"Writer / Director Kurt Burk certainly has a gift for making interesting shots. The film is inventive and assured - never a foot placed wrong visually."

Bill Krohn has been the Los Angeles correspondent of Cahiers du Cinema since 1978, and the film reviewer for The Economist since 2004. He co-wrote, -directed, -produced It's All True: Based on an Unfinished Film by Orson Welles. He wrote Hitchcock at Work and Luis Bunuel: Chimera, as well as monographs on Alfred Hitchcock and Stanley Kubrick, and edited Joe Dante and the Gremlins of Hollywood. Phrases, his translation of five Godard "cinepoems," will be published in 2009 by Beyond Baroque, Los Angeles.

LINK to Full Metal Jacket review

"The search for the loved one somewhat parallels 'A Very Long Engagement' by Jeunet but 'A Woman Called Job' is much better.  I loved the temporal mix we witness in the mind of the protagonist."

Jean-Pierre Geuens, Ph.D. USC; UCLA; IDHEC, France; Brussels University. Professor of cinema, Los Angeles City College; adjunct assistant professor of cinema, USC. Publications: Film Production Theory; essays in Film Quarterly, Quarterly Review of Film and Video, Film Criticism, Spectator, LAICA Journal.

Jean-Pierre Geuens is the author of Film Production Theory



Jean-Pierre Geuens Website

Forbes Magazine
OutFront - p. 46
Have No Fear
by Evan Hessel 08.13.07
A real underdog finally has his day.

One day a frustrated New York adman quit his job on the General Mills (nyse: GIS - news - people ) account to create cartoons for TV. The year was 1960 and one of his shows, Underdog--about a pusillanimous pup who doubles as a superhero--was an instant hit. Thus did W. Watts Biggers embark on a 47-year writing career, one so full of disappointment and failure that it stands out even in an industry as cruel and competitive as show biz.

He went on to write every script and produce all 130 episodes of Underdog, which ran for seven years on NBC and CBS and for three decades in reruns in dozens of countries. The money helped put his two kids through college while he devoted himself to writing fiction. He spent up to ten hours a day scribbling surreal, hyperimaginative historical tales onto yellow legal pads. And then, nothing. But Biggers suddenly is a bit hot in Hollywood--finally, at age 80. Disney is releasing Underdog as a live-action film in thousands of theaters on Aug. 3. The film uses his original theme music, and he will be at the New York premiere. Near his home, on Cape Cod, a mystical love story he penned in 2004 has been filmed by an indie crew. And he just sold rights to his other works. "You've got to believe that if you work hard and have hope, people will eventually love your stuff," he says. After he quit to make Underdog, Biggers wrote a first novel ( The Man Inside). It was published in 1968 to little notice. A studio optioned then shelved it; an agent, then a producer, tried to revive it. "They always make you believe things are going to happen," he says. His cartoon gig ended in 1974, and Biggers, dreading it, moved back to New York to work in ads, then at NBC in promotions. In 1982 he returned to the Cape to write full-time, living on an inheritance. In 1985 a producer was keen on his book about 17th-century witches in New England, but that faded. In 1995 Biggers made a few million dollars selling his interest in Underdog to Saturday Night Live producer Lorne Michaels (General Mills owned the series, Biggers had rights to the character). He would churn out eight novels from 1982 on, but no publisher bought them. The manuscripts are piled on a shelf in his seaside home.

In 2003 Biggers got a surprise phone call from a rookie filmmaker in Los Angeles, Kurt Burk. While waiting at a taco stand, Burk had wandered into a used book store and picked up a copy of Biggers' The Man Inside. "It had these surreal but hopeful stories I had always wanted in my films," says Burk, who fancies the twisted flicks of David Lynch. "I felt like it had been written just for me." Burk, who co-owns One Brick Films with partner Mark J. Melchiori, persuaded Biggers to sell him the film rights to all his novels and all future writing. "I felt from his passion and enthusiasm that he would actually do something with the stories," Biggers says. Burk wrote a screenplay for Biggers' novel A Woman Called Job and raised $500,000 to shoot it. The crew took no cash up front, hoping to get paid if Burk could line up a distributor for the movie at film festivals in the fall. Biggers sat in on the shooting near his home a few weeks ago, offering advice on narrative suspense. Says Biggers: "I had heard 'no' so many times that making a movie was just a romantic dream."

Dreamlike 'Merlin' mesmerizing

By LAURIE HIGGINS
CONTRIBUTING WRITER
June 27, 2008 6:00 AM
WEST HARWICH — There is one line, repeated several times, that perfectly captures the essence of "Merlin and the Cave of Dreams," now playing at Harwich Junior Theatre. When Ryan Barrette intones, "I am Merlin, dreamer of perfect dreams," he is speaking of a dream for a better world, but he also could be describing the play itself, which creates a dreamlike experience for the audience.

"Merlin" is both subtle and dramatic. It has sly humor and compelling acting, but this is not a fast-paced story. It's more like a two-hour foray into a dream world, complete with surreal special effects and no shortage of eerie moments. But the aspect of this play that captivates the audience the most is the sheer artistry of it. Director Lisa Canto brings the audience into the kind of dream where you wake up so intrigued that you close your eyes again hoping to recapture the mystery for a few more minutes.

The play of light, color and sound in "Merlin" creates much of the beauty of the production. Scenic designer Charles G. Baldwin captures the feeling of being deep in the forest with big trees, movable stones and a cave at center stage. Kevin Hill's ghostly music and cawing crows are haunting, and Bobbie-Jean Powell's light design adds to the spooky mood.

The most powerful mood-setter is the ensemble of nine Echoes, who creep and slither on the stage throughout the play with hauntingly beautiful choreography, strategically using the lights on the palms of their hands to great dramatic effect.

Ultimately, "Merlin" is a coming-of-age story that centers on young Arthur's struggle to grow into his destiny. In the beginning he is a callow boy, angry to discover that the parents who raised him have lied about his real identity. As he sets out to discover the truth about his heritage, he travels to the dark underworld of the dead, a place from where very few ever return.

Like Arthur, Justin Ryder blooms in the role, maturing into a person who will change history. The transformation is entirely believable, and he is well cast in a role that leaves him alone on the stage for long stretches of time.

The title character is not the befuddled and charming Merlin of Disney's "The Sword in the Stone." This Merlin is a little scary, and Ryan Barrette cuts an imposing figure. He does a fine job capturing all the complexity of the character, and the audience wonders right along with Arthur whether the magician is trustworthy.

Garth FitzPatrick and Tess Wilfong are great as Ector and Gwyneth, the parents who raised Arthur, but they really shine when they don huge masks in the underworld to play the giant Rhitta and the Washer at the Ford. Nick Romano adds good-natured humor in the role of Arthur's adopted brother, Cei, and Emma Lass (who is also an Echo) lends ethereal beauty to the role of Igraine.

In the big battle scene where Arthur finally confronts his real father, the much hated King Uther Pendragron, Matthew Brown (also an Echo) gives a truly chilling performance as Uther, with a diabolical laugh and menace dripping from every word.

Robin McLaughlin's period costumes are quite authentic. The combination of great casting, impressive masks and artful choreography make Rhitta seem giant-sized and the formation of a dragon during the big battle scene is phenomenal. Producing artistic director Nina Schuessler promises "a visual feast," and that is just what "Merlin" offers.

This one might be a little frightening to toddlers, but older kids will find it captivating. The 12-year-old boy who accompanied me was riveted through the entire performance and declared it "deliciously creepy."


ON STAGE

What: "Merlin and the

Cave of Dreams"

Written by: Charles Way
Directed by: Lisa Canto
When: 7:30 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays and 4 p.m. Fridays (except July 4) and Sundays through July 10
Where: Harwich Junior
Theatre, 105 Division St.,

West Harwich

Tickets: $18 adult,

$12 youth under 21

Reservations:

508-432-2002, ext. 4,

or www.hjtcapecod.org

Hollywood East?

By KATHI SCRIZZI DRISCOLL
March 15, 2008 7:27 AM
Plymouth as the hub of Hollywood East?

That's the vision being offered by Plymouth Rock Studios, a company led by a former Hollywood studio head that wants to build a massive complex of 14 soundstages, stores, restaurants and a movie-themed tourist attraction just a few miles from the Bourne Bridge.

David Kirkpatrick – a Hollywood player and producer for decades who formerly ran Paramount, Walt Disney and Touchstone studios – and a development team that includes other Hollywood veterans have been meeting regularly in the past few months with town leaders and citizens groups about the plan. They hope to get a vote of confidence through a May 10 special referendum on the project and convince Plymouth voters at a June 3 town meeting to sell a 1,000-acre tract of town land.

"There's no question that if Plymouth Rock Studios and the soundstages are built, it would be a huge, a quantum leap for film and television production in Massachusetts," says Nicholas Paleologos, executive director of the Massachusetts Film Office. "They're talking about transformation. It's not just production facilities, but retail companies, production offices, housing and tourist attraction. It's quite a grand vision."

Kirkpatrick, who spent part of his childhood in Plymouth and has family in the area, was the special guest Wednesday at a "meet and greet" with Cape Cod leaders set up by Cape Cod Community College president Kathleen Schatzberg and the Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce because of the huge impact the project could have on this region. The session was held at the college, where Kirkpatrick will be graduation speaker in May.

"When I talk to people about this project, there's almost universal enthusiasm for this," says Schatzberg, citing the job, economic development and tourism potentials for Cape Cod and the Plymouth area. "I really think it's going to happen, and I hope it's going to happen."

"These guys are very serious, and I think they're taking a great approach," says Wendy Northcross, chamber CEO, who first saw the plans Tuesday at a meeting for area chambers in Plymouth. "They seem to have the resources. I think it's worth encouraging."
Targeted to break ground next spring for an early 2011 opening, Plymouth Rock Studios promises to create as many as 2,000 well-paying, long-term jobs, most of those in "clean," technology-oriented industry. Adding workers needed for construction, landscaping and related jobs like retail and hospitality, the project is due to become one of the area's largest employers, local officials say.

The plans show a state-of-the-art, environmentally friendly studio – "the first green, smart studio in the world," according to executive project coordinator Peter Fleury – that would be twice the size of Paramount Pictures in Los Angeles and include a village area of stores, restaurants and possibly a hotel. Plymouth Rock plans to offer on-site classroom training in acting and moviemaking for children and older students, and is working with area colleges and high schools on teaching skills that would be needed.

The nearly 1.5-million-square-foot complex, estimated to cost more than $500 million, would be built on the same land off Route 25, just over the Bourne town line, that was eyed by Dreamworld amusement park in the '90s. But excited area proponents hope this plan could mean far more economic success – and cachet and "fun" – than that doomed enterprise.

The project, which would require a new exit ramp off Route 25, has been unanimously endorsed by the Plymouth Area Chamber of Commerce's board of directors. A recent chamber survey of 400 businesses and residents found 84 percent favoring the plan.
"This tops the list for what the town would like to see there," says Dennis Hanks, executive director of both the chamber and the Plymouth Regional Economic Development Foundation. "It certainly will be a best-in-class studio that the town of Plymouth and the whole region could be proud of."

The movie studio plan first surfaced in August, with Kirkpatrick announcing that Good News Holdings wanted to make faith-based films here. Kirkpatrick split from Good News in the fall and formed another company targeted to a wider variety of movies, documentaries and short series. He temporarily dubbed the new company Project Julia, to represent the Julia Roberts-caliber of talent it hopes to attract, then it became Plymouth Rock Studios in January to emphasize its location and sell the Plymouth brand worldwide.
Plymouth Rock has offices now in Cordage Park, where work has already begun on a local documentary and where Rock CGI, a computerized special effects company, is due to open by summer. Officials have said Rock CGI, which could employ 150 people, will stay in Plymouth no matter what happens with the larger plan.


Explosion of interest

The studio project comes at a time when eastern Massachusetts is already building strong ties with Hollywood. In 2005, one movie filmed here for a couple of weeks; in 2006, two movies filmed here for a couple of months each. But last year, that number rose to eight movies – the most ever in one year – and this year, there already are seven movies being filmed or about to be filmed here. Recent or upcoming movies involve such luminaries as Martin Scorsese, Leonardo DiCaprio, Bruce Willis, Meg Ryan, Cameron Diaz, Morgan Freeman, Kate Hudson and Denzel Washington.

"It's fair to say that, even without soundstages, we've gone from one movie a year to one movie a month," says Paleologos, who provided those statistics. "Do I feel that there will be enough work (for that large a complex)? Yes. And that's not just because it's my job to say yes."

The reason for the filmmaker interest? New tax credits that give productions a 25 percent rebate on spending, making Massachusetts one of the most movie-friendly states in the country. A public hearing was held this week on proposed legislation to give that high a tax credit on studio construction costs, too.

Plymouth Rock isn't the only company that could benefit. There's also a proposal to build soundstages at the former military base in South Weymouth. In addition, a plan for a movie studio was announced earlier this year for Hopkinton, R.I., in a state that is also considering tax credits for moviemakers.

Paleologos hopes all the plans won't mean over-saturation, worrying that it could be like putting a Home Depot store down the street from a Lowe's. But Fleury says they are supportive of the other plans.
"Rather than see them as competition, we support anything that brings film to the area," Fleury says. "We want to see film take off. ... We want everything to work out for everybody."


Filming options

Building soundstages is key to filming movies here because projects now use abandoned stores, warehouses and other sites for indoor shots and are at the mercy of the mercurial New England weather for outdoor filming. ("The soundstages would level the playing field" versus Los Angeles, Paleologos notes.) The Plymouth Rock plan offers 14 indoor areas that can be converted to any use, as well as two back lots of outdoor set construction and access to many more landscapes – ocean, city, mountain, forest, lakes, small towns – and seasons than Los Angeles.

The soundstages "would not only provide the kind of space (directors) are used to having when they shoot in Los Angeles, but it would open the opportunity to do television series or situation comedies," Paleologos says. "We haven't had a series since the mid-'80s when 'Spenser: For Hire' was here spending $1 million a week, and those were 1985 dollars."

A big reason for trying to establish a Hollywood East? "Los Angeles is out of space, and Plymouth has it," Fleury says. Main L.A. studios have a few soundstages each, and those are booked more than a year ahead with movie and TV projects, he says, with filmmakers often losing time moving between locations.

"We'll have double the capacity and everything right on one site," he says. "We'll have two back lots for outdoor set construction. Everything will be right there."

Although Fleury emphasizes that Plymouth Rock is not trying to get everyone from Los Angeles to move here, he notes there are many filmmakers who don't, or don't want to, live in California, so would welcome the chance to work on the East Coast. Fleury is in charge of gathering feedback on the plan from directors, producers and actors, but doesn't yet have word on who might be interested in making movies here.

Meanwhile, Plymouth Rock officials have been working hard to make sure local residents are interested in having the filmmakers here, Fleury says, with several meetings and more than $1 million in planning to try to make the plan as attractive and unobtrusive for Plymouth neighbors as it can be. To limit the impact on Bourne Road and other area roads, a new exit would need to be built from Route 25.

Hanks says that proposal is on a fast track with state and federal officials, and an exit ramp could be built simultaneously with the studio, with construction equipment using a temporary access road.
Five options will be presented to the public at a meeting later this month or early next month, according to Ed Starzec, project manager for MassDevelopment, a quasi-public development and finance agency working with the town. Some options use Bourne Road to get across Route 25 at an "initial cost estimate" of $10 million to $12 million; others require a new bridge in another area, for an estimated $20 million.

How the changes would be financed and a timetable for approvals has not yet been set, Starzec says. The date for the public hearing, once set, will be available on the town Web site at www.plymouth-ma.gov, which also features some of the site plans.
Plymouth Rock officials are touting changes affecting their project as good for the town as a whole. Besides giving an economic boost to the area, the company also aims to up the town's profile.

"We want to bring people in to experience Plymouth, not just see a soundstage," Fleury says. "People have heard of Plymouth all over the country (from Pilgrim history) but nobody knows what Plymouth is."

Kathi Scrizzi Driscoll can be reached at kdriscoll@capecodoneline.com.


Plymouth Rock Studios

More than 1 million square feet of studio space and more than 400,000 square feet of space for an adjacent "village center"
14 soundstages, each 24,000 square feet n 20 acres for two back-lot areas for outdoor construction
a 1,000-seat theater for movie screenings that also could be used for live performances
and as a conference center

digital production studios for TV and film
offices for the movie studio and Rock CGI, a computer-generated special effects studio
a "New England village" of stores, restaurants, housing and possibly a hotel with an atmosphere "similar to the feel of Harvard Yard"
classroom space for K-12 training in acting and moviemaking, as well as college classes in film-related jobs
fields for football, soccer, baseball and other outdoor activities for the community as well as people working at the studio