Not surprisingly, George A. Romero spends a lot of time dreaming up new ways to kill zombies.

On Thursday, May 27th, the UCI Film and Video Center will present:

"Screenwriter's Choice" series, in association with the UCI Screenwriting Festival:

THELMA AND LOUISE, directed by Ridley Scott
(U.S., 1991, 120 min., 35mm print)
with award-winning screenwriter Callie Khouri, introduced by Marie Cartier

Reception: 6:30 p.m. at the entrance to Humanities Instructional Building 100
Screening: 7 p.m. HIB 100

Admission: non-FMS Students: $3, Seniors $5, General $6

I had the pleasure to chat with Peter and Micheal Spierif during a phone interview to promote the DVD/Blu-ray release of Daybreakers. Peter recalled how he and his twin brother sparked the film’s initial concept. “I think Michael might have come up with just a very brief one-liner of, ‘What if the world was dominated by vampires?’ and then I added, ‘What if they weren’t [in a] postapocalyptical kind of world?’ and we kind of bounced back and forth with ‘What if?’”

Saturday we gathered to hear one of the most prolific and versatile writers of our time.  

J. Michael Straczynski, aka JMS, aka Joe, put aside his crushing deadlines and came to the Regency South Coast Village Theater to take the stage and make us think, make us laugh, and make us feel good about being filmmakers.

Legendary Screenwriter, Producer, Comic Book Author, Novelist, Journalist...J. Michael Straczynski.

His credits include: Changeling, Babylon 5, Ninja Assassin, Jeremiah, Lensman, Silver Surfer, Twilight Zone, Thor," and many more! (credits) 

When: Saturday, May 22, 2010
10:00am-1:00pm
Where: The Regency South Coast Village Theater (map)
1561 W Sunflower Ave, Santa Ana, CA‎- (714) 557-5701‎
How much: Free.

Also,radio personality  Manny Pacheco will be talking about his book "Forgotten Hollywood, Forgotten History" with renowned OC journalist and radio host Gary Lycan.

Join us for a Q&A and then a rousing discussion led by JMS as he details his career and tips about working in Hollywood.

JMS will be signing autographs after the event!

Stop saying - "I could have written a better movie" and do it!

Mark Sevi, 19+ produced movies and credits, teaches scriptwriting through Irvine Valley College. 

Class Info: HERE

College Signup: HERE

Both classes feature a guided workshop and breakdowns of movies with discussions on technique and the reality of Hollywood.
 

Frank Frazetta has died.  An artist of immense talent, he came to prominence on the basis of illustrations done for the Robert E. Howard Conan the Barbarian novels and other scifi and fantasy work.

Frank Frazetta's artistry never failed to inspire me.  He had a truly unique voice.  His work spoke of worlds that existed on the edges of our universe.  He perfectly captured the look and gritty feel of the stories contained in the books he illustrated and yet he said he never read those books.  Rather he found his stunning style from somewhere within himself.  

OCSWA friend Kevin Sorbo's inspiring and funny new film coming soon.

What If...God gave you another chance?

Fifteen years ago, Ben Walker (Sorbo) made a decision to leave his college sweetheart Wendy (Kristy Swanson), and ultimately his faith, in order to pursue a lucrative business opportunity. Now on the verge of marriage to an equally materialistic fiance, he is visited by an angelic mechanic (John Ratzenberger) who tells him that he needs to see what his life would have been like had he followed God’s calling. Suddenly, Ben finds himself married to Wendy with two daughters, including a rebellious teen (Debby Ryan), getting ready for church on a Sunday morning, where he’s scheduled to give his first sermon as the new pastor. 

 Website/trailer here

 The Father of Zombie Films: George Romero

Ever since 1968 George A. Romero has shocked the world with his unique vision of horror fiction.  Audiences of horror, as well as the genre of horror itself, were forever changed since the release of Night of the Living Dead.  The film was Romero’s first feature film, and it would give rise to three more sequels, all written and directed by Romero.  Romero has a distinct style that separates him from the other great directors in horror.  Romero has permanently changed the way that horrors stories are told on film, as well as the way horror effects are done.

In “I Am Love” (Io Sono L’amore), Tilda Swinton plays Emma, the matriarch of a rich bourgeois Italian family. Wooed from her native Russia by Tancredi (Pippo Delbono), the heir of a Milanese textile fortune, she becomes his perfect wife and ideal mother to their children. She’s trim, stylish, controlled, yet warm; she keeps everyone around her on their mark, she plans family gatherings with precision, she councils wisely. Still, despite outward appearances there’s something unsettled in her.

Although she fully embraces the Italian culture (she speaks the language impeccably, she knows her place in male/female protocol), she remains an outsider and seems unfulfilled. This yearning enables her to understand and accept her daughter, Betta’s (Alba Rohrwacher) newly discovered gay sexuality. It also allows for her own lusty awakening as she falls for her son, Eduaordo’s (Flavio Parenti) best friend, Antonio (Edoardo Gabbriellini).

This is something I wrote for my blog journalistbynite, but as I progress in this crazy dream of mine...I figure I should start posting some stuff here.  All comments are welcome.

Last night at the Regency South Coast Village Theater the Polish Film Fesitval played two stunning films, neither of which is easy to categorize.  Sometimes that can be bad but in the case of "My Flesh, My Blood" and "Zero" that is most definitely good.

Imagine the anguish and pathos of  "The Wrestler" and the dangerous, raw anger of "Raging Bull" but dialed up and amped times ten.

testing Vimeo embed 

The Polish Film Festival - every time I mention it people chuckle.  I'll admit, it does sound a little like a punch line to a bad joke.  

But make no mistake - this is serious, professional,  wonderfully conceived and executed filmmaking on a par with anything that Hollywood has ever churned out.

Take "Trick" the film I saw this afternoon at the Regency South Coast Village Theater.  Simply excellent.  Directed by Jan Hryniak from a screenplay by Michal J. Zablocki, nothing in the film ever made me think it wasn't produced at the highest levels of filmdom.  Trust me on this - had this film been in English and you didn't know it was a Polish film you'd think it came out of the best film minds available from Hollywood.

So, after "Jesse's Story" I'm talking with director Marc Jacobs and getting ready to leave and my niece. Kayleigh, and her friend, Monika, come into the Island Theater.  They are going to see "Ondine," an Irish film starring Colin Farrell.  Now the reason I mention this is because nowhere on the movie schedule does  it show the screening.  And since I'm on the press email list and also signed up for the NBFF Facebook page I would have expected something to come my way regarding this film.

After “Clearpix” I wasn’t sure what I wanted to see. Nothing was really grabbing me. While I was standing outside deciding, an old friend Cath Brandom (who I hadn't seen since last year's film fest) and her son Dusty approached. They were heading to “Jesse’s Story,” a film about talented surfer Jesse Billauer who broke his spine surfing on the eve of turning pro at the age of sixteen.

I'd had my fill of surf movies and didn't think I wanted another one but Cath and her son coming up like that changed my mind. You see Dusty is in a wheelchair. I had to see the film and get his reaction if he’d let me.  A Q&A with Dusty follows this review.

This is part one of three of the last day of the Newport Beach Film Festival so let’s get right to it.

“CleanFlix” is the story about the attempt by some in Utah’s Mormon community to “sanitize” Hollywood films which turned litigious and really ugly. This narrative has more twists and turns than a road to Bear Bear and more dirt than a convention of failed preachers.

It’s too complicated to go into all the permutations but here are the high points:

Maybe I’m just tired and grumpy after long days of festival but today just wasn’t a peak day at the Newport Beach Film Festival.

I didn’t go at all yesterday because of professional obligations so I was looking forward to today.

The first film I saw started the day right although they held the press out until the very last because the showing was sold out. “Accidental Icon: The Real Gidget Story” is a short (60 minutes) documentary based on a book written by novelist Fredrick Kohner who was the father of the real girl called Gidget by the boy surfers in the late-50's. Gidget (Girl mIDGET) was/is Kathy Kohner (Zuckerman) who at about the time of her fourteenth birthday wanted to surf and hang out with the boys at Malibu.

The 11th Annual Polish Film Festival at the Regency South Coast Village Theater.  

Movie schedule and slate HERE

Official site HERE

You know it's a long festival when you find yourself waiting in the lobby of the Island Cinemas for your camerman (Eric Hensman from Lennexe Productions), eating a cold Wahoo fish sandwich left over from the day before, drinking theater coffee, and downing supplements from a ziplock bag - while talking to a short-film director who desperately wants you to come to his film - which you can't because of a scheduling conflict.  But he continues anyway and all you're hoping is that you won't be burping up either the sandwich or the coffee in the upcoming screening.  Fun.

The first film I saw today was "My Run."  

Okay, so student films aren't brilliant, ultra-clean, well-acted productions like professional films.  That's a given.  On budgets less than dinner for four, the productions often suffer from no production money, too little time, too little experience and perhaps a bit too much youthful hubris.

But the energy...oh, my - what a treat to watch the young filmmakers fairly vibrating with enthusiasm and adrenalin (but trying to look chill) as they participated in the after-screening Q&A.

World premiers - now just how many of those do we get to go to?  Tonight, the Regency South Coast Village Theater was host to the Newport Beach Film Festival showing of surf documentary "The Westsiders" which was premiering for the first time anywhere.  

I'm an Ohio native - basically landlocked except for Lake Erie.  I played in plenty of lakes when I was a kid but surfing?  Nada.   Zero.  No interest.  I am a huge fan of biolgraphical documentaries however and this film does not disappoint.  

Today started early(ish) at a screenwriting seminar that was well attended.  I won't cover it here since another member is going to do a write up.  

Afterwards, several of us had lunch and someone commented about the quality of the films, which to this point had been uneven to this point.

I think that's to be expected in a festival.  Many of these productions don't have the huge machines behind them that even smaller films out of Hollywood enjoy - like some of the boutique imprints that most studios support.

I wasn't able to go last night to the opening gala so this was my first night at the fest.  To see some quick video hits from the opening go here.

In a word the festival is - fabulous.

The first videos of opening night of the Newport Beach Film Festival are up on our YouTube page.  OCSWA members Tom Sullivan and Rudy Garcia do the reporting thing.

HERE