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marlynnofmany · 10 months

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Just a Rock

For all the time I’ve spent traveling through space, I haven’t spend much of it actually out in space. It’s unsettling. Inside the ship, I can forget how close the airless void is, how small our precious bubble of air. But outside, everything is black like some vast creature ate all the color in the universe first, then the air, and is now hungering for life forms too.

Sometimes those distant stars look like teeth.

These are the thoughts that tend to pop up when I’m in my exo suit, hoping that my thruster pack doesn’t run out of fuel before I make it back to the ship. But then an empty pack of chips will float by my visor, and I can refocus on business.

That’s how it happened today, at any rate. (And yes, “day” is a silly concept in the blackness of space.) We’d made a detour to see if we could pick up some extra funds by gathering salvage from a museum ship that had gone kablooey, but so far all we were finding was trash.

Paint jetted past in her own exo suit, upside-down to my frame of reference, then stopped to pull apart a jumble of carpet fragments. “They really did clear out the good stuff already,” she said over the radio. She swatted aside a drink cup with her tail, looking like a little space-suited dinosaur, a thought that kept me entertained for a good few seconds.

Captain Sunlight’s voice said, “Keep an eye out for scrap metal. That may already be gone too, but it’s worth a shot.” She was somewhere else in the drifting junk pile, or maybe back near the ship; I couldn’t tell. There was too much stuff in the way. This was a mildly alarming thought — out of sight meant out of safety — but I caught a glimpse of the Frillian twins posted as safety guards at the edge of the cloud, and my heartbeat settled a bit.

“Do you think anyone will buy some mildly used carpet?” Paint asked the captain. “It’s only in several pieces.”

“Let’s go with ‘no.’”

“What about some very exotic — what is this — napkins? Made with authentic Earth wood fibers!”

I looked over at that. “How can you tell?”

“Oh, I have no idea,” Paint said. She held up half of a wall placard. “But this is from the Earth exhibit, so maybe the napkins are too.”

I looked around at the trash in a new light. “Man, it’s a pity we weren’t here for any of the good stuff.”

“Yeah, and all these food packages are empty! We can’t even get you a slightly exploded taste of home!”

I waved my hand through a cluster of soda bottles. “I appreciate the thought.”

Paint jetted over to a different pile of whatever. “Hey, do you think any of this food trash was actually an exhibit? Packaging from olden days?”

“Uh, maybe,” I said. “Probably not. That’s not the sort of thing I’d expect on a multi-species museum ship. A janky little humans-only one, maybe. But even then, most people aren’t going to care.”

Something clunked against the back of my helmet. I hate that. Nothing like a reminder that I can’t see behind me like some species can. I toggled the jets to rotate in place, so I could find the offending object.

It was a rock.

“What’s this doing here?” I asked, closing a gloved hand around it and bringing it in for a closer look.

“What’d you find?” Paint asked, sticking out sideways from behind a twisted bench.

“A rock.”

“A meteorite rock?” she asked. “Oh hey, do you think it pierced the hull?”

“No, it doesn’t look like a space rock,” I said, turning the small gray-and-white lump over. It was mostly smooth, with a divot that would have fit a fingertip if I hadn’t been wearing the gloves. “Weird. I wonder if it was part of some Neolithic exhibit or something.”

“Can I see?” Paint jetted over to park herself in roughly the same orientation as me. She was very good with that jetpack.

I showed her the rock. “It doesn’t look like any gemstone I know. Maybe some kid had it in their pocket, then threw it away.”

Paint cocked her head. “Is that normal, for your young to carry rocks around?”

“Sure. You never picked up something you thought was neat as a kid?”

“Not a rock,” Paint said with exaggerated disdain. “A sweet-smelling seednut or herb, absolutely.”

“But look: it’s even got a little finger groove,” I pointed out. “You could stick it in a pocket and rub it for luck.”

“Could you?”

I smiled. “You could. You probably wouldn’t, but…”

“Why?”

I looked at the rock again, already fond of it. “I get the feeling that I couldn’t explain this to a point where you’d agree.”

Paint shrugged. “Probably not. But hey, we found you a souvenir after all. From probably the Earth section of whatever museum this is.” She grabbed a handful of colorful pamphlets drifting by. “The ‘Galaxy in a Bottle Museum Tour Ship.’ Who named that?”

My smile turned into a wide grin. “Humans.”

Paint grumbled about the unflattering comparison of an elite starship to a simple bottle. When she moved to toss the pamphlets away, I held out a hand.

“What’s that white one?” I asked. “It looks like a display sign.”

Paint flipped over the stack and separated the one I meant. “You’re right. Hey, it’s about a rock!”

I reached out a grabby hand. “Gimme.”

She passed it over. “Is it that rock?”

I read the title, then was gut-punched by familiarity. I’d heard about this. “Yes,” I managed, skimming the rest of the sign and holding the rock close. “This is Bethan’s Rock.”

“What?”

I fumbled to explain. “Ages ago, a kid visited a museum — a human kid — and learned what museums were for, then offered her favorite rock as a donation, so other people could appreciate it too.”

Paint cocked her head in the other direction. “And they took it?”

“Yes!” I must have looked a little wild at this point, but I didn’t care. “The adults agreed that it was a fine thing to donate, not to mention adorable, and the only one of its kind that I’ve ever heard of. More museums should house the occasional favorite rock, though I suppose they wouldn’t be as special if they did.”

“So just to clarify,” Paint said. “There isn’t anything valuable about this rock, except that one of your youths decided there was. And all the adults played along.”

I smiled down at it, careful not to let it drift away. “It’s the most precious non-precious stone I’ve ever seen.”

Paint stared for a moment. “It’s not even one of those shiny ones you like.”

I laughed. “I know!”

The captain called us back in at that point, having found one decent chunk of metal among the mountains of trash. We had a schedule to keep.

I folded the sign and tucked it into my suit pocket, but held the rock tight in my fist as I jetted toward the ship, working the controls with one hand. I was already thinking of the safest place in my quarters to keep it until we got ahold of the proper Earth museum authorities. Other humans would want to see Bethan’s Rock, after all, but it would be my honor to watch over it until they could.

~~~

(Inspired by this post. Long live Bethan’s Rock.)

These are the ongoing backstory adventures of the main character of this book. More to come!

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brynnmclean · 6 months

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twenty questions for fic writers

I was tagged by @stitchingatthecircuitboard! Thanks, friend! This was fun! :D

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

54! Though some of them are ficlet collections that I might separate out, if I could do it all over again.

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

180,644

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Currently, Rings of Power / the Tolkien Legendarium (including Silm, LotR, The Hobbit).

Previously, Rogue One, Star Wars sequel trilogy, broke ground writing fic for a m/m Viking romance novel Brothers of the Wild North Sea (it made me so happy), and the tiniest bit of Black Sails.

Before that, a LOT of Supernatural fic, some Being Human US, and LOST.

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

cast some light & you'll be all right, 4.5k Explicit Rogue One Rebelcaptain fic where Cassian doesn't like one-sided sex and Jyn isn't used to having a partner who wants to make time for her. They figure it out!

waiting to step forward, 3k Explicit Rogue One Rebelcaptain fic, the direct sequel to cast some light featuring Cassian Andor: Cunnilingus Addict again

I waited for the crash to come, 17k Rogue One Rebelcaptain ficlet collection -- one of those ones that I suppose I could have separated out, but it feels way too late to do it now! There are a lot of ficlets that I love in there though.

beneath the stars, 4k Kíli/Tauriel Hobbit AU where Thranduil hosts a party and Kíli and Tauriel get to dance together and smooch :)

I wanna hurry home to you, 2k Explicit Rogue One Rebelcaptain fic, ALSO part of the cast some light 'verse, sex interrupted by a stand-up meeting, sex continued after the meeting, lol

5. Do you respond to comments?

I try to respond to them as they come, but I have DEFINITELY run into the problem where I haven't responded to some of them and the more time passes, the worse I feel about not responding, and then it just-- anyway, if you've ever sent me a very nice comment that I haven't responded to, please know that I saw it, cried about how nice it was and how good it made me feel, got slammed by something in life, and now remember you with helpless, wordless gratitude.

6. What’s the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

I don't write a lot of angst! But an old old old episode-related fic called exercise in futility for Being Human US, featuring season 1 Aidan who was a MESS, might fit the bill.

Or out of storms comes strength for tomorrow which is a Tauriel-centric, grief processing fic...? but I feel like the ending for that one is more hopeful than not? That's a little more where I like to land. There's light in there somewhere, always.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Either sanctuary (Rogue One crew beach vacation for @eisoj5!) or I used to be a king alone (a May the Fourth Rebelcaptain Date-Shaped Mission or a Mission-Shaped Date).

8. Do you get hate on fics?

I got a couple unpleasant anons during the SPN days over some meta re: fandom reaction to a very large fic project, but otherwise my fandom experience has been kind. I can't remember ever getting hate on my fics in particular, but I have gotten some odd comments before, ranging from "why is [male character] randomly a girl" for a genderqueer / rule 63 fic to "when are [m/f couple] going to have Real Sex" for a smut series.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

I do! Not as much lately, but the majority of my Rebelcaptain fics were non-PIV (out of spite :D) explicit fics. The first smut fic I wrote was a SPN OT3 with Dean/Castiel/Lisa so... I have a little experience writing threesomes (looking at Galadriel/Celeborn/Halbrand eventually)!

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written?

I have written the beginnings of crossover AUs-- I was kicking around a Rogue One Black Sails AU (was going to be Saw Gerrera-centric, as he's the Flint analog), I have an outline for a Rebelcaptain Bourne Identity AU (Jyn as the GFFA Jason Bourne -- one day I SWEAR I'll give this one a fair shot because I actually do have the rare PLOT OUTLINE), and I wrote a ficlet for a Rogue One Grey Company LotR AU.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

I did have a Rebelcaptain ficlet plagiarized once. Many thanks to the anon who alerted me to the situation so I could make a successful removal request.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

I have not! I have had some fics podficced which were wonderful. :)

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

I haven't formally co-written a fic with anyone, but I am enjoying the hell out of playing around in the sandbox @rain-sleet-snow and I are hanging out in for the Uncorrupted Mairon AU.

14. What’s your all-time favorite ship?

WOW, I absolutely cannot choose ONE out of ALL of them... If I have to choose... Right now I'm positively feral over Galadriel/Celeborn/Halbrand, but I wrote and will love Jyn/Cassian forever.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish, but doubt you ever will?

Alas... I am not good at finishing fics and I don't often have the discipline to write long-form fic. One of these days I would love to get back to safe house in the hurricane or out of grief joy.

16. What are your writing strengths?

Considering like, 95% of my fics are conversations / dialogue, I think we can consider that a strength!

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

PLOT. I'm a pantser. I never know where I'm going next. Also action scenes are extremely difficult!

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

Thoughts? Cold-sweat terror. Thank you to much smarter people than I am for Elvish translations. Anyone who writes in multiple languages, whether real-world or conlangs, leaves me in awe.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

... LOST, maybe??? @ladytharen helped run a 108 word drabble challenge on LJ that I THINK got me into my first forays of writing fic that wasn't, uh, childhood handwritten scrawling in notebooks for LotR.

20. Favorite fic you’ve ever written?

Oh!!!! I'm taking a leaf from @stitchingatthecircuitboard's book and going to list three:

I still think out of storms (the Tauriel grief fic) is one of my best

There's so much of my heart in blessed, the Éomer & Éowyn late night conversation fic that also features genderqueer / genderfluid!Éowyn fic-- though damn it, I wish I'd titled the fic better, but it feels too late to change it, lol

and honestly, as rusty as I felt writing it, I really love first flush of hope to carry the grey away, 1k Rebelcaptain not-a-kiss in an alley

tagging: @rain-sleet-snow, @ladytharen, @eisoj5, @heymacareyna, @ichabodjane, and whoever else is reading this and would like to. Consider yourself tagged!

#fic writer questions #tag games #this was fun #i have been writing a little bit lately!#i wish i had the stamina discipline etc. to write a lot #i am working on it. hopeful for a calm nano.#my fic

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aion-rsa · 3 years

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Space Sweepers and the History of Working Class People In Space

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This week saw the release of Space Sweepers, Korea’s first big budget special effects space movie extravaganza. There are a lot of interesting things to say about this movie, but one of the things that makes it stand out is it’s an excellent portrayal of people in space who are skint.

See, I hate to break it to you, but you’re probably never going into space. Unless you’re a highly trained technical specialist (well done!) or a billionaire (pay your taxes!), your best shot at seeing Earth from space within your lifetime is the development of realistic-yet-cheap VR headsets.

And the thing is, a lot of the time this holds up in sci-fi as well. Space travellers are either living in a post-scarcity utopia, are part of the military, or are some kind of genius scientists.

Even where we see supposedly salt-of-the-Earth relatable types, like Han Solo or Mal Reynolds, their scruffy outfits and roguish ways can’t quite cover for the fact that they own and live in the equivalent of a massive luxury yacht or private plane. Serenity may look like a rust bucket, but it’s far from the equivalent of a white van, and while Mal is constantly complaining about the costs of fuel and repairs, that doesn’t change the fact that he seems to own the ship outright, and in “Oxygen” he appears ready to buy the ship for cash.

As for Han Solo, leaving for a moment his humble origins and that he won the ship in a card game, within the Galaxy Far Far Away the ratio of space travellers to non-space travellers doesn’t seem that different from the one on Earth. Yes, there are lots of smugglers and Tie-fighter pilots and interplanetary bounty hunters, but for every one of them there are millions of Tusken sand raiders, Jawa scrap merchants, moisture farmers and Corellian street rats. Spacecraft might come and go from the spires of Coruscant as regularly as buses, but the population density is such that most people on that planet will be lucky to see sunlight, let alone the stars.

Meanwhile, back in the real world, the chances of an ordinary person getting into space even in the foreseeable future vary between Willy Wonka Golden ticket level lucky, or truly dystopian. On the one hand, Elon Musk has announced the first all-civilian mission to space, led by billionaire Jared Isaacman (so, not what you’d call an everyman), two seats given to people who have won a place by donating to St Jude’s Hospital (it probably won’t be one of the smaller donors), and finally, one lucky front-line health worker.

But Elon Musk wants to colonise Mars, and sadly billionaires still need people to clean the toilets, so Musk has other ideas for how ordinary people might get into space. Unfortunately that idea is indentured slavery, demonstrating that the most prescient science fiction writers of our generation are the writers of first-person shooters.

This is why, outside of post-scarcity-fully-automated-luxury-space-communism, and the military, science fiction is always oddly quiet about money. With a few honourable exceptions.

We Just Work Here

The first and most obvious reason why any ordinary working-class person would end up in space is “they’re paid to”.

Pretty much the codifier of working-class people in space is Alien. The crew of Nostromo aren’t scientists, they’ve not got The Right Stuff. Nobody on that ship is getting a high school named after them. The crew of the Nostromo are basically truck drivers who venture off the highway and run into something nasty. Yes, ironically they show a great deal more competence, professionalism and intelligence in encountering an alien threat than the actual scientists in the prequel movie, but the first conversation these characters have when they come out of hyper sleep is about money. From the outset, these are people in a place of work.

It’s a model that set the format for gritty-industrial-working-class-people in space movies going forward for better or worse. Event Horizon just lifts Alien’s aesthetic completely for the rescue ship Lewis & Clark, as does the videogame series Dead Space, like Alien, set aboard a mining ship.

Away from the horror genre, Outland sees Sean Connery play sheriff in a final frontier mining town that could have taken place in the same world as Alien.

And of course, Red Dwarf, which not only made good use of the Alien aesthetic, but also cast the colony commander from Aliens as their Captain, to tell the story of chicken soup repairmen in space.

Across all of these stories, and of course the aforementioned videogames, the life of the blue collar space traveller is an unpleasant one, exploited by a company that not only controls your life while you work, but also owns all of your food, water and air. Indeed, it’s not rare for them to go further. In Moon, another film where the spacemen-to-earthmen ratio seems not far what it is now, Sam Bell’s employer decides to save the cost of training employees and ferrying them back and forth from Earth to the Moon by taking one employee and filling a cellar full of his pre-programmed, short-lived disposable clones.

Space Sweepers

Public Transport

But maybe you don’t want to work for “the Man”, not an unwise call given the Man is probably trying to feed you to something horrible in the hope of creating a new bioweapon. One surprisingly under-utilised method of getting into space is public transport.

In The Fifth Element, Bruce Willis plays a special-forces-operative-turned-cab-driver who, as part of his cover, wins a ticket to go on a space cruise. Although looking at the sets and the extras in this movie, as well as the packed-in-as-tightly-as-we-can apartments back on Earth, one gets the impression this is not an option open to the majority of working joes.

Perhaps the best example of this is in the shockingly under-loved 2018 flick, Prospect, featuring future Mandalorian Pedro Pascal.

In Prospect, the spaceship is little more than a rotating framework filled with cargo containers in front of a massive engine. The father and daughter prospecting team are on board a lander that resembles nothing so much as an old Apollo Lunar Lander on the inside, and as the mothership approaches their destination the ship doesn’t even stop, it just releases the lander, tells them when the ship is going to be passing back that way and warns them the line is being terminated, so there won’t be another ship passing that way.

This is a model it would be fantastic to see more of. The landing module is small enough that it’s entirely plausible that even these not-very-well-off characters could buy, hire or rent one. Rather than having the freedom of the space ways like Mal or Han, their travel options are entirely restricted by what destinations are profitable for large shipping companies and whether they’ll let you tag along. And while on the surface the aesthetic looks a bit Alien, in truth it feels far more like it’s cobbled together from relics of the actual space age.

Borrow Your Way Into Space

And finally, of course, there’s the Elon Musk solution. Borrow your way into space. One of the early places to use this idea was Gateway, by Frederik Pohl. Frederik Pohl in particular is fantastic at writing science fiction worlds where people actually have to worry about money. In Gateway and its sequels humanity has discovered Ancient Aliens left a space station nearby, stocked with a lot of spaceships. Being alien technology, humans can’t control the ships accurately, they’re limited pretty much to pressing the “Stop” and “Go” buttons, and when the ship flies off it might land on a world of fabulous riches, or it might chuck you into the heart of a star.

Prospectors who want to try their luck in these ships have to take out a loan to get to the station, and throughout the novel the protagonist is constantly aware of how many credits are in his account.

Which brings us back around to Space Sweepers. At first glance the Space Sweepers set-up might seem similar to that of the Millennium Falcon or Serenity – an extremely “used” looking ship run by a rag-tag bunch of misfits. But the first time we see the protagonist, Tae-ho, he’s in a pawn shop. As soon as he gets back to the ship we learn the crew are still paying off the cost of the ship, as well as the costs of repairs and parts.

We see an awful lot of “Space sweepers” throughout the film, junk collectors gathering up salvage from Earth’s orbiting collection of derelict spacecraft and defunct satellites. But these people don’t seem like roguish space pirates, the impression they give is more akin to app-based gig workers.

This is compounded by another issue – that to work in space you need a visa, with citizenship limited to the wealthy few who are able to afford a place on the deluxe orbiting space habitats.

Everything in Space Sweepers is driven by money, whether it’s Tao-Ho’s attempts to raise enough money to find his daughter, the robot, Bubs, and her attempt to get a humanoid body that reflects her gender, and of course, the $2 million reward for “Dorothy” which drives the whole plot.

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Often space-based sci-fi is about the fantasy of freedom, of exploration. Even shows like Star Trek give us characters whose job isn’t much more than to fly around having adventures. But there is rich storytelling to be done about the people who have to clean the space toilets.

Chris Farnell’s novella series, Fermi’s Progress, is about a ship whose FTL drive vaporises planets, and features at least one space traveller who isn’t a scientist, super soldier or billionaire (although to be fair the other three characters are exactly that). You can find part one here.

The post Space Sweepers and the History of Working Class People In Space appeared first on Den of Geek.

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#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

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weekendwarriorblog · 5 years

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WHAT TO WATCH THIS WEEKEND May 17, 2019 - JOHN WICK CHAPTER 3, A DOG’S JOURNEY, THE SUN IS ALSO A STAR

Well, the summer is grinding along at a rather slow pace. Granted, it’s only the third or fourth official weekend, depending on when you started counting, and if you live in New York City, it doesn’t really feel like summer at all, but as has been the case since starting my beat at The Beat, I hope people will be reading this for the limited releases and repertory stuff, which I try to make fairly comprehensive and complete.

Normally, I wouldn’t be too impressed with Lionsgate’s decision to release Keanu Reeves’ JOHN WICK CHAPTER 3 - PARABELLUM in the summer, but surprise, surprise, I actually liked this one. A LOT! I already reviewed the movie for The Beat, a review which you can read here, but I do think that most of the people who liked the first movie will like this one, too, as it adds the likes of Halle Berry, Asia Kate Dillon (Orange is the New Black) and Mark Dacascos to flesh out the mythology while sending John Wick on the run as he’s excommunicated from the assassin’s guild.

I don’t have as much an opinion about the doggie sequel A DOG’S JOURNEY (Universal). I mean, I like dogs just fine, but I never got around to seeing A Dog’s Purpose, and I’m not sure I can follow this movie’s high-concept premise without having seen it. Apparently, a dog dies and then keeps coming back as another dog in order to protect Dennis Quaid’s daughter… no, I don’t get how that works either, but I’ll probably never see this.

The other movie I’ve seen which opens Friday is Ry Russo-Young’s THE SUN IS ALSO A STAR (Warner Bros./MGM), based on the novel by Nicola Yoon, starring Yara Shahidi (black-ish,grown-ish) and Charles Melton from Riverdale. If you know me at all, then you can probably guess that I’ve never seen those shows, but I have seen Russo-Young’s other films, and she’s a director that’s definitely grown on me as she’s taken on YA adaptations. I’m not going to write a full review of this one (due to time constraints and illness) but I was generally mixed on it. I thought the two young actors were fantastic, and this was a perfectly nice romantic film that generally used its New York locations well, but there were definitely parts where I was just bored and not that into the story. It’s a shame, because I usually buy into the whole fate and destiny thing, especially when it come to romance, but this one just gets silly at times.

You can find out what I think of the above film’s box office prospects over at The Beat.

LIMITED RELEASES

This is a very busy week for limited releases with a lot of things coming out of the woodwork at the last minute… and honestly, most of what I’ve seen is just okay, at best.

Jack O’Connell plays Cameron Todd Willingham in Ed Zwick’s TRIAL BY FIRE (Roadside Attractions), based on the true story of the Texas man accused of murdering his three young daughters via arson in 1991. He spent 12 years on Death Row before his case found its way to writer Elizabeth Gilbert, played by Laura Dern, who tries to negate the evidence against Willingham. I wanted to like this movie more than I did, because it is an interesting story with a decent script written by Oscar winner Geoffrey Fletcher (Precious), based on an article by New Yorker writer David Grann (apparently all of his articles become movies, so he has a good agent, huh?). The movie is generally okay, mainly due to the fantastic rounded performance by O’Connell but it’s also quite long-winded and didn’t need to be over two hours to get its point across.

Joanna Hogg’s autobiographical British indie THE SOUVENIR (A24) stars Honor Swinton Byrne (yes, that’s Tilda’s daughter) as film school student Julie who encounters and gets involved with a gregarious and opinionated older man named named Anthony (Tom Burke) who turns out to be a heroin junkie who effectively sabotages the film she’s trying to get made. While I can generally understand what Hogg was trying to do with this movie, I found it very long and drawn-out, and I was even more shocked to learn that this was meant to be the first of a two-part movie, but no, I won’t bother with Part 2 even if it does star Robert Pattinson, probably as another dick who tries to derail Julie’s career, cause that’s what men do.

The Lunchbox director Ritesh Batra returns to India for the romantic drama PHOTOGRAPH (Amazon) about Rafi (Nawazuddin Siddiqui), a man from a poor village who takes a picture of student named Miloni (Sanya Malhotra) and sends it to his grandma, saying it’s his new girlfriend, so she’ll get off his back about marrying. Rafi sends his grandma a picture of Miloni, but then has to convince Miloni to play along and meet his grandmother when she comes to Mumbai. As the two spend more time getting to know each other, a romance begins. It’s a nice movie, maybe not quite as great as The Lunchbox, but a nice date night movie for sure.

Opening at the Metrograph, which is in the midst of a Ryusuke Hamaguchi retrospective, is the Japanese filmmaker’s most recent film ASAKO I AND II (Grasshopper Films), based on the novel by Tomoka Shibasaki. It begins with a romance between a shy girl from (Asako, played by Erika Karata) who falls for a young man named Baku (Masahiro Higashide), who suddenly vanishes on her. She ends up moving to Tokyo and meeting another man named Ryohei, who is Baku’s spitting image – maybe because he’s also played by Higashide. A relationship develops between them until Asako learns what happened to Baku. This is definitely a strange but mostly satisfying romance story that would be a great date night double feature of Photograph.

From Sweden comes Pella Kagerman and Hugo Lilja’s sci-fi thriller ANIARA (Magnet Releasing), which takes place on the title spaceship which is taking the three-week journey to Mars full of thousands of passengers when it’s knocked off course. The problem is that it might take years to get back on course, which immediately throws everyone on board into a panic. At the center of it is Emelie Jonsson’s woman who runs a “Mima chamber” where people can go to relax, a chamber that gets increasingly more busy until it breaks down and then things just get completely crazy. If you wondered what Passengersmight have been like if Gaspar Noe directed it then Aniarais the movie for you, but I did like Jonsson’s character arc as she ends up starting a relationship with a woman officer on the ship and where that story goes.

Karen Gillan stars in Collin Schiffli’s ALL CREATURES HERE BELOW (Samuel Goldwyn), which is written by and co-stars David Dastmalchian from Ant-Manand other films. It deals with a couple living in poverty, forcing him to break the law, as they set off to find refuge in Kansas City. I haven’t seen it but it sounds interesting with that casting.

Shirley Jackson’s 1962 mystery novel WE HAVE ALWAYS LIVED IN THE CASTLE (Brainstorm Media)is adapted by filmmaker Stacie Passon with an all-star cast including Taissa Farmiga, Alexandra Daddario, Sebastian Stan and Crispin Glover. Farmiga plays Merricat who lives with her sister Constance (Daddario) and uncle (Glover), the only survivors of a poisonic that killed the rest of their family five years earlier. When their cousin Charles (Stan) arrives, asking about the family’s finances, it begins a battle for control as tragedy looms.

Now playingat the Film Forum is The Third Wife (Film Movement), Ash Mayfair’s Vietnamese drama set in the 19th Century about a 14-year-old named May, who becomes the third wife of a much older man. With a mostly female cast and crew, the film has drawn comparisons to Zhang Yimou’s Raise the Red Lantern and some of the flashbacks in The Joy Luck Club (which I recently rewatched and cried my eyes out, but don’t tell anyone).

Then opening Friday at the Film Forum is Andrey Paunov’s documentary Walking on Water (Kino Lorber), about artist Christo and his late wife Jeanne-Claude, who had built some of the most amazing large-scale installations including the famous “The Gates” in Central Park and their most recent project “The Floating Piers” over Lake Iseo in Italy. The movie will open in L.A. and San Fran next Friday, May 24.

Johnny Depp stars in Wayne Roberts’ The Professor (Saban Films), a movie that seems to be getting dumped into theaters after a DirecTV release. Depp plays Richard, a college lecturer who discovers he has six months to live so he turns into a party animal, much to the shock of his wife (Rosemarie DeWitt) and chancellor (Ron Livingston). Also costarring Zoey Deutch, it opens in select cities.

Kevin and Michael Goetz’s A Violent Separation (Screen Media) stars Brenton Thwaites as Norman Young, deputy of a midwstern town who is forced to arrest his older brother Ray (Ben Robson) for murder. Things get more difficult when Norman gets involved with the victim’s younger sister (Alycia Debnam-Carey). It opens at New York’s Cinema Village and a few other theaters as well as On Demand.

Now playing at the Roxy Cinema in New York is Matt Hinton’s doc Parallel Love: The Story of a Band Called Luxury (Abramorama) about the small-town band Luxury, whose career almost ended in a wreck, but who continue to make records even as three members become priests.

Another music-related doc out this week is the Cordero Brothers thriller Room 37 - The Mysterious Death of Johnny Thunders (Cleopatra Entertainment), which as you might guess from the title is about famed rocker Johnny Thunders (Leo Ramsay) and how his trip to New Orleans to get his life together turned deadly.

This week’s Bollywood offering is Aki Ali’s De De Pyaar De, starring Ajay Devgn, Tabu and Rakul Preet Singh in a London-based love triangle.

Opening in New York this Friday, then in L.A. May 24 and VOD June 21 is Eddie Alcazar’s Perfect (Breaker Films), exec. produced by Steven Soderbergh, which stars Garrett Wareing as a troubled young man sent to a clinic by his mother (Abbie Cornish) to help with his dark visions.

Next up is Rachel Carey’s Ask for Jane (Level Film) starring Cait Cortelyou in a timely movie set in Chicago 1969 where abortion is punishable by prison and two women try to find a doctor to help a pregnant student at the University of Chicago has tried to kill herself. The two women end up forming the Jane Collective, an organization that helps women get safe abortions.

Asa Butterfield, Finn Cole, Hermione Corfield, Michael Sheen, Margot Robbie, Nick Frost and Simon Pegg star in Crispian Mills’ horror-comedy Slaughterhouse Rulez set in a British boarding school where monsters have been unleashed from a sinkhole. The movie was a hit in England but is barely getting a release in the States even with that amazing cast.

STREAMING AND CABLE

Not much of note on Netflix except Kate Melville’s rom-com Good Sam, a movie about a reporter who is trying to find a stranger who is leaving bags of money all around New York City.

I probably haven’t been paying enough attention to the streaming service MUBU, but in honor of the Cannes Film Festival that started this week, the service is doing a “Cannes Takeover” which includes Gus Van Sant’s Paranoid Park, Crisi Piu’s The Death of Mr. Lazarescu, Alejandro Innaritu’s Amores Perrosand other films that broke out of the French film festival.

REPERTORY

METROGRAPH (NYC):

Sci-fi author Samuel R. Delaney will be at the Metrograph for Delaneymania, a collection of films selected by him including This Island Earth (1955), Ingmar Bergman’s The Seventh Seal (1957), Jean Cocteau’s Orpheus (1950), as well as Orson Welles’ Touch of Evil: Director’s Cut (1958). The series will also include Fred Barney Taylor’s doc about Delany called The Polymath and more. Playtime: Family Matinees is also getting involved into Delanwymania with screenings of The Boy with the Green Hair (1948) on Saturday and Sunday morning. Also this weekend is the firstMetrograph Book Fair of the year with lots of rare and vintage books and magazines on sale.This week’s Late Nites at Metrographincludes screenings of Michael Mann’s Thief (1981) and more screenings of Gasar Noé’sClimax, which seems to be Metrograph’s new go-to movie. (Sorry, Carol!)

THE NEW BEVERLY (L.A.):

Weds and Thursday seems double features of Elaine May’s Mikey & Nicky (1976), starring Peter Falk and John Cassavetes, and Between the Lines (1977), while Friday and Saturday’s double feature is Martha Coolidge’s 1983 film Valley Girl (with Coolidge and special guests on Saturday!) and Sofia Coppola’s 1999 debut The Virgin Suicides. The Sunday/Monday double feature is two from Dorothy Arzner, Merrily We Go To Hell (1932) and First Comes Courage(1943).Friday’s midnight is Tarantino and Rodriguez’s 2007 anthology Grindhouse, while Saturday at midnight, you have another chance to watch The Love Witch from 2016. The weekend’s KIDDEE MATINEE is Agnieszka Holland’s 1993 film The Secret Garden (which is being remade next year). On Monday afternoon, there’s a screening of Josie and the Pussycats… no, I’m not sure why either.

FILM FORUM (NYC):

Sadly, the Trilogies series ends Thursday, but the Film Forum will screen a 4k restoration of Alain Resnais’ Last Year at Marienbad (1961), and this weekend’s Film Forum Jr.offering is Tim Burton’s Edward Scissorhands (1990), starring Johnny Depp. Dan Streible is back with his eclectic of shorts called More Orphans of New York.

EGYPTIAN THEATRE (LA):

On Friday, you can catch a “New York Sleaze Triple Feature” (yes, in L.A.) with Fulci’s The New York Ripper (1982),Nightmares in a Damaged Brain (1981) and Abel Ferrar’s The Driller Killer (1979). The Cassavetes & Scorsese: Love is Strangeseries continues on Saturday with Goodfellas and Husbands, plus the 1965 film The 10th Victim is showing as part of the Art Directors Guild Film Society Series on Sunday. Also on Sunday, Spanish filmmaker Ivan Zulueta (who died ten years ago) gets a tribute with a screening of 1979’s Arrebato.

AERO (LA):

This week, the Aero begins the Passion of Pier Paolo Pasolini series (probably in conjunction with Abel Ferrara’s film, which finally gets a theatrical release) with a series of double features: Solo, or the 120 Days of Sodom (1975) and Pigsty (1969) on Thursday, The Decameron (1970) and Oedipus Rex (1967) on Friday, The Canterbury Tales (1971) and Teorema (1968) on Saturday, and Arabian Nights (1974)and Medea (1969) on Sunday. On Monday, they’ll screen a rare 35mm print of Pasonlini’s The Gospel According to St. Matthew(1964). Since I really enjoyed Ferrara’s new film starring Willem Dafoe, I’m bummed I missed the Metrograph’s retrospective of Pasolini last year, but this is a good chance to see this prolific Italian filmmaker’s often-controversial work.

QUAD CINEMA (NYC):

Another great series begins at the Quad this weekend with Fighting Mad: German Genre Films from the Margins, based around Dominik Graf’s two-part documentary A Journey Through German Film. Graf programmed the series with Olaf Müller, who presents a few of the screenings. It’s a pretty rich series with no films that I personally have had a chance to see – I have a couple screeners to watch – but there are sure to be a few gems in there if you have time to see some of the 17 movies.

IFC CENTER (NYC)

Waverly Midnights: ParentalGuidance will screen Roman Polanski’s horror classicRosemary’s Baby (1968) and James Cameron’s Aliens (again). Weekend Classics: Love Mom and Dad screens Pier Paolo Pasolini’s 1962 film Mamma Roma, while Late Night Favorites: Spring shows the Coens’ Fargo, David Fincher’s Fight Club and Pee Wee’s Big Adventure.

BAM CINEMATEK (NYC):

Black 90s: A Turning Point in American Cinema continues this weekend with Waiting to Exhale, The Five Heartbeats, Fear of a Black Hat, House Party, a 20thAnniversary screening of The Best Man and a lot more. It’s a really good series with a lot of movies worth checking out.

MOMA (NYC):

Abel Ferrara: Unrated continues with 1986’s Crime Story on Wednesday, 1993’s Dangerous Game on Thursday, Welcome to New York (2014) on Sunday and Piazza Vittorio (2017) and 4:44 Last Day on Earth (2011) on Sunday. The series will continue through May 31. MOMA is also doing a Jean-Claude Carriereseries, honoring the amazing prolific work of the French screenwriter, including Louis Malle’s Milou en Mai (1964), Milos Forman’s Taking Off (1971) and many more, which will be screened between now and June 16.

ROXY CINEMA (NYC)

A new addition! The theater in the Roxy Hotel in Tribeca is showing Joanna Hogg’s earlier film Archipelego (2010), as well as Sally Potter’s 1992 film Orlando in 35mm!

MUSEUM OF THE MOVING IMAGE (NYC):

On Saturday, MOMI is doing a Filmmaker Memorial for John Singleton, put together by The Black Filmmaker Foundation and the Black Film Critics Circle with BFCC President Michael Sargent and other critics discussing Singleton’s work. Otherwise, MOMI is finishing up Panorama Europe.

LANDMARK THEATRES NUART (LA):

This week’s midnight movie on Friday is the Japanese horror filmHouse (Hausu) from 1977.

That’s it for this week. Next week, we get Guy Ritchie’s Aladdin, starring Will Smith; Olivia Wilde’s hilarious Book Smart and the James Gunn-produced Brightburn. Oh, yeah, and it’s Memorial Day weekend!

#JOhnWick Movies Reviews DogsJourney Repertory LimitedReleases

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orionredstarr · 7 years

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Close-Up: Ted Elliott & Terry Rossio on 'Dead Man's Chest'

I stumbled across this old article from 2006 when potc2 was first released and found it a very interesting piece -- how the writers described the characterization and concept of Jack Sparrow, the actor Johnny Depp how he was playing Jack, and in relation to Kiera Knightley who plays Elizabeth Swann. There were some interesting nuances you might like to read in this potc ‘time capsule’ so have fun reading!

:) ORS

article by Scott Holleran

During a recent interview about Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean series—including next year's installment—writers Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio demonstrate clarity, intelligence and a flash of the randy humor that's made the franchise a hit.

Meeting at the Walt Disney Studio in Burbank, the brains behind the spectacle that now opens Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest are a couple of pals who grew up in Orange County with frequent trips to Disneyland. Three years after Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl took Hollywood by storm, its writers are ready to go another round.

Box Office Mojo: Is Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest exactly the movie you wrote?

Terry Rossio: It's not an easy question. There are things I would change. But there are aspects that exceed what we wrote as well. The trade-off is probably worth it— Ted Elliott: —life is full of these little trade-offs— Terry Rossio: —and there are relatively few. They amount to quibbles. I'd say it's 90 percent of what we wanted.

Box Office Mojo: Did you choose the darker tone?

Terry Rossio: I'm not sure it is darker. You could just as easily say it has more slapstick. Maybe it extends further in each direction—maybe there are occasionally darker alleys. Hopefully, those are balanced. Ted Elliott: We didn't intend to have sequels. The first [movie] is a story in and of itself, a sort of capital 'r' romance in the Prisoner of Zenda sense that ends in an idealized love between Elizabeth and Will. So, what happens after that? Ideals are very difficult to [achieve] in this world. It's much more interesting to watch somebody struggle, where it's not so easy to know what's the right thing to do at all times.

Johnny Depp in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest

Terry Rossio: In the first film, Jack Sparrow wants to get his ship back, and that's what he's focused on. Though he does some underhanded things, he's aligned with the heroes for the most part. That's kind of uplifting. In the second [movie], Jack Sparrow is more desperate. His needs put him at odds with pretty much everybody—his crew, Will and Elizabeth and, obviously, Davy Jones. His desperation is magnified, and that may go a long way toward that impression that it's darker.

Box Office Mojo: Davy Jones talking about death is definitely darker.

Ted Elliott: Well, we're using the same palette that we used in the first movie. But we're definitely using different values in different combinations and, yeah, we actually do set out to suggest the world of pirates is darker. The darkness was implied in the first and we're making it more apparent in the second [picture] because we are ultimately leading to this climax [in the third picture]. It's a far more interesting type of drama to see people operating in this morally ambiguous world.

Box Office Mojo: When did you first ride the Disneyland attraction?

Ted Elliott: I was seven or eight years old. We grew up in Orange County [California], so Disneyland was always about 15 minutes from the house. I spent a lot of time there. Before we started working on the movie, I'd probably been on the ride at least a hundred times. It was my favorite ride. Number two was Monsanto's Adventures Through Inner Space—I just liked the idea of things getting really tiny and walking around in that environment—but number one was Pirates of the Caribbean.

Terry Rossio: My experience was similar. I'd been on it maybe a hundred or two hundred times before we even contemplated doing the movie.

Box Office Mojo: Were you drawn to the attraction's horror features?

Ted Elliott: It was the totality of the experience. That ride begins with what is a dark ride feature. It really does—the skeleton, the cursed treasure—it's always been part of the ride. Right at the beginning, the skeleton warns you to keep your hands and arms inside [the boat] and says that Davy Jones is waiting for those who don't obey. It always had this supernatural aspect of legends that we all associate with the sea. But there had never been a movie that tied pirates to it. Terry Rossio: For me, what the ride accomplishes so well is that sense of a fully realized fantasy. It's a tip of the iceberg feeling—like [you are entering] a world that has its own rules and is its own reality. It's like going into the world of Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter. The ride felt like little vignettes or episodes that feel as if they have a larger story behind them. I was curious to find out: how did those guys get there? How did the dog get the key? What's going to happen? The fun of doing the Pirates of the Caribbean films is that you get to create a world. I think that's what audiences like—they want to go visit that world. They want to visit those characters and look around corners and see where that path leads or where that ship came from. Box Office Mojo: Is there more gunplay in the sequel?

Terry Rossio: No. There's more pet violence perhaps. But don't overlook the rather brutal moment [in the first picture] of the butler coming to the [governor's residence] door and being shot. Ted Elliott: Also, the first death we see in the first movie is Will throwing an axe into somebody's back—when the pirates are invading Port Royale—and he doesn't know that the pirates are unkillable. From Will's point of view, he is the first person to commit actual violence.

Box Office Mojo: Is the third picture done?

Ted Elliott: No. We still have a couple of months left to shoot. We shot the location work simultaneously with Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest but the plan was always that we would have something left to shoot.

Box Office Mojo: Is the title Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End?

Terry Rossio: That's what we're campaigning for—but it's not set. Ted Elliott: I like it because then you could say 'POTC: AWE.'

Johnny Depp in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest

Box Office Mojo: Johnny Depp has received widespread praise for his portrayal of your character, Captain Jack Sparrow. How much of your writing remains in that characterization?

Ted Elliott: We wrote a very specific character and Johnny played that character but his performance was one neither of us could have imagined. We wanted to create this trickster. If you go all the way back to [Robert Louis Stevenson's novel] Treasure Island, we kind of borrowed the moral ambiguity of that story. The whole thing comes down to [young boy] Jim Hawkins making the call as to whether [pirate] Long John Silver is a good man or a bad man—that's the emotional crux of that story. Silver does kill people—he betrays everybody—and this moral ambiguity is inherent in the pirate/swashbuckler genre. To that regard, the trickster archetype seemed appropriate. That's what we wanted to do with Jack Sparrow. Whether Johnny identified that consciously, he definitely found a perfect performance. Terry Rossio: The world wants there to be movie stars and, in a sense, the story becomes Johnny Depp—because people want that. In terms of understanding why he's [created] an iconic character, the story becomes 'Johnny Depp is brilliant' which of course is true because Johnny Depp is brilliant. People are not necessarily as interesting in pedestrian reality. You still have a storyboard artist who comes up with a visual of Johnny first stepping onto the dock as the ship sinks. We wrote that [scene in which Jack Sparrow is introduced]. We wrote lines like: 'you're the worst pirate I've ever heard of—' and [the response] 'but you have heard of me.' People quote those lines. If the character had walked on screen and just stood there and said, 'hello,' it wouldn't be the same. So, clearly the screenwriting goes into the creation of the character. And I have to credit Gore Verbinski's direction. Ted Elliott: When we were writing and making the first movie, [we had in mind] the Sergio Leone [spaghetti] Westerns like The Man With No Name [movies]. The Clint Eastwood and Lee Van Cleef characters are essentially gods compared to all these mortals. They can shoot better, they can ride better, they're smarter, they're faster and they don't say much. To some extent, that's what we were playing in the first [Pirates], that Jack and [Captain] Barbossa [played by Geoffrey Rush] are kind of pirate gods. They come into the lives of these two mortal characters— Terry Rossio: —and we continue that into At World's End— Ted Elliott: —and, to some extent, Jack is the demi-god, the trickster. He straddles both sides. Is he on the side of the gods—is he opposed to the gods?—is he on the side of the mortals? He's on his own side. Terry Rossio: You can also track the dialog in those [spaghetti Westerns]: the less words you say, the more god-like you are—and, in Pirates of the Caribbean [pictures]— Ted Elliott: —pirates talk. Terry Rossio: —the less Johnny says, the more truthful he is. The more words he uses, the more you should mistrust him. Ted Elliott: So, yes, there is some conscious thought given to the behavior of Jack Sparrow.

Keira Knightley and Johnny Depp in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest

Box Office Mojo: Does it concern you that Jack Sparrow will be perceived as less likable in this movie?

Ted Elliott: More interesting, not less likable. I can't say what everybody's going to feel, but, certainly the intent here was for people to be surprised by what Jack is doing. My argument against making him more likable is that he [ought to be] understandable. Everything he does is perfectly within character and, in a way, all we're doing is revealing greater character depth. His character in the first movie included things that were less than admirable, less than likable.

Terry Rossio: The most important commandment is to sustain interest—if you do that, everything else follows; you can move people emotionally, you can make them laugh, you can do all sorts of things. It's most important to demonstrate character complexity or to let characters do things that create interest, because that's how we live our lives day to day. Same thing with complexity. For some reason, there's a focus when people talk about movies about the idea of somehow 'getting it,' like things should be easy or clear. What really goes on in movies is that things are beguiling or intriguing and interest is sustained by seeing glimpses of a world or a story. That's what happens in real life. People have to navigate the world based on incomplete information. That can draw people into a story. Yet, for some reason, people don't understand that and they're resistant to that technique. Luckily, we get to do it in these movies, which I think actually works. Likability and simplicity are not all they're cracked up to be.

Box Office Mojo: What is the meaning of the series?

Ted Elliott: It's a study of what is a pirate. How free can you really be? What are those trade-offs? Jack kind of represents the ultimate free man—he really has no obligations to anybody, and, obviously, if you make an obligation to somebody, you're limiting your own freedom. But, if you're not willing to limit your own freedom, you can't have those relationships. If you look at Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest from that point of view, you kind of see what really leads to Jack's ultimate fate and why Elizabeth does what she does.

Box Office Mojo: Jack Sparrow's an anarchist?

Ted Elliott: Essentially, yes, he really is. Terry Rossio: I wouldn't say he's a complete anarchist— Ted Elliott: —he's opposed to social structures, he's opposed to government— Terry Rossio: 99 percent of that's correct but Jack has his own internal moral landscape. The choices he makes are not necessarily inconsistent with forming relationships.

Box Office Mojo: Is there an inner goodness to Jack Sparrow?

Terry Rossio: No. Jack says it clearly [in the first movie:] there's what a man can do and what a man can't do. Those words encompass his inner contradictions—that's what's so beautiful about them—he's saying you cannot generalize, you cannot philosophize, you cannot come up with a simple [moral code]. It's almost saying each situation calls for its own resolution; there is simply what you will do and what you won't do. Ted Elliott: He's also saying, judge by deeds, not words.

Box Office Mojo: Do all the characters return in the third movie?

Ted Elliott: Yes.

Box Office Mojo: What are the mechanics of your writing partnership?

Terry Rossio: We do the back and forth exchange of files. One of the techniques we learned while working in animation [on Shrek] is to work in sequences. For me, it's easier to attack a three-page thing than the entire script. Ted Elliott: I know writers who actually work in the full draft and I can't figure out how they do it. If you have a hundred pages, if you want to get to a scene in the middle, you have to go through all that other stuff. Whereas, if you've broken it up into sequences, you only have to deal with exactly the part you need to work on.

Box Office Mojo: How do you take a step back and look at the big picture?

Ted Elliott: That's why the cards are up on the storyboard. We work out the story on index cards to break it down. Terry Rossio: Truth be told, sometimes, you don't get that view of the Big Picture until opening day. Also, it's a very immersive job; you wake up and you're on a set and talking to actors and going to story meetings and, with the amount of time you spend understanding how a story should work, you don't necessarily have to go to the boards. You're living the film as it's being made, and you can sometimes tell [what to write] because you know that world so incredibly well. You [already] have the context of the larger movie.

Box Office Mojo: How do studio pressures affect the writing process?

Ted Elliott: You're ultimately trying to create a physical object. It's wonderful to imagine, but once you start rendering the script as something physical, you have to deal with the physics. It really comes down to the physical constraints on what's mostly intellectual. The reason I became a screenwriter is to make movies. If I just wanted to write screenplays, that's all I'd do. If I just wanted to be a writer, I'd never write screenplays. There is much more satisfactory work than writing a screenplay because it's not the final work. You're not actually writing to communicate with your intended audience; you're writing to communicate with the people who are making the movie. Terry Rossio: Sometimes the physical constraints on a movie are the people working on the movie and Ted's much more able to navigate that. Ted Elliott: I come at it from the point of view that, if Terry, for example, doesn't get my idea, I'm not communicating my idea—not if it's really a great idea—or, it may not be a great idea or, in Terry's subjective opinion, it's not a great idea for the movie. [Director] Gore [Verbinski] may initially disagree with an idea [in the script] and we may have arguments. But what eventually develops is a new idea that we're all satisfied with.

Box Office Mojo: Can you give an example of an idea you refused to compromise?

Ted Elliott: In the very first meeting we had on Pirates 2 and possibly Pirates 3, we kind of pitched to Gore, [and producers] Jerry Bruckheimer, Mike Stenson and Chad Oman how the movie ends—I don't want to spoil it—with Jack, Will and Elizabeth. We said 'this is what we want and then in Pirates 3, this happens.' They were like, 'nyahh.' But we've learned an important lesson, which is that the right idea at the wrong time is a wrong idea. So, we stopped and said, 'alright,' and talked about what more we wanted to do with this movie. A couple of weeks later, Gore had come back to those [same] ideas and, now, they're there. There is a point where the writer has to be allowed to take responsibility for the work—or not take responsibility for the movie.

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4yourexcitement · 5 years

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10 years ago today we were introduced to a rag tag group of losers who, with a song in their hearts, were just looking for a place to belong as they made their way through high school in Nowhereville, Ohio. We met a young teacher trying to rediscover his passion for teaching. We came across your usual high school jocks and cheerleaders, we had our first run-in with a slightly scary, slightly crazy cheerleading coach, and we heard that iconic song for the first time closing out the episode.

Yes today marks 10 years since Glee’s pilot aired. How little we knew then the impact this show about a high school glee club that was littered with song and dance numbers that ran the gamut from top 40 pop to rap to classic rock to Broadway staples would have on our lives. And it’s not just our lives that it changed, it also changed the TV landscape… bringing musicals back to TV, opening up mainstream TV to LGBT issues, and raising awareness of issues from the value of arts education to texting and driving.

Let’s take a look at where the cast are now.

Dianna Agron – Quinn Fabray

Credit: FOX

Credit: Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images North America

Dianna became a household name as the Queen Bee head cheerleader Quinn Fabray with the seemingly picture perfect life… little did we know from that very first episode. Following her character’s high school graduation at the end of season 3, Dianna only appeared in a handful of episodes for the rest of Glee’s run. Since landing Glee, Dianna has had a number of film roles. They include The Hunters (2011), I Am Number Four (2011), The Family (2013), Zipper (2015), Bare (2015), and The Crash (2017). She also made her London theatre debut as Dahlia in the play McQueen in 2015. Dianna married Mumford & Sons’ Winston Marshall in 2016.

Chris Colfer – Kurt Hummel

Credit: FOX

Credit: Chris Colfer/Instagram

Chris was a cherub-faced 19-year-old when Ryan Murphy created the role of Kurt Hummel for him and just like his character, Chris is not taking ‘no’ for an answer and forging his own career as a storyteller. Chris won a Golden Globe for best supporting actor for his portrayal of the fashion-forward countertenor in 2011. During the Glee 2011 hiatus, Chris wrote and starred in the film Struck by Lightning. Chris adapted the film’s script into a novel, which was published in November 2012. While working on the Struck and during breaks in the Glee Live! in Concert! tour through North America, the UK and Ireland, Chris was working on his draft for The Land of Stories: The Wishing Spell, the first in his fantasy children’s series and earning him his first New York Times Bestseller’s list entry. The novel has spawned five sequels, two picture books and a couple of companion books, not to mention a number of other Bestseller’s list entries. It was announced last year that the first book was being adapted for film. Chris will not only serve as writer and executive producer, but will also make his directorial debut on the project. He also released his second Young Adult novel – Stranger than Fanfiction – in 2017. Although his writing has kept Chris largely busy since Glee wrapped, he has had a guest spot on Hot in Cleveland and guest starred in Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie.

Jane Lynch – Sue Sylvester

Credit: FOX

Credit: Andrew Toth/WireImage

When Glee debuted 10 years ago, Jane Lynch was probably the best-known cast member. It’s hard to imagine anyone else in cheer coach and Will Schuester/Glee club antagonist Sue Sylvester. Jane had some of the best one-liners throughout the series, with many still littering social media today. From 2013, Jane has hosted NBC’s game show Hollywood Game Night (on which a number of her Glee castmates have appeared) for which she was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Host in 2018. That same year was also nominated for Outstanding Guest Actor for her role in The Marvelous Mrs Maisel. Jane executive produced and starred in the comedy web series Dropping the Soap, earning an Outstanding Actress in a Short Form Comedy or Drama Series Emmy nomination for her performance. Her autobiography, Happy Accidents was published in 2011, and Jane returned to the stage, making her Broadway debut as Miss Hannigan for a limited engagement in 2013 in the Annie revivial and touring her cabaret show, See Jane Sing, which debuted in 2015.

Jayma Mays – Emma Pilsbury

Credit: FOX

Credit: NBC

Jayma played the germaphobe McKinley High guidance counselor, who always had a motivational leaflet on hand for any occasion. Her infatuation with Will Schuester provided her with much angst in the first few seasons, but her patience and long-suffering was finally rewarded, notwithstanding her runaway bride escapade. Jayma starred alongside Neil Patrick Harris in the two Smurf movies and had lead roles in the TV series The Millers (2013-2015) and Trial & Error (2017-2018). Jayma and husband Adam Campbell welcomed their son, Jude in August 2016.

Kevin McHale – Artie Abrams

Credit: FOX

Credit: Roc Nation

Former boy band member, Kevin took on the role of wheelchair bound Artie Abrams. Since Glee wrapped in 2015, Kevin spent some time in the UK hosting the comedy panel show Virtually Famous for its first three seasons. He also played supporting roles in the independent film Boychoir and the docudrama miniseries When We Rise, which detailed the history of US LGBT rights advocacy from the 1970s to the 2010s. On the music front, Kevin joined fellow Glee star Darren Criss in Katy Perry’s celeb-filled video for her 2011 hit “Last Friday Night “(T.G.I.F.)” and has recently my working on new solo work, with his song “Help Me Now” released at the end of March. Kevin can also be heard every Thursday with best friend and Glee co-star Jenna Ushkowitz on their podcast Showmance – part of the Ladygang Network, of which fellow co-star Becca Tobin is co-creator of.

Lea Michele – Rachel Berry

Credit: FOX

Credit: Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic

Lea starred as the Broadway-obsessed, New Directions-lead diva, Rachel Berry. Following Glee’s end, Lea joined Ryan Murphy’s new Fox comedy horror series, Scream Queens. Lea played Hester Ulrich for the show’s two seasons. In 2017 she starred as Valentina Barella in ABC’s ill-fated sitcom The Mayor, which despite positive critical acclaim, was cancelled after one season. Lea made her feature film debut in 2011’s New Year’s Eve. Lea has released two studio albums: Louder (2014) and Places (2017), and has recently teased work beginning on a new album. She promoted Places in 2017 with the mini tour An Intimate Evening with Lea Michele, which took her to nine cities in the US as well as Toronto, Canada and London, UK. She teamed up with fellow Glee-alum Darren Criss for the LM/DC Tour in 2018, which saw the pair perform across North America, the UK and Ireland. Lea has also penned two books: the New York Times Bestseller Brunette Ambition and You First: Journal Your Way to Your Best Life. Lea married president of clothing brand AYR, Zandy Reich earlier this year.

Cory Monteith – Finn Hudson

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Cory played the lovable giant Finn Hudson, McKinley’s star quarterback who also slayed it on the drums and could nail any classic rock song. While working on Glee, Canadian native starred in Monte Carlo and Sisters & Brothers, both were released in 2011. Cory made no secret of his struggles with addiction, both before and during Glee. Cory was found dead in a Vancouver hotel in July 2013. His two films, All The Wrong Reasons and McCanick were released posthumously. The cast and crew paid tribute to both Cory and Finn in the season 5 episode, “The Quarterback”.

Matthew Morrison – Will Schuester

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Credit: Getty Images

The role of McKinley High’s inept Spanish teacher who revives the glee club was played by Matthew Morrison. Matt released his first solo studio album in 2011. The self-titled album was followed up in 2013 with the release of Where It All Began, a collection of Broadway standards. Matt also starred in The Muppets (2011) and the film adaptation of bestselling book, What To Expect When You’re Expecting (2012). Matt returned to the Broadway stage in 2015, performing the title role of J.M. Barrie in the new musical Finding Neverland. The role earned him two Broadway.com Audience Awards: Favorite Actor in a Musical and Favorite Onstage Pair (with Laura Michelle Kelly). He has had recurring roles on The Good Wife and Grey’s Anatomy and earlier this year, Matt was one of the dance captain’s in BBC One’s The Greatest Dancer. He married Renee Puente in 2014. The couple welcomed their first child, Revel in 2017.

Amber Riley – Mercedes Jones

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Credit: Getty Images North America

With a killer set of pipes and a huge dose of diva, Amber Riley played the unstoppable Mercedes Jones. Amber put her years of Glee dance training to use, taking out the Mirror Ball trophy on Dancing with the Stars. She starred as Addaperle, the Good Witch of the North, in NBC’s live performance of The Wiz in 2015. Amber then came across to London and made her West End debut as Effie White in Dreamgirls, a role that won her the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical in 2017. Later that year she was a judge on BBC One’s musical talent show Let It Shine. She also joined forces with Beverley Knight and Cassidy Janson as Leading Ladies. They released their first album, Songs from the Stage at the end of 2017.

Mark Salling – Noah “Puck” Puckerman

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Credit: Earl Gibson III/Getty Images

Mark played McKinley’s resident “badass” Puck. A bully who has been in and out of juvie, he’s Finn Hudson’s best friend and teammate on the football team, however, this doesn’t stop him from knocking up Finn’s girlfriend Quinn. But this relationship does bring him to the New Directions as a way to be closer to Quinn. Mark released the studio album Pipe Dreams in 2010 where it received modest success reaching 29 on the US Indie chart. In 2013 Mark was accused of sexual battery, which was settled out of court. He was later arrested and charged with possession of child pornography. He died by suicide in January 2018 before he was sentenced.

Jenna Ushkowitz – Tina Cohen-Chang

Credit: FOX

Credit: Jenna Ushkowitz/Twitter

Jenna starred as the stuttering emo/goth Tina Cohen-Chang, though both of these attributes didn’t last beyond the first two seasons. Jenna released an autobiography, Choosing Glee in 2013. She returned to the stage in 2015 and 2016 as Julia Sullivan in The Wedding Singer in Pittsburgh and in a limited run as Dawn Williams in Broadway’s Waitress, respectively. Jenna has also turned to producing. She executive produced the documentary Twinsters in 2015, which premiered at the South by Southwest festival and she won her first Tony last year for her work as a producer on the Once on This Island musical revival. In 2016 Jenna founded the At Will Radio podcast network with Will Malnati. She hosted the podcast Infinite Positivities. More recently she has joined Glee best friend and costar Kevin McHale as co-hosts of the Ladygang Network podcast Showmance. Jenna also founded Kindred: The Foundation for Adoption with fellow adoptee Samantha Futerman.

Heather Morris – Brittany Pierce

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Credit: Drop The Mic

In what was only meant to be a background role, Heather Morris so endeared ditzy cheerleader Brittany Pierce to the fans and the Glee writers that she quickly became a series regular. Heather provided the voice of Katie in Ice Age: Continental Drift (2012) and has starred in Spring Breakers (2013), Most Likely to Die (2015) and Folk Hero & Funny Guy (2016). Heather appeared in the 2017 season of Dancing with the Stars, being eliminated in the sixth week of the competition. Heather gave birth to her son, Elijah with Taylor Hubbell in 2013. Heather and Taylor were married in 2015 and welcomed their second son, Owen in 2016.

Naya Rivera – Santana Lopez

Credit: FOX

Credit: Watch What Happens Live

The third member of the Unholy Trinity, Naya starred as Latino spitfire Santana Lopez. Naya made her feature film debut in 2014 in the horror film At the Devil’s Door. She had a recurring role in the third season of Devious Maids (2015) and has starred in the YouTube Red series Step Up: High Water (2018-). Naya signed with Columbia Records in 2011 to produce a solo album. Her single “Sorry”, featuring then-boyfriend and rapper Big Sean was released in 2013, though the album was never produced. Naya has also published a memoir: Sorry Not Sorry: Dreams, Mistakes, and Growing Up. Naya married Ryan Dorsey in 2014. They have a son, Josey, who was born in 2015. Naya and Ryan eventually divorced in 2018.

Harry Shum Jr. – Mike Chang

Credit: FOX

Credit: Getty Images

The dancing jock with a surprising voice, Harry starred as Mike Chang. Known for most of the first season as “Other Asian”, it was his relationship with Tina from the second season that brought Mike into the heart of the glee club and their fans. Harry was involved in a number of web series during Glee’s run, including Step Up 3-D and Mortal Kombat: Legacy. Since Glee he has starred in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny and the hit 2018 film Crazy Rich Asians. He is best known for his role as the warlock Magnus Bane in the Freeform/Netflix series Shadowhunters, which ran from 2016 and the series finale airing earlier this month. Personally Harry married actress/dancer Shelby Rabara in 2015. The couple’s first child, Xia, was born earlier this year.

Chord Overstreet – Sam Evans

Credit: FOX

Credit: Chord Overstreet/Instagram

Chord joined the cast early on in season 2 as transfer student Sam Evans. While Chord starred as Nick in the 2015 film 4th Man Out, he has largely focused on his music career since Glee wrapped. In 2016, Chord toured with Glee season 5 recurring guest Demi Levato and Nick Jonas, opening a series of their Future Now Tour dates. He released a series of singles between 2016 and 2017, along with his debut EP Tree House Tapes in mid 2017. In 2018, he created alt-pop-rock group Overstreet. They released singles “Wasted Time” and “Carried Away” Last month they debuted new song “All Nighter” and their debut album Man on the Moon is due out later this year. They are currently touring around the US at selected cities.

Darren Criss – Blaine Anderson

Credit: FOX

Credit: Danny Moloshok/Invisionfor the Television Academy/AP Images

With a failed audition for Finn Hudson behind him, Darren Criss was cast as rival glee club Dalton Academy’s lead singer, Blaine Anderson, in season 2’s sixth episode, “Never Been Kissed”. Initially a short guest stint as a role model-type character for Kurt, the chemistry between Darren and Chris Colfer and the fan response to both Darren and his debut song “Teenage Dream” soon saw him join the regular cast. Darren made his Broadway debut in a three week stint as J. Pierrepont Finch in How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying in January 2012. He went straight from Glee into rehearsals for Broadway’s Hedwig and the Angry Inch, taking the stage for 12-weeks in 2015. He reprised the role for the San Francisco and LA legs of the US tour in 2016. He has starred in the films Girl Most Likely (2012) and the upcoming WWII drama Midway. The film All You Ever Wished For, which was filmed straight after his first Hedwig run and received limited cinema release, will be available on DVD from next month. Darren teamed up with Ryan Murphy again as Andrew Cunanan in The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story, a role which won him a slew of awards in the past award season including the Emmy, Golden Globe and SAG for Best Actor in a Limited Series.

Darren’s first solo tour, Listen Up, played to sold out venues in Glee’s 2013 summer hiatus. He formed the band Computer Games with his brother Chuck last year. They released their debut EP Lost Boys Life and played a few concerts around the US and in Mexico. They are set to release some new tracks over the next few months. Darren released his second solo EP Homework at the end of 2017. He toured with co-star Lea Michele throughout 2018 as well as performed intimate solo sets in London and Sydney. Darren realised a long-held dream in 2015, with the launch of Elsie Fest – a Broadway and pop music festival. The festival has been held annually in New York City. Darren married long-time girlfriend Mia Swier earlier this year. They opened the piano bar Tramp Stamp Granny’s in LA last year.

Honorable Mentions

Guest star Grant Gustin (Warbler Sebastian Smythe – 2011-2013) has gone on to star as Barry Allen/The Flash in The CW’s The Flash and other Arrowverse shows. Melissa Benoist (Marley Rose – 2012-2014) currently appears as Kara Danvers/Supergirl in The CW’s Supergirl and other Arrowverse shows. Becca Tobin (Kitty Wilde – 2012-2015) has starred in a number of Hallmark movies and created the podcast Ladygang with Keltie Knight and Jac Vanek. This has spawned an E! TV series and podcast network. The ladies are about to embark on a limited tour of the US.

4YE Glee 10 Years On: What Have The Cast Been Up To Since Glee Wrapped? 10 years ago today we were introduced to a rag tag group of losers who, with a song in their hearts, were just looking for a place to belong as they made their way through high school in Nowhereville, Ohio.

#10 years of Glee #chris colfer #darren criss #glee #lea michele

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christinaengela · 7 years

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Hello friends and fans!

Welcome to my 9th newsletter: September 2017 – jam-packed with tidbits and information about new releases and projects I’m currently busy with!

Coming up in this edition of Another Round @ The Crow Bar:Regular updates, new releases, and a monthly spotlight on one of my books, this time “The Time Saving Agency“, book 2 in The Quantum Series!

New Releases

2017 has been a VERY busy year for me, and looking back I feel a sense of accomplishment – if (certainly) not in the financial sense, then certainly in terms of the stories I’ve written and the worlds I’ve built! I now have 21 individual titles available – and with seven of them having been released for the first time in THIS year alone, it is quite the milestone for me!

In April 2017 I announced a new series – “Panic! Horror In Space” and the availability of the first volume in that series which featured two related short stores: “Mercury Rising” and “Mercury Resurgent”.

The second volume was released on the 10th of August, and features two more related short stories entitled “Dead Center” and “Through A Dark Glassy”. This is the 2nd volume in my new series – and it’s a series of horror misadventures in deep space with the crew of the starship Mercury.

In “Dead Center”, in order to repay a debt, Captain Flane accompanies the crew of the cult TV show “Specter Adventures” in a “lock-down” of the most haunted abandoned Terran outpost in the Galaxy, while “Through A Dark Glassy” explores the creepy consequences of placing a paper note reading “WARNING: ABSOLUTELY POSITIVELY DO NOT OPEN” on a crate containing some of the most dangerous haunted items known to humanity – and then sending it away via a space courier service – and not in a hypothetical way either.

What, you may be asking yourself, is there to panic about? You can find out here.

SUMMARY: Also released by me so far during 2017:

“The Quantum Series – Keep Off The Crabbygrass” is an omnibus of The Quantum Series titles 1, 2, 3 and 4, containing “Black Sunrise”, “The Time Saving Agency”, “Dead Man’s Hammer” and “Loderunner”. “The Quantum Series – Keep Off The Crabbygrass” is available only in paperback and the original separate titles in pocketbook size – as well as the separate ebook versions will continue to be available.

“Galaxii – Into The Abyss” is an omnibus of The Galaxii Series titles 1,2 and 3, containing “Blachart“, “Demonspawn” and “Dead Beckoning” and was released on the 23rd June. At 363 pages in the new format, the print paperback copy containing all three stories in the Galaxii Series still works out cheaper than buying all three titles separately!

“High Steaks” is the sixth title in the The Quantum Series and the sequel to “Prodigal Sun“, which was launched in February! “High Steaks” continues the saga of the ‘third rate’ Terran colony on the planet Deanna, and the diverse characters the reader has no doubt by now become familiar with. Old familiar faces rub elbows with brand new characters in “Prodigal Sun”, some heroes, and some villains. Readers will remember the crotchety old military veterans of the Skegg’s Valley Dynamite Fishing Club, and of course, Fred the Arborian.

“The Peed-Off Peasant’s Collection Of Awesome Parking Memes“! Only available in ebook format. Meet the Peed-Off Peasant. He’s just an average Joe living an average life. He’s a regular underdog who hates getting trampled upon by the rich, entitled folks who think that money, wealth and power make them better than him, or more deserving of being treated like a decent human being. He stands up to these folks, demanding to be treated with dignity and respect – or at the very least, consideration.

The first episode in my new sci-fi horror series called “Panic! Horror In Space #1” was released on Thursday 6 April! This ongoing series tells the tale of the starship Mercury, which is perhaps the unluckiest Terran starship in history! “Panic! Horror In Space” is a series of science-fiction-horror stories in the same setting featuring some of the same characters in a series of short fiction installments.

“Prodigal Sun”, book 5 in The Quantum Series was released in early March. This title is the first new episode in the series in a decade! It heads off into a slightly darker direction than the previous titles, and if you want to know more about the story being told in “Prodigal Sun“, you can find more info here: NEW RELEASE: “Prodigal Sun” and What Readers Can Expect In “Prodigal Sun”, “High Steaks” & “The Last Hurrah”.

So yes, as you can see, 2017 has been an extremely productive year for me in terms of writing and publishing! It’s not over yet of course, and there will still be more releases before the end of the year.

The Galaxii Series

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Blachart by Christina Engela

Demonspawn by Christina Engela

Dead Man’s Hammer by Christina Engela

Galaxii – Into The Abyss by Christina Engela

“Galaxii – Into The Abyss” – a special omnibus of all three already released titles in the Galaxii Series, was released on 23 June and is only available in paperback 6″ x 9″ format. Work on book 4, “Where Darkness Softly Treads” is still pending due to other projects at this time.

The Quantum Series

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Black Sunrise by Christina Engela

The Time Saving Agency by Christina Engela

Dead Man’s Hammer by Christina Engela

Loderunner by Christina Engela

High Steaks by Christina Engela

The Quantum Series – Keep Off The Crabbygrass by Christina Engela

“The Quantum Series – Keep Off The Crabbygrass”, an omnibus of The Quantum Series titles 1, 2, 3 and 4 (“Black Sunrise”, “The Time Saving Agency”, “Dead Man’s Hammer” and “Loderunner”) was released in July 2017.

“Underground Movement“, a short novella and supplemental title that slots between book 6 and 7 in The Quantum Series, set immediately after the sixth novel (“High Steaks”) continues the saga of the ‘third rate’ Terran colony on the planet Deanna and the diverse characters you readers have no doubt by now become familiar with! This is still under way, and tells the story of the fearless fighters of the Deannan Resistance!

About The Quantum Series will give you more background about the series, its settings and characters. To get a better idea of what the latest two titles are about, read What Readers Can Expect In “Prodigal Sun”, “High Steaks”, “Fortitude” & “The Last Hurrah”.

Panic! Horror In Space

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Panic! Horror In Space #1 by Christina Engela

Panic! Horror In Space #2 by Christina Engela

Panic! is a sci-fi/horror series, which will have some decidedly sci-fi characters encountering some decidedly horror entities – ghosts, haunted objects, zombies, etc. along with my usual twisted brand of humor! The first two titles are available in paperback and ebook versions on various distribution platforms including Amazon and Lulu. “Panic! Horror In Space #1” was released earlier this year, and “Panic! Horror In Space #2” is now also available as of 10 August 2017.

I’ve also started on the third installment in the meantime.

For more detail about this series, visit About Panic! Horror In Space.

Short Fiction