The Purple Pinup Guru Platform

When purple things are pulsating on your mind, I'm the one whose clock you want to clean. Aiding is Sparky, the Astral Plane Zen Pup Dog from his mountain stronghold on the Northernmost Island of the Happy Ninja Island chain, this blog will also act as a journal to my wacky antics at an entertainment company and the progress of my self published comic book, The Deposit Man which only appears when I damn well feel like it. Real Soon Now.

Thursday, September 11, 2003

OF MATCHES AND MEN

Just got back from a advance screening of the new Ridley Scott motion picture vehicle, Matchstick Men starring Nicholas Cage, Sam Rockwell, and Alison Lohman. The screenplay is adapted from the book of the same name written by Eric Garcia.

Cage has been playing a lot of neurotic characters of late, but hey, if they get him best actor Oscar Noms such as Adaption, then who am I to complain( I'm just happy that he passed over the roles for both Constantine and Ghost Rider, making them less of a car wreck than what is already predicted for Johnny Depp and Keanu Reeves respectfully) ? In this movie, Cage plays Roy, a professional grifter and con artist with a serious obsessive-compulsive disorder- sort of like Cable USA's Monk in reverse. In order to open a door, Roy has to open and close the door three times before he can walk in or out of it, but also suffers from a dysfunction about being outdoors for too long. He's the type of guy that has to bend over and examine each carpet fiber to see if there are any stains on it and that's only the tip of the iceberg. With his partner, Frank, played by Sam Rockwell- they take on big con jobs that nets them a tidy profit such as telemarketing schemes and the good old briefcase/suitcase switcheroos at airports and bars. One day, something seriously goes wrong in Roy's house: he accidently drops his black market obtained perscription bills down the kitchen sink and can't get in contact with the dealer he obtained them from. So this turn of events lead him to go off his affixated time schedule so much that he is afraid to even leave his house until Frank gets him a number of a shrink or therapist who can help him obtain some of those purple candy coated bills. After some uncomfortable coaxing from his new prying therapist (whose office was shot right on the street of where I wait for a bus to take me home from work each day), Roy attempts to make amends with his past and that means the therapist to try and call his ex-wife that he hasn't seen or heard from in fourteen years (and quite coincidentally they still live within a five mile radius from each other). Out of that union, Roy finds out that he has a daughter named Angela (Alison Lohman, who was remarkable in White Orleaner) and gets up the nerve to arrange a meeting to introduce himself to her.

Eventually Angelina makes a move to be in her father's life by running away from her mother and schlepping her way into her dad's home. When Roy goes out on a late night 'business meeting', Angelina snoops around and finds out a lot about her father and his strange quirks such as there being nothing to eat in the house but tuna fish and one tv dinner ,but no tv to watch it with, and before you know it, Angelina wants to follow in her father's footsteps and be a grifter herself and worms her way in being a silent partner in her's daddy's little con game club much to Frank's chagrin.

By first impressions, Ridley Scott seems to be headed for some lighthearted material- there are a lot of comedic moments between Cage and Lohman as well as the aw, gee whiz sappy father/daughter bonding scenes and some drama I took personally as one such as I can relate to since I've just started to keep in contact with my own father on a semi- regular basis ( there's a good line exchanged between Lohman and Cage that seems to sum up a nentire deprived relationship between my dad and I: 'You're not really a bad guy- you're just not really good at being a good one'). This is certainly something incredibly light material for Ridley to tackle considering what he has given us in the past such as Gladiator, Alien, Thelma & Louise, and Bladerunner- so it doesn't overwhelm me with surprise that he would want to add another eclectic notch in his director beltbuckle- all seems turning true to form to the point where Angelina has no choice but to help her father pull off a big score then does Scott takes us on a twisted 180 degree spiral turn downward- the movie all of a sudden gets brutally ugly and downright scary.

And I like that.

Going beyond this point, would spoil many plot hatchings and I don't really want to do that to anyone reading this. The movie doesn't fail to entertain. What I find most admirable, besides some of the good effort that the actors (Cage is the now the undisputed master of face twitches- takes it to a whole new level and puts Michael Gross to shame) put into it, considering that a lot of the script's lines come off as being too placid or contrived in some points- is Scott taking a what appears to be a light hearted romp and giving it a Hitchcockian spin. And I don't think that's ever really been done before.

Also this week, Sony Pictures releases the third in Robert Rodriguez's El Marachi trilogy, Once Upon a Time in Mexico with my favorite hot senorita, Salma Hayek and Lion's Gate is going straight for the gullet in paranoia angst with Cabin Fever. Also, Sofia Coppola who is too freaking gorgeous to be a movie director has a movie out called 'Lost in Translation' with Bill Murray, who I hear is getting rave reviews from critics who are heralding this as his best performance ever in a movie. I don't which studio is releasing it, but I'm sure it's somewhere in the paper.

Went to the studios where Constantine is supposed to be shot, but the set looked like it was closed for the day- but I did post a bill at work for some trash removal a few days ago.

Tuesday- the on going progress of the new Deposit Man book and maybe by then I will have a reasonable printing quote from Brenner. Once more around the studio lot to infilitrate the Constantine set and what I really think of the Jake 2.0.series.

~

Coat

Tuesday, September 09, 2003

LATE NIGHT BLOG with CARY COATNEY

This is the new stuff- In this entry, I'm going to cover a lot of ground including my snooping around the movie lot hoping to get a glimpse of things I'm not supposed to be privy to, including the making of the Constantine and Catwoman movie that are currently going into production.

But first, Tuesdays are new releases day - in terms of DVDs and CDs and whatever have you. Taking a extra long lunch break at work today (after a continous marathon of putting in 23 hours of OT) I made the sojourn to the nearest Best Buy and looked over the new products that came in. A lot of television series box sets this week. Fox has released the intriguing taut serial thriller of the second season of 24, and the third season of Family Guy - which was magically disappearing before my very eyes. I saw a store associate stock the shelves twice in a span of fifteen minutes. Disney released a special edition of Sleeping Beauty, and Paramount is hoping that people get the message of the Core this time around as well as MGM with their not so well received adapation of the Dark Horse/Image comic book, Bulletproof Monk. Both have deleted scenes with commentary.

The only new CDs that are noteworthy and the ones I spotted were a DVD/CD of Kiss 's Orchestra tour and the first of the Britney Spears cattle call of uninspiring imitiators, Hilary Duff- some teenage tart that made a movie stupid enough to be released opposite X-2 called the Lizzy McQuire Movie. Not much of a Kiss fan. Something I grew out when I was a teenager and turned my attention to true musical virtuosoes such as those involved with Yes, Genesis, & ELP. The tradition continues in current relatively unknown bands such as Spock's Beard, Marillion, the Flower Kings, and Porcupine Tree. Radiohead is the only hip band (those who records hit the top ten charts) I'm willing to listen to. At 39, everyone expects you to whip out the Tony Bennett records to save yourself from massive dose of hearing loss. I still feel the vitality to venture on, sonic wise.


The new TV fall season is just days away with the much anticipated 3rd season premiere of Enterprise (actually it's tomorrow night) and the not so eagerily anticipated debut of Jake 2.0. You think by hearing a title like that- it would be a Saturday Night Live skit parodying someone's penis size. I tried to pitch the major studios the idea of Cary 1.5 as a remake of Herman's Head with the exception that it would be two major heads who think alike- well, I guess the networks dropped the drawers on that one.


On my book shelf, waiting to be read is the long mostly anticipated comic book grudge match of the decade, or maybe it was concieved way back in the eighties- but it's finally here- the first issue of JLA meets the Avengers by Kurt Busiek and George Perez. Haven't read it yet, but I can't stop comparing it to the equivilent of walking into a record store and seeing a new Boston album. I mean, those baby boomers who were salivating over this one when it was first announced all those many years ago have probably been married and divorced three times and selling their children's excrement over E-bay thinking they never would see the day when this would happen. I'll probably make time tomorrow night to read my copy while I'm taping Enterprise. Another notable archive collection from DC has come out chronicles the Batman when Neal Adams took over the character in the late sixties. Exquisite. A lot of the inking has been redone and digitalized. A lot of the material covers a lot of the Brave and the Bold team-ups and World's Finest. Well worth it's weight, however I wish the price was ten dollars lower than it's suggested retail of $ 49.95.

On the Deposit Man front, Oliver came by last night and picked up the cover to scan digitally into the computer so when we apply the logo in which Alan Sinder is supposed to supply me. The cover is a magnificent watercolor provided by my new inker Mas. So my duty sometime this week is to provide the text features such as the Page 30 essay, the credits and indicia and arrange some ads to go on the back cover. (I'm gunning for Clive Nolan, a keyboard player to UK area progressive rock bands such as Arena & Pendragon, who incidently has a cameo appearance in the first ten pages to provide me with an advert of the Arena's new DVD, Caught in the Act) On top of that, I have to arrange a printing qoute from Brenner Printing sometime before this month is over.

Okay, I'm experimenting - I want to personally chronicle what is going down on the movie lot with the Constantine project. For those not in the know, Constantine is based on a Vertigo Comic Book series called Hellblazer- it's lead character, John Constantine is a sort of a unwitting British sorcerer who stumbles and fumbles his way through dire supernatural situations. He's not one of those guys who waves his palm like a magician and make things magically disappear. He sort of complicates his way through circumstances beyond his control and screw things up or is in it for personal gain and is not beyond the concept of betraying a few friends along the way. He was first introduced as a homage to the rock star Sting in the pages of Swamp Thing- but with Keanu Reeves in the title role sort of diminishes the authenicity of his true comic book roots and is now 'Americanized' by these script doctors who probably never picked up a comic book in their entire life. Hellblazer was also known as a comic book that really cuts the eyeteeth of many 'idolized' British comic book writers currently famous today such as Neil Gaiman, Jamie Deleando, and Warren Ellis. So I scurried every square inch of the lot today- and I happened to stumble across the make up trailer and few of the actors' trailer. Didn't spot either the stars Rachel Weiez or Keanu. In the make up trailer there were people inside hanging pictures of some monstrous make up precedures that looks like it just came fresh off the mold . It seems as if they're going to do this in layers to whoever is playing this demon looking guy in various stages of transformations. It seems the production has moved to the biggest stage on the lot from I was originally led to believe.

Thursday I shall return with more musings from my constant infernal snooping. I will be seeing Matchstick Men with Nicolas Cage on Thursday night and I will report back on whether it's good or should be rolled up in a bowl of excrement and served piping hot to those on the Skate Jesus forum.

~

Coat
TESTING, TESTING

Sometimes this stuff doesn't always work.

Monday, September 08, 2003

TUESDAYS AND THURSDAYS

I'll be doing this blog on Tuesday and Thursday nights for the foreseeable future-

I'm serious about releasing this new Deposit Man book- just received the cover Friday night and I'm on my way to Kinko's to reduce it down so that Oliver Simonsen can put it through the wrangler of Photoshop effects.

Most of my weekend nights will be writing the text pieces such as my editorial, the indicia, coordinating the ad space and pin-up pages - I will be a very very busy little boy for this month until the book is off to the printer.

But I will make room tomorrow and Thursday for any movie production observations that I may run into on the lot.

See you tomorrow.

~

Coat