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Saturday, December 10, 2016

HOLLLLLLLLLLLLYWOOD!

December 10, 2016
Long day yesterday that included a trip to Hollywood! 

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$25M!  in 1985?  Over $55M in 2016 dollars. That was the budget of a wonderful quest movie starring River Phoenix, Ethan Hawke and Bobby Fite: Explorers!  Directed by Joe Dante, the guy I worked with on Gremlins, is a very pure thirteen year old fantasy movie with effects, that for thirty years ago.. are spectacular. The aliens are educated by old television shows! Fantastic! Literally.

Remembering the ideas that I had as a guy the age of these guys and cousin, Donnie's, building a space ship in his grandmother's shed, is perfect for a reflective Saturday afternoon.   Dante has a way with actors.  An actor's director has ideas that he somehow infuses into the actor's psyche and out comes something believable, even as these three kids rocket through space in a cobbled together space capsule.  I don't know if the movie made it's budget back, but the story follows the classic hero's journey with familiar friends voicing the alien's voices.  We have lost Marilyn Schreffler and Bob Holt, two pals.  When Bob died, Marilyn bought a new red Mustang and got a vanity license plate:  "Mr Holt." In the days of cartoon voices before the celebrities took over, this cast of voices was truly wonderful. 

I wrote to the agent who represented Marilyn and me for a while to tell him that she had succumbed to cancer (she used tobacco!).. He sent me back a note (we used paper and stamps then) to say he was sorry to hear that she had died, but he had decided to never go!  (Eventually..  as we all must.. he found his last days playing golf up in San Luis Obispo... )  He got me a leg up in the business and I am ever grateful. 

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Hollywood fuels our dreams.  However... Reality is looming. Today I sent the last card to some republican electors asking them to compromise and avert the trainwreck we experience every day with the news of election shannanigans  and deceit that plague the crumbling reputation of the United States.  I hope that Oliver Stone tackles the subject of the crap going on here in a new movie.   Hope that there may be a compromise candidate and we learn the truth. 

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Review of LITTLE DRUMMER BOWIE at the Falcon Theatre to follow at:    onstagelosangeles. blogspot.com .. It's spectacular!  

//  michael sheehan
December 10, 2016

Chayote 12/10/16
 


 

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