Itchy Wool and Broken Wings

Chances are, if you've touched the internet or viewed television at any point over the last couple weeks, you've heard that Harrison Ford broke his leg the second week of June while filming on the latest Star Wars sequel at the Pinewood Studios. This morning, "news" is out there that Ford is up and walking again using "a prosthetic limb" (thanks Daily Mail) - I put both in quotes because the concept of news and the use of such a strange term as prosthetic limb in the headline makes it as attention grabbing as possible, I'm sure.

A while ago, I had written an open letter to my heroes after a viewing of Spielberg's War Horse (unfortunately now that the site has migrated the old blog has been taken offline otherwise I could link back to the past). In short, the letter suggested that the likes of Steven Spielberg and George Lucas, who were responsible for so much of my childhood, had gotten too comfortable in their more recent days. Having people around them that never say no and never being challenged by anything had made them complacent and the quality of their films was mirroring that state.

Take a look at a film like Jaws, which is so incredibly effective because the challenges of the mechanical shark forced Spielberg to get creative with how he was playing with the audience. Fear in the unseen. Now, a couple weeks of VFX to the cheapest bitter and you can have all the Bruce you can handle in a film like Jaws.

This is the long way of going about saying it, but Ford breaking his ankle (though you never wish ill of people that they break their legs requiring surgery) might be a good sign of things to come. It's a challenge for the creative team that they have to work around and, to use the cliche, forces them to think outside the box to figure out a workaround. Bluntly, it forces the Above the Liners on the call sheet to move outside their comfort zone and not rely on the easy way out.

Films like Wizard of Oz, the first X-Men film, and countless others have had to deal with major adversity (let's be honest every film has to deal with some sort of adversity which is the main reason a go-to question in EPKs is "what was the biggest challenge of _____"). And for some reason, even though it's at the expense of poor Harrison Ford's leg, I see this as yet another positive toward the film we'll be seeing next December.

The Wizard - 25 Years Later

It's hard to believe that it's been 25 years since kids were introduced to Super Mario Bros. 3 in one of the most elaborate marketing moves of its time. For over 90-minutes, Universal Pictures' The Wizard took us on the journey to California of Jimmy Woods ("Gimme gimme gimme... Jimmy Woods") and his brother Corey, played by Fred Savage.

I was eight at the time that the movie was released, and I was at that highly impressionable age where everything I saw in movies, I wanted. Proton packs, Talkboys, heavy-so-they-must-be-expensive night vision goggles, you name it - if it was featured in a film and made an impression, I wanted one. So it's no surprise that in an era where we were eating, sleeping, and breathing Nintendo that a film came out featuring all-new Nintendo products and I went bananas. 

We all wanted to be Jimmy Woods, on a trip to California with our big brother to play in the Video Armageddon. We all wanted our sage-like guide to be a feisty redhead who made us feel kinda funny in our stomachs. We all wanted to spend all day on the Nintendo Power Play Tip Hotline getting the best ways to beat games (without paying the 95¢ a minute or whatever ridiculousness the hotline cost at that point). And of course, the film did its job and made us all salivate over the prospect of a third Super Mario game.

Thanks to social media director Todd Holland has been "live Tweeting" production of the film as if it were happening today. Twenty-five years to each day, he's Tweeting out never before seen photos from each day of production giving us a glimpse behind the scenes and actors Fred Savage and Jenny Lewis have been interacting with him. It's an interesting commentary on the making of the film, something which I'm sure the DVD/Blu-ray world will never have a chance of seeing based upon how studio heads view the film (in fact, I think it was just Universal hitting the dredges toward the tail end of DVD's heyday that made The Wizard actually see the light of digital day. Which is unfortunate.)

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Critics panned the film, mainly put off that The Wizard is a thinly veiled commercial/product tie-in. But despite promotional intent, The Wizard was and still is a fun road trip coming of age story. Sentiment and nostalgia for the film help, but Holland is able to evoke real emotion and character through all of the actors particularly the three kid leads but also Beau Bridges and Christian Slater as they chase after the kids. The beautiful "on the road" imagery shot by cinematographer Robert D. Yeoman (now a frequent collaborator with Wes Anderson since Rushmore having recently filmed The Grant Budapest Hotel and Moonrise Kingdom) is gorgeous and one wishes the film would get a proper remaster just for the landscapes of late 1980's America. A 1080p HD version is available through iTunes but appears that it could benefit from a little love and care.

The movie acts as an intriguing musical time capsule of 1989, with Bobby Brown/New Kids on the Block pumping at full volume and my original introduction to Real Life's "Send Me an Angel" which continues to make it onto road trip playlists because of the film to this day.

Twenty-five years later, I still look back at the film fondly both as a memory of being a kid in the late 80s and also as a catalyst for so much excitement and fun in a Nintendo brand feeding frenzy that more recent generations have yet to experience. Getting the rare glimpse behind the scenes care of Holland has been a treat and a welcome bit of nostalgia to kick off the summer.

Be sure to follow director Todd Holland @ToddHolland3 to view all of his behind the scenes imagery and to get a glimpse into a world not so far away. 

A Future Past and a Missing Link

We're being spoiled by the new trend in Hollywood to create "Cinematic Universes." Though, the trend is mainly spawning from each studio's desire to have a franchise mint that guarantees it will print money at least once a year, the creative teams behind films are having to find ways to connect everything and start looking outside of just one film for how they tell their stories.

Point in case, the release of X-Men: Days of Future Past, which I finally got to catch on Wednesday night. Admittedly, I was on the fence about the film based on the trailers and promotional material that had led up to its release. While I had enjoyed X-Men First Class, I was curious how this retelling of one of my favorite comic arcs was going to fit into the whole world. And, let's be completely honest, Fox as a studio wanting to maintain control over their Marvel properties is still cause for hesitation sometimes (see: Sony and Spider-Man and the troubles brewing over there). 

But X-Men: Days of Future Past was brilliant.

The film had to serve so many purposes: it had to be a direct sequel to First Class, it had to retell a very known and beloved story from the comics but had to shoehorn that into the characters that had been established from First Class and had to focus on the bankable movie stars as the "leads" (hey there, Wolverine and Mystique). And, unknown to myself until after viewing, the film also served as a soft reboot of the previous X-Men films in a style very similarly to J.J. Abrams' 2009 Star Trek film, which acknowledged the existence of the films that had preceded it, but made very clear that the future with the characters that we're now following is very much not set.

The structural changes to the story were seamless and the essence of the Chris Claremont/John Byrne run were essentially in place, but the alterations felt welcome and weren't all that jarring. Right off the bat, Kitty Pride's consciousness isn't the device we follow back through time, it obviously has to be Wolverine because Ol' Logan sells lots of tickets. Mystique and the assassination attempt from the comics get to carry over (again, thankfully for Fox so that they can put Jennifer Lawrence right next to Hugh Jackman on the art campaign) and setting the plot in the First Class universe allows for a great dynamic between the 1970s characters and the future characters. In fact, the film gets to play in the sandbox of themes established in First Class (Mystique's relationship with Xavier, Beast's desire to be more human) and they all also fit seamlessly into the two hour story as well.

Essentially the film boils down to one big advocate for writers to use the crap out of their note cards. To weave elements and character developments into the story so well that it all keeps the audience moving forward rather than tying them up in the minutia. As I was watching, I couldn't help but continue thinking how damn clever things were constantly. 

And it all adds up to an amazing experience that sets up a few more films that I can't wait to see. Even if there was a baffled movie-goer in front of us that didn't understand the end tag sequence that sets up the Apocalypse.

Chewbacca, A Chicago Bear?

Today Guest-writer Tony Garcia reports on some galaxy shaking news coming out of Chicago… here's Tony:

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...

Okay, it was actually today. And it wasn't far away at all. In fact I was in my truck and listening to sports radio like I do every day. A story that caught my attention came across the radio waves and I've been thinking about it ever since. It's been on my mind for a few reasons, mostly because it crosses two of my passions: film and sports.

Until today I didn't know George Lucas was looking to erect a Star Wars museum. I won't try to lie to you, I'm not a huge Star Wars fan. I've seen the original three films and that's it. I respect the series and since J.J. Abrams is now attached to future Star Wars projects, I might have to catch up. Even though I'm not a fan of the empire that George built, the idea of a Star Wars museum intrigues me. I'm a sucker for old movie memorabilia, props, scripts, etc. I would be ignorant to ignore the impact that Star Wars has made on the film industry. You'll never hear me refer to someone as geek or nerd for liking Star Wars or Star Trek. We're all nerds in one way or another. 

So George Lucas originally wanted to build this shrine in or near San Francisco. Makes sense since Skywalker Ranch is nearby. However, there was a report today that Mr. Lucas isn't getting exactly what he wants from the city of San Francisco and he may be forced to look elsewhere.

According to the report from my radio, that somewhere might be Chicago. Hey, I know that place! That's where I live! Now you've got my attention. But what the hell does this have to do with sports? I wondered the same thing. Why was this story making it's presence on my precious sports radio?

It turns out Chicago Mayor Rahm Emannuel has already reached out to the Lucas team to bring that museum here to the lakefront. More specifically, the lakefront right next to Soldier Field. The proposed land would take out one of Soldier Field's parking lots. Said parking lot is actually the main tailgating parking lot just south of the stadium, which many meatball Bears fans appear to be quite upset about. 

There was a report in the Chicago Tribune today that claimed that Lucas would actually replace the lost stadium parking spots by building a parking garage underground and actually double the current parking capacity. Many people don't know but there are only literally a few thousand parking spots for a stadium of nearly 62,000. It's always a hassle getting to and from Soldier Field. Public transportation is a must on game day. 

I'm all for the Star Wars museum coming to Chicago. My 6-year old son is actually a huge fan of the franchise. He knows more about it than I do. I would cherish taking him to a place like that just to see his face light up. I was skeptical as to why Chicago would be a destination until I read that Lucas' wife is actually from Chicago. So there are ties there. 

As a crazy Bears fan I also don't want to see the tailgating parking lot turned into anything. Poor Soldier Field already looks like a spaceship crashing into the top of The Parthenon. In a perfect world we can give George a better location on the lakefront. Perhaps one of the spots that were going to be used for the 2016 Olympics that Chicago failed to snag would suffice. I'm sure there's a solution to keep fans of Star Wars and Da Bears happy. I just don't think the that piece of land is big enough to support Ditka, Cutler and Yoda. Time will tell.