Monday, May 28, 2012

G.I. Joe casting (part 2)


I know we are all disappointed the GI Joe sequel got it's summer release pushed back, but here is some more casting ideas if hollywood had let me direct a live action GI Joe movie when i was 10.

   Burt Reynolds would bring some class to the role of Mutt.
 Night Court's Richard Moll has the physicality to play an excellent Destro.
       Kevin Bacon as, the least adventurously named GI Joe, Dial-Tone
      Dennis Quaid can add his boyish charm to the role of Dusty
                              Stallone as Flint
      Annette Bening has sufficient spunk to play Lady Jaye
 In a bit of stunt casting i think Mark Lynn Baker and Bronson Pinchot could play the roles of Xomat and Tomax, the cobra twins.
    Geena Davis as Zartan's sister Zarana.

Part 1 of my casting choices is HERE

Finally they to figure out a way to work this scene into the live action movie as well:

Monday, May 21, 2012

Jim Henson's New York

A few weeks ago I walked around uptown and photographed all the buildings I knew about in New York City connected to Jim Henson in someway or another.

In 1963 Henson and his family first moved to New York from Washington D.C.  They lived in the apartment building at 12 Beekman Place, which is one of the tiny streets east of 1st Ave in midtown.
The first muppet studio was only a few blocks away at 303 E 53rd St, which looks like this now:
It was here the small crew worked on commercials, variety show sketches and experimental pieces like the short film Time Piece.
In 1963 the expanding muppet crew moved uptown to 227 E 67th St, which is now the resuraunt L'Absinthe;
In another 10 years Henson moved the workshop again - just down the street to 201 67th St. Keeping the 227 building as well for business affairs.

In 1978 the workshop moved once again to a townhouse at 117 E 69th St. Unfortunately it was completely covered in scaffolding when I was there - it was just sold recently and looked like it was being renovated. Here is a picture of what it used to look like:
This would be home to the muppets until 2003 when the workshop moved to LA.

Some time around 1983 Jim Henson bought an apartment in The Sherry- Netherland Hotel at 781 5th Ave,  overlooking central park.
Finally from 1980 to 1993 at 833 Lexington Ave the was a muppet themed store called Muppet Stuff. Today it is one of 8,000 Le Pain Quotidiens, though the old fashioned building still looks the same.

Saturday, May 19, 2012

"Jim loved being Jim, and he could show it, especially during the later years out here in Los Angeles, with his Missoni sweaters and his flowing hair. Who would figure Jim Henson to be a guy who would rent a yacht? But i took him on a cruise one year and he took me the next celebrating out 25th anniversary together. Jim had a love for aesthetic things, for beautiful things and beautiful women." -Bernie Brillstein, Jim Henson's Manager

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

"What was that feeling? Why it was the gentle slither of the mantle of soldierly glory sliding off one's shoulders!- and the cooling effect of the oceans of tears drying up!The single-combat warriors war had been removed. They would continue to be honored and men would continue to be awed by their courage; but the day when an astronaut could parade up broadway while traffic policemen wept in the intersections was no more. Never again would an astronaut be perceived as a protector of the people, risking his life to do battle in the heavens. Not even the first american to walk on the moon would ever know the outpouring of a people's most primal emotions that Shepard, Cooper and above all, Glenn had known. The era of America's first single-combat warriors had come, and it had gone, perhaps never to be relived." -Tom Wolfe, The Right Stuff