Tag: x-men

FROM THE VAULT: Stan Lee Interview

Conducted ~6/2000 & ~4/2002

I’m a comic fan. Despite what I think of the emaciated, dying industry as it exists today, I’ll forever hold fond memories of my comic book reading childhood.

And if you’re a child of comic books and Saturday morning TV (like myself), then Stan Lee is instantly recognizable as the creator (with artists such as Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, & Don Heck) of Spider-Man, the Incredible Hulk, the Fantastic Four, Iron Man, the Avengers, Daredevil, X-Men, and many, many more.

If that list reads like a story out of a Hollywood trade magazine, it’s because all of those properties have gotten – or are about to get – the big screen treatment.

As with many of my interviews, I got a hankering to chat with one of my childhood idols, and went out and did it. When chatting with Stan, you’re instantly aware that his mutant power is sheer, unbridled enthusiasm. He has been, and remains, a dynamo of boosterism.

And a fun guy.

Also, despite his claims that he has a bad memory, many a gem will slip from that forgotten treasure trove if the circumstances are right.

What follows are two of the interviews I’ve done with Stan, the first of which was while he was having huge success with the internet media start-up Stan Lee Media – which would end the year under a dark legal cloud (through no fault of Lee’s) that would decimate the company.

The second interview followed about 2 years later, and was mainly me taking a promotional opportunity just to chat with him again.

And on a quick tangent, here’s a bit of fun I was able to arrange to celebrate Halloween last year, after joking about it with him in one of my interviews – Stan Lee reading Edgar Allen Poe’s The Raven…

And now, without further ado, delightful discourse with the dandily dignified (and definitely dear) Stan Lee…

KEN PLUME: If you were to sum it up, what was your introduction into the comics industry?

LEE: Well, I applied for a job in a publishing company… I didn’t even know they published comics. I was fresh out of high school, and I wanted to get into the publishing business, if I could. There was an ad in the paper that said, “Assistant Wanted in a Publishing House.” When I found out that they wanted me to assist in comics, I figured, “Well, I’ll stay here for a little while and get some experience, and then I’ll get out into the real world.” In those days, it just didn’t seem like comics was the kind of field that anybody would want to make a career in. They were the absolute bottom of the cultural totem pole. Nobody had any respect for comic books in those days.

PLUME: So this is, what, the early 40’s?

LEE: It was either 1939 or ’40 when I started… I can never figure out which year it was.

PLUME: You described it as a temporary job…

LEE: I thought it was at the time…

PLUME: So what exactly were your aspirations at the time?

LEE: I just wanted to know, “What do you do in a publishing company?” How do you write… How do you publish? I was an assistant. There were two people there named Joe Simon and Jack Kirby – Joe was sort-of the editor/artist/writer, and Jack was the artist/writer. Joe was the senior member. They were turning out most of the artwork. Then there was the publisher, Martin Goodman… And that was about the only staff that I was involved with. After a while, Joe Simon and Jack Kirby left. I was about 17 years old, and Martin Goodman said to me, “Do you think you can hold down the job of editor until I can find a real person?” When you’re 17, what do you know? I said, “Sure! I can do it!” I think he forgot about me, because I stayed there ever since.

PLUME: And it was Timely Comics at the time, wasn’t it?

LEE: Yeah, it was Timely Comics.

PLUME: What did the position of editor entail at Timely?

LEE: I was responsible for all the stories, either writing them myself or buying them from other people. In comics – in those days, anyway, and always when I was there – being the editor meant being the art director too, because you can’t just edit the stories without making sure the artwork is done the right way so it enhances the stories… And the stories have to enhance the artwork. They have to go hand in hand. So I was really the editor, the art director, and the head writer.

PLUME: So you were a jack of all trades?

LEE: Yeah.

PLUME: The 40’s and 50’s have always struck me as a very nebulous time at Timely… What exactly were the events that led up to the boom of the early 60’s?

LEE: Well, what happened was that – until the early 60’s – I did everything the publisher wanted, and his way of publishing was to follow the trends. Whatever was selling at the moment – he would publish books in that genre. For instance, when it looked as though Westerns were hot… we added a lot of Western titles. When Romance stories were doing well… we published a lot of Romance books. Then we did a lot of War magazines. Then Horror. Then Crime. Then the Animated-type of characters… The Terrytoons-type of things. We did Teenage titles. We never were leaders in the field – we always followed the trends. In those days – until the early ’60’s – comic books were very cyclical. There were trends… One year, Romance books would be hot… One year it would be Horror stories…whatever… and we just went along. We were like a production house – we just kept producing whatever was hot at the moment.

All during that time, I kept wanting to quit, because I felt, “There’s no future in this.” I’d say to my wife, “I’m going to give it another few weeks and then I’m getting out of there.” Then I’d get a raise, or we’d add some new magazines, and I’d get a little bit interested in them and I’d figure, “Well, I’ll stay a little bit longer.” Somehow, the years just kept falling away and, before I knew it, I’d been there for 20 years.

It was now 1960. By now, I really wanted to leave, because one edict that my publisher had was that the stories had to be geared towards young readers – or unintelligent older readers. We weren’t supposed to use words of more than two syllables, and we had to have simple plots – no continuing stories, because he felt our readers weren’t smart enough to remember from month to month where they had left off. It was really boring.

In either ’60 or ’61 I said to my wife, Joanie, “This time, I’m really going to leave.” She said, “Well, if you’re determined to leave, why don’t you first do a book or two the way you wanted to, no matter what the publisher says? The worst that can happen is that he’ll fire you. You won’t care, because you want to leave, but at least you’ll get it out of your system.”

It happened that – at that time- my publisher had been playing golf with Jack Liebowitz, who was one of the bosses at DC comics – which in those days was called National Comics. Jack Liebowitz had told him that he had a magazine called The Justice League, which was selling very well, and it was a group of super-heroes. So Martin came to me and he said, “Hey Stan… Why don’t you do a group of super-heroes?” Again, this business of following the trend.

I figured, “All right, but this time I’m going to do it my way.” Instead of the typical heroes that have secret identities and nobody knows who they are, I did The Fantastic Four – where everybody knew who they were. And instead of the girlfriend who doesn’t know that the hero is so-and-so, I had the girl in the series actually be engaged to the hero, and she was a heroine – she was part of the team. Instead of the typical junior sidekick, I had a teenager who was also the brother of the heroine – and the hero would soon marry the heroine, so they would be brothers-in-law. The fourth member of the team was a monstrous-looking guy, called The Thing, which was not a typical super-hero type in those days. I also tried to give them fairly realistic dialogue, and I didn’t have them wear colorful costumes. I always felt that if I had super-power, I wouldn’t immediately run out to the store and buy a costume. Somehow or other, the book caught on. We had never gotten fan mail up until that point… Sometimes we might get a letter from a reader that would say, “I bought one of your books and there’s a staple missing. I want my dime back.” And that was it. We’d put that up on the bulletin board and say, “Look! A fan letter!” Suddenly, with The Fantastic Four, we really started getting mail… “We like this… We don’t like that…. We want to see more of this.” That was exciting! So I didn’t quit. Then we did The Hulk, and that did pretty well…. And then the rest is history.

Continued below…

June 30, 2013
FROM THE VAULT: Sir Ian McKellen Interview

Conducted ~6/2000

I must admit, I don’t recall exactly what my rationale was for chasing down this interview, other than just respecting Sir Ian as an incredible actor who was just beginning to really get noticed by Hollywood. The first X-Men was just about to open, and the first installment of The Lord Of The Rings, The Fellowship Of The Ring, was still in the future.

Regardless of what the circumstances were, this is one of the interviews I’m most proud of. Sir Ian was wonderful, speaking n full candor, and I thought our conversation hit a wonderful groove. I also managed to do the interview before such in-depth pieces like this became a bit of a rarity for him.

I hope you enjoy it…

KEN PLUME: Tell me about your formative years… What drew you to acting?

SIR IAN McKELLEN: Before I ever acted as an amateur – which I did a great deal at school and at university – I used to go to the theater with my parents in the north of England, where I was born and brought up… Theater of all sorts. A weekly repertory theater played every week at the Bolton Hippodrome, visiting opera and ballet companies at the Theatre Royal, vaudeville theater at the Grand. For Shakespeare and the classics, sometimes my parents took us to the big city of Manchester close by to see famous actors in all sorts of plays. I was also taken by the school each year for a week’s camping in Stratford-on-Avon to see the Shakespeare season there. That’s how I first enjoyed acting – mainly through the theater, as we didn’t go to the cinema much. It was because I enjoyed watching other people act that I thought, “I’d like to have a go at that myself.” There was no early intention of being a professional. I went to study English at Cambridge, and there did a great deal of acting with friends who were determined to become professionals: Trevor Nunn – who now runs the National Theater, Sir Derek Jacobi, Sir David Frost, Peter Cook, and others. I caught the bug there… It was then that I realized, “Well, if they’re going to be able to do it in the professional theatre, then perhaps I can myself.” When I left Cambridge, I applied to regional repertory theaters in the UK and got accepted by one of them… And here I am, still at it.

PLUME: This would b e around the late 50’s, early 60’s, right?

McKELLEN: I started in 1961.

PLUME: What was it about acting that enamored you of the process?

McKELLEN: When I started to do it, I discovered I could do it. I think it’s as simple as that. I didn’t have any other specialties that I was good at. Growing up and finding tan enjoyable activity which the grown-ups admired – or don’t object to – for a nice well-behaved boy was fulfilling. It gave me an identity that otherwise I didn’t particularly feel I had.

PLUME: Did your heart stray in any other directions?

McKELLEN: Before acting, I wanted to become a journalist. I also toyed with the idea of being a chef – but that’s only when people asked me what I wanted to be. In fact, I always used to say I wanted to be an actor, but I didn’t ever believe that I was good enough to be come one. It was only at Cambridge, when I was surrounded by others who wanted to become professionals – and when I got a few good reviews in the national press of my acting – that I thought, “Oh well, maybe it’s okay.” But what did I really enjoy about it? It probably has something to do with my sense of being gay… It’s very difficult to talk about this or analyze it. If you were growing up gay in the 1950’s in the north of England, you had a secret which was difficult to share…

PLUME: If not impossible…

McKELLEN: Well, it used to feel like it was impossible. Yet, when you were on stage, you could be absolutely open about your emotions and indulge them and express yourself in a way that – in real life – I wasn’t doing. I think that was part of the appeal. Certainly I felt, when I decided to become a professional, that, “Oh good… I’m going to be able to meet some real-life queers.” Because I’d heard that the theater was full of them… and so it has proved.

PLUME: How would you describe the atmosphere at Cambridge? Was it conducive to the fostering of an artistic bent?

McKELLEN: There’s still no drama faculty at Cambridge – nor at Oxford – but a great deal of acting went on at the time. Undergraduate groups of actors run by the undergraduates and advised by theater-mad dons – one of them, John Barton, left Cambridge while I was there to become a senior director at the Royal Shakespeare Company. So we had connections with the professional theater, and during each vacation we were recording the whole of the Shakespeare’s works, playing supporting parts to professional actors who were brought down for a weekend in Cambridge to record a play at a time. Some of our productions used to play in London on professional stages. The line between being an amateur actor and a professional was nicely blurred. I was told by my tutor that if I went on acting, my academic studies were going to suffer – and they did – but we were all young gentleman and we were thought to be responsible enough to do whatever we wanted to do, and what I wanted to do was indulge myself in the theater, and I was allowed to get on with it pretty well.

PLUME: How difficult was the transition out of Cambridge and into the “professional world”?

McKELLEN: Well, it seemed easy, because I was very keen and very enthusiastic and in love with the theater and the idea of theater -and professional theater people seemed to be the most fascinating in the world, and there’s no where else I wanted to be. It didn’t feel, by that time, like strange territory. It was just constantly fascinating. I just looked around for the people who were the best at it and tried to contact them and work with them. None of this was fueled by a desire to be a star, or famous, or rich, or be in movies or even in television… It was theater that I was interested in. Appearing in front of a live audience, and the problems, technicalities, and joys of that. It was also rooted in – and this is why Cambridge was crucial to me – a respect for the word and the text of a play… Which, of course, overlaps into your studies. You study Shakespeare, you study plays, and so – for me – there’s never been much of a division between people who write about the plays as academic texts and study them for examinations, and actors like me who analyze them for performance. We seem to be in the same business, really.

PLUME: So you’re saying that the study and need for understanding is the same, but the decides to take it a step further and get up on the stage and perform it…

McKELLEN: Yes, that’s right.

PLUME: What were the opportunities afforded or the challenges inherent for a young actor starting out in the professional world at that time?

McKELLEN: That sounds suspiciously like “What advice would you give a young actor…” I think the point to be understood is that we’re all different. I’ve never been a fan of theories of acting. I didn’t go to drama school, so I was never put through a training that was limited by someone saying, “This is the way you should act.” We all act differently. Acting is a very personal process. It has to do with expressing your own personality, and discovering the character you’re playing through your own experience -so we’re all different. We all do it in different ways. My experience is my experience, and it isn’t necessarily relevant to anybody else. I certainly don’t disparage someone whose attitude towards their work is utterly different from mine – that’s up to them. I think the only judgement I would make is “Are they doing it well?” and “Are they doing it seriously?”

PLUME: How subjective is the critique “Are they doing it well?”

McKELLEN: Well, then you have to say, “This is the script as written. This is the style in which it’s written. Is this actor adopting the right style and playing his/her part appropriately within the story that’s being told. That’s how I would make a judgement. It wouldn’t be of any interest to me, necessarily, to know how he/she had achieved it, or what their experience was before the moment I actually saw them on stage.

Continued below…

June 30, 2013
A Bit Of A Chat with Ken Plume & Jane Goldman

I’m Ken Plume, and soon you’ll be listening to “A Bit Of A Chat” with me, Ken Plume.

In this episode, I chat with screenwriter Jane Goldman about adaptations, childhood trauma, birthing music, butterbeer, and Lionel Richie.

Hope you enjoy…

Download “A Bit of a Chat with Ken Plume & Jane Goldman“:

[audio:http://traffic.libsyn.com/bitofachat/bit_of_a_chat-jane_goldman.mp3]

SUBSCRIBE
Subscribe to this Podcast via iTunes

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Drop Ken a line HERE.

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You can also find more of my interviews by clicking HERE.

June 16, 2011
Contest Round-Up: 2009-09-09

Welcome to our weekly round-up of featured giveaways here at Quick Stop. Every Wednesday, we’ll present a new clutch of DVDs, books, and other cool stuff you can take a shot at winning. All you have to do is click on the graphics below to be taken to their respective contest pages. And good luck!

In conjunction with Fox Home Video, we’re giving away two (2) copies of X-MEN: ORIGINS – WOLVERINE on DVD.

In conjunction with Walt Disney Home Video, we’re giving away three (3) copies of BEDKNOBS & BROOMSTICKS on DVD.

In conjunction with Comedy Central Home Video, we’re giving away three (3) copies of IMPORTANT THINGS WITH DEMETRI MARTIN on DVD.

In conjunction with Warner Bros. Home Video, we’re giving away three (3) copies of FRINGE: SEASON 1 on DVD.

In conjunction with Buena Vista Home Video, we’re giving away three (3) sets of X-MEN: VOLUMES 3 & 4 on DVD.

September 9, 2009
Win X-MEN: ORIGINS – WOLVERINE on DVD!

In conjunction with Fox Home Video, we’re giving away two (2) copies of X-MEN: ORIGINS – WOLVERINE on DVD.

Contest ends at 11:59pm EST on Wednesday, September, 23rd.

CLOSED! THANKS FOR ENTERING!

Official Rules

No member of Quick Stop Entertainment or their immediate families may enter.

No Purchase necessary to win.

Must be 18 years of age or older to enter.

One entry per day, per person.

All submitted entries must be received by 11:59pm EST on September, 23rd.

The winner must allow 4-6 weeks after notification of win to receive the product.

September 9, 2009
Backlash: WOLVERINE’s Snikt-er-doodle

X-Men Origins: Wolverine: The Off-Screen Comedy Hit of the Summer

The day is fast approaching, X-Men fans. The day when you can legally plunk down your money and see X-Men Origins: Wolverine on a big screen and not have to worry if the neighbors down the street could see you watching the bootleg copy you downloaded from Pirate Bay through the window.

Now by all indications, Wolverine is pretty good. The advance screenings have gone well, the advance buzz from the press has been good so it’s a fair bet that, if you liked the X-Men films, you’ll like Wolverine. Yes, I’ve seen it. Both versions, just to give full disclosure – the version screened for press and the version that’s been floating around the net that got Roger Friedman fired over at FOX. I like this film more and more every day and not because of what’s on the screen.

The leaking of the mostly complete work print of the film has been one of the most unintentionally hilarious chain of events in recent entertainment history. As soon as the film hit the peer to peer networks, the studio raised the alarm. Which meant that the story was all over the press, not just Access Hollywood & Entertainment Tonight. That one act probably added more users to Bit Torrent than anything since, oh, maybe the last film that got leaked to the web early.

It isn’t that I don’t want to see the studios make a profit on films that genuinely deserve it and to be honest, Wolverine deserves it. And yes, the studio has to try and aggressively protect their copyrights, especially in situations like this. The person responsible, who probably will be found, is going to be spending a lot of time in the new Jack Valenti Re-Education wing of the State Penitentiary. But recent actions prove that the people calling the shots in Hollywood still just haven’t got a clue where this internet thing is concerned.

FOX’s big plan to make sure they get all those potential popcorn munchers into the seats opening weekend? Circulate two sets of endings on different prints. What the fuck?

Okay, for the 5 of you out there who didn’t download Wolverine or watch a copy at a friend’s house who did, the film features, like all recent Marvel Comics-based movies, a couple of “Easter eggs” (I really hate that term being used for extra scenes in credits but that’s a rant for later *-see below) during the closing titles. One is early and the other is a tag after the final credits have rolled. The prints shown to most (but apparently not all) press screenings contain two scenes that are different from those seen in the leaked copy. Not that those two bits have been scrapped, mind you – they still appear on half the prints. The other half of the prints have the tags from the press screening.

Confused yet? It gets better. There’s no way to tell which print you’re going to see. It’s like buying 100 boxes of that damn cereal to finally get Enterprise com badge from that new movie to with the 99 Klingon badges you’re giving away to people in the street. So this is how FOX is being a stern parent with us bad little kiddies who only live to give them cash – you were bad so now you have to keep paying us to make sure you completist fanboys (and girls) get to see everything.

Can I lead the congregation in a resounding “fuck you“?

Every indication is that Wolverine will follow in the steps of some of the most widely distributed peer to peer theatrical releases which have also made massive amounts of money at the box office. The Lord of the Rings films and the Star Wars prequels are perfect examples of films that don’t seem to have had their box office dented in any significant way by being traded over the internet. FOX apparently has a good film but instead of letting the film perform, they’ve decided to try this bait and switch tactic with viewers.

Listen, FOX, I get that you’re pissed off about the leak. Really, I do. It would piss me off too. But it happened and unlike some other films this has happened to, it has resulted in almost universally positive reactions. Making people just kind trust blind luck and drop more money to make sure they see what amounts to maybe two minutes of different footage at the end of 90 minutes of film? Not making yourselves any friends with your public, gang. There’s a reason theaters started posting which ending of the film Clue they were running – theatergoers were getting pissed off if they saw the same ending twice. The gimmick worked well enough for that film (God knows, that clusterfuck needed a gimmick) but it’s not going to work for you here.

Why, you ask?

Because within 24 hours the additional “Easter eggs” will be posted online for all to see. Frankly, if I’d slapped down somewhere in the neighborhood of $10 bucks to see a film and didn’t get to see all of it, I’d feel justified in downloading it.

You’ve got a little time left, FOX, to do the right thing. Come up with some kind of code or ticket or some goddamn thing for people who buy a ticket to the film so they can see all four of the tags online. It’s not perfect – if you intended to run 4 tags during the credits then you should run all four of them as far as I’m concerned. It’s at least something that doesn’t make it look like you’re trying to steal money from the very people who are actually spending the money to go to the theater. You aren’t penalizing the people who downloaded your film, you’re punishing the very people who stand to help you make some good money. That’s like sending the clerk at the convenience store to prison after he got robbed because you couldn’t catch the thief. Just relax, FOX, Wolverine is still going to make money.

Provided, of course, that Star Trek doesn’t kick your ass next week.

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* Okay, “Easter eggs”.
By definition, “Easter eggs” are something you have to hunt for, not something you sit on your ass and wait to be handed to you. If that were the case, they’d be called welfare checks. The whole point of an “Easter egg” is having to find it either hidden in the menus of a DVD or on a web site somewhere. An extra tag in the credits is not an “Easter egg”. Jackie Chan’s outtakes at the end of his films are not “Easter eggs”.

No, if FOX wants to take the four Wolverine tags and hide them on the film’s web site, that would be an “Easter egg”. Sorry, gang, I’ve just been seeing the studio and as a result the press throwing the term around all week and it has just bugged the shit out of me,

April 30, 2009
Contest Round-Up: 2009-04-22

Welcome to our weekly round-up of featured giveaways here at Quick Stop. Every Wednesday, we’ll present a new clutch of DVDs, books, and other cool stuff you can take a shot at winning. All you have to do is click on the graphics below to be taken to their respective contest pages. And good luck!

In conjunction with Fox Home Video, we’re giving away three (3) copies of BRIDE WARS on DVD.

In conjunction with Buena Vista Home Video, we’re giving away three (3) sets of X-MEN: VOLUME 1 and X-MEN: VOLUME 2 on DVD.

In conjunction with Warner Bros. Home Video, we’re giving away four (4) copies of SCOOBY-DOO: WHERE ARE YOU VOLUME 2 on DVD.

In conjunction with Dreamworks Home Video, we’re giving away three (3) copies of THE UNINVITED on DVD.

In conjunction with Adult Swim Home Video, we’re giving away three (3) copies of SQUIDBILLIES: VOLUME 2 on DVD.

April 21, 2009
Win X-MEN: VOLUME 1 & 2 on DVD!

In conjunction with Buena Vista Home Video, we’re giving away three (3) sets of X-MEN: VOLUME 1 and X-MEN: VOLUME 2 on DVD.

Contest ends at 11:59pm EST on Wednesday, May 13th.

CLOSED! THANKS FOR ENTERING!

Official Rules

No member of Quick Stop Entertainment or their immediate families may enter.

No Purchase necessary to win.

Must be 18 years of age or older to enter.

One entry per day, per person.

All submitted entries must be received by 11:59pm EST on Wednesday, May 13th.

The winner must allow 4-6 weeks after notification of win to receive the product.

April 21, 2009
Trailer Park: X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE – Reviewed

By Christopher Stipp

The Archives, Right Here

I’m awesome. I wrote a book. It’s got little to do with movies. Download and read “Thank You, Goodnight” right HERE for free.

And now, you can follow me on Twitter under the name: Stipp. Some weeks you get lucky with the kind of information that people are talking about. This week, though, was all about ShoWest and the plethora of crumbs that fell from Hollywood’s summer movie season table.

X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE – Now Available in the iTunes store!

So, stop me if you’ve heard this: on April Fool’s Day eve the word went out that a leaked version of Fox’s X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE had made its way to the Internet. Those who have been around these parts for a while have come to expect a bit of juvenelia from those in the online community be it in the form of fake stories, fake rumors, fake DVD releases (I still remember the one that mentioned the existence of a PEARL HARBOR preview on copies of THE ROCK) and basically stupid shit that still surprises me that webmasters everywhere think is amusing to perpetuate. However, that said, and like Sally Forth’s daughter wondering whether her mom would bite the ears off of her chocolate Easter bunny in the Sunday funnies, it always amused me to see what would come up next however lame or uninspired.

This rumor, though, had a different tenor. Spread across Twitter, there was some urgency in the message that WOLVERINE had popped up on the Internet. First the screen shots appeared, the quality was incredible I have to admit, and then like a pack of people wondering if something was real or not “Has anyone heard whether this is legit?”, “This is a bad day for Fox”, “Someone is going to prison” the chatter was enough to make you wonder. Then, not succumbing to the peer pressure just yet, Ethan from Screen Geeks Radio took the plunge for all of us and gave a play by play of what he was seeing.

It was real and it was DVD quality.

For once the Internet got it right. It was a bad day for Fox and then the commentaries started from all the usual suspects across the film spectrum. Was it right to publicize this? Is this news? Is it a news story that, if someone ran, would just inspire people to download it more? How awful were the people who downloaded the film and did these people represent any considerable dent to the possible box office if it proliferated?

It was the latter question that got me thinking about who ARE the kind of people that download these kinds of things and whether they did represent any threat to the overhaul haul this film would eventually bring in? The easiest answer is no. It’s not. No matter how many people download it, the bell curve of the people who are, right now, rabidly consuming the bits and bytes off torrent sites everywhere to see this unfinished film represent a subset of users who not only don’t mind watching an unfinished film but users who roll up to these sites looking for cam copies of I LOVE YOU, MAN or blurry versions of KNOWING.

The difference between me and a lot of other movie site contributors is that I don’t have any animosity towards these people. Derision, hatred, abject disgust are just a few things those who are leaders of the bully pulpit of commentators are using to describe those downloading the film. Why? I can understand where they’re coming from, I understand their position but I don’t think I can empathize with their negativity. Now, keep in mind this is obviously my opinion, but when you are in a position of having it all, and many of those lucky enough to be writing about film for more than just yourself are enjoying this moment in their life when their comments and opinions matter, it’s easy to cast aspersions on those who would hazard to download this movie. I could list a few popular podcasts out there right now who are sometimes aided in their reviews of films that never quite made it to their part of the woods but using “special antennae” were able to get copies of LET THE RIGHT ONE IN, GOMORRAH, THE HURT LOCKER and countless others simply through a few mouse clicks. It doesn’t make the downloading better or right when someone is doing it for professional purposes but I can certainly understand where the temptation comes in to play.

It’s the tastemakers who have access, who can pick up a phone and verify a rumor, can shoot off an e-mail and get things done, can go to places like the Comic-Con and get treated like the royalty they are not by the publicists looking for some favorable buzz, a favor or two when and if they need it. (Anyone want to take a stab at how many sites were “asked” to take down images from X movie or risk any modicum of power being dimmed like a dying bulb) There are no true outlaws on the Internet; only those willing to play quid pro quo.

The issue here really has to come with why we seem to be a culture that is warp speeding towards free. Some people, not all, have an expectation of access to everything, at all times, without having to pay for it. Just ask how your local newspaper is doing with regard on how they’re doing on creating a fiscal model where the print paid product can be replaced with their online, free version. It’s not working well, I can you that. And it’s just this microcosm of anomie among media companies that illustrates why WOLVERINE being on the Internet not only represents the pain it’s causing the money men at Fox but it is also indicative of the issues surrounding of what happens when you have a current climate of those who can consume their media at no cost to themselves. This movie, if I were to go back to when I was 13 and screwing around with my man Brandon Murphy and we were dream casting the X-MEN if and when it would ever get made, would represent a temptation even greater than porn. Now think of what it represents to those who use the ‘net to get their music, their television shows (show of hands: who has used BitTorrent to download a show that has long since gone away or who wanted to use it to see an old episode of The Office?) and other uses that some would consider “awful”, “shameful” or any other word ending in “ful.”

So, seriously, save your sanctimonious bullshit, your disdain for those who are downloading this film at a rather healthy clip and your upturned nose at those who you were many years ago when you had no one to listen to your empty praise of how awesome SCOTT PILGRIM is going to be or how awful 12 ROUNDS is because, I get it. I understand where the viewers are coming from and it’s the reason why your business model will never allow you to charge one fucking cent for your own content. The money won’t come rolling in, it’ll slowly trickle like a torrent file.

Oh, yeah, almost forgot, the review. I have to admit it is hilarious to see Ryan Reynolds, in the middle of a great action sequence, polished , well choreographed and slick looking, doing a forward flip assisted by wires attached to his harness.

If you want to know the rest you know where to find it.

THE MIGHTY BOOSH

With that out of the way I wanted to give a shout out to a most strange but entrancing series that hit television this week: The Mighty Boosh.

Now, the title may throw some people off but this show, honestly, is one of those unique visions of both creativity and complete insanity. I was falling ill with the flu earlier this week and I found it was just what my mind needed. I’ll allow the press release to put the program in context but do yourself a favor and schedule it in your TiVo and give it a chance. I’ve attached some sample clips to whet the proverbial appetite and to show you why it’s so hard to explain what this program is about without sounding like I’m on something.

Eels:

Trailer:

THE MIGHTY BOOSH ARRIVES TO ITUNES

Starting today, Season Three of the UK hit comedy series from award-winning creator-stars Noel Fielding and Julian Barratt, The Mighty Boosh, is now available on the iTunes Store in the U.S. (www.itunes.com), with the first episode offered at a discounted price of 99 cents.

The Mighty Boosh joined the Adult Swim Sunday line-up this week, with episodes airing weekly at 1 a.m. (ET/PT). New episodes will be available on the iTunes Store each week following broadcast at www.itunes.com/tv/themightyboosh.

The third season sees Vince Noir (Noel Fielding, IT Crowd) and Howard Moon (Julian Barratt, Nathan Barley) working in Naboo’s second hand shop in Dalston. Needless to say they don’t get much work done. This doesn’t bother Naboo too much, firstly as the shop is really only a cover for his shady interplanetary Shaman business and secondly, he’s usually quite chilled out from sampling his own magical herbs and remedies.

With a massive cult following in the UK, Barratt and Fielding launched their first nationwide tour The Mighty Boosh Live across the U.K in 2006. Their second tour Boosh Live sold out venues at 90 stops across the U.K. and Ireland and wrapped up earlier this year.

April 3, 2009