The Hollywood Roller Coaster

Today I found out that my production company can't afford to keep me on this month. They haven't been paid yet for one of their two shows, and the show I work on doesn't generate enough revenue to pay for production costs and three employees.

SO I have to wait and find out if they need me in January. The upside is that while they've laid off a total of 5 people in the past two weeks, the owner and the director of the show both told me that I was the first being re-hired. I should know something the last week of December.

HOPEFULLY, I'll make a little extra scratch on a game show. I tried out for a show a couple days before I started work. Today -the same day I got laid off- I got a call to be on the show on Monday the 4th. I'll be in the mob, not the "one", but I can still win money.

Obviously, I'll have a report one way or the other on Monday. I also promise a funny, or at least an attempted funny post soon.

Happy Thanksgiving and stuff...

Many thanks to my friends that read this blog.

In your honor, I am going to eat like a freak today.

In other news, I saw the new James Bond last week. Bobbo gave it a super-quick review, and he's captured the essence basically.

Since I made a big honkin' prediction about the new Bond, I should rate my success.

The movie itself was satisfactory, maybe an "S+". The inevitable end to the romance was far too long in coming. I didn't know if she would be a liar, or killed but it was a little too clear that Bond had to have that "big one" in the beginning of his career which would ensure (and justify) his treatment of women over the next 40 years.

Frankly, I didn't give a crap. I think it would have been fine if Bond were simply cavalier about women because he could always die tomorrow. Or maybe he's simply a misogynist, or whatever reason you want to invent. I know they were trying to give Bond some depth and trying to make him more of a real person. The problem is, Bond is a super-hero without powers. He can out-fight, out-drive, out-shoot, out-think, and out-fuck all of us mortals, and look cool all the while. Sure, he should sweat from time to time, but you know he's going to get out of it.

Bond is the way he is with women because there' a part of every guy that wishes he could do everything that Bond can do. If Bond is the way he is with women because his wittle hewrt got bwoken once, he's kind of a pussy.

Many of the reviews praised the choice to make Bond more human. I think the wrong turn happened after Goldeneye was such a success. It was a pretty good movie, but it was almost a pure action film...and so that's the way they went for the next few times. Bond movies are PART action movie, but there is a lot to separate them from an Arnold flick.

I think the real triumph in CASINO ROYALE was making the movie about more than just crap blowing up. While lots of people came down on the poker scene being too long, I was glad there was some non-explosive competition between Bond and his villain.

In the other prediction, I think Craig is the best Bond since Connery. To be fair, everyone wants something a little different from their Bond. For my money thought, Craig is going to be able to give the most people the most satisfaction for their Bond buck.

A whole Month!!

Well, it's been over a month since my last post. Quite a bit has happened. For starters, I have a new day job.

I'm an associate producer on a show called What it Takes. For all my crapping on celebs, and hating/being jealous of the cult of celebrity, my job is now to write and produce a half-hour show that is essentially a big, sloppy, wet knob job for a different celeb each week.

The other day, I poured over 10 different articles about Ben Affleck's past and career.

On the plus side, I have absolutely -no- feelings or creative ego over what I'm working on. It's actually quite liberating in a way, because I make any and all changes wanted by the network without blinking an eye.

The poor girl who's the senior producer is glad to have me on board (she's been producing the show by herself until now) and I really like the owners (Michael and Gui, a gay Egyptian/Armenian and Spaniard couple) the editors, my co-producers, the editors and even the production assistants. It's a Norman Rockwell painting of a place to work, but with lots of gay jokes and sexual harassment.

Today I field produced an interview with one of our "expert" journalists about Cameron Diaz. Field producing sounds awfully impressive, so let me spell it out for the uninitiated; I asked the questions we wrote in the office for the journalist, and wrote down the ending timecode for good takes. The shooter that accompanied me framed the shot, set up the lights, monitored the audio, mics the journalist and runs the camera.

It was exhausting.

Thursday I go to the Superman Returns DVD release party. I have to ask a few questions about "what surprises are on the DVD" and that sort of stuff for 25 minutes, then dig into the free buffet and get my free swag. I'm hoping for something made of Kryptonite.

I dig my new job.

Since it's been so long since I've posted, here's a double-subject. I wanted to blog about this months ago, but apparently not enough to actually do it.
I think Daniel Craig will be the best Bond since Connery. I know Gressis (and millions of others, to be fair) think Moore was the best Bond, and Remington Steel was excellent.
While I liked Moore fine, he was a -touch- too campy for my taste. Bond is campy, no doubt, but at the end of the day you have to believe he can really kick your ass. I don't think any of them have had that since Connery.

Jami and I saw LAYER CAKE when it came out, and we both really liked it. I said then, and I stand by the assertion that Daniel Craig looks quite a bit like Steve McQueen.

I've seen that written several places since he was announced as the new Bond, so I wish I'd written it down sooner, even though I'm sure thousands made the comparison.

I haven't really liked a Bond movie since GOLDENEYE, and I don't think there's been a great one since A VIEW TO A KILL (Moore's last one...right? It was that or OCTOPUSSY).

So I want to go on record and state I think Craig has the potential to bring something back to the Bond movies that I feel has been missing for a long time. Now, I know the writers did a couple of the more recent Bond movies, so that's a big hurdle.
The director helmed THE MASK OF ZORRO and GOLDENEYE, which is a plus, but he directed the new ZORRO movie as well, so who knows...

On a final note, I saw BORAT. Hee-larious. But, I don't know how he can do BRUNO, (my favorite Coen character) now that everyone's in on the joke.