As I was watching the Academy Awards last night, I got this e-mail from Terry Q.
Jim
Did you just see Johnny Depp? Boy, did he look scruffy. Is this Johnny’s way of thumbing his nose at the Academy for not giving him the Best Actor award last year? Or is there some other reason that Depp decided not to shave today?
Just curious,
Terry Q.
Dear Terry —
Actually, Johnny was sporting that goatee on the red carpet last night because he’s reporting for work today on “Pirates of the Caribbean II & III.”
Yep, production on the two sequels to Walt Disney Picture’s 2003 blockbuster officially gets underway later today. Mr. Depp is due over at Universal Studios this afternoon to begin rehearsals on “Dead Man’s Chest.
“Why is Depp going over to Universal Studios?,” you ask. “Isn’t ‘Pirates’ supposed to be a Disney picture?” Well, here. Let’s let loyal JHM reader Don J. explain:
You may be interested to know that “Pirates” ‘s village scenes, which are (to be) shot at Universal Studios Hollywood, are nearly done being built. We were just there on one of their VIP Experience tours. And while they couldn’t take us through the area, we did get to stand right on the edge and watch some of the construction and “set dressing.” The tour guide told us Disney’s rented the area for quite some time and plans to shoot scenes from (both) movies before striking the set.
Given that Al Lutz regularly publishes photos that he gets of the USH backlot, I would imagine that it won’t be too long before we see some really great shots of the “POTC” sets popping up over at miceage.com.
Though — to be honest — if you folks really want to know about what’s going on the set of the “POTC” sequels, there’s only one site that you need to check out: KeepToTheCode.com.
According to Bruce Cain, one of the guys behind this sure-to-be-fun website:
“We want KeepToTheCode.com to be the one-stop shop for all things Pirates of the Caribbean. We’ve established relationships with several outside sources. So we have a few incredibly fun tricks up our sleeve that we think site visitors will really enjoy: Contests, Pirates prize giveaways, and a lot more. It will be time well spent for any Pirates fan.”
Cain & Co.’s plans for KeepToTheCode.com include regular updates of the production of the “POTC” sequels, reviews of various “Pirates” related products (Including NECA — AKA the National Entertainment Collectibles Association — ‘s incredibly cool “Pirates” action figures), interviews with folks who actually worked on the films as well as those WED veterans who helped create the original attraction, some multimedia material as well as an interactive message forum.
We’re talking about exclusive content here, people. “Pirates” -related material that you won’t see anywhere else on the Web. Not even here at JHM. So you want to be the first to get in the fun, then I suggest that you head on over to KeepToThe Code.com right now and sign up for this website’s mailing list.
Mind you, the site doesn’t officially open for business ’til March 18th. But — trust me, folks — this one is going to be worth the wait.
Speaking of upcoming Disney movies … I’m pleased to report that “Herbie: Fully Loaded” seems to be shaping up nicely. This Angela Robinson film supposedly had a test screening in Pasadena on February 19th. And — in spite of the movie’s temporary soundtrack as well as some still not-quite-completed CG-filled effects sequences in the film — the audience is said to have really seemed to enjoy this upcoming Walt Disney Pictures release.
Still, as audience members handed in their survey forms at the Paseo 14 (I.E. The United Artists theater that Disney execs really seems to favor for their studio’s test screenings. For example: Late last month, the Mouse ran a very successful test for “The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy” at this very same multiplex) and the NRG reps began tabulating the results … rumors began to fly about this picture reportedly having some problems.
Or — to be specific — two problems.
As the story goes, many members of the audience were said to take issue with the size of Lindsay Lohan’s breasts. Comments on the post-screening surveys supposedly suggested that this 18-year-old was showing far too much cleavage for a family-friendly film.
So — when you’re faced with comment cards like that — what’s a Disney studio executive supposed to do? Well, according to the rumors, you quietly reach out to several special effects houses and ask for their help with unloading a very specific aspect of “Herbie: Fully Loaded.”
Yeah. That was the story that was bouncing around Hollywood this past weekend. That Disney was looking to give Lohan an after-the-fact *** reduction. As in: Using computer technology to shave away some of Ms. Lohan’s silhouette. Or — at the very least — help Lindsay cover up a bit by giving the teen star a CG t-shirt in a couple of scenes.
Well, I’ve been making calls all weekend, folks, to try & get some confirmation on this item … And — to be honest — everybody that I’ve spoken with who’s directly associated with “Herbie: Fully Loaded” categorically denies this rumor.
Mind you, everyone agrees that it’s a really great story. It’s just not true.
Beyond that … In spite of all the problems that “Fully Loaded” allegedly had during its production, the nearly finished film seems to be shaping up nicely. I actually got to see about five minutes of “Fully Loaded” at Disney’s annual shareholders meeting earlier this month in Minneapolis. And I was honestly startled at how entertaining that footage was.
By that I mean: Both Michael Keaton and Matt Dillon appeared to be having fun. <H>The brief clips of “Herbie” ‘s racing scenes were very exciting. And as for Lindsay … She actually looked great, folks
So — in spite of all the stories that you may have heard about Lohan’s after-hours partying and/or how the just-turned-18 star behaved unprofessionally on the set (Stories that — to be honest — I actually posted here on this website) — none of that stuff showed up on the screen. Ms. Lohan looked fresh as a daisy in the clips I saw. More importantly, she was actually able to make you buy into those oh-so-crucial I’m-having-a-heartfelt-conversation-with-my-car scenes.
“But where do you stand on the too-much-cleavage issue, Jim?,” you query. Truthfully, that wasn’t in evidence in the footage that I saw. And — me personally — I think that it seems kind of hypocritical to complain about too many curves in a film that features a Volkswagon that repeatedly races around an oval track.
Anyway … Speaking of curves, I seem to have thrown JHM readers for a loop by not revealing Friday before last who actually won this site’s most recent trivia contest.
For those you who don’t remember JimHillMedia’s last contest, it was built around a fairly tricky trivia question. One that asked JHM readers to explain what was significant about the link between the illustrator of A.A. Milne’s “Winnie the Pooh” stories and the illustrator of P.L. Travers’ “Mary Poppins” books.
Well, as it turns out, “Pooh” ‘s illustrator — Ernest H. Shepard — was actually the father of “Mary Poppins” ‘s illustrator, Mary Shepard. Pretty neat, huh?
Anywho … About 40 Disney trivia buffs actually got this question right. So I randomly selected three winners for this contest. And their names are:
- Buck Flatford
- Bryan Long
- Charlie Zimmerman
So if these three gentleman would please contact me with your mailing addresses, I’d be happy to send along your prizes. Which is a free pound of “Just Plain Joe” coffee.
As for this week’s JHM readers contest … I thought we might go with something different. A new game called “Mix That Media!”
“So what are the rules of this JHM game?,” you ask. Simple. You just have to take the titles from three different forms of media — be they books, plays, poems, movies, TV shows, computer games, etc. Then link them all together in a way that produces a phrase that’s amusing as well as sort of makes sense.
Take — for example — the late, great singer, Ray Charles. Take his name and then tack that onto the title of that rather lame ’80’s era TV series, “Charles in Charge.” Then finish the whole thing up by glomming these first two bits onto Alfred Lord Tennyson’s epic poem, “The Charge of the Light Brigade.”
Put them all together and what do you get?
“Ray Charles in Charge of the Light Brigade.”
Here’s another example. Take the title of that old Japanese animated series, “Astro Boy.” Fold in the title of that also rather lame ’90’s era TV series, “Boy Meets World.” Finish the whole thing up by tacking it onto “The World Wrestling Federation.”
Put them all together and what do you get?
“Astro Boy meets the World Wrestling Federation.”
Okay. I know. These obviously aren’t word-for-word translations. But we’re not going for 100% accuracy here, people. Being close counts. Particularly if the end result is funny and sort of makes sense.
“So what have you got for prizes this time around?,” you query. Fittingly enough, I have the CD of the soundtrack to “Ray!” to give away, a copy of the “More Music from Ray!” soundtrack as well as an “Astro Boy” toy.
As always, the same rules still apply. All JHM readers contest entries must be received by midnight EST this coming Thursday. I alone get to decide who submitted the three funniest entries. And — God willing & if the creek don’t rise & there ain’t no meltdown — those three winning entries will be posted here as part of this week’s “Why For” column.
Got that, folks? Then go ahead and “Mix That Media!”
Special thanks to tne nice folks at Atlantic/Rhino/WMG Soundtracks and Special Ops Media for providing the great prizes for this week’s JHM readers contest.