In the 1975 Disney movie Escape to Witch Mountain two orphans with paranormal abilities discover a clue to their past.  These clues lead them to Witch Mountain and the knowledge that they are in fact aliens.  This movie was followed up by a sequel in 1978 called Return from Witch Mountain, and a TV movie in 1982 called Beyond Witch Mountain, and then it was remade in 1995.

I’ve talked about this re-imaging before, but somewhere along the way my attitude has shifted.  Let’s say that I want to make a really cool movie about these kids with special abilities.  Every good movie needs a good McGuffin, so I make them orphans with a mysterious past.  They work to uncover evidence of who they really are.  It’s an allegory of us all trying to find our place in the world, and hoping that we can prove that the things that make us different are the things that make us special.  These kids find out that they aren’t oddballs, but they are actually part of an alien society.  They discover that they aren’t alone in the world and their abilities are real gifts.

Now, to help separate my movie from all of the other movies out there I want to tie into some sort of existing fan base.  I happen upon the old Disney movie Escape to Witch Mountain.  I research it a bit and discover that the movie is based on the 1968 Novel by Alexander Key.  After reading the novel I find this is really a “a very cool dark thriller”.

I find myself wondering how many melodies can be made from the same 12 notes, but then I sit back and enjoy the music.  I’m looking forward to sharing this movie with my kids.

Well, I’m off to see the Quantum of Solace.  The title of the post is in reference to a previous post I made about the proposed Theme Song for the new Bond movie.  You can see it here.  I’ll let you know what I think of the movie on Monday.

Quantum of Solace from phoenix on Vimeo.

Michael Crichton, the million-selling author who made scientific research terrifying and irresistible in such thrillers as “Jurassic Park,” “Timeline” and “The Andromeda Strain,” has died of cancer, his family said. Crichton died Tuesday in Los Angeles at age 66 after privately battling cancer.

I picked up this little diddy from Otis Frampton’s site. Thanks Otis!!!

Star Wars: The Clone Wars is coming to home video on November 11, as a single-disc DVD, two-disc Special Edition DVD, and — the first for any Star Wars release — a Hi-Def Blu-Ray release.

On October 30, 1938 the American radio drama anthology series aired an adaptation of H. G. Wells’ novel The War of the Worlds directed and narrated by Orson Welles.  The first two thirds of the broadcast was presented as a series of simulated news bulletins with no commercial breaks.  With the tension and anxiety leading to World War II, many listeners thought that an actual Martian invasion was in progress.  This created quite a panic.

I’ve found some similarities between this radio broadcast and the video below.  In the UK there are Closed-Circuit Television cameras all over the city.  In the same spirit of Orson Welles, James Sanger decided to create a type of Alien invasion that when seen through the media would appear real and thus require further investigation.

Blake reviews the movie “Nights in Rodanthe”.  I used to think how great it would be to go to see movies for free, and then I remember that some movies are harder to watch than others.

My good friend Blake has found a way to get free movies.  He’s an avid movie watcher, and well versed and well, he’s got an opinion about things too.  He’s been asked to do movie reviews for an Arizona-based DVD/movie web site. He get free tickets to pre-screenings and then he writes about the movies.  He’s asked that he not have to go to any super violent gore fests, so for this week he got stuck with “Disaster Movie”.  hehehe.  It sounds SOOOO GOOD! ;D

Go check out his review at the HDroom.com.

One of the things that I was most excited about with the new Star Wars movie was all of the little details.  StarWars.com has an article about all of the little details that you may have missed the first time you saw Clone Wars.  Click HERE to jump to the article.

When I was out at the San Diego ComicCon, I went to the Lucasfilm party.  There at the party they had gifts for the guests.  The coolest of these being the Clone Wars Ammo box with a patch inside.  I was checking out the patch and realized that it was made to look like one of the painting that the WWII pilots would put on their planes.  I think that its called nose art.  I love the patch, but didn’t know what to do with it.

Then it hit me!  The Star Wars fan costuming club is called the 501st.  The name is derived (I suppose) from the WWII 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment.  So I thought that the perfect way to wear the patch was to find an WWII officer shirt!  I used my Indiana Jones shirt and it worked perfect.  The finishing touch was of course to add my pin from the Philippine Outpost of the 501st Legion of Stormtroopers. 

At San Diego ComicCon Otto said that he was going to use the ammo box to store his pens.  I thought that was a great idea.  I wonder if I’ll have any trouble flying with an Ammo can in my luggage? 

I know it’s a bit overdue, but I had a bit of trouble getting everything together.  I have thankfully been very busy lately.

The Clone Wars opened on August 15th, shortly after my son’s birthday.  One of his birthday presents was to  go to see the movie.  I found out that the Rebel Legion and the 501st would be presenting Dan Harkins of Harkins Theaters with an honorary memebership.  So, we went to the movie early and then hung out after word to see everyboday and the presentation.  I had my little old Canon digital camera with me and I shot some photos and a video.