Los Angeles Art Blog

View more photos in the "25 Years of Vivid Entertainment Cover Art" slideshow.

Gary Busey's Angelo Pappas said it best in Point Break: "22 years. Man, L.A. has changed a lot during that time. The air got dirty and the sex got clean."

When it comes to porn, the cineskin business has also changed a lot since the '80s. The plot lines got kinkier and the hair styles got a helluva lot less cheesy. From Club Ginger to Milfwood USA to Interview with a Vibrator, we celebrate the 25th anniversary of Vivid Entertainment's 1984 launch with a timeline of sexy and hilarious cover art throughout the years.

Ginger, 1984

Vivid Entertainment

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What's better than watching Biff Griff get arrested outside the clock tower while chilling on your hoverboard? Nothing, actually. But sneaking into a parking lot at the Universal Studios back lot to play inside the original Back to the Future DeLorean time machine is pretty damn close. Check out these photos from one recent late-night adventure...

Erin Broadley

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Walking through a narrow corridor inside the Ivy Substation in Culver City, one can already feel the energy. The space that once powered electric trolley cars on Venice Blvd. is now home to The Actors' Gang Theater. Everyone is gathered here on a Wednesday night at the WTF?! Festival to see The Aristocrats, a 2005 documentary about the most disgusting joke ever told between comedians.

Tim Robbins

Before the screening begins, we are led into a small outside courtyard in the back of the theater. The DJ is spinning Bob Dylan's "Rainy Day Women #12 & 35" as small lights adorn above giving the space an intimate, bohemian appeal. Paul Provenza, director of the film, mingles happily with fans and friends. Also among the crowd is the talented Tim Robbins, artistic director of the Actors' Gang and curator of the WTF?! Festival.

We know you've been working very hard on your screenplay, but before you go looking for some professional feedback, you might keep in mind the following piece by A History of Violence screenwriter Josh Olson.

I will not read your fucking script.

That's simple enough, isn't it? "I will not read your fucking script." What's not clear about that? There's nothing personal about it, nothing loaded, nothing complicated. I simply have no interest in reading your fucking screenplay. None whatsoever.

If that seems unfair, I'll make you a deal. In return for you not asking me to read your fucking script, I will not ask you to wash my fucking car, or take my fucking picture, or represent me in fucking court, or take out my fucking gall bladder, or whatever the fuck it is that you do for a living.

Nicole Campos

Cindy Pickett's portrait of John Hughes

The Friday rush hour before Labor Day had scarcely begun, but there was already a laid back lull that had settled on Hollywood; anyone who cruised past Pink's Hot Dogs on September 4 at just the right evening hour would have found one of the shortest lines in the stand's history. Not everyone got out of Dodge for the last holiday of summer, however, as evidenced by the capacity crowd that turned up for the third night of the New Beverly Cinema's tribute to the late, great John Hughes, who died unexpectedly of a heart attack last month. The director's teen meisterwerks Sixteen Candles and Pretty In Pink screened earlier in the week, but Friday night (and Saturday) it was time to revel in arguably his two finest films: every teen's truancy fantasy writ large in Ferris Bueller's Day Off, and the white-collar everyman's worst commuter nightmare in Planes, Trains & Automobiles.

Nicole Campos

Mike Judge has something to live up to with his new comedy Extract, if the testimonial of an audience member during Saturday night's Q&A following a preview screening at the American Cinematheque at the Aero was anything to go by. Without naming the expert in question, the fellow pointed out that a professor of his at USC had declared Judge's 2000 cult classic Office Space to have been the most important work of social commentary since Upton Sinclair's The Jungle. The director quite humbly seemed to laugh and shrug the comparison off, but sociopolitical underpinnings aside, it's hard to underestimate just how much his work has come to mean to comedy fans.

Nicole Campos

The QT has landed.

Any night is a bad night to do road work in front of Amoeba Records, but Thursday night in particular made for bad rush-hour congestion on a date where the Hollywood record mecca was about to play host to Quentin Tarantino, signing the soundtrack to Inglourious Basterds -- available on CD or luscious, old-school vinyl -- prior to a midnight screening at the Arclight next door. Thankfully for the 300 lucky fans who got their place in line days ago by buying the soundtrack and movie ticket package, they didn't have to worry about arriving late and missing the cut-off; nevertheless, a good number of them were lined up outside hours earlier. Better safe than sorry.

Nicole Campos

Stick that in your corpse pipe and smoke it.

There's something about zombies - something innately unifying, a sense of shambling, blood-dribbling community - that brings people together. Especially at a time when the horror genre has turned tide toward mopey emo vampires and the latest bad seed child of the week, those with an affinity for the shuffling undead somehow always find a way to join forces, shred their clothing, greasepaint their faces and practice rolling their eyes back into their sockets for a spontaneous celebration of zombie mayhem. (Who has any doubt that the Halloween-timed "Thriller" zombie walks are going to be extra poignant this year, too? And no, it won't be too soon for a few more zombie Michaels than usual.)

Heath Ledger in The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus

It's a journey through a magic mirror where the lead character in the film changes form not because the original script dictated it, but because the actor sadly passed away in the midst of filming. The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus isn't just a fantasy film, but a test of director Terry Gilliam's imagination. By now, the behind-the-scene tragedy has been well-documented, how Imaginarium almost ceased to exist after Heath Ledger's death, how Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell took over various incarnations of the role, thus averting disaster. The saga is, in some ways, reflective of former Monty Python member Gilliam's work as a whole.

Today's news of iconic filmmaker John Hughes' death has left many in shock. With a resume that included The Breakfast Club, Sixteen Candles, Pretty in Pink, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, and more, Hughes' films were the embodiment of '80s teen comedy and his sudden passing from a reported heart attack at 59 has cast a shadow of mortality over anyone who still remembers their first line of coke, their first shoulder pads and their first awkward kiss with the boy in detention... basically, anyone who worshipped at the altar of the Brat Pack. Here's to remembering John Hughes, one movie moment at a time...

​ Scene: Detention

Epic Quote:
Brian Johnson: Dear Mr. Vernon, we accept the fact that we had to sacrifice a whole Saturday in detention for whatever it was we did wrong. But we think you're crazy to make an essay telling you who we think we are. You see us as you want to see us... In the simplest terms, in the most convenient definitions. But what we found out is that each one of us is a brain...
Andrew Clark: ...and an athlete...
Allison Reynolds: ...and a basket case...
Claire Standish: ...a princess...
John Bender: ...and a criminal...
Brian Johnson: Does that answer your question?... Sincerely yours, the Breakfast Club.

Saturday, a sunny afternoon in August on the Sunset Strip -- before the cruisers started to prowl, when you could still get lucky finding parking on a block that isn't permit only -- was a good time for the cineaste crowd to converge on Book Soup as filmmaker Werner Herzog made an appearance this weekend to promote Conquest of the Useless, a richly entertaining collection of his diaries from the famously harried production of his 1982 film Fitzcarraldo.

Nicole Campos

Werner Herzog

At Comic-Con's preview night, held Wednesday evening at the San Diego Convention Center, the talk was all about the line.

"What is that line for?" person after person asked after seeing people row of tents running across the courtyard between the Convention Center and the neighboring hotel.
The crowd, a mix heavy on the ladies ranging teenagers to senior citizens, had arrived for one reason, Twilight. On Wednesday, at 1:45 p.m., Comic-Con will be hosting a panel featuring the stars of Twilight and footage from New Moon. The fans can't help but grin when they mention this.

Camping out for Twilight

 

Yes, we all know that vampires are the most alluring of all monsters, wan yet beautiful beings that lurk in the darkest corners of the night. They hold their sometimes willing mortal victims in a deep embrace as they seductively grin, dig sharpened fangs into the neck and then lap up the blood.

But all the passion of vampire sagas can get old after a while. If you're suffering from Twilight fatigue, might we suggest checking out the vampires of anime and manga?

The focus in these movies and TV series tends to be on the almighty vampire hunter, who usually happens to be a blood-drinker as well. There is little of your typical vampire-meets-mortal romance and almost no pontificating over the perils of immortality. Instead, you'll see characters struggling with the idea of killing their own, sometimes questioning the massive organizations for which they work and engaging in loads of gruesome battles.

Tim Burton's film adaptation of Alice In Wonderland isn't out until next year, but if the promo photos are any indication, it's going to be the most visually arresting, luxurious Alice yet. Here's a look at how new Alice stacks up against older Alices from a fashion perspective.

1. Alice

The new Alice is played by 19 year old Mia Wasikowska. From the looks of her outfit--a slightly-longer than tea-length gown, white booties, fingerless gloves--in this photo, the film will be returning to Alice In Wonderland's Victorian roots. Her dress resembles cartoon Disney Alice's frock, but owes more in feel and attitude to Arthur Rackham's haunting, Earthy vision of Alice. Also, I just noticed this, but look how chubby cartoon Alice's calves are compared to her arms.

Also glad that Wasikowska-Alice isn't a super-blonde blonde.

2. The Mad Hatter

Johnny Depp was all but born to play this role. Or rather, it's a role he's been playing for film after film after film now. Looks like he's a redhead in Tim Burton's flick. He's also way more psychedelic and frightening than either Sir John Tenniel's imagining of the Mad Hatter or Disney's portly, nebbishy Mad Hatter (who by comparison looks like he is on his way to a congressional hearing instead of a tea party). The pink sash around the hat and pink shirt peeping out from behind the wacky cravat are a nice touch. Why does pink on guys always connote crazy? I expect we'll be seeing a lot of this on Halloween and at cosplay conventions.

Even amongst the Hollyweird crowd, staying up past the witching hour on a Monday night for a book signing at Meltdown Comics takes dedication. Then again, one has to take into account context, or in this case subject: writer-director Guillermo Del Toro, who is promoting his first foray into novelization with The Strain (co-written with Chuck Hogan), the first in an epic trilogy about a vampire plague. The kind of dedication the man engenders is infectious; for the hardcore geek audience he is one of our own, as impassioned and boisterous a fan of genre storytelling as the next guy (or girl), as adept with the sublime melancholy of Pan's Labyrinth as he is with the whizz-bang action of the Hellboy series. It's not difficult to understand why there's a line snaking clear down the block to get in this late. Señor Del Toro speaks our language, fluently. (And we don't mean English or Spanish.)

Nicole Campos

Guillermo Del Toro

Erin Broadley

Gary Busey joins the cast of Point Break Live! on stage

Actor Gary Busey made a special appearance at the Dragonfly on Friday night for the May 22 performance of Point Break Live!, the wildly popular punk-rock stage adaptation of the 1991 action flick Point Break that starred Busey as seasoned FBI agent and general badass, Angelo Pappas, opposite Keanu Reeves' Johnny Utah.

During the performance Busey clearly enjoyed himself, cheering and heckling from the front row, wearing his "survival kit" rain poncho, and even picking up a cap gun and Super Soaker to join the cast members for the show's final shoot-out. I joined the cast backstage after the show for what was an epic night in Point Break Live! history.

View more photos in the "L-I-V-I-N: Dazed and Confused @ Hollywood Forever Cemetery" slideshow.

Shannon Cottrell

Contemplating if they should try to wait in the long line.

It took an hour to find parking somewhere in the vicinity of Hollywood Forever on Sunday night, at least half of which was spent trying to get through one intersection. Santa Monica Boulevard and Gower had turned into a mess of cars trying to enter the cemetery, people walking between traffic with beach chairs and Trader Joe's grocery bags hoisted above their heads and flannel and denim-clad folks waiting in line for that moment when Matthew McConaughey's character "Wooderson" would appear onscreen with his slick car, tight pants and porn mustache, ready to espouse wisdom. Needless to say, this Cinespia screening sold out quickly, leaving me to wonder, why did Dazed and Confused become such a cult hit?

The other weekend, Wolverine racked up $87 million for its opening. That's more than pop cultural sweetheart Star Trek pulled in over the past three days. Wolverine's impressive debut undermines the argument that former Fox entertainment blogger Roger Friedman, who was fired for reviewing a bootlegged working print of the film that he downloaded via BitTorrent, had hurt the movie's financial prospects.

With the likelihood of more Wolverine-type leaks only getting higher, movie makers are adopting an "if you can't beat them, join them" attitude. At last week's Digital Hollywood conference, panelists bounced around the idea of "torrent trailers," deliberately released teasers to generate buzz ahead of a release. Michael Bay, they said, may or may not have deliberately released the trailer for Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, to the ire/glee of fanboys and girls across the YouTubes.

Now, some in Hollywood are talking about taking it further, manufacturing buzz by releasing movies onto the Internet early, in formats only the geekiest fans will bother to figure out. LAWeekly.com sat down with Digital Hollywood panelist Paul Kontonis, founder of Web video distributor For Your Imagination, to discuss the future of film in a torrent-covered world.

View more photos in the Lebowski Fest '09 slideshow.

Timothy Norris

Costume contest winners: [L-R] The Jesus, Maude, Walter and The Dude.

It's a balmy Friday and just north of the Long Beach Airport, the Lebowski Fest 2009 crew has landed, ready to launch into the second night of their all-stops The Big Lebowski celebration by bowling the night away at Lakewood's Cal Bowl. The problem is, no one seemed to tell the local league players, who are still heavy into their games when the event's start time rolls around.

Scores of partygoers sporting "Little Lebowski Urban Achievers" T-shirts and The Dude's iconic yellow-and-brown "Medina Sod" bowling shirt, ladies in redhead bobs and green bathrobes (the iconic look of Julianne Moore's character, Maude), plus even more Dudes, Walters and Jesus Quintanas than had showed up at the Wiltern screening the previous night, are lined up outside the bowling alley waiting to get in and blast some pins to kingdom come. Some take advantage of the extra wait time to duck into M&M Soul Food next door to get some grub (mmm, cornbread and fried catfish), while others hold each other's place in line while they steal away into the bar for a beer.

View more photos in the Lebowski Fest '09 slideshow.

Timothy Norris

A Walter and Jeff Dowd, who character of the Dude was based on, at the Lebowski Fest Day 1

The Dude abides. And so does that Dude over there.... and that Dude, with the really natty bathrobe... and that Dude, who looks a lot more Duderiffic when he's standing next to the guy dressed as Walter. There are a lot of Dudes running around the Wiltern at the first night of Lebowski Fest 2009, the impassioned fans' celebration of the Coen Brothers 1998 caper The Big Lebowski, and every single one of them abides. (Perhaps none more so than the one who leads us through the prayer of the Dude before the proceedings begin. Which you can, too, if you'd like to become an ordained minister of Dudeism.)

Once tucked into a science fiction corner, steampunk has infiltrated the Southern California underground and nowhere was that more obvious than at last weekend's Gothla US, where belly dancers dressed as though they had stepped out of Aubrey Beardsley posters, musicians played with a neo-Victorian flair and merchants like Clockwork Couture dealt in goggles and clock-part jewelry.

"To me, it's like science is art," says Clockwork Couture's Mich Fisher of steampunk. "It's taking science and technology and adding imagination and creativity and sort of spinning it into something completely different."

RAFFI ADLAN

I have never traveled to Tokyo. With one of the biggest festivals of the year coming up in two days, attending the screening of Tokyo! the movie -- a three-part film directed by Michel Gondry, Léos Carax, and Bong Joon-ho, respectively -- sounded like a good opportunity to take a mental vacation before I am up to my elbows in the SXSW tech-a-palooza that is Texas during the second week of March. As I watched the triptych collaboration between three of world cinema's most brilliant visionaries I realized that I had been to Tokyo -- or at least the Tokyo of their vision, the space where the quiet elegance of our fear and desire intertwines with our outside environment to form an elegy of both love and alienation.

The troika was helmed by Michel Gondry's short film Interior Design. Gondry (in town preparing start to work on Seth Rogan's The Green Hornet) and the lovely actress Ayako Fujitani were on hand to share their personal experiences in making the film. Wanting to make a movie "like it was made by the Japanese," Gondry's Interior Design centers around a narcissistic young filmmaker and his devoted girlfriend, whom he deigns as "lacking ambition." Gondry takes his cue from screenwriter (and comic book author) Gabrielle Bell's insight into the common trope of female isolation, a trope most commercially exemplified by another Tokyo-related film, Lost in Translation. The heroine's material and psychic struggles are even more poignant in juxtaposition with the emotionally desolate landscape of Japan's de-facto capital, owing much to Ayako's masterful performance as a troubled young woman who through Gondry's expert magical realism finds a purpose as (spoiler alert!) an honest-to-goodness chair. Ironically her newfound "use" becomes everything she's ever wanted.

"Quis Custodiet Ipsos Custodes, Chapters 11 & 12" by Mack Hill

According to curator Marz Richards, part of the inspiration for the Watchmen-inspired exhibit Physical Nostalgia - "a punk rock celebration of one of the most important creative works to appear at the end of the 20th century," currently on display at Meltdown Comics' gallery space - was to have a selection of artists interpret and honor their own visions of the source material in advance of Zack Snyder's film version taking its own berth in the pop lexicon. Which isn't to say that viewing the art in light of last weekend's movie release is a bad thing; indeed, at Saturday night's exhibit opening shindig, snippets of debate about likes and dislikes (some from folks who had just come straight from the cinema) were in earshot everywhere, all spurred forth by the evocative pieces on display.

It's subversively good!

Beyond the obvious - which is to say the countless cast members gracing magazine covers, ubiquitous billboards at every major crossroads from the East L.A. intersection to the beach - the Watchmen blitz is clearly on. The wait for the long-awaited film adaptation of the Citizen Kane of comics is nearly over, and if the advance sales are anything to go by (opening weekend screenings at the Cinerama Dome are virtually sold out) it will be a big turnout from both casual filmgoers and geek-literate crowds alike. It's the latter, of course, whose anticipation has been gradually building for months (if not years) and are devouring all things Watchmen with a ravenous appetite.


Enos signs his mega coffee table book. And he brought the coffee!

Click here for Underworld prop and costume slideshow.

Selene's catsuit and corset

On February 7, Premiere Props will host a live auction featuring costumes and props for the Underworld film franchise. The event, co-sponsored by Fangoria, Rue Morgue Magazine and several other horror-related outfits, will include items from all three films, the most recent of which, Underworld: Rise of the Lycans, was released on January 23.

"Very few movies have this much detail," says Dan Levine, vice-president of marketing for Premiere Props, who regularly hosts auctions for film and television items.

Included in the auction is protagonist Selene's (Kate Beckinsale) latex catsuit and corset combo, complete with a bullet hole, and Andreas Tanis' (Steven Mackintosh) three-piece ensemble featuring fox trim on the coat and pants and hand-embroidered detailing. Also appearing is the distressed, bullet-riddled leather coat and 1907 medical book used by Michael Corvin (Scott Speedman). The Underworld arsenal also features serum injector and corresponding vial of blue liquid used by Corvin and Selene's throwing star.

The auction will also feature a Q&A session with Patrick Tatopoulos, director of Underworld: Rise of the Lycans and creature designer for the first two films. A portion of the proceeds will benefit the Entertainment Industry Foundation.

Premiere Props is located at 128 Sierra Street, El Segundo, CA 90245. The preview begins at 9 a.m. and the auction at 11 a.m. Fans can bin online at icollector.com.

With the movie version of the book version of the advice every mother, father, sister, and concerned gay best friend ever gave a lovesick girl about to drop this Friday, I present to you this book: Your Cat's Just Not That Into You--What Part of Meow Don't You Understand? This is not a review nor an endorsement of the book, which I haven't read. Don't even own, actually. Merely a kindly heads up to its existence. Why? Because the title gave me a good laugh, which I'm almost certain the movie will not.

Things are looking good early in '09 for the inestimable New Beverly Cinema, over a year into a well-deserved renaissance thanks to consistently excellent revival programming and the frequent, unmissable filmmaker-hosted events which have drawn faithful regulars and all-new crowds to the theater in recent months. (The place looks better than ever, too, thanks to the support of the crowds - a brand-new screen plus new upholsteries, light fixtures, and most recently, a makeover to their restrooms over the Thanksgiving holiday. Shiny.)

The New Bev is in the midst of the first director-docented lineup of the year, and it's a big one - the legendary (and legendarily hilarious and irascible) Peter Bogdanovich, who dropped by on Wednesday and Friday last week to discuss some of his own work including The Last Picture Show, What's Up Doc?, and at Friday's packed-house screening, Paper Moon and Mask. Paper Moon screened first, in a flawless, recently-struck archival print that demonstrably showed off the film's Midwest locations and cinematographer Laszlo Kovacs' stunning black and white photography; fans filing out for bathroom or cigarette breaks afterward could catch the director arriving right as the credits were rolling. Ace timing, P.B.

Barackula is a short political horror rock musical about young Barack Obama having to stave off a secret society of vampires at Harvard when he was inducted into presidency at the Harvard Law Review in 1990. Obama (Justin Sherman) finds that he must convince the vampire society that opposing political philosophies can coexist or else the society may transform Obama to the dark side.

I've always felt a certain connection to John Connor. Sure, in 1984 when The Terminator hit theaters I was a toddler and he was unborn, but after Terminator 2: Judgment Day was released in 1991, I too was arrested for liberating incarcerated lobsters in a Kentucky grocery store felt ready to lead the resistance.

Flash forward -- I'm nowhere close to being a soldier of the apocalypse, and in Terminator Salvation, John Connor hasn't quite reached his potential either as he copes with a future dangerously different than the one his mother warned him about. The T-800s are arriving ahead of schedule, Skynet is taking human prisoners for R&D, and Kyle Reese -- Connor's once and future father -- is among the captive, on his way to the testing chamber.

Those details were just part of the preview L.A. journalists got last night at Warner Brothers' special presentation of the newest film in the Terminator franchise at the DGA theater. It was one of only three test screenings that took place in North America, the other two in New York on January 12 and Toronto on January 13. The major perk of the L.A. screening? Ours was a new reel with material that hadn't been seen. 

Just after 7 p.m. we took our seats in the small theater, joined by producer Dan Lin, actor Anton Yelchin (Kyle Reese) and director McG, who insisted he was there to listen to our feedback, take it into consideration and make us a part of the filmmaking process, as much as he was there to show and explain to us clips of Terminator Salvation. Slated for a Memorial Day release, the film is still unfinished but that was what made the experience special. There we were, watching unfinished reels of man battle machine in a post-Judgment Day wasteland, being asked whether or not we'd like Linda Hamilton as Sarah Connor to be the voice-over that brings us into the film. Yes, please.

"Who likes that idea? Who wants a Sarah Connor voice-over?" McG asked. Almost every hand went up.

He continued, turning to producer Joel B. Michaels in the crowd, "Joel, what's the deal with Linda Hamilton?"

"It's happening," Michaels replied.

Good.

William Shatner said it best at the beginning of every Star Trek episode, "Space, the final frontier." For decades since, life amongst the stars has unfolded on screens big and small like western epics, with bounty hunters, gunslingers and the losers of grand wars wandering through lawless lands, their simple quests for survival bombarded with obstacles that force them into the role of hero (or anti-hero). Their steeds may be spaceships, but their goals remain the same.

From the U.S. to Japan, space cowboys have captured the imagination of sci-fi fans. Joss Whedon's short-lived television series Firefly became a cult classic, spawning a feature film, several books, including comics, a role-playing game and a fan convention. More recently, producer Erwin Stoff (The Matrix, A Scanner Darkly) announced that he has a live-action film version of the popular anime Cowboy Bebop in the works, which has kept anime blogs and message boards abuzz with who may star in it. Closer on the horizon is a feature length version of another anime, Trigun, written and directed by the team from the original series, anticipated for a 2009 release.

We've compiled a list of five space cowboys we love. If you have another favorite, simply add it in the comment section.

1) Malcolm "Mal" Reynolds
Firefly (TV), Serenity (Film)

Steed: Serenity

Sidekick: Zoe Alleyne Washburne, who served under Mal in the Unification Wars and has since become his second-in-command.

Backstory: During the Unification Wars, Malcolm Reynolds was a sergeant for the Independents. They lost. After the conflict, he picked up a used spaceship, known as a Firefly, which he named Serenity (as in the Battle of Serenity Valley, this universe's version of Gettysburg), and accumulated a crew of misfits that exist out of reach from the control of the Alliance. Add to this a doctor who boards the ship with a container holding his disturbed genius sister and a new set of troubles begin.

Firefly: Fan Made Trailer