Been a couple of weeks since my last entry and a lot has gone down in that short time. First thing is first, I turned 28-years-old on March 18th - one step closer to the three zero. Had a wonderful day that involved WATCHMEN on a fifty-foot screen at the IMAX in Southbank (first time I've ever had to turn my head to see something happening in a scene) and a morning spent at the wonderfully hidden Ronald Grant Archive & Cinema Museum in Kennington, London.
Now The Cinema Museum is a MUST for anyone who claims to be a fan of all things celluloid! Situated at The Old Fire House just two minutes away from Kennington Underground station, the museum boasts one of the most impressive personal collections that I have ever seen in my life. With everything from old Kalee projectors, sandwich boards, posters, day bills, reels and reels of films and trailers dating back to the twenties... The Cinema Museum isn't so much an archive of the movies we love, but rather the place we experience them, the cinema!
To get your own private tour of The Cinema Museum, visit their official site at http://www.cinemamuseum.org.uk/. Tours are arranged by appointment only and if you're lucky you'll get to meet the owner of the collection, Ronald Grant, in person.
Recently I completed the Hall Of Fame entry for issue 17 of HorrorHound Magazine. The next issue will be in stores in the next few weeks - and I believe they're unveiling the new cover at HorrorHound Weekend convention this week - and although I can't outright say what the Hall Of Fame entry is this issue, I will leave you with a not so subtle teaser...
Easy I know. It's a movie I have wanted to induct for years and was extremely proud to be able to finally add it to the list of previous hall of fame inductees.
In three weeks time I'll be making a flying visit to Hollywood to meet with fellow horror fiends at the LA Fango convention as well as meet with Universal regarding PR for the Blu-Ray release of AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON later this year. I have another reason for making the trip, but I will talk about that at another time. What I will say though is all the photos will turn up here first!
Been having really bad nightmares recently... an omen maybe?
Waaaaaaay back in June of 2007, while in California to shoot interviews with the likes of John Landis and Rick Baker for BEWARE THE MOON, we were fortunate enough to meet with the wonderful Bob and Kathy Burns and be treated to a tour of Bob's infamous basement. For those of you who don't know, Bob's basement is literally a cave of Hollywood wonders, with original props from the ALIEN franchise, GREMLINS, THE FLY and of course AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON.
While at their home we thought it would be a great idea to shoot a mini piece on Bob and his collection, rather than just shoot B-Roll of the props and interview Bob as was originally planned. With this we figured we would be able to 'add value' to a potential DVD re-release of AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON somewhere down the line. Well, we were lucky enough to get the documentary secured on the upcoming Blu-Ray release of the movie, but unfortunately the footage we shot at Bob and Kathy's place will not be included on the set.
As a thank you to Bob and Kathy and for all the fans who wouldn't otherwise get to go and see these amazing treasures in person, I've decided to release the footage ON THIS BLOG as an exclusive to all the fans of AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON and a thank you to all of you that have supported the project and helped us with it's eventual release later this year.
Enjoy!
Note: Apologies for the poor quality. I've had a ton of computer problems today and just wanted to get this online. Turn the speakers on your PC up.
Goes to show how good Google Alerts actually are. This is a video from the Q&A session with myself, John Landis and David Naughton that was recorded by someone in the crowd at HorrorHound Pittsburgh last June. I can only find this video, though it claims to be one of two parts. This only just came to my attention so it was fun to look back on it.
I just got word from the bearded one himself that the final picture and audio for BEWARE THE MOON - REMEMBERING AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON is practically finished and in his words "terrific". The doc has been under the supervision of Constantine Nasr at New Wave Entertainment with twelve-year Spielberg veteran (assistant editor on JURASSIC PARK and SCHINDLER'S LIST) and the man responsible for the goodies on THE DARK KNIGHT Blu-Ray, Michael Fallavolitta, editing the final piece in to the show it is now.
Hopefully I will get to see the final master of BEWARE THE MOON sometime this month, would be a great birthday present. Until then, I only have Landis' words to go by...
I promised myself for the longest time that I would get myself a permanent home for my bloggy musings for 2009, and it wasn't until Rachael at STV mentioned blogs on Saturday that I was reminded that I needed to do this. So here it is. My brand new online home. The only place to get all the inside info on what I am up to in the wonderful world of film, journalism and the odd DJ note every now and then.
For those of you new to me and what I do let me bring you up to speed. My name is Paul, I've just finished my first film for Universal which is out this Halloween, I'm really tall, I write for a US based horror magazine, I'm a DJ and I like most cheeses. Done.
Oh, I look like this:
I'm the one with the beard.
With the formals out of the way, let's crack on. This past Saturday night saw the first Straight To Video movie soundtrack club night extravaganza of 2009 take place. The special guest DJ this time around was the mighty Phill Jupitus, with STV residents the 20th Century Fox, Freelance Hellraiser, osymyso and Dadahack keeping the crowd well and truly soundtracked right through to the wee hours of Sunday morning. The Bloomsbury Lanes 50s style bowling alley in Tavistock Square, London played host to the movie music madness that only STV can deliver. Big shout out to Rachael and Roy for another cracking show. I'm told the next event will probably be in six weeks time, and am pretty certain I'll be there to spin some tracks with the usual suspects. Check out my links section down the right hand side to pay a visit to the Straight To Video official site for all the latest info.
So who saw FRIDAY THE 13th? I unfortunately haven't had the opportunity to see it YET and I don't really want to have to get it on DVD as I am a firm believer that these kind of movies are made to bee seen with a packed house on the big screen - let's face it, none of the FRIDAY THE 13th movies are nuggets of cinema gold, but seen with a rowdy audience makes these movies worthwhile. Despite a clear divide between fans the Michael Bay produced, Marcus Nispel directed remake netted a cool $42 million dollars on opening weekend, pathing the way for a sequel that has already been confirmed this week by The Hollywood Reporter. Is Jason Voorhees marketable again or did the 86% drop in box office receipts in the second week just prove that it was clearly down to the Friday 13th release date?
Fun Fact: There are three 'Friday the 13ths' in 2009 (dates, not movies), the next being... dun dun duuuuun in March! On Friday March 13th the remake of Wes Craven's LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT opens in the US - a movie produced by original FRIDAY THE 13th director Sean S. Cunningham. Platinum Dunes' next big horror remake outting will be in 2010 with their reboot of Wes Craven's fan favourite, A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET.
Speaking of remakes, now I'm not opposed to them, I accepted a long time ago that they're business decisions and more than anything keep the horror genre afloat. I rarely come out of a recent remake satisfied (THE HILLS HAVE EYES being a rare exception), but I never go in to one expecting to hate it, otherwise I will. Simple as. However, although I accept that they happen does not mean that by and large I don't think that they're pointless. A case of such was brought to my attention last week when I heard that Wolfgang Petersen's 1984 fantasy adventure DIE UNENDLICHE GESCHICHTE... or as Limahl called it THE NEVERENDING STORY (ahhhhhhhhh ahhhhh ahhhhh), was next on the list. I mean honestly, how could you remake this?
Seriously, didn't they do a CGI riddled version of this last year called THE SPIDERWICK CHRONICLES? Upon hearing the news I Skyped a call to one of the residents of Fantasia hoping he would have something to say about the news... here's what he had to say:
Not my words Hollywood... the words of Morla The Ancient One!
Last Monday saw the world premier of WATCHMEN in Leicester Square. I was in town so a group of us went a long and took a quick gander at the yellow carpet gala - plus remark a couple of sneaky "errr you watch men you big gays!" at those in attendance.
WATCHMEN however had nothing on the reason I was in Leicester Square last Monday, for the fantastic Prince Charle Cinema were screening AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON as part of their double bill season. Those who know me know just how much I love this movie, and those who don't, well, I just spent two-years making a documentary about it (out this Halloween... go buy it!); anyway, this was the first time I would get to see it on the big screen, and to say I was a little excited is an understatement. Joining my significant other, Romy, and I were my good buddy David Bidwell of The Monster Company and fellow upcoming filmmaker Chris Stone (check out the trailer for his movie TURPIN here).
As we all took our seats at the sold out screening the crowd errupted as MICHAEL JACKSON'S THRILLER began to play on the screen as an unannounced bonus! The crowd were really into it, especially Michael's proclamation that he's "not like other guys" and his cat monster judo-chop on a small tree. As for the movie itself... wonderful! I feel as though I have truly experienced John Landis' classic as it was intended.
On the subject on AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON and more specifically our upcoming making-of documentary BEWARE THE MOON, I was informed by our post house in LA, New Wave Entertainment, that it has been mastered and should be 100% complete sometime this week. So what's next? Well the finished show now has to be mastered in Hi-Def by Universal and authored for the DVD/Blu-Ray release, which should be announced by Universal Home Entertainment in the coming months.
The delay really is a test of patience, especially as it was originally supposed to be released THIS month, but it has allowed me to begin work on other projects - including a book, the screenplay for film number 2 and an exciting project with superstar DJ Osymyso (watch this space!). Who knows what will happen after the release in October... I just can't wait for people to see it! Besides all that, the delay gives me a chance to do more stuff with these guys:
Issue 16 of HorrorHound is out now and I have just received word from Editor-In-Chief Nathan Hanneman that they expect to have FULL UK distribution in time for issue 18. That means no more hiking to your nearest Forbidden Planet or comic store... WH Smiths all the way baby! Anyway, issue 16 is chock full of gratuitous goodness, from exclusive Toy Fair coverage and a huge retrospective on the RESIDENT EVIL franchise - including a neat little interview with Tim Bisley himself, Simon Pegg. In addition to these is a neat little article that I contributed to called 'The Next Big Remake'. The HorrorHound staff were asked to pick what they would commission as the next horror remake and who would direct it. I picked... "uh uh uh..." go buy it!
Before I forget, HorrorHound have just launched their first radio show. It's rather long at two hours but it is pretty funny and a great insight as to what goes on behind the scenes at HH. I'm not in this one but will be in the next whenever that goes live. You can download the first show here.
Well, that's all from me this week. DJing the usual Tuesday night randomness in Wimbledon tonight. Twitter updates will become available pending boredom. By the way, I'm a massive t-shirt geek. Love t-shirts! So, this will be my own little geeky addition to my blogs:
I'm a journalist/DJ turn filmmaker. First movie comes out in October which is very exciting. Here you can find out exactly what I'm up to as it happens - plus exclusive info on my next project coming in 2010.
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