Between the network TV websites, TV shows on DVD, new sites like Hulu and The WB, and other…ahem…unofficial Internet distribution channels, that old lie I like to tell myself - I don’t watch TV - is becoming less and less true. Sure, I’m not watching cable or network broadcasts, but my laptop is working overtime. Plus, I’m going to burn out another DVD player marathoning entire series like Battlestar Galactica.

So, I’m not technically watching TV. But I sure am consuming a lot of programming.

I’m not the only one getting my fix via the Internet. Some TV shows, like the now canceled Jericho and Gossip Girl, are bigger hits on the Internet than they ever were on broadcast TV. Residuals not for DVD sales, but rather for new media content was one of the big sticking points in the writers strike and will be again in the impending actors strike (along with host of other issues, of course).

But that’s the bigger issue. I’m more worried about me and my growing addiction to TV not on TV. After this week, I can admit it. I have a problem. I’ve watched almost the entire Battlestar Galactica series, have found Gossip Girl online, and am still making my weekly trips to streaming sites to watch Lost and 30 Rock. Access to BSG and GG are the bigger problems. With DVD and new media, it’s easy to wait for a series to run its course and watch every episode back to back to back to back. There’s no waiting a week for the next episode. There are no breaks. TV not on TV completely changes the relationship you have with a show.

When Everwood first aired in 2002, there was an anticipation of the next week’s episode. I was developing a long, unpredictable, but ultimately fulfilling relationship with the program. There was a courtship. There were ups and down. There were times I thought that I would text message breakup with Ephram and Amy. “Srry, this arc isnt workin 4 me.” But I didn’t. I persevered.

Now I’m having quick, passionate love affairs with programs. I don’t care about so much about the ups and downs because I’m just in it for a quicky. I can skip the bad stuff if I want to. More often than not, I ignore those moments, knowing that it’s not about caring for the characters, but rather getting to the exciting climax.

TV not on TV you are fun and spontaneous. That’s for sure. However, it may be time to sit down and have a talk. We have to take this relationship seriously. I really, really like you. Can we take take this to the next level? If we can’t, TV not on TV, it may be time to call it quits. Hopefully, it won’t come to that. If it does, though, I just want you to know this: It’s not you. It’s me.

Iron Man isn’t high art, but it certainly is high entertainment. It’s a savvy, slick summer film that all Hollywood blockbusters should aspire to emulate.

So few May-to-August action-taculars even try anymore, going through the CGI-driven motions or trying to discover their inner art film/soap opera. Iron Man, it turns out, is great because there is a dearth of movies like it – movies with the notion that sometimes entertainment doesn’t have to be overdone or over thought in order to be spectacular.

Oh, and Iron Man is a superhero movie. I mention that because while watching the most recent Marvel Comics adaptation I nearly forgot that it existed in a world — and a genre — outside the movie I was watching. Much of the credit can be given to Robert Downey, Jr., who may well have given the first Oscar-worthy performance in a superhero flick playing the gazillionare, genius, military industrialist, playboy Tony Stark.

Stark and his company Stark Industries have made a fortune from selling military technology that is used all over the world. Somehow (wink) those weapons end up in the hands of Afghan insurgents who attack the military convoy escorting Stark from a test of his newest weapons system in the country’s mountains. He survives the attack, but is captured and forced to work with fellow prisoner and native engineer Yinsen (Shaun Toub) to recreate this new missile.

During the attack, Stark’s body was pelted with shrapnel from a Stark Industries-built weapon. Yinsen builds an electro-magnetic device that must be hooked up to an energy source to keep the shrapnel from killing Stark. Yinsen, he tells Stark, knows about the deadly shrapnel because he’s seen it kill people in his homeland. With access to loads of technology and resources thanks to the insurgents want of a weapons system, Stark makes his own, self-sustaining energy source, along with a high-tech suit of armor. The insurgents have a bad day, Yinsen is unfortunately killed, and Stark makes a daring escape.

Upon his return home, Stark vows to quit selling military technology and to protect the people from the weapons his company built. On a forced leave of absence from the company thanks to Stark Industries’ ambitious Obadiah Stane (Jeff Bridges), Tony builds himself an upgraded version of the suit, with a little hot rod red to match his personality. But when Stark discovers Stane is more than just gunning for his job, the real battle begins.

Iron Man is the first film independently produced by Marvel Studios. Oddly, it’s only the second Marvel production to successfully break out of its genre and work on a purely cinematic level. The other film, X2: X-Men United, contains a more harrowing story, a notion Iron Man never seeks to entertain. Instead, Swingers director Jon Favreau and lead actor Downey address the dramatics with a wink and a nudge. And it works.

It’s been five years since any summer movie has succeeded in the same way Iron Man does. With little pretense and a commitment to shear cinematic delight, Pirates of the Caribbean surprised audiences. Its unexpected freshness and one commanding leading man, Johnny Depp, resulted in the must see film of summer 2003. Thanks to Robert Downey, Jr., whose arrogant, glib Tony Stark changes more in principle than he appears to change in habit, we are able to indulge in a character that thrives of being the center on attention.

Downey isn’t the only surprising cast member in Iron Man, though. As Pepper Potts, Stark’s dutiful assistant, Gwyneth Paltrow goes toe-to-toe with Downey, and often comes out on top. Combine her performance with those of Terrence Howard, as Stark confidant Jim Rhodes, and Bridges, and you get a comic book movie that is cast like a Hollywood prestige picture. For Marvel Studios, Iron Man is a picture to be proud of, one that we can only hope will encourage more films like it.

The last time a game this big came out was when Halo 3 hit stores last September. The media types said that the box office suffered, down big time from the previous year and killing any chance the Farley Brothers’ The Heartbreak Kid (released a weekend later) had of making any money.

Now, I know this weekend is different. First, it’s the official opening of the summer movie season with Iron Man hitting theaters. Second, The Heartbreak Kid sucked. Still, with Grand Theft Auto IV ready to crush sales records, many (Nikki Finke) think Iron Man should be shaking like the Tin Man in the haunted forest.

I’d like to make a plea to all the gamers out there to take two hours out of your weekend to see Iron Man. Early reaction is very positive, and if there’s any chance of quality pictures being made, you have to see the good ones. Sure, Grand Theft Auto has drug-dealing, organized crime, ultra-violence, strippers, prostitutes…wait. What was I talking about? Oh, yeah. Big guy in a tin can. But he fights Afghan insurgents! If you don’t see Iron Man, then you are with the terrorists. Now, think about that.

That’s right. All those years in youth bowling leagues finally paid off. I have not one, but two trophies adorning my cubicle. One is for highest individual score (215) and the other, for first place team. (Great work Ryan, Dan, and Jessy.)

I couldn’t have done it without my mom, who introduced me to the blue collar battle royale that is 10 pin bowling and paid for that new ball return after “the incident.” (Thank God juvi records are sealed when you turn 18.) I’d also like to thank Walter Sobchak for the enduring wisdom that guides me every time I lace up my fragrant, tri-colored alley shoes.

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These trophies are for you, Mom and Walter

Let’s take a cue from Amy Poehler’s SNL Weekend Update bit titled Really?

Really, Amy? Really? You thought this gig in a tepid, tedious comedy was right for your first starring role? Really? That’s like saying heroin is the choice painkiller for you first experience with child birth. And really, Tina Fey? Really? Baby Mama, a second-rate little comedy about a 37-year-old business woman looking to be a mom, is really the film you want to make after lampooning the same character on 30 Rock for two years? Really?

From Fey, a Saturday Night Live alumna, and Poehler, the sketch comedy show’s current leading lady, comes a comedy that is unacceptably unfunny. Oh, true, like any mainstream comedy, Baby Mama has its moments of unsatisfying laughter, but there’s this suspicion that we’ve been hoodwinked. How can two comediennes the caliber of Fey and Poehler end up in a film that’s as edgy and smart as a JC Penny clothing model?

Fey plays Kate Holbrook, a business woman in her late-30s who has spent her life climbing the corporate ladder and not having babies. Her legacy is in the mega health food stores she helped develop in trendy neighborhoods across the country. One day she wakes up and decides to have a baby. Adoption isn’t an option. Her fertility doctor says he doesn’t like her uterus. Kate’s only real option is surrogacy.

The best jokes in Baby Mama come when Kate meets with Chaffee Bicknell (Sigourney Weaver), the head of the surrogacy planning agency. “Chaffee Bicknell? I thought that was two people,” says Kate upon entering Chaffee’s office. It’s worth a solid chuckle. When Kate asks Chaffee if she’s going to outsource her pregnancy to a poor woman in the third world, and Chaffee writes down a note, we get a laugh line worthy of both Fey and Weaver.

Then Poehler enters the picture. Poehler plays Angie, the lower-class white woman from…ahem…a less affluent part of town. She’ll carry Kate’s baby. Poehler never really settles on making Angie a 100 percent comedic role or even a wholly sympathetic character, resulting in some terribly uneven comedic moments.

Fey, too, has trouble fitting into her role as Kate. She strains to be restrained and misses out on comedic gold. Moments where the class conflict could result in insightful belly laughs are turned into lines that are just, well, mean. Kate and Angie aren’t simply another odd couple, but the film settles on letting them be a mediocre Felix and Oscar.

By the end of the film, you kind of feel bad for Poehler and Fey. Instead of being in a film that was made for comedy fans, they’re stuck in a film made for the folks who watch Oprah. Sure, it may get the pair a wider audience then either one has ever seen, but the cost, losing comedic clout, may end up outweighing the benefit.

Baby Mama, starring Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Sigourney Weaver, Greg Kinnear, Steve Martin, Romany Malco and Dax Shepard, directed by Michael McCullers, is in theaters now.  

If you’re looking for info on schism, you can check out my series In the Lyons Den. If you want to watch it, the film is screening at Edinboro University in Edinboro, Pa. tonight at 8 p.m. I’ll be the co-emcee for the post-screening Q&A, along with Eerie Horror Film Festival President Greg Ropp.

I was at the first day of casting, which was so long ago I can’t even remember when it happened. It’s a different feeling watching a movie that you know somewhat intimately. Part of me eagerly awaited some of the scenes I watched being filmed. Yet, schism still made me forget that I was watching a movie that was filmed so close to home. And those last 10 minutes. Freakin’ intense. Lyons has a little Aronofsky in him. Congrats to John, and a special congrats to Michael Best and Dorota Swies for the look of the film. And to Andy Flatley for his score. Well done.

I was really looking forward to seeing something like “The X Files: Mulder and Scully Vs. The Werewolf.” Apparently the camp factor that helped the show in the early seasons, and disappeared with the conspiracy plot in the later seasons, is totally gone.  So much for high hopes.

What can I say, though? I gots to write. I just threw on this little Wordpress theme and decided to come out once again. Note to readers: I know that most of you are my friends and family. (And friends and family LOVE to click on the Google ads above to fund this little venture.) I’m over droning on about movies and how wonderful they are and how they change your life and how Norbit should have won an Oscar. This will now be a normal everyday journal of my thoughts and reactions to the world around me.

Of course, my media intoxicated mind will most likely force me to ramble about movies and TV and, possibly, books on tape (because reading is hard). Yet, I feel compelled to not want to hate movies as much as this site started to make me hate them. Introducing TFC Journal. Yes, that’s TFC, which most of you assume stands for TheFilmChair because I’m too lazy and/or cheap to buy a new domain name and move to a new hosting company.  TFC goes back to a childhood playground of mine known as The Fun Closet. (Thanks, Father Pete.)

Now a word from our sponsor:

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If you saw Frank Darabont’s adaptation of Stephen King’s The Mist in theaters, whether you liked it or not, you need to pick up the DVD. If you haven’t seen this horror throwback, then you’d do well to skip right to disc two of this Collector’s Edition DVD set. The film, which was a respectable genre picture in its own right, gets a whole new life in DVD’s black & white presentation of the feature film.

Darabont introduces the black & white version of The Mist as his “director’s cut”, his original vision. And what an original vision it is. The film, which was full of genuinely terrifying moments, has a spookier feel. Some scenes—the opening sequence, a tentacle monster attack, a web-filled pharmacy scene, anything that happens in the mist—were made to be shot in black & white.

You can see the inspiration of 1950s/1960s sci-fi and horror films in this version of the film, which still follows a group of residents trapped inside a grocery store as a mist full of man-eating creatures engulfs their tiny New England town. Though the film could have also used a new score to go along with this new vision, the story of a small group of sane people who must survive a growing cult mentality fueled by the town’s self-proclaimed prophet still resonates. Only this time, it’s on a different, more appropriate plain.

Many other films have had multiple versions released over time. A director’s cut here. An extended final vision there. Kudos to The Weinstein Company for releasing this The MistDVD set with both versions of the film. We may also have lackluster box office results from the original theatrical run to thank, but either way, it’s rare for a DVD to offer so much in one release.

Special Features:
Exclusive Black & White Presentation of the Film
Collectible Booklet with Written Commentary by Darabont
8 Deleted Scenes with Optional Commentary
Audio Commentary with Writer/Director Darabont
When Darkness Came: The Making Of The Mist
Taming The Beast: Shooting Scene 35
Monsters Among Us: A Look At The Creature FX
The Horror Of It All: The Visual FX Of The Mist
Drew Struzan: Appreciation Of An Artist

Darabont’s intro to the black & white version courtesy of YouTube:

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The Mist, directed by Frank Darabont and starring Thomas Jane and Marcia Gay Harden, is available Tuesday, March 26 on DVD.

Minghella directed some of the most thoughtful films about love and loss, Ripley included. The only comparable working director is Ang Lee. Though history may hold Minghella in the same regard as it does a Bergman or a Felinni, this former head of the British Film Institute will at least be considered one of the most important voices in British at turn of the 21st century.

Minghella directed such contemporary classics as Truly Madly Deeply and The English Patient (for which he won the Best Director Oscar). His other works included The Talented Mr. Ripley, Breaking and Entering and Cold Mountain. He had just completed a 90-minute pilot for HBO’s The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency. Though he was a known in recent years as director, his roots as a writer were apparent in his often passive, literary cinematic style.

The sudden loss of Minghella is shocking and sad. Still, I can’t help but think that, wherever he is now, Mighella is watching all of us who mourn and saying, “Thank you for missing me.” Because we do, and we will.

Now, in his own words:

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13: Game of Death is everything I wanted Saw to be. This psychological thriller/splatter film from Thailand is just topical enough, just perverse enough and just tense enough to make for an entertaining evening of blood, shit and satire.

The film follows Chit (Krissada Terrence), a music instrument salesman who is having the worst day of his life. He’s broke. His car has been repossessed. And to top it off, he loses his job. When Chit seems to be completely out of luck, he receives a mysterious phone call telling him he can win loads of cash. All he has to do is complete 13 tasks for an Internet game show without fail and without question. But what starts out as a simple game evolves into something more violent and disturbing than Chit could have expected.

I know I’m watching an effective movie when 30 minutes in, I’m nauseous. 13: Game of Death cultivates its sickeningly twisted tone with such nonchalance that it’s disturbing. Unlike gruesome American horror films that try, and try hard, to shock audiences, this Thai thriller hardly ever feels forced, making it much more effective.

Equally effective is the dark sense of humor that pervades the narrative. The tasks are often disgusting, but it’s hard to turn away because the are completed with an unexpected comedic flair. No, that’s no permission to cast Shia LaBeouf in the inevitable American remake, but it is a solid recommendation for anyone who prefers a little belly laughing with their blood.

13: Game of Death, starring Krissada Terrence and directed by Chukiat Sakveerakul is available on DVD today.

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In her debut role as Margie Chezik, the effervescent Tanna Frederick manages to create a character who is equally zany and tragic. Margie isn’t just complicated, she’s a full-bodied enigma whose cunning is hardly limited to her interaction with the other characters. By the end of the film Hollywood Dreams, a film about a deceptive, ambitious, but ultimately troubled young actress, the audience knows that it has been taken in by Margie, too. And thanks to Frederick, we enjoy every second of it.

Part III (Read Part I and Part II)

FC: You’ve developed this relationship with Henry, now, but you are obviously trying to branch out into other acting work. And with Irene in Time, now you’re doing these different roles for a director you’re comfortable with. How does that set you up, or how do you expect it to set you up for the future?
TF: I think it will be really great when people do see Irene in Time because people will be able to see a different side of my acting. To be honest with you, I guess I haven’t really thought about people’s perceptions because I’m kind of oblivious to the fact that I swing so broadly from character to character. Only after the movie came out, and I went to film festivals and left screenings and people were actually freaked out by me as a person. I thought, “Wow, yeah, I guess I really do play a screwball in Hollywood Dreams.” [laughs] But graduating from the University of Iowa and having done the theater since I was nine and doing five shows a year and going from this character to that character, especially at a program like the University of Iowa where you are doing these extreme characters and these extreme scripts that are produced by new playwrights so people are all about risk taking, you just kind of take it for granted that people know that you have built a character, that there is a process. I haven’t been really worried about, “Are people going to see me in a certain way? Are people going to type cast me?” because I’m always different in every character. I think I’m boldly different. Not giving myself kudos or anything, but I am, well, Irene is very different from Margie. At first I thought people would be type casting me and giving me scripts that are crazy, neurotic, innocent girls, but actually people are offering me a wide array of different scripts right now. I’m surprised by the characters. I’m working on this Western surf film. I think that’s great. It’s very Kurosawa. That’s in development. It was offered to me by someone who saw Hollywood Dreams and thought I would be great as an action hero, as a silent, kung-fu fighting surfer…So I’m not being type cast, which is great.

FC: Is that what you wanted to do then, you wanted to go into film, even though you come from a theater background? Did you want to move into that?
TF: Yeah. I got a lot of flack in Iowa for coming straight out to Los Angeles. Everybody said, “You’re too big for film. You’re not going to make it. It’s not worth it. Why wouldn’t you go to Chicago or Minneapolis first? Or to New York?” A lot of people will tell you a lot of stuff. People were telling me my features were too big for film. They just didn’t understand why I was going straight to film. But I said, “That’s what I want to do. That’s my dream.” So I didn’t let anybody stop me from doing that. I figured, all these people who I saw fluttering out to Chicago and Minneapolis would eventually make their way out to Los Angeles. I’d say 95 percent of them have come here. It was after they went out and realized that a lot of productions are being cast with people from Hollywood who have credits. Now they’re coming out here and trying to build their resumes here. I’m glad that I was kind of naïvely stupid enough to come here and bypass that little time of dipping your toe in and just jumping in. I’ve always been more of a jumper than a wader in the water. Just get in there and do it.

FC: And in the process you’ve managed to connect with one of the last truly independent visionaries of film.
TF: Yeah

FC: If they’re intention was to go a more artistic route with it, and then you go to L.A. and get this work with an independent visionary. That was kind of a boon.
TF: I didn’t anticipate that. I was hoping to make fairly commercial films [laughs]. There were a lot of other people who had a much more extensive knowledge of independent filmmakers and independent films. I guess I’m more geared toward commercial tastes. Like Will Ferrell in Blades of Glory. Brilliant [laughs]. It was kind of ironic that I was surrounded in high school and college by people who were so into the independent world. Somehow I got hooked up with, as you said, one of the greatest independent filmmakers. That was a nice surprising, unexpected happening.

FC: You just can’t escape it.
TF: No, I just go with it [laughs].

Read All About Tanna, Part I & Part II

Hollywood Dreams is available on DVD May 6. Pre-order at Amazon.com.

Warner Bros. is officially cashing in on Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. The L.A. Times is reporting WB and Producer David Heyman will release the seventh Potter novel in two parts. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows will be filmed concurrently with one director.

The best news? Director David Yates will direct Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part I and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part II. Yates scored with Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, the highest grossing film of the series after The Sorcerer’s Stone, and is currently helming The Half-Blood Prince adaptation (out in November).

As convoluted as the seventh book apparently gets (didn’t read it), The Deathly Hallows as two films may make sense. Rowling’s meandering has always been the flaw in the book series, but the streamlined film versions have given way to some of the best screen adventures of the decade. With The Deathly Hallows, Part II getting a May 2011, we’ll be able to remember 2001-2011 as the Decade of Potter. Take that Peter Jackson.

In her debut role as Margie Chezik, the effervescent Tanna Frederick manages to create a character who is equally zany and tragic. Margie isn’t just complicated, she’s a full-bodied enigma whose cunning is hardly limited to her interaction with the other characters. By the end of the film Hollywood Dreams, a film about a deceptive, ambitious, but ultimately troubled young actress, the audience knows that it has been taken in by Margie, too. And thanks to Frederick, we enjoy every second of it.

Part II (Read Part I)

FC: Continuing on your relationship with Henry Jaglom, you starred in his play A Safe Place. Did you know him at that time? Was that as early as that relationship started?
TF: What had happened was I was in a play out here and waiting tables and doing extra work on Days of Our Lives. Doing whatever I could to pay the bills and doing rehearsals of this play. It wasn’t A Safe Place. It was a different play written by a dear friend of mine, Lee Simon. This guy came to rehearsals, one of my friends, and said, “I just wrapped a day of filming with Henry Jaglom. He’s the most brilliant independent director.” And I was like, “That’s cool. How did you get that?” He was like, “Well, you know if you write Henry a letter telling him how much you love his films, he’ll call you in and he’ll cast you.” So I wrote a letter about how much I adored Déjà Vu and went and dropped it off at his office. He called me the next day and we had a heated two hour conversation about his work.

FC: But you hadn’t…
TF: I hadn’t met him, and I hadn’t actually seen the film.

FC: And you had a heated two hour conversation about a work you hadn’t seen?
TF: Yeah, yeah. I was in full Hollywood hustle mode. [laughs] I was like, “God, Déjà Vu was so romantic, but so devastating. And what you did in that one scene, wow.” He’s a talker, so I just fed him questions and made him talk about the film, so I didn’t actually have to bring up anything from it. Then he invited me to a screening of Festival in Cannes. And I went and saw it and I met Henry face to face. Festival in Cannes was just amazing. I felt this completely déjà vu-ish sense of, “Wow, this is exactly what I want to do. I feel like I’ve seen this movie a thousand times, and this is exactly how I want to work.” So it was kind of serendipitous and fortuitous that I lied. [laughs] Actually then, he hired me to come to the office and put up window posters for Festival in Cannes. So I went around Los Angeles and hung up these window cards for Festival in Cannes in store windows when the movie was opening. While I was working there making, like, 75 bucks a week, he gave me his play A Safe Place, and he said do it for your acting class if you’re interested. I went one step further and got the play produced. I found a theater company that wanted to produce it and ran it out here for three months. I have to say, it was with the intention that I wanted Henry to see my work, to see that I can really understand and get his films, and I would be really great to work with. He did end up coming to almost every performance in the play and correcting me on every single line of dialogue that was wrong. But we then started planning the next movie and incorporated A Safe Place into (Hollywood Dreams). So that’s how we got started.

All About Tanna continues here.

Read All About Tanna, Part I.

Hollywood Dreams is available on DVD May 6. Pre-order at Amazon.com.

In her debut role as Margie Chezik, the effervescent Tanna Frederick manages to create a character who is equally zany and tragic. Margie isn’t just complicated, she’s a full-bodied enigma whose cunning is hardly limited to her interaction with the other characters. By the end of the film Hollywood Dreams, a film about a deceptive, ambitious, but ultimately troubled young actress, the audience knows that it has been taken in by Margie, too. And thanks to Frederick, we enjoy every second of it.

TheFilmChair: I just watched Hollywood Endings and I have to say you were fantastic. I’m always excited to talk with people when I’m very impressed by what I’ve seen.
Tanna Frederick: Thank you.

FC: You can take my word, or you can take the New York Times’s, I guess. You’ve been getting great reviews. How does that make you feel? This is your first on screen performance. What does that do when you are getting NY Times raves, Oscar and Golden Globe talk?
TF: It makes me feel wonderful. It’s really exciting to know that you can choose the track that you want to follow out here. You can do art that inspires you and that’s challenging and you don’t have to necessarily compromise between commercial and independent. I think that has a lot to do with the technology we have now, and a lot of films now are being produced by the independent world, a lot of the valuable films. I think that I’m very fortunate to have made “Hollywood Dreams” at a time when people are hungry and want something from independent films. I feel really lucky in that sense. And then to have found a director like Henry Jaglom who I just jive so well with and who jives with my idea of fun and art. It’s a total blessing.

FC: When you talk about independent, now, he’s old school independent. He’s been around, making movies his way. You just completed, or completed last year, principle photography on another one of his movies, and you are going to be in another Henry Jaglom film.
TF: Yeah, the one coming up. Everyone was left hungry, which is a good thing, to know what happened to my character Margie Chezik in Hollywood Dreams. Did she make it? What happened to her life? So were actually doing a sequel to Hollywood Dreams.

FC: That’s awesome.
TF: It’s called Queen of the Lot. There’s a scene in Hollywood Dreams that was cut out, but we are putting back in at the beginning of Queen of the Lot where I say, “I’m going to be just like Norma Shearer. I’m going to be queen of the lot.” That opens the next movie and it’s about Margie when she’s successfully made three big commercial films. She’s now Cinderella, but what does Cinderella have after she has a prince? What does Margie have now that she’s famous? She’s sort of lost and dealing with addictions and trying to figure out why she’s not happy still. It’s going to be with the same cast, David Proval, Karen Black, and then Noah Wyle is stepping in as the romantic lead. So I’m really excited about that. We’re shooting that this summer.

Irene in Time is the second film we completed, and it’s almost finished. It’s being edited and ready for rough cut screenings. It’s scheduled to be released in a September/October time frame. It’s a completely different character from Margie, which was fun for me. With Henry, he’s so open. He’s so respectful with people’s talent and range. I just really said I wanted to do something different. Margie was so bold in the movie, and my character in the next movie is very subdued. It’s a great, different character. It’s more of Jaglom’s magical realism, women’s films, where it’s about fathers and daughters. My character’s father died at a very young age, so she’s on her search, trying to find her ideal man, which is hard for her to find because she can’t find someone who’s just like her daddy.

All About Tanna continues here.

Hollywood Dreams is available on DVD May 6. Pre-order at Amazon.com.

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I’m just kind of wonder why Jack didn’t use this Joker quote: “Now comes the part where I relieve you, the little people, of the burden of your failed and useless lives.” Seems more the style of Clinton Democrats.

Hey Jack, here’s a celebrity endorsement video that really works.

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If there is anyone out there from Warner Bros. reading this, I have a request: please, please, please release Justice League: The New Frontier in theaters. I don’t want to live in a world where an animated film the caliber of this latest DC Universe release is simply called a direct-to-video movie.

A period animated film set in what was a dead zone for superheroes during the waning days of The Golden Age, Justice League: The New Frontier takes comic book fans on a dream journey into territory even the live-action theatrical releases have rarely attempted to take us. Steeped in the tradition of other recent DC Universe animations - narratives that steer away from the solid, mainstream appeal of most superhero films - this Bruce Timm production moves at a Flash-like pace without forgetting the characters or, more importantly, its inspiration.

At the end of the Korean war, fighter pilot Hal Jordan (David Boreanaz), a man who never fired at an enemy, is forced to eject from his plane and kill on the ground to survive. The day haunts Jordan so much that he is rejected in every attempt to fly into space in the early days of the space race. While he tries to find his place in post-war life, the McCarthy-fueled Red Scare is turning the American government against the superheroes who protect it. Superman (Kyle MacLachlan) can’t rectify his own commitment to American ideal with his super friends’ loss of status. The Flash (Neil Patrick Harris) is forced to give up chasing jewel thieves and go into hiding. Wonder Woman (Lucy Lawless) returns to Paradise Island.

Only Batman (Jeremy Sisto), struggling with is own identity as a feared vigilante after frightening a child, remains on a case and uncovers a threat beyond anything the Earth has ever imagined. With the help of a Martian (Miguel Ferrer), who cannot get over the injustices in human society, they sniff out the source of a cult that serves “The Center.” The threat is enough to band masked crusader, human, and even Martian together, while giving Jordan the opportunity to become the superhero he always could be.

At this point, I must confess, I never read the Darwyn Cooke comic series on which Justice League: The New Frontier was based. Still, the sight of the film, its vivid animation, and well-paced narrative is enough for film fans alone to take it seriously.

While not an epic in terms of runtime, the film carries itself as if it were a David Lean superhero film. We do tend to lose some context and character because the film is only 75-minutes long, but the film’s focus on unlikely characters like Hal Jordan and The Flash is enough for us to forgive the apparent lack of Batman and Superman. They do have their own franchises and animated series, after all.

In terms of its political context, I can’t imagine a better time for Justice League: The New Frontier to have been released as a film. Hearing JFK’s acceptance speech from the 1960 Democratic Convention over the animated montages of our Justice Leaguers is inspiring enough, but in a time when we need a New Frontier president and a community of responsible citizens willing to come together for the common good, Justice League: The New Frontier proves to be as timely as it is entertaining.

DC and Warner, you may have created a monster here. It’s going to take one hell of a live-action Justice League movie to beat what was accomplished in The New Frontier. Sure, there’s room for improvement, but the boldness of Justice League: The New Frontier lies in what it can do as a film that doesn’t rely solely on the conventions of the contemporary superhero film genre.

Justice League: The New Frontier is available on DVD today. 

Even if you are French, as long as you are a hot young actress who “deglams” you’ll always beat out the competition. Congrats Marion Cotillard.

I want a recount on the editing award. Would have loved to have seen the Coens win 4 Oscars in one night.

If Roger Deakins can’t win an Oscar for The Assassination of Jesse James, I can’t imagine what he does have to do to win one.

The gods must be crazy because they gave us Diablo Cody. Her acceptance speech was one of the most heartfelt I’ve ever seen. Definitely worth checking out on YouTube.

Here are the winners:
Best Picture: No Country for Old Men
Best Directors: Joel and Ethan Coen, No Country for Old Men
Best Actress: Marion Cotillard, La Vie En Rose
Best Actor: Daniel Day Lewis, There Will Be Blood
Best Supporting Actress: Tilda Swinton, Michael Clayton
Best Supporting Actor: Javier Bardem, No Country for Old Men
Best Adapted Screenplay: Joel and Ethan Coen, No Country for Old Men
Best Original Screenplay: Diablo Cody, Juno
Best Animated Feature: Ratatouille
Best Doc Feature: Taxi to the Dark Side
Best Doc Short: Freeheld
Best Score: Atonement
Best Cinematography: Robert Elswit, There Will Be Blood
Best Song: Falling Slowly, Once
Best Foreign Language Film: The Counterfeiters
Best Editing: The Bourne Ultimatum
Best Sound Mixing: The Bourne Ultimatum
Best Sound Editing: The Bourne Ultimatum
Animated Short: Peter and the Wolf
Live Action short: Le Mozart des Pickpockets
Art Direction: Sweeney Todd
Visual Effects: The Golden Compass
Best Makeup: La Vie Rose
Best Costume Design: Elizabeth, The Golden Age

I only got 10/21, which is pretty low, but for every one I got wrong, I wasn’t too unhappy with the winner. When did the Academy get taste? Oh yeah. They did give The Bourne Ultimatum three awards. Nevermind.

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Universal, take note. Your Wolf Man movie has some major competition.  Plus, who wouldn’t rather see Billy Connelly as a werewolf hunter instead of Hugo Weaving?  Pure gold.

First up is John C. Lyons, who just completed his first feature film titled schism. You can catch up on the production with my In the Lyons Den series. Well, Mr. Lyons is now selling tickets to the Erie premiere of the film. schism will debut at Edinboro University April 17 & 18.

Also worth noting is the production Virgin Pockets by Paul Gorman and the gang at GMD films. They sent me a screener a few months back, which I’ve still yet to sit down with. The film got some good coverage in Billiards Digest (PDF) and thanks to the wonders of the Internet you can watch it through GMD’s VOD service. You can also go the old fashioned route and purchase the DVD.

Here’s the Virgin Pockets trailer, too.

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Keep it up Erie!