Watch "Cover Girl" Part 2

Check out this variety from "Cover Girl" (it's known as "Make means For Tomorrow") and tell me that this is not, in fact, a primary draft of Kelly and Donen's elegant solo song and dance of "Singing within the Rain" from the film of identical name (which you will have heard of...) The backlot urban street, the utilization of the sidewalk and gutter, the lightpole, the disapproving cop. Nice as this variety is, it is not socko. however clearly Kelly and Donen liked the weather and revisited them eight years later, to immortal impact.

Another nugget on Donen, re: Kelly, and my DGA oral history interview of Donen. I asked Donen one too several questions about his films with Kelly and he waived it off and said: "I was co-directing. there is no such issue as co-directing!" Having simply finished a movie where the star was conjointly the producer and, thus, my co-director i used to be all to conscious of his pain and irritation. So--case closed. Later I browse a quote of Donen's, when asked regarding Kelly: "I owe him lots, however I paid that debt an extended time ago." Clearly no love lost, and the way typical of flicks (of show-biz in general); the best work is commonly tied to the smallest amount pretty recollections. and that they say that the films that are the foremost "fun" to create are sometimes the smallest amount fun to observe...

"COVER GIRL" GENE KELLY PLAYS WITH HIMSELF!

Film critic and historian Arthur Knight thought-about "Cover Girl" the second best musical ever created once "Singing within the Rain". Frankly, he could have a degree. ("The Bandwagon" is, for my cash, the sole alternative serious contender). Though hardly shown on the same old cable suspects (can't imagine why however the Columbia library looks to me quite seriously underplayed), "Cover Girl" remains vivid in my memory for variety of reasons, cheif among them that it's the primary musical during which Kelly was given some inventive management over his material and it shows. The results, of course, were immesurably higher than his 1st few MGM outings and when he came back from this loan-out, Louis B. Mayer has the nice sense to permit Kelly significantly ton of} inventive leeway than the other actor/performer on the lot had ever had.

"Cover GIrl" co-stars Rita Hayworth at her lovliest and a pre-Bilko Phil Silvers. the beautiful songs are by Jerome Kern and Ira Gershwin ("Long Ago and much Away" was the hit however "Sure Thing" is my favorite) and it had been directed by Charles Vidor, a director who has never stood out from the gang however who, astonishingly, has 3 excellent credits--all of that still foot-dragging fantastically. (The others beside "CG" are "Gilda" and therefore the glorious James Cagney/Doris Day Ruth Etting biopic "Love Me Or Leave Me". There are several a lot of famous administrators than Vidor who cannot quite match that several top quality well-remembered credits.) Having said that, Vidor failed to handle the musical numbers in "Cover Girl"--which puts him to a small degree bit within the William Wyler "Ben-Hur" bin (Wyler shot everything however the chariot race, the sole actual reason to check the image.) For the musical sequences, Kelly brought on the terribly young Stanley Donen, who would later co-direct with Kelly "On The Town", "Singing within the Rain" and therefore the pretty and mournful "It's invariably truthful Weather". Below is that the astonishing "Alter Ego" number--certainly a primary in terms of marrying computer graphics and dance.

I had the nice fortune to be asked to interview Donen for the administrators Guild's Oral History program and naturally I asked him how the hell this variety was done. He embarked on an explaination--and Donen is nothing if not an articulate and interesting speaker--but, as soon as he did, the cameraman recording the interview started creating nervous gestures to a different techie as if to point that one thing was wrong. I kept glancing over to check if we wanted to halt things as Donen kept describing the sophisticated method of designing and filming this variety. In my concern that we have a tendency to weren't obtaining this on tape, I lost focus and nodded absently, pretending to concentrate, all the whereas glancing over to form certain we have a tendency to were obtaining it. In the end, there was no downside and, once Donen was finished, I lied with gusto and said "Fascinating!" or somesuch. For reasons known solely to them, the administrators Guild keeps the Special comes interview tapes locked during a dark vault, inaccessible to simply regarding everyone. So, despite being the official DGA sanctioned interviewer of Stanley Donen, I still cannot tell you ways they accomplished the below little bit of genius. perhaps it ultimately does not very matter.

CAFE SOCIETY PART THREE

CAFE SOCIETY PART THREE - Following the unsure reception accorded to my 1st feature "Cafe Society", we have a tendency to came back to New York--somewhat dispirited however still basically optimistic. After al, Roger Ebert had extremely liked the movie. Others had too. it had been as if no one wished to be the primary to come back out and say that they loved it. I sensed (and believe i used to be correct in this) that the finishing of the film was partly to blame--it was still overlength and under-scored musically (by that I mean NOT scored--I tried to try to to with amount records solely that may be a pretty conceit--Woody Allen will it all the time--but wasn't extremely right for this movie).

At that point, Showtime had gotten into the "made of cable" movie business in earnest. one in all the ways in which to try to to this with some potency was to not simply build their own movies, however get already finished movies that had bother securing domestic distribution. the flicks required to possess recognizable solid components, elegant production values and a few variety of "hook" to capture their audience.

And boy, did "Cafe Society" work that bill. Showtime created a handsome provide to debut the film on their channel, promoted it heavily and created the producers happy by a minimum of confirming that they hadn't created a slip-up in creating the film within the 1st place. The film was scheduled for showing, a couple of alterations were created (music was added) which ought to are the tip of that.

But i used to be a young man with a mission and my mission had not been to form a movie for Showtime. It had been to form a kickass

indie film that will be seen in theaters and obtain me noticed. I say that with simply a tinge of embarrassment from this distance. simply a tinge, though. For anyone who goes into the racket should begin with a reasonably healthy ego and inflated sense of egos simply to urge to the beginning gate. I hadn't waited those 5 years since my short film to form my 1st feature and have it air a handful of times at 10PM on cable. No. That would not do.

It took a handful of years, however in early 1997 i would created some cash writing scripts and set that, instead of investing within the stock market (as my currently wealthy friends did back then) i'd pay the money releasing "Cafe Society" in theaters. Or during a theater--one would be all I may afford. I looked around ny (where I lived and where I felt the movie actually belonged) and located a stunning very little theater known as The Screening area down on Canal Street and Varick. stage had a stunning bar/restaurant hooked up to it and therefore the whole issue had a vibe that felt incredibly correct for my movie. What I did not grasp at the time, though, was {that you|that you simply|that you simply} do not just exit and rent a theater. stage homeowners have to be compelled to need to indicate your movie and believe that there is thereforeme profit in them for taking the difficulty to try to to so. a stunning guy named Henry Hersowitz, had opened stage together with his partner. They listened to my proposal, watched the movie and then set that yes--there was one thing doubtless in it for everybody to open "Cafe Society" in ny. however bound things had to be agreed to. For one issue, I had to comply with acquire a minimum quantity of advertising house. and that we had to succeed in gross receipts of a precise variety for them to comply with hold the film over past the initial one week run. Nothing deterred me. I assured them i'd handle it all which we'd be in for a protracted run. Jesus, what happens to our confidence as we have a tendency to grow older?

I employed a publicist, an art director and created up a rigorous schedule. I reached out to any or all news shops with the story i believed would sell--the true story of the Jelke/Ward scandal. Some bit. Others were a lot of fascinated by the story of me releasing my very own movie. I place along a correct premiere using sponsorship from Mercedes Benz and alternative vendors to hide the prices. (Mercedes delievered a 1957 Mercedes to the front of stage for the premiere. I keep in mind a really young Gretchen Mol posing on it on our premiere night). John Harny of the ny Daily News wrote the simplest article--click here to browse it.

And then we have a tendency to opened. the primary reviews I browse were within the tabs because the ny Times hadn't hit the stands nonetheless. They were each poor. Weirdly they additionally each used identical "joke" headline: "So Noir nonetheless therefore Far". I remember, in those pre-internet days, reading them at the newstand on the corner of sixth avenue and fourth street and going right back to bed. It had been the fastest fifty thousand greenbacks i would ever lost.

And then I got a decision from my publicist, Alicia Goldstein. "Congratulations on your ny Times review", she said. I hadn't

even bothered to travel back out for it, therefore convinced was I by the opposite notices that the complete issue had been an enormous miscalculation. however really Stephen Holden's review that Friday morning saved the movie's life. Our gap weekend was really quite busy--and all of that times review. the subsequent week, Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel reviewed it on TV. I want I had the video of it. It created me cry after I watched it. Good cry, not bad.

To total it up, "Cafe Society" had a life beyond what anyone had thought it had been destined to possess when its initial showing. Another little releasing company came along and booked the film in art house theaters in Philly, Boston, Chicago, San Francisco and DC. I did interviews galore talking the film up and dutifully saved every and each clipping and review we have a tendency to got. (I've since misplaced the folder completely). however the simplest prize of all--at least for me--came when the ny Times review appeared.

I got a decision Friday afternoon from Henry Hersovitz saying that stage had been known as by Woody Allen's assistant. He browse the review and wished to envision the film. They were thrilled and invited him to come back right down to stage and see the film off-hours. No, that would not work the assistant explained. He had his own theater and required to possess a print sent up for him to envision it. sadly, we have a tendency to had just one print of the film that created letting it disappear for the day incredibly dangerous--especially on gap weekend. Once this was explained, the Woody camp came back with an answer. If we have a tendency to may deliver the film and have the messenger stand by, Woody would watch the film immediately. Jesus, I thought. He should really need to envision this issue. therefore that is what we have a tendency to did. I never heard weather he liked it or not however a couple of years later I offered him a vicinity during a movie and therefore the response I happened from his reps was a polite no with an acknowledgement that he liked my work.

So that was that. My 1st film value me each dime i would initially earned on it and a lot of. to the current day it remains unavailable on DVD and solely rarely turns up on cable. you may decision this a story of disappointment however somehow--I do not know how--I saw the complete issue as a very promising begin to things. What the fuck was wrong with me, you ask? straightforward. To paraphrase Richard Brooks (see previous previous post), I had set that I wished to form movies enough to eat shit unsalted. All things being equal, there was salt on the table at the tip of the day.

JUDY GARLAND ON FIRE! at THE PIRATE PART 2

JUDY GARLAND ON FIRE! at THE PIRATE PART 2 - One of the unfortunate aspect effects of the camping from Judy Garland by her 'followers' is that we've lost sight of her because the really luscious, sexually alluring feminine star that she was in her heyday. Judy as bombshell merely sounds perverse now--either we predict of her as Dorothy in pigtails (or no matter her hair was in "Wizard") or we predict of the later, stage-bound, cigarette and vodka drag-queen idol. however in her youthful maturity (1942-50) Judy was conjointly simply a helluva hot dame. Minelli, her second (or third?) husband was clearly in love together with her through a lens--it's in "Meet Me In St. Louis", "The Clock" and "The Pirate" (all of that he directed) that the camera gazes at her the foremost lovingly. And she, in turn, gets naked in these movies during a approach she merely does not when being directed by Charles Walters.

This past summer, I had the chance (briefly) to figure on a pitch for a movie regarding Judy's life--her best biographer, Gerald Clarke, conjointly wrote the Truman Capote bio that "Capote" was primarily based on and therefore the plan was to require a thread from his Judy bio and fashion an identical form of bio-pic. I spent plenty of your time learning her life, her movies etc. and thought of writing a movie primarily based solely on her wedding to the nice thug, Sid Luft--the man who made her finest movie "A Star Is Born" and who, a technique or another, helped resurrect her career from mothballs once MGM fired her in 1950. (This bang-up idea--wouldn't you prefer to ascertain such a movie starring, say, Hilary Swank as Judy and Vince Vaughn as Luft?--died stillborn as completely NO COMPANY IN HOLLYWOOD EVINCED THE SLIGHTEST INTEREST IN EVEN HEARING SUCH A PITCH. Eyes rolled, calls went unreturned. We do, alas, live within the era of "Spiderman 3"). In any event, I had the pleasure of speaking with Gerald Clarke on the phone and he said one thing that I found terribly true and extremely haunting. "Everybody thinks they own Judy. everybody thinks she belongs to them." I dont recognize another star who you'll say one thing quite that broad--and however accurate--about.

Below is my favorite variety from "The Pirate", "Mack the Black". the good youtuber who posted it graciously left within the long however necessary lead in--the variety begins virtually four minutes into this eight minute clip. Judy is electrical during this, pulsating with want and sexual energy...and the kiss with Kelly at the top reaches well past the same old boundries of MGM family entertainment of the time. i do not assume the word "Macoco" got nearly the maximum amount play once more till last year when that unfortunate Senator used it to insult a dark-skinned journalist and was promptly retired from public life as a result. What was that Senator's name, anyhow?...

Watch The Pirate Judy Garland and Gene Kelly 1948

Watch The Pirate Judy Garland and Gene Kelly 1948 - In honor of tomorrow being Halloween, I've set to debate and post scenes from one among the best (and most often overlooked) musicals of the so-called golden age, Vincente Minelli's "The Pirate", starring Gene Kelly and judy Garland. What has "The Pirate" to try to to with Halloween? easy. My son is being a pirate for Halloween.

"The Pirate", with a score by Cole Porter, was released in 1948 and an aura of disappointment immediately descended over it, one that the film has nevertheless in some ways in which to shake. Widely thought of to be over-indulgent and somehow not up to MGM's highest commonplace, it's remained on the backburner with musical enthusiasts over the years. For my cash, it's infinitely superior to the overrated "An yankee In Paris" (Kelly and Minelli once more, now with Gershwin music) and contains a number of each the director and therefore the stars most spectacular work. It's actually superior to the opposite Kelly/Garland collaborations, the pleasant however innocuous "Summer Stock" and therefore the fully unnecessary "In the nice previous Summertime."

I think the arch nature of the material--the terribly subtle and unusually mocking tone of the screenplay--contributed to people's discomfort with the image. it's not "sincere" in any traditional method. a lot of of it's blatantly artifical, self-reflexive (it is, a technique or another, a paean to show-biz and therefore the rouge actors we have a tendency to like to mock) and sometimes quite fantastical. The soundstagey look--you never for an instant believe you are within the Carrabean--was deliberate and maybe somewhat unsettling to audiences (and critics) of the day.

In some ways in which it's ahead to Baz Luhrman's "Moulin Rouge" in its strange fascination with itself as an object of beauty--call it the self-fetishization of musical-making. I realize it's posture an enthralling and strange one. although the below variety, the pleasant "Nina", goes on for twice the length that it might have in most alternative musicals, I realize it endlessly beautiful to watch--Kelly's dancing has never been higher and therefore the sequence could be a veritable master category within the now-lost technique of "invisible" directing of a musical variety (lost forever thanks largely to the success of Rob Marshall's bravura however exhausting technique in "Chicago"...) The below variety runs seven minutes and contains no over 10 set ups, most of that run for slightly over a moment. The fluidity of the long take staging, the outstanding set and Kelly's humorously over-the-top lechery build this a gold commonplace number--yet you wont realize it in "That's Entertainment" (at least i feel you wont) or perhaps in several of the clip reels dedicated to quickie histories of dance in musical films. And who however Cole Porter may write a love song that rhymes "Nina" with "neurasthenia"?

More on "The Pirate" to return.

More on "The Pirate" to come.

Watch Wrath Of The Titans Megavideo Online Streaming

Wrath Of The Titans - Wrath of the Titans Show troopers Headed Off 2 The Wrath of the Titans tells regarding new adventures of Perseus who should build a dangerous quest to the 'underworld' so as to avoid wasting Zeus. Lives are threatened by Zeus himself who betrayed the His Son Ares and his brother Hades. Chimera still bear in mind the video, two-headed creature formed sort of a dog that's ready to belch fireplace giant as Sidomi never show a short while back? Wrath of the Titans movie could be a sequel to the movie Clash of the Titans can indeed be showing lots of magical creatures aside from Chimera. there's an enormous horned creature known as the Minotaur, a creature of the large volcano known as Kronos, and therefore the 2 entities being formed and armed troopers are several named Makhai. In his latest video once video Chimera creature, this creature shown is Makhai. This video shows a battle between many Greek troopers with Makhai that ended with a horrific bloodbath.


A decade once his heroic defeat of the monstrous Kraken, Perseus-the demigod son of Zeus-is trying to measure a quieter life as a village fisherman and therefore the sole parent to his 10-year previous son, Helius. Meanwhile, a struggle for supremacy rages between the gods and therefore the Titans. Dangerously weakened by humanity's lack of devotion, the gods are losing management of the imprisoned Titans and their ferocious leader, Kronos, father of the long-ruling brothers Zeus, Hades and Poseidon. The triumvirate had overthrown their powerful father some time past, leaving him to rot within the gloomy abyss of Tartarus, a dungeon that lies deep at intervals the cavernous underworld. Perseus cannot ignore his true calling when Hades, together with Zeus' godly son, Ares (Edgar Ramírez), switch loyalty and build a modify Kronos to capture Zeus.
Wactch Trailer :

Dated Released : 30 March 2012
Star : Sam Worthington, Liam Neeson, Rosamund Pike
Genre : Action | Advanture

Download Prometheus (2012) Free CAM 450MB

Download Prometheus (2012) Free  CAM 450MB - You can't tell you they are a true film enthusiast if you have not noticed the title Ridley Scott. 75-year-old experienced director has a lot of renowned movies like 'Blade Runner', 'Gladiator' and of course the 'Alien'. As well as, this season we're invited in order to uncover the secret that's full of mucous and an unknown creature in the latest sci-fi 'Prometheus'.'Prometheus' includes a very simple idea: a lot of researchers who're performing study and ultimately disaster. Leading man named Electronic Shaw (Noomi Rapace, with Lisbeth Salander within 'The Woman With The Dragon Tattoo' Swedish edition) take presctiption a ship Prometheus looking for the house "a creature from an additional world" which figure portrayed on the roof of the cavern.Journey over the universe who spent much of this cost is funded through Chris Weyland (Man Pearce). Weyland includes a high attention may associated with human origins. The answer he was hoping found in this journey.Following arriving at their own location earth, Shaw and Charlie Holloway (Logan Marshall-Green) as well as other associates instantly got off the airplane and investigate an unusual cave located in the middle of disadvantage. At first they were not aware of any danger threatening before all of them. But once they remarked that their life is on the line, it had been too late. And the earth has become also at stake.If you're still thinking about the actual movie, I'd mempersingkatnya with this particular sentence: 'Prometheus' is really a prequel associated with 'Alien'. Ridley Scott aimed this particular film, which means you do not have any doubt as to their knowledge. Dariusz Wolski camera motion appears spectacular. Actually from the opening name (drawn in Iceland) is actually wonderful, you can expect incredible photos in the 'Prometheus'.Incredibility seemed to be supported by the production style is no less great. Max Arthur is responsible for all the credit score. You will be amazed by the type of an airplane 'Prometheus', even the "cave" which was an unfamiliar ship and interior planning are not only seen magnificent but additionally give a strong dark impact. Visual results will also be no less cool. 

Alien animals that look like a actual creature.As with 'Alien' that all of us expose the heroine superbadass an awesome, Ripley (performed through Sigourney Weaver is actually insane through), 'Prometheus' additionally introduces us to a tough Shaw. As well as, for that diimporlah Rapace from Sweden to play the leading man this particular hot. Its small , cute voice that doesn't make it appear difficult. However, hold back until you see the actual scene he or she tried to remove an alien through their belly. You will convince you because the the majority of violent moments of a cesarean section you will ever watch it appear.Other players are also no less good. Erina Fassbender is too convincing to portray android named Donald. Actions, phrase on their encounter and his voice is smooth makes it stick out. Charlize Theron, who plays Vickens who mind the space expedition which should have credit score. Firm phrase is really a powerful fuel to make it a difficult boss.Unfortunately,

'Prometheus' couldn't match the quality of 'Alien' was launched within 1979. 'Prometheus' does give a feeling of horror that held making a dag-dig-dug but unpredictable emosnya configurations. Speed can also be not fast enough to create the crowd tired very first, even though aliennya really exceptional. As well as, God-finding mission was as well "hipster" to become a reason the smoothness will sort with the galaxy.But nonetheless, 'Prometheus' is among the sci-fi film that must be watched. And, given the visual images from the just about all fantastic, can give the sensation of the more influence when the movie is actually watchable within Three dimensional format.

A team of scientists journey through the universe on the spaceship “Prometheus” on a voyage to investigate Alien life forms. The team of scientists becomes stranded on an Alien world, and as they struggle to survive it becomes clear that the horrors they experience are not just a threat to themselves, but to all of mankind.

Stars: Noomi Rapace, Logan Marshall-Green and Michael Fassbender


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Watch Three Little Beers--A Del Lord Putt

Watch Three Little Beers--A Del Lord Putt - Here are parts 1 and two from the Three Stooges '35 movie "Three Small Beers"--one of the best early efforts (this was the actual 10th Mexico brief they provided) in addition to a fantastic take a look at some aged La streetscapes.

Briefly--the plot. These people work as shipping guys for a beer organization. These people choose to enter a golf event. They bust line right into a private membership to practice their golfing and screw everything upward. Then they get away within their truck as well as deliver barrels associated with beer tumbling all over the place. Observe, that didn't take very long.

Things i such as about this earlier Phony work may be the director, Delete Lord's (an old Mack Sennett director as well as stop driver) easygoing speed using the playing golf material. The almighty may also help to make their Phony films move such as wild fire, but the outside environment and also the improvisitory character of the golfing series lends itself to the pacing a little more similar to Laurel as well as Hardy than the Stooges. And where do we suppose this course actually had been? I have to presume we are exploring the huge, pristine area from the San Fernando Valley. I am guessing this particular mostly based on the avoid and the fact that the Columbia "Ranch" was in Northern Hollywood. (Most of the studios experienced "ranches"--additional outside places these people possessed they might use for capturing outdoor/pastoral materials, westerns etc. Last century Fox's farm was, obviously, on the website of what's right now Hundred years City). I additionally dig the ale barrel finish and my guess is that individuals hilly roads on which the climax takes place are near down-town Los angeles. Or perhaps they are that portion of Silverlake (Baxter Street. and so on.) that was always popular as the slapstick humor recording location (Laurel and Hardy's "Music Box" etc.)

Leonard Maltin, in the Stooge documents, seems that The almighty had been the best overseer the Stooges had, followed by Erectile dysfunction Bernds (that we will reach next). The characteristic of Lord's work is their obvious love of location work--the verite character from the outside and the daredevil use the18 wheeler and also the outside motion roots this firmly within the 20's "gee it's a good day time, lets get out there and create a humor short" school associated with slapstick filmmaking. Laurel and Hardy's 1929 "Men O'War" is another good example of this (it was shot in McArthur Park). With one of these old comedies, 1 likes not just viewing the film itself but the meta-movie-- the big event of the film being created. One of the pleasures of this, for me personally, is the fact that I'm able to feel the real day (or series of days) from the filming while watching the film. The weather, the digital cameras, the team waiting for nearby--grateful to be out of doors--the comics and also the helping players (in "Three Little Beers" a group of pretty women remain about in one scene, unnatural as well as stupidly smiling. They're obviously female friends of various executives from Columbia Photos who were told to "show upward and you will be in the picture!"). It all feels alive and there--part of what was captured on movie seventy-two years ago...

Watch WOMAN HATERS, PART DEUX

Watch WOMAN HATERS, PART DEUX - Here is a component 2 of The 3 Stooges In "Women Haters" (1934). Things to seem for: in step with Wikipedia (and, as we know, they have been known to create things up) the primary "Nyuck, Nycuk" ever from Curley is delievered at regarding the sixteen minute mark of the movie (which during this phase would be around five/six minutes). and also the denoument on the train is value examining--Marjorie White sits within the boys berth and claims that the piece of paper that binds them as members of the girl Haters club is null and void as a result of "everybodys cheated, I will prove it and that i know--move over!" Moe then shouts "Move over?" and he and Curley tumble out of the train window. Is her presence on the bed (and the threat that she's going to "prove" her dominant sexuality) and their horror of this agressivness suggestive of her making ready to sexually entrap all 3 of them at once? ("I will prove it...") And is such a thought--a Stooge menage a foursome--healthy to even contemplate?

Also: at the tip of the film, because the camera pans across the wood paneled wall at the headquarters of the "thirtieth annual meeting of the girl Hater's Club" (as the person is on his thanks to admit Larry) there's an exquisite BOOM SHADOW on the wall that lingers a pleasant long time--oddly I never noticed it till viewing the film on my pc. It's presence might recommend a few of things: one, that this film wasn't thought-about necessary enough for retakes or maybe second or third takes. Or maybe the film was an honest deal harder to create than the common two-reeler, what with the live singing on the set, the low background piano accompaniment (see previous post), the timing of the lyrics and also the slapstick...it's attainable that, once several takes blown for different additional pressing reasons, Gottler, the director, was told regarding the boom shadow and easily determined to measure with it...after all, who the hell was ever extremely progressing to EXAMINE this tiny MOVIE...(At the time of its creation the thought of the movie being beamed round the world, seventy-five years later, on as however undreamed of and unthought of wireless airwaves would have appeared not solely implausible however quite merely mad...)

Finally, i am unable to leave the topic of "Woman Haters" while not a confession. this may mark me as over alittle strange in some people's books, however the ultimate shot and fade out of this movie literally moves me to tears--only the last shot in Antonioni's "The Passanger" and also the final image of Norma Desmond in "Sunset Blvd." move me in quite an equivalent approach. i am serious. There the Stooges are, staring off at their future. it is the finish of their initial solo outing--they were rid of the obnoxious Ted Healy, their former partner--and they stand at the brink of their Columbia two-reeler futures. And however they're additionally "old men"--singing of eternal love ("my life! my love! my all!")--which suggests a way of timeless, eternal brotherhood. Indeed, this brotherhood was real and never to be broken. Vaudeville vets Moe and Jerry Howard and their friend Larry Fine came up along within the rough and tumble lowlands of showbiz and--as time would tell--NEVER GAVE UP THE ACT. (Only terminal illness took Curley away--and reluctantly as we'll see...)The final nose tweaks and eye pokes are as eloquent as caresses and also the fade out, because the Stooges hold their positions proudly if shakily, has the quiet dignity of a breeze blowing away a memory...

Watch THE STOOGE-A-POLITAN OPERA

Watch THE STOOGE-A-POLITAN OPERA - Below is an element one among the primary official "Three Stooges" Columbia short film, the one and solely "Women Haters". It conjointly remains my favorite for a spread of strange reasons (not the smallest amount of that being that it's it's own Wikipedia page. My God, do the opposite 189 Columbia Stooge shorts have them as well? i am scared to seem..)

First of all, the damn factor may be a complete miniature musical--the dialogue is sung, not spoken, entirely in rhyme. The Stooges never created another one among these--the vogue for the "musical novelty" format died down, I guess, as quickly because it sprang up--and so "Woman Haters" remains a singular feat in Stoogeonomy--their solely musical (though the shape is basically additional sung-through operetta).

Secondly, the movie is, for me, a time capsule of my very own youth--circa 1972. You see, as a child I got a tape recorder for my seventh or eighth birthday and quickly began tape-recording everything in sight--my oldsters conversations, music off the radio (KJOI was a light-weight "pops" station that includes Andre Kostolanitz vogue arrangements that for a few reason I became hooked in to taping--complete with announcer bumpers) and, naturally, music off of films on tv. I created an oversized assortment of the gap music themes from Warner Brothers cartoons--those marvelous very little Carl Stalling (or Milt Franklin) novelty arrangements. however the sole movie that I bear in mind taping in its entirety is "Woman Haters." I loved performing it--I would lip-sync all the parts--for my friends, my oldsters friends, anyone who would provide me the time. Jesus, i need to are strange...

Another factor that long fascinated me was the very fact that there have been apparently a half-dozen or therefore shorts with an equivalent sung-through premise, though just one alternative has, to my knowlege, surfaced--think it's known as "Um-Pa, Um-Pa, Um-Pa" (at least that was the driving lyrical motif throughout the film. I saw it at a Vitaphone Project screening some years ago in the big apple at the Film Forum.) "Woman Haters" was directed and written by a father-son team, Archie Gottler (the father--he was a songwriter who dabbled in filmmaking) and Jerome Gottler (the son). I met Jerome quite unintentionally some times in Roxbury Park in Beverly Hills when he was in his eighties--about fifteen years ago. He was astounded that I knew who he was and told me this nugget of fascinating data concerning "Woman Haters"--the singing was all recorded go on the set, no lip-syncing. They used a piano track behind the boys voices and kept the degree of the piano down as low as potential. Then, when shooting was done, the orchestration was merely laid on high on the second track (presumbaly the sound effects were a part of the orchestration) and also the piano backing disappaered.

Finally, the lady within the film is that the delectable Marjorie White--I was awfully taken by her as a child and as an adult I see I had wonderful style. She was pretty, sexy, a fine singer and an excellent commedienne. She was a real Hotsy-Totsy of the Bootleg Era, turning out on Broadway within the twenties and "going Hollywood" within the early thirties--she's turns up during a few early talkie/musicals, co-starring with the good and totally forgotten Wheeler and Woolsey in "Diplomaniacs." (We'll need to get into W&W shortly. Bert Wheeler was a real comedy angel of his time.) Alas, Marjorie White died shortly once creating this film during a automobile accident--her IMDB entry states that she was, actually consididered the star of the film and got billing over the Stooges however her death caused the Studio to bump her all the way down to supporting player standing. Ah, Hollywood--how usually sensitive! will this sound to you somewhat like Miramax quickly erasing the globe Trade Center from it's brand once 9/11?

Tomorrow, part two...and additional Stoogiana...

VIOLENT IS THE WORD FOR CURLEY

VIOLENT IS THE WORD FOR CURLEY  - From the elegant (the Nicholas Brothers) to the not solely ridiculous however downright grotesque--ladies and gentleman, I offer you the 3 Stooges. How mothers across America (mine included) allowed kids to observe this crap unsupervised i am going to never understand. And why are not there additional forty-something year olds wandering around missing an eye fixed, or with 0.5 their noses cut off? therefore obsessed was I with the Stooges that at age 9 i started writing a book concerning them--carefully taking photos of their movies off our black and white Zenith TV, on that I watched--every afternoon at 5 PM--a full hour of their debased, ultra-violent 'humor', offered up by the strange freelance station from Corona, Channel 52. (The book was never completed. might it's that this weblog is an effort to choose up from where I left off, thirty some years ago?)

In spite of my higher judgement, however, I still love the 3 Stooges--even though, in recent years, repeated makes an attempt to observe the shorts after they turned up on AMC or Spike yielded reactions from the just bored to the actively disgusted (ever see Moe climbing the phonephone pole with a spike shoe that gets sent into Curley's ear among alternative orifices? very HORRIBLE.) Indeed, apart from a few of mid-thirties shorts that, in my estimation, still stood up (most of them directed by either Del Lord or the good Charley Chase) i used to be rarely able to build it through an entire two-reeler. (And forget the Shemp's--I cannot even build it through the credits, therefore boring is that the post-war, blanded-out arrangement of the "Three Blind Mice" theme music). Below, however, is one amongst my favorite Stooges routines--"swinging the alphabet"--from a 1937 short known as "Violent is that the Word For Curley" (the title was a play on a well-liked movie of the day known as "Valient is that the Word For Carrie"). I've duly taught my 3 year recent son this song and he loves it. Later during this film may be a terribly funny soccer game--but no one has seen match to post the total issue on youtube nonetheless. 

Why is it in color? I wasn't responsive to a Stooge colorization movement however apparently there is been simply such a issue. I like the black and white however i am going to take "B-A-BAY, B-E-BEE, B-I-BICKY-BI" any means I will get it.

is This THE NICHOLINI's?

is This THE NICHOLINI's? - Here could be a wonderful addition to Nicholasiana (aka "all things Nicholas Brothers"). it is a very little range referred to as "Lucky Number" that includes the boys once they are actually "boys"--this is either from their Vitaphone Short "Pie Pie Blackbird" (1932) or from "Big Broadcast of 1936." In alternative words, Fayard is either eighteen or twenty 2 years recent, and Harold is either eleven or fifteen years old! (He appearance eleven, though he forever had the baby-face issue happening.) Actually, the a lot of I study this, the a lot of obvious it's from 1932--the setting, the design of the arrangement and therefore the sheer youth of the 2 brothers. therefore is that this from the Vitaphone Short? I note on user comments on IMDB  a mysterious mention of a second Vitaphone short that they presumably created round the same time as "Pie Pie Blackbird" however that doesn't seem in their IMDB filmography. may this be from that? Anybody who will clear this up, please be happy to try to to therefore...

One of the items the brothers did dance-wise that has become apparent to me in viewing these items on was to not dance quite in sync with every other--their moves throughout their numbers were similar however never entirely co-ordinated. This lends a sort of violent, jagged and nearly pop-art feel to the movement--in this clip they're a decent deal a lot of typical than in their later work, however still you'll see components of the faucet inferno that was to return during a few years. and tiny Harold is therefore friggin' cute, you would like to succeed in into the screen and provides him a pinch. Dig his spin at 2 minutes, 5 seconds

Watch THE NICHOLAS BROTHERS: GREATEST DANCERS

THE NICHOLAS BROTHERS: GREATEST DANCERS - Fred Astaire thought their "Jumpin Jive" climax in "Stormy Weather" (see 10/9 post) the best faucet dance variety ever filmed. Balanchine and Barishnikov conjointly claimed them as among their prime picks as greatest dancers ever. Gregory Hines said that if they ever created a biopic regarding them they'd got to use pc generated effects since no one may probably copy them.

So who were these Nicholas Brothers? Fayard Nicholas (his 1st name looks like the birth certificate guy at the hospital mis-heard a unique name--perhaps "Theodore"?) and Harold Nicholas (his younger brother) were self-taught show-biz children from the south, 1st watching dancers perform in vaudeville shows in Philadelphia throughout the 1920's during which their father played drums and their mother played piano. Fayard got the concept of inventing an act. Harold elapsed with it. Somehow, they developed their own extraordinary style--part faucet, part swing. half eccentric dancing, half acrobatic, alittle Charleston and plenty of hip-hop (sixty years before the term was coined).

Their appearences in movies are all too few, however every may be a delight and never but breathtaking. Fayard lived into his nineties--he died last year-- still choreographing, lecturing, keeping the art of faucet alive. Harold died within the 1990's. Below is my nomination for SECOND GREATEST TAP-DANCE variety EVER FILMED (first, of course, attending to "Jumping Jive"...). this can be the title song from the 1941 Fox musical, "Down Argentine approach." (Don't be thrown by the Spanish--?--narration at the start. It goes away in a very heartbeat). Things to appear for: the weird approach Fayard "controls" Harold's space--playing him as if he is a puppet-master...the jumping over the hankercheif trick...and after all, that outrageously exciting last chorus.

CITY ISLAND COUNTDOWN: TFF-13!

Dig today's clip, posted below--it's a surprise even to me. Apparently they did an area news story on our shoot last summer and a few wonderful youtuber truly taped it off their tv set and posted it. i buy additional screen time during this very little piece than usual--even though I look fearfully tired. (I should have been--I do not recall truly taping this section...)

Anyway, back to the creating of saga...

So it is the spring of 2007 and Andy Garcia and that i are sitting around LA with a stunning forged, a script we wish to form and--as yet--no real cash behind us. You get used to hearing lots of stupid things when individuals flip down your comes, however there is not any term I realize additional irritating then "tweener"--as in, "we just like the project lots however we're afraid it's one thing of a 'tweener."

Meaning: between 2 genres. Not artsy enough for art house, not business enough for mainstream fare. In alternative words, simply the sort of film that created me wish to form films to start with.

Enter my friend Zachary Matz, veteran freelance film producer. He loved the project and therefore the forged we'd assembled and commenced talking budget with me: how may the movie be created for fewer, where may or not it's shot etc. albeit these queries did not directly address the dearth of funds, they stuffed the "reality gap" and got us all brooding about the practicalities of the project. Somehow this type of thinking--following a positive line instead of a negative one--really will form of shift the momentum of things. Though the summer was upon us and clearly we tend to weren't progressing to be shooting a movie, things somehow did not appear entirely hopeless.

And then another past love came to the party and suddenly the sport modified. Lauren Versel, who i might known for years, was a former performer and screenwriter who'd wisely given up show-biz to boost a family. however you'll be able to never actually rid yourself of this druggy pursuit and Lauren had started a production company known as Lucky Monkey. whereas seeing her socially in the big apple, I told her concerning the project, who was concerned etc. She asked to scan it and--with exceptional alacrity--called me to mention she loved it, needed to assist finance it and needed to urge to figure promptly. She had an investor who had committed some cash to a different movie she was progressing to manufacture that had fallen apart. That investor was currently willing to modify comes and commit the cash to "City Island".

By currently it absolutely was the top of the year and shortly the Berlin Market would be turning out (in February '09). progressing to the market with a viable project that had forged and a few cash hooked up would offer Lauren and her company an amazing advantage in securing additional interest (and funds). such a big amount of movies at these foreign markets are half-assed amalgams of non-scripts with one actor "loosely attached" and no real cash behind it. we tend to weren't that. we tend to were a viable issue that could--with the correct alignment of stars--actually return along.

And indeed our second massive investor was found at Berlin. albeit we'd accumulated solely a few third of our necessary budget, the momentum was suddenly on our facet. Though these items will collapse at any moment, I had a sense they wouldn't; when you have done this work long enough, you get a weird, "gamblers feeling"--that the dice are on the point of shift in your favor. I bear in mind telling my wife around this time: "This one goes to happen..."

Like dominos in reverse--rising rather than falling--the next issue to fall in place passed naturally as a results of the previous occurences. you'll say it went one thing like this:

Because I had written a decent script, I found a good actor.

Because the actor and that i teamed up, we tend to found alternative fine actors.

Because of the script and actors, producers who believed within the project appeared.

Because of their belief and talent, cash began to look.

Money and forged and script equal viable project.

Viable project attracts foreign sales firms who can pre-sell the film to completely different countries, making enough money to finish the budget.

And that's what happened. variety of various foreign sales firms were suddenly chasing our project, desperate to become our partners. By currently the Cannes Film pageant was returning up--a major marketplace for pre-selling unmade films--and the pressure was suddenly upon us to select the corporate we tend to felt would do the most effective job. we tend to picked Westend Films-a new company run by a number of the most effective foreign sales veterans within the business. and therefore the next issue I knew, i used to be on a plane progressing to Cannes with Lauren where, coincidentally, Andy Garcia would be performing together with his band...

But before that happened, there was a small glitch. simply a bit matter of 1/2 our forged suddenly disappearing from the project...

CITY ISLAND COUNTDOWN: TFF-14!

What kind of a supposedly blogathoning blogger takes the weekend off? A psuedo one. So sue me. What can you do me? I spent Saturday traveling to LA and Sunday with the Easter Bunny. I thought of blaming my non-existent Catholicism but that particular religion takes it on the kneecaps so often these days that why add to the bad publicity?

Instead I'm offering up an apology by posting the FIRST EVER CLIP FROM A CUT SCENE FROM CITY ISLAND. This is a one-minute teaser for what I consider to be the best scene in the movie--Vince Rizzo going on his first acting audition. Enjoy, I hope, and look for a few more clips in the coming days.

Please send this blog entry to friends and encourage them to pass it on as well. As previously mentioned (or nagged about), our goal is to sell out the screenings and show the distributors that we've made an enormous crowd-pleaser of a movie--one that deserves a wide general release. You can help me by getting people into the screenings--and then, hopefully, by sending in your highly positive comments on the film.Tickets go on sale tomorrow so click here and follow the link to grab them while they're hot.

Tomorrow I'll continue with the Sinister Saga of Staging "City Island". Meanwhile...

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CITY ISLAND COUNTDOWN: TFF-17!

So I'm sitting there with Andy Garcia--finally having found my Vince and certain that between us we can figure out how to get this film made.

One thing that was clear to me early on: I didn't just want Andy to be "attached" as an actor. I wanted us to be producing partners.

Now some filmmakers are scared of partnering with a movie star--fearing, I suppose, that the more powerful person in the equation (and no matter who the filmmaker is the more powerful person is ALWAYS the movie star) will trump the other in any important creative decision.

And there are those who might wield their power that way. But that wasn't my sense about Andy. His respect for my material and our general simpatico with each other gave me confidence that we could, in effect, help each other by being mutually invested in the cause of getting the film made. Though the first few months were spent shopping the project--my script, me directing, Andy starring, us producing--to various companies, we ultimately didn't get any traction this way and decided that the best thing to do was get more cast. Once a script has enough good actors interested in doing it, the people with the money tend to take it more seriously and--naturally--have less strident objections to why the film should be made in the first place. It's almost as if they're thinking: "If all these well known talented people want to do this, why shouldn't I be in on the game?"

Andy has scrupulously maintained excellent relationships throughout his career and he was happy to, in effect, open his phone book and see who we could get the script too. First stop for the role of his wife was Michelle Pfeiffer. And--who'd a thunk--for a minute she appeared to like it. We waited to hear if she wanted to meet about it. Her agents were somewhat surprised but ultimately want to support their client and told us to "hang in" while she thought about it. Which she appeared to be doing for a few weeks.

Until she passed. You never why these passes happen. No need to ask. No answer will be forthcoming.

Next we brought in Sheila Jaffee--superb casting director of "The Soprano's" who I've worked with on every feature I've made. Sheila drew up lists of actors for all the major roles. Our next choice for the wife was Marcia Gay Harden--great actress and someone who has consistently proven to be both fearless in her acting choices and open to working in all different kinds of films for all prices.

She read it, bumped into Andy at an awards show and told him how much she liked it. The official word came from her agency shortly thereafter: she wanted to meet with me. As I recall it happened at the Four Seasons Hotel in LA, where she was doing press for another movie--think it was the Richard Gere/Lasse Hallstrom movie "Hoax". Ms. Harden is as magnetic, attractive and fascinating a woman as you can ever hope to sit across from. And she has that peculiar quality that some (certainly not all) actors have--of going right to a personally intimate place with a stranger so as to quickly assess how honest and how giving they should feel free to be in expressing their own thoughts. She and I had a fine talk. She liked the project and Andy. I left knowing we had another cast member.

The role of Molly--Andy's "muse"--engendered a long list of interesting younger actresses: Zooey Deschenel, Amy Adams, Maggie Gyllenhaal etc. A lot of the time these names start to get crossed off the list based on their availability; a heavily booked actor not only won't get back to you quickly enough about your project, but may not really be available in your time frame. Such was the case with most of the above women.

By the way, let me address time frame; we didn't have a dime to make this movie. Not one company was out there promising us anything. This was strictly me and Andy riding a wave--trying to drum up interest in what we wanted to do and force a fantasy into becoming a reality. Steven Soderbergh once said that the best way to get a movie made is to set a date: once you're sure of when you want to start, the world will have less to say against your desires. It doesn't guarantee you're going to go, but what's the better alternative? At this point, I think we were in early 2007, optimistically aiming for a summer start.

Marcia Gay Harden's CAA agent was now part of helping us package the project. He suggested I meet with a young, up and coming actor for the role of Tony--the mysterious prisoner who Andy brings home. Steven Strait had played a caveman in "10,,000 BC" and been a model as well. He was also a Stella Adler trained New York actor and I liked the unusual combination of his various selves. Once I met him, I really liked him: as sincere, sweet and enthusiastic a guy as one could hope to meet and potentially work with. Steven and I bonded on site--I remember having a drink with him at a hotel and suddenly hearing myself say: "I feel like we could talk all night". He was on board.

One of the names that came up for the role of Molly was Chloe Sevigny. We liked the idea, heard she was working on "Big Love" but had holes in her schedule and--of course--Chloe has a long history of indie-film participation. We sent her the script...

And the next thing we were sitting at the Chateau Marmont (Sunset Blvd. and Crescent Heights) having breakfast with her. She liked it. Andy and I liked her. Once again I think she was there doing press for something else--but who cares? We were now a movie with no money but with a cast: Andy Garcia, Marcia Gay Harden, Steven Strait and Chloe Sevigny. In "City Island". A Raymond De Felitta Joint. The rest would be easy. We would be shooting in good old New York City in the summer of '07...wouldn't we???

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CITY ISLAND COUNTDOWN: TFF-18!

Item: I just shot an interview about "City Island" for NBC. It was taped--not live--and I wasn't really paying attention as to when and where they said it would air until...

They mentioned the word "taxi". In New York City, all taxi cabs now have little tv screens in the back with white noise kind of programming, usually of a New York promotional variety. As often as not I simply turn the damn things off--I pretend to find them an annoyance, another example of technology run amok.

But now I must confess: the fact that I might appear in the back of taxi cabs plugging my New York movie has made me idiotically happy, thrilled beyond my normal complacency. Indeed, I feel suddenly like a spokesman for the whole damn city, one of the stalwart, upstanding, "I love New York" heads, the kind of man who is proud of his city--and wants to make his city proud of him. I may cry.

Item: The hits on this little blog have close to doubled since we began this countdown-to-Tribeca blogathon. I guess some of you actually have called my bluff and passed the link on to others. Thank you for that. For those new readers, I feel it necessary to repeat the mantra of what this entire experiment is all about. So:

If you are interested in my movie and would like to participate in helping us achieve our goal of getting it out to the audience it deserves,PLEASE E-MAIL THIS BLOG ENTRY TO TEN OF YOUR FRIENDS. I know our readers come from all corners of the earth and I'm delighted by the globality of it all; but if you happen to have friends in the New York area I would appreciate your making them your primary targets as I'm hoping to get people to buy tickets to our screenings at Tribeca. And if you don't know anybody in New York, that's okay too--maybe they'll take a roadtrip to the greatest city in the world to see our movie! Just tell whoever you think might be interested about our mission and its daily progress. If nothing else, they might enjoy my occasional rantings and postings of musical acts from "Hullabaloo".

Once people start seeing the movie, I'm hoping to encourage them to text an as-yet unknown number to leave (hopefully) enthusiastic comments--this will be of real help in convincing the currently timid distribution companies that we've made a film that will be a real crowd-pleaser.

I'll be back with more of the "Sinister Saga of Staging City Island"--along with more behind the scenes video clips and stills later today or tomorrow. For now, in tribute to the lovely springtime day we have here in New York City and the general air of good vibiness that comes with learning that I might be on TV in the back of taxi's, I offer you the Four Tops-- courtesy of the ever more valued "Hullabaloo" (NBC 1965).

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CITY ISLAND COUNTDOWN: TFF-19!

By the way, thanks to the Tribeca Film Festival for linking to this blog. Tomorrow morning I'm supposed to be heading to the Bronx to do a little WNBC interview on City Island itself.

Anyway, back to the Sinister Saga of Staging City Island.

For close to three years, I tried--with my producers at Echo Lake--to gain enough traction to get "City Island" off the ground. Budgets were made and discarded. The part was offered here and there to actors but never with an official offer--i.e. money--and this often means that the script goes straight to the bottom of the pile. In the meantime, I made two films: "The Thing About My Folks" with Paul Reiser and Peter Falk (shot in 2003, released in 2005) and my documentary "Tis Autumn: The Search For Jackie Paris" (shot and edited over 2004 and 2005). In late 2005, Echo Lake's option was up on "City Island" and they elected not to renew. I wasn't surprised and was frankly relieved; even though I liked Doug and Andy and knew their interest in the movie was genuine, we simply had burned out on figuring out how to get the thing made.

For the next year I was busy adapting a novel by Oscar Hijuelos, "A Simple Havana Melody". I forgot about "City Island" for awhile, figuring that its time had come and gone. And then I got a call from my agent. "What about Andy Garcia for 'City Island'?"

Indeed, thought I. Why had we never approached him before? Somehow he hadn't seemed a logical choice. But why not? He's played Italians before--in The Godfather 3, no less.

My agent said: "We represent him here and he's very independent-film friendly. I have a hunch he might respond to the script."

Send it, said I. I liked the idea the more I thought of it. But I knew the truth about actors: no offer, not much of a chance.
Nevertheless, the project was dormant and what did I have to lose?

A week or so later my agent called and said that Andy would like to speak with me. That was Thanksgiving week, 2006. We met at his office in LA (actually a house that he and his family once lived in which he keeps as a sort of catch-all office, center of the universe space). The three years of nowheredom suddenly vanished. I was meeting my Vince--and he wanted to do it. We talked about all manner of things the first day--not just the script but life, filmmaking, cigars (he smokes, I used to) and--big subject for both of us--music. By the end of the day, "City Island" had more life pumped into it than at any time since the script was first composed five years earlier.

The question was: now that I finally had the right man for Vince...HOW THE HELL DO WE GET THIS THING MADE?

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CITY ISLAND COUNTDOWN: TFF-20!

Continuing the sinister saga of making "City Island" (with apologies to Richard Rush for stealing the title of his "Stunt Man" making-of doc--really quite good and ultimately more interesting these days than "Stunt Man" itself--Christ, stop me!), I finished the "City Island" script in early October of 2001. My agent Lucy Stille and manager Gary Ungar both were enthused but--as with most of my work--cautious of what, exactly, its chances in the marketplace were. It was not an obvious spec script sale--nor was that what I was looking for. Clearly it needed cast and a produer, though not necessarily in that order.

First up for my choice for a producer was Richard Gladstein ("Cider House Rules", "Finding Neverland"). I'd known Richard on and off for a few years and at one point we almost had launched another movie together. He liked the script but felt it was "small"--and coming off of the above mentioned Oscar winners was a bit reluctant to take it on with full force. I understood and moved on.

Next came Doug Mankoff and Andrew Spaulding, partners in a company called Echo Lake. Two very good guys who were very taken with the script and wanted to work with me. They optioned it and we got to work...on a rewrite. Now, rewrites are something of a given in this business but I've had a lot of lousy experiences watching things that are in perfectly good shape get screwed up--or become a "victim of bad notes" as a friend of mine puts it. So I was a bit stubborn about this process as I felt, and still feel, that the script as written was sort of...what it is. I mean you can't tell this story too many different ways and I wasn't all that enthused about experimenting. I wanted to make the damn movie!

Nonetheless, Doug and Andy pushed me a bit and for this I'm grateful. Though the changes they suggested were essentially minor--nothing structural was altered--they made the script better, tighter, a little more thoughtful and a lot less windy. When nobody could stand anymore notegiving or notetaking we went out to get an actor to play Vince.

Usually this is a hopeless process, taking months for actors to read (or not bother reading) scripts and then, inevitably, turning them down for reasons that will remain buried with them. But the very first actor we sent it to, the excellent Michael Chiklis ("The Shield") loved it. He and I met and liked each other. He would have made a fine Vince Rizzo and he had a break coming up in the summer from his show. So I thought "Let's get moving".

But his enthusiasm provoked an ambivelence on the part of my producers. In effect they felt: "Even though we love Chiklis, if the first actor we sent it too loved it, maybe we can get..." And then, of course, the second-guessing game began. What about Bruce Willis? Robert De Niro? Al Pacino? Hell, Brad Pitt, Russell Crowe, Tom Cruise...I'm exaggerating but you get the idea.

The longer we dithered, the less enthused Michael Chiklis grew. Who can blame him? He thought I was for real in making this film with him. I thought so too. Soon his participation was a memory and we began a torturous two year process in offering the script to actors who--as I anticipated--really didn't want to bother with reading it after all. By the way, all of the above is pretty normal stuff for the movie business. If that's normal, imagine the bad stuff--plenty of which happens.

Meeting Michael and trying to make the movie with him was far from being a total waste. I visited him on the set of "The Shield" one day and the director of that particular episode was David Mamet. We had a nice talk. Mamet told me that Michael "has spoken very highly of your work"---which coming from Mamet (even though it wasn't him directly complimenting me) made me feel touched by God. Best of all, I had a meeting with Kim Cattrall (can't remember how this came about--perhaps she was a friend of Michael's?) Kim --a lovely woman then at the peak of her "Sex In The City" success--and I had coffee at a place on Madison Avenue and then took a walk. The stares I got from other women on the street--along the lines of: "If he's with her, he must be very special"--made me briefly understand how a sixteen year old girl might feel when walking into a sports bar...

Below is Andy Garcia in a clip from the movie doing some driving work and talking with his director via walkie...

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CITY ISLAND COUNTDOWN: TFF-21!

"City Island" began life as a spec screenplay called "Make Someone Happy". I began writing it on Labor Day Weekend, 2001 and was on page fifty on September 11th, when the World Trade Center was attacked. I will always be able to root the creation of this script in precisely that astonishing moment in history as it was one of those days in which you never forget where you were and what you were doing.

I was writing about a middle-class New York family, filled with their own problems, frustrations and neuroses. And just as I was picking up steam with these people--and the script really did "write itself", the voices of the characters were coming at me fast and furious--the very world that they embodied was shaken to the core. For those reading this who are not New Yorkers, the local reaction to the tragedy was really quite astonishing. Many people hanging "missing" signs for their certainly dead relatives and friends; a denial and anger so fierce and conflicting that fights began to break out in Union Square; and through it all the sudden and blinding appearence of the American Flag just about everywhere you looked. People swung into action. Cleaning up the mess--Ground Zero as the disaster site came to be known-became the priority.

The general reaction of most people I knew in the arts was: why bother going on? Do we really need "Legally Blonde 2"? It seems strange now--after all, many cities have been attacked, pillaged, destroyed and still the creation of art has gone on unceasingly. But at the time there was a feeling of being left winded . Some hearty souls braver than I decided to get their ass down to GZ and help with the clean-up. I, alas, am the sort of person who if given a broom to help sweep up will probably wind up breaking the glasses stacked on the table. So I stayed home.

And my characters, the Rizzo's, sat there. Immobile. Without animation. Not knowing why they'd been created or where they were headed.

I think about ten days later I picked them up and dusted them off. After all I wasn't helping New York City in any concrete way by NOT WRITING. And they were, one way or another, emblematic of the kind of New Yorkers I've always most admired--indeed the kind that I come from: the outer-borough, working class familiies who are the true support--the true infrastructure of the greatest city in the world. What better for me to do in the wake of the attack on our city then let them have their lives and see who they were, what they wanted, what prevented them from getting it and how they would solve the dilemma of living?

Tomorrow I'll continue the saga of the eight years it took to get from script to finished film. Meanwhile here's a deleted scene from "City Island" featuring Andy Garcia, walking the streets of the Bronx.

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