Written by Peter Hurd, Logan Gion
Screenplay by Logan Gion
Produced and Directed by Peter Hurd
Starring Ross Destiche, Jenna Enemy,
Justen Jones, Monique Candelaria, Jerry Angelo,
Larry Laverty, Kodi Saint Angelo, Shane Phillip,
Taso Stavrakis, Luce Rains, Brad Dourif

It can be truly exciting to see a micro-budget movie take on an ambitious script.  Eric Stanze’s Ice From The Sun comes to mind, as does Paul Hough’s The Human Race (though I’m in the minority on that one).

I doubt anyone would consider the above to be unmitigated successes, but they had resourceful filmmakers who, having been given very little money, attempted to do something interesting in the horror or sci-fi genres, something other than plonking a handful of kids in a scary house/cemetery/forest/name-the-single-location and having them run around for 80 minutes.

The Control Group, directed and co-written by Peter Hurd, kinda straddles the line between the two. It takes place almost entirely in one building, but it has larger ambitions than just killing off some meddling kids.

Five college students attend a party and are apparently drugged. They subsequently wake up in an abandoned insane asylum and begin to have some very odd, very unsettling visions. Are they a result of the drug? Are they going insane? Is there truly a supernatural force afoot?

They discover soon enough that they are the unwilling guinea pigs in a sinister experiment being run by none other than Academy-Award nominee, Brad Dourif.

This Cube-esque setup has been done to death, but Hurd and the gang at least try to add some potentially supernatural elements to the mix. There is also a serial killer subplot, crazy infighting among the government agents, and some unexpected turns.

So, The Control Group is ambitious; kudos to everyone involved for that. But is it any good?

Not really. The acting is mostly fair-to-poor: there’s basically not a believable moment in the film, though it’s clear the cast is trying. Partially it may be they are just not up to the task, but they’re done absolutely no favors by the risible dialogue.

Thankfully, Dourif amiably (desperately?) chews the scenery and emerges mostly unscathed. But even he (along with everyone else) seems largely at sea during the last stretch of the film.

It’s here that the filmmakers cram pages of dreary and confusing exposition down their poor actors’ throats. I remember during his review of Dune, Gene Siskel said after the first five minutes of dense exposition he threw up his hands and gave up.

I made it to the end of The Control Group, but I threw up my hands a good fifteen minutes before then. What preceded it is OK if amateurish for what it is, but my interest fell off a cliff well before the final credits.

The Control Group is available on Digital HD and On Demand.

Action/thriller Black Rose starring international action star Alexander Nevsky is now available in RedBox with a Netflix premiere following in July. Written by Brent Huff (Chasing Beauty) and George Saunders (The Hunt for Red October), the film was directed by Nevsky (Showdown in Manila). He stars in the movie along with Kristanna Loken (Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines), Adrian Paul (Highlander: Endgame), Robert Davi (Expendables 3) and Matthias Hues (Dark Angel). ITN Distribution/eOne/Sony released Black Rose in theaters, on DVD and on Video-On-Denand on May 2, 2017.

A Russian Police Major (Alexander Nevsky) is enlisted by the LAPD to help solve a series of gruesome murders perpetrated against young women by a sadistic sociopathic killer on the mean streets of Hollywood.

Alexander Nevsky is a former Mr. Universe and an established movie star in Russia. He is based in Los Angeles and his credits include “Moscow Heat,” “Undisputed,” “Treasure Raiders,” “Somewhere” and the upcoming “Maximum Impact.” Nevsky represents Russia as a member of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.

Black Rose is produced by Nevsky through his production company Hollywood Storm and is executive produced by Sheldon Lettich (Max) and Robert Madrid (Half Past Dead 2).

Black Rose is a theatrical box office hit in Russia/CIS, film’s foreign rights sold to 22 countries already.

Kenneth Johnson is one of the unheralded architects of my childhood.  He not only produced The Six Million Dollar Man, but also created such shows as The Bionic Woman, The Incredible Hulk, Alien Nation and the television miniseries, V.

Now, Johnson brings his creative genius and storytelling gifts to an ambitious undertaking: an epic supernatural thriller rooted in one of the great untold legends in human history. Here is a unique blend of gripping action, intriguing characters, cinematic scenes, and a narrative interwoven throughout centuries of historical fact in The Man of Legends, which arrives on July 1st from publisher 47North.

Set in modern-day New York City, The Man of Legends presents a startling mystery: a cursed but heroic man who does not age and cannot die, and who has profoundly altered the course of human history for 2,000 years. It’s New Year’s weekend, year 2001, and Jillian Guthrie, a troubled young writer for the National Register, discovers an impossibility: the same man, un-aged, stands alongside Ulysses S. Grant, Theodore Roosevelt, and Gandhi in three different photographs spanning eighty-five years of history.

Way uptown, Will—a charming thirty-three-year-old of immense kindness, wit, and intelligence—looks forward to 2002 in hopes of a new beginning. Haunted by secrets from his past and shadowed by an ominous and taunting stranger, he spends his hours offering help to people in need, making use of his inexplicable omniscient knowledge. At the same time, an ambitious and obsessed Vatican emissary leads a global manhunt in search of Will, and an elderly former UN envoy named Hanna is consumed by wistful memories of a long-ago romance with the enigmatic young man. The next forty-eight hours spin out of control to bring Will, Jillian, and Hanna together, as well as the many New Yorkers whom Will’s benevolent acts have touched—until they’re all in the crosshairs of a centuries-old international conspiracy. Together, they face the consequences of an ancient curse that stretches back two millennia and beyond and confront a primal evil that is determined to consume them.

Told from many characters’ perspectives—including that of an aging musician, a young waitress, a teenage tagger, and a Latina child—The Man of Legends is a complex and multilayered novel that is both a riveting and suspenseful thriller and a shrewd examination of the way our decisions and actions affect others.

Thanks to our friends at 47North, we’ve got two exclusive clips from the upcoming audio version of the book.

Clip #1

Authorities from the Vatican have been trying to capture and contain our hero, Will (Eric Pierpoint, who starred in Kenny’s Alien Nation series), for 1600 years. The latest is Frenchman Father Paul St. Jacques (Stephen Mendel) who has enlisted the New York Archdiocese and the NYPD, who’ve tracked Will’s cell phone and are closing in toward a tenement house that is in flames. Inside Will is trying to save a five-year-old Latina girl from the conflagration.

Clip #2

Will saved the girl, but was grievously injured and is comatose in ICU. Jillian Guthrie (Emily Adams), a tabloid journalist, has heard him speak deliriously of his astonishing 20-century history and calls 85-year-old Hanna Claire (Kerrie Keane, who also appeared on Alien Nation) who had become the love of Will’s life 60 years earlier.

For more details, visit KennethJohnson.us

See the origins of one of the most powerful monster myths of all when “Kong: Skull Island” arrives onto Ultra HD Blu-ray Combo Pack, Blu-ray 3D Combo Pack, Blu-ray Combo Pack, DVD and Digital. This compelling, original adventure from director Jordan Vogt-Roberts (“The Kings of Summer”) tells the story of a diverse team of scientists, soldiers and adventurers uniting to explore a mythical, uncharted island in the Pacific, as dangerous as it is beautiful.

This compelling, original adventure tells the story of a diverse team of scientists, soldiers and adventurers uniting to explore a mythical, uncharted island in the Pacific, as dangerous as it is beautiful. Cut off from everything they know, the team ventures into the domain of the mighty Kong, igniting the ultimate battle between man and nature. As their mission of discovery becomes one of survival, they must fight to escape a primal Eden in which humanity does not belong.

“Kong: Skull Island” stars Tom Hiddleston (“The Avengers,” “Thor: The Dark World”), Oscar nominee Samuel L. Jackson (Best Supporting Actor, “The Color Purple,” 1994, “Pulp Fiction,”), John Goodman (“Transformers: Age of Extinction,” “Argo”), Oscar winner Brie Larson (Best Actress, “Room,” 2015) and Oscar nominee John C. Reilly (Best Supporting Actor,“Chicago,” 2003).

Vogt-Roberts directed the film from a story by John Gatins and Dan Gilroy and a screenplay by Dan Gilroy and Max Borenstein. “Kong: Skull Island” is produced by Thomas Tull, Mary Parent, Jon Jashni and Alex Garcia, with Eric McLeod and Edward Cheng serving as executive producers.

To fully immerse audiences in the mysterious Skull Island, director Jordan Vogt-Roberts and his team filmed across three continents over six months, capturing its primordial landscapes on Oahu, Hawaii, Australia’s Gold Coast and Vietnam, filming across multiple locations, some of which have never before been seen on film.

“Kong: Skull Island” will be available on Ultra HD Blu-ray Combo Pack for $44.95, Blu-ray 3D Combo Pack for $44.95, Blu-ray Combo Pack for $35.99 and DVD for $28.98. The Ultra HD Blu-ray Combo Pack features an Ultra HD Blu-ray disc with the theatrical version in 4K with HDR and a Blu-ray disc also featuring the theatrical version. The Blu-ray 3D Combo Pack features the theatrical version of the film in 3D hi-definition and hi-definition; the Blu-ray Combo Pack features the theatrical version of the film in hi-definition on Blu-ray; and the DVD features the theatrical version in standard definition. The Ultra HD Blu-ray Combo Pack, Blu-ray 3D Combo Pack and Blu-ray Combo Pack include a digital version of the movie. Fans can also own “Kong: Skull Island” via purchase from digital retailers beginning June 20.

Additionally, all of the special features, including interviews with filmmakers, new original shorts, featurettes, and deleted scenes, can be experienced in an entirely new, dynamic and immersive manner on tablets and mobile phones using the Warner Bros. Movies All Access App, available for both iOS and Android devices. When a Combo Pack is purchased and the digital movie is redeemed, or the digital movie is purchased from an UltraViolet retailer, the Warner Bros. Movies All Access App allows users to watch the movie and simultaneously experience synchronized content related to any scene, simply by rotating their device. Synchronized content is presented on the same screen while the movie is playing, thus enabling users to quickly learn more about any scene, such as actor biographies, scene locations, fun trivia, or image galleries. Also, users can share movie clips with friends on social media and experience other immersive content. The Movies All Access app is available for download on the iTunes App Store and Google Play Store.

The Blu-ray discs of “Kong: Skull Island” will feature a Dolby Atmos soundtrack remixed specifically for the home theater environment to place and move audio anywhere in the room, including overhead. To experience Dolby Atmos at home, a Dolby Atmos enabled AV receiver and additional speakers are required, or a Dolby Atmos enabled sound bar; however, Dolby Atmos soundtracks are also fully backward compatible with traditional audio configurations and legacy home entertainment equipment.

BLU-RAY AND DVD ELEMENTS

“Kong: Skull Island” Ultra HD Blu-ray, 3D Blu-ray and Blu-ray Combo Pack contain the following special features:

• Director’s Commentary
• Creating a King: Realizing an Icon
• Creating a King: Summoning a God
• Monarch Files 2.0
• Tom Hiddleston: The Intrepid Traveler
• Through the Lens: Brie Larson’s Photography
• On Location: Vietnam
• Deleted Scenes

“Kong: Skull Island” Standard Definition DVD contains the following special features:

• Director’s Commentary
• Creating a King: Realizing an Icon
• Creating a King: Summoning a God
• Monarch Files 2.0
• Tom Hiddleston: The Intrepid Traveler
• Through the Lens: Brie Larson’s Photography
• On Location: Vietnam
• Deleted Scenes

Facebook.com/KongSkullIsland
#kongskullisland

Netflix is looking to help you fight June gloom with a handful of modern masterpieces, a few Disney blockbusters, a couple Asian actioners and a whole hell of a lot of original content.

This month, Netflix serves up Young Frankenstein, Full Metal Jacket, The Sixth Sense and Zodiac for cinephile, but if it’s action and thrills that you crave, look to  Tunnel, Three and Headshot.

From Disney, we get Moana while Netflix gifts us with a new season of Orange is the New Black and the new comedy series GLOW, based on the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling.

We also get Catwoman. Oy.

JUNE 1

The 100 (Season 4)
Gritty sci-fier about life about nuclear war, but with beautiful people.

1 Night (2016)
Two couples find themselves and their relationships tested over the course of a single night in a fancy hotel.

13 Going on 30 (2004)
A 13-year-old wakes up to become a 30-year-old Jennifer Garner who is beautiful, successful, yet seems to pay for sex for some reason.

Amor.com (Love.com) (2017)
So, every site I found on this was in Spanish. Here is what I got when I put it through Google Translate, which is better than anything I could have written:

“Katrina  is a fashion blogger who dictates trends in the Brazilian market through her popular videos on the internet. Fernando, meanwhile, is a vlogueiro of a videogames channel that still is not very famous, but that already is making certain success. When the two meet in a complicated situation, they end up falling in love and their romance becomes feverish…”

The Ant Bully (2006)
Ants with celebrity voices have the technology to shrink humans down to bug-size pests.

Arrow (Season 5)
Based on the DC Comic on the once-forgotten green-clad superhero, CW is able to get right what Warner Bros. keeps flubbing up.

The Bucket List (2007)
Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman are dying men looking to fill the rest of their short lives with once-in-a-lifetime experiences in this Rob Reiner pic that hits you over the head with it’s “meaningful insight.”

Burlesque (2017)
Docu on the new wave of the burlesque movement.

Catfight (2016)
Sandra Oh and Anne Heche star as former college frenemies who decide to work out their past issues using their fists while attending a gala event.

Catwoman (2004)
This is the film equivalent to a dumpster fire. Give it another 10 years or so to reach humorous, cult status…or not.

Chingo Bling: They Can’t Deport Us All (Netflix Original Special)
“On point and larger than life, rapper and stand-up comic Chingo Bling gathers his funniest friends for a rambunctious take on Tex-Mex culture.”

Days of Grace (2011)
“A cop. A hostage. A wife. Corruption, violence, vengeance. Three destinies, during 30 days, during three Soccer World Cups. Three ways to fight in order to survive.” – Official site

Devil’s Bride (2016)
Finnish drama about the Åland witch hunts, as seen from the point of view of a 16-year-old girl.

Full Metal Jacket (1987)
Stanley Kubrick’s epic about the brutality of war, both preparing for the war mentality and for the fighting on the field.

How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000)
Jim Carrey stars in the this Ron Howard adaptation that sucks the joy out of the original Dr. Suess story.

Intersection (Season 2; Netflix Series)
“Two wealthy businessmen with car obsessions cross paths with an idealist pediatrician. Love enters the equation, and their lives change for good.”

Kardashian: The Man Who Saved OJ Simpson (2016)

“Robert Kardashian, father of the clan that became a multi-million dollar showbiz dynasty, was also the man who saved OJ Simpson from a murder conviction.” – Reelz official site

Little Boxes (2016)
“It’s the summer before 6th grade, and Clark is the new-in-town biracial kid in a sea of white. Discovering that to be cool he needs to act ‘more black,’ he fumbles to meet expectations as rifts are exposed in his tight-knit family, his parents also striving to adjust.” – Official site

Mutant Busters (Season 2)
“The Earth has become a giant ass which has been invaded by the Mutants! A hustler named Sheriff must lead The Resistance to save the planet.”  We are closer to the reality that Idiocracy has predicted than we thought if we believe our children need this in their lives.

My Left Foot (1989)
Daniel Day-Lewis amazing turn as artist Christy Brown, a spastic quadriplegic with cerebral palsy born into a working-class Irish family who learns to communicate and express his art using only his foot.

Off Camera with Sam Jones (Season 3)
“Off Camera is hosted by director/photographer Sam Jones, who created the show out of his passion for the long form conversational interview, and as a way to share his conversations with a myriad of artists, actors, musicians, directors, skateboarders, photographers, and writers that pique his interest.” – From a very, very pretentious official site

Playing It Cool (2014)
Chris Evans and Anthony Mackie made this while waiting to film scenes for Civil War.  Probably not true, but it would explain a lot.

The Queen (2006)
Helen Mirren won all the awards that year for her turn as Queen Elizabeth during the period following the death of Lady Di. A must see.

Rounders (1998)
Matt Damon is a gambler attempting to start anew but get thrown back into the mix of underground games with his old buddy (Ed Norton) gets out of prison.

The Sixth Sense (1999)
Prior to Split, this was pretty much the reason why moviegoers still had any faith in M. Night Shyamalan. The mother of all twist movies.

Vice (2015)
Like Westworld, but not as fun and with Bruce Willis. A grumpy Bruce Willis.

West Coast Customs (Season 3)
Car enthusiasts practically have sex with hardtops as they commit crimes against nature to these muscle cars.

Yarn (2016)
“Meet the artists who are redefining the tradition of knit and crochet, bringing yarn out of the house and into the world. Reinventing our relationship with this colorful tradition, YARN weaves together wool graffiti artists, circus performers, and structural designers into a visually-striking look at the women who are making a creative stance while building one of modern art’s hottest trends.” – Official site

Young Frankenstein (1974)
Perhaps the best comedy ever made, Mel Brooks’ masterpiece that elevated the genre of horror comedies while giving Gene Wilder one of his most iconic roles.

Zodiac (2007)
David Fincher’s period piece about a group of individuals obsessed with capturing the Zodiac Killer. When people speak of Oscar should-ofs and could-ofs, this is one of the most obvious examples. Perfect example of filmmaking at its best.

JUNE 2

Comedy Bang! Bang! (Season 5, Part 2)
“Based on Scott Aukerman’s (co-creator/director/producer, Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis; writer/performer, Mr. Show) popular podcast of the same name, Comedy Bang! Bang! cleverly riffs on the well-known format of the late night talk show, infusing celebrity appearances and comedy sketches with a tinge of the surreal.” – Official site

Flaked (Season 2; Netflix Original Series)
“In his funky California beach enclave, Chip’s the go-to guy for personal insights. But he isn’t quite as enlightened when it comes to his own baggage.”

Inspector Gadget (Season 3; Netflix Original Series)
“Inspector Gadget is back and must face his old enemy, the evil Dr. Claw, who has reactivated MAD, his global crime syndicate.”

Lucid Dream (Netflix Original Film)
“After searching for his abducted son for three years, a devastated father attempts to track down his missing child through lucid dreams.”

Saving Banksy (2014)
“The story of one misguided art collectors attempts to save a Banksy painting from destruction and the auction block.” – Official site

JUNE 3

Blue Gold: American Jeans (2017)
“A symbol of youth, freedom, and rebellion, blue jeans leads us through fashion history, music, and subculture dreams, to the lost tradition of American manufacturing, exploring the responsibility of Americana in a globalized world of cultural exchange, transparency, and innovation. “ – Official site

Headshot (2016)
Indonesian martial arts pic about a man with amnesia whose past slowly begins to catch up with him.

Three (2016)
Hong Kong actioner about a thug who purposely hospitalized himself to give his crew a chance to rescue him from police. But the authorities grow wise to his plan.

Tunnel (2016)
South Korean dramatic thriller about a commuter must find a way to survive after he is trapped in his car was a tunnel collapses.

War on Everyone (2016)
Alexander Skarsgård and Michael Peña star as crooked copy who might have met their match in their mean-natured buddy cop movie.

JUNE 4

TURN: Washington’s Spies (Season 3)
“TURN: Washington’s Spies takes viewers into the stirring and treacherous world of the Revolutionary War and introduces Abraham Woodhull who, after aligning with a group of childhood friends, forms the Culper Ring — America’s first spy ring.” – AMC’s official site

JUNE 5

Suite Française (2014)
A British-French-Belgian World War II drama about an isolated French woman who falls for a German soldier.

JUNE 7

Disturbing the Peace (2016)
“…About people born into conflict, sworn to be enemies, who challenged their fate. The film follows everyday people who took extraordinary actions by standing for what they believe in, just like those who came before them…” – Official site

DreamWorks’ Trolls (2016)
Everything old is new again as the mild fad from 40 and 20 years ago returns to reign supreme at the box office thanks to the voices of Justin Timberlake and Anna Kendrick.

JUNE 9

My Only Love Song (Season 1; Netflix Original Series)
“When things don’t go her way during a shooting for her new show, a top actress runs away in an old van that guides her on a time-traveling journey.”

Orange Is The New Black  (Season 5; Netflix Original Series)
“A privileged New Yorker ends up in a women’s prison when a past crime catches up with her in this Emmy-winning series from the creator of Weeds.  Life after riots for the ladies in orange jumpsuits.

Shimmer Lake (Netflix Original Film)
“Unfolding in reverse time, this darkly comic crime thriller follows a local sheriff hunting three bank robbery suspects, one of whom is his brother.”

JUNE 10

Black Snow (aka Nieve Negra) (2017)
It’s brother vs. brother in the snowy wasteland of Patagonia when a man and his wife travel to meet his estranged sibling after years of bad blood.

Daughters of the Dust (1991)
“At the dawn of the 20th century, a multi-generational family in the Gullah community on the Sea Islands off of South Carolina – former West African slaves who adopted many of their ancestors’ Yoruba traditions – struggle to maintain their cultural heritage and folklore while contemplating a migration to the mainland, even further from their roots.”

Havenhurst (2017)
A recovering alcoholic with a tragic past gets drawn into the mysteries of her apartment complex, which itself holds its own set of horrors.

Sword Master (2016)
“In this beautifully shot wuxia epic, a powerful swordsman is haunted by the destructive impact his deadly talents have on others. Weary of the bloodshed and violence from the martial arts world, he banishes himself to the humble life a vagrant, wandering the fringes of society. But his violent past refuses to let him go quietly.”

JUNE 13

Oh, Hello On Broadway (Netflix Original Movie)
“Two delusional geriatrics reveal curious pasts, share a love of tuna and welcome a surprise guest in this filming of the popular Broadway comedy show.”

JUNE 14

Quantico (Season 2)
“After the rollercoaster events of season one, in which she cleared her name, saved millions of lives, and discovered that the mastermind behind it all was the very man who had trained her at Quantico, American hero Alex Parrish was given a shocking reward: She was fired by the FBI.” – ABC’s official site

JUNE 15

Marco Luque: Tamo Junto (Netflix Original Special)
“Comedian and “CQC” host Marco Luque presents his long-running stand-up show, which he’s performed for hundreds of thousands of fans in Brazil.”

Marvel’s Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. (Season 4)
“On the heels of their encounter with Ghost Rider and battling the Watchdogs to their highest ranks, the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. find themselves in their most mind-bending mission yet.” – Official site

Mr. Gaga: A True Story of Love and Dance (2015)
“Ohad Naharin, artistic director of the Batsheva Dance Company, is regarded as one of the most important choreographers in the world. Meeting him at a critical turning point in his personal life, this spirited and insightful documentary will introduce you to a man with great artistic integrity and an extraordinary vision.” – Official site

JUNE 16

Aquarius (Season 2)
Canceled series with David Duchovny about a cop in LA in the ‘60s. An interesting premise that could have developed if the NBC gave it room to grow.

Counterpunch (Netflix Original Documentary)
“This feature documentary follows three promising amateur boxers as they pursue success in a sport that has experienced a steady decline in popularity.”

El Chapo (Season 1; Univision/Netflix Original Series)
“The fictional series ‘El Chapo’ presents the dirty tricks used by one of the most infamous criminals in recent history to become a drug lord. ‘El Chapo’ explores in three decades of his life, since 1985, when he was a low-level member of the Guadalajara cartel, his rise to power and his last fall.” – Official site

The Ranch  (Season 3; Netflix Original Series)
“Being a pro athlete didn’t pan out for Colt. Now he’s helping his dad and brother keep the ranch afloat, and figuring out how he fits into the family.”

World of Winx (Season 2; Netflix Original Series)
“The reality show “WOW!” engages the Winx in their mission, starting an undercover, worldly journey in order to make talented kids’ dreams come true.”

JUNE 17

Grey’s Anatomy (Season 13)
“The doctors of Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital deal with life-or-death consequences on a daily basis-it’s in one another that they find comfort, friendship and, at times, more than friendship.” – Official site

Continuing to fly under the radar for yet another season…

Scandal (Season 6)
“Everyone has secrets… and Olivia Pope (Kerry Washington) has dedicated her life to protecting and defending the public images of the nation’s elite by keeping those secrets under wraps. “ – ABC’s official site

The Stanford Prison Experiment (2015)
Film based on the 1971 Stanford experiment that pitted students against each other in the roles of guards and prisoners, proving once again that people are the worse.

JUNE 18

Shooter (Season 1)
“Drama based on the best-selling Bob Lee Swagger novel by Stephen Hunter, Point of Impact, and the 2007 Paramount film starring Mark Wahlberg.” – Official site on USA

JUNE 20

Amar Akbar & Tony (2015)

A multi-cultural romantic comedy about three childhood friends forced to grow up.

Disney’s Moana (2016)
The Mouse House’s Oscar-winning toon about the Pacific Island princess who must brave the seas to help her people. Catch tunes and The Rock helped make this a blockbuster.

Rory Scovel Tries Stand-Up For The First Time (Netflix Original Special)
“Rory Scovel performs stand-up in Atlanta, where he shares his deepest thoughts about relationships, religion, politics and the “Thong Song.”

JUNE 21

Baby Daddy (Season 6)
“Five adults who don’t know how to adult, a super cute baby and a whole lot of ridiculousness.” – Official site on Freeform

Young & Hungry (Season 5)
“Relationship status: it’s complicated! Fashion, friendship and food combine in this comedy.” – Official site on Freeform

JUNE 23

American Anarchist (2016)
Docu about one of the most infamous books ever written, The Anarchist Cookbook.

Free Rein (Season 1; Netflix Original Series)
“After befriending a mysterious horse during a summer in the English countryside, 15-year-old Zoe finds the strength to deal with issues she faces.”

GLOW (Season 1; Netflix Original Series)
“Big hair. Body slams. It’s 1980s Los Angeles in this comedy series, and an unemployed actress keeps her dream alive by portraying a female wrestler.”

Nobody Speak: Trials of the Free Press (Netflix Original Film)
“Hulk Hogan’s court case against Gawker Media turns into an examination of how the wealthy can thwart freedom of the press to silence their critics.”

You Get Me (Netflix Original Film)
“After a one-night stand, Holly develops a dangerous obsession with Tyler and transfers to his high school, desperate to keep their “romance” alive.”

JUNE 26

No Escape (2015)
Owen Wilson stars as a family man in Southeast Asia who finds himself and his clan caught in the middle of a coup with no way to get home.

JUNE 27

Chris D’Elia: Man on Fire (Netflix Original Special)
“Comic Chris D’Elia hits the stage in Vancouver and shares personal stories about marriage, not having kids, buying pants for your friends and more.”

JUNE 28

Okja (Netflix Original Film)
A gentle giant and the girl who raised her are caught in the crossfire between animal activism, corporate greed and scientific ethics

JUNE 30

Chef & My Fridge: Collection (2014; Netflix Series)
“The best chefs of Korea go head-to-head to create impromptu dishes that feature ingredients found inside the guest stars’ very own refrigerators.”

Gypsy (Season 1; Netflix Original Series)
“A thrilling new series follows Jean Holloway, a therapist who develops dangerous and intimate relationships with the people in her patients’ lives.”

It’s Only the End of the World (2016)
French pic about a writer who returns home after 12 years to his fractured family with a little bit of news. Winner of the Grand Prix at Cannes.

Little Witch Academia (Season 1; Netflix Original Series)
“Akko enrolls at the Luna Nova Academy for witches. She’s not the best student, but her bright attitude is the key to her and her friends’ success.”

The Weekend (2016)
Three friend find $100k. Hijinks ensue.

In the latest season of FOX’s hit show, the power struggle in Gotham is more contentious than ever, as DC Super-Villains even more ambitious and depraved are introduced and a realignment of alliances could change the future of Gotham forever. Join Jim Gordon and his Gotham constituents as they navigate the chaos that ensues when the world’s most infamous DC Super-Villains wreak havoc on Gotham as Warner Bros. Home Entertainment (WBHE) releases the mysterious Gotham: The Complete Third Season on August 29, 2017. Gotham: The Complete Third Season will feature all 22 episodes plus fascinating special features including three featurettes, Gotham’s 2016 Comic-Con panel and deleted scenes, and will be available to own on Blu-ray which includes a Digital Copy ($54.97 SRP) and DVD ($49.99 SRP). Gotham: The Complete Third Season is also available to own on Digital HD via purchase from digital retailers.

The fight for order and control in Gotham is deadlier than ever with the introduction of cunning, new DC Super-Villains who might alter the future of our heroes and their beloved city. With the Indian Hill fugitives on the loose, Jim Gordon takes matters into his own hands as a bounty hunter in order to save the city that he loves, but will he accomplish his mission to find deranged mastermind Hugo Strange and Fish Mooney, one of Strange’s villainous subjects? While Gordon plays bounty hunter, Gotham City Police Department’s Bullock and Barnes remain on the frontline in Gotham, fighting against crime and destruction in the monster-ridden city. The city seems to be descending further and further into chaos and darkness as burgeoning DC Super-Villains Penguin, Edward Nygma/The Riddler and more are joined by the future Poison Ivy, now transformed into a young woman who’s harnessed the full power of her charms, and Jervis Tetch aka Mad Hatter, a. talented hypnotist teetering on the edge of madness. All the while, a young Bruce Wayne discovers that there are still more secrets behind his parents’ murder as he peels back the curtain on the infamous criminal organization known as the Court of Owls.

With 5.4 million viewers tuning in per episode, Gotham: The Complete Third Season features an all-star cast lead by Ben McKenzie (Southland, The O.C.), Donal Logue (Sons of Anarchy, Vikings), David Mazouz (Touch), Morena Baccarin (Homeland, V), Sean Pertwee (Elementary), Robin Lord Taylor (The Walking Dead), Erin Richards (Being Human, The Quite Ones), Camren Bicondova, Cory Michael Smith (Carol), Jessica Lucas (Cloverfield), Chris Chalk (Rent), Drew Powell (The Mentalist), Maggie Geha (All My Children), Benedict Samuel (The Walking Dead) and Michael Chiklis (The Shield). Based on the characters from DC and produced by Warner Bros. Television, Gotham was developed by Bruno Heller (The Mentalist, Rome), who executive produces with Danny Cannon (Nikita, CSI), John Stephens (Gilmore Girls, Gossip Girl) and Ken Woodruff (The Mentalist, Shark).

“Warner Bros. Home Entertainment is thrilled to release the third season of the dark and poignant Gotham on Blu-ray and DVD” said Rosemary Markson, WBHE Senior Vice President, Television Marketing. “With villain-filled bonus extras along with the buzzworthy 2016 Comic Con panel, fans can dive further into all the twists and turns that Gotham provides.”

With Blu-ray’s unsurpassed picture and sound, Gotham: The Complete Third Season Blu-ray release will include 1080p. The full HD Video will feature DTS-HD Master Audio for English 5.1. The 4-disc Blu-ray will feature a high-definition Blu-ray and a Digital Copy of all 22 episodes from season three. 

BLU-RAY & DVD FEATURES

• Gotham: 2016 Comic-Con Panel
• Madness Rising: the New Villains of Gotham
• The Dark Within the Dark: The Court of Owls
• Ben McKenzie Directorial Debut
• Deleted Scenes

Produced by Giles Andrew, Elliott Watson,
Jessica Latham, Demetri Martin,
Charles James Denton
Written and Directed by Demetri Martin
Starring Demetri Martin, Gillian Jacobs,
Kevin Kline, Mary Steenburgen,
Reid Scott, Rory Scovel

When we think of summer movies, it is an array of explosions, aliens, fight scenes, and slapstick comedy.

So when the quietly funny and awkward character that Demetri Martin has made a career of embodying stars in a June release, it is a refreshing break from the action.

His directorial debut, Dean, is a film that asks us to take a moment to acknowledge that unpacking major life events may take more time to process than we would like to give.

As the titular character, Demetri Martin (who also wrote the script) is struggling with moving on from the death of his mother. His father (Kevin Kline) decides to sell the family home and becomes closer than expected to their real estate agent (Mary Steenburgen). Unable to address this, Dean flies to California under the pretense of illustrator. There he meets an interesting woman (Gillian Jacobs) who helps him run from his pain. Or is it the other way around?

The movie does a wonderful job exploring how these two men at different life stages handle their grief at losing the same woman. In real life Martin lost his father when he was younger, and you can see that this story plays in a very personal way while still feeling like fiction. Throughout the movie, there are scenes that transition with a voiceover from his mother; voicemails that he cannot bring himself to delete. It reinforces the holding pattern that the movie revolves around; in moving forward, we feel like something that is already gone forever will be real. That is a difficult subject to broach without becoming too heavy, but Martin and Kline manage to give the topic both respect and levity.

The father and son are apart most of the film, which allows us to see two distinctive stories.

Kline and Keener represent the first forays of a widower, awkward and unsure of how to proceed with romance and a new person. Martin is in his wheelhouse as a late-20s man that would rather push the grief away through a fling with a pretty girl than process his anxiety. We are treated to his unique style of drawings which punctuate key moments and focus on illustrating his relationship with death. It is a nice way to mix up the narrative, and feels integral instead of shoehorned in.

Both Gillian Jacobs and Mary Steenburgen move the men through their feelings by reminding them that life is still out there, occurring and happening whether or not they are ready to join in. Jacobs is very likable in a “girl I met on vacation” kind of way; a bit aloof and acting in the belief that nothing serious will come from this. The way that she commands all of their interactions while the awkward Dean seems more “along for the ride” is simple but it works for such a heartfelt film. Steenburgen is equally winning, as she feels out Kline’s character to see if he really is ready to start the next chapter in his love life. The characters are not shallow exactly; it is more like Martin reached the minimum amount of depth to create enjoyable characters and decided to leave us pleasantly floating there.

Kevin Kline always shines and this is no exception. His portrayal of a father and widower with an engineer’s emotional temperament comes together flawlessly. You may wish that Martin had pushed for more given his talented cast, but what he did get still makes a heartfelt film. The comedy is there but it is reminiscent of his standup – very self-aware, folded into scenes as throwaway one-liners or items mumbled because of the uncertainty of how it will land. It is a good balance for the strength he wrote into both female characters.

The grieving process will always be a trope the audience can relate to, and though summer is blockbuster season the possibility of tragedy is not bounded by calendar dates. Dean is a pleasantly old-fashioned outing that will require us in the audience to tune in instead of using a long sunny summer afternoon to tune out.

Artemis, a near-future thriller by Andy Weir, author of the # 1 New York Times bestseller and international blockbuster The Martian, will be published in print and digital formats in the United States and Canada on November 14, 2017, the Crown Publishing Group announced. The publisher also simultaneously released the book’s iconic jacket image.

An adrenaline-charged crime caper that features smart, detailed world-building based on real science and the charm that makes Weir’s writing so irresistible, Artemis introduces a protagonist every bit as memorable as The Martian’s Mark Watney: Jasmine Bashara, aka Jazz. Jazz is just another too-smart, directionless twentysomething, chafing at the constraints of her small town and dreaming of a better life.  Except the small town happens to be named Artemis—and it’s the first and only city on the moon.

Life on Artemis is tough if you’re not a rich tourist or an eccentric billionaire, and Jazz is decidedly not a member of either category.  She’s got debts to pay, her job as a porter barely covers the rent, and her budding career as a smuggler isn’t exactly setting her up as a kingpin, much to her disappointment. So when the chance at a life-changing score drops in her lap, Jazz can’t say no, even though she’s sure there’s more to the setup than meets the eye. And indeed, pulling off the perfect crime is just the first of Jazz’s problems as she finds herself in the middle of a conspiracy for control of Artemis itself.

As first reported by Tracking-Board.com, movie rights to Artemis have been acquired in a preempt by 20th Century Fox and New Regency, with Simon Kinberg and Aditya Sood, two of the producers of The Martian, attached to produce for Genre Films. Starring Matt Damon and directed by Ridley Scott, The Martian was nominated for seven Oscars and won both the Best Picture and Best Actor awards at the Golden Globes. The movie has grossed more than $630 million worldwide.

Hailed as a new science-fiction classic, The Martian book has sold more than three million copies in North America, spending over a year and a half on the New York Times bestseller list since its February 2014 publication by Crown. To date, the book has been published in forty languages worldwide.

Julian Pavia, Executive Editor, Crown, acquired world, electronic, and first serial rights from David Fugate of the LaunchBooks Literary Agency. Pavia also served as editor for The Martian.

Said Andy Weir, “I’m really excited about Artemis. I got to do the science-dork stuff I love, but this time with a much more complex and character-driven plot. It’s a big stretch for me, but I think it came out well. Hopefully the readers will agree.”

Now that Chris (Daniel Kaluuya, Sicario), a young African-American man, and his girlfriend, Rose (Allison Williams, “Girls”), a young white woman, have been dating for several months, she invites him for a weekend getaway upstate at her family’s upstate home with parents Missy (Catherine Keener, Captain Phillips) and Dean (Bradley Whitford, The Cabin in the Woods). At first, Chris reads the family’s overly accommodating behavior as nervous attempts to deal with their daughter’s interracial relationship, but as the weekend progresses, a series of increasingly disturbing discoveries lead him to a truth that he could have never imagined.

And thanks to our friends at Universal Home Video, we’re giving away copies to FOG! readers!

To enter, please send an email with the subject header “GET OUT” to geekcontest @ gmail dot com and answer the following:

Writer/Director Jordan Peele also wrote and co-starred this 2016 film about a L.A. drug kingpin’s kitten?

Please include your name and address (U.S. Residents only. You must be 18 years old).

Only one entry per person and a winner will be chosen at random.

Contest ends at 11:59 PM EST on June 11th, 2017.

Kristen Halbert with Demetri Martin

In his film Dean, writer-director-star Demetri Martin portrays an illustrator who falls in love with a woman while trying to keep his father from burning down the family home after his wife dies.

I had the chance to speak to Demetri about grief, the film, and his transition from actor to filmmaker.

*  *  *  *  *

FOG!: How much of Dean is based on you?

Demetri Martin: Well, it’s autobiographical in as much as emotionally it’s stuff I’ve been through. But in real life, my dad died when I was 20.

And he was young, he was 46. So it was like my family had to kind of recover and it took a long time and I don’t know if we really fully did in a lot of ways. But as someone who wanted to make a first movie I thought, “Well I can talk about something that’s more emotional, something I’ve experienced” but everything in it is pretty much fiction.

I took like, maybe a couple moments from being awkward when I was single, some dating stuff, but it was important to me to try and tell a made up story that was rooted in real emotional experience if that makes sense. I wanted it to be kind of fiction so I could kind of learn how to create characters and tell a story without kind of just taking one, if that makes sense

Are there any moments where you feel it is awkward to be laughing through grief, or is it the best way to process it?

I think for me in my real life there was a little bit of laughing through moments of it, but it turns out I’m a pretty serious person I guess. And maybe I wish I laughed more through grief. But yeah, I don’t find it too awkward. I have found, with my own family, that people grieve differently even if they’ve lost the same person under the same circumstances. You know it’s just so personal and individual it’s hard to…it’s hard to make it go faster, to get better faster, to get over it or something.

So I thought having a character who is an illustrator would enable me to show his process through it and then set that against the dad, where maybe one guy is trying to run from it a little bit or hide from it or escape it, and the other guy thinks he can solve it but really they both just have to go through it. But I don’t know, it’s just a humbling reality of being a person. At least for me. You can’t just be like “cool I’m better”, or like “what are the steps”. No, I’ve got to just feel this and hope that I’ll be okay.

Why do you think films about loss tend to lend themselves to comedy so well?

In my experience, it’s first time here, I think there’s a nice natural balance that you can find. I think it’s tricky to find it but I think you can root some of the comedy or the jokes can be earned in a sense, with that backdrop of grief or somberness.

But I think one of the challenges is not making it too morose and then also not too flippant. I think if you can do it I think it lends itself well. Especially – look, this is a small movie obviously and I didn’t have a big budget or a lot of time so I wanted it to have some teeth, some weight to it. I love all-out comedies when they’re really funny but that’s just not where I was at, that’s not the mood I felt so to me that was the first stop. Something a little more dramatic. Maybe I’ll make some straight up comedies if I get lucky.

This was your directorial debut, and it was a very personal story for you. Was that difficult to balance?

It was challenging for sure, especially because most of my standup is based in just jokes. They’re shorter bits, and if I do 90 minutes it’s not like a big story and there aren’t even 10 minute stories in it usually. It’s just like joke, joke, joke, maybe some drawings or whatever.

So this was “Alright I need to figure out a story, something that maybe people will care about”. And then the comedy, you know, it’s kind of secondary; at least it should work with that as an offshoot or something.

And that was hard, and creating the characters, because I don’t have a lot of experience doing that.

And then trying to write women which you know, I’m not a woman, it’s not my experience.  I think people who are not women can WRITE female characters but I think you have to respect the difference when they say “hey take a male character and make him a woman”. I think that’s a nice idea for giving women more roles in Hollywood but I also think you’re going to fall short probably of making her a real woman. Then you cast it and you have a woman show up. I don’t want to be embarrassed, I wrote it. You know what I mean, I can’t be like “the writer sucked it but we’ll direct it and it will be okay,” so yeah, it was very challenging across the board to do that.

The upside, though, was that I got to collaborate with so many people. It was great to have these actors and I could tell them, “hey I ‘m not that precious about the writing”; like it’s fine if you are up for it, let’s work on this together, you tell me if you want to change it or whatever. And then I get to be in the edit and I had another chance to kind of save myself, to fix the movie.

So while it was pretty exhausting, it was also pretty stimulating and I felt like I had a chance to save myself in a sense.

Because without sounding too dramatic I was worried and at some point the goal just became “I don’t want to embarrass myself here”. Or like, hurt my career like, I’m not going to get work or something like “ugh, his movie’s terrible. If you want to see a piece of garbage, look at what this guy did”. Because it’s all me, it my fault. So the fact that so far crowds seem to like it is a relief more than anything.

You’ve worked with some pretty talented filmmakers previous to this as an actor. What lessons did you learn on those sets? Did you know at that point that you wanted to direct and were you keeping an eye on what they were doing?

Definitely, I did know that I wanted to direct and I did exactly that so that was cool.

The main thing I learned which was a surprise, was that directing is a performance. Which is to say that on the day, when you’re there, whether you want it to be or not, everybody is looking at you. You know, you have to dictate the pace, the choices, so they’re reading your tone, your body language, it’s really interesting.

From the minute you get there you’re in a sense performing. Not as in an artificial presentation but more just like everything means something. So it was cool to see a guy like Ang Lee or Soderbergh doing that. You say “wow!”, because they have their crew, their well-oiled machine in both cases. You may have heard Woody Allen’s people worked with him for years so it’s really such a nice thing to aspire to if I got to make more movies to get my people, because then there’s a shorthand and they really are collaborators.

So yeah, I think that was probably the main takeaway that I didn’t expect. And then I did learn that about lenses, blocking, and things like that and observe how they work with actors, everyone has a different style. It was cool.

You got to work with Kevin Kline for this film, and because of the biographical nature, you said that your father had passed but you chose your mother to pass in the movie. So, where did Kevin Kline’s character really come from?

This to me is an interesting question and one that I had to kind of really wrestle with because I thought a father and son story would be interesting. If I could have two guys who, without really knowing it, are going through the same thing but in different ways. They both meet women and for one guy, it’s like my character seems to try and make her the solution, the savior or something. She didn’t ask for it and I’m kind of putting this on her. And then the other one, the guy thinks he’s ready to move forward and then he isn’t. Like she almost calls his bluff, the woman there. I thought that was a cool kind of parallel story I could tell and at the same time “the father and son never even tell each other, “hey I met this girl”.

But then I’m writing it and I haven’t had a dad for 23 years now, so I’ve been alive longer without a father than I was with one. When my dad got sick I was only 18, and then he died when I was 20, but from 18 to 20 already things were different, it was terrible.

So suddenly, I write this script and I’m kind of figuring it out and then we get to my first day of shooting with Kevin and I remember feeling like “I don’t even really know how to act here”, because I don’t really know what it’s like to be a grownup, like how you relate to your dad as a guy if that makes sense.

Like how respectful are you, how deferential? My dad was great, we had a great relationship but I was still a kid. It wasn’t like I could just, I definitely didn’t curse in front of him, there were certain things I didn’t do. And I just wonder if he were still around what it would be like to be.

Like, I’m a father now, I have kids. Now my character’s not quite that and I think I ended up kind of reverting to a younger guy because my last point of reference was as a 20 year old. So it was really a tangible challenge for me. It was tricky.

Coming from standup comedy, where you get an immediate reaction from an audience to making a film where you’re not sure even while you’re going through the process and not knowing how it’s going to turn out or how it’ll play, what does that feel like knowing that you’re in charge of it all?

It felt kind of mysterious. On the one hand it was an exciting challenge and an opportunity I wanted, but yeah. It felt like working in a vacuum. It just felt like I didn’t have much guidance, where the audience in a very honest and sometimes brutally honest way, gives you that guidance. They tell you feedback lie yes, yes, no, no, yes, no. You know, okay cool got it.

You know if you’re bombing.

Yeah, you know if you’re bombing. Unless you’re a lunatic you know what’s happening in the room. There’s some guys that I know that can lie to themselves but not me. If anything, I’m extra self-loathing because you know – which ends up being helpful with the movie.

Because the first cut was longer and I was like, “less of me, get me out of there”. I don’t want to overstay my welcome, but as I was making it I don’t know, you just don’t know ‘Is this boring? Are they with me?’ It’s quieter and in some ways it requires patience.

It’s an old-fashioned movie in a lot of ways, right? When you think of summer blockbusters *makes explosion sounds* you know just like holy shit and then you see this thing and you’re like ‘okay this is different’. You see the guy drawing and it’s like very personal and kinda…

Quiet.

Yeah, it’s quiet.

But you’ve gotten some feedback because you’re doing the festival circuit. What it’s like to have to walk into a room after everyone has seen you without you knowing their thoughts for an hour and a half?

Yeah, it’s definitely different I feel more vulnerable than I ever did in standup. Maybe when I was doing standup I felt a little exposed but now, I’m comfortable up there and the crowds usually know me.

But this yeah, it feels weird. So far so good, you know knock on wood, the crowds have been good, the Q&A’s have been warm, people seem to like the movie. Whoever doesn’t like it, they’re not raising their hand to say shit to me so that’s nice, it’s the nice people who are like “oh I liked it, how did you do this”. So, so far so good but definitely a different experience.

Dean is now playing in limited release.

Welcome back to Graphic Breakdown!

It’s Friday so let’s take a peek at some trades that you should be reading!

The Life And Times of Martha Washington In The Twenty-First Century
Written by Frank Miller
Illustrated by Dave Gibbons
Published by Dark Horse Comics

Man, this is one of my favorite comic book series ever. I grew up picking Give Me Liberty off the shelves and I was immediately hooked to the exploits of Martha Washington(not George’s wife, but rather a young black girl in a near future) Martha’s adventures took her from humble beginnings in the streets of Chicago to deep outer space.

Frank Miller has never written a more emotional tale as he does here. He and Gibbons spent twenty years chronicling her life story and it starts from her birth and goes all the way to her death. It’s full of action, excitement, and heart. Martha’s life through the second Civil War is one you won’t forget.

The artwork is amazing. Dave Gibbons is at the top of his game here, especially the early chapters. His work is up there with the work he did on Watchmen. Truly excellent stuff.

You need to own this. You’re not a comic book fan if you don’t. One of the best comics ever made.

RATING: A

Too Much Coffee Man Omnibus Plus
Written and Illustrated by Shannon Wheeler
Published by Dark Horse Comics

I love Too Much Coffee Man. I love it so much that a few years back, I actually talked to Shannon Wheeler about producing his Too Much Coffee Man Opera (I do theatre as well, and freaked when I heard there was an opera of this) I still might, if time permits and if I have the resources.

However, right now, you should go pick up this incredible tomb.

The title says it all. This is Wheeler’s semi – autobiographical take on his life. It’s funny. Like really funny. It’s also incredibly smart.

Through these strips, Wheeler asks the big questions about the world we live in. He also offers possible solutions.

All of which are hilarious, smart, and painfully real. You’ll be hooked on this like a favorite cup of coffee.

Wheeler is one of the best we have. Pick this up to see where it all began. It also has a new story which is worth the price of admission alone. Tops.

RATING: A

Resurrection Perverts: Hunters Point
Written and Illustrated by Danny Hellman
Published by Dirty Danny Press

This book wasn’t my overall favorite of the week. I guess the idea of it, is that it’s one panel per page (like a smartphone screen). The problem is is that format doesn’t lend itself too well to the graphic novel form.

A porn publisher names Harry Homburg has come across some incriminating photos of the President. He hopes the photos will save his crumbling business. It’s not terribly exciting. There are also no characters to root for.

It’s a shame.

I do think Hellman has a really great way of writing dialogue. I just wish he knew how to push his story forward better. The art is okay but doesn’t thrill. It’s not terrible. It just wasn’t for me.

RATING: B-

 
Moonshine Vol. 1
Written by Brian Azzarello
Illustrated by Eduardo Risso
Published by Image Comics

I  just reread 100 Bullets. I liked it enough. However, I liked this a hell of a lot more.

Sure this book only collects issues 1 through 6, but it’s a lot more interesting, a lot deeper, and a lot more thrilling than this team’s previous collaborations and that’s really saying something.

Moonshine takes place during the Prohibition. Lou Pirlo has been sent by his gangster boss to the best Moonshiner in West Virginia to score some alcohol from Hiram Holt. But Holt’s got one of those family secrets. Yes, the bloody kind. No, I’m not spoiling it.

This book is fantastic and strong. Azzarello is at the top of his game. So is Risso. They work perfectly together to create one of the best books in recent times.

Pick it up. You’ll be hooked, I guarantee it.

RATING: A

The end of the initial broadcast run of Mystery Science Theater 3000 did not mean the end of world-class movie riffing. In 2007, five of the original cast/writers of MST3K – Joel Hodgson, Trace Beaulieu, J. Elvis Weinstein, Mary Jo Pehl and Frank Conniff –  launched Cinematic Titanic, a leaner, hungrier leap into razor-sharp comedy built on the back of cheesy movies. For the next six years they toured the country with a critically acclaimed live show and left throngs of delighted fans in their wake. Available as a complete collection for the first time on August 8^th, 2017, the DVD release of Cinematic Titanic also includes the featurette Between the Riffs and a brand new interview, A Look Back with J. Elvis Weinstein, as bonus features.  Fans who pre-order their collection via ShoutFactory.com will also receive a free 18” x 24” poster of the cover art by artist Steve Vance as a gift with purchase, while supplies last.

A must-have for MSTies and fans of movie riffing alike, this DVD set collects all 12 movies riffed by Cinematic Titanic, combining all their published mayhem, including their in-studio and live DVD releases.

Cinematic Titanic Titles Include:

• The Oozing Skull
• The Doomsday Machine
• The Wasp Woman
• Legacy of Blood
• Santa Claus Conquers the Martians
• Frankenstein’s Castle of Freaks
• Blood of The Vampires
• East Meets Watts (Live)
• The Alien Factor (Live)
• Danger on Tiki Island (Live)
• War of the Insects (Live)
• Rattlers (Live)

Cinematic Titanic Bonus Features

• Between the Riffs featurette
• New interview: A Look Back with J. Elvis Weinstein

For more details, visit shoutfactory.com.

Forces of Geek Presents OH NO THEY DIDN’T covering remakes, sequels and reboots

Join Todd Sokolove, Archie Cubarrubia, TJ Morales with special guest star Craig Anzalone, as they discuss the chest bursting travesty that is ALIEN: COVENANT.  We discuss its displace in the franchise, and what we think went wrong.

Also, news about upcoming sequels to TOP GUN and MARY POPPINS, as well as information about six new RESIDENT EVIL films nobody asked for.

Listen to our episodes and SUBSCRIBE to the show on iTunes or Google Play.

Follow us on Twitter at ONTDPodcast  and on Facebook!
Be sure to rate us, and tell your friends about the podcast!

I was one of the first generations to have access to a computer in school (there was just one in the entire school) and my teachers used archaic things like chalk, paper registers and handwriting pens. Today, the majority of schools have ditched traditional equipment like chalkboards and replaced them with technological alternatives and many are using video games in lessons.

Looking back on my school days it amuses me that computers were considered so rare. Nowadays kids as young as 5 can learn basic programming, that would have been an amazing skill to learn and might have stopped me creating hideously embarrassing MySpace profiles with badly formatted html in my teenage years.

There are also plenty of educational versions of popular games like MinecraftEDU that can help to teach mathematical concepts and SimCityEDU which is often used as an assessment tool.

The educational games I experienced were not nearly as advanced but they were fun and took some of the boredom of school away. Here are 5 educational games that will either induce nostalgia or cause you to shrug and go back to talking selfies on Snapchat:

The Carmen Sandiego series (Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego?)

This series taught me many things, useless…I mean, useful facts, geography, logic and reasoning skills and it even taught me to be respectful and to empathise with other cultures, though much of that was already in place because I was a smart kid. I mean, why else would I sometimes choose to play educational video games at home even though I had a Sega MegaDrive? Yeah, I was total nerd.

This game spawned my enjoyment of fictional detective mysteries but despite the titular character being a master thief, the game didn’t teach me how to steal…I guess that explains why I’m so poor. The games depictions of woman and minority women in particular are amazing and the series has consistently and rightly so, been praised for this.

Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing

This game…or more apt, this software was an instructional program that taught me how to type more efficiently. No one knows exactly who Mavis Beacon is or why she is the oracle of Qwerty keyboards everywhere but in 1985, the face of Mavis Beacon became Haitian born Renee L’Esperance which caused slight controversy and a reluctance from many retailers because…yep, you guessed it, racism. Even the hazy, rose-tinted nostalgia of the 80s isn’t safe from racist idiots.

Those speed typing tests were exciting to me as a competitive child, I wanted to beat my personal best and boast a faster words-per-minute rate than my friends. Admittedly though, when the Dreamcast came out and released Typing of The Dead, I left Mavis’ tutorage because killing zombies with words was far more appealing.

Arcventure: The Romans

This game was on the BBC Micro, a computing system created for the BBC by Acorn. They were popular in British schools in the 1990s and many schools had at least one or if you went to one of those rich schools, multiple.

Arcventure: The Romans was all about searching for artefacts on a dig site. Of course, us 90s kids wanted to dig up fossils and dinosaur bones back then but no such educational game existed at the time so we had to make do with digging up roman artefacts instead.

The best thing about this game is that once you find an artefact, the game switches to an adventure mode that sends you back in time to the Roman Empire, where you talk to various characters in an attempt to discover how to get back to your current time. Little do you know, these characters give you snippets of information covertly teaching you about the Roman Empire.

I never played them but there were two others in the series, Arcventure: The Vikings and Arcventure: Ancient Egypt.

Podd

This was another game on the Acorn which taught school kids about verbs (those are ‘doing words’ dontchaknow…I learnt that from my friend Podd). It was pretty basic, the program awaited typed instruction and each verb you instructed Podd to do was mapped to a specific animation, some of these were used for multiple verbs so it is fair to say the British educational system back then confused many, many children.

That said, in the 1990s it appears that there were only 120 verbs. They were less verbose times, simpler times. There was none of this new fangled ‘Instagramming’. Podd would definitely need an upgrade and maybe an Instagram filter too, that green screen is rather painful to look at.

Adiboo: Magical Playland (Addy Junior: Abs ins Zauberland)

Much younger than other games on my list, this PC game came out in 1996, it was the same year my parents bought a PC for me and my sister (for homework “apparently”) and I think it came with a bundle of other games and CD-ROMs including a copy of Encarta (for those too young to remember, you copied all of your homework from Encarta in pre-Wikipedia days, sometimes you’d even just print pages from it and it was deemed acceptable).

I mostly enjoyed playing the mini-games in this game, one of which was a total rip off of Breakout, which I played for hours and another one taught me about growing vegetables and how to cook. The specific version I played is an English translation of a German game (which I found out recently is about learning English). Either that or it was always in German and I’m multi-lingual without realising…das wäre fantastisch!

These picks are obviously based on my childhood growing up in the 1990s in the UK so if I’ve not mentioned your favourite educational game, that’s why! Let me know in the comments section what educational games you loved, you might even unlock some memories for other people too. I had all but forgotten about Arcventure until I came across an obscure forum thread.

Yes, the word ‘educational’ makes them sound boring but video games are definitely playing a larger role in most school curriculums today. They help teachers to deliver core lessons while keeping students engaged and that can only be a good thing.

I’m sure if there had been a video game in my history class to make learning about the irrigation methods of 17th Century farmers in England more interesting, I might have a PhD in history by now.

The Greenwich International Film Festival is proud to announce the full film slate and programming for the 3^rd annual festival running June 1st– -4th, 2017 in Greenwich, Connecticut. BENDING THE ARC, a documentary about the extraordinary team of doctors and activists whose work thirty years ago to save lives in a rural Haitian village grew into a global battle in the halls of power for the right to health for all, directed by Kief Davidson and Pedro Kos, will open the festival on June 2^nd with a special Town Hall Panel Q&A moderated by Barbara Pierce Bush with Ophelia Dahl (Partners in Health), writer/producer Cori Stern, Joia Mukherjee (Partners in Health), and Rifat Latifi  M.D. from Westchester Medical Center, the flagship of the Westchester Medical Center Health Network (WMCHealth) to discuss the state of global healthcare.

WMCHealth is the presenting sponsor of the opening night film, Bending the Arc and Q&A discussion following the screening.

Other highlights of the festival weekend include:

• The Changemaker Awards honoring Christy Turlington Burns for her work with Every Mother Counts and Renee Zellweger for her leadership and support in the search for a cure for ALS.
• A performance by Flo Rida at the opening night party on Friday, June 2^nd.
•  The Social Impact Awards with a jury chaired by Actress, Activist and Humanitarian Sophia Bush.
• LIVE FROM CONNECTICUT: A Discussion with Saturday Night Live Writers to be moderated by Lorne Manley of The New York Times. Presented by GIFF in partnership with First Republic and WGA-E.
• PRODUCING SPORTS: ESPN 30 for 30’s Mike and The Mad Dog screening followed by an insightful panel with sports entertainment leaders Connor Schell, Mark Teixeira, Kyle Martino and moderator in sports Ryen Russillo.
• “The Film Review: An Inside Look At the Responsibility of a Film Critic,” moderated by Joe Meyers of the Connecticut Post, featuring Alison Wilmore (Buzzfeed), Richard Lawson (Vanity Fair) and Marshall Fine (General Manager, NYFCC)
•  “Women Driving ROI Panel in the Film Marketplace,” sponsored by J.P. Morgan.featuring Suzanne Farwell, Producer (Carrie Pilby, It’s Complicated, the Intern, Something’s Gotta Give) and Susan Cartsonis, Producer (The DUFF, Where the Heart Is, What Women Want) and Moderated by: Ruth Ann Harnisch (Lead Investor, Superlative Films, Executive Producer, The Hunting Ground, Unrest).
• A Captain Underpants book signing by Dav Pilkey and screening of DreamWorks Animation’s CAPTAIN UNDERPANTS: THE FIRST EPIC MOVIE on Thursday, June 1^st at 5:00pm.
• Post-screening conversations will include a panel on rape culture and sexual assault following the Centerpiece showing of Jessica Thompson’s THE LIGHT OF THE MOON on Saturday, June 3 at 1:00pm at Bow Tie Cinemas in Greenwich.  Participating in the Q&A will be Jessica Thompson, film producer Carlos Velayo, lead actress Stephanie Beatriz, and Peg Cafferty (producer, India’s Daughter).
• Film highlights including: Centerpiece film, Phillip Baribeau’s CHARGED: THE EDUARDO GARCIA STORY on June 3^rd, at 6:30pm at Bow Tie Cinemas in Greenwich. Sophia Kruz’s LITTLE STONES on June 2^nd at 3:00pm at Cole Auditorium at Greenwich Library. Beach Rats on June 3^rd, at 8:45pm at Bow Tie Cinemas in Greenwich. Dina on June 3^rd at 6:15pm at Bow Tie Cinemas in Greenwich. Blame on June 3^rd at 3:45pm at Bow Tie Cinemas in Greenwich. Bobbi Jene on June 2^nd at 3:30pm at Bow Tie Cinemas in Greenwich. Writer/director Brett Haley’s THE HERO starring Sam Elliot, Nick Offerman and Krysten Ritter on June 3^rd at 4:30pm at Bow Tie Cinemas in Greenwich. The Connecticut Shorts Program on June 3 at 3:00pm at Bow Tie Cinemas in Greenwich showcases short films that were either shot in Connecticut or made by a filmmaker from Connecticut.  This new category will celebrate local film talent and the beautiful State of Connecticut.

As previously announced, the 3rd annual Changemaker Gala will take place on Thursday, June 1, 2017.  The Changemaker Awards honor artists who have used their public platform and the power of film to further positive social change.  This year, Renée Zellweger and Christy Turlington Burns, will be honored for their humanitarian work with ALS and Every Mother Counts, respectively. The June 1^st Changemaker event, presented by CuisinArt Resorts & Residences and ALS FindingACure, will include a cocktail reception at Betteridge followed by a black tie dinner at L’Escale in Greenwich, CT.

Actress, Activist and Humanitarian, Sophia Bush will present the Best Social Impact Film Award at Opening Night Party on Friday June 2^nd. This prize will be awarded to one film across all categories that promotes social change and awareness. The films in competition for The Social Impact Prize will be determined by the GIFF team, awarded by the Jury and the prize will have a cash value of $10,000.00 USD. The Social Impact Jury is comprised of actors, activists, philanthropists, and entertainment professionals.  The award will be presented to the winning director, during an awards ceremony, where he or she will be presented with a trophy and receive a check.

The Festival will host a special performance open to the public by Flo Rida on Friday, June 2^nd.  Tickets will go on sale Friday, May 5^th, 2017 and will be available for purchase at greenwichfilm.org.

****

The following panels will take place during the festival.

LIVE FROM CONNECTICUT: A Conversation with Saturday Night Live Writers – Thursday, June 1^st at 7:00pm at Avon Theatre in Stamford
Since the inaugural utterance of its now notorious opening line—“Live from New York, it’s Saturday Night!”— NBC’s Saturday Night Live has gone on to become one of the most popular, celebrated, and longest-running programs in television history. This legendary late-night sketch show, known for the irreverent manner in which it has poked fun at politics and pop culture, has been a preeminent breeding ground and launching pad for some of the best comedy writers, most talented performers, and biggest stars of the last forty years. This multiple Emmy Award winning show arguably has provided more classic moments of entertainment than any other program in the history of the medium—and it all starts in the writers’ room. In partnership with First Republic, please join us in an engaging discussion with leading SNL writers to discuss the creative process of script to screen.

Moderated by: Lorne Manly (New York Times)
Panelists: Tim Herlihy, and Bryan Tucker

WOMEN DRIVING ROI IN THE FILM MARKETPLACE PANEL
Movies for women do better than movies focused on any other demographic at the box office, yet funding is harder to come by for female focused entertainment. Join us for an engaging discussion about this illogical disparity and how Hollywood can grow by investing in female-centric films.
Moderated by: Ruth Ann Harnisch (Lead Investor, Superlative Films, executive Producer, The Hunting Ground, Unrest)
Panelists: Suzanne Farwell, Producer (Carrie Pilby, It’s Complicated, The Intern, Something’s Gotta Give) and Susan Cartsonis, Producer (The DUFF, No Reservations, Where the Heart Is, What Women Want)

THE FILM REVIEW: An Inside Look at the Formidable Responsibility of a Film Critic – Friday, June 2^nd at 3:00pm at Greenwich Arts Council
Ever since the dawn of cinema when the Lumière Brothers first set up their cameras, there has been a flood of filmmakers who have attempted, in various ways, to capture “objective truth” on celluloid. For almost as long, film criticism has wrestled with the difficulties inherent in the process of analyzing a film objectively. Is it possible—or even desirable—for film criticism to be free from personal bias? And what is a critic’s responsibility to the success or failure of a film? A critic’s response can ultimately be the make or break of that movie’s future in terms of festival play, its distribution success, and its box office prowess. Join us in a conversation with top film critics as we discuss objective criticism and the responsibility these heavy hitters have over the future of a film.

Moderated by: Joe Meyers (Connecticut Post)
Panelists: Richard Lawson (Vanity Fair), Alison Willmore (Buzzfeed), and Marshall Fine (General Manager, NYFCC)

PRODUCING SPORTS: ESPN 30 for 30’s Mike and The Mad Dog screening followed by an insightful panel with leaders in sports entertainment – Sunday, June 4^th at 3:00pm at Cole Auditorium

Whether it’s a sportscaster narrating the action of a game—or a filmmaker focusing his documentary on a sports legend, many different people are responsible for merging the worlds of sports and entertainment. Life changing moments that have transformed the sports landscape have become the content for some of the most celebrated television and film productions. This year, 30 for 30’s OJ: Made In America has even become the first sports documentary to air on television and win an Academy Award. Please join us for a screening of ESPN 30 for 30’s new documentary Mike and The Mad Dog—based on two of the greatest sportscasters in history—followed by a discussion of the bright future of sports entertainment.

Moderated by: Ryen Russillo (Radio Host, ESPN)
Panelists: Connor Schell (Co-Creator and EP, ESPN’s 30 For 30), Mark Teixeira (Analyst, NBC Sports), and Kyle Martino (Analyst, NBC Sports)
The following films will screen as a part of the festival.  For screening dates / times / venues please visit: www.greenwichfilm.org

Narrative

5 DOCTORS
Directed by: Max Azulay and Matt Porter
Starring: Max Azulay, Matt Porter, Emily Walton, Zoe Azulay and Bobby Moynihan
Synopsis: Convinced that he’s dying from a bizarre array of symptoms, struggling comedian Spencer Kaminsky returns home to visit his five childhood doctors in a single day, all while desperately trying to avoid the friends and family that he left behind.

A BAD IDEA GONE WRONG
Directed by: Jason Headley
Starring: Matt Jones, Will Rogers, Eleanor Pienta
Synopsis:  A comedy about two would-be thieves who accidentally arm the alarm system and have to break out of the house they just broke into. When they discover an unexpected housesitter, they suddenly have to deal with a hostage situation, double crosses, sexual tensions, and discoveries that make their difficult escape even more dubious. SXSW Special Jury Recognition for Best Ensemble.

BEACH RATS
Directed by: Eliza Hittman
Starring: Harris Dickinson, Madeline Weinstein, Kate Hodge, Frank Hakaj
Synopsis: An aimless teenager on the outer edges of Brooklyn struggles to escape his bleak home life and navigate questions of self-identity, as he balances his time between his delinquent friends, a potential new girlfriend, and older men he meets online.

BLAME
Directed by: Quinn Shephard
Starring: Trieste Kelly Dunn, Chris Messina, Tate Donovan, Geneva Carr, Quinn Shephard
Synopsis: It’s the start of a new year at a small suburban high school—Abigail (Quinn Shephard) is an eternal outcast returning for the first time after a mysterious event the previous year. Facing constant bullying, Abigail escapes from her hostile surroundings by immersing herself in the worlds of the characters she reads about, much to the amusement of her manipulative classmate, Melissa (Nadia Alexander). When the girls’ intriguing new drama teacher Jeremy (Chris Messina) announces Arthur Miller’s ‘The Crucible” as their fall show, and casts Abigail over Melissa in the starring role, Abigail’s confidence blooms — but soon her relationship with Jeremy begins to move beyond the fantasy world she’s constructed. This taboo bond strikes a nerve in Melissa, fueling a vengeful jealousy that quickly spirals out of control — and brings about a chain of events that draws even further parallels to the madness of Salem…

CAPTAIN UNDERPANTS: THE FIRST EPIC MOVIE
Directed by: David Soren
Starring: Kevin Hart, Ed Helms, Nick Kroll, Thomas Middleditch, Jordan Peele, Kristen Schaal
Synopsis: Based on the worldwide sensation and bestselling book series, and boasting an A-list cast of comedy superstars headed by Kevin Hart and Ed Helms, DreamWorks Animation brings audiences the long-awaited global movie event, Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie. This raucously subversive comedy for the entire family tells the story of two overly imaginative pranksters named George and Harold, who hypnotize their principal into thinking he’s a ridiculously enthusiastic, incredibly dimwitted superhero named Captain Underpants.

DAYVEON
Directed by: Amman Abbasi
Starring: Devin Blackmon, Dontrell Bright, Lachion Buckingham, Kordell Johnson
Synopsis: In the wake of his older brother’s death, 13-year-old Dayveon spends the sweltering summer days roaming his rural Arkansas town. When he falls in with a local gang, he becomes drawn to the camaraderie and violence of their world.

FITS AND STARTS
Directed by: Laura Terruso
Starring: Wyatt Cenac, Greta Lee
Synopsis: David  Warwik  is  a  struggling  writer  who  has  been  toiling away  at  the same novel for years. His wife Jennifer is a hot young literary figure, who has just released a critically acclaimed work. When her publisher invites the  couple  to  an  artists’  salon  at  his  home  in  Connecticut,  the  pair embark on a twisted journey, and David must face his demons and try to “not  be weird” among the waspy  salon guests and competitive art set  in attendance. He encounters a dentist with publishing aspirations, a  book  critic  full  of  condescending  advice,  a  fellow  writer  who  may know  his  wife  a  little  too  well,  an  old “friend,”  and  a  high  powered bipolar literary agent who just might be able to help him…for a price.

GORAN
Directed by: Nevio Marasovic
Starring: Franjo Dijak, Natasa Janjic , Goran Bogdan, Edita Karadjole, Filip Krizan, Bojan Navojec
Synopsis: Goran just wants to drive his taxi, but the people close to him also have agendas and dreams of their own, which threaten his carefree existence. With the cold and white winter as backdrop, the fiery personalities of these highlanders surface, and collide. White gets mixed with red.

THE HERO
Directed by: Brett Haley
Starring: Krysten Ritter, Laura Prepon, Nick Offerman, Sam Elliott, Katharine Ross
Synopsis: THE HERO stars the legendary Sam Elliott as an aging actor confronting mortality in the moving new film from writer/director Brett Haley (I’LL SEE YOU IN MY DREAMS).  Lee Hayden (Elliott) is a Western icon with a golden voice, but his best performances are decades behind him. He spends his days reliving old glories and smoking too much weed with his former-co-star-turned-dealer, Jeremy (Nick Offerman), until a surprise cancer diagnosis brings his priorities into sharp focus. He soon strikes up an exciting, contentious relationship with stand-up comic Charlotte (Laura Prepon), and he attempts to reconnect with his estranged daughter, Lucy (Krysten Ritter), all while searching for one final role to cement his legacy. THE HERO is a beautiful and poignant celebration of life and the legacies we all leave behind.
Sponsored by: Hospital for Special Surgery

IT’S ONLY THE END OF THE WORLD
Directed by: Xavier Dolan
Starring: Nathalie Baye, Vincent Cassel, Marion Cotillard, Lea Seydoux
Synopsis: Louis, a terminally ill writer, returns home after a long absence to tell his family that he is dying.

THE LIGHT OF THE MOON
Directed by: Jessica M. Thompson
Starring: Stephanie Beatriz, Michael Stahl-David, Conrad Ricamora, Catherine Curtin
Synopsis: Bonnie, a young and successful Latina architect, is sexually assaulted while walking home from an evening out with friends in Brooklyn. At first, she attempts to keep the assault a secret from her long-term boyfriend Matt, but the truth quickly emerges. Bonnie emphatically denies the impact of what has just happened to her. She fights to regain normalcy and control of her life, but returning to her old life is more complicated than expected. Her attempt to recapture the intimacy she previously had with Matt falters and cracks begin to surface in their relationship. Another attack in the neighborhood only drives Bonnie further into denial, before an encounter with an at -risk woman causes her to face the truth and confront her own self-blame.

MEGAN LEAVEY
Directed by: Gabriela Cowperthwaite
Starring: Kate Mara, Tom Felton, Bradley Whitford, Ramon Rodriguez, Edie Falco, Will Patton, Common, Geraldine James, Marko Caka, Catherine Dyer, Corey Johnson, Sam Keeley, Miguel Gomez, Melina Matthews
Synopsis: MEGAN LEAVEY is based on the true life story of a young marine corporal (Kate Mara) whose unique discipline and bond with her military combat dog saved many lives during their deployment in Iraq. When she is assigned to clean up the K9 unit after a disciplinary hearing, Leavey identifies with a particularly aggressive dog, Rex, and is given the chance to train him. Over the course of their service, Megan and Rex completed more than 100 missions until an IED explosion injures them, putting their fate in jeopardy. Directed by Gabriela Cowperthwaite (BLACKFISH) from a screenplay by Pamela Gray and Annie Mumolo & Tim Lovestedt, the film also stars Edie Falco, Ramón Rodríguez, Bradley Whitford, and Common.

MENASHE
Directed by: Joshua Z Weinstein
Starring: Menashe Lustig
Synopsis: Set within the New York Hasidic community in Borough Park, Brooklyn, Menashe follows a kind but hapless grocery store clerk trying to maintain custody of his son Rieven after his wife, Lea, passes away. Since they live in a tradition-bound culture that requires a mother present in every home, Rieven is supposed to be adopted by the boy’s strict, married uncle, but Menashe’s Rabbi decides to grant him one week to spend with Rieven prior to Lea’s memorial.  Their time together creates an emotional moment of father/son bonding as well as offers Menashe a final chance to prove to his skeptical community that he can be a capable parent.

THE STRANGE ONES
Directed by: Christopher Radcliff, Lauren Wolkstein
Starring: Alex Pettyfer, James Freedson-Jackson, Emily Althaus, Gene Jones, Owen Campbell, Tobias Campbell, Marin Ireland
Synopsis: Mysterious events surround two travelers, seemingly brothers, as they make their way across a remote American landscape. On the surface all seems normal, but what appears to be a simple vacation soon gives way to a dark and complex web of secrets.

SYLVIO
Directed by: Kentucker Audley and Albert Birney
Starring: Sylvio Bernardi
Synopsis: It’s the story of a small town gorilla, Sylvio, who is stuck in his job at a debt collection agency. Deep down he just wants to express himself with his hand puppet, Herbert Herpels, and his experimental puppet show that highlights the quiet moments of life. He accidentally joins a local TV program and a series of on-air mishaps threaten to shatter his identity, sending him on an adventure of self-discovery where reality and fantasy start to blend.

Documentaries

BENDING THE ARC
Directed by: Keif Davidson
Synopsis: The powerful documentary follows the extraordinary team of doctors and activists including Paul Farmer, Jim Young Kim and Ophelia Dahl – whose work thirty years ago to save lives in rural Haitian village grew into a global battle in the halls of power for the right to health for all.  Epic, yet intimate, the film is a compelling argument for the power of collective and personal vision and will to turn the tide of history

BIG SONIA
Directed by: Leah Warshawski, Todd Soliday
Synopsis: For years, Sonia Warshawski (90) has been an inspirational public speaker at schools and prisons, where her stories of surviving the Holocaust as a teenager have inspired countless people who once felt their own traumas would leave them broken forever. But when Sonia is served an eviction notice for her iconic tailor shop (in a dead mall), she’s confronted with an agonizing decision: either open up a new shop, or retire. For a woman who admits she stays busy to keep the dark parts away, facing retirement dredges up fears she’d long forgot she had, and her horrific past resurfaces. BIG SONIA explores what it means to be a survivor and how this affects families and generations. Will you let your trauma define you? Or will your past make you stronger?

BOBBI JENE
Directed by: Elvira Lind
Synopsis: After a decade of stardom in Israel, the American dancer, Bobbi Jene takes intensity to a new level: She decides to leave her great mentor/choreographer Ohad Nahardi and the love of her live behind to return to US. Determined to establish herself, she creates her own violently personal and boundary-breaking performances. A woman ́s fight for independence and the dilemma of its consequences

CHARGED: THE EDUARDO GARCIA STORY
Directed by: Phillip Baribeau
Synopsis: CHARGED chronicles the life-changing journey of chef and outdoorsman Eduardo Garcia after being shocked by 2400 volts of electricity in a freak accident while hiking in the remote back country of Montana. Eduardo lost his hand, ribs, muscle mass, and nearly his life, but more important than what he lost is what he found. Through sheer resilience, his former partner, Jennifer Jane, nursed Eduardo back to health and he learned to embrace his past, his family, and his future. A survival and love story unlike any other, CHARGED tells Eduardo’s remarkable journey from getting up off the forest floor to becoming the man he is today.

CITY OF GHOSTS
Directed by: Matthew Heineman
Synopsis: Directed, produced, and filmed by Academy Award–nominated and Emmy-winning filmmaker Matthew Heineman (CARTEL LAND, 2015 Sundance Film Festival Directing Award), CITY OF GHOSTS is a singularly powerful cinematic experience that is sure to shake audiences to their core as it elevates the canon of one of the most talented documentary filmmakers working today. Captivating in its immediacy, CITY OF GHOSTS follows the journey of “Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently”— a handful of anonymous activists who banded together after their homeland was taken over by ISIS in 2014. With astonishing, deeply personal access, this is the story of a brave group of citizen journalists as they face the realities of life undercover, on the run, and in exile, risking their lives to stand up against one of the greatest evils in the world today.

DINA
Directed by: Antonio Santini and Dan Sickles
Synopsis: Dina’s getting married in a few weeks and there’s still so much to do. She has to move her boyfriend, Scott, from his parents’ house to her apartment, and settle him into only the second home he’s ever had, all while juggling his schedule as an early morning Walmart door greeter. She has to get her dress, confirm arrangements with the venue, and make peace with her family, who remain nervous for their beloved Dina after the death of her first husband and the string of troubled relationships that followed. Throughout it all, in the face of obstacles large and small, Dina remains indomitable. She’s overcome tragedy and found the man she wants and, at age 48, is bent on building the life for herself that she believes she deserves. Dina is unstoppable, a force of nature, and as the star of her own life story, she’s an unconventional movie protagonist the likes of which hasn’t been seen before.

DOLORES
Directed by: Peter Bratt
Synopsis: In  the  copious  volumes  written  about  Cesar  Chavez  and  how  he  formed  the  first farm  workers’  union  in  America,  there’s  little  mention  of  Dolores  Huerta,  although she was his equal partner and co-founder of the union. DOLORES sheds light on this enigmatic,  intensely  private  woman  who  is  among  the  most  important  yet  little-known activists in American history. With unprecedented access to both Dolores and her  children,  the  film  reveals  the  raw,  personal  stories  behind  the  public  figure.  It portrays a woman both heroic and flawed, working tirelessly for social change even as her eleven children longed to have her at home. Directed by Peter Bratt.

GIVE ME FUTURE
Directed by: Austin Peters
Synopsis: In March 2016, following the restoration of diplomatic relations between Cuba and the United States, electronic dance music trio Major Lazer made history, becoming one of the first major American acts to play in the communist state. Unsure how their descent on Havana would be received and hoping to reach a few tens of thousands, the epic concert unexpectedly drew in close to half a million fans. Much more than a garden variety music film, Give Me Future begins as a behind-the-scenes look at the historic concert and evolves into a masterful exploration of Cuba’s inspirational youth movement and its ingenious DIY information culture. Capturing exhilarating performance footage and authentic stories highlighting the country’s cultural growth and desire for inclusion in the global community, director Austin Peters conjures a transcendent, rhythm-laced depiction of the powerful catalysts driving a country on the brink of change.

A GREY STATE
Directed by: Erik Nelson
Synopsis: In 2010 David Crowley, an Iraq veteran, aspiring filmmaker and charismatic up-and-coming voice in fringe politics, began production on his film “Gray State.” Set in a dystopian near-future where civil liberties are trampled by an unrestrained federal government, the film’s crowd funded trailer was enthusiastically received by the burgeoning online community of libertarians, Tea Party activists as well as members of the nascent alt-right. In January of 2015, Crowley was found dead with his family in their suburban Minnesota home. Their shocking deaths quickly become a cause célèbre for conspiracy theorists who speculate that Crowley was assassinated by a shadowy government concerned about a film and filmmaker that was getting too close to the truth about their aims. Directed by “Grizzly Man” producer Erik Nelson and Executive Produced by Werner Herzog, “A Gray State” combs through Crowley’s archive of 13,000 photographs, hundreds of hours of home video, and exhaustive behind-the-scenes footage of David’s work in progress to reveal what happens when a paranoid view of the government turns inward —blurring the lines of what is real and what people want to believe.

IT’S NOT DARK YET
Directed by: Frankie Fenton
Synopsis: Soon after premiering his short film The Sound of People at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, promising young Irish director Simon Fitzmaurice was tragically diagnosed with motor neurone disease (ALS). At just 34 years old, he was given four years to live, Fitzmaurice and his wife were expecting their third child, and a career in storytelling lay at his feet. Reeling from the shock, Fitzmaurice drew strength from his deepest desires—instead of being stuck in that painful moment, he realized his greatest defiance of ALS would be to direct his first feature film. Seven years later, despite total physical incapacitation, Fitzmaurice completed My Name is Emily (2015), directing it only with the use of his eyes. This emotional journey of self-realization and personal triumph over life-crushing adversity is nothing short of inspiring. All of it is captured with intimate home movies, photographs, and an affectionate voice-over by compatriot Colin Farrell, transporting us into Fitzmaurice’s creative world where every physical and psychological challenge is met with positivity and the desire to fulfill a dream.

LITTLE STONES
Sponsored By UBER
Directed by: Sophia Kruz
Synopsis: LITTLE STONES weaves together the personal stories of four women artists, from across the world, who dedicate their lives to empowering women and survivors of gender based violence to express and help eradicate the atrocities of domestic violence, human trafficking, extreme poverty, and female genital mutilation, with their unique art forms.

MIKE AND THE MAD DOG
Directed by: Daniel H. Forer
Starring: Mike Francesa, Chris ‘Mad Dog’ Russo
Synopsis: They never attempted an at bat, handoff, slap shot, or free throw, yet they are some of New York’s biggest sports celebrities. Now they make their big screen debut in this look at the inner-workings of one of sports media’s most successful partnerships: Mike Francesa and Chris “Mad Dog” Russo, the voices that launched a thousand sports talk shows. Mike and the Mad Dog chronicles the rise and fall of the titular radio show, celebrating the New York sports scene that fostered Francesa and Russo’s success and pointedly exploring the conflicts, shortcomings, and controversies that led to the pairing’s demise after 19 years together on the air. Former colleagues, writers, broadcasters, and sports heavyweights like David Stern, Alex Rodriguez, and Brian Cashman weigh in as part of this unvarnished history. Francesa and Russo don’t disagree, contributing their own honest retrospection in characteristic style. As Francesa puts it, “When you are confident in your opinion, you get called arrogant.” They provide a satisfying insider story for the New York sports fan, but also an incisive analysis of their unlikely stardom and just what should be taken from the personalities that get behind the microphone.

SWIM TEAM
Directed by: Lara Stolman
Synopsis: SWIM TEAM is a feature documentary chronicling the rise of a competitive swim team made up of children and teens on the autism spectrum. Based in Perth Amboy, New Jersey, the cast of SWIM TEAM is largely Latino and Asian, minorities that are underrepresented in competitive swimming and underserved in autism intervention and education. The film followings three of the team’s star athletes, boys on the cusp of adulthood as they face a future of exclusion and dependence. But everything changes when they come together as a team with parent coaches who train them with high expectations and zero pity. As the team vies for state and national Special Olympics championships, SWIM TEAM captures a moving quest for inclusion, independence and a life that feels winning.

TROPHY
Sponsored by Rambler’s Way
Directed by: Christina Clusiau and Shaul Schwarz
Synopsis: Endangered African species like elephants, rhinos and lions march closer to extinction each year. Their devastating decline is fueled in part by a global desire to consume these majestic animals. Trophy investigates the powerhouse industries of big-game hunting, breeding and wildlife conservation. Through the eyes of impassioned individuals who drive these industries – from a Texas-based trophy hunter to the world’s largest private rhino breeder in South Africa – the film grapples with the consequences of imposing economic value on animals. What are the implications of treating animals as commodities? Do breeding, farming and hunting offer some of the few remaining options to conserve our endangered animals? Trophy will leave you debating what is right, what is wrong and what is necessary in order to save the great species of the world.

Narrative Shorts

BACKSTORY
Directed by: Joschka Laukeninks
Starring: Jan Stapelfeldt, Xenia Assenza, Jessica McIntyre
Synopsis: As a young child our protagonist is left by his mother and has to live with his violent father. He fights his way through adolescence and falls in love with the woman of his dreams and just as everything seems to be finally working out for him, a sudden event changes the course of his life forever. A story about how everything we love, everything we learn, everything we build, everything we fear, will one day be gone.

BOAT PEOPLE
Directed by: Paul Meschuh
Starring: Eugene Boateng, Jule Ronstedt, Thomas Clemens
Synopsis: On his journey from Somalia to Europe, shipwrecked Moussa is picked up by a wealthy couple on their luxurious catamaran. The athletic young man is the only survivor of a disaster in the Mediterranean Sea and asks Hannes and Gerlinde to smuggle him across the border. Questioning Moussa’s true intentions, the yacht owners are torn between mistrust, fear and the urge for helping a fellow  human  being.  A  political  drama  of  two  separated worlds  colliding  within  one global community.

BUTTERCUP
Directed by: Jason Neulander
Starring: Josephine McAdam, Scarlett Neulander, Chris Gibson, Cami Alys
Synopsis: Sheila’s new babysitter Emmie asks if there are any bedtime rituals she should know about. There are.

GLASS HOUSE
Directed by: Erik Ivar Saether and Nicolai Berg Hansson
Starring: Hans Petter Nilsen, Trine Wiggen
Synopsis: The past few months, Jens has realized that he isn’t happy. Luckily, he has chosen the suitable time and place for spilling his guts: The family dinner. Glass House is a black comedy that will make you choke on laughter and salty duck breast.

L’ECHAPPEE
Directed by: Jonathan Mason, Hamid Saidji
Synopsis: A  kaleidoscopic  journey  through  the  streets of Algiers in HOCINE  FILALI’s  ramshackle  taxi. With  dreams of setting  sail  for  a  better  life in Italy,  Hocine  will  first  have to escape  the  grip of this magical city and its colorful cast of characters.

LE GRAND BAIN
Directed by: Valérie Leroy
Starring: Anne Agbadou-Masson, Camille Bardery, Djemel Barek, Franc Bruneau, Béatrice Clement, Flaminio Corcos, Anouchka Csernakova, Maryse Flaquet, Valérie Leroy, Stéphane Ly-Cuong, Jean Masini, Carole Massana, Olivier Ruidavet, Pierre Zéni
Synopsis: : Mia, 30 years old, just divorced, moves into a small studio in a popular district. A former swimming champion, she ends up giving swimming lessons to the residents of her building… Without a swimming pool…

POOL
Directed by: Leandro Goddinho
Starring: Luciana Paes, Sandra Dani, Carolina Bianchi, Marcela Feter, Ester Laccava, Mawusi Tulani, Jane Eyre
Synopsis: Claudia decides to investigate her grandmother’s past, who recently passed away. Through a letter, she comes to Marlene, an old German lady who lives in Brazil and keeps her memories inside a pool without water. During the visit, the old lady reveals details of her life that intersect with Claudia’s grandmother’s past, a German fugitive of the 2nd World War.

UNDERPRESSURE
Directed by: Lilli Schwabe
Starring: Karin Lischka, Jan Mixsa, Gabi Schuchter, Julia Zborowska, Norman Shetler, Tess Werner, Anna Schwabe, Nadine Petrea, Katrin Graf, Heinz Rank u.a.
Synopsis: Clara, an aspiring gynecologist, is enthusiastically supporting her patients, no matter if they are bringing a child into the world or are making the decision to have an abortion. At  the  same  time,  she  is  attempting  to  be  a  good  wife  and  loving mother  to  her  two little  children.  However,  with  the  increasing  pressures  of  daily  life,  her  self  imposed belief   systems   are   beginning  to   falter,   her   duties   in   the   clinic   suddenly   seem insurmountable and her family life is slipping away.

Documentary Shorts

CLOSE TIES
Directed by: Zofia Kowalewska
Synopsis: Barbara and Zdzislaw Torhan have been married for forty-five years. Eight years ago, Zdzislaw left Barbara and moved in with his mistress. Recently, he decided to return to his wife. Barbara took him back. However, returning to a shared life in one flat is turning out to be difficult for the couple. Zdzislaw suggests holding a jubilee celebration of their marriage.

DEER SQUAD
Directed by: Pipus Larsen, Kenneth Gug, Scott J. Ross
Synopsis: Kelvin Pena, a charismatic high schooler from rural Pennsylvania, went viral in 2016 after befriending a group of wild deer and posting his adventures with them on Snapchat and Instagram. In this short documentary, he discusses his life philosophy, describes his experience with sudden internet fame, and takes the filmmakers on a trip to meet his deer friends

FISH STORY
Directed by: Charlie Lyne
Synopsis: A search for the truth behind a fishy tale.

GIVING BIRTH IN AMERICA EPISODE
Directed by:
Synopsis: Maternal health non-profit Every Mother Counts presents a new three-part, short documentary series, “Giving Birth in America,” to examine some of the key reasons that the U.S. is falling so far behind in maternal healthcare. Each short film follows pregnant women and their healthcare providers in Florida, Montana and New York in the days leading up to delivery. Together, they navigate challenges of race, poverty, chronic illness, overuse of medical interventions and other inequalities that impact maternal health outcomes in America.

THE ILLUMINATION
Directed by: Tom Scott
Synopsis: In a remarkable twist of fate, it was the decades-long effort of one blind person, Gordon Gund, that made it possible for another, Yannick Duwé, to see. After more than 45 years, the journey of Gordon and Lulie Gund to find a cure for blindness can only be described as an act of love.

REFUGE
Directed by: Matthew K. Firpo
Synopsis: A small team of filmmakers, photographers, and storytellers travel to Greece to document human stories from the Refugee Crisis. This film explores the answers to the universal questions, ‘Why did you leave your home?’ and ‘What do you hope to find where you’re going?’.

TEN METER TOWER
Directed by: Axel Danielson  and Maximilien Van Aertryck
Synopsis: A ten meter diving tower. People who have never been up there before have to choose whether to jump or climb down. The situation itself highlights a dilemma: to weigh the instinctive fear of taking the step out against the humiliation of having to climb down. TEN METER TOWER is an entertaining study of the human in a vulnerable position.

THE RABBIT HUNT
Directed by: Patrick Bresnan
Synopsis: In the Florida Everglades rabbit hunting is considered a rite of passage for young men. The Rabbit Hunt follows seventeen year old Chris and his family as they hunt in the fields of the largest industrial sugar farms in the US. The film records a tradition by which migrant farm workers in the communities surrounding Lake Okeechobee have been hunting and preparing rabbits since the early 1900s.

Best of Connecticut

A CHRISTMAS SURPRISE
Directed by: Sarah Lew
Starring: Kim Rogers
Synopsis: When a young girl finds out the devastating truth that Santa isn’t real on the night before Christmas, she analyzes the implications of this realization.

HI-GLOW RETRO
Directed by: Alex Morsanutto
Starring: Bryan Burton, Jessica Cadden-Osborne, Nina Negron, Jack Brinkley-Cook
Synopsis: Tommy Ashby embarks on a mission to learn 70’s disco dancing in order to impress the girl of his dreams at his high school’s annual dance. Hi-Glow Retro is a proof of concept for a feature film of the same name.

BLIND SUSHI
Directed by: Eric Heimbold
Synopsis: BLIND SUSHI is a short documentary featuring Ryan Knighton and Bun Lai, made by Eric Heimbold, (produced, filmed, directed & edited). The film tells the story of a blind travel writer who goes foraging and diving with the world’s first sustainable sushi chef, in search of enlightenment, and culinary solution to a serious global ecological problem.

MY NAME IS JOAN
Directed by: Margaret Stapor Costa
Synopsis: “My Name is Joan” tells the story of a woman who was born to an unwed mother in a mother and baby home in Ireland in 1949 and then illegally adopted by an American family when she was over 2 years old.  The film highlights how the Catholic Church and the Irish Government allowed the illegal exporting of babies for money to occur for decades and how the church and the government are still denying adopted children the right to access their adoption records and learn their true identities.

A WONDERFUL PLACE
Directed by: Sam Ketay
Synopsis: A Wonderful Place is a short documentary film told from the perspective of 80 year old Greenwich, CT estate owner, Norma Asnes. We travel with Norma, via John Deere electric cart, around her property and on the journey gain insights into family and nature.

About The Greenwich International Film Festival
Greenwich International Film Festival (GIFF) is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization that hosts a world-class film festival in Greenwich, CT. The goal of the Festival is to bridge the worlds of film, finance and philanthropy. The third annual Festival will take place June 1^st – 4^th, 2017, has a social impact focus, and will benefit charity partners with proceeds.  The four-day event will feature a star-studded Opening Night Party, film premieres, engaging panels, a Changemaker Honoree Gala, and more.  For additional information, please visit www.greenwichfilm.org.

About Westchester Medical Center Health Network
The Westchester Medical Center Health Network (WMCHealth) is a 1,700-bed healthcare system headquartered in Valhalla, New York, with 10 hospitals on eight campuses spanning 6,200 square miles of the Hudson Valley. WMCHealth employs more than 12,000 people and has nearly 3,000 attending physicians. From Level 1, Level 2 and Pediatric Trauma Centers, the region’s only acute care children’s hospital, an academic medical center, several community hospitals, dozens of specialized institutes and centers, skilled nursing, assisted living facilities, homecare services and one of the largest mental health systems in New York State, today WMCHealth is the pre-eminent provider of integrated healthcare in the Hudson Valley. For more information about WMCHealth, visit www.WMCHealth.org

Nearly ten years after its debut, The Sixth Gun creative team revives the undead horror noir comic The Damned at Oni Press. Writer Cullen Bunn and artist Brian Hurtt joined us to talk about the concept, working together on longterm stories and some behind the scene insight about getting into comics.

Issue #1 is available at stores for $1 and issue #2 hits shelves on June 14th!

*  *  *  *  *

FOG!: Thanks for joining us again! Both of you are very busy, tell me, why is this a good time to revisit The Damned?

Cullen Bunn: For me, it was always a good time to return to The Damned except for one small problem: time.

Brian and I have been working on The Sixth Gun for several years now, and there just wasn’t room in the schedule to return to the world of mobsters and demons. But even while we were working on The Sixth Gun, we were always discussing what we would do with The Damned when we had the chance. It was never a question of “if” we would do it.

Now, I hope that readers who enjoyed The Sixth Gun will give The Damned a try. After all, the entire creative team is moving on to this project. I also hope that new readers will take a chance on this series. A new issue #1 is a great jumping-on point.

Brian Hurtt: As Cullen said, it’s been a world that has never been too far from our minds since we last played there. For me, there was also a thrill at the idea of returning to something that I helped create and being able to apply all that I’ve learned in the intervening years to this book. It’s both and challenge and an artistic exercise to see how I can both honor the work that I did earlier in my career while also being true to how I’ve changed as an artist. In a way, though, it all came together pretty smoothly. It was like not having seen a friend in years and falling right back into the same comfortable space—like it was all just yesterday.

This is also a good time for people to get aboard The Damned train, I for one am one of the people going back to read the first series. Is it easy to get caught up with Eddie and his story? Is this ongoing?

BH:  Get on The Damned train!

CB:  I feel like we’ve made it a breeze to jump onto this series. We released the first trade, collecting the original series (now in color), for just $10. It’s a great primer for the series. But you don’t have to read it! The first issue of the ongoing comic sets the stage perfectly for new readers. You can jump on with the trade or the first issue and enjoy the ride in the same way.

BH: Doesn’t matter where you jump on—issue one or the volume one trade—just jump on!

What would you say your strengths are, working together for so many years on story and art? I’m always more interested in the behind-the-scenes, be it for musicians and especially in comics. Having that special synergy between longtime collaborators sings on the page.

Cullen, do you use shorthand or do you allow for Brian to do his thing on the art? Same question in reverse for Brian. Unless you are both writing from the germ of the story until the final pages…

CB: I probably shorthand my scripts for Brian, but I definitely don’t do so. My scripts for him look the same as almost any other script I write. I feel like Brian and I have a knack for world-building that comes across in the books we work on. It’s more than just a knack. We love creating myths and histories for these weird worlds. I also think that after working together so long, we kind of know what each other is thinking story-wise. We’re usually on the same page (or can get on the same page quickly) because our storytelling sensibilities are so similar.

BH: I would be upset I were to get anything less than the full “Cullen Bunn Experience” when reading his scripts! Cullen is so good at painting a picture and telling the story through his scripts that I would be injured to have him start using a shorthand with me.

Also, the script is the only chance I have to enjoy the book as a fan! It’s the story—straight from the source—before I get my dirty paws on it!

What appeals to me about The Damned is it combines my love of gangster movies and history with the supernatural. It seems like there was a lot of actual occult and more of a widespread belief in magic and the bizarre in the culture back then. Did that come up in any research or did you both decide to fly blind and combine these two genres?

CB: I’d love to tell you that I did a lot of research, but I did not. I did just enough research to make me dangerous (and that’s usually the case with anything I work on) and then I just tried to make the gangster world and the occult elements feel authentic.

BH: I think for both of us that we feel more creatively free if we avoid getting too “sticky” with real history. It’s more fun to do a little research and then just let your imagination run wild with it. In research, if you get too deep into the weeds it can sometimes kill your creative energy a bit. You then drifting from fictional—or “genre”—storytelling and into a documentary. Not a place I feel comfortable in. Not my wheelhouse. I’ve got monsters to draw and cars to blow up.’

I also like the They Live element, whereby Eddie and other cursed ones can see demons, but regular humans can’t. And we’re dealing with gangsters and demon gangsters. It’s a double layer of underground activity. How does Eddie toe the line between his reality, running a nightclub and his entire other life?

CB: The ability for lost souls to see the demons for what they are is a relatively new addition to the mythos. In the original story, we didn’t address that at all. But over the years Brian and I started to think that we should have some reason that the average person on the street couldn’t see demons.

As for Eddie, his ability (or inability) to tow the line between club owner and thug is a big part of the “Ill-Gotten” story arc. Eddie’s not really cut out for life as a club owner, and that lifestyle is starting to rub him the wrong way. He’s walking a tightrope… if the tightrope was really a burning fuse leading to a wheel of dynamite.

BH: Kudos for the They Live reference. Cullen and I both have a deep and lasting love for Carpenter—it’s one of the ties that bind us! I love this idea of the “double layers” of things. It’s a theme that plays out a lot through The Damned.

Sometimes, in very stark and literal ways—like with the demons and the faces they show only to The Damned—but it’s also there through all these different worlds that Eddie navigates. There are a lot of characters who have that kind of dual identity.

Whether it’s the person they were versus the person they are or it’s that face—that thing—that they keep hidden and that which they present to the world.

Eddie’s old friend Pauly is back in town, but the demon families are after him.

Without spoiling anything, can we expect Pauly to get Eddie into some bad business or will Eddie have to learn to trust him?

CB:  Hmm. Both? Eddie and Pauly go way back. There are ties there that cannot be broken, even if Eddie wants to break them. But both men have lived in a world of double- and triple-crossing for a long time. Their friendship—if you can call it that—is not immune to double-dealing.

BH: Also, Eddie is never going to learn to trust ANYONE. That’s part of what makes him Eddie. He kinda has a history that lends to that attitude.

Any advice for new writers and artists out there trying to pitch around to the publishers?

BH: We get asked this all the time and the answer is easy but not sexy at all: Just do it. There is NOTHING stopping you. All the tools are at your fingertips. Including your fingertips! Or your toes. If you’re so inclined. There has never been a roadmap to get into comics. But that doesn’t mean there weren’t barriers and gates and tolls. But all of that is falling away. It’s never been easier to get your work out there and into the eyeballs of people.

Printing is cheaper and more accessible. Digital is practically free! Don’t wait for an audience, build one.

CB: I’d tell writers not to wait for a publisher’s validation. If you have a story to tell, just tell it. Find an artist (which can be tough, admittedly) and publish online or self-publish the book in print. Then, you have a book that is true to who you are as a creator, something that represents you perfectly and shows that you can actually finish a project. Get that completed work into the hands of publishers and editors.

Something like that is better than any business card you could ever print.

The Damned #1 is available now.

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Dr Pepper®. All opinions are 100% mine.

Summer movie season is quickly approaching and I’m anxiously awaiting the big screen arrival of Wonder Woman starring Gal Gadot on June 2nd.

Based on the comic book series, when American pilot Steve Trevor (Chris Pine) crashes on the island of Themyscira, he encounters the Amazons and Princess Diana.  When Diana learns of World War I, she joins Captain Trevor when he returns to Europe to try and end the war using her powers.

Wonder Woman also stars Connie Nielsen, Robin Wright, Danny Huston, Elena Anaya, Lucy Davis, Saïd Taghmaoui, Ewen Bremner, and David Thewlis.

And as always, the best way to enjoy a movie is with popcorn and my favorite soda, Dr Pepper, which coincidentally, has launched tie-ins with the film which I discovered while shopping at Stop and Shop.

Not only does Dr Pepper feature Wonder Woman on limited cans, but also Stop and Shop features a chance to save on tickets!  With the purchase of 2 participating Dr Pepper 12-packs, 24 packs, 8 pack 12oz or 7.5oz cans, you can receive $5 towards a movie ticket (Valid: 4/1/17-5/31/17)!  Which means I can prepare for the film by reading comics and drinking Dr Pepper at home before heading out to see the film on June 2nd.

A second tie-in with Stop and Shop makes the movie going experience even better with a chance to win a $20 concession reward code from Fandango. To participate, text Wonder to 737737 (Valid: 5/22/17-6/18/17).

Fandango Dr Pepper and Wonder Woman.  Truly a wonderful team!

Is Now Available For Pre-Order

From writer and director, Paul Davis, Cult Screenings Ltd. and Dead Mouse Productions, comes the anticipated follow up to BEWARE THE MOON – THE STORY OF AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON. This time around the author trades werewolves for vampires, with a brand new limited edition, 255 page, all colour, hardback book on the making-of the 1987 cult favourite, THE LOST BOYS.

LOST IN THE SHADOWS: THE STORY OF THE LOST BOYS delves into the complete history of the film, from its inception as a Peter Pan inspired kids adventure, its eventful production, and its enduring 30-year legacy.

Featuring brand new interviews with Joel Schumacher, Kiefer Sutherland, Jason Patric, Jami Gertz, Corey Feldman, Richard Donner (and many more), and hundreds of rare behind the scenes images, LOST IN THE SHADOWS serves as the ultimate chronicle to one of the most beloved movies of the 1980s.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

• First 1,000 copies will be numbered and signed by the author.

• Over 400 behind the scenes photos, many of which have NEVER been seen before.

• Interviews with over 40 members of the original cast and crew – including archive material from actors Corey Haim, Brooke McCarter, Edward Herrmann and screenwriter Jeffrey Boam.

• Foreword by American Horror Story: Hotel & Magic Mike star Matt Bomer.

• Exclusive cover art by Graham Humphreys.

The book is NOW available to pre-order EXCLUSIVELY from CultScreenings.co.uk/Lost-in-the-Shadows

Price: UK £26.99 (+£7 postage) / US price $34.99 (INTL shipping $20)
The book ships WORLDWIDE.  Please choose International shipping for local conversation.

PRODUCT DETAILS:
Hardcover:  255 pages
Author:  Paul Davis
Publisher:  Cult Screenings Ltd. & Dead Mouse Productions.
Language:  English
• ISBN:  0706502215262
Product Dimensions:  29 x 23 x 2 cm (11 x 9 x 0.7 inches)

Produced by Charles Roven, Deborah Snyder,
Zack Snyder, Richard Suckle
Screenplay by Allan Heinberg
Story by Zack Snyder,
Allan Heinberg, Jason Fuchs
Based on Wonder Woman by
William Moulton Marston
Directed by Patty Jenkins
Starring Gal Gadot, Chris Pine, Robin Wright,
Danny Huston, David Thewlis, Connie Nielsen,
Elena Anaya, Lucy Davis, Saïd Taghmaoui

Has it really been a year since DC and Warner Bros treated movie goers to Batman Vs Superman:  Dawn of Justice and Suicide Squad?  I feel like I have been living under the sour stench of those movies for millennia, like some poor man’s Doctor Who storyline.  (I can hear the Doctor now as my crypt is opened: “He saw both of those movies so these creatures that feed off of pleasure could not wipe out the human race.”)

I walked into Wonder Woman feeling this weight and I have to say that I was surprised:  Wonder Woman is a much better movie than either of last year’s DC movies .  I would even go so far as to wager that it is a good movie, not without its Zach Snyder-esque problems, but a good movie nonetheless.

The movie opens in Paris where our hero, played by Gal Gadot, is working at the Louvre.  A package containing the photo from BVS of her with a group of men from 1918 arrives and she begins to study it.  As her voiceover says “I used to want to save the world…the closer you get, the more you see the great darkness simmering within,” we are transported back to the lush isle of Themyscira, her island home.

Diana is a child now, watching her older Amazonian sisters training for combat and visibly wishing she can join in.  General Antiope (Robin Wright of House of Cards and The Princess Bride) is training them and it is apparent that she is young Diana Prince’s hard-scrabble, scarred hero.  She is also Diana’s aunt and knows a secret about her that makes training her of great importance, so she begins and the movie takes us through the years of training.  Wright brings the toughness that she shows in House of Cards to the character to make her scenes rival R Lee Earmey in Full Metal Jacket, if he were as well versed in hand to hand combat as he is in being a drill instructor.

After a confrontation with Antiope that finds Diana searching the island for solace, she finds instead the crashing bi-plane of Steve Trevor (Star Trek’s Chris Pine).  He is followed by several boats of German marines who engage in combat with the Amazons.  Death ensues, with an Amazon victory, but at a great cost.  Closed off from the outside world, Trevor tells them about the Great War to end all wars engulfing the world.  He is a spy who has discovered information that will lead to the end of the war with a victory for free men everywhere.

Diana sees the war as the work of Ares, the Greek God of War, who she is now hellbent to destroy so that she can bring an unprecedented peace to the world.

The rest of the movie finds her traveling to the Western Front in Europe where she leads troops to the German’s, all the while innocently marveling at the atrocities mankind can unleash upon eachother and then simply brush aside.

Gadot’s Wonder Woman for the most part plays like some sort of Valentine Michael Smith from Stranger In A Strange Land .  She tries to understand the world, but she is far too idealistic to simply see all of the wrongdoing and go unaffected.  Her hope and faith in what she needs to accomplish to return mankind to peace and the world to its idyllic beauty are covered both thematically and explicitly throughout.  It is her hope and faith that push her to a new degree of heroism that she never saw in herself, no matter how tough she appeared.

Wonder Woman is a breath of fresh air in the DC Cinematic universe rather than a reboot.   The movie is still saddled with one video game-style epic fight scene that dulls it a bit, but overall there is a good story here.  Director Patty Jenkins (Monster, AMC’s The Killing) brings her ability to tell a dark tale and brings out good performances from some good actors.

With Zach Snyder stepping away, hopefully Jenkins can leave her mark on more Justice League-related movies soon.