It’s July!

 

(Thanks, Hollywoodstreams, for the video.)

Between getting firing, job hunting, getting hired, training, adjusting to my new job, and the general tunnel vision I’ve had for New Moon, July somehow snuck up on me. My friend asked last week if Harry Potter comes out this week or next. I must have looked at him so strangely. I thought, “He’s crazy! It doesn’t come out until…Merlin’s Pants! It’s July 1st!” I saw the latest trailer in the theater. I still have such high hopes. It really looks like it will be spectacular.

 

Nathan Fillion as the Green Lantern

Dear Nathan,

It’s been a while. Rest assured. I loved every minute of Castle and might have gotten a little choked up when I heard it was renewed. Congrats on finding yet another great show. Further congratulations for making it out of first season. Finally, the witty dialogue you tend to favor, and the perfect way your deliver it, is getting a chance! May you have many happy seasons as Rick Castle.

That being said, if you get the chance to be Green Lantern, please jump on it. Go directly to the studio, do not pass Go, do not collect $200. And if you can get the fan who made this trailer to work on the film I’m sure Green Lantern fans everywhere will thank you. I, myself, have never been a Green Lantern fan…until now.

♥Christa

Thanks Jaronpitts!

 

Adventureland

Dear Kristen Stewart,

I’ve spent a lot of time over at Letters to Twilight, so it’s sometimes hard for me not to think of my reviews, and other communications with people I will never meet, in anything other than letter format. So, that being said…Adventureland. Yeah. I think I kinda loved it.

While I would really love to one day see you play someone healthy and (gasp!) happy, you once again did a good job of playing depressive and damaged. I wonder why you were chosen for this role. Your character (Em Lewin) was an NYU student. I don’t know if she was a grad student like the male lead (James Brennan, played by Jesse Eisenberg). I might have missed it, if it was covered. The only reason I bring it up is because I know I was distracted by the ages of your characters. I think it was knowing how young you were while filming (what, 16?) or if it was because the two of you had crappy summer jobs, but I couldn’t help but think of both of you as high school kids. I know others were concerned by this as well because the couple next to me had a conversation about why it was that you two were always drinking, and in bars no less. One of them hadn’t caught on to the fact that you were both college students and probably over 21. So, I think we were all trying to keep in mind that the characters were older than they appeared.

Aside from that I thought everything was great. I was surprised to not like the character (Mike Connell) played by Ryan Reynolds. Good job on his part, because I really like him. I loved the 80’s feel of it, though at times it did seem much more ’83 than ’87. Ok, so I guess I had one more somewhat negative thing to say. Sorry. None of that is your fault, however, so please don’t take offense. I read a review before going to the movie (they gave it an A-) and they compared it to American Graffiti and Dazed and Confused. That’s excellent company to keep. Only time will tell if Adventureland becomes the classic that these two films have become, but I definitely agree that it captured the feel of the moment in much the same ways these other two films capture the feel of the eras they were portraying.

I hope Adventureland does well for you at the box office. I know our theater was pretty full 40 minutes before the movie started. It’s been a while since I’ve seen that kind of showing for a non-fanboy/girl movie. The theater was pretty packed by showtime, and everyone seemed to really enjoy it. So, well done, and I hope filming New Moon is going well. Have fun!

♥Christa

 

I am famous!

It always amazes me when people link back to my blog. Just when I think no one is really reading, someone will like something I wrote enough to recommend it to others. It’s always nice. Not only did Twilight Blogs link to my blog, they listed me as Source 2. Their subject is the Phoenix New Moon Casting Call I posted about this weekend. I had fun taking that little fact finding trip. Little did I know it would be an actual scoop. Thanks again, everyone, for your interest.

 

1319 Views!

Talk about blowing the curve! That’s more views than I normally get on my blog all month. I got it in one day thanks to I Went to the Phoenix Casting Call. I guess I was the only one that showed up to take pics? How am I ever going to top that?

Thank you all for dropping by!

Christa

PS To the 3 of you that did not look at that post, what could have possibly have brought you here?  LOL

 

Joss Whedon Talks Twilight and True Blood

Thank you TVWeek.com for posting this tid bit.

TVWeek: Vampires are big in pop culture right now. Have you seen “Twilight’?

Mr. Whedon: I saw “Twilight.” And it’s—what can you say? It’s absolutely like crack. It strikes a tweener chord that’s just as loud as the apocalypse. You cannot deny the power of it. It just works. And I sort of like that.

TVWeek: What about HBO’s “True Blood”?

Mr. Whedon: I’ve seen less of it. “Twilight” makes its own rules, as we all do. It takes what it wants and discards the rest but ultimately, it is kind of classical. They’re puffy-shirt vampires in a sense.

“True Blood,” I think, is more what we see in a lot of the comic books, which is, “Let’s deconstruct this and explore what it would be like if [vampires] were really among us.” It’s more postmodern.

TVWeek: Did you watch “Moonlight”?

Mr. Whedon: I did not. I actually don’t love vampires. Anne Rice was definitely a life-changer. It was wonderful. But at the end of the day, I’ve really kind of had my fill.

You know, Buffy wasn’t going to necessarily fight vampires. The idea was always there’s a monster, she fights it. And when I did the Buffy/Angel romance, I thought, “There’s no way in the world I’m getting away with something this cheesy.” I thought, “People are going to laugh at me.”

Over the years, I’ve gotten a better understanding of why vampires resonate so much. I even came up with an idea for a vampire film recently … but then I saw there was this glut, so I thought I better ease off of that. It’s still in my consciousness. But I think I need to spend some time with some Frankensteins.

 

I went to the Phoenix Casting Call

Just in case you don’t get to see this on Letters to Twilight right away, here is a description of my Phoenix New Moon Casting Call (there’s still time tomorrow if you want to audition!).

I was fortunate enough to sneak a peek at the Phoenix casting call for New Moon. My friends Erika and Lisa (fellow Twilighters) were happy to keep me company on the journey. Erika even used her Mistress voice on me to make me go inside the building by myself. You can thank her for the pictures I took inside, really. I wasn’t sure I would be allowed, being as gringa as they come. Everyone was very nice, and I really didn’t even get any looks for being there, even though I clearly didn’t fit the description of the casting call. I brought my real camera, so I guess that explained why I was there.

Registration took place in the lobby of the Phoenix Indian Center. It seemed pretty well organized. They seemed to be directing people very well for minimum confusion. It’s a smallish lobby and when I got there, there were about 100 people crammed into it. The people running the show were calling people in groups by age. I have no idea how many people were already back there auditioning. The atmosphere in the lobby was tense. I don’t know why, but I expected a sort of fangirl SQUEE. Nope, there was very quiet murmur considering the number of people. I didn’t see anyone practicing their lines or anything, unless they were doing it silently. Most people were talking to a buddy quietly. I didn’t feel free to walk around because it was so cramped, and because the mood clearly said, “Don’t bother anyone.” I took what pictures I could around the door where the light was best. It was pretty dark in there and I didn’t want to bother anyone with my flash.

The first picture I’m sending is of the doors. You can see that people are pressed up against the glass. It really was that crowded in there. If you look on the left side of the doors you’ll see a reflection of a woman in a bluish top and black pants. That’s Celene, a Twilight Mom. She was very nice and made us gringas feel right at home. She was waiting for a friend and fellow Twilight Mom to arrive. I didn’t get the friend’s name but when she arrived she told us her best hope for Seth was in the emergency room. I hope he’s OK!

I spy a Twilight Mom!

 

 

Really, Mr. King?

Stephen King made his opinion of Stephenie Meyer’s writing quite clear.  You can follow that link for the whole story. I just want to comment on this:

Attempting to explain the enormous success of Meyer’s novels, King speculated that Twilighters simply aren’t yet ready for a depiction of real, adult romance: “It’s exciting and it’s thrilling and it’s not particularly threatening, because they’re not overtly sexual. A lot of the physical side of it is conveyed in things like the vampire will touch her forearm or run a hand over skin, and she just flushes all hot and cold. And for girls, that’s a shorthand for all the feelings that they’re not ready to deal with yet.”

I wonder if Mr. King knows about Cougars and Twilight Moms. There are a lot of us out there. I’m 38, and I assure you I’ve been ready to deal with those feelings for quite some time. Romance and sexual tension are sexy. I don’t think it matters what age you are. Is it light reading? Sure. It’s wonderfully light and easy to read. That’s what I love about Ms. Meyer’s style. Is it poorly written? That’s debatable. You’d have to define poorly written. I’ll take a writer that is not so technically proficient but can tell a story over a textbook writer anyday. For the record, I’m not calling Mr. King a textbook writer. I’ve never read anything he’s written, except reviews like this, so I couldn’t really say. I have read the Twilight Saga four times though.

 

Twilight Bunnies

I failed you by not posting it yesterday when it premiered. Who knows if the video will ever show up. If you don’t see it below, click here.

Bun-O-Vision!

 

New Moon Wish List

I don’t know how many versions of this I have on this site now. Consider this the final draft until I write my next one. These wishes are really in no particular order.

There may be some SPOILERS here. I’m not moving this to my Twilight page because at this particular moment I am thinking that if you’re surfing for Twilight stuff, specifically stuff on New Moon, you don’t mind spoilers so much. If you do, surf elsewhere for now. But do come back later.

Dear Summit Entertainment, Chris Weitz, et al,

I’m happy to hear that New Moon will be filming in Vancouver AND Italy. If you can’t film in Forks, Vancouver seems ideal. Not only is it one of my favorite places I’ve been, but they are used to the film and television industry up there. From what I heard, Portland was a little overwhelmed. It’s strange but I’m not terribly concerned about the continuity of having the same high school or the same Cullen house, or even Bella’s same house. In all likelihood you would have chosen different shots, and it would have seemed like different places anyway. Who knows, maybe you can even shoot in such a way that it feels like the same places even though they aren’t the same places. It will be interesting to see how that turns out.

So, Wish #1 is already taken care of. I was really concerned that you were going to fake Italy. I hope if you don’t shoot in Volterra that you pick an Etruscan town at least. I’ll be able to tell if you don’t. It will bother me and “take me out” of the movie. I don’t like these kinds of distractions. While I’m on the subject of Italy, Alice really needs to steal a yellow Porsche.

Which leads me to Wish #2: More Cullens! I was pretty disappointed that we didn’t get to know the Cullens much in Twilight. I think the script could have been much tighter to include these wonderful characters. They are truly a family, and I didn’t get that feeling from them in the movie. Also, Jasper’s gift was never even discussed. There is some catching up to do in this regard, now, if we are to fully feel the emotional impact of Bella’s birthday. I’m happy to help in any way I can. Have your people call…well, me. I don’t have people yet.

Wish #3 is better dialogue. Please don’t fail the actors again. They’ve had a rough couple months if they are reading the endless flaming in the blogosphere about their “wooden” acting. They can only do so much with the words you are putting in their mouths. Yes, I’m aware that most of what is said in the books is actually being said in Bella’s head, but you’ve chosen to adapt the Twilight Saga to the screen so you really need to figure out a way to translate what’s in Bella’s head into dialogue and stage direction. And please, enough with the voice overs. Remember, show, don’t tell.

Wish #4. Like Edward, I’m wishing for more time. What’s your rush? I know you want either a holiday or summer release. I know you don’t want to go up against Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince in July. I know you don’t want to wait another whole year. Why not a May 2010 release? You could be the Memorial Day/Early Summer blockbuster and not compete so heavily with Harry Potter for the summer box office. It would give you another six months. Would six months be so bad? I think it would really help. We’ve all been pretty forgiving about Twilight because we understand that it was originally this little indie film and that the fan base exploded during filming. We won’t be so forgiving this time. This time you knew in advance what kind of film this was going to be. If it’s not budgeted, scripted, and filmed accordingly you will not get the return on your New Moon investment that you did with Twilight. I’ll see it twice, tops, if you mess it up. I’ve seen Twilight 7 times, and you can check my blog for what I thought of that one to begin with.

Oh boy. Here I go. Wish #5 is better direction. Catherine Hardwicke, again, we disagree on what the basics of story are. I have to say once again that I appreciate your willingness to step back when you didn’t get the time you wanted for pre-production. I’m with you on  this one. I just hope that Chris Weitz is up to the task. I watched The Golden Compass, which I think is one of the worst adaptations of a novel to screen that I’ve ever seen. I was highly entertained, don’t get me wrong, but I could tell there was something missing. When I read the books immediately after seeing the movie I understood just how much was cut away. It was almost unrecognizable. New Moon won’t have a completely fantastic setting to awe the audience into submission, and the fans are a bit more rabid than your average His Dark Materials fan. One thing I did think was good about The Golden Compass was the acting. I found all the characters believable and engaging. There was some big talent there, sure, but I’m certain that some of the credit goes to Chris Weitz. There were some pretty young actors, including the star of the film, Dakota Blue Richards, who I see has no other credits before this film listed in IMDB. I have high hopes for Chris Weitz’s handling of actors here. To tell the truth, I was hoping for David Fincher. He directed Panic Room…and Kristen Stewart.

Wish #6 is for KStew herself. I like you. I have been working on a blog post just about you for some time now. I’ve been catching up on your movies since Twilight came out. I’ve been one of your biggest supporters. I just can’t take the stammering. Did you just not learn your lines properly? Where you encouraged to ad lib? Please get this under control. It’s very distracting. I don’t see you doing this in other films, but I do see you doing this in interviews. Please, get more into Bella. You have a very emotional performance coming up. If you do it right, we’ll all be crying with you. If not, we’ll just be crying.

Wish #7 is a faithful script. I am one of the few who did not like the whole treetop thing in Twilight. Visually dynamic, blah, blah, blah. It was out of character for Edward to allow Bella to go climbing around in treetops. He can’t fly. If she were to fall, there is no Superman/Lois Lane “you’ve got me?!? Who’s got you?!?” scenario. There is so much to this wonderful story. At over 500 pages, you should not be lacking to the point of needing to create new scenes.

We all know what happens for 379 or so of those pages. Wish #8 is a faithful script. Yes, I’m wishing this twice. Do not diminish Bella and Jacob’s relationship by having Edward hanging around over much, if you know what I mean. If you are too nervous about a lack of Heart ThRob, then give us a few cut scenes to show us how miserable he is. Don’t over do, though. We want to feel this pain. It’s the heart of the story. Parting is such sweet sorrow.

As I sit here listening to the Twilight Soundtrack, I am reminded how terribly important music is to a film. Wish #9 is, and I cringe to say this, no soundtrack. Sure I’d love another killer CD like this one, but Bella just really doesn’t like music during this particular phase of her life. I really want a soundtrack though. So, if you could, just give us a few snippets, maybe while Jacob is learning about Bella’s aversion to music, that would be great. I vote for Kristen Stewart covering Radiohead’s Creep, as I’ve stated in a previous post. Other than these few snippets, and some mood music, I really think this film should be pretty quiet. I think an absence of music would go a long way toward the mood, as much as I’d like another Supermassive Black Hole moment. Hey, maybe the whole soundtrack can come from before Bella’s birthday and after Volterra. The dark spot inbetween would be pretty powerful, I’d bet.

I think 10 wishes is enough, for now. Wish #10 is better wardrobe for the Cullens. The character quirks in the Twilight Saga are what really make if for me. Jasper’s inner struggle to satisfy his physical and emotional cravings. Emmett’s love of both Rosalie and irritible grizzlies. Rosalie’s love of Emmett and auto mechanics. Carlisle and Esme’s love for each other and their work. And Alice’s love of couture. She is the personal shopper for seven very wealthy vampires. We are forever seeing French tags on clothes. Please, pay more attention to the clothing, or Alice will be very put out. I’m going to throw Jacob’s wig into this category. You can do better.

All right, so I’m turning it up to 11. Wish #11 is that everything not be blue. I love blue. Twilight has long been my favorite time of day because everything turns blue. But Forks doesn’t exist in eternal twilight. It’s not in Alaska. It’s in Washington. If I go to Forks and find that every building I visit does indeed have a blue interior, I will recant this wish, but until then, please, give us some natural light.

Let’s just make it an even dozen and talk about effects. Wish #12 is for better special effects. You have a bigger budget this time, but I know a chunk of that is going toward locations and higher salaries for the actors. I know you are already thinking in terms of effects, but please, if you can’t improve on Edward’s sparkle, don’t feel compelled to make him sparkle at all. And for heaven’s sake, no more cheesy wire work for running through the forest. Just keep it real, and save the effects budget for fur-sploding werewolves.

What’s on your Wish List?