramatic influence of Jason X. And that’s great. But if you liked it that much then you would have had a mental orgasm had you seen the flick we were going to make.
Monkey’s Paw is in the hunt for a director. In fact, there is a meeting going on as I type this. I’ll leave it at that for now.

And I AM writing Devil’s Commandos. No. Really. Just kept getting distracted. I’m on it. The above poster was designed by Tim Bradstreet, who, by the way, is co-writing this mammoth bit-o-Awesome with me. It is sooo much fun. I don’t want to get too detaily but it’s a world war II meets the Twilight Zone sort of story. Tom’s off shooting a pilot but his plan is to direct as he did with Dark Country.

Two days away from Izzie Rain turning two years old. She has asked that we spend the weekend pwning gnomes. We said okay, just this once.
And by the way, if I don’t pay my phone bill they turn off the phone. It’s pretty cut and dry. Nobody BAILS me out. I don’t have some magical Auntie who swoops in and buys me a house and pays for all my bills. And knowing me, I wouldn’t take it if offered. 700 billion? Seriously? You see, there’s this little thing called economic reality. You can put a 700 billion dollar bandaid on the problem but it’s similar bandaids that put us in this silly fix in the first place. Half a million dollar homes were selling for over a million in California and nobody thought that was a red freaking flag? Morons. “Oh but the housing market always fluxuates. It goes up and down and even if it drops it will go back up.” Imbiciles. I remember back during the big frenzy in LA our Real Estate Scumbag actually had the hairy balls to tell me that it was okay to overextend because you always make more and more money. I have not seen or heard from her in years but I certainly hope she’d dead. Oh I’m sorry. Did I get off on a tangent? Teehee.
Where was I?

Heh, ain’t she darlin? I’m tired and wore out. I’m heading home. Oh great news concerning Monkey’s Paw and the director but that’s a story for later.
Love you all. Mean it.

We gotta go back for this one. Before Comicon…before Pittsburgh even. I call this one, “Making Contact with the Mother Ship.” We were outside waiting to be seated at a restaurant.

I struggle to escape this Bloody Valentine state of mind. I’ve seen the movie twice now and it is soooo unbelievably good. And that’s with a temp score, temp sound, temp FX and non-3D. Although I have seen reels 1 and 3 in 3D and WOWOWOW. Seriously. It’s good to be the king.
The movie is so good that it and its actors have seeped into everything I do. I just handed in Monkey’s Paw and during the last couple of passes I could not shake Kerr Smith from my mind. He IS so the lead in my mind. I poured my heart into Monkey’s Paw and took a huge risk in writing. Thus this screenplay CANNOT be phoned in. It is a puzzle of poisoned needles and one misstep and she all comes crashing down. But with an actor like Kerr in the lead…magic.
And then there’s Dean’s Nightmare Academy

Here’s the cover of book one. Book two comes out in 5 days. I have the cover somewhere…I’ll find it and post. But having read all three books I am convinced that the character of Rex, IS Jensen Ackles. In fact, just last week I was showing Dean a cut of MBV and out of the blue Dean says, “Hmm, Jensen would make a great Rex.” To which I said, “I KNOW!”
I know it sounds silly but what you have to understand is that Hollywood has a way of wearing you down. Killing that passion and joy that making movies used to offer. So anytime passion seeps back in…well, you gotta get a little silly and embrace it. I love Nightmare Academy and it’s going to be this huge movie at Universal. I’d like to see it done right. And after seeing the work Jensen did on MBV, well, he’d simply be perfect.

Above Camera Op – Howard, Patrick, Max in the BG and DP Brian. I find myself going back and just browsing these set pics all the time. Hollywood exists on the edge of high highs and low lows. And while MBV had its share of lows, I recall the highs far outweighing them. Least that was my experience. Thus, I can’t wait to do something else with Patrick. In fact, we’re probably going to co-write something. We spent an hour bouncing ideas yesterday. We are so disgustingly twisted, I’m not even sure we can make the ideas we discussed. This is a good thing, no?

I said I had more from Comicon and I do…but now the information feels dated. The RAW booth was overrun with Tom’s Mutant Chronicles (which comes out in 09) and our own Devil’s Commandos. Check out that poster on the left by Tim Bradstreet. Unbelievable.

Bradstreet and I are going to pen the script. In fact, we should start any day now. That may seem odd co-writing something with an artist. No. Not really. Bradstreet is visual and screenplays are a visual medium. His ideas are incredible. He sees the movie in his head and that’s what most screenwriters do. That’s the part that CAN’T be taught. It’s the GUT thing. It’s analagous to Robert Rodriguez directing with Frank Miller on Sin City.

As stated before, the con was fun but far more subdued than last year. This year was more about work. Of course, I did break away to do some shopping. Young Izzie Rain loves R2D2. This does not in any way annoy me. She has the attraction to keychains and her favorite is her R2 keychain. So I got her the R2 backpack. She can have it later. For now it accompanies me every day as I bike to and from the office.

I came home with some artwork this year. But I’m not going to show you the pics yet. I’m having them framed. I bought two prints from Bradstreet and Jim Daly (center) presented me with his original sketch of Coffin from our coming comic series The Lycan. Wait until you see it. It bleeds AWESOME.

Tom also did his fair share of art purchases. Many average movie viewers wouldn’t know this but Thomas Jane is an old soul. Old school doesn’t begin to describe him. He doesn’t just dabble in comic books…he lives for them. And this comes from his adoration for the art form. He got to meet one of his heroes. Al Feldstein. Tom was like a kid on Christmas morning.
Feldstein wrote, drew and edited EC Comics. He helmed Mad Magazine for 28 years. He’s an Eisner Hall of Famer. The man is a legend.

Tom spent hours the next day locating one of Feldstein’s original comics for the man to sign. It’s hard to go anywhere with Tom without his being stopped a thousand times for autographs, questions, comments. I don’t know how they do it. I was exhausted just spending a couple days with him. Anyway this guy comes up and wants an interview for some college news channel I think it was. The guy wants to know all the standard stuff. Punisher, Mist, what movies are next and so forth. Tom spends the entire interview praising Feldstein. Every question Tom skillfully guides back to Feldstein.

He wasn’t there as a celebrity. He was there as a fan. See that Bad Planet poster with the red writing? The one in the center. That is the last cover Dave Stevens did before he passed away. Dave Rocketeer Stevens! I’m a geeked out fan of anyone who refused to phone it in. And neither Tom nor Raw studios phones anything in.

The two final adventures of the week consisted of the screening of Mutant Chronicles followed by a panel with Tom, Ron, Devon and director Simon Hunter.

Sunday night found us at a memorial celebrating the life and birth of Dave Stevens.

Izzie approved of my return.

I rewarded her loyalty with a trip to Home Depot. I know. I spoil her.

I have been back and forth to LA often of late. Spent some time with Patrick, Cynthia, Devin and the crew at editing, had several meetings and a great lunch with JR Young who was the executive in charge of Messengers II. I’ve have made no secret about how amazing the experience on Messengers II was and it continues. JR gave me a gift from the set. I WISH I could show you! But I can’t! Because it’s the coolest, most spoiler filled gift ever! So, once the movie is out…promise.
Director Martin Barnewitz and I were going to share some drinks on Tuesday but my schedule got all wonky. So we shall continue next Tuesday. I’m heading to town to say a few words on a Friday the 13th documentary.

While there I will once again crash Patrick while he’s in editing and hopefully see more of the movie in 3D. I am so very addicted to 3D at this point.
And speaking of editing, Martin showed his first cut of Messengers II to the studio and I am awaiting news. After his next cut, I will get a chance to see it. I can’t wait. In preparation I went back and viewed one of Martin’s movies and his videos. The man is a visual genius. This movie is going to be soooo scary. And there’s no hiding from the blame on this one. I’m the writer. There’s no one else. No one before me and no one after me. Granted I’m sure there were some on-set tweaks as those are unavoidable but love or hate it. I’m the guy you can point the finger at. So cool!

Here it is! Well, this is the new cover for book one. I love it but I’m so freaking fond of the one posted at the top of the entry as well. This one, of course, goes with…

…this one. This is Book Two of Nightmare Academy. Comes out on the 26th. Click the pics to grab a copy from Amazon or drop by the ever noble Barnes and let me know if I’m alone in thinking Jensen Ackles is perfect for Rex.

There’s other stuff in the works. Some great news from Scifi and I may end up doing a polish on one of Tom’s upcoming films. But I’ll detail all of that later. Right now I’m gonna join the girls for an ocean walk. Yeah. It’s a hard knock life.

This shall be an all iPhone pictures entry.

Izzie loves the new iPhone. I find it amazingly glitchy.

Survived takeoff.

Survived landing.

Booth looks better than last year.

Bloody Teaser! Later I met Doug and Jason. Jason works for LG. Doug works for self. They are the geniuses behind the above poster. Doug was also behind the brilliant poster for Messengers. You know the brilliant poster they didn’t use. The one with the baby sleeping in the crib with the crows lined on the bed’s railing. Creepiest poster ever but not one was ever printed. The pic only exists on the net. Anyway, they were great. More on that party later.

The Mighty Bradstreet was set up in the RAW booth this year. Artist Alley took another heavy hit. Artists are now forced to share a table for the same price. Ladies and Gentlemen…they are squeezing the comic book buys out of comicon. Imagine that. Soon there will only be room for the movies based on the creations of the comic book guys who will no longer be allowed at comicon.

Mark stopped by the RAW booth.

Preparing for the Lions Gate party.

Tim and Tim. Bradstreet you know. The other Tim is co-head of marketing at LG. I really liked him. The man is a genius. I’ve already made my love of Sarah co-head of marketing known. Ran into both while Tim was signing Punisher posters with Ray (pics coming later as those are on my actual camera and I didn’t bring the firewire with me). If you need proof of their genius, see poster above. But it was here that I met the actual poster creators, Doug and Jason. Sarah also introduced me to Feltheimer, LG CEO. Nice guy.

Tim introduced me to Ray. Now you gotta remember that Bradstreet does not nor will he ever play the Hollywood game. So rather than blow me off after introducing me, Bradstreet then began laying out the life and times and great accomplishments of Todd Farmer to Titus Pullo. Bradstreet. Gotta love him.
Not pictured by choice was the following Darabont dinner. Same crowd for the most part as last year. Tom from Sideshow and his wife, the Wrightsons, Niles and Sarah, Robert Rodriguez and Rose McGowan, Tom, Bradstreet, Bill Stout and his son, Mike Mignola and his wife and half a dozen others who I either didn’t meet or slip my mind.
Just before Frank left I told him I’d recently read his version of Indiana Jones. He was quick to toss out the disclaimer that the draft that hit the net had been re-typed. Most likely to conceal the watermark. Frank takes punctuation and spelling very seriously so the state of the script bugged him. But otherwise it was his script and let me tell you ladies and gentleman, it is the movie alot of people thought they were going to see. It just worked. And no Mutt. Sorry Shia.

Tom prepares Raw Shirts the following day.

Got an email from Peter Bracke and replied by attaching a pic of a booth selling his book. Actually saw his book at many different booths.

Full size R2 from Sideshow. Unbelievable. I’m sorry but Sideshow blows the competition out of the water.

Later in the eve the RAW crew met at the Red Pearl again.

In the back room again.

The joint is amazingly too loud. But the food is wonderful. And the saki is dreamy.

Some quick pics on the street…

Then it was off to the US Grant for the RAW Party.

Liz and Bernie were there. They have a great booth this year by the way.

Bernie and Tim. Sexy as ever.

Will from Eastern Tennessee with his thick accent and his Southern charm is a close friend of John Carpenter’s and nearly got the gig writing the comic version of Psychopath.

I made it a pretty early night. By midnight I was grabbing a venti iced chai and strolling back to the Omni.
More to come.