Good morning, gentle readers, and welcome to the start of a whole new week!
And by the way ... how was that weekend of yours?
Mine? Ahhh. It was ... okay. Nothing all that elaborate, just a whole lot of little things. The wifey and I caught a Saturday afternoon matinee of 1974's Young Frankenstein -- arguably one of the funniest Horror/Comedies ever made -- and then ran a few errands. Sunday was pretty much more of the same, but we did manage to squeeze in a 'Country Gals' concert in the afternoon. So, yes, it was a reasonably busy one, but a great time was had by all. Sunday night, I spent a fair amount of the evening working on the blog, as they say.
Like you, I'm all in for a whole new work, though. I'm ready and raring for the opportunities that present themselves, so let's buckle down and get to the grit and grime of the Daily Grindhouse.
And by the way ... how was that weekend of yours?
Mine? Ahhh. It was ... okay. Nothing all that elaborate, just a whole lot of little things. The wifey and I caught a Saturday afternoon matinee of 1974's Young Frankenstein -- arguably one of the funniest Horror/Comedies ever made -- and then ran a few errands. Sunday was pretty much more of the same, but we did manage to squeeze in a 'Country Gals' concert in the afternoon. So, yes, it was a reasonably busy one, but a great time was had by all. Sunday night, I spent a fair amount of the evening working on the blog, as they say.
Like you, I'm all in for a whole new work, though. I'm ready and raring for the opportunities that present themselves, so let's buckle down and get to the grit and grime of the Daily Grindhouse.
From what I can remember of my youth, there was a bit of a UFO craze in the mid-to-late 1970's. I suspect some of this was fueled by sightings -- or should I say 'alleged sightings' -- but it very well could be that the collective thirst for more Science Fiction and Fantasy -- the genre set on fire with the 1977 release of Star Wars -- might also have had something to do with it. This is not to say that society expected those little green men to show up bearing lightsabers but rather we were a people awakened to the possibilities of life beyond our own so a bit of spillover into other related fields was a probably a result.
So ... leave the powers that be in Hollywood to try to get out in front of the public demand for more SciFi and Fantasy by trying to tap darn near anything that could've satiated our hunger, and that likely explains why anyone thought that Project U.F.O. (1978-1979) was a good idea. It didn't have any elaborate special effects -- certainly nothing on par with what George Lucas and/or Steven Spielberg were having done on the silver screen -- but it did have the occasional flying saucer along with some creepy representations of alien lifeforms. Kudos to producers for making a go of it, but I do recall being largely unimpressed.
If I remember this one correctly, each week trying to give a particular case file from the U.S. Air Force's Project Blue Book -- the official investigation into the phenomenon -- a bit of a deep dive. As tends to happen when Hollywood gets their hands on any story, the people, places, and events had to get a bit salacious at times in order for their to be a tale worth exploring. I would imagine that the UFO brainiacs of the day probably took issue with the changing of details in order to make for a more compelling investigation, but that's what storytellers have to do in order to sell the sizzle of a good yarn.
Project U.F.O. premiered on this day back in 1978.
So ... leave the powers that be in Hollywood to try to get out in front of the public demand for more SciFi and Fantasy by trying to tap darn near anything that could've satiated our hunger, and that likely explains why anyone thought that Project U.F.O. (1978-1979) was a good idea. It didn't have any elaborate special effects -- certainly nothing on par with what George Lucas and/or Steven Spielberg were having done on the silver screen -- but it did have the occasional flying saucer along with some creepy representations of alien lifeforms. Kudos to producers for making a go of it, but I do recall being largely unimpressed.
If I remember this one correctly, each week trying to give a particular case file from the U.S. Air Force's Project Blue Book -- the official investigation into the phenomenon -- a bit of a deep dive. As tends to happen when Hollywood gets their hands on any story, the people, places, and events had to get a bit salacious at times in order for their to be a tale worth exploring. I would imagine that the UFO brainiacs of the day probably took issue with the changing of details in order to make for a more compelling investigation, but that's what storytellers have to do in order to sell the sizzle of a good yarn.
Project U.F.O. premiered on this day back in 1978.
Here is today's cautionary tale, gentle readers: "kids, don't grow up to be a 'Josh Trank.'"
Now, I don't recall all of the specifics on this one, but from what I can remember Trank was somewhat christened with the 'Next Big Thing' label by folks in the entertainment industry. His film Chronicle (2012) was a modestly budgeted sleeper/superhero flick that largely came out of nowhere and showed audiences once again what could be accomplished by relative unknowns. Riding the waves of positive energy, Trank was suddenly on everyone's radar, and -- before too long -- he found himself playing in the big leagues. 20th Century Fox hired him to reboot the Fantastic Four -- a Marvel property that hasn't exactly found good luck on the big screen -- and things were definitely looking up for the young director.
Well ...
Apparently, the FF reboot was a bit of chaos behind the scenes. Again, I'm not aware of every little rumor, but I seem to recall the director being alleged to have gotten into some fisticuffs with a performer or two. Somewhere around this time, Trank's star was still rising, and Kathleen Kennedy apparently wanted him to come aboard the Lucasfilm fiasco to develop a Star Wars project. Depending upon what you believe, word has it his behind-the-scenes behavior finally caught up with him: whatever the truth there may be, it's a fact that he's had nothing to do with any Star Wars project to date, and I suspect he's still jockeying to land that 'next big job' as his IMDB.com profile indicates very little activity since those days.
Ouch.
Whatever the case, Happy Birthday, Mr. Trank! It's Hollywood, after all, so it's never too late for a comeback!
Now, I don't recall all of the specifics on this one, but from what I can remember Trank was somewhat christened with the 'Next Big Thing' label by folks in the entertainment industry. His film Chronicle (2012) was a modestly budgeted sleeper/superhero flick that largely came out of nowhere and showed audiences once again what could be accomplished by relative unknowns. Riding the waves of positive energy, Trank was suddenly on everyone's radar, and -- before too long -- he found himself playing in the big leagues. 20th Century Fox hired him to reboot the Fantastic Four -- a Marvel property that hasn't exactly found good luck on the big screen -- and things were definitely looking up for the young director.
Well ...
Apparently, the FF reboot was a bit of chaos behind the scenes. Again, I'm not aware of every little rumor, but I seem to recall the director being alleged to have gotten into some fisticuffs with a performer or two. Somewhere around this time, Trank's star was still rising, and Kathleen Kennedy apparently wanted him to come aboard the Lucasfilm fiasco to develop a Star Wars project. Depending upon what you believe, word has it his behind-the-scenes behavior finally caught up with him: whatever the truth there may be, it's a fact that he's had nothing to do with any Star Wars project to date, and I suspect he's still jockeying to land that 'next big job' as his IMDB.com profile indicates very little activity since those days.
Ouch.
Whatever the case, Happy Birthday, Mr. Trank! It's Hollywood, after all, so it's never too late for a comeback!
Of course, you folks know the drill: there's vastly more than this waiting for your discovery over on the Daily Citation Page for February 19th, and this is the point wherein I encourage all of you to head on over to that space, check it out, and relish the details! There's really a whole world awaiting you, and you just have to go and see:
As always, thank you for reading ... thank you for sharing ... thank you for being a fan ... and live long and prosper!
-- EZ
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