Joseph Mallozzi's Blog, page 247

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Some big movies opening in the coming months.  Among them…

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February 22, 2019: Gearing up!

Since this new series I’m showrunning isn’t really mine in the way Dark Matter was, I’m going to refrain from posting any substantive behind-the-scenes teasers and leave it to the gang in PR to offer up fruitful insights into the production.  Well, the gang in PR OR some of you enterprising individuals who have already tracked down specifics on the series (name, production team, and shoot dates Mar 25 – Jun 25/19) and posted the news online.  Kudos on the detective work.  I, however, will remain necessarily cryptic until the grand official announcement.

Until then, here are some frustratingly out-of-context photos from prep…

Former Dark Matter concept artist Bartok Rendulic is at it again.  Decisions, decisions…

Production Designer Ian Brock will literally bend over backwards (and point!) for you.

Series creator/Executive Producer R.T. Thorne weighs in on Set Decorator Andy Loew’s…thing.

That rock facade is coming along nicely.

I asked John, Andy, Kelly, and Cathy to take the friendly, happy, energetic BEFORE picture that I can use to compare to the morose, resentful, weary AFTER picture I’ll take four months from now.

A little trivia about Line Producer Robbie David.  Apparently, he purposely put on a ton of weight before his wedding so that now, while his friends peruse their old photos and lament how far they’ve let themselves go, he can boast “I look so much better!”.

So, what is everyone up to this weekend?  I’ve got a visit to the farmers’ market and a pottery class lined up!

Holy Rankings! The Top 10 Villains from the 60’s Batman Series!

Atomic batteries to power.  Turbines to speed.

T.V. shows from the 60’s hold a special place in my heart, and none more than the ’66-’68 Batman series with its gloriously colorful, over-the-top villains. Apparently, doing a guest spot on the show was such a blast that producers had big name actors lining up for a shot to chew up the scenery.  Over the course of its three season run, the show featured roughly three dozen villains (and variations thereof including three version of Mr. Freeze, three Catwomans [if you count the movie], and two and a half Riddlera [I say a half because in addition to Frank Gorshin and John Astin’s portrayals, stage veteran Maurice Evans was brought in to play the role of the suspiciously similar Puzzler following Gorshin’s departure].

Anyway, this is one of those classic shows that you can still re-watch and enjoy, this time as an adult with a whole new level of appreciation.   There’s so much to love, from Adam West’s gloriously straight-laced Batman to that insanely convenient utility belt to those incredibly manic villains.

These were my Top 10 Favorites…

#10 – Shame (Cliff Robertson)

I ain’t all bad.  Just mostly.

Unlike most of Batman’s villains, Shame was a bit of an imbecile and that, I suppose, is what made him somewhat sympathetic.  Decades later, Robertson would return to the world of comics, playing Peter Parker’s uncle Ben in one of the innumerable big screen features.

#9 – Bookworm (Roddy McDowall)

“Now the fact is that our bats have flown the belfry, unaccountably still squeaking.”

Not only was he a literary-themed villain, but he was played by Roddy McDowall, star of my favorite film series at the time, The Planet of Apes.  You get the sense McDowall truly relished his delightfully low-key performance (Well, certainly restrained in comparison to many of the other big screen greats who graced the Bat set).

#8 – Mr. Freeze (Otto Preminger)

“Batman, but–but you were supposed to be a famous frostie freezie by now!”

Sure, the series boasted a slew of outlandish casting coups, from Liberace to Tallulah Bankhead, but one of the wildest was famed director Otto Preminger who positively revels in the role of the villainous Mr. Freeze (changed from the originally conceived Mr. Zero).  Rumor has it, however, that his demanding nature made the behind-the-scenes interactions with co-stars a little…chilly.

#7. Catwoman (Earth Kitt)

“Karate isn’t effective unless accompanied by yelling. Let him howl until he springs a vocal cord, then get him!”

While she wasn’t the first actress to play the feline-themed seductress, she certainly sunk her claws into the role and made it her own.  Some southern affiliates objected to the casting and threatened not to broadcast her episodes to which the producers responded: “We don’t care.”

#6 – Egghead (Vincent Price)

“Please, please, Miss Bacon. All of you are approximately the right age, in your early thirties, but I have eliminated you, Mr. Tyler, because you are lefthanded. No, the Caped Crusader is not portsider, and you, Mr. Savage, are out because of your accent. So aside from a couple of aging rock-and-roll singers, you, Mr. Wayne, are the only Gotham city millionaire who is athletically inclined with eggsessive agility. Therefore, you must be Batman!”

As someone who grew up on Hammer horror films, seeing Vincent Price guest on my favorite t.v. show was a real treat.  Yet another actor who really makes the most of his onscreen presence, Price was said to have loved the series which he considered well ahead of its time.

#5 – Penguin (Burgess Meredith)

“Politics is wonderful! I can use all my lowest, slurpiest tricks, but now they’re legal! I should have been a politician years ago!”

Meredith (who took on the role after both Mickey Rooney and Spencer Tracy turned it down) holds the record for most villainous appearances in the series at a whopping 20 episodes.  The actor freely admitted his bird imitation was decidedly more duck than penguin (due to the fact that the smoke from his “prop” cigarette irritated his throat), but that trademark Waugh! Waugh! Waugh! became as essential a part of his character as his umbrella.

#4 – King Tut (Victor Buono)

“It isn’t that I love you any less, Batman, simply that I love me more.”

Buono delivers a tour de force performance as the Professor-turned-King-of-Egypt going from zero to one hundred and back multiple times over multiple scenes.  I imagine filming his episodes must have been a hell of a lot of fun.  According to Buono: “Batman allowed me to do what actors are taught never to do, overact”.

#3 – Catwoman (Julie Newmar)

“If you pick the right door, I’m yours, Batman. If you pick the wrong door, you’re mine. So which is it, Batman? The lady or the tiger?”

My first true t.v. crush.  She always struck me as one of Batman’s most formidable villains.   The fact she could wield a whip certainly helped cement that impression. According to Newmar, she was going to turn down the role only to have her brother, and his friends from Harvard, convince her to take it because it was their favorite show.

#2 – Joker (Cesar Romero)

“Uh, Susie, Sweetie.  A special extra bonus.  A half pint bottle of the most exquisite Canadian perfume.”

Yeah, yeah.  Many other actors have portrayed the clown prince of crime on the big and small screen, but nostalgia makes it hard for me to love anyone else in the role.  Apparently, Frank Sinatra loved the character so much that he threw his hat in the ring in the event Romero ever grew tired of playing the Joker.  Still, as much as I loved Romero, his decision NOT to shave his mustache for the role (requiring a heavy application of make-up that never really held up in close-ups) kept his character from taking top spot.

#1 – Riddler (Frank Gorshin)

With money, who needs friends?

Gorshin left the show after its first season due to a contract dispute, but returned for its third, garnering an Emmy nomination for his memorable performance and turning a relatively (at the time) obscure comic book villain into a formidable Bat-foe.  He apparently developed his character’s high-pitched laugh at Hollywood parties – and that laugh was won him the role.

Agree?  Disagree?  Weigh in with your opinions, Bat-readers!

February 20, 2019: Week’s Best Comic Book Covers!

These were my favorites…

American Carnage #4 (cover art by Ben Oliver)

Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #3 (cover art by Andrew C. Robinson)

Old Man Quill #2 (cover art by John Tyler Christopher)

Seven to Eternity (cover art by Tommy Lee Edwards, Matt Hollingsworth, Jerome Opena)

The Beauty vol. 5 (cover art by Nick Filardi, Jeremy Haun)

The Wildstorm #20 (cover art by Jon Davis-Hunt)

Thoughts?

February 19, 2019: It’s like I don’t even know you!

Guys, please.  THIS –

is, quite frankly, nothing short of mind-boggling.  You mean to tell me that 82% of you would eat an apple pie without ice cream?  Some (no doubt online trolls) even went so far as to suggest they would actually top it with cheddar cheese instead!

Today, I was at the production offices for two important meetings –

MEETING THE FIRST – Casting!

We got together and reviewed all of our first round selects, narrowing down our choices for the call-backs.  We’ll do one final review of all seven roles tomorrow after which I’ll send our casting agent our choices – along with a suggestion that we get on the phone with each candidate to let them know what worked for us the first time, what didn’t, and what we’re looking for in the second round.

MEETING THE SECOND – Schedule!

Hmmmm.  We would appear to be a couple of days long which will require us to make a few trims – and maybe the odd deep cut.  Our days are already pretty chock o’ block so we need to find opportunities to help make them more manageable.  That can involve anything from reducing the number of characters in a scene (the more characters, the more time is spent getting coverage) to losing scenes outright (I know, I know.  It’s all gold and we wouldn’t have plotted and written them if they weren’t, but you’ve got to make the tough decisions – and also give fans fun extras like “deleted scenes” that never made it to camera).

MEETING THE THIRD – The set walk-thru!

Construction has begun and already the structures are taking shape.  We’ve got five weeks to build, paint, finish, and dress before we start principal photography March…what was it?  25th?  Of course once the sets are up, it’ll be smoooooooth sailing!

Meanwhile, delivered…

The overview and general four issue breakdown for the opening arc of my proposed comic book series.  Epic far-future, ship-based SF with plenty of action, adventure, exploration, a colorful crew of characters and an underlying sense of humor.

The revised outline for my (formerly titled) Untitled Awesome Project.  It’s New and Improved with 50% more op and 100% more heist!

The revised pitch for that other series with a reworked pilot breakdown that included the addition of flamethrowers, collapsing walls, gross mismanagement of temporal stasis fields, and the consumption of a shockingly underripe banana.

I look forward to the feedback!

February 18, 2019: We finally did it!

Akemi has been hinting about it for years now – on the heels of straight out asking me on several occasions.  I considered making the commitment but, inevitably, always changed my mind, anxious at the very thought of saying yes and the foreboding hurdles of going through with it.  Then, sometime late last year, she stopped hinting.  I assume she must have given up hope.  Which made me feel a little sad.  And a little guilty.  So when Valentine’s Day rolled around this year, I decided to take the plunge.

Yes.  I told my mother last night.  And now, you are all the first to know.  Yes, congratulations are in order.  Yesterday,  Akemi and I…

Attended a pottery class.

She’s been dying to do it since what feels like forever and, while I’m happy to make sacrifices for love, the thought of two 3 hour craft sessions never failed to trigger a deep-seeded panic in me.  But I bit the bullet and signed us up and yesterday, we did it.  We learned how to manipulate wet clay on that spinning table.  And make cups and bowl like kids trying Play-Doh for the first time.  I had my heart set on an ashtray or birdhouse, but I suppose I have to start small.  Yes, smaller than an ashtray.

Akemi was, admittedly, better at it.  Also, much, much, MUCH more interested.  I worked that wheel until my back ached and the sides of my hands burned, finally producing a quasi matcha bowl that, in retrospect, probably could pass for an ashtray.  I set it aside at the front of the room, proudly signed by name, then glanced up at the clock, assuming I had time to clean up, take a few photos, and call it a day.  3:45!!!!  Only an hour and fifteen minutes had passed!  I still had another two hours to go!

My pottery class pictorial –

Akemi, rarin’ to go!

Yours truly, less rarin’.

P.S. The denim apron wasn’t mine.  But the clay-spattered jeans and sweater are!

Akemi making a good first impression.

Please.  Eyes on your own pottery wheel.  No copying!

Two of Akemi’s ten creations.  She apparently felt sorry for me on account of my overall ineptness and slowed down.

The Master at work!

Her bowl work.

And my masterpiece: “Alphonse the Bugbear”.

And we get to do it all over again next Sunday!

February 17, 2019: Suji Sunday!

New coffee cup cap to add to the collection.

Double Trouble.

Lulu looking her winter best.

Taking the chew down for the count.

Hey, buddy, can you spare a walk?

Deep fake.

February 16, 2019: A Perfect Storm of Stumbling Blocks!

One of the reasons I like to multi-task projects is the amount of work I actually get done jumping from one to the next.  You may think it counter-intuitive, that you’d be better of focusing wholly on one thing, but I find that, invariably, there will come a point where you end up hitting the creative wall on something.  When that happens, I find that switching off and onto something else for awhile allows me to recharge and eventually return to the original project with fresh eyes and a fresh head.  Usually.  Of course the worst case scenario is if you hit a perfect storm of multiple creative impasses.  Suddenly, it doesn’t matter which file you open, re-read and reconsider.  There’s nowhere to go.

Which, frustratingly, is where I find myself today.  Individually, these tasks feel manageable but together they seem insurmountable.

My creative to-do list:

Orchestrate a clever four-person heist that highlights the individual strengths of each character in an entertaining, efficient, and humorous way.

Ground a sci-fi macguffin to a home location.

Rethink and reshape a pilot overview into more of a single character-driven narrative that is captivating, surprising, and studded with humor.

Come up with something clever the aforementioned character does at episode’s end to turn the tables on his unique enemy.

Re-read and track all character and story arcs through nine episodes, then craft a brilliant season finale in which all dovetail in and pay off in satisfactory fashion.

Find an amazing artist for that comic book project.

February 15, 2019: Artifice!

Check out these A.I.-generated anime characters…

Now check out these A.I.-generated people by refreshing this page: https://thispersondoesnotexist.com

Now check out the Jennifer Lawrence – Steve Buscemi hybrid accepting at a Golden Globe presser:

 

A brief overview of deep fakes:

 

And it’s not just video but audio as well…

 

Deep fakes and the technology behind it…

 

Spotting a deep fake (for now).  It’s all in the blinking!

February 14, 2019: Valentine’s Day stuff – but not really.

Oooh, check it out.  Matcha chocolate from Japan!  Not from me to Akemi.  Or from Akemi to me.  But from a friend who caught my blog post lamenting my inability to source these amazing chocolates and, while in Tokyo, brought me back this huge stash.  The bars are fantastic as is the sampling kit with matcha percentages ranging from a North American level 1.2% to a super intense 29.1%! Thanks to Matcha Mama for the score!

But to celebrate Valentine’s Day, Akemi baked me this blueberry pie AND picked up a pint of premium vanilla ice cream to accompany it.  I, in turn, bought her a cilantro-less tofu banh mi for lunch.  Romantic, no?

This arrived in the mail today.  No, not from Akemi to me but from me to myself.  Still, bonus points to Akemi for identifying the Legion of Super-Heroes emblem.  A girl after my own heart!

What’s that word?  It’s sort of means overwhelmed at the prospect of facing something really daunting?  Hello, thesaurus?

So.  Got the notes to the outline for my (formerly) Untitled Awesome Project.  Here are the results of our Yes/No survey…

Alien slang?  Maybe.   (Let’s wait for the script)

Diner Distress?  Maybe.  (Let’s wait for the script)

Alien Antagonist?  Yes and No.  (Changes required)

Visceral Jelly?  Sadly, no.

High Tea in the Garden?  Maybe.  (Let’s wait for the script)

The Big Dance Number?  No.  (Which may force me to change the placeholder title to Untitled Good Project)

Anyway, some fairly significant notes that will require a restructuring of the outline – and a fair amount of thought.

I’ve been so busy researching and writing that I’ve fallen behind on my reading. 13 books sit in my digital “LOANS” shelf among them: Time Travel in Einstein’s Universe, What Came Before the Big Bang: Cycles of Time, and The Legion of Regrettable Villains.  I have three weeks to get through them.  Wondering if an impromptu trip to L.A. to pitch the BIG project will make me MORE or LESS likely to get through them?