I’m totally psyched to see the movie, Hellboy II: The Golden Army, which has finally come to theaters this week. I’ve been a huge fan of the creator, Mike Mignola and the director, Guillermo del Toro for a long time now, so my expectations are pretty high for what they’re going to do this time around with the Hellboy character and his universe.

The thing that intrigues me most about this one (as opposed to the original movie) is that, although they worked on the film together again, this looks to be more del Toro’s vision than Mignola’s. In the supplemental materials on the Blu-ray of the first Hellboy movie, for good or ill, del Toro talks about how much a fan he is of the comic and how he wanted to adhere to the look and feel of Mignola’s creation. In Hellboy II, at least from the trailers, the film appears to be something more akin to the fantasy world of del Toro’s Academy Award winning film, Pan’s Labyrinth than to the gothic, Lovecraftian nature of the first Hellboy film (and comic), and that has me excited.

I’ll have a POSTview up soon, and post whether the film lived up to my expectations or not, a few of which are:
• an expansion of the Hellboy Universe where we’re seeing more of the “monster” world rather than the “human” world
• more character development, especially between Hellboy and Liz (hopefully the John Myers character is out of the picture), and more Abe Sapien, a favorite character in the comic and movie
• more “Guillermo-infused” than the original movie
• a bigger, more epic storyline

After I posted last week’s strip, Bushidō, i received some comments and emails asking a) if the Iron Giant toy was real, and b) do I like The Iron Giant movie, so I thought I’d answer both here:

a) Yes, the Iron Giant toy’s real and is pictured here, with me casting a wary eye out for Michael’s (aka the Cornfather’s) thieving hands. It’s very cool and speaks a few lines from the movie with a press of a button on its back. It can also be set to act as a sentry, and will start speaking if you cross in front of it, though this feature doesn’t work very well.

b) A huge “YES!” With a poignant story, great characters and beautiful animation, The Iron Giant’s one of my favorite movies and I can’t recommend it highly enough. The director, Brad Bird, is one of my favorites and his resume includes many of my top animated movies of all time, including The Iron Giant, The Incredibles and Ratatouille. If you haven’t seen this movie, go rent or buy it immediately. I’m anxiously awaiting the inevitable Blu-ray release.

Blogging about my adventures as an actor on the set of the horror film, Grey Skies.

I haven’t been able to blog at all since leaving for Michigan because, not only have I been experiencing a whirlwind of activity since I arrived, but the internet connection here in the middle of nowhere has been sporadic at best. Go figure. This has made Twittering ideal (Twitter.com/jefbot) since I can do it from my phone, but blogging and e-mailing difficult. Sorry to my JEFbot mailing list peeps as I won’t be able to send the normal email reminders until I get back (click here to join). Here’s a quick rundown of what’s been happening with me for the past few days:

After excitedly spending the entire night last Friday packing for the three week movie shoot, I left for the airport at 4:30am on Saturday, August 12, and went on a hell raising, 80 mph taxi ride from West Hollywood to LAX, during which time I believe the driver nodded off at least twice and almost got in no less than two accidents (after both of which the driver yelled out “Stupeed BEETCH!” repeatedly). Needless to say, the flight from California to Michigan seemed rather uneventful after this.

ME, WRITER/PRODUCER MARK REILLY, AND FRIEND.

Once I landed in Detroit, I took a quick transfer to Flint, and while waiting for my luggage around the baggage carousel, met a couple of the actresses (Anne Griffin and Shelley Dennis) who had also flown in for the movie, and the P.A., Josh Ensink, who got us all packed into a truck and on our way for the hour and forty-five minute drive to Clare County, where we’d be filming for the next few weeks. A highlight of this drive was Josh pulling over to a Sonic’s burger joint, where we picked up some food since we were all starving after the flight. (They always play Sonic ads in L.A., but I’ve never actually been able to find one, so it was nice to finally see what I’ve been missing.) The cheeseburger, fries, and vanilla Dr. Pepper I had were pretty tasty, actually, and the carhop on rollerblades that brought the food to our car was a nice touch. Food procured, we were on our way.

CAMP CORNACCHIA

After getting settled in the cabin (which I’m sharing with three other guys, including Michael Cornacchia, who christened it “Camp Cornacchia” before any of us had a say) and taking a tour of the main house (retrofitted for the movie with a variety of stuffed wildlife including a bear, cougar, fox, beaver and deer, among others), we were stuffed full of pulled-pork sandwiches, salad, fruit and pudding prepared by our amazing craft service chefs, Dede and Greg. Delicious.

About an hour or so after dinner, a huge party was thrown for the cast, crew and investors outside of the house, where an enormous bonfire was lit and the drinks flowed freely. There was literally over a hundred people at the party that night, under the trees and illuminated by the light of the fire, which made for a wonderful, almost mystical, and most definitely memorable night and a great start to what I’m sure will be a fantastic experience making Grey Skies.

More to come as filming begins!

Blogging about my adventures as an actor on the set of the horror film, Grey Skies.

ALIEN LANDING ZONE

We just finished our first week of shooting and, although it’s been hectic and crazy like any other film set, it’s also been an absolute blast. Today the production gets a break though, and the Internet connection seems stable, so I thought I’d blog a bit about what’s been going on this past week here in Clare County, Michigan.

For the most part, they’ve been shooting this movie chronologically, so the first few days had us actors getting to the set early to shoot exterior scenes of our characters arriving at the house. The past couple of days had us getting to the set a bit later in the day though, to shoot night scenes and some interiors. Now that all the exposition about a group of friends vacationing in a remote cabin by a lake has been shot, the real fun can begin: ALIEN ABDUCTIONS!

We actually finished a few scenes a couple of days ago, where a group of us is searching the house for a missing friend with flashlights after the power has gone out, and we find out that the circumstances of her disappearance are… strange. I won’t spoil anything, but the way the aliens take us one by one is pretty cool and creepy. We also filmed a scene yesterday where my character, Brian, is taking pictures in the woods when he hears something that sends him running back to the house. It was one of those shots where the camera swoops around the actor 360° while they are getting increasingly freaked out, and being the actor in such a scene was a huge thrill. I haven’t seen the footage yet but I’m hoping it turned out as well as in my head.

MICHAEL CORNACCHIA AND I, ROLLIN' DEEP

Another cool thing is that a couple of reporters from Michigan newspapers have visited the set, one from The Morning Sun and the other from The Clare County Review. Both articles were featured in their respective papers, one of which had a picture of the cast (including me!), right there on the front page. I’ll try and post a picture of that next time I see the paper lying around the set. The article from The Morning Sun is online now, which you can find by clicking here. It focuses mainly on how husband-and-wife-team, Stacy Jorgensen and Mark Reilly, were able to get this film into production. When the other article in TCCR goes online, I’ll post about it here. Someone also photographed a bar with “Welcome Grey Skies!” on their marquee, and I’ve heard there have been other sightings along those lines as well, so it appears we’ve made a bit of an impression here in Clare.

NOT ALL MY FIRES WERE AWESOME

Other than shooting, I’ve mostly been rehearsing lines, sketching, writing and hanging out by the lake or sitting by the campfire which one of my roomies, Production Designer Kevin Parson, makes every day outside of our cabin. I’ve actually gotten pretty good at making fires, myself; there’s so much wood and dry kindling in the forest thirty feet away, that collecting and lighting it is fairly simple (most of the time). While I sit by the fire every chance I get throughout the day, most nights the cast and crew come over to hang out around the bonfire at our camp for some beer and to decompress after the shoot. Especially since we’ve transitioned to later call times, wrapping at 1 in the morning, then hanging out by the fire ‘til around 4:30am happens almost every night. Although I miss my 360 and PS3 and HDTV and DVR, I’m afraid I’m getting drawn into this lifestyle, and the transition back to life in L.A. in a couple of weeks might be a bit more difficult than I would have assumed.

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