Casting Suggestions

I very much enjoyed this article from MTV. They are opining on whom the different roles in The Hobbit should go to. I agreed with most of the suggestions, but had to laugh at the idea of Bruce Campbell as Beorn. I'm not saying that he couldn't pull it off. I'm not familiar with his acting skills enough. I just keep hearing Duke Nukem (i.e. Ash) quotes coming from a bear.

New Lost Trailer

They have it up on the official page. I don't mind telling you to go watch it, because there are no commercials in it. It is itself a commercial and it is awesome.

Lost - Season 4 Trailer

In other news, it looks like some shows are coming back on the air. Leno and Conan, Kimmel, as well as The Colbert Report and The Daily Show. After reading statements from both Leno and Conan, I have to say that I don't envy their position. That is a tough call to make. While it will weaken the WGA's position, I can't fault any of them for seeking a way to help people keep their jobs. So, kudos to you guys for being ballsy, and I hope that it is because you are being ballsy (and not because you fell to pressure from the studios).

To end it all off: an interview with actor John Hurt (who is rumored to be playing Abner Ravenwood in Indiana Jones IV). I'm very excited for this movie, and had completely forgotten that Sir Shia was in it. There is a slightly strange picture of Shia looking like a greaser in it. I guess that would make sense given the time frame of the other movies.

Terminator 4

Sadly, I still haven't ever seen the first Terminator. I loved the second and third, so I'll get on that. However, today I stumbled across some news that I found rather interesting: they are making THREE new Terminator movies and John Connor will be played by Christian Bale. How is that for awesome? His role won't be very big in the first (they are introducing a new character), but sounds like his role will be bigger in the following two films. They will be set after the nuclear holocaust and show the war of the machines and the little Utopian society that John starts, etc. Fantastic idea, boys.

CHUD.com article on T4
(I will warn you that there are spoilers involved in this article, but they are not too heavy. In fact, I imagine that every little bit of info revealed will be put into whatever trailer they release, so frankly I didn't even really consider them spoilers.)

The Hobbit

So there is good news on The Hobbit front: it is a go. Peter Jackson has signed on as executive producer (I will link news releases at the bottom, but I was turned on to this by www.theonering.net and wanted to let you all know to check out that site if you care at all about LOTR and these movies. They have interesting tidbits on just about everything pop up daily over there).

The negotiations bring Peter and Fran Walsh as producers instead of Peter at the helm as director. His reasons were simply that he didn't have time to direct it and still fulfill his current obligations to other projects. The studios want a 2009 release.
Another interesting tidbit is that the format will actually be for two movies. They are making the first one of the book's events, and the second will be to bring us up to speed with the events that bridge The Hobbit with LOTR. I think this is a fantastic idea.

There has been mixed fan reaction to this (with the majority of fans seeming to be adamant that Peter is the only man for the job of director). I admit that I felt that way until very recently. Then I started reading the Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales, and I remembered how different of a feel each of these books (The hobbit and LOTR) had from each other. The choice comes down to this: is it worth waiting a few extra years for Peter's schedule to free up, or is it wiser to not only capitalize on the success of LOTR and strike while the iron is hot, but also to move forward while actors such as Ian McKellan and Christopher Lee still have enough energy to pull off convincing wizards in battle? The other issue is, could another director do as well a job? My opinion is that while The Hobbit is a set-up for LOTR, it is its own story and I have no problem with it having a different feel than LOTR. As long as Peter is involved in the role of producer, I feel that the movie will be able to maintain a similar feel/vibe as LOTR while still letting us get into the world of The Hobbit, which has a very different stlye. Let's face it, while the events of The Hobbit are very serious to those involved, it does not carry with it the weight of doom that LOTR does. It is much more light-hearted and really is an adventure tale.

Either way, I'm excited for these movies to be made and as long as Peter is involved I feel safe that they will turn out well.

And now, the news releases:
USA Today
New York Times

For further reading:
The Official The Hobbit Movie Blog

Stories

I wrote two short stories in my creative writing workshop this semester. I am very proud of the second one I did. It was an adaptation of a poem I wrote last semester in my poetry writing workshop. Sadly, I am disappointed in my other one. That was my attempt to squeeze what is very much a character/ethics story (with a sort of sci/fi twist) into a short story format. It felt like it was headed somewhere good at first, but had too many holes without the proper time to fully develop the main characters. The night before it was due, I was at the library working on the re-write, when the "correct" way to write it hit me. I was then faced with the decision of either doing a dramatic and complete overhaul of the entire story for the new version (which I was psyched about and felt would be much stronger) or finishing the re-write I was working on and turning in what I knew would be sup-par material. Truthfully, the decision wasn't even mine. Time only allowed for me to stick with the original re-write plan and scratch out a less than stellar story.

I am greatly intrigued by the idea of a "correct" version of a story. It's not that I believe that any given story has only one way to be told, but I have discovered that when I am in that creative process (be it writing a story, a poem, a song, or whatever) I come to forks in the road. I brainstorm tons of ideas and eventually have to choose one path or another. The interesting part (to me) is that this decision is usually quite easy. It's like I am walking down a path and as I look to the right and left I see many other paths begin to take shape. I can see some that are very close, and others that are further off. Then, at some point, two or more of these paths will converge and I must choose which to head down.
Generally, I am not someone who rushes into decisions at all. I like options, so choosing leaves me feeling limited. My solution is to stall as long as I can until I absolutely have to choose (that way I can let events pan out and have more time to gather info). Indecision has a way of making life quite difficult at times for me.
However, in writing it always seems very easy to me. I brainstorm, I get excited about an idea, and I move forward. If that idea isn't working out, I usually have another to replace it that I am more excited about anyway.
All of that explanation to simply say: my best writing always happens when I just write whatever I am most excited about.

Well, I have met my match; I came up with a story that was going to span three albums and had a modern warfare setting. It would all be told through the perspectives of two men through song lyrics. This is by far the biggest creative project I have ever endeavored, and it has been sucking up my brain powers and creative juices for months at a time over the past few years. I put it on the shelf for a little while after TMT split up, though, and am now finding it difficult to get back into for some reason (I suspect because I grew quite focused on the two stories I was writing for class). I am stuck at a fork in the road and don't know which path to take.