(Pre) Ask Me a Question: Beyond Fest 2014

Oh shit, the full schedule for Beyond Fest finally dropped this week.  After months of rumors, wish lists, false starts and triumphs, Christian Parkes and his genre movie loving crew will begin their two week assault on Los Angeles filmgoers on Thursday, 9.25 with Horns, the Daniel Radcliffe starring murder mystery.  After last year's premiere/takeover of The American Cinematheque's Egyptian and Aero Theatres that included cult progressive rock band Goblin playing Los Angeles for the first time in their decades spanning career and guests like Richard Donner and Clive Barker, Beyond Fest is going all out to avoid the sophomore slump.  No less than 30 films and shorts are slated to screen and partnerships with Fantastic Fest, Shock Til You Drop, The ElRey Network, Backstory, Bloody Disgusting, Death Waltz Records and Meltdown Comics show that the Fest is not one to be trifled with or missed.

So far titles include first looks at the creepy looking Jake Gylenhall thriller Nightcrawler, V/H/S Viral and the Los Angeles premiere of Hollywood Satanic cult flick Starry Eyes.  On the repertory front, you've got The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Fight Club, Monster Squad and a 4K restoration of Halloween!  Guests so far include the likes of Bourne Legacy writer turned director Dan Gilroy, John Carpenter, Jamie Lee Curtis, DC Comics honcho Jim Lee and many, many more.  See you there!

Ask Me (Another) Question: Universal Soldier w/DOLPH LUNDGREN

I gotta tell you, it's a bit of a trip and I hope someone has video of it but to be standing in front of a crowded theater and be joking with one of your child to adulthood idols, I can't even describe it.  I've got a big mouth but every time I'm on a microphone people can't hear me.  So I had Dolph himself shoving the mic in my face and telling me to speak up, good times.  While introducing the flick we learned that Andrew Davis was fresh off directing Gene Hackman in The Package and wanted to turn Universal Soldier into an elaborate, political, European set revolution story that saw Unisols Luc Deveraux and Andrew Scott in bit parts.  Baumgarten balked and Davis said the young producer was about to get fired.  The next day, Davis was gone.  Roland Emmerich and writer Dean Devlin produced 30 pages of treatment in 2 days and the movie was back on track.  Dolph talked about making his character a bit off the wall and discussing with Emmerich his ideas like throwing grenades and squawking like an Indian or celebrating like a baseball pitcher.  His impression of Emmerich chain smoking then saying "very interesting, I like it" in a German accent was hilarious.  Dolph did an English accent next when telling a story about the first day shooting with Jean-Claude Van Damme.  The scene called for The Bulging Belgian to kick a gun out of Dolph's hand and on the first take, JCVD kicked hard and the gun went flying.  Dolph was a little shocked at the full bore take but shook it off.  Next take, same thing.  That's when Dolph's English karate instructor simply said, "knock him out" if it happened again.  That message was relayed to stunt coordinator Vic Armstrong whose eyes got wide as did Van Damme's when he was told.  Next take?  JC delivered a pillow tap of a kick.  The rest of the shoot went great and the two have co-starred in an additional 3 films.

We had a section of seats reserved for Dolph and Craig's party while Dammaged Goods had an entire row behind them.  Sitting behind Dolph while watching the opening of Universal Soldier?  There's only a few things left I need to accomplish in my cinema fan life.  You could tell he enjoyed the movie, the warped sense of humor and brutal 90's violence as he laughed and whispered to his friends as the memories came back.  The print was a bit soft at the start but got better throughout.  The story of two soldiers in Vietnam who kill each other but are brought back to life by "hyper accelerating dead flesh" 25 years later as super soldiers part of the Universal "Unisol" Soldier program then face off once again when their memories return, Unisol is a prime example of what made the 90's action era so great.  The film looks big with great production value from the rain soaked jungles of Vietnam (a converted golf course in Arizona), the Unisol introduction scene at the Hoover Dam with high falls and rappelling face down the huge dam to the giant, mean looking, expanding Unisol truck to the destruction of just about every location via machine gun fire, explosions or bar fights, Universal Soldier packs a punch but still has room for laughs and even a quiet dramatic beat or two.

Universal Soldier is definitely one of Jean-Claude Van Damme and Dolph's best films.  It's a real movie with a decent budget and a talented crew.  Germany's Roland Emmerich was hungry to show what he could do in America and really pushes it as the film is more or less an exciting, prolonged chase scene.  Beyond that, the film contains one of JC's best performances and maybe Dolph's greatest in his career.  Van Damme is youthful, innocent and funny while Dolph is just plain crazy and sickly hilarious.  From the necklace made from human ears to the sudden bursts of violence balanced with evil yet comedic brooding, Dolph delivers a fantastic performance.  The supermarket scene where Sgt. Andrew Scott talks about "kicking or kissing ass and busting heads" has always been one of my all time favorite moments in this or any film.  I had to jump out and catch the D-train so I missed their epic rain and fire filled clash but escorted Dolph back into the theater and got to watch him watch Van Damme kick him into a combine and throw the switch.  Again, hilarity.

Geoff and I had discussed some talking points since we really wanted to make the night and Q&A a tribute to Dolph's inspirational life and awesome career.  They took the stage and were recorded for the Humans From Earth podcast and Dolph was simply wonderful.  Funny, smart, animated and gracious.

- Stallone was so famous around Rocky IV that he needed a police escort.
- When Dolph's boxing boots were the wrong color scheme, Stallone flipped out, called the Adidas factory in Germany, had them open over the weekend, make new boots and ship them to Vancouver for Monday's shooting.
- On way into Rocky IV, was on the arm of Grace Jones, after the film people are looking at him and now she's on his arm.  Life changed completely in 90 minutes.
- Back in the day directors didn't have video village of monitors and just had to know what they were doing and Emmerich was a great director.
- John Woo sat behind 8 monitors chain smoking and direction consisted of walking up to Dolph, getting really close, then walking away.
- Back in his day, you had to do more yourself and could only have a stunt double for long shots.  Today, a good actor with a good stunt coordinator and 4 doubles can be an action hero.
- Cites Stallone, Chuck Norris, Arnold, Clint Eastwood and Robert Mitchum all had real life experience and played characters closer to their personalities and skills as "tough guys".
- Sly had made Drago a sympathetic villain and the call to play All-American hero He-Man was difficult and a lot of pressure.  Almost froze wearing costume that was the size of a stamp and couldn't go out in public because of his mullet hair extension.
- Has liked working out since a teen and it's part of the business, also keeps him young.
- Likes producing, on it from day one and get to shape the project unlike a director or actor who sometimes just get the call and show up.
- Skin Trade came from reading an article years ago about a van full of women being brought to America from Mexico, abandoned and suffocated to death.  Wrote the script never thinking it would be made but just finished in Thailand and in post production.
- Sex Trafficking is 3rd biggest criminal enterprise in the world behind drugs and guns.
- Craig Baumgarten came up to discuss more about Skin Trade and the great cast: Tony Ja's first English speaking film, Michael Jai White, Ron Perlman and Peter Weller.
- Weller had a comical fit on last day of shooting as all of the stars were on set and Weller came late and got the smallest trailer.

Dolph said he would do some signing so we didn't need to whisk him away.  As soon as the Q&A ended, wow, a rumbling herd rushed Dolph so we moved to the lobby where things could be a little more orderly.  Dolph was great as he signed and took photos for quite a while.  Getting him out of there was a bit nuts as there was still a mob after him and I was one of those guys who walks in front of celebs clearing the way and saying stuff like "get back" or "we're done" and "don't get hit by a car".  All in it was a crazy, fun, memorable and educational night that I still haven't quite processed yet as I had to be back at work the next morning at 8:30AM.

Thanks Dolph, Craig, Lori, Grant, Christian, Tammi and Geoff.  Victory!  We'll do it again soon.

Ask Me a Question: Universal Soldier w/DOLPH LUNDGREN

WOW.  What a night.  My brain hasn't quite computed everything yet but I'm told Dolph Night was a rousing success, we had a great enthusiastic crowd and the D-Man was awesome.  I'll put up a full post later but thank you to everyone who showed up last night.  The American Cinematheque, BeyondFest, Humans From Earth and Dammaged Goods all worked together like a movie bro Expendables to make for one hell of a night.  Now let's rewind.  The night started off running around getting things set, anticipating Dolph and producer Craig Baumgarten's arrival.  I had posted up outside in the courtyard where several Dammaged Goods, StalloneZone, VanDammeFan and plain ol' action fans introduced themselves and I handed them a custom shirt for the night.  Later inside, I look up and one of the guys who got a shirt said, "he's here!" and there was Dolph, in all his muscular, suave and cool guy glory.  He, Craig and their party actually arrived early so we whisked them away to chat about the evening and I got to hear some stories about Carolco, the production and original director Andrew Davis' script that was ultimately rejected.

Dolph, fan, custom shirt!

Then it was time.  Grant and Geoff from the Egyptian Theatre and Humans From Earth gave us a lowdown of what's coming up, that the first HFE podcasts are up and then it was my turn.  I welcomed the crowd and told them how my first movie in theaters was 1987's Masters of the Universe starring none other than Dolph Lundgren and that I'd been a lifelong fan ever since.  So it was a pleasure and kind of bewildering to be in a giant, beautiful, historic theatre about to watch him on the big screen.  As a thank you, I had prizes but you had to earn them!  Up for grabs were an original 1992 Universal Soldier button, a VHS signed by Dolph and Craig and a custom shirt for the night.  I was really sweating it if my questions would be too hard but the audience knew that Dolph did Kyokoshin karate, Sgt. Andrew Scott's designation was GR-13 and that Roland Emmerich directed the movie.  Then Dolph and Craig came up to say hello to the audience and I asked them what first memories came back to them when they heard Unisol was being screened.  Craig elaborated on the Andrew Davis debacle while Dolph regaled the audience with the story of threatening to knock Jean-Claude Van Damme out on their first day.

More later...

Rando Calrissian: Weekly Round Up

Welcome to Rando Calrissian, a smorgasbord of things randomly interesting that I came across this week.  Where else will you find blurbs about Tim Allen, Tom Hanks, BeyondFest and Friday the 13th?  Exactly.

- Tim Allen and Tom Hanks to star in Disney's
"Jungle Cruise"? 
Not sure how I missed this announcement back in 2011 but apparently Disney wanted to follow the "ride into a movie" successes of Pirates of the Caribbean and make a live action feature film based on the popular attraction that transports you back to the 1930's as you travel the exotic and dangerous Mekong, African Congo, Nile and Amazon rivers.  Opened in 1955, the 7-minute ride employs animatronic versions of tigers, gorillas, elephants and African tribesman in various scenarios.  Allen and Hanks have already teamed up multiple times for the award winning, tear jerking, massive money making Toy Story trilogy and TV specials as animated heroes Buzz Lightyear and Woody the Cowboy.  Shrek's Roger S.H. Schulman was hired to write a script to be produced by The Fighter's David Hoberman and Todd Lieberman.  It's been pretty quiet on the development front, I wonder if the lackluster performance of The Haunted Mansion slowed things down?  Anyways, I've always wondered when Allen and Hanks would team up in a live action flick so here's hoping it comes together.

- BeyondFest's Christian Parkes joins Alamo Drafthouse
Parkes is a friend and mentor to Dammaged Goods so I'm very excited to see his recent hard earned and well deserved success in creating and curating Los Angeles' BeyondFest, the world film festival that hosted Goblin, Clive Barker, Richard Donner, Joe Dante and more during their inaugural event.  Parkes will act as Chief Brand Officer to the Austin based Drafthouse empire that runs cinemas, film production and distribution, festivals and poster printing to form one cohesive vision for the fast growing company.  Starting at Puma then moving to Nike, Levi's, Myspace and Nasty Gal, Parkes has plenty of marketing savvy to help Alamo knock it up a notch.  While at Levi's, Parkes help shepherd the Rolling Roadshow, a nationwide tour of free outdoor 35mm film screenings that took place at locations used in the movies.  Fans watched Rocky from the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, took in Robocop at the finale's rundown Industrial Complex in Michigan and rocked out with The Blues Brothers at Chicago's Joliet Prison during the month long slate.

- It's Friday the 13th AND a Full Moon
For office dwellers, Friday is the best day of the week but in some circles it's considered unlucky as is the number 13 so when a Friday falls on a 13th, roll yourself in four leaf clovers cause shit's coming down.  12 is considered the gold standard of completeness as there's that many months in a year, hours on a clock, deities of Olympus, Apostles of JC, signs of the Zodiac and years in the Buddhist cycle! In the past, 13 has been deemed irregular and goes against the rule.  Superstitions can run so deep that some buildings omit labeling a 13th floor in elevators.  As for the Full Moon, I dunno, something about the earth, moon and sun are in alignment but the moon is on the opposite side of the earth so the sunlit part is facing us.  From werewolves to serial killers, lunar phases have been fodder for explaining surges in mental instability as well as affecting the ocean tide.  Our next scheduled Full Moon and Friday the 13th won't happen again until August of 2049.