Verdict on the Stewart Colbert strategy?
Force majeure ax falls at ABC Studios
Nearly two dozen writer deals terminated
By JOSEF ADALIAN
The force majeure ax has swung at ABC Studios, which today notified nearly two dozen writers and non-writing producers that it was terminating their overall deals as a result of the strike.
While all the major studios had previously suspended deals for their scribes, the ABC Studios action reps the biggest move yet by a major to cut ties to talent.
"The ongoing strike has had a significant detrimental impact on development and production so we are forced to make the difficult decision to release a number of talented, respected individuals from their development deals," ABC Studios said in a statement late Friday.
Among the talent cut loose: Gabe Sachs & Jeff Judah ("What About Brian"), Nina Wass & Gene Stein ("Less than Perfect"), Bill Callahan ("Scrubs"), Larry Charles ("Curb Your Enthusiasm"), Sean Bailey ("Project Greenlight") and the team of Joshua Sternin and Jeffrey Ventimilia ("That 70s Show," "Surviving Christmas"). "Private Practice" thesp Taye Diggs, who had a production deal at ABC Studios, has also had that pact terminated.
Agents were still notifying clients of Disney's action, and more names are expected to leak out over the weekend. In addition, industry insiders said Warner Bros. TV was also preparing to make some cuts to its roster--though nothing as dramatic as ABC Studios' action.
Sunday, January 13, 2008
Tuesday, January 01, 2008
Dragons and Other Everyday Monsters
(Wyrds and Wyrms)
“Nothing we advised could convince
the Prince we loved, our land’s guardian,
not to vex the custodian of the gold,
let [the dragon] lie where he was long accustomed,
lurk there under the earth until the end of the world.
[Instead, our Prince] held to his high destiny. The hoard is lay bare”
Beowulf, 3079—3084
“A Geat woman too sang out in grief;
with hair bound up, she unburdened herself of her worst fears, a wild litany
of nightmare and lament: her nation invaded, enemies on the rampage, bodies in piles,
slavery and abasement. Heaven swallowed the smoke.”
3150—3156
They’re a bit of a supergroup really. Innovative director Bob Zemeckis (Roger Rabbit, Forrest Gump, Polar Express), novelist/screenwriter Neil Gaiman (Stardust, Coraline, American Gods) and screenwriter Roger Avary (Tarentino’s opening trifecta) couldn’t help but make an interesting movie. They’ve done a helluva lot more than that.
From the opening scenes that use 3D to establish the terrible isolation of King Hrothgar’s mead hall and drive home the horror of an inescapable reaping, this new Beowulf redefines the moviegoers’ experience with sensations as primal as those felt by prehistoric children gathered around a cave painting. It doesn’t hurt that the scene of the attack is cast in an unearthly flickering will-o’-the-wisp that accompanies the demon Grendel. And those scenes of Grendel savagely attacking Hrothgar’s people in the mead hall make more complete sense of 3D filmmaking than anything I’ve ever experienced before. The movie theater becomes a living, breathing diorama with the ability to transport viewers into an awful little box, in an awful wilderness in some shadowy corner of the dark ages.
Of course, we can thank that anonymous poet from the end of the first millennium for the vision behind this experience. What’s particularly wonderful about this new version of Beowulf is the way it takes great liberties with a thousand year old poem and manages to remain true to its purpose and effect. Zemeckis apparently told Gaiman and Avary that the didn’t want the entire cast of characters to change midway through the movie the way it would in the poem when Beowulf returns to rule his own kingdom, and, as is the challenge of art, solving that logistical problem became the key to making the story more focused and provocative for a modern audience.
In order to allow Beowulf to remain and inherit Hrothgar’s kingdom, the screenwriters [this has got to be Gaiman’s particular mythic genius at work] turned an episodic hero tale (with many extended anecdotes of evil and reckoning) into a single unified tragedy. The sins of the fathers that serve as a context for the stories in the original poem become the secret sins that link Hrothgar and his successor Beowulf. The result is a story with such great economy and depth it deserves recognition as a classic in its own right that still manages to preserve the integrity of the ancient poem. The poem is the story as it was handed down in song; the movie is all that excitement and glamour plus the behind the scenes story of flawed humans making a go of it as best they can.
The Beowulf in the movie reminds me of a story my mother told me about an encounter between Burt Reynolds and Spencer Tracy (so, if it’s not true, take it up with my mother). Apparently, as a young actor, Reynolds used to follow Tracy around backlots until the older actor told him one day to come on up and walk with him. When Reynolds asked his advice about acting, Tracy said something like, “Acting’s easy. Life is hard.” Ray Winstone’s Beowulf might say this about being the greatest hero of his age—“Slaying dragons is easy; being a good man is hard.”
It’s funny that I find myself writing about Beowulf today because what I read of it in high school I misremembered, and it took seeing this movie to make me seek out the 2000 Seamus Heaney translation and rediscover the original poem. Though I have an affection for the fantastic, my love of swords and sorcery doesn’t extend much beyond what Tolkien did in his trilogy and what Peter Jackson did even better in his movies. As far as fantasy goes, more to my taste in many ways was the movie I most eagerly anticipated and which could hardly live up to the beauty of the source material, The Golden Compass. So, it’s funny that I’m writing about Beowulf today because it’s not what might be generally considered my thing, on one level, but also because I haven’t written a real blog in over three months. Oh, I’ve put some links up and tried to use my blog to alert people to things I thought were important, but I haven’t been particularly inspired to write anything for it in a long while. Even a month ago, I wouldn’t have imagined Beowulf would have been the thing that got me going.
But then the last three months have been full of surprises. On September 22, I had a heart attack, and my blissfully ignorant assumption that I was as healthy as any other 44 year old plodding the earth vanished forever. Worse than that, my wife of 2 years and my 16 year old daughter no longer get to live with such blissful assumptions either.
My reckoning with heart disease has led me to a lot of reflection and a little less writing over all, though I’ve been more motivated than ever to finish the novel I’m working on, and I did put a lot of energy into an article about Springsteen’s new album of reckoning, which has been speaking pretty forcefully to my need to come to grips with my new reality. [If you are interested, you can order that newsletter at http://www.rockrap.com/; the article is called “Your Own Worst Enemy.”]
So, why do I find myself writing my first new blog on January 1st, 2008 about a 1000 year old poem made into a 3D movie that most of the world is probably not taking very seriously? Well, because it speaks to me and where I am right now, and I never would have guessed that, but that’s why I call the page “Take ‘Em As They Come.”
Beowulf transports me to someplace I could never be, contemplating someone with superhuman physical condition fighting supernatural forces, and it’s entertaining as hell in the process. But it’s also moving and resonant because it’s not just about that, it’s about all of life. It’s about the dragons we have to slay every day and the dragons we don’t even know are laying in wait. It’s about knowing they’re out there, and as Beowulf says, “For every one of us, living in this world means waiting for our end,” and, yet, the challenge is to hold to our high destiny.
One of the great things about the poem in its final scenes is that it even allows that Beowulf needs help in his final battle, and Beowulf’s surviving brother in arms emphasizes that everyone is part of the larger fight. Though some aspects of the vision may seem dated, they take very little to translate into rich allegory for our times. The repeated theme in the poem of grieving, keening mothers and fathers becomes one of the most striking scenes in the movie, the death scene between Grendel and his mother. No one's hands are clean in that world or this one, and nothing is guaranteed, but our only choice is to keep on fighting and live life as we know we should. At the end of an era, facing a Christian god he neither knew or understood, Beowulf’s heroism comes in his struggle to remain true to his ideals. He dies in battle, and in both poem and movie, the story looks to grow darker before it sees light, but that's not what matters. With Beowulf as with us, what matters, as always, is how we choose to face whatever monster blocks our path.
Friday, December 21, 2007
Friday, December 14, 2007
Three Dispatches from Cheri Honkala in New Orleans
To learn more about Cheri and the Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign, please click on the KWRU link to the right. --Danny
Housing is a Human Right!!
PPEHRC National Coordinator Cheri Honkala Reports from New Orleans on International Human Rights Day
Trying to Stop a Preventable Katrina: As the 60th anniversary year of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) begins, PPEHRC joins in massive protests to stop the federal government's plans to demolish close to 5000 public housing units in New Orleans this week.
Dec. 10th: Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
By Cheri Honkala, PPEHRC National Coordinator I spent most of the day meeting with local residents working in the service indusrty and thanspent the evening in a mobilization meeting called the Coaliton to Stop the Demolition, where people have come from around the country to help turn up the street heat for a week here in New Orleans. I havn't seen any national media. I have seen a great deal of New Orleans Police officers and an advertisement on local television by the FBI about helping them cut down on crime. Tomorrow, I will go by the Tent City in front of city Hall which was scheduled for demolition on Dec. 11th. But because we're in town, they're only gonna put up a fence, and than its scheduled for demolition Dec.21, when everyone is busy for the Holidays! I will also spend the day with the public housing residents who have been putting up one hell of a fight here.
Yes, it's the same old SHIT everywhere I go. There's no money for the real people doing the DAILY ORGANIZING work, especially if they come from the ranks of the poor. But yes, money will continue to be dished out for people to study this situation, which ulrimately is caused by our Government and not by Katrina. Its not just the homeless or the public housing residents who have been told that they don't matter. 1700 people who were put into FEMA trailers after Katrina are now, as I write this, being thrown out of their trailers. This fight isn't just about New Orleans. This is about ALL of us and the kind of country we want to live in and raise our children in.
I'm away from my son Guillermo once AGAIN for a week and I miss him like crazy, but this isn't the kind of country I want either of my children to raise their children in.
Unless we lift up the fight that's taking place here, these bastards will continue to get away with murder.
PPEHRC Report from New Orleans, by National Coordinator Cheri Honkala
Part 2
December 13, 2007:
Yesterday was a difficult day. We were all caught off guard when they began bulldozing CW Cooper Public Housing. I and about seven other people were the first to arrive.
The media began to focus on tenants fighting with one another because of all of the stress. Meanwhile I spotted another bulldozer about to enter the gates for demolition, so I walked down to meet the bulldozer and to redirect the focus. I was soon joined by several other residents and people from around the country. We stood in front of the bulldozer as it drove directly toward us. At one point I had to bang on the window of the bulldozer with the stick of my sign so he wouldn't snap electrical wires.
We stood all day in the rain, pouring rain at times, and declared VICTORY in the evening because for ONE day we were able to stop the demolition of public housing in New Orleans.
Today the struggle continues, with efforts across the city to stop the demolition. We need people to call HUD and demand that they stop the demolition now.
PPEHRC members drove through the night in the midwest storm and will arrive here to join me this morning. Other PPEHRC members will hold demonstrations in front of their local HUD offices.
This week we're showing the residents of New Orleans that their lives do matter to us and that this isn't the kind of country we want to live in either.
Evening of December 13, 2007
PPEHRC Report from New Orleans, by National Coordinator Cheri Honkala
Part 3
The bulldozers hit CW Cooper today while most of us hit City Halland than Marched to the HUD office. As we tried to enter the publicHousing and Urban Development (HUD) office we're physically stopped by severalFederal Marshals when all we wanted was a meeting with HUD regarding the demolition. About seven federal Marshals were literally on my back while JR andCY from PPEHRC and the Coalition to Protect Public Housing tried tododge arms being pushed on them by the federal marshalls. This was one of the most heated HUD demonstrations I've been to. No one EVER came down to meet with us. One of the lawyers then announceda lawsuit agains't HUD, because before you can demolish public housing, you haveto have a vote by City Council in order to do it.
This didn't matter though. Alphonso Jackson appeared on television tonight from Washington DC stating "we're going to go ahead with the demolitions in New Orleans because this is a war on poverty". Well, he got one thing right - this is a war. While HUD was appearing on television, the SWAT team was called out tothe CW Cooper Homes. Two people remain in the one of the buildings tonight.Soon they'll be arrested. Also, today the city began to put up an 8 feet tall fence around the huge homelessencampment outside of City Hall and the State Office Building. They poured cementand permanently posted the huge posts into the sidewalk.
Something I had never seen - it reminded me of the new wall on the border.
Maybe, nobody will be able to see the continuing crimes against humanity taking place right before the Holidays. Why else would they cage these human beings in like animals?
Gotta go now. I'm crying.....Time to get angry & organized for tomorrow's fight! Write and call the Secretary of HUD today! Most importantly build and multipy this movement.
Below is contact information at HUD for making your call:
Secretary Alphonso Jackson
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development451 7th Street S.W., Washington, DC 20410Telephone: (202) 708-1112 TTY: (202) 708-1455
(press #6 for employee directory)
HUD Inspector General Hotline for complaints:
1-800-347-3735TDD: (202) 708-2451
New Orleans Field Office:
Marvel Robertson
Field Office Director
Hale Boggs Federal Building
500 Poydras Street, 9th fl
New Orleans, LA 70130
(504) 589-7266
TTY: (504) 589-7277
To learn more about Cheri and the Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign, please click on the KWRU link to the right. --Danny
Housing is a Human Right!!
PPEHRC National Coordinator Cheri Honkala Reports from New Orleans on International Human Rights Day
Trying to Stop a Preventable Katrina: As the 60th anniversary year of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) begins, PPEHRC joins in massive protests to stop the federal government's plans to demolish close to 5000 public housing units in New Orleans this week.
Dec. 10th: Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
By Cheri Honkala, PPEHRC National Coordinator I spent most of the day meeting with local residents working in the service indusrty and thanspent the evening in a mobilization meeting called the Coaliton to Stop the Demolition, where people have come from around the country to help turn up the street heat for a week here in New Orleans. I havn't seen any national media. I have seen a great deal of New Orleans Police officers and an advertisement on local television by the FBI about helping them cut down on crime. Tomorrow, I will go by the Tent City in front of city Hall which was scheduled for demolition on Dec. 11th. But because we're in town, they're only gonna put up a fence, and than its scheduled for demolition Dec.21, when everyone is busy for the Holidays! I will also spend the day with the public housing residents who have been putting up one hell of a fight here.
Yes, it's the same old SHIT everywhere I go. There's no money for the real people doing the DAILY ORGANIZING work, especially if they come from the ranks of the poor. But yes, money will continue to be dished out for people to study this situation, which ulrimately is caused by our Government and not by Katrina. Its not just the homeless or the public housing residents who have been told that they don't matter. 1700 people who were put into FEMA trailers after Katrina are now, as I write this, being thrown out of their trailers. This fight isn't just about New Orleans. This is about ALL of us and the kind of country we want to live in and raise our children in.
I'm away from my son Guillermo once AGAIN for a week and I miss him like crazy, but this isn't the kind of country I want either of my children to raise their children in.
Unless we lift up the fight that's taking place here, these bastards will continue to get away with murder.
PPEHRC Report from New Orleans, by National Coordinator Cheri Honkala
Part 2
December 13, 2007:
Yesterday was a difficult day. We were all caught off guard when they began bulldozing CW Cooper Public Housing. I and about seven other people were the first to arrive.
The media began to focus on tenants fighting with one another because of all of the stress. Meanwhile I spotted another bulldozer about to enter the gates for demolition, so I walked down to meet the bulldozer and to redirect the focus. I was soon joined by several other residents and people from around the country. We stood in front of the bulldozer as it drove directly toward us. At one point I had to bang on the window of the bulldozer with the stick of my sign so he wouldn't snap electrical wires.
We stood all day in the rain, pouring rain at times, and declared VICTORY in the evening because for ONE day we were able to stop the demolition of public housing in New Orleans.
Today the struggle continues, with efforts across the city to stop the demolition. We need people to call HUD and demand that they stop the demolition now.
PPEHRC members drove through the night in the midwest storm and will arrive here to join me this morning. Other PPEHRC members will hold demonstrations in front of their local HUD offices.
This week we're showing the residents of New Orleans that their lives do matter to us and that this isn't the kind of country we want to live in either.
Evening of December 13, 2007
PPEHRC Report from New Orleans, by National Coordinator Cheri Honkala
Part 3
The bulldozers hit CW Cooper today while most of us hit City Halland than Marched to the HUD office. As we tried to enter the publicHousing and Urban Development (HUD) office we're physically stopped by severalFederal Marshals when all we wanted was a meeting with HUD regarding the demolition. About seven federal Marshals were literally on my back while JR andCY from PPEHRC and the Coalition to Protect Public Housing tried tododge arms being pushed on them by the federal marshalls. This was one of the most heated HUD demonstrations I've been to. No one EVER came down to meet with us. One of the lawyers then announceda lawsuit agains't HUD, because before you can demolish public housing, you haveto have a vote by City Council in order to do it.
This didn't matter though. Alphonso Jackson appeared on television tonight from Washington DC stating "we're going to go ahead with the demolitions in New Orleans because this is a war on poverty". Well, he got one thing right - this is a war. While HUD was appearing on television, the SWAT team was called out tothe CW Cooper Homes. Two people remain in the one of the buildings tonight.Soon they'll be arrested. Also, today the city began to put up an 8 feet tall fence around the huge homelessencampment outside of City Hall and the State Office Building. They poured cementand permanently posted the huge posts into the sidewalk.
Something I had never seen - it reminded me of the new wall on the border.
Maybe, nobody will be able to see the continuing crimes against humanity taking place right before the Holidays. Why else would they cage these human beings in like animals?
Gotta go now. I'm crying.....Time to get angry & organized for tomorrow's fight! Write and call the Secretary of HUD today! Most importantly build and multipy this movement.
Below is contact information at HUD for making your call:
Secretary Alphonso Jackson
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development451 7th Street S.W., Washington, DC 20410Telephone: (202) 708-1112 TTY: (202) 708-1455
(press #6 for employee directory)
HUD Inspector General Hotline for complaints:
1-800-347-3735TDD: (202) 708-2451
New Orleans Field Office:
Marvel Robertson
Field Office Director
Hale Boggs Federal Building
500 Poydras Street, 9th fl
New Orleans, LA 70130
(504) 589-7266
TTY: (504) 589-7277
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