Fan Film News - Part 15

Iron Fist, Elektra & Star Wars Fan Films Team Up In NYC

0 | April 8th, 2009 | Posted in Analysis, Author, Blinky Productions, Books, Comic Books, Continuum Books, DC Comics, Education, Fan Film, Filmmaking, George Lucas, Gray Areas, History, Homemade Hollywood, Iron Fist, Mainstream Media, News, Public Screening, Publishing, Review, Steven Spielberg, Superheroes, Tawnya Manion, Writing, , marvel comics, science fiction

Chris Notarile (left) and Clive Young at AFA

This past weekend was a double-header of fan film goodness for Fan Cinema Today, as I hosted movie event/author talks two days in a row, first at in New York City on Friday night, and then the next day, out on Long Island at I-Con 28, the long-running Sci-Fi convention.

The Anthology gig was a lot of fun, as I was joined by fan film directors Dan Galiardi (Iron Fist: The Dragon Unleashed), Adam Bertocci (Brooklyn Force) and Chris Notarile (Elektra: The Hand and the Devil).

Spreading the word about my book, Homemade Hollywood, I did a speedy PowerPoint talk about fan-film history and showed a few classics. Next, the guys screened their flicks and we wrapped up the evening with an eye-opening Q&A. The questions were awesome, ranging from “How much did you spend on your movie?” to “Since the villain, Bullseye, has perfect aim, why would be use a TV remote to change the channel when he could just throw it at the TV changing button to make it switch and bounce back to him?” You shoulda been there….

The next day found me heading out to a Marriott in the far-flung corners of Long Island for I-Con, which was held away from its traditional home on the SUNY Stony Brook campus for the first time. Sprawled out across three locations, the convention was spread a little thin and I fully expected to play to a crowd of two or three people tops. Instead, it was a solid house, I sold a few books and it was a surprising success—I even showed folks a flick from a DVD that Notarile had given me the night before. In fact, the only downside was that I stupidly left the DVD in the convention’s player and didn’t realize until Sunday. Sigh. Somewhere, an underpaid AV tech is enjoying a fine evening of Tawnya Manion movies like I’m Power Girl, Dammit. Damn it.

[Update: They found the errant DVD and are sending to me---whew!]

**SEE IRON FIST, ELEKTRA, POWER GIRL AND BROOKLYN FORCE AFTER THE JUMP!** Read More »

Sandy Collora’s Hunter Prey Trailer Hits The Web!

0 | April 7th, 2009 | Posted in Amazon, Author, Batman, Books, Comic Books, DC Comics, Education, Fan Film, Filmmaking, George Lucas, Gray Areas, History, Homemade Hollywood, Mainstream Media, Monster Movies, News, Pink Five, Public Screening, Publishing, Sandy Collora, Star Wars, Superheroes, Superman, Writing, , science fiction

It’s been a busy time for Sandy Collora, the emerging director who first made a name for himself in the mid-00’s with the back-to-back, big-budget fan films Batman: Dead End and World’s Finest. Last November, news of his impending feature film directing debut, Hunter Prey, broke across the internet (after Fan Cinema Today actually broke the story almost a year ago). February saw the director introduce his new , and Monday found the first trailer land online at io9.com. Of course, it didn’t take long for the website’s exclusive to get bootlegged on to YouTube (wasn’t me, honest); hence, the video above.

With the film’s post-production and scoring nearly done, the flick should be complete by June, which means Collora’s next project is to get the movie out into the world. He noted this week in an interview on Sci-Fi Scoop, “As for when it will be released, I can’t answer that yet. We have a great international sales group called Moviehouse, involved now in London, and they’re planning a presentation at Cannes in May. We’ll see how things go from there.”

If you’re dying to find out more, you’re in luck, as Collora has a number of personal appearances lined up, the first being a night of fan films I’m hosting at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles on Wednesday, April 22. While I’ll be talking about my book, Homemade Hollywood and showing some primo sample fan films, both Collora and Trey Stokes (creator of Pink Five, one of George Lucas’ favorite Star Wars parodies) will be on-hand, explaining how their fan productions led to new professional endeavors—Collora’s Hunter Prey and Stokes’ Ark. [Fun fact: Collora and Stokes worked together nearly 20 years ago on James Cameron's The Abyss.]

SEE BATMAN: DEAD END AND WORLD’S FINEST, PLUS MORE INFO, AFTER THE JUMP! Read More »

Spider-Man: Beyond The Dark Fan Film From Italy

1 | April 6th, 2009 | Posted in Analysis, Author, Batman, Books, Comic Books, DC Comics, Dan Poole, Fan Film, Filmmaking, History, Homemade Hollywood, News, Spider-Man, Superheroes, The Green Goblin's Last Stand, Writing, , marvel comics

spider-man: beyond the dark

Spider-Man may live in New York City, but he’s popular everywhere. Case in point? Check out Stefano Morandini’s upcoming Spider-Man: Beyond The Dark fan film, produced in Italy.

Currently in the editing phase, Morandini’s flick examines what keeps a superhero fighting when he just doesn’t care anymore. Heroes can take a punch and give one back, but can they fight the grim specter of depression? What happens when they just don’t want to fight anymore—and their moral enemies still do?

Morandini detailed the plot, explaining:

Peter Parker has lost everything: his girlfriend, Mary Jane, and himself. He has no more reason to fight in this life, and in this case, he wears the black suit as symbol of mourning and despair. The Hero is dead…but The Man? During a fight versus his nemesis, Goblin, Peter Parker rises again….

Know what my favorite part of that photo above is? The presence of a professional microphone! How many fan films have you seen where the visuals were amazing but the audio sounded like it was done with two tin cans and some string?

SEE THE TRAILER AND EXCLUSIVE SET PHOTOS AFTER THE JUMP! Read More »

Actor Auditions for Freddy Krueger Feature with Nightmare on Elm Street Faux Trailer Fan Film

2 | April 3rd, 2009 | Posted in Fan Film, Filmmaking, History, Horror Movies, Mainstream Media, Monster Movies, News

Nightmare on elm street, freddy krueger

Freddy’s coming back—and Christopher Johnson wants be him. The creator of a fan-made, faux film trailer, Johnson made the short flick to grab the attention of producers behind an upcoming reboot of the long-running Nightmare on Elm Street horror series. Thursday, the story was picked up by Slashfilm and Live For Film, and soon the flick went viral.

While many people have used fan films in an effort to break into the production side of filmmaking, few have seen them as a route to an acting gig. Reportedly, Johnson’s agent, Robert Depp at the Beverly Hecht Agency, has been using the trailer in an effort to land his client an audition with the casting director behind Platinum Dunes’ impending feature film production.

SEE THE TRAILER AND MORE AFTER THE JUMP! Read More »

Fan Films, Media Assassins, Sex Toys & Me—on the Radio!

1 | April 3rd, 2009 | Posted in Amazon, Analysis, Author, Batman, Books, Comic Books, Continuum Books, Copyright, DC Comics, Education, Eli Roth, Fan Film, Filmmaking, George Lucas, Gray Areas, Hardware Wars, History, Homemade Hollywood, Horror Movies, Indiana Jones, Iron Man, Mainstream Media, News, Publishing, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Review, Sandy Collora, Star Trek, Star Trek: New Voyages, Star Wars, Steven Spielberg, Superheroes, Superman, TV, Writing, , marvel comics, science fiction

Recently, I was a guest on NonFiction, a weekly news magazine on New York’s WBAI-FM. Host Harry Allen, the Media Assassin, knows a lot about fan films (he once wrote about them for the late, great Premiere magazine), so we had a blast talking about the Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Adaptation guys; various Star Wars faves, including the rarely seen ; an Iron Man fan flick from New Caldonia; Star Trek; why George Lucas can’t afford to make “small” movies; my book, Homemade Hollywood; and more.

I’m glad I went first, because the guest after me talked about her new documentary, which is all about the history of the vibrator. Naturally, my mother-in-law had told all her friends to listen. You can give it a listen by clicking on that grey media player button below this paragraph. Alternately, you can download an MP3 of the show HERE.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Intrepid To Intercept J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek?

2 | April 2nd, 2009 | Posted in Fan Film, Filmmaking, Mainstream Media, News, Star Trek, TV, , science fiction

Although it’s been a while since Star Trek: Intrepid debuted a new episode, that doesn’t mean the fan series has been abandoned; in fact, the show has three episodes in various stages of production, and four more on deck, waiting to get underway.

Right now, the filmmakers’ focus is squarely on finishing post-production for its next release “Transitions and Lamentations,” a 28-minute episode expected to hit the net before the arrival of J.J. Abrams’ reboot of Star Trek, which arrives in theaters on May 8.

Whetting the appetite, a brand-new trailer for the episode has just been released on the net.

Check out the trailer and more news after the jump! Read More »

Star Wars Gets The Neil Simon Treatment

0 | April 1st, 2009 | Posted in Amazon, Analysis, Author, Books, Continuum Books, Education, Fan Film, Filmmaking, George Lucas, History, Homemade Hollywood, Mainstream Media, News, Publishing, Review, Star Wars, TV, Writing, , science fiction

In honor of April Fools Day, here’s one of my all-time favorite Star Wars fan films, The Odd Star Wars Couple, which has been banging around the internet for over a decade. I don’t know why this never became huge, because it is a side-splitter. Maybe it’s a generational thing, where the kids simply ain’t familiar with the old Tony Randall/Jack Klugman sitcom. Here’s a bit of what I wrote about it in my book, Homemade Hollywood

The Odd Star Wars Couple, produced by the Glendale, CA-based filmmaking collective Pewter Joe Flynn, was deceptively straightforward. The 1997 short simply recast Neil Simon’s classic play/movie/sitcom The Odd Couple with Chewbacca as nebbish Felix Unger and Darth Vader as über-slob Oscar Madison. It could be argued that they were cast against type (really, wouldn’t Chewie work better as Oscar and the sharp, straight lines of Darth flatter a Felix?), but the short still worked on a number of levels.
….
By combining the biggest movie of the 1970s with one of the most popular sitcoms of the era, the short plays up the contrast between the two sources: a predictable comedy with predictable jokes versus a then-revolutionary space opera. While it’s affectionate towards the creations of Lucas and Simon, it also seems to suggest that the overwhelming success of Star Wars might have been due to a lack of true creative competition. If The Odd Couple was typical of popular entertainment at the time, how could recycled gags about two divorced men living together compete with X-Wings, lightsabers and the like?

Some people say this isn’t funny—particularly the opening scene—but I think the forced feel of it, underlined by the canned laughter, is one of the funniest bits ever in a fan film. The cleverness in this flick, however, is noticably absent in their follow up The Making of The Odd Star Wars Couple, a 10-minute mockumentary which just never clicks. The original still shines bright, however—give it a try.

Top 10 Fan Cinema Today Fan Film Stories: March, 2009

0 | March 31st, 2009 | Posted in Analysis, Comic Books, Copyright, DC Comics, Fan Film, Filmmaking, George Lucas, Gray Areas, History, Horror Movies, Mainstream Media, News, Software, Star Trek, Superheroes, Superman, TV, Watchmen, Writing, , ghostbusters, science fiction, stop motion animation

March 25: Valerie Perez as Paula Peril.

March was a busy month around here! Here’s Fan Cinema Today’s 10 most popular stories of the last month, presented in chronological order.

March 3: 5 FREE Freaky Filmmaking Programs for Macs
If you have a Mac and are looking for some free ways to make your next flick—or at least give it some visual flair—you need to discover the cool creations of Zach Poff.

March 4: Sci-Fi Legend John Varley: “Fan Films Suck!”
Republibot, a sci-fi fan site that describes itself as “the Science Fiction Site for people who aren’t Drooling Kneejerk Liberals,” recently interviewed sci-fi legend John Varley, [who has] some rather dismissive thoughts about the emergence of fan film culture.

March 5: Who You Gonna Watch? New Ghostbusters Fan Films!
Why wait a few years for Bill Murray, Dan Ackroyd and the gang to get around to Ghostbusters III? You can enjoy some serious Bustin’ right now with the new fan film series, Ghostbustin’ 911.

More cool stories after the jump! Read More »

Live From New York, It’s FAN FILMS!

0 | March 31st, 2009 | Posted in Author, Batman, Blinky Productions, Books, Comic Books, Continuum Books, DC Comics, Education, Fan Film, Filmmaking, Gray Areas, Henry Jenkins, History, Homemade Hollywood, Iron Fist, Mainstream Media, News, Pink Five, Public Screening, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Sandy Collora, Superheroes, Superman, TV, , science fiction

I’ve hosted fan film programs before, but this is the highest profile event yet—a night of fan films at the world-famous in New York City, presented as part of the NEW FILMMAKERS FESTIVAL. I’ve got five words for you:

FAN FILMS ON THE SILVER SCREEN!

The show is THIS FRIDAY, April 3 at 9PM, and it’s only SIX FREAKIN’ BUCKS*, so you have time to get out of work/school, go home, eat, hit the bars and still show up in time for 2 hours of classic and world-premiere fan productions (plus me doing the PowerPoint thing on the history of fan productions, enough to make you laugh, cry and buy my fan film book, Homemade Hollywood, which not-so-coincidentally will be available for purchase somewhere in the joint).

Also presenting fan films that night:
–TheForce.Net’s own ADAM BERTOCCI with the highly buzzed Brooklyn Force!
–Blinky Productions’ CHRIS NOTARILE with (world premiere to be named, probably Ultimate Daredevil)!
–Five Towns College’s DAN GALIARDI with the lip-bustin’ brawling of Iron Fist!

Sounds awesome, huh? Cursing the fact that you don’t live in New York right now? Well, if you live in Los Angeles instead, here’s a few consoling words for you: Hammer Museum, April 22, with SANDY COLLORA (Batman: Dead End) and TREY STOKES (Pink Five)!

So mark your calendar, put aside $6 from the weekly keg fund, and come on out!

PS: I’m always on the lookout for great (and SHORT) fan films to feature in these programs. If you have a killer fan film under 10 minutes that you know can stand toe-to-toe with some of the classics, drop me a line via the “Contact Me” page here on the site (It’s in the upper right corner on the menu bar).

*They’re a non-profit, so apparently they’re allowed to charge admission, which is why they hosted Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Adaptation there a few years ago. If you really have an issue with it, take it up with them; ain’t my theater.

| March 30th, 2009 | Posted in Fan Film, Filmmaking, Gray Areas, Mainstream Media, News, Software

OK, we took the plunge. With some reluctance, Fan Cinema Today () is now on Twitter.

Tagged in: Fan Cinema Today, fancinematoday,

Fan Cinema Today

Iron Fist, Elektra & Star Wars Fan Films Team Up In NYC

**SEE IRON FIST, ELEKTRA, POWER GIRL AND BROOKLYN FORCE AFTER THE JUMP!** Read More »

Sandy Collora’s Hunter Prey Trailer Hits The Web!

Spider-Man: Beyond The Dark Fan Film From Italy

Actor Auditions for Freddy Krueger Feature with Nightmare on Elm Street Faux Trailer Fan Film

Fan Films, Media Assassins, Sex Toys & Me—on the Radio!

Intrepid To Intercept J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek?

Star Wars Gets The Neil Simon Treatment

Top 10 Fan Cinema Today Fan Film Stories: March, 2009

Live From New York, It’s FAN FILMS!

IMPORTANT INFO!

GET A FREE CHAPTER OF HOMEMADE HOLLYWOOD!

Categories

Recent Posts

Archives

HOMEMADE HOLLYWOOD!

HOMEMADE HOLLYWOOD: BOOK SIGNINGS AND FAN FILM SCREENINGS:

Meta

SEE IRON FIST, ELEKTRA, POWER GIRL AND BROOKLYN FORCE AFTER THE JUMP! Read More »

IMPORTANT INFO!

GET A FREE CHAPTER OF HOMEMADE HOLLYWOOD!

Categories

Recent Posts

Archives

HOMEMADE HOLLYWOOD!

HOMEMADE HOLLYWOOD: BOOK SIGNINGS AND FAN FILM SCREENINGS:

Meta

**SEE IRON FIST, ELEKTRA, POWER GIRL AND BROOKLYN FORCE AFTER THE JUMP!** Read More »