Fanboys too lazy to support ‘Fanboys’

A “Star Wars” fan group known as the 501st called for fellow fans to show up at Friday’s screenings of the Weinstein Co.’s “Superhero Movie” at AMC Theatres in New York and Los Angeles. Only a couple of fans showed up and quickly found out that you can’t hold a protest on public property.

Personally, I have no interest in seeing a movie about four diehard “Star Wars” fans who break into George Lucas’ Skywalker Ranch in order to see “The Phantom Menace” on the eve of its release. The film wrapped production two years ago and has been stuck in limbo as a tug-of-war between Harvey Weinstein and the filmmakers waged over competing versions of the movie. The movie, written by Ernie Cline and Adam Goldberg, stars Jay Baruchel, Kristin Bell, Dan Fogler, Sam Huntington, Christopher Marquette and Seth Rogen.

Despite Kristen Bell’s participation in the project, the only way I could watch this movie is if it ends with the fans seeing The Phantom Menace and beating the crap out of George Lucas. Anything that is going to treat The Phantom Menace as something worth watching I will not support.

Read the Hollywood Reporter article here.

Johnny Sokko and his Giant Robot are back!

Recently I found Internet gold with Hulu.com. Somehow this site has managed to load up with a wide selection of televison shows and movies for your viewing pleasure and all for FREE!

One of the nostalgic gems on this list is Johnny Sokko and his Giant Robot.

With the success of the Godzilla and Gamera movies Japanese TV began to produce similar properties. Ultraman was one of the first (and longest lived) series. Premiering on American syndication in 1969, Johnny Sokko was based on a popular manga called Giant Robo. The show followed the adventures of young Johnny, who after gaining control of a giant flying robot, is recruited by the Japanese super-spy agency UNICORN to help defend Earth against an invasion from the planet Gargoyle. The Gargoylians are led by the evil squid-headed Emperor Guillotine. Among Guillotine’s chief henchmen are the silver skinned Dr. Botanus, The Executionor, Harlequin, and Spider. The Gargoyle troops appear to be a combination of Nazis and Beatniks in drab gray uniforms with cool Ray-Ban glasses and sporty black berets with skull symbols. The Gargoyles deploy a variety of Godzilla-type monsters to fight Giant Robot.

I have become addicted to Hulu.com, rewatching shows from the past and catching up on shows that I missed the first time around. First free internet porn now this! I love technology.

Lilith Stabs Interview by The Angry Princess

Lilith Stabs is an actress, model and writer, acting mostly in independent horror flicks with titles like Vampire Callgirls, Severe Injuries, Zombiegeddon and Bad Movie Police. She has two pet bunnies who are her sidekicks at many of the events Lilith attends. She enjoys working both sides of the camera, modeling and shooting photos for others. Lilith is currently working on her first children’s book and is hopeful about launching this new project soon!

What advice do you have for the women out there that have a low self esteem? Any advice on confidence boosters?

Ah, when I was younger I suppose my esteem was not always great. I think it comes with accomplishments (for what ever that woman wants to accomplish). And no one should really buy into the physical perfection that society places on ones looks. I’m probably not one to talk though, I’m also never against someone being creative with their looks and roving themselves. But only if they do it for themselves to make them happy not to please someone else!

How did you get involved in the horror business?

In the later part of the 90’s I started attending some comic/media conventions, did a bit of networking and as a result got my first movie Vampire Callgirls. Did my first convention appearance at the Pittsbugh Comicon and got to be a guest in the London Knight Studios Razor comic book (as Lilith I battled demons with Razor). On a little side note my first bunny at the time was Cozy he also appeared in the comic book with me:) From there of course networking led to more work.

I know you love rabbits to death! What is it about bunnies that make you like them so much?

I do indeed. If I had the space I would run a rabbit rescue. I just really love them, they are really great pets. If you pay them attention their personalities really come out. I personally think they are beautiful as well. I am always picking up different props for them to shoot photos with. They both seem to not mind doing shoots. I think alot of people don’t treat rabbits right, that is why I always write every year about people who buy them as pets for Easter. It can create a sad situation for the bunny.

I really liked hearing your interview answers in Something to Scream About. Have you ever met Brinke Stevens?

Thanks about the interview. I’ve met Brinke at various conventions over the years and she is a great lady and a true Scream Queen icon.

What is your favorite horror movie and why?

In the last few years I’d still have to say I love Donnie Darko. Its not a regular horror movie. I liked the message. And hey, there was a bunny in it. lol

What is the oddest rumor you have heard about yourself?

Probably that I quit the movie biz! Well let me tell you I never really quit. I moved from the East coast out to the L.A. area, shortly after I moved to L.A. I shut down my myspace page. Bad idea! That was where everyone had been contacting me and lost track of so many contacts! So that may have been why that rumor got started somehow. So about a year and a half later I decided to open a new page, the one I now have.

You are in the middle of writing a children’s book. Can you tell us a little of what it’s about?

Well, I did copyright it so I can talk about it a little. I’m pretty much finished with the story. There is, of course, a bunny in it and some bees too! It’s got a really positive message for children so I think it will be a really good project. Of course I will need to find the artist for it first. If I attempted the art it would be stick figures! lol I love art, it’s sadly just not one of my talents. Too bad though, because I can see it in my mind but not create it myself, kind of frustrating.

Did you find someone to illustrate for you yet? My fiancée is an excellent artist, hint!

No not yet, well tell your fiancée and see what he thinks about it.

Do you have any musical talents? What are some of your favorite bands?

hmmm…. Talent? I used to play drums when I was a teenager. But other than that just some vocal stuff (singing and spoken word). I have written quite a few different song lyrics from the past work I did on a CD that I ended up getting ripped off. Only got 3 of the songs but recorded about 10. Ah, that’s always nice!

Any new movies coming out that we need to be aware of?

I’ve learned NEVER to speak of new movies/shows because every single time I do they don’t come out or the release date gets moved back….2 years. lol. And then I get fans asking me about it and have no idea what even happened myself. I usually hold off talking till after things get released now. I’ve been offered a few interesting roles as of late but I better not speak of it or else it will probably never film.

Starz shows the REAL ‘GRINDHOUSE’

GRINDHOUSE was a theatrical event. Something that had to be experienced in the theater. A Double Feature in the style of the exploitation grindhouse films of yesteryear. Planet Terror and Death Proof were both crafted brilliantly by Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino respectively. Unfortunately the marketing was either poorly executed or people didn’t care nor get the idea or all of those things combined and it was a finacial flop. Because of this, the two films were released separately on DVD.

Now for the first time since it’s release, Starz is showing the theatrical cut of GRINDHOUSE. So if you are a subscriber to Starz, read the press release below and get ready for some grindhousey fun. I still say if you haven’t seen GRINDHOUSE in the theater – you haven’t seen GRINDHOUSE.

Press Release: FAKE TRAILERS, BAD CUTS, MISSING SCENES

SEE!!!! TARANTINO & RODRIGUEZ’S GRINDHOUSE THE WAY IT WAS MEANT TO BE SEEN

On Starz March 31 at 9:00 P.M. (et/pt)

Englewood, Colo., March 25, 2008 – Starz presents Grindhouse, Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez’s homage to exploitation B-movie thrillers Monday, March 31 at 9:00 p.m. Over three hours, the two feature-length films, turned into a double-bill, complete with fake trailers, missing scenes and bad film stock will be shown in its entirety, the way it was originally screened in movie theaters. In Robert Rodriguez’s Planet Terror, a small-town deals with an outbreak of murderous, infected people called “sickos,” and a gun-legged stripper named Cherry (Rose McGowan) and her martial arts-wielding boyfriend (Freddy Rodriguez) take on the zombie army. Quentin Tarantino’s Death Proof has a psycho named Stuntman Mike (Kurt Russell) stalking and killing beautiful women with his ‘70s muscle car.

Grindhouse features fake movie trailers directed by Rodriguez, Rob Zombie (Halloween, The Devil’s Rejects), Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead) and Eli Roth (Hostel, Hostel: Part II).

‘American Zombie’ Director, Grace Lee on TISS Radio – Mon 9PM EST

Monday night, March 31st, at 9PM EST. American Zombie director, Grace Lee will be our very special Guest on This Is Some Scene Radio. Tune in to to hear all about this fresh, funny and wildly entertaining movie.

AMERICAN ZOMBIE tells the story of two Los Angeles filmmakers who set out to
document a group of high-functioning zombies and their struggles to gain acceptance
in human society. After weeks of following four charismatic characters, the filmmakers
gain permission to shoot at a three-day, zombies-only retreat where the documentary
takes an unexpected – and dangerous – turn.

Directed by Grace Lee and written by Rebecca Sonnenshine and Lee, AMERICAN
ZOMBIE is a dark comedy, shot documentary style, starring Austin Basis, Suzy
Nakamura, Al Vicente, Jane Edith Wilson, and featuring Lee and John Solomon as
themselves. The film is produced by In-Ah Lee and executive produced by Teddy
Hoon-Tack Jung.

Indy 4 TV Spot: Anticipation Increased to 10

May 22 is getting closer and with the arrival of the fourth installment of the Indiana Jones franchise we are getting teased just enough. This TV spot online gives us a few more new moments making Gen X’ers like myself the feeling of being 30 going on 13.

Watch the Indy 4 TV Spot! 

Tiffany Shepis Interview by The Angry Princess

What was it like growing up in New York City?

I loved growing up in the city- any type of food you can imagine, best bars and the hottest guys!!;)

Out of all the crazy roles you have been cast into which would you have to say was the most fun?

I had the most fun with my character in The Hazing only cause I got to do the whole Brad Dourif makeup thing. Nightmare Man was a good time too… I mean how could it not be… demon rape and all.

What is your favorite Horror movie and why?

No clue too many to name, but was always a HUGE fan of Night Breed. Why?? Motherfucking Dr. Decker!!!!

What advice would you give to women out there with weak self esteems? Was there ever a time in your life when you weren’t comfortable about your body?

I’m not really good with that stuff… I’m actually pretty sucky. I would say something like. “Oh you hate your face?…get plastic surgery”! Ha ha J/K.  I think everybody has some type of issue with themselves or something they don’t like,. Just hope that as one gets older they learn to embrace what’s different about them. I got made fun of in grade school about my big ass…so FUCK EM!!!

A couple months ago I reviewed and liked the short you were in called Spilt Milk. I really didn’t think it would go that way. What is your opinion of someone who leaves there newborn in a dumpster?

Really? Uh, OK my opinion is if you leave a kid in the dumpster you should be shot in the face.

What made you decide to get into acting?

Loved movies… loved Troma… LOVE HORROR. Made my first one Tromeo and Juliet and I was hooked, no turning back. Oh yea and I’m not really good at anything else;)

Do you have a personal favorite horror icon or scream queen?

Love me some D-Ro and I’m a big, big fan of Pinhead as an icon he was just BAD ASS!!!!!!

Who are your favorite bands?

Don’t listen to “Bands”. I’m a hip hop girl however I have a 3 year-old so all that’s in my stereo is Barbies greatest hits. I wanna blow my brains out.

What is the worst pick up line you have ever heard while out one night?

Don’t know but the best one I’ve heard said by my neighbor Bob was, “Hey baby…I’ve got health insurance”. PERFECT!

Who or what do you think you were in a past life?

President Eisenhower

Whedon’s ‘Dollhouse’ gets Galactica co-star

Being a hardcore Joss Whedon fan, the news of his new Fox series Dollhouse makes me giddy with anticipation. Buffy the Vampire Slayer was, in my opinion, the BEST show EVER on televison. But don’t take my word for it. Recently, Buffy was ranked #2 in EMPIRE magazine’s 50 Best TV Shows of ALL TIME. The Simpsons took the #1 spot. Buffy was ranked #1 in UGO’s Top 10. The series also made it in TIME Magazine’s 2007 All Time 100 as well as TV Guide’s 2002 Top 50 list.

Firefly is another amazing and perfect Whedon show that I hold dear. Its unfortunate time slot was most likely its downfall but it still is one kick-ass season and the movie, Serenity, is awesome.

Now we have Dollhouse starring Buffy’s Faith, Eliza Dushku. Here is Fox’s description of Dollhouse.

“Echo (Eliza Dushku) [is] a young woman who is literally everybody’s fantasy. She is one of a group of men and women who can be imprinted with personality packages, including memories, skills, language—even muscle memory—for different assignments. The assignments can be romantic, adventurous, outlandish, uplifting, sexual and/or very illegal. When not imprinted with a personality package, Echo and the others are basically mind-wiped, living like children in a futuristic dorm/lab dubbed the Dollhouse, with no memory of their assignments—or of much else. The show revolves around the childlike Echo’s burgeoning self-awareness, and her desire to know who she was before, a desire that begins to seep into her various imprinted personalities and puts her in danger both in the field and in the closely monitored confines of the Dollhouse.”

It sounds a bit confusing but I’m not going to argue with the man who gave me so much to love on Television. The latest Dollhouse news is that Battlestar Galactica co-star Tahmoh Penikett, Fran Kranz (“Welcome to the Captain”), Australian Dichen Lachman and Enver Gjokaj have all been cast in the show.

This Is Some Scene will keep you up-to-date on Dollhouse, so stay tuned. For now, you can read the Hollywood Reporter article below.

“Battlestar Galactica” co-star Tahmoh Penikett, Fran Kranz (“Welcome to the Captain”), Australian Dichen Lachman and Enver Gjokaj have moved into Joss Whedon’s “Dollhouse.”

The four join Eliza Dushku on the 20th Century Fox TV-produced drama, which received a seven-episode order shortly before the strike.

“Dollhouse” revolves around a group of young men and women, aka “Dolls,” who are imprinted with different personalities for different assignments. They have no memories of their previous lives, until Echo (Dushku) begins to try to find out who she was.

Penikett will play Paul Smith, an FBI field agent obsessed with the urban myth of Dollhouse and a twisted romantic foil for Echo.

Kranz will play Topher Brink, a twentysomething genius programmer responsible for imprinting the dolls.

Lachman will play Sierra, a doll like Echo and her friend, who has every personality in the world but her own.

Gjokaj will play Victor, also a doll and a friend of Echo’s, who is childlike when he’s inactive, and everything from Errol Flynn to young DeNiro when he’s active.

TISS NEW TIMES! Monday’s and Thursday’s at 9PM EST

Please note that This Is Some Scene has changed its time. We will now be on Monday nights at 9PM EST instead of Sunday nights and Thursday night’s LOST show has changed from 10:30 PM EST to the new time at 9PM EST.Easy enough to remember Monday’s and Thursday’s at 9PM EST. Join us.

The Modern Library honors Elaine Pagels’ Gnostic Gospels

If I had to choose another career in life, it would be a historian. But if I had to narrow that down even further to a niche, it would probably be a Biblical scholar. I do not subscribe to any religion. I am not Christian and I do not accept Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. That last admission might make some of you who read it very uncomfortable. It took a long time for me to openly say that without fear of fire and brimstone, the guilt brought forth from a Roman Catholic upbringing. An upbringing that convinced me that the Bible was the word of God.

I am, however a very spiritual person, despite the fact that I strayed from the Church and no longer consider myself a Christian. This can all be blamed on Star Wars. You are now thinking, how can Ralph’s loss of faith be traced back to a sci-fi movie from 1977. Two words; Joseph Campbell.

It is no secret to any Star Wars fan that George Lucas used Joseph Campbell’s “Hero’s Journey” to map out the screenplay for Star Wars. In an effort to learn story telling, I read everything by Joseph Campbell, even watching him with Bill Moyers on the PBS special The Power of Myth. For the first time I found out that what I was taught was not exactly the truth and that the Bible didn’t have exclusive rights to these stories. Throughout the ancient world the same stories were being told, adapted for the culture it was written in. The Noah Flood story was not original as I previously thought. It was originally The Epic of Gilgamesh from Ancient Mesopotamia, rewritten with a Hebrew twist. On and on the Bible became filled with stolen stories and contradictions. My eyes were open and I saw the Bible as part historical document but mostly mythology. I started to study religion as a whole but focusing on the Old Testament and the origins of Christianity. When you understand history and the reason behind the text, it no longer feels divine. You start to see the influence of a patriarchal society, one in which women are stripped of the power they had in the older pagan religions. And we are still seeing the effects of these narrow minded views with the destruction of “Mother Earth.” Almost all ancient religions lived in harmony with the Earth but the Western belief, which can be traced back to the Old Testament, that man has reign of the Earth and all the creatures has been a destructive one. As a direct result, we don’t live in harmony with the planet and we are seeing the effects now.

All my studying led me to Elaine Pagels. Her book “The Gnostic Gospels” was chosen by the Modern Library as one of the 100 best non-fiction books of the 20th century. When I discovered Elaine Pagels, I was blown away by what I read. In addition to “The Gnostic Gospels”, her other books; “Adam, Eve and the Serpent”, “The Origin of Satan” and “Beyond Belief: The Secret Gospel of Thomas” are all chock-full of information explaining the origins of the beliefs held and what was going on in the society at the time to have created that belief. What is in the Bible is only a fraction of what was left out of the Bible and most of what Elaine talks about is those omitted books and the reasons behind their omission. The History Channel has a series called Banned from the Bible which is along the same lines.  If only people would stop being so willfully blind to the obvious fact that the Bible is the result of so many hands and emendations. America suffers from religious illiteracy. Outside of the entertainment world, this is my other passion. I am always blown away at how little people know about the faith they hold on to – a faith that they claim is the most important thing in their life yet they are completely ignorant to 99% of where that belief system came from. They have an elementary level knowledge and because of this ignorance it breeds so much negativity – an Us vs. Them mentallity which has pushed the world into turmoil. I don’t want to say that the world is the worst it has ever been. I don’t believe that – I love history and if you study history, you know that wars have always been waged because of religion and money or both. But we should be smarter than that now.

When asked in a recent interview in Primetime A&E about excercising care and responsibility when citing the Bible and the use of irresponsible political rhetoric for the past few years, Elaine Pagels responded as follows:

 As you know, I spend most of my time in the second century and the questions I ask come from the twenty-first century completely. But that doesn’t make me an expert on today’s religion and politics. But, yes, I have been very concerned. We’ve always had Presidents who were Christian – everyone of them so far – and they did not hesitate to speak about those values in office. However, when it came to the Iraq War, the President was making the decision to start a war sound as though it were a religious decision and he made it sound non-negotiable, as though it were not a strategic decision or a political decision that should be decided by the representitives of the people. So that if you disagreed, you were on the wrong side of God. And that kind of language I think is highly questionable.  

 

Her latest book, Reading Judas: The Gospel of Judas and the Shaping of Christianity has been highly controversial. It challenges the “political” rhetoric of the church leaders of the late 1st or early 2nd century when the original Greek text was written.  I am not sure if starting out with her books might be a bit heavy for a newbie. I was researching for years before I found her and so it all fell into place. But if you want to give it shot, start out with The Gnostic Gospels. But if you just want to test the waters, I’m sure there is a Gnostic Gospels for Dummies or an Idiots Guide out there (those books are excellent, I read them all the time and I am not suggesting you are stupid if you read them.)

 Believe those who are seeking the truth. Doubt those who find it – Andre Gide  

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