New Vampire T-Shirt!

Not to be outdone by previous years, my sister has given me a brand new, brain-melting Vampire t-shirt!



I figured that a Vampire lover like me would be able to name all of these bloodsuckers, but a couple of them have really stumped me. How many can you name?

COMIC-CON Film School 2010 is a WRAP!

The dionysian marathon that is Comic-Con is over, and I have finally slept.

This was year seven of the Film School, and I dare say this was our best year yet. The audience was fabulous, everybody had great questions, and my panelists were superb.

I also find it funny that even though we all live in LA, Comic-Con is the only time I see most of these people. What's awesome, is that there's now a group of folks who come by every year to hang out at the Film School, and I find myself looking forward to seeing them each time. I feel bad, because the class is pretty much the same every year, but they still come by every morning. Out of all the things I wind up doing at the convention, this is, I think, the best part. Walking into that screening room each morning and seeing my friends, (both attendees and panelists,) makes me wanna do this forever.


(I have no idea how Doug Jones wound up in the photo with us.)

Comic-Con also did a fabulous job programming this year. I went to several very cool panels, and got to hear some of my favorite creators talk about how they do what they do.

And as an added bonus, the premier of Lost Boys 3 took place at my hotel on Friday night! Now, obviously, that in and of itself is some Vampire badassness, but the coolest part is that my friend Kent Kubena PRODUCED the thing! The movie's a whole lotta fun, with some nice additions to the genre, including some very creative ways of killing Vampires. I walked out of that screening very happy, and when a WB guy grabbed me and said, "Do you wanna give your reactions on camera?' I was like..."Yeah, I've got somethin' to say about this movie."

And it looks like I made the final cut. (My part's near the end.)



I would have gone to see this movie even if Kent hadn't had anything to do with it, because, VAMPIRES, but it was fun to sneak into his EPK without him knowing. :)

VAMPIRE CON!

Vampire Con was last weekend!



What do you mean, "What the hell is Vampire Con?"



VAMPIRE CON

This was year 2 of the convention, which is basically a big gathering of people who love Vampires. There are Vampire products sold, costume contests, and best of all: Movie Screenings!

Imagine just how goofy the smile on my face was when I found out that they were showing Werner Herzog's 1979 remake of Nosferatu!



The only way I've ever seen this movie was on an old VHS copy, so I HAD to see it projected on a real screen. Film geek aside, the coolest thing about seeing it at this venue was sitting in a theater packed with Vampire fans. It was like watching it with a crowd of myself.



They were even selling Vampire chocolate and Vampire water at the concessions counter!

WIN.

Countess Lotti throws this event each year, and she really does a great job. It's so much fun hanging out with a breed of fan who are familiar with more than just Twilight. Don't get me wrong...I'll be at the theater this weekend to see Eclipse, but there's definitely a difference in the vibe.

And Vampire WATER!

Who knew?

1 Hour of Sleep and a WHOLE LOTTA Bullets...

So, for those of you who don't know, I wrote my second paid screenplay last year. As it happens, the movie has actually been shooting, and they wrap this week. Whoda thought?

It's a CIA spy thriller / action film titled "Ballistica," and I actually got a chance to go be on set for a night of filming. It was Saturday night, and instead of just a casual visit, it turns out that they needed me for an on-set re-write of the ending. I got off the phone with the Director at 4pm, after finding out that my call time was 6:30pm, and we would be shooting throughout the night.

I had gotten up at 8am that morning to workout.

Awesome.

Regardless, I spent 14 hours watching them shoot a movie that I wrote (mostly,) all the while doing fixes on the fly for the Director and the actors. (So if you're keeping track, that means that I left at 8am the following morning...I seem to only update this Blog after all-nighters.)


This was where I was set-up...sandwiched behind the monitor cart.

It was a blast. Tony, the Producer, had told me a week prior that they had secured two actors for the movie whose attachment would help sell the film. He mentioned their names, which I promptly forgot, and when arriving on set, found out that they were Robert Davi (Special Agent Johnson from DIE HARD,) and Marty Kove, (The Evil Sensei of the Cobra Kai in THE KARATE KID!)

Yeah...Special Agent Johnson and Mr. Cobra Kai together on screen! That is GEEKTASTIC.

Now, obviously, I thought both of these guys would be absolute hard-ass mothafuckas. In fact, I was a little hesitant to talk to Marty Kove at all because he had his students beat-up Ralph Machio. Imagine my surprise when he and Robert both turned out to be REALLY nice guys. Robert heard my name once when I was introduced to him, and remembered it all night long. That's a hell of a lot better than I could do.


Marty Kove, Tony Kandah (the Producer,) Robert Davi, and Gary Jones (Director/ridiculously nice guy.)


Robert Davi in his Trailer, telling a story about how he met Sinatra.


Gary at Video Village.

So after a long night of shooting, I basically came to two realizations...

1. SCREENWRITER is the BEST position to have on set. The only thing you have to lift is your laptop, and they let you sit up front at video village. Oh yeah...and you get to interact with the Director and the Actors over the story. (At one point I was discussing the differences between the CIA and the NSA to Special Agent Johnson, and almost sucked myself into a Black Hole.)

2. I had forgotten how much movie crews are like Flash-Families. You're with these people who you don't know for no more than a couple weeks. But during that time, you sweat and laugh and bond with them as though you were all related, and then when its over, you never see them again. I showed up at that set knowing four people, but by the end of the night, I was part of the family, like I'd been there the whole time.


Me and my long-time friend, Vera.


This was lunch at 1am. VERY tasty.


The sun coming up at 6:30.


Gary, me and Robert. (I'm not that guy who asks to get my picture taken with celebrities. Robert was about to walk away, saw me and said, "Hey! We didn't get a picture together yet!" So that was cool.)

But for as surreal as the night was, my biggest geek-out moment was when I got there. The props master had brought a friend with him who I immediately recognized, because he recently played DRACULA in low-budget Vampire film that I LOVED.



His name is Tom Downey, and his character in Dracula's Curse is named "Rufus King." Of course now I've totally spoiled it for ya, because you don't find out that he's Dracula till the end of the film. So try and forget that in case you watch it. (Although I've never met anyone else who's ever seen it, so you're probably not in any real danger.)

Turns out that he's also a really easy goin' funny guy, and since I've learned not to TOTALLY geek out on people, I think I came across as fairly normal. As a result, we had an un-awkward fun time that night...even though being the Vampire Lover I am, couldn't stop thinking "THAT'S RUFUS KING!"

So as I was leaving, I did brake my rule and asked him for a picture. As we were posing for my iphone, I turned to Tom and said, "Give me your best Rufus King."


MF says I look really gay in this picture.

And she's right.



But I love him.

VAMPIRE Redux!

Outstanding! I told Marcie that I posted her Waking Vamp pic, and she immediately said, "Oh, that needs to be updated."

So here, a mere 24 hours later...is the newly revised "Waking Vamp '09!"



(God Rays make everything cooler.)

VAMPIRES in 2009!

It's my FIST Post for 2009!

From Get KRAKEN

And I figured we should have some Vampires up in here to get the Year started off right! This is something that Marcie sent me a little while back. She did a whole LOT of Vampire illustrations for me once upon a time for a project that never got finished. Maybe one of these days I'll put some of those fantastic images up here, but for now, WAKING VAMP!



You can see Marcie's other work here: MARCIE KLINGER

NEW MARCIE ART!

My friend Marcie just sent me the SUPER RAD picture you now see at the top of this Blog. That's right...it's a Vampire being attacked by a KRAKEN!

It's so fabulous, my eyeballs melted.

Check out Marcie's other Awesomeness here: http://www.marcieklinger.com/

VAMPIRE Books!

MF and I ducked into a Borders recently to kill some time before a movie. We were barely in the door when I spied a table in the main aisle, TOTALLY covered in Vampire Books!




This made me smile. The fact that Borders is pimping all this new Urban Gothic fare is wicked cool to a Vampire fanatic like me. And it isn't even Halloween!

Of course the reason why they're doing it is because of the new Stephanie Meyers book that just hit stands called "Breaking Dawn." It's the end of her 4 part Twilight series, the movie of which is due out at Xmas. I haven't read Twilight myself, but MF has, as well as a number of other folks who I've been bumping into lately. It seems to be one of those guilty pleasure books, especially for girls, since it deals with a high school love affair between a clumsy girl and a fantastically beautiful Vampire boy.

I'm not making fun. This is me standing in line outside Barnes & Noble a few weeks ago for Midnight Madness of the Breaking Dawn release.



The girl in pink is looking forward to the film, and thinks that all the actors are dreamy.

Yes, I was eavesdropping...I was by myself.

I got lots of points from MF the next morning when she found the book waiting on her chair.

I will, however, make fun of the fact that every girl who exited that bookstore with a new copy of Breaking Dawn had to scream at the top her lungs before running off into the night.

I love this shit.

The FIVE Killers...

Jack just sent me this link, and it looks so cool that I spontaneously sprained a kidney.



http://web.mac.com/eric.calderon/iWeb/Site/The%20Five%20Killers/The%20Five%20Killers.html

The Trailer took my breath away. Looks like EXACTLY the kinda story I wanna see told.

This is the description that the creator has posted on his site:

"When the best five killers are hunted
by the ultimate assassin:

3 Die.
2 Survive.
1 Lives... Forever.

Set in the high tech, high stakes world of espionage and global conspiracy, The Five Killers reunites the world’s greatest assassins years after their bitter retirement. One of them has been found murdered, and the message is clear: they’re next."

It's being made by Studio Gonzo, who are a BIG Anime Name these days. The cool thing is, the creator/producer and the writers are American.

And it has a Vampire.

BLOODRAYNE is KRAKEN!

So I just picked-up this sweet book at Wizard World called "Visions of Bloodrayne." It collects the cover artwork from all the various Bloodrayne comics. This is awesome for 2 reasons.

1. I LOVE Bloodrayne.

2. The Covers were the ONLY good thing about the comic.

It may be unfair for me to make that second comment since I've only read about 3 or 4 issues, but they were DREADFULLY written. It confounds me how such a great character from such an awesome game can REPEATEDLY be 100% marginalized in every other form of media she appears in.

The big win, however, was this cover:



That's right...she's fighting a KRAKEN.


Sweet.