Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter

Now anyone who knows me will tell you I am not the one for horror films at all.  But then again, I'm a sucker for vampires (no pun intended).  So I couldn't help but notice it as I was reviewing movies coming out in 2012.  First I saw the title of the movie and then the poster.  So I had to stop and read.  Who would take one of the most historical and recognizable American figures like Abraham Lincoln and portray him as a vampire hunter?  Then in the small print on the poster I saw Tim Burton's name.  Then it all made sense.

Tyler Perry's Good Deeds

Tagline:  Wesley Deeds is About to Discover the Person He Was Meant to Be.

Synopsis:  A successful, wealthy businessman, Wesley Deeds (Tyler Perry) has always done what’s expected of him, whether it’s assuming the helm of his father’s company, tolerating his brother’s misbehavior at the office or planning to marry his beautiful but restless fiancée, Natalie (Gabrielle Union). But Wesley is jolted out of his predictable routine when he meets Lindsey (Thandie Newton), a down-on-her-luck single mother who works on the cleaning crew in his office building. When he offers to help her get back on her feet, the chance encounter with someone so far outside his usual circle ignites something in Wesley. This one good deed may finally spark his courage to exchange the life that’s expected of him for the life he’s always really wanted.

Release Date: February 24, 2012

Just Me
I'm not sure about this movie.  There hasn't been too much written about it or any reviews.  It comes out next month and I haven't seen any previews on television or at the theaters.

Considering the last Tyler Perry movie I saw I witnessed a baby being dropped out of window, I will have to wait and see what others say about this movie first before going to see it.

From the movie website....

Synopsis:  In an instant, 29 million Americans became fat, out of shape and dangerously obese… and they did it without taking a single bite of food. It was all the result of a decision to change the national standard for obesity. The question is “What was behind a ruling to declare so many people to be fat? Was it political, financial or for the good of humankind?” You’ll find out that diet companies have raked in huge profits because of the new standards — guidelines the weight loss industry helped structure.
The answer lies in a new film by award-winning director Darryl Roberts who, in a follow-up to “America The Beautiful”, examines the cause of our country’s obsession with dieting. “America The Beautiful 2: The Thin Commandments” also weighs in on the raging debate between doctors who say fat is healthy versus those who disagree.

The movie, which premieres in October, offers a passionate and sometimes humorous documentation of the battle to be… well… thin. You see everything from gastric bypass surgery, an obsessed fitness fanatic and a victim of anorexia.

There’s also the revelation that — based on new “fat” guidelines — LeBron James, one of the world’s greatest athletes, is obese. So are Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Tom Cruise, Will Smith and Christian Bale.

Marcus Thomas is a filmmaker who was born and raised in Fort Worth, Texas.  He graduated from the University of Houston with a Bachelor of Arts in Media Production and Corporate Communications. His professional career began at HSI Productions where he worked as an Office Production Assistant on a number of high profile music videos and commercials.

In 2009, his short film Trust aired on BET’s Lens On Talent and his most recent short, Casting Notice, has screened at a number of film festivals and can also be viewed online.  Thomas took some time out to answer a couple of questions for JTt. 


Tell me about the film Casting Notice?  How did this story come about?

Casting Notice was inspired by different stories I’ve heard over the years from actor friends of mine as well as the weird ads people post on sites like Craigslist.  Usually stories like this are told from a female perspective so I wanted to flip it and put a male perspective on it.  I wrote the script, saved up my money, and shot the film over 3 days in Los Angeles.

Where can people check out the film?

The film can be viewed on the official site for the film which is www.CastingNoticeTheMovie.com as well as my personal website www.Marcus-Thomas.com.

When you were young, were you always interested in being a part of the film industry?

Growing up, I was obsessed with music videos, so initially I wanted to pursue a career in directing those.   Overtime, my interest expanded into narrative films.

Release Date:  January 13, 2012

Politics of Love

Synopsis:  Politics makes strange bedfellows, but never stranger than when a month before the 2008 U.S. Presidential election, a beautiful, idealistic local Obama volunteer coordinator reluctantly falls for her Republican counterpart: a sexy, savvy, African American conservative. Sparks fly, tempers flares, heads turn, and romance blossoms for this mismatched pair of campaigners in the frantic and intoxicating days leading up to Election Day. Can the politics of love conquer all?

Release Date: August 26, 2011 (limited)

N-Secure stars Cordell Moore as David Washington, a lead software analyst for a large company in Memphis Tennessee.  He’s rich, good looking, successful and to top it all off has a beautiful woman on his arm.  He appears to have the American dream.  And from the outside looking in, he’s a man’s man.  Any man would want to be in his shoes.  But David is also an anal retentive, obnoxious, domineering a---hole with few friends.  And most important of all, he’s N-Secure.

Everything seems to be going fine for David until he discovers his girlfriend of two years Robin (played by Essence Atkins) doesn’t want to marry him and probably never loved him in the first place.  By the way, he catches Robin about to have sex with her best friend’s fiancé Isaac (played by Lamman Rucker) the night before their wedding.  And mysteriously Isaac ends up dead in a car crash weeks later.

To rebound from being cheated on, David ends up dating his secretary’s cousin.  Shortly following he is told his ex-girlfriend Robin is pregnant.  But of course David goes out of his way to try and prove the baby isn’t his…even though we know it is.

Now there’s much more to the story and I don’t want to spoil it for you.  I rarely go for these BET-esque films but this one was actually good and did a great job of mixing mystery with murder and keeping me on my toes.  If I had to describe the lead character, David, he is like Patrick Bergin in Sleeping with the Enemy.  So if you enjoyed that, then you will love this.   

I had the pleasure of interviewing local filmmaker Brian Zahm and music producer Jacoti Sommes.  These two self-proclaimed psycho geniuses are responsible for "The Biggest Blackest Whitesploitation Comedy Musical You Ever Saw Sucka" short film titled Wiggah.  I can't say the title speaks for itself because there's much more to the movie than what you might believe.  The film stars Ryan Czerwonko as T, a wannabe thug who keeps his pimp hand strong to feed his crack habit.  And the film's music producer Jacoti Sommes makes his acting debut as the rival pimp L'Roy. 

I got a chance to watch this short film and it pretty much left me speechless...in a good way.  I found my jaw dropping within the first couple of minutes.  And it remained that way for the rest of the time.  I couldn't wait to interview the two crazy people with the audacity and courage to release a film such as this.  And by the accolades this film has already received, it's apparent others feel the same way.  Wiggah has been submitted to numerous film festivals and has won some top awards such as Best Comedy, Best Director, Best Original Score, and the first one I would have voted for - Best Cinematography.  It's evident Brian Zahm and Jacoti Sommes add up to one hell of a creative duo.  I'll definitely be looking forward to see what they come up with next.

John Singleton will be directing Twilight star Taylor Lautner in the much anticipated action-suspense film Abduction. 

Abduction is about a teenager named Nathan “who has long felt disconnected from his parents, and figures out why. That unleashes a chain of violent events.”  He goes on to discover his own baby picture on a missing persons website, unlocking the first clue in a large conspiracy that involves him being stolen as a baby by his current parents.

This should be a nice film project for Taylor Lautner to finally play the leading man.  It's been getting a lot of hype and even promises to offer as much action and suspense as the Bourne spy films.  Director John Singleton should be excited as well to be chosen for this project.  He already has an impressive portfolio of films he directed such as Boyz In Tha Hood, 2 Fast 2 Furious, and Four Brothers.  So many have confidence he will be able to make this film a good one for movie-goers. 

Release Date:  September 23, 2011 

Notorious filmmaker Spike Lee is working on a new film.  This news came about when Spike Lee tweeted it a couple of weeks ago...

"Wake Up. I been up since 430am. On the way to the set of THE NEW SPIKE LEE JOINT.Today is 1st Day of Shooting.Awwwwwwwwwwww Sheeeeeeeeeeeeet"

The film will take place in Brooklyn, New York which is no surprise to Spike Lee fans and the tentative title will be Red Hook Summer.  According to Blackfilm.com, in Red Hook Summer Lee will reprise his role as the outspoken, two-fiddy a week clocking, pizza delivery man 'Mookie' from his 1989 film Do the Right Thing.  There aren't too many other details about the movie yet but more news is sure to come.

Just Me

David Sabbath

Local filmmaker David Sabbath has been busy now that he's completed his first ever feature film, God Don't Make the Laws.  The film was shot last December in the German Village area of Columbus and Granville Ohio.  Even though this is Sabbath's first film, he was lucky enough to pull some pretty well-known actors in Hollywood such as Paul Sorvino ("Goodfellas" - pictured above), Robert Prescott ("Michael Clayton"), and Bruce Davidson ("X-Men").  In Alive! Sabbath describes the movie likes this, "It's about small-town America.  It's about basketball.  It's about hope.  It's about exclusion, inclusion, aging.  I mean, it's stuff we all deal with."..."The movie's if Stephen King was writing on the back of a Norman Rockwell postcard."  Now that the movie is finished, the game plan is to shop the film around to European film festivals.

Sabbath was nice enough to take a couple of minutes and talk with me about the film and what's in store for the future.

Audio Interview

Filmmaker Byron Hurt explores the health advantages and disadvantages of soul food, a quintessential American cuisine. 

About the Filmmaker
Hurt is an award-winning documentary filmmaker, a published writer, and an anti-sexist activist. His most recent documentary, Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes premiered at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival. It was later broadcast nationally on the Emmy award-winning PBS series Independent Lens, drawing an audience of more than 1.3 million viewers. To date, Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes (BBR) has been selected to appear in more than 50 film festivals worldwide and The Chicago Tribune named it "one of the best documentary films in 2007."

Just Me
I am very excited about this film and think it is a much needed story to tell about the Black experience.  I got a chance to check out Hurt's Hip Hop documentary and really enjoyed it.  FYI - you can watch it for free on Youtube.

Release Date: 2012

Tagline:  Filmed by You

Synopsis:  What do you get when you ask the people of the world to chronicle a single day in their lives?  You get 80,000 submissions, 4500 hours of footage, from 192 countries. Life In A Day is a historic global experiment to create a user-generated
feature film shot in a single day. On July 24, you have 24 hours to
capture a glimpse of your life on camera. The most compelling and
distinctive footage will be edited into a feature film,  Kevin Macdonald has taken this raw material and created a 90-minute triumph to what it means to be human in the world today.

Release Date: July 24, 2011 (limited)

Totall Recall remake

From Hollywoodnews.com....

As part of Sony Pictures’ Hall H presentation this week at San Diego Comic-Con, director Len Weisman introduced crowds to his remake of Paul Verhoeven’s 1990 film, “Total Recall,” a film which was loosely adapted from Philip K. Dick’s short story, “We Can Remember It For You Wholesale.”

The panel included Weisman, Jessica Biel, Bryan Cranston, John Cho, Kate Beckinsale and Colin Farrell, who plays Doug Quaid, the character portrayed by Arnold Schwarzenegger in Verhoeven’s original film.

To be clear, Weisman’s “Total Recall” is not a new adaptation of Dick’s short story — it is very much a remake of Verhoeven’s film. It appears that, for the most part, the premise and characters are the same, with some twists along the way.

The story is pretty simple: two nation states, Euromerica and New Shanghai, vie for supremacy as a factory worker (Farrell) begins to suspect that he is, in fact, a spy – though he is unaware which side of the fight he’s on. Bryan Cranston (“Breaking Bad”) will be playing the villain of Vilos Cohaagen, previously played by Ronny Cox.

The presentation, complete with unfinished footage, showcased that moment where Quaid realizes he’s a spy. Nick de Semlyen over at Empire summarized the sequence nicely. “It began with hero Douglas Quaid (not be confused with Dennis, or Randy…), played by Colin Farrell, paying a visit to the shady McClane (not to be confused with John), played by a peroxided John Cho, a merchant who sells ‘brain vacations.’

“Quaid wants to enjoy some simulated espionage, but as he’s plugged into a virtual-reality device an alarm blares. Turns out the system has determined that he’s already a spy, and a cadre of futuristic shock-troops turn up.”