i forget what 8 was for

—Did you know that Juneteenth is also celebrated in a part of Mexico? Nacimiento Mexico was once home to thousands who escaped slavery in the US. As many as 10,000 slaves followed a clandestine Southern Underground Railroad to Mexico. —To date, many Black Mexicans from the Texas area retrace a portion of the same route their African American ancestors followed in 1850 when they escaped slavery. —Descendants of slaves who escaped across the southern border observe Texas’s emancipation holiday with their own unique traditions in the village of Nacimiento. —Slave hunters would patrol the southern border for escapees, led by the Texas Rangers but the Mexican army would be there waiting for them (the slave hunters) to turn them away.

Dance through the darkness with this nightcrawler

Print / close-ups under the cut

THAT IS HALLOWEEN — Duo/Team

Alfonso Herrera & Ben Daniels as Father Tomas Ortega & Father Marcus Keane

SAM REID as LESTAT DE LIONCOURT

THE VAMPIRE LESTAT

FULL AUDIO:  Live audio commentary - Iron Man (2008), by Jon Favreau and Robert Downey Jr.  (2h29m length)

There has never been a director’s commentary for the Iron Man films that included Jon Favreau and RDJ.  While promoting The Jungle Book, Favreau told Reddit that they actually did do an unofficial one back in 2008 for an Iron Man screening but it was not officially recorded by the venue.

Someone in attendance did manage to record the whole thing and it was shared on Reddit yesterday, eight years later.

The screening took place on September 6, 2008 at the Aero Theater in Santa Monica, CA and was hosted by American Cinematheque as part of their “Live Commentary” series.

** NOTE:  the commentary starts at approximately the 7-minute mark. **

favreau talking nonstop about how rdj kept insisting on so many little editing tweaks that ultimately made the movie flow better

jay leno criticizing rdj for clearly not knowing what he was doing when tony clumsily takes apart a car engine [favreau’s own] (18 min mark)

tony waking up in the cave after being kidnapped was the first shot they did/rdj’s first time playing tony stark for the actual movie

rdj apologizing for this hat:

saying how that costuming choice had been his call and he didn’t knowingly mean to give such a dickensian sad boy look

when the next shot appears, favreau immediately demanding that rdj apologize for this hat:

telling how it irritated the marvel execs to no end (“we don’t show up for one day and he puts on a castro hat?!”) while rdj murmurs defensively in the background (“c'mon, that was a great hat.”)

favreau had to fight to keep in so many shots of tony working with his hands/just building things frame after frame, since he was adamant that these images were “what the whole movie was about”

the fact that tony wasn’t supposed to have his iron man mask up during the goodbye/death scene with yinsen – but they had him lift it for a single take for some technical reason that wasn’t meant to be used, then ended up using that take in the final cut (45 min mark)

rdj interrupting favreau’s explanation of the above, wanting silence for “my coming out part” (when iron man steps out of the darkness of the cave and unleashes hell)

favreau was simply indulging rdj when rdj suggested that tony make everyone sit down on the floor for the first press conference, saying that he went along with the kooky idea ‘once’ just so rdj would trust him as a director – but then ended up keeping it in bc it was so tony

rdj and favreau agreeing that the scene where pepper reaches into the arc reactor casing in tony’s chest is their ‘favorite scene’

the execs wanted to know why tony was drinking “that green shit,” which seemed to detract from the scene; favreau tells that rdj was adamant that tony would want to heal his body with superfoods

↑ “i would never not look someone in the eye when i shake their hand. but tony would.” —rdj

lots of references to indiana jones, star wars, robocop, alien

rhodey’s ringtone is the theme to the 60s iron man cartoon (same theme is used when obie introduces an absent stark at the award ceremony before the vegas scene)

the reason that tony ridicules dum-e and U so much is that these bots were used pre-production in a superbowl commercial to promote the upcoming movie, to show off what kind of ‘cool tech’ tony has around – rdj got annoyed by that, saying “these are THE DUMBEST robots anyone would ever have 🙄😑” – so when it came time to shoot his scenes with them he didn’t bother to hide how he really felt about them

↑ the photo of the iron man suit used in this newspaper shot was taken by real paparazzi, who caught up with the crew while they were shooting on a closed highway and snuck some photos; favreau thought it would be ‘cool’ to get back at them by using their shot in this scene, but then they sued marvel for $5 million for stealing their photo

Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris, and Linda Ronstadt at a recording session