This week on the Nerdist Podcast Network (subject, of course, to scheduling and production stuff…):
Jack Black will be on the Nerdist Podcast
for a discussion of Matt Mira’s new glasses, what he’s watching on TV,
weddings, Tenacious D’s current status, and playing a fictional R.L.
Stine in the Goosebumps movie, out October 16th.
Adam F. Goldberg, creator of ABC’s The Goldbergs, is coming to the Nerdist Podcast,
and as you might gather from the show, he’s in love with pop culture in
general and ’80s pop culture on particular. So Adam and the guys go
deep into classic movies (some of which, it turns out, don’t hold up),
and pro wrestling, and way more.
A hostful Nerdist Podcast is on tap, too. If you guessed they’d be talking about weddings and engagements and stuff, you’d be right.
Manhattan creator Sam Shaw and Executive Producer
Thomas Schlamme discuss the making of the returning WGN America series on Nerdist Writers Panel.
Andy Wood returns for Part 2 of The Todd Glass Show After Dark.
And that Nerdist Writers Panel
we promised you last week from the recent panel at NerdMelt Showroom
with Damon Lindelof and other top writers? We’ll have it this week. I
hope.
Plus a lot more. Head on over to the Nerdist Podcast Network homepage and the Nerdist Podcast Network Facebook page to make sure you don’t miss a thing.
Friday 11 December 2015
‘Goosebumps’ Premiere: Jack Black Channels R.L. Stine, Predicts Oscar Gold for Himself
David Buchan/Variety/Rex Shutterstock
“I wrote the books, I’m R.L Stine,” Black told reporters, affecting a devilish glint in his eye as he made his way down the press line outside LA’s Regency Village Theater. “I think you have me confused with the actual Jack Black. Twenty-five years ago when I wrote these books I had no idea they would become the worldwide phenomenon that they have. I’m so thrilled beyond measure to be in a Neal Moritz production of a Rob Letterman film with Jack Black at the helm.”
Also present at the premiere were “Goosebumps” stars Dylan Minnette, who plays the new kid in town; Odeya Rush, who plays Stine’s teenage daughter — “Jack (Black) is always so sweet, always so nice, always telling us a joke or singing us a song,” she said — and writing team Larry Karaszewski and Scott Alexander, “who came up with the idea of making R.L. Stine a character” in the horror-light film, penned by screenwriter Darren Lemke.
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“We call them safe scares—things that could never happen in real life but in movies they’re scary and fun,” said producer Deborah Forte, who’s been involved with the project since its original conception in 1993. “This is a very proud moment for ‘Goosebumps’ and for me and for R.L. Stine.
He’s very happy with the movie. He’s very excited and the fans are very excited.”
When Letterman was pitching to direct the film, he was very much inspired by such innocuously scary classics as “The Goonies” and “Gremlins.”
“When Neal (Moritz) gave me the big concept of R.L Stine being part of the movie I was really thinking hard about some old Amblin movies and how much I loved (them),” said Letterman. “I loved how they weren’t family movies — they were general audiences movies—and I hadn’t seen something like that in a long time and when Neal pitched to me the idea I thought what a perfect excuse to do that kind of movie. Every little aspect of the film embraces the spirit of this.”
The spirit of “Goosebumps” definitely carried over from screen to street at the film’s haunted house-themed after-party. Zombies, ghouls and gnomes lumbered around the outdoor Westwood fete while pumpkin-headed scarecrows towered high above the crowd. Guests were treated to treats like cheese pizza and hotdogs on a stick and decorated Sprinkles cupcakes with Halloween toppings in the way of sugary bats and eyeballs. A small haunted house, DJ-spun tunes and an Oculus Rift virtual reality “Goosebumps” experience kept guests both young and old entertained.
But nothing was more amusing than Black, determinedly, and quite admirably, committed to his role as the famous Scholastic book author.
“My first choice (to play me) was Morgan Freeman and when they told me Jack Black I thought, ‘Is he really the right choice?’ I tell you I’ve seen the film five times and I’m just mesmerized by his performance. He’s such a brilliant actor. My God, Matt Damon, eat your heart out. Daniel Day-Lewis. Sorry, Charlie. Not this year. Mark my words: Jack Black will walk away with the (Oscar) statuette. Otherwise it’s just a crime.”
The Brink: Is Jack Black's New War Comedy Da Bomb or Just a Bomb?
In HBO’s The Brink,
which premiered Sunday, a low-level bureaucrat, a drug-dealing navy
commander and the U.S. Secretary of State were faced with the rise of a
schizophrenic dictator and the dawn of World War III.
The dark comedy, starring Jack Black (School of Rock), Tim Robbins (Mystic River) and a pornstache-less Pablo Schreiber (Orange Is the New Black), is meant to serve as an over-the-top satire on present-day geopolitical affairs. Unfortunately, its heightened reality and trio of drugged-up caricatures make it hard to see how the overall product will play out as anything more than some warped fantasy.
Let’s introduce the aforementioned clan and the role they play in The Brink‘s international kerfuffle:
Alex Talbot (Black) is a middling State Department employee working at the United States embassy in Islamabad. Though he uses his international gig as a chance to score weed and party with local women, he once dreamed of working for the C.I.A. When he and driver Rafiq (The Daily Show‘s Aasif Mandvi) get caught in the midst of a military coup d’etat, they flee to the home Rafiq shares with his parents, his sister and renowned psychologist uncle Hasan to keep from harm’s way. It’s there they learn that the riot was championed by former Pakistani general Umair Zaman (Iqbal Theba, Community), a egomaniacal lunatic once treated by Rafiq’s uncle. Despite losing in his nation’s general election, Zaman has seized control and intends on using nuclear warheads to annihilate Israel in wake of recent drone strikes.
Walter Larson (Robbins) is the Secretary of State under President Navarro (Esai Morales, NYPD Blue). When he isn’t butting heads with Secretary of Defense Grey, he’s cheating on his wife with Asian call girls. He’s called upon by the president when the CIA gets word of the nuclear arsenal’s vulnerability, but his desire to forgo military action is overruled by Israel’s own intentions of launching a preemptive strike should the U.S. refrain from getting involved. Grey’s motion to bomb Pakistan as a preventive measure is ultimately favored by Navarro once Alex faxes over Hasan’s confidential medical records that reveal Zaman himself is a truly loose cannon. Once Walter’s advice is disregarded by POTUS, he alerts assistant Kendra of his intention to go rogue to prevent a mass war from breaking out.
Zeke “Z-Pak” Tilson (Schreiber) is a well-respected lieutenant commander for the United States navy. When he isn’t busy protecting our nation or impregnating the navy’s public affairs officer, he’s dealing pills to fellow servicemen as part of a “covert” operation with ex-wife/supplier Ashley. En route to Islamabad, it becomes clear the pills he and his co-pilot popped prior to takeoff were not Xanax, and their high-as-a-kite, “hell of a ride” to Pakistan continues on with the loopy duo authorized to bomb the residential Pakistani area.
As the episode fades to black on Zeke’s trippy excursion, it immediately becomes clear that The Brink‘s misadventures have only just gotten started. And though the cabler will rollout the 10-episode comedy weekly, it might ultimately be better served as one five-hour binge. We haven’t ruled the war comedy out quite yet, but it’s going to have to be, well, funnier, in subsequent half-hours.
The dark comedy, starring Jack Black (School of Rock), Tim Robbins (Mystic River) and a pornstache-less Pablo Schreiber (Orange Is the New Black), is meant to serve as an over-the-top satire on present-day geopolitical affairs. Unfortunately, its heightened reality and trio of drugged-up caricatures make it hard to see how the overall product will play out as anything more than some warped fantasy.
Let’s introduce the aforementioned clan and the role they play in The Brink‘s international kerfuffle:
Alex Talbot (Black) is a middling State Department employee working at the United States embassy in Islamabad. Though he uses his international gig as a chance to score weed and party with local women, he once dreamed of working for the C.I.A. When he and driver Rafiq (The Daily Show‘s Aasif Mandvi) get caught in the midst of a military coup d’etat, they flee to the home Rafiq shares with his parents, his sister and renowned psychologist uncle Hasan to keep from harm’s way. It’s there they learn that the riot was championed by former Pakistani general Umair Zaman (Iqbal Theba, Community), a egomaniacal lunatic once treated by Rafiq’s uncle. Despite losing in his nation’s general election, Zaman has seized control and intends on using nuclear warheads to annihilate Israel in wake of recent drone strikes.
Walter Larson (Robbins) is the Secretary of State under President Navarro (Esai Morales, NYPD Blue). When he isn’t butting heads with Secretary of Defense Grey, he’s cheating on his wife with Asian call girls. He’s called upon by the president when the CIA gets word of the nuclear arsenal’s vulnerability, but his desire to forgo military action is overruled by Israel’s own intentions of launching a preemptive strike should the U.S. refrain from getting involved. Grey’s motion to bomb Pakistan as a preventive measure is ultimately favored by Navarro once Alex faxes over Hasan’s confidential medical records that reveal Zaman himself is a truly loose cannon. Once Walter’s advice is disregarded by POTUS, he alerts assistant Kendra of his intention to go rogue to prevent a mass war from breaking out.
Zeke “Z-Pak” Tilson (Schreiber) is a well-respected lieutenant commander for the United States navy. When he isn’t busy protecting our nation or impregnating the navy’s public affairs officer, he’s dealing pills to fellow servicemen as part of a “covert” operation with ex-wife/supplier Ashley. En route to Islamabad, it becomes clear the pills he and his co-pilot popped prior to takeoff were not Xanax, and their high-as-a-kite, “hell of a ride” to Pakistan continues on with the loopy duo authorized to bomb the residential Pakistani area.
As the episode fades to black on Zeke’s trippy excursion, it immediately becomes clear that The Brink‘s misadventures have only just gotten started. And though the cabler will rollout the 10-episode comedy weekly, it might ultimately be better served as one five-hour binge. We haven’t ruled the war comedy out quite yet, but it’s going to have to be, well, funnier, in subsequent half-hours.
The Oscars to Movie Audiences: We're Doomed
A look back at how Birdman, Jack Black, and Hollywood lambasted Hollywood at last night's ceremony.
At this year's Oscars, Hollywood let 34.6 million viewers know how much it hates itself.
The 2015 Academy Awards opened with a musical tribute to
history's magical qualities. Neil Patrick Harris, Anna Kendrick, and a
fleet of dancing holograms tipped their hats to cinema in Broadway
style, throwing back to blockbusters new and old. The Wizard of Oz, Alfred Hitchcock's North by Northwest, Field of Dreams, and The Avengers
were all part of the showstopper. It was a masturbatory congratulations
to and from Hollywood studios, but a snappy one with Harris in the
spotlight.
Halfway
through the number, comedian Jack Black doused the idyllic tribute with
a bucket of 21st-century reality. While the Yellow Brick Road
manifested itself behind Harris, Black's lyrics painted a future as dark
as the Wicked Witch of the West. But as a goof! As he put in song:
This is what you sound like: "Movies, movies, wow they rock!"
Well, once they did, but listen kids, it's all a big crock.
Now it's market trends, fickle friends, and Hollywood baloney
Believe me, Neil, you're better off just polishing your Tony.
This industry's in flux. It's run by mucky-mucks.
Pitchin' tents for tent poles and chasin' Chinese bucks.
Opening with lots of zeroes
All we get are superheroes.
Superman, Spider-man, Batman, Jediman, Sequelman, Prequelman — formulaic scripts!
And after Fifty Shades of Grey, they'll all have leather whips!
In a world where our brains are becoming machines
The only screens we're watching are the screens in our jeans!"
Ha!
Get it? Today's Hollywood is a product assembly line that would do Henry
Ford proud! It's an industry living under foreign thumbs, catering with
computer graphic carnage, eye-exploding 3-D, and Transformers knock-offs! Soon, humans will serve iDevice overlords, skipping the theaters and plugging straight into the 18th Iron Man sequel via USB! Get pumped for the inevitable future!!!
Solid joke.
This year's winners countered the industry's toxic cynicism with cries for social awareness. Boyhood's Patricia Arquette demanded action for women; Common and John Legend moved audiences with a performance of their Selma song "Glory" and second time with a racially aware acceptance speech; Imitation Game
writer Graham Moore related to Alan Turing, citing his own failed
suicide attempt as a segue to his real message: "Stay weird."
Hollywood's mega-franchise servitude has nothing on the plights of the
world. Stars made good on exposing real issues.
Unfortunately,
the Oscars are only one night. An acceptance speech makes a five-minute
impact, maybe surfacing on YouTube the next day for one more breath of
air. Movies, on the other hand, prevail. It's what Harris's "Moving
Pictures" number tried to remind us. A movie isn't just a movie. They
crystalize ideas and maintain a temporal moment. They all say
something, harrowing or sweet. "Best Picture" winners are even more
important. They carry on the legacy each time we catch them on DVD or
on cable. They continue to reckon with themes like family (The Godfather), war (The Bridge on the River Kwai, The Deer Hunter), race (In the Heat of the Night, 12 Years a Slave), evil (No Country for Old Men), hope (Schinder's List), romance (Annie Hall), and stair-climbin' human spirit (Rocky).
Films influence and shape us—and most of us are watching big Hollywood
movies. The movies we parade through the Oscars become more vital than
the socially conscious quotes uttered by the stars that fill them.
Which makes this year's pick a downer. On top of Black's "Requiem for Quality Movies," Birdman's Best Picture win was
Academy voters throwing in the towel. Truth: The film is deserving. In
director Alejandro G. Iñárritu's hands, the existential comedy is as
thrilling as Gravity, Michael Keaton's downward spiral
accelerated by bright colors, soaring camera moves, and an
all-improvised drum score. It's a great time at the movies—a harmonious
death knell for Iñárritu's industry of choice.
Iñárritu is not a fan of Superman, Spider-Man, Batman, Jediman, Sequelman, or Prequelman. He told Deadline
last October that there's little "truth" in comic book movies. "The
problem is that sometimes they purport to be profound, based on some
Greek mythological kind of thing. And they are honestly very right wing.
I always see them as killing people because they do not believe in what
you believe, or they are not being who you want them to be. I hate
that, and don't respond to those characters. They have been poison, this
cultural genocide, because the audience is so overexposed to plot and
explosions and shit that doesn't mean nothing about the experience of
being human," he said.
That mentality is easy to detect in Birdman.
Michael Keaton's character, Riggan, is an actor who can't escape his
superhero moment. Even when prepping his Broadway debut, journalists ask
him about a potential Birdman 4. Not that an ambitious theater
career imubes him with automatic integrity; As he mounts his Raymond
Carver adaptation, Riggan wrangles farcical actor-types, runs in fear
from the Twitterverse, and grapples with critics who write him off. He's
caught in a sensational ouroboros, where all creative endeavors are
doomed to fizzle into comic book shlock. What does it take to make great
art? To be a great artist? Iñárritu wonders on screen.
Academy voters have a thing for movies about show business (see: 2011's Best Picture The Artist and 1929's The Broadway Melody).
Like Harris's song-and-dance, exalting Hollywood's potential is a theme
worth backing if you're one of the people involved with making movies.
So Birdman isn't a surprising win, but it's a modern, mildly
depressing spin on the grand tradition. The Oscars gave Iñárritu's
anti-Hollywood screed the stamp of approval. "We're sick of superhero
movies too!" voters seem to say. The honor replaces action, whining by
way of golden statues. Really, there's too much money on the
table—domestic and Chinese—to embrace Iñárritu's rebellious attack. So
they'll keep on pumping them out. Reluctantly.
Which
isn't good for anyone—superhero fans included. After this year, the
takeaway should be that great films can still be made with the right
support. Producers took a chance on spending a little each year and came
out with Boyhood. Faith in Wes Anderson to be Wes Anderson and for audiences to respond to Wes Anderson turned The Grand Budapest Hotel into a huge moneymaker. Whiplash is a Sundance movie that beat the drum all the way to the Oscars. "Weird" Al made a Whiplash parody.
It's zeigeisty. And if the Hollywood elite is going to be a bunch of
sourpusses when it comes to comic book movies, fans wind up on the
losing end. We can get great superhero movies from people with great
ideas. The next batch of Sam Raimis, Christopher Nolans, J.J. Abramses,
and Steven Spielbergs, whose Indiana Jones movies are genetically linked to everything Iñárritu rails against in Birdman,
are ready to be discovered. We could have Mom-n'-Pop blockbuster
directors who deliver thoughtfulness and panache on par with our Oscar
movies, if anyone was willing to try.
Before
Jack Black could melt into a puddle of self-loathing, Neil Patrick
Harris undercut his all-too-true interlude. Together, they could avert
apocalypse.
Harris: Yes, greenlit films can stall.
Kendrick: Scripts can hit a wall.
Harris: Stars may pass
Kendrick: …or fire your ass
Harris: and weekly grosses fall. But when they hit, you must admit, they sometimes change your view a bit, in ways both big and small.
The Oscar ceremony is an echo chamber. Voters went in feeling blockbuster-provoked fatigue and came out with Birdman, a wagging finger of shame that's as fantastical as Guardians of the Galaxy,
as Best Picture. Harris is right: Sometimes hits "change your view a
bit." But sometimes it's easier to make fun of the problem rather than
solve it. There's a nine-picture DC Comics slate running through 2020
that needs to be executed, after all. And maybe it would be better with
whips…
Black Jack Pershing vs. Muslim Terrorists
Netlore Archive: Did U.S. General "Black Jack" Pershing rid the Philippines of Islamic extremism in 1911 by executing a group of Muslim terrorists and burying them in a grave filled with pig's blood and entrails?
Description: Email rumor / Viral textCirculating since: Sep. 2001
Status: Unsubstantiated (see details below)
Example #1:
As shared in an Internet forum, June 15, 2013:
Example #2:
Email contributed by K. Hanson, Dec. 3, 2002:
|
A True story about General "Black Jack" Pershing. Born September 13th, 1860 near Laclede, Mississippi Died July 15th, 1948 in Washington, D.C. 1891 Professor of Military Science and Tactics University of Nebraska 1898 Serves in the Spanish-American War 1901 Awarded rank of Captain 1906 Promoted to rank of Brigadier General 1909 Military Governor of Moro Province, Philippines 1916 Made Major General 1919 Promoted to General of the Armies 1921 Appointed Chief of Staff 1924 Retires from active duty Education: 4 Years-West Point One important thing to remember is that Muslims detest pork because they believe pigs are filthy animals. Some of them simply refuse to eat it, while others won't even touch pigs at all, nor any of their by-products. To them, eating or touching a pig, its meat, its blood, etc., is to be instantly barred from paradise and doomed to hell. Just before World War I, there were a number of terrorist attacks against the United States and it's interests by, you guessed it, Muslim extremists. So General Pershing captured 50 of the terrorists and had them tied to posts execution style. He then had his men bring in two pigs and slaughter them in front of the, now horrified, terrorists. The soldiers then soaked their bullets in pigs blood, and proceeded to execute 49 of the terrorists by firing squad. The soldiers then dug a big hole, dumped in the terrorist's bodies and covered them in pig blood, entrails, etc. They let the 50th man go. And for about the next 42 years, there was not a single attack by a muslim fanatic anywhere in the world. |
Example #3:
Email contributed by T. Braquet, Sep. 21, 2001:
|
HOW TO STOP ISLAMIC TERRORISTS...... it worked once in our History... Once in U.S. history an episode of Islamic terrorism was very quickly stopped. It happened in the Philippines about 1911, when Gen. John J. Pershing was in command of the garrison. There had been numerous Islamic terrorist attacks, so "Black Jack" told his boys to catch the perps and teach them a lesson. Forced to dig their own graves, the terrorists were all tied to posts, execution style. The U.S. soldiers then brought in pigs and slaughtered them, rubbing their bullets in the blood and fat. Thus, the terrorists were terrorized; they saw that they would be contaminated with hogs' blood. This would mean that they could not enter Heaven, even if they died as terrorist martyrs. All but one was shot, their bodies dumped into the grave, and the hog guts dumped atop the bodies. The lone survivor was allowed to escape back to the terrorist camp and tell his brethren what happened to the others. This brought a stop to terrorism in the Philippines for the next 50 years. Pointing a gun into the face of Islamic terrorists won't make them flinch. They welcome the chance to die for Allah. Like Gen. Pershing, we must show them that they won't get to Muslim heaven (which they believe has an endless supply of virgins) but instead will die with the hated pigs of the devil. |
Analysis: In June 2003 I consulted Dr. Frank E. Vandiver, professor of history at Texas A&M University and author of Black Jack: The Life and Times of John J. Pershing, and asked if there's any truth to the above. He replied via email that in his opinion the story is apocryphal.
"I never found any indication that it was true in extensive research on his Moro experiences," Vandiver wrote. "This kind of thing would have run completely against his character."
Similarly, I've been unable to find any evidence corroborating the more general claim that Muslims believe that "eating or touching a pig, its meat, its blood, etc., is to be instantly barred from paradise and doomed to hell." It is true that Islamic dietary restrictions, like those of Judaism, forbid the eating or handling of pork because pigs are considered unclean. But according to Raeed Tayeh of the American Muslim Association in North America, the notion that a Muslim would be denied entrance to heaven for touching a pig is "ridiculous." A statement from the Anti-Defamation League characterizes the claim as an "offensive caricature of Muslim beliefs."
Lastly, it is erroneously claimed that John J. Pershing was born near Laclede, Mississippi. He was actually born near Laclede, Missouri.
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