156,548.24

156,548.24

The Day The Earth Stood Still

I need someone to stick cigarettes in my eyes and I need them to F@$king do it now! Just this announcement alone made a great deal of the Earth Stand Still while they collectively wondered why the Gods hate them.

Keanu Reeves lands on 'Earth'
Actor to star in classic sci-fi remake
By MICHAEL FLEMING
Reeves

Twentieth Century Fox has set Keanu Reeves to star in "The Day the Earth Stood Still," its re-imagining of the 1951 Robert Wise-directed sci-fi classic.
Reeves committed over the weekend to play Klaatu, a humanoid alien who arrives on Earth accompanied by an indestructible, heavily armed robot and a warning to world leaders that their continued aggression will lead to annihilation by species watching from afar.

Erwin Stoff is producing, with Scott Derrickson ("The Exorcism of Emily Rose") directing from a script by David Scarpa. Reeves' commitment puts the picture on track for a late fall or early 2008 production start. Studio sees it as a tentpole.

The Klaatu role was originated by Michael Rennie. The 1951 film's premise, a response to the rise of the Cold War after WWII, is being updated, and the film will use advances in visual effects.

It also returns "The Matrix" star to his strong suit in the sci-fi realm and puts him in back-to-back films for Fox. He just completed the David Ayer-directed "The Night Watchman," for Fox Searchlight/Regency about police corruption based on a story by James Ellroy. Forest Whitaker, Chris Evans and Hugh Laurie also star.

It's always something

While implementing edit changes to the first hour of CA, FINAL DRAFT decided for some reason to change the element designations for everything in the second half of the script. So, I just spent an hour and a bit changing everything back to what it should be: dialogue to dialogue, characters to characters, etc. It was very annoying since I was hoping to get back into it by making the changes then spending all day tomorrow rewriting the lost act so I can spend most of Labor Day weekend pushing forward. I've never seen FD make this sort of formatting mistake so I hope it's a one off and won't happen again. I think I may have contracted carpal tunnel in my right hand doing repetitive highlight maneuvers with my trackball. I, however, shall not be undone by this small set back. If it does it again though, I may have to resort to pen, paper and crying.

Old Habits

I’m currently trying to get back into good habits. While the computer was down I got out of the habit of working on my stuff every day after work and went back into old non-productive habits. Amazing how short of a time it takes to fall back. Otherwise, I’m just watching the days pass as I continue to organize the firm I work for with little things like file labels and cabinet labels and pack up old files for storage. I am the master of a very boring universe.

Back Up and Running

Picked up a new USB keyboard at the apple store. I'm now installing software and getting what I had backed-up back onto the machine. Everything should be back to normal by the end of the weekend.

Not wuite there

Well, I replaced the hard drive yesterday and loade4d the OS only to find out that half of my keyboard isn't working. This is either due to me not reseating the track pad ribbon all the way or the fact that it may have been damaged when I reassembled the machine the first time and didn't get it fully threaded through the bottom bit. Also, the holding pin or whatever for the track pad ribbon broke a bit since the instructions said "gently pull up" when the should have said "gently pull toward you." Oh well, I'll take it apart again tonight and see if I can't resolve this. It's a bit frustrating since the track pad and top half of the keyboard works, but the bottom half does not. Sigh.

Almost there

Drive and tools have arrived. Surgery shall be attempted this evening. If successful, I should be back up and running tomorrow sometime.

Plans are afoot

I've ordered a new drive and the tools necessary to crack my lovely laptop open. Drive and tools should arrive before the end of the week and then I will install it. After that it will be business as usual, unless I mess-up on the install and fry my computer, but for $20.00 for the tools, I couldn't pass up the possibility to save my self $80 on the install.

Back to work.

RIP: Hard Drive

The Hard drive on my laptop died. Don't know when it will be replaced. Such are the consequences of squeezing an extra year out of it. I'll only have access at work now, so silence will probably be the pattern for a bit.

Review: Pushing Daisies

Pushing Daisies

Where: ABC
When: Wednesday nights at 8:00/7:00c beginning on October 3, 2007

I don't know how much real input Barry Sonnenfeld had in the script development of this new series, but visually he's left his fingerprints all over it. What is most refreshing is the "fairy-tale" visual quality. How the series itself will pan out is hard to tell from the pilot, which is strictly an origin story that merely hints at the episode-to-episode possibilities. In an age where pilots do little more than jump immediately into the action, forgoing any real character building, this one starts at the beginning, like all good fairy-tales should, and brings you up to date with the winning trifecta of story, character building and emotional context; even if the emotion is whimsical and not solely grounded in reality.

Of all of the pilots I've seen so far this is definitely the most original. Its tone is actually reminiscent of WONDEFALLS, which is probably due to the fact that Bryan Fuller, who was one of the creators of WONDERFALLS, created this show as well. It also reminded me of DEAD LIKE ME, one of my other favorite shows, which was also created by Fuller. You can see what I'm getting at. Hopefully it will not suffer those show's fate. but if it does it at least it has a 13 ep initial order, which will make for a nice addition to the DVD collection should it fail to attract enough viewers. I will even place it along side WONDERFALLS should that happen to keep that modest collection from getting lonely.

From the ABC site:

Once upon a time, Director Barry Sonnenfeld (Men In Black, Get Shorty, The Addams Family) and Writer-Producer Bryan Fuller (Heroes, Wonderfalls, Dead Like Me) created an unprecedented blend of romance, crime procedural and high-concept fantasy. It is a love story about a young man with a very special gift…the ability to return someone dead briefly back to life with just a simple touch.

Ned, a mild-mannered baker of fabulous pies, discovered his gift as a child. Now he puts his gift to good use, working with his only friend, a private investigator, to crack murder cases by asking victims to name their killers. But the tale gets complicated, as all tales do, when he saves his childhood sweetheart and she miraculously stays alive. Each week, she encourages him to use his powers to solve mysteries and help others. Life would be perfect, except for one cruel twist: if Ned ever touches her again, she'll lose the life he gave her, for good this time. There's always a catch…

Earthquake Cherry

At just a little before 1:00 AM PST, my earthquake cherry was greedily taken from me by the Tectonic Thunder Gods as I slumbered. It lasted only about 10 seconds; at least that is how it seemed. I awoke to a mild shifting to and fro and thought to myself, "Oh Shit, it's an earthquake." But as it quickly subsided and I rolled over to make sure my 4D Mag light was where I could reach it, I thought to myself, "Well, maybe not." I then fell back deep into slumber while trying to come up with escape and survival plans should it recur. By the time I awoke I had completely forgotten that it had happened until an e-mail of inquiry as to whether I had felt it or not arrived in my inbox. I feel alone now as the Tectonic Thunder Gods have themselves gone back to sleep and I wonder if they'll ever call. They said they would as they left. I bet they don't even remember my name.

(4.5) - 34 miles north of LA

Light 4.0-4.9 Noticeable shaking of indoor items, rattling noises. Significant damage unlikely. 6,200 per year (est.)

LA Traffic Facts

Little known LA traffic facts about HONKING:

Honking, while you are in a line of cars trying to turn left at a light, even before the light turns yellow, will realign all of the cars through sonic vibration allowing you to magically control the car at the front of the line, so you won't miss the turn.

Honking will also cause the car 30 yards in front of you to Parallel Park smoothly, so you don't have to slow down or break courteously while they finish parking.

Honking is a great way to let that pedestrian, who is using a legal crosswalk, know that you don't give a damn about pedestrian rights or the rules of the road.

Honking, while you drive faster than the speed limit, will cause other cars to move safely out of your way so you don't have to slow down during your long 5 mile commute.

Honking can be a great way to express complex emotions such as: frustration, anger, entitlement and loathing.

Honking is a great way to say "HI" to all your commuting friends.

Just remember honking is always more fun when everybody does it, so lean on it.

Review: REAPER

Show: REAPER
Production: ABC Television Studios and The Mark Gordon Company
Network: CW
Premiere: Tuesday September 25, 2007 @ at 9:00 PM EST.

It’s Sam’s 21st birthday and things are about to change. During the course of one fateful day he will successfully ask out the girl of his dreams and then blow it. He will be stalked by a pack of dogs hell bent on attacking him. He will discover new telekinetic powers. His parents will tell him that they traded his soul to the Devil before he was born, so his father could live. The Devil will assign him the task of returning escaped souls to Hell. He will do this with "vessels" supplied to him; the first being a rechargeable Dust Devil mini Vac.

The series, based on the “monster an episode” trope is refreshingly imbued with a wonderful slacker point-of-view that you can’t help have fun watching it. Is it something new? No. But, it is a delightful twist on the old formula. Using a directionless anti-hero was a great idea. Imbue him with self-confidence through bounty hunting for the Devil. In an odd way it’s a comedic SUPERNATURAL. It tries not to take everything so seriously although there are moments of adult emotion that are fairly seamlessly interweaved with the comedic elements. The choice of Kevin Smith to direct the pilot was a great idea due to his slacker cred. While I can’t say I felt him behind the camera, the pilot is solid and moves fluidly.

I’m an unashamed lover of this sort of show, be it the more serious kind like SUPERNATURAL or X-FILES and the less serious like BRIMSTONE or even the comedic, albeit short lived, shows like DEAD LAST, which this show has a feel of. I’ve just figured out why by looking up Tyler Labine, who plays Sock, and he was one of the principles in that show as well.

I’m definitely going to keep up with REAPER and hope it levels out and finds its groove. It’s the kind of show that you don’t have to watch religiously, I’m sure the creators and writers would take exception to that, but it’s one of those shows that can really make your day when you wonder across it. The initial order is only 13 episodes, so one can only hope the writers have built in an overall story arc to tie the individual eps together just in case 13 is as far as it gets. This will at least make an eventual DVD set worth having.