A proposal for a movie I'd like to see.

 I wanted to include this in my Space Jam 2 post but part way through making that post I decided not to.  For one reason, the post getting long as it was.  Plus, with that post being so long, my proposal here would've been buried under all of that dialogue.  To prevent that from happening, I figured that this bit needs to be showcased in its own blog post.  So, here it is.

At one point in that last blog entry, I talked about how Pepe Le Pew was given rather shabby treatment before the movie's release even when just a few short years prior a feature length movie starring Mr. Le Pew was in the works.  I'd certainly love to see such a movie someday.  However, I have noticed that there is another Looney Tunes character that has not been given his due either and I say it's about time he did.  The Tune I'm referring to is:

Foghorn Leghorn

In so many Looney Tunes projects over the years, Foghorn Leghorn has been shafted time and time again.  Anyone who knows that character, even in passing, knows full well that his schtick is to pretty much dominate the scene with his seemingly endless talking.  Yet, with so many LT projects being an ensemble containing as many Looney Tunes stars as possible, Foggy barely has time to get a sentence in edgeways.  I the first Space Jam, he was given one scene to do his stuff against the Monstars.  In Looney Tunes Back In Action, he was a black jack dealer for a short time.  Then in Space Jam 2, all he could do was let out one sentence now and again.  As a result, his performance feels held back and inhibited, like a race car driver with a V-10 engine stuck behind little old ladies occupying all of the lanes.  Foghorn Leghorn needs room to move and fully do his thing I say.

It's not like Foggy would have to carry the entire movie himself either.  There are plenty of other characters within his own universe that would be present as well.  The most prevalent and obvious regulars that can be used are, in no particular order:

the "Dawg"

Henery Hawk

Henery's derpy dad

Miss Prissy

Egghead Jr

Willie Weasel

There are even some characters that only appeared in the Foghorn Leghorn series once, but that one time was enough to showcase their appeal and could potentially be good for lots of material.  Characters such as:

Foggy's old college buddy Rhode Island Red

 

That sleepy, whittling, redneck dawg

That laid back beatnik rooster

...to name but a few.

Why, yes, I do have a screenplay in mind for a Foghorn Leghorn movie.  I've got the basic structure thought out plus some rather key scenes in mind.  I even have a whole sequence in mind that I think would be well-suited for Jack Black.  I would love nothing better than an opportunity to make this Foggy screenplay a reality in as many theatres and/or streaming accounts as possible.  However, I may be no big Hollywood player with all the inside tricks on how the production pipeline works, but I know enough to not put my screenplay in this blog post here.  I'll have to provide that through the proper channels whenever I can do so.

Although, lil old me creating a Foghorn Leghorn movie is not the important part.  What's most important is that such a movie DOES get made.  If anyone reading this post already has connections, abilities and any other crucial attributes that could get a movie green-lit and brought to fruition along with possessing an enthusiasm for Foghorn Leghorn and his schtick, if such a person manages to beat me to the punch by a good mile and get something going, that's great too.  All I'd ask of this creative person is, whatever they do, make the movie look like [Foghorn's original creator] Robert McKimson himself has come back to life and has made such a movie at the top of his abilities.  Embedded below is little concept poster I whipped up for inspiration.  The characters are in no way "on model" nor is this the final design for anything.  This is just to give an idea of what the theatre marquee and/or the HBO Max menu graphic could look like if such a movie came to be.  

Not one line of dialogue has been written nor has any scribbly storyboard panels been etched, but I'm excited for this movie's release already.  Here's hoping we don't have to wait too much longer.

Tex Avery is and should be celebrated

 It's that time of year again. This is when I use this humble blog of mine to acknowledge the brith date of the biggest animation genius the world has ever seen......... Tex Avery.  If medical science had advanced far enough that we were able to preserve the life and prevent the death of anyone at any age, Tex would've turned 113 today.  I'd like to think he'd be celebrating by sharing many beers with his friends and fans alike.

Since I've started this blog I've talked about many aspects of Tex's life, films, and career. Whenever this time of year comes, I can always find something about him to blog about.  Well, this year, of course there's something of his that's extra special and is definitely a huge part in building and securing his legacy.  I'm referring to, of course, Tex's washing machine that he bought in 1931.

Ha HA! Fooled ya............... and yes, McGee, it was funny.

What I AM referring to are the bluray disks that were released in 2020.

Tex Avery's MGM "Screwball Classics" Vol 1 aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand 2.  I've got them both and they are excellent.  There's a great selection of cartoons to watch on both volumes and they all look crisp and clean on my TV.  Observe:

There are 19 cartoons on Vol 1 and there are 21 cartoons on Vol 2. By my count, there are 23 of Tex's MGM cartoons not on Bluray.  So that means Vol 3 could be the final release and would thus make Tex's entire MGM filmography available to the public, and that would be a great thing.

However, there are two cartoons that the Warner Archives would have to tiptoe around.  If you've heard of the Censored 11, these would be Tex's "Censored 2".  They are the cartoons Uncle Tom's Cabana and Half Pint Pygmy.  If you haven't seen those cartoons at all, I'm sure you can tell by the titles alone as to why they'd be a problem.  They shouldn't be left off entirely of course. Fans want a complete collection and film preservation is very important for respecting ones culture.

What Disney has done with cartoons they consider "problematic" is to put them in a "From The Vault" section.  A similar treatment could be done for the cartoons mentioned above.

Hey, speaking about preserving ones culture, I'd like to use this blogpost to pitch something that I think would be equally as good as a bluray release of his filmography.  It's something I've talked about online for many years and I think it's high time it happened.  I think a Tex Avery biographical movie should be made.  It would be much like that one about Walt Disney called Walt Before Mickey:

Although, I hope the Tex biopic won't be so full of glaring errors. (One of those many errors is the portrayal of Friz Freleng. The actor was fine but the writers got his persona all wrong. But that's a whole other blogpost for a whole other day).

The online discussions I had with people about a Tex biopic were simply about who would play which person. Could Jack Black play Tex Avery? Could Matt Damon play Chuck Jones? Maybe Jim Belushi could portray Leon Schlesinger or Fred Quimby?  But that's all moot. We don't need big stars to play these parts. We just need young capable actors who can be given the correct overview of Tex's and others' personality and portray it well.  However, I can think of one celebrity that might be persuaded into producing it:

Jack Nicholson. Yes, THAT Jack Nicholson.  I say this because he has a nostalgic affection for that era of Hollywood animation. He started his career as a young lad working as an assistant in the MGM animation department.  

A caricature of young Jack can be seen on the far right.

He would do lots of menial tasks for Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera while they kept cranking out their Tom & Jerrys.  I'm not sure if he did anything for Tex Avery at all, but I have read that Tex did pull young Jack into his office just to pitch a gag idea and see if it was funny enough.  I think that might entice Mr. Nicholson onboard.  He could easily have a say in who would portray a young him (probably not Christian Slater though).

Anyway, happy 113th birthday, Tex.  Whether this biopic idea of mine comes to fruition or not, I will definitely continue to enjoy all of the blurays and I hope everyone reading this will do the same.

Datz Sho Bizniss

There's a movie about the life and trial of Lizzie Borden in the works.  Miss Lizzie will be played by Christina Ricci.  Much of the footage was shot here in Halifax and a few surrounding areas.  They even just finished shooting the last bit of scenes in Windsor just recently.  Very thankfully, I was lucky enough to have been chosen to play an extra in several scenes in this movie.  I was a gallery member in many scenes during the big trial.  I was a churchgoer that attended the same church as the Borden family (before and after the murders).  And lastly I was a nosy neighbour trying to catch a glimpse of the dead bodies in the Borden house followed by my portrayal of someone who watched the caskets being taken to the cemetery on a horse drawn carriage.  And I can honestly say that I performed each of those rolls with the ability of................ well let's just say I performed them.
Sadly, at this time, I'm very limited in what I can post about it up here for now.  I can't even show anyone what I looked like in my various costumes I had to wear.  We were definitely not allowed to take pictures while on the set.  So I guess all there is for me to do is to relay my own personal experience in being a part of this project without giving too much away.  So here it goes:

First off, I will just say that acting in movies is very fun but it is definitely not as easy as you might think.  For one thing, we had to repeat our performances 5 times or more.  Not always because our performances were bad either, but mostly because the director wanted to shoot the same thing from different angles.  Some of the less patient people on the set found that annoying and exhausting.
Of course, sometimes it was more exhausting to not be working.  There were days when most of our time was spent just standing around waiting for something to do.  But that was fine with us because we were still getting paid money to stand around anyway.  Basically we the extras were the equivalent of any bits of studio equipment they had lying around in big trucks that they were renting per day.  The main difference being of course is that we were much less expensive to replace if we got broken.

But I think everyone who's ever worked on a production has experienced that.  That's common for every movie, tv show, commercial, porn, etc. ever recorded on film.   I should talk about things that are unique only to this movie set.

I guess I should start with the main star Miss Christina Ricci herself.  I'm sure some of you reading this would like to me to dish out some dirt on her and possibly expose any undesirable traits that she's managed to keep hidden for so long.  Well, sorry to disappoint all of you out there who thrive on the misery of famous people, but I have no dirt on her for you.  That's because I saw no dirt.  It was always a pleasure to watch Christina work.  She is a consummate professional.  She shows up on set, does her job, and does it well.  There is not one ounce of diva bullshit in her.  Hell, some of the minimum wage slobs being extras displayed more bratty diva-like attitudes than anybody.  I even overheard one of them say "watch me pull a Mariah Carey".
There was one point between takes that Christina Ricci even displayed a very down to earth human side.  While shooting in Lunenberg, one citizen wandered onto the set accidentally while walking her dog.  At that point, Christina broke away from her station and went over to actually pet that dog.  That is definitely something I never thought I'd see.
No, I did not get to interact with her in any of the scenes, although I did almost knock her down once.  DOH!  My bad.  It's a good thing I was paying attention and stopped myself before that happened.  It's probably just as well that we didn't interact in any scenes because I think she considered me to be weird and creepy.  She's not entirely wrong.  She's not the first to come to that conclusion and she won't be the last.
Although, to be fair, I do think she held a similar attitude for all the extras.  I don't think she was too happy with all of us being recruited through Kijiji (I found out about this through Facebook myself).  All the while she was probably thinking "who or what lurks among those people?"  Some of the other actors felt this way as well I'm sure.  Fortunately for her most of us were well behaved.
I'm a little disappointed that she feels that way, but I definitely do respect her as an actress and as a professional.  I do think that she is destined to win an Irving Thalburg Lifetime Achievement Oscar and when she does I will be applauding quite loudly.

Below is a picture of her I quickly scribbled.  I was hoping to get it autographed by her but the opportunity never presented itself.  Oh well, here it is in all it's.............. majesty?

So that's that.  Oh, I should also give a special shout out to the director of this film, Nick Gomez.  He ran a very slick and well organized production.  The way his crew took down and set up equipment from one spot to another in record time was reminiscent of NASCAR pit crews.  But besides that, Nick himself seemed to have pretty much every detail of the movie figured out so all he had to do on set was orchestrate everything like a good symphony conductor.  I've read that Alfred Hitchcock liked to put 90% of his attention for his movies into the preproduction planning stage so that all the shooting and the editing would just fall in to place.  I have a feeling that Nick Gomez works in a similar way.  And, as if all of that weren't enough, he's got the task of looking at the footage with me in it over and over again.  If he makes it through that ordeal without peeling his scalp off then he should get some kind of award for that alone.

All in all, I would say that the entire thing was a very positive experience.  I learned alot about the art of making movies, I met some nice people, and I made some nice money.  I absolutely need to make lots and lots of that nice money right now.

Speaking of nice people.  One of them that I met on the set was James Vincent Walsh.  He is an artist who was brought in to do all the courtroom art during the trial scenes.  He draws court room scenes for a living as well.  You can see his work all the time on the local Halifax 6 o' clock news.  You can view his work on his website here.

Another person I met was a man named Gary Fontaine who has made his own film called Wendy and Wanda.  The trailer is embedded below.  It looks like it could be fun.

Well I guess that's about all I can say for now.  If anyone else who was on any of the various movie sets for this film, please chime in and share your experience.  I'm sure all of our observations combined could reveal the full picture of that entire movie shoot.

I'll end this blog with one of Christina Ricci's earliest performances.  She herself either might still be proud of this or would like to forget it ever happened.  But, if you can withstand Cher warbling through  a golden oldie (I can't) then you will enjoy the video below.

See you at the movies!!!