Showbits

Audio interviews with two spacefaring luminaries have recently become available.

The first (courtesy TrekToday.com) is Garrett Wang on the James Madison show (iTunes). It's not the best interview: it starts off a bit slowly, the reception occasionally drops, and at one point, Mr. Wang puts the host on hold while he takes another call. But there are some fun stories as he reminisces about playing Harry Kim on Star Trek: Voyager and the interplay he had with other Star Trek and UPN actors. Tune in to the James Madison podcast tomorrow for a similar interview with Robert Picardo, who played that show's holographic Doctor.

The other interview (courtesy TheForce.net) is a brief one with Anthony Daniels, aka C-3PO, wherein he talks about science, Star Wars, and scouting. His message on the importance of science in the present and future of society is spot-on and would be right at home in Scientific American or Point of Inquiry.

Cinematographer László Kovács, born in 1933 in Budapest, died this past July 21st. Excerpted from This Is True's Honorary Unsubscribe:

… in 1969, he filmed his breakout movie: Easy Rider, putting his own stamp on the motorcycle trip film based on his own bus ride from New Jersey to the west coast. Other seminal films included Five Easy Pieces, What's Up, Doc?, Paper Moon, Ghost Busters, Shattered, My Best Friend's Wedding — more than 70 in all. "He was one of the great wave of cinematographers in the 1970s who basically changed the way movies had looked up until that time," said Richard Crudo, a former president of the American Society of Cinematographers.

Actors are well-known, and some directors and producers achieve similar fame. It's a shame talent such as Mr. Kovács' does not also earn the popular recognition it deserves.

UPDATE: I may need to take back that statement… Mr. Kovács credits also include The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies!

Yesterday marked the 25th anniversary of Tron, a film that is so many things to so many people: a milestone of computer animation; a staple of any geek's library; an element in the film studies curriculum I developed; another Jeff Bridges box office bomb. My love affair with this film spans multiple media:

[Show as slideshow]

I had to commemorate the anniversary of this cult hit with more than just a marathon session of lightcycling. After reading IGN's interview with Steven Lisberger, Tron's creator, I felt there must be better interview subjects out there.

So I instead got ahold of John Knoll, visual effects supervisor at Industrial Light and Magic. ILM was created by George Lucas for the original Star Wars films and has since gone on to become a powerhouse in visual effects. Mr. Knoll has worked on several of their best films, including Willow, The Abyss, Mission: Impossible, Star Trek: First Contact, the Star Wars prequel trilogy, and the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy. And somehow, during all that, he found time to invent Photoshop.

On very short notice, Mr. Knoll generously donated a half-hour of his time to speak with me on the subject of Tron, computer graphics, and the industry's evolution over the last quarter of a century. The end result is a very satisfying transcript, even if some notable, general observations didn't make the final cut:

"Even today … filmmakers rely on the special effects to be the only appeal in the movie, and they don't try so hard on the movie because they figure the visuals will carry the film … For those of us who work in the industry, that's not something we encourage. It's just as hard to do the effects on a bad movie as it is the effects on a good movie, and we'd all rather have worked on a good movie."

Continue on to Computerworld.com to read the full interview.

A huge thanks to old LucasArts and ILM colleagues Tom Sarris and Ellen Pasternack, without whom this interview would not have been possible.

Update: the above article has been Slashdotted!

Next Friday will mark the end of an era: after 35 years, Bob Barker is stepping down as host of The Price Is Right.

It's an event I can't help but commemorate. When most kids might've been outside playing stickball, I grew up inside watching game shows, sitcoms, and soap operas. Here, I was exposed to language before I was taught its meaning: I thought the host was saying, "All this could be yours if The Price Is Right", when what he meant was, "All this could be yours if the price is right." A subtle difference… My sense of time, too, was distorted (as it probably is for all children) when I turned on the show one day and found Mr. Barker's hair had gone white! Had it been so long since I'd last seen him that he'd aged so much??

The high point of my affair with TPIR occurred in late June of 1998, when my youngest brother and I were in the show's studio audience. So many myths and misconceptions were dispelled that day: the stage and studio are small (the camera really does make things look bigger!); Bob Barker is really sexist — the things he said to the female contestants during commercial breaks were shockingly rude (and, admittedly, rather funny); and the late Rod Roddy did great standup before the filming started. Sadly, I was never told to "come on down!", probably because one of the showcase showdown prizes was a trip to Boston, which would not prove a very exotic award for someone living an hour west of there. But my brother and I did get shot high-fiving each other as the camera panned the audience before cutting to a commercial.

Despite all that, I don't feel as sad about Mr. Barker's departure as I did when Johnny Carson left The Tonight Show. Both Mr. Barker and Mr. Carson were not the first hosts of their shows and neither were they the last. But I think the format and style of TPIR has been and will be more consistent than the unique personality with which Mr. Carson invested The Tonight Show.

Still, it's a significant milestone in daytime television, and I hope it's been a fulfilling career for Mr. Barker. If you want to share your sentiments with him and other fans and hear what they have to say, visit the CBS video site "15 Seconds".

[Bonus: check out Crystal Waters' hit single, "Come On Down"]

Die Hard 4 — officially known as Live Free or Die Hard — comes out June 27th, heralding John McClane's escape from retirement for the special occasion of fighting Internet terrorists. His sidekick — who, for the first time in the franchise's history, is not black — is Justin Long, the television commercial personification of Apple's Macintosh.

Is it just me, or do yesterday's actors not know when to call it quits? Not only is Harrison Ford a worrisome casting choice for an aging Indiana Jones, but Bruce Willis now seems better suited to the suspense of The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable than he does the barefooted action hero of two decades ago.

With Bruce Willis in the spotlight, Die Hard might not be able to survive as in the action genre. Perhaps something tamer would be more up his alley — such as the following holiday special?

Jack Valenti, MPAA president from 1966 to 1998, has passed away.

Mr. Valenti always seemed like a good guy, though I confess I didn't follow the politics of the Motion Picture Association of America or its industry very closely. He left a legacy by establishing such institutions as the movie rating system; OTOH, he was certainly off-base when he issued this 1982 warning:

"I say to you that the VCR is to the American film producer and the American public as the Boston strangler is to the woman home alone."

A former White House assistant, Mr. Valenti left his MPAA presidency to Dan Glickman in 2004. Nonetheless, Mr. Valenti will be missed.

Tonight, 119 parties in 32 countries will celebrate "Yuri's Night" — the 46th anniversary of mankind's first escape from Earth's atmosphere.

It seems a timely opportunity to ensure that those of you in or around New Mexico know of the upcoming opportunity to attend James Doohan's send-off. On April 27th, a memorial will be held for the actor who played Scotty on Star Trek: The Original Series, followed the next day by the liftoff of the Legacy Flight module and its payload of Mr. Doohan's ashes into outer space. Mr. Doohan's widow, Wende, has extended an invitation to any and all Star Trek fans to attend these special events.

This launch has been delayed many times since Doohan's passing on July 20th, 2005 — the anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing on the Moon. Gene Roddenberry, Star Trek's creator, died in 1991 and entered space in 1997. Finally, with Scotty beaming up to where he belongs, they will be in good company.

From CNN.com:

Endlessly versatile, [John Belushi] inhabited the samurai deli guy, Joe Cocker, Captain Kirk and more on "Saturday Night Live." He gave us Bluto ("Food fight!") and Jake Blues, on a mission from God to save music. Always, there was a hint of intelligent mischief, if only in a masterfully lifted eyebrow.

In 1978, on the eve of his 30th birthday, Belushi had the No. 1 movie with "Animal House," the No. 1 record (with partner Dan Aykroyd), "Briefcase Full of Blues" and was the heart of television's hottest show.

The world was Belushi's, for better and worse, as his contracts rose from $35,000 for "Animal House" to $2 million and more. As it had for others, success fueled destructive excess.

The comedian was found dead on March 5, 1982, in a hotel bungalow at the Chateau Marmont hotel on the fabled Sunset Strip.

Not having been a follower of SNL, I know Belushi's work from only Blues Brothers and Animal House. What are your favorite memories of Belushi that I'm missing out on?