SKY COATNEY AND THE WORLD OF THE HERE AND RIGHT NOW!

Was unfortunate enough to catch Sherry Lansing leaving the lot last Friday evening and lordy, is her ass enormous. But I can overlook such discrepancies as I now sing the praises of what I hope of will be a very successful motion picture franchise for a studio I used to abhor for drop kicking poor Robert Evans in the teeth that sent him into a tailspin of poverty.

Not since Indiana Jones, has there been a movie that invokes a heartwarming passion for all things nostalgic such as radio show decoder ring giveaways and science fiction pulp magazines that serves as backdrop material as to what is lovingly etched in Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow.

This movie rocked my world. If it had been released 25 years earlier- it would have rocked my childhood as well and that's only a smattering of an analogy. I don't what Paramount studios had to fear by not releasing this during the summer- I think it would have raked in the big bucks and would have gone equally toe to toe with Spider-Man 2. But I think it's biggest competition will be Sin City (2005) film adaption that is currently in post production from directors Frank Miller & Robert Rodriguez)

Jude Law is exquisite in the title row- it's as if he just leaped off the cover of some old Weird Tales or some Argosy pulp magazine publication. I can almost forgive Conran for casting Gwyneth Paltrow in the lead female role of Polly Perkins( I sometimes wonder what the result would be if Angelina Jolie and Gwyneth Paltrow's roles were somehow reversed- 'cause you know, I just can't just have enough pouty lip screentime with Jolie - but a female tribute to Nick Fury? Who else could make sense out of the role of Commander Frankie?) with those age lines so clearly visible on her face. I'm glad Conran had the good sense not to shoot her wardrobe anywhere above the knee, because man, from what I recall from that bathing suit scene in the Talented Mr. Ripley, The (1999) , she has some nasty cottage cheese brewing back there on the booty and thighs. What strikes me the most about Conran's extremely gifted directing debut, besides the superb job the actors delivered under his almost all blue screened tutelage, the jaundiced painted backdrops of yellows, greys, and brown as if juxaposed by Maxfield Parrish, and the seamless kaleidoscopic parade of visual effects, is the painstaking research that it took him to bring it all to life. I had heard that Conran got all the authenticity of the 1940's New York City look just by going over pictures in textbooks and seeking out props from that era such as old comic books.

A phone conversation with Larry Nadolsky revealed to me that Scott Goodell is once again paired up with C.J. Henderson on a slew of books which I assume is being reprinted from Death Comics in a tp entitled Scamm or something of that nature. Larry said that Scott is plying his trade to new Phantom and Doc Savage books through Moonstone I'm wondering if Scott has done any research on Doc Savage or knows what the character even looks like.(Kings Feature Syndicate daily strip)I wonder why Moonstone doesn' try their luck with an adaption of Robert Crais's bestselling Elvis Cole novels or Clive Clusser's Dirk Pitt?

Batman and Brian Michael Bendis treatment of the Avengers.

I'll talk in length about them in the next Sky Coatney installment.

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Coat