TV-Movie-Comics News & interviews

STAR TREK DISCOVERY ANSON MOUNT Q&A

Gargoyles has been one of Disney’s most underutilized properties for years.  Such a rich diverse world of characters (different countries, cultures, people of color, LGBT, historical periods) and the creator Greg Weisman has 100s of episodes and arcs planned out along with multiple spin off opportunities.  

It’s mind blowing that from a business standpoint Disney would just sit back and let the property go to waste.  Even if they don’t want to spend the money to produce new episodes for Disney+ why not let him write novels or let him write a digital comic for Marvel which would cut back on distribution costs?

Over the years there have been several attempts to get new episodes of Gargoyles going, a few Gargoyles live action movies discussed, and a very brief comic book that Disney licensed.  Hopefully they’ll finally allow new content to be created if the Disney+ viewing numbers are high enough.

Apparently Star Wars and What We Do in the Shadows have merged. Mark Hamill was on What We Do In The Shadows last night (hopefully not a one time appearance) and Taika Waititi is working on a Star Wars film. 

DARTH MAUL actor RAY PARK

Since there’s all this Darth Maul attention and interest because of the Clone Wars finale, I figured I’d repost my interview with the man who originated the character in Star Wars The Phantom Menace, Mr. Ray Park.  

Super nice and humble guy.  He stopped in the middle of autographs to come around the table and teach a kid in a Darth Maul costume how to properly twirl the duel bladed light saber.  

STAR WARS THE CLONE WARS/ REVENGE OF THE SITH crossover Viewing Order

BACK TO THE FUTURE CAR BEATS CANCER AND TAKES ON PARKINSON’S DISEASE

When Oliver Holler was diagnosed with cancer and given six months left to live his wife Terry asked, “what do you want to do with the rest of your life”.  Oliver responded, “build a time machine” and so the Hollers set out to build a replica of the one featured in the 1985 film Back to The Future.  Not only did Oliver finish the time machine, he also beat cancer along the way.  

Now the Hollers were faced with another question, what to do with their Back To the Future style DeLorean.  After seeing the attention the car drew the couple had an epiphany.  They would dedicate their lives to using the Back to the Future car to raise money to battle the disease that the star of the film, Michael J. Fox had sworn his life to fight; Parkinson’s Disease.  Now the Hollers travel the world with their DeLorean raising money for the Michael J. Fox Foundation.

Make donations at ToTheFuture.org

TRACY EDWARDS INTERVIEW

Celebrate Women’s History Month with Maiden the story of the first team of women to sail around the world.

Competitive sailing had always been a man’s sport until Tracy Edwards decided to break barriers and form her own all female team to compete in the Whitbread Round The World Race (The Ocean Race).

Red Carpet interviews with documentary film makers at Cinequest 2020.

Click the link to jump to each interview:

THE THIRD STRIKE (0:24) – The Decarceration Collective frees people that have been sent to prison for life due to drug convictions

NAUGHTY BOOKS (6:44) – Many romance writers started self publishing books after 50 Shades of Grey

FAR EAST DEEP SOUTH (9:35) – A Chinese family discovers roots in Mississippi

MS. DIAGNOSED (12:09)- Women are often misdiagnosed because medicine was created for men

RUTH WEISS, THE BEAT GODDESS (20:41)- The first female beat poet

BLEEDING AUDIO (23:11)- The story of The Matches. What broke the band up and what brought them back together

Coronavirus Closes Cinequest

The Bay Area’s Cinequest Film and Creativity Festival 2020 has been ended early due to coronavirus.  

Cinequest was supposed to run for 13 days but was cut short to just 6 because of growing concern over the spread of coronavirus in Santa Clara County.   So far 32 people have tested positive for the virus in Santa Clara County.  

Coronavirus concerns world wide have forced the closure of Disney’s parks in Asia and has many sports teams contemplating whether to play in empty arenas.  The closure of Cinequest means that many filmmakers will not get to debut their work at the festival.

Summer Do Over

Cinequest plans to hold an event this August to makeup for the cancelled week.   Cinequest President Kathleen Powell says she expects “70% of it will be filmmakers that are in the line up right now”, but that there will be “exciting and new announcements as well.”

“Maybe we’ll do some out door screenings or something that we’re not able to do at this time of the year in march when we battle with the rain”.  She discussed outdoor parties as well.

What happens if you’ve already bought a Cinequest pass?  “One way or another we’ll take care of our pass holders and our ticket buyers.  We won’t leave them hanging”.

DISNEY ON ICE MICKEY’S SEARCH PARTY preview

Disney on Ice Mickey’s Search Party introduces circus acrobatics, aerialists, and new video technology into Disney on Ice.  The show features Frozen, Coco, Moana, Aladdin, The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, and Toy Story.  Ice skater Echo Cassill talked to me about the show.  Check out the interview and get a preview of Disney on Ice Mickey’s Search Party.

MARTIN LUTHER KING KEPT UHURA ON STAR TREK

Nichelle Nichols is best known for her role as Uhura on Star Trek but almost left the show until civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. told her to stay.

Check out this excerpt of my 2016 interview with Nichelle Nichols at Silicon Valley ComicCon.

The full interview is at https://youtu.be/-zFQOrmiIHc