I told him that the last time I directed a television series, I turned a routine sports show into a horror movie and shot a five minute chase scene between a passenger jeep and a hearse.
He asked me why.
I told him that I had to break the monotony of television hosts rappelling and trekking in the mountains with something totally out there.
To my surprise he said that he saw it too. He loved that particular episode.
He said that my style and sensibility are perfect for the new cable channel that they are putting up. The channel’s trust is on being hip and cool.
I thought for a moment. Well I don’t know about being cool. I think I stopped being cool when I got married. Or maybe I wasn’t cool in the first place and had just mere illusions of being cool. Or probably I was cool and am still cool and could be the coolest of cool people I have ever met in my life.
As my thoughts strayed somewhere he asked what I would want to do.
Before committing I wanted to know what the basic terms where. I asked who owns the rights to the show. He said that I would. That they’re end is to market the show and provide the airtime. Sounds interesting.
He told me that I could do anything. And I thought anything! That’s tough. What does one do when given the absolute freedom to do anything? Should I do a teleseries? A fantasy series? A Horror anthology? A variety show? A reality show? How about a biblical epic or a mini series?
“ If you want you can even do a reality show. Knowing you you’ll come up with something really skewered and black.”
Then he went talking about doing the sound in 5.1 surrounds. And that I should submit my sound dubs on this particular disc.
I must confess the concept of doing anything is most intriguing. And the more I thought about it…the more tempting it becomes. I can do anything that I wanted. What a strange feeling.
I saw VAN HELSING the other day and funny enough I loved it. I don’t know why. Walking in I knew it’s going to be tons of predictable one loner and plot situations. The Movie started midway and I went to the john first.
I muttered, “ They’ll probably have a line like, HE’S KILLED THE VAMPIRE!”
Three seconds later I hear over the speakers inside the john. ‘ HE’S KILLED THE VAMPIRE!”
I chuckled to myself. But hey this is a vampire hunter movie so what do you expect.
But when I watched…I was totally swept away. I don’t know. The plot was horrible.
There was some extrapolation on Van Helsings origin when Dracula utters something like, “ NICE TO SEE YOU AGAIN GABRIEL. You don’t remember me do you? “
Then there’s a line from Hugh Jackman that he remembers fighting the Romans in MASADA. SO I guess he’s the angel Gabriel. Unfortunately there was no follow-ups to it to make it concrete.
Despite those flaws and the over acting excesses of DRACULA. I loved the movie. It was fun. I expected to leave my brain on the ticket counter when I came in so…
It was fun. Strangely enough I loved this film more than Hellboy, which is even stranger because I love the comic.
But I always have a soft spot for the UNIVERSAL MONSTER MOVIES. I grew up on these when I was a kid. I’m a BORIS KARLOFF, BELA LUGOSI, BASILRATHBONE, LONCHANEY SR AND JR, and JACK PIERCE fan.
I also loved MONSTER SQUAD precisely for the same reason. There’s this scene, which is priceless. A vortex opens up and the kids had to use the blood of a virgin to stop it.They use the elder sister's blood. But the vortex just keeps on comming.
One of the kids turns around and tells the sister.
“ YOU’RE NOT REALLY A VIRGIN ARE YOU? “
“ Well I had this thing with my ex –boyfriend but he doesn’t count.” She replies.
“ DOESN’T COUNT? “ the kid screams back and they all look at each other because they know they’re fucked!
The SPFX here is better than those of HELLBOY. After all it was done by ILM. The opening battle with HYDE is incredible. The design for the creature mirrors a giant midget. This is the ultimate CG Hyde.
I don’t know why there’s a trend for Victorian spfx packages. You had League and then there’s VAN HELSING. But that’s how Hollywood works.
Anyway I love this movie next to the MUMMY this is a great universal horror revival. I HATED MUMMY RETURNS the same way I HATED XMEN 2. Just because the sequel has more action and set pieces doesn’t mean that it gets better.
As much As I like this movie, in my book there is only one actor who is the quintessential VAN HELSING, PETER CUSHING. That’s GOVENOR TARKIN to you philistines!
Every time I see a flick where he has a titanic fight scene with the other quintessential DRACULA, CHRISTOPER LEE I jump on my seat!
The Best Dracula movie I ever saw was the first one CHRIS LEE starred in, THE HORROR OF DRACULA! TOD BROWNING’S 1931 film with BELA LUGOSI is great for the atmospherics but BELA moves too slowly for my taste. He’s more a leering old man in white make up than what I imagined DRACULA to be.
But CHRISTOPER LEE is the ERROL FLYN of DRACULAS. He runs and snarls and wears blood tinted contact lenses!
And PETER CUSHING jumps right in after him! He runs over tables and slides on them to tear the curtains off the windows to reveal…….TA DAH!!!! SUNLIGHT!
Another favorite of mine is DRACULA PRINCE OF DARKNESS. Cushing plays VAN HELSING’s 20 th century progeny. If I remember correctly DRACULA drafted some scientists to come up with a doomsday plague. As if Vampirism isn’t enough.
When I was a kid, my classmates would come in with their hardy boys hard cover. And I would lug along my HORROR in CINEMA hardcover! Most of the time they don’t understand why I was in it. But would always ask me how an effect was done.
I hope they do CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON next.
