Gotta See! Korean Film in Focus Series

As any movie lover can tell you, some really interesting fare has been coming out of Korea for the last decade. Oldboy got remade by Spike Lee, A Bittersweet Life's Jee-woon Kim was enlisted to helm Arnold's awesome comeback flick The Last Stand and star Byung-hun Lee has kept busy in G.I. Joe, Red 2, Terminator Genisys and is featured in the upcoming The Magnificent Seven remake. The films I've seen coming from Korea are well crafted with hints of melancholy, weirdness and humor with a very visual and technical panache. One of my favorite movies to come out of the region is Seung-wan Ryoo's high school reunion meets murder mystery mashed with martial arts mayhem good time The City of Violence. South Korea is also one of the fastest growing markets in global cinema with many a studio looking to break in the local market which is loyal to homegrown titles.

This week, The Korean Film Council his hosting two nights of double features showcasing some of Korea's most exciting artists turned recent Academy Members. Starting tonight in Beverly Hills you can catch Im Kwon-taek's drama Revivre (Cremation) and Han Jae-rim's award winning, mega hit period piece The Face Reader. Then on Friday it's Yoon Jong-bin's 80's and 90's mob film Nameless Gangster: Rules of the Time and Bong Joon-ho's awesomely crazy post-apocalyptic thriller Snowpiercer which stars Chris Evans, Kang-ho Song and Ed Harris. All of the screenings are free with introductions and Q&A's being teased.  Pick up tickets on Eventbrite. I'll see you at Snowpiercer because babies taste best!

The Way We Weren't: James Cameron's X-Men

I always wondered what a "Carolco" superhero movie would have been like.  Carolco, if you'll recall, was the independent mini-major studio run by Mario Kassar and Andy Vajna then only Kassar, who overpaid for top talent like James Cameron, Roland Emmerich, Dean Devlin, Paul Verhoeven, Renny Harlin, Walter Hill, Arnold, Sly and Michael Douglas but gave us big budget, ballsy Hollywood epics like Terminator 2, Cliffhanger, Rambo, Total Recall, Basic Instinct and Universal Soldier.  In 1989, Carolco bought the rights to Marvel's X-Men comic book.  James Cameron was going to produce and his then wife Kathryn Bigelow was set to direct.  Bob Hoskins was the favorite to play Logan/Wolverine while Angela Bassett was tipped to play the weather controlling Storm.  Noted X-Men comic book writer Chris Claremont and the man himself, Stan Lee, visited Cameron in 1990 to talk X movies but were quickly derailed when Lee brought up Spider-Man.  Cameron's eyes lit up and Carolco ended up buying the rights to Marvel's web-slinger as well.  Cameron wrote a scriptment for Spidey and even storyboarded numerous scenes.  However, the bankruptcy of Carolco sent everything into a mess of litigation and by the mid 90's, X-Men went to Fox and Spider-Man to Sony.  Cameron had already moved on and was waist deep into Titanic.

Sigh, a 90's X-Men movie from the makers of Aliens, Terminator 2, Near Dark and Point Break?  It almost breaks the heart.  While giving a property to an eccentric, imaginative visualist like Tim Burton is fine and dandy, there's something to be said about handing it to a guy or gal who knows how to tell a good story, make it look interesting and have you on the edge of your seat as they take you on a pulse pounding, nail biting ride a la Cameron, Verhoeven, Harlin, Bigelow or Emmerich.  It probably would have had a lot more action than 2000's ok but kind of staid version to say the least and you could have gotten some strong and familiar actors to fill the roles.  Like whom?  Glad I asked!  Back in 1995, Wizard of Comics magazine posted their wish list for an X-Men movie cast.  Like the staff, I would have preferred Cameron to direct but Bigelow would have killed it too.

Professor Charles Xavier - Patrick Stewart.  Yeah, I'm cool with this.  Apparently so was Fox since he's about to play Professor X for a 6th time.

Lucas Bishop - Michael Dorn.  I'm fine either way with this choice.  Dorn has the voice and size to play the time skipping mutant.

Piotr "Colossus" Rasputin - Dolph Lundgren.  Hell yes, perfect casting.  90's Dolph had the physique and quiet strength to play the shy Russian farm boy who has super strength and organic metal skin.

Scott "Cyclops" Summers - MICHAEL BIEHN.  Even perfect-er casting than Dolph.  A calm, cool headed leader who likes to mix it up and is also an under the radar babe magnet in a 90's James Cameron joint?!  You couldn't ask for a better choice to portray Cyke.

Remy "Gambit" LeBeau - Jean-Claude Van Damme.  Fuck yeah!  A roguishly charming ladies man who fights with a bo staff and martial arts complete with a New Orleans accent?  Why would you ever think of Taylor Kitsch, Channing Tatum or Josh Holloway for this?  Boggles the mind.

Elizabeth "Psylocke" Braddock - Tia Carrere.  I'm ok with this, not sure what her action chops were but she was in movies with Dolph, Brandon Lee and Arnold so...

Ororo "Storm" Monroe - Iman.  Uh who?  Sorry, I'll take Angela Bassett's beautiful yet strong presence over some rail thin supermodel for this one.

Jean Grey - Nicole Kidman.  A pretty redhead with acting chops to play the lust of all X-Men that eventually goes crazy and destroys an entire population of aliens?  Yeah, I'm down.

Logan "Wolverine" - Glen Danzig.  Get the fuck outta here.  Bob Hoskins would have been fine.  Have him lose a few pounds but he would have been solid as the short, surly, beserking asshole of the team.

Cable - Clint Eastwood.  This one is a wash, I mean who better to play a grizzled, hardass, time traveling soldier?  He might have been a little old at the time but I'm having trouble conjuring up a suitable 90's alternative.

Erik "Magneto" Lensherr - Rutger Hauer.  Good choice.  Blade Runner and Buffy the Vampire Slayer's Hauer is great at playing that Euro-trash villain with equal parts menace and grace.  Ed Harris would be a good choice too.

Victor "Sabretooth" Creed - Clancy Brown.  Highlander's Brown has the size, voice and maniacal moxie to tear shit up as the eviler version of Wolverine.  "There can be only one!"

Cain "Juggernaut" Marko - Big Van Vader.  Pro-wrestler Vader had the girth sure but I think this is a villain you could have kept out of a 90's X-Men film.  Or cast a tall, muscular guy like Ralf Moeller to fill the role and shoot him at perspectives to make him even bigger so when Colossus defeats him, it's not an empty victory.

Emma "White Queen" Frost - Rebecca De Mornay.  Yup.  With 90's hot yet talented actresses like DeMornay, Kidman and Carrere around, this would have made a heck of a lot sexier X-flick than what we've been given with the actual movies.

Master Cast: The Right Stuff

Every now and again, you watch a movie with an amazing ensemble cast filled with up and coming actors who are just a few years from stardom and recognition.  From 1960's The Magnificent Seven to 1983's The Outsiders to 90's flicks like Dazed and Confused and School Ties, you'd be hard pressed to try and wrangle the then mostly unknown casts five years after their seminal establishing work.

Today we're going to look at 1983's The Right Stuff, which I picked up for a buck from my latest adventure at a Blockbuster closeout sale.  Based on the true story of the group of college educated test pilots turned astronauts of the Mercury 7 program to put a man into space; Stuff was written and directed by Phillip Kaufman, who helped give us The Outlaw Josey Wales, Raiders of the Lost Ark and mother fudging Rising Sun with Sean Connery, Wesley Snipes, Mako, Harvey Keitel, Ray Wise, Tia Carrere, Steve Buscemei  and Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa!  Guess he still has the touch...

Let's look at the cast of now familiar faces, Oscar winners, voice actors and TV dads:

Sam Shepard - Oscar nominee and playwright, appeared in Steel Magnolias, The Pelican Brief, Black Hawk Down, The Notebook and Safe House.  Seems to be cast opposite Brad Pitt, Val Kilmer and Denzel Washington frequently.

Scott Glenn - The Original Man on Fire, The Silence of the Lambs, Backdraft, Training Day and The Bourne Ultimatum.  Up next is Endangered, a thriller about a rampaging bear with a killer, low-watt cast featuring Thomas Jane, Billy Bob Thornton, James Marsden and Piper Perabo.

Ed Harris - Multiple Oscar and Saturn nominee, director and all around intense method guy.  The Abyss, Glengarry Glen Ross, The Rock, A History of Violence, Pain & Gain (!) and Gravity.

Dennis Quaid - Saturn, Golden Globe and Blockbuster award nominee seen in Enemy Mine, Wyatt Earp, DragonHeart, Any Given Sunday, The Rookie and G.I. Joe:  The Rise of Cobra.

Fred Ward - Earl from Tremors and Remo Williams in Remo Williams:  The Adventure Begins!

Lance Henriksen - While he didn't get much love in Stuff, he still managed to claw his way into genre fame with roles in Aliens, Hard Target, Disney's animated Tarzan and TV's Millennium.

Jeff Goldblum - Super young and playing the idiot but redeemed in The Fly, Jurassic Park, Independence Day and The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou.

Harry Shearer - The voice of Kent Brockman and dozens more on The Simpsons since 1989, The Shear has also popped up in human form in This Is Spinal Tap, Wayne's World 2 and Godzilla.

William Russ - Yup, the dad from Boy Meets World pops up as a greedy test pilot early on.

We could go on and on with some of the secondary characters but hey, keep it moving.

Ask Me a Question: The Abyss

Panelists include Todd Graff (“Hippy”), Michael Beach (“Barnes”), Lesley Dilley (production designer), Joseph Nemec III (art director), Phillip Darlington (Cameron’s underwater assistant), Starr Jones (makeup FX) and Trey Stokes (“alien” movement designer)! - See more at: http://www.cinefamily.org/films/?time=past#the-abyss-castcrew-in-person

Panelists include Todd Graff (“Hippy”), Michael Beach (“Barnes”), Lesley Dilley (production designer), Joseph Nemec III (art director), Phillip Darlington (Cameron’s underwater assistant), Starr Jones (makeup FX) and Trey Stokes (“alien” movement designer)! - See more at: http://www.cinefamily.org/films/?time=past#the-abyss-castcrew-in-person

Panelists include Todd Graff (“Hippy”), Michael Beach (“Barnes”), Lesley Dilley (production designer), Joseph Nemec III (art director), Phillip Darlington (Cameron’s underwater assistant), Starr Jones (makeup FX) and Trey Stokes (“alien” movement designer)! - See more at: http://www.cinefamily.org/films/?time=past#the-abyss-castcrew-in-person

Panelists include Todd Graff (“Hippy”), Michael Beach (“Barnes”), Lesley Dilley (production designer), Joseph Nemec III (art director), Phillip Darlington (Cameron’s underwater assistant), Starr Jones (makeup FX) and Trey Stokes (“alien” movement designer)! - See more at: http://www.cinefamily.org/films/?time=past#the-abyss-castcrew-in-pe

In a wonderful case of scheduling coincidence, I'll be seeing two films by James Cameron featuring Michael Biehn on the big screen in one week.  First up, a cast and crew reunion event for 1989's The Abyss; Cameron's underwater thriller concerning oil workers and NAVY Seals investigating a crashed US sub and encountering something inhuman beneath the surface.

Carpenter turned Cameron assistant Phil Darlington set up a fantastic event at The Cinefamily; corralling an impressive panel including actors Todd Graff (Hippy) and Michael Beach (Barnes), Oscar winning production designer Lesley Dilley, Art Director Joseph Nemec III (The Shadow!), Make up artist Starr Jones and NTI movement/puppet designer Trey Stokes.  Everyone was comfortably crammed onstage and moderator Marc S. Zicree (writer of a million Star Trek episodes) got it all started.

Tonight's crowd was filled with others who worked on the film, most notably Van Ling, a young kid who built a Power Loader Halloween costume and impressed producer Gale Ann Hurd and James Cameron enough to be hired on for The Abyss and subsequently Terminator 2, True Lies and Titanic.  If you own the Alien Quadrilogy box set, check out A Boy and His Power Loader.  Great stuff.


When you have a panel this size, it's easy for it to fall into awkward lulls, non-sequitur, fractured conversation with a few dominating voices.  Fortunately, Zicree did a great job moderating as he was excited to be there, a fan of the film and smart enough to keep each panel member involved which kept the the audience's attention (well except that one girl in the second row who nodded off, CASUAL FAN).  Before the film, Zicree engaged the guests in a nearly one hour panel.

Recollections of The Abyss:

- Shot for six months outside Gaffney, South Carolina in an unfinished nuclear power plant.
- Shooting under water presented so many variables that every actor had to be ready to shoot at first call.  No one knew what was going to happen day to day.
- A tent constructed over the tanks lasted two weeks before being blown off, just like the locals warned.  Millions of black plastic beads were poured over the surface to block out the light.  Cast and crew members would find them in their ears and random places for months afterwards.
- Darlington was hired as a carpenter, wanted to work first unit and ended up being Cameron's underwater assistant and nicknamed Flipper on set.
- Nemec had a background in diving, figured it'd be fun shoot.  Both he and Dilley had no idea what they were getting into.  The scale and construction efforts were massive.
- 12 to 14 hour days in the tank meant having to decompress, many times while watching dailies.
- The creatures in the film are NTI's, Non-Terrestrial-Intelligence, don't you dare call them aliens!
- Creatures had to be constructed in a way to convey various light patterns, Cameron's thought was that they would communicate through colors.
- Post production took nearly as long as shooting to accommodate special F/X and creature scenes.
- Graff was given his rat sidekick at birth so they could bond.  Had it for two years after filming.
- The rat really did breath liquid, Cameron scripted no dialogue and just told the actors to go for it but they were mostly in shock and thought they were killing the animal.
- James Cameron is a genius who can do everyone's job, probably better than they can.  Grabbed the camera and jumped into the water to get a shot when the camera operator bungled first attempt; took a can of spray paint from someone's hand and did it himself when results weren't good enough, etc.
- Michael Biehn told Beach (who only appears in the opening scene) he was lucky not to land a bigger part and pleaded to be taken with him.
- The production was nicknamed "The Abuse".

Of course much, much, much more was talked about and I wish they would have covered more topics but it was still a school night so the movie had to roll sometime.

They screened the theatrical cut which I'm not overly familiar with.  I grew up watching the 30 minutes longer Director's Cut.  Watching it in it's original form was interesting; for a 2 hour and 20 minute film, it moves quite quickly.  Performances are great all around, Ed Harris is funny and strong as roughneck Virgil "Bud" Brigman, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio plays Lindsay, the ire of many characters but always comes across likeable and intelligent.  Cameron regular Michael Biehn dons a stache and plays shaky, paranoid Navy Seal Lt. Coffey, who suffers from pressure sickness and attempts to nuke the NTI's.  Graff as Hippy and Leo Burmester as Cat anchor a great supporting cast of likeable, blue collar types caught in the middle of a hurricane, "aliens", nukes and a possible global military crises.

The ending was a shock as the NTI's are portrayed as good guys who help out Brigman after he risks his life to save them.  The Director's Cut is much more detailed as the NTI's observe mankind's destructive nature and threaten to wipe out the coasts with giant tidal waves before realizing there is love in the world as demonstrated by Bud and Lindsay's repaired relationship.  A fanboy internet critic recently lamented Cameron's status among "geeks" was destroyed when he made a movie with kissing.  But all of Cameron's films, The Abyss especially, are love stories.  Titanic is just the only one without robots, fighter jets or aliens (or in this case, NTI's).

 Check out the making of what's considered one of the most difficult movie shoots of all time: