http://www.fpaulwilsonproject.com/2008/1...sons-best/

Background: In the Tony Harrington thread...somehow...the contributors came up with the clever idea of writing a sitcom based on The Golden Girls and Mission Impossible.

Tony is the dorothy Zbornak character made famous by bea arthur.

Cobalt is the sweet but air headed Rose Nyland originally played by Betty White.

Sig plays the male version of Blanche Deveraux...he hasn't said anything slutty yet...but he will. Blanche was played by Rue McClanahan

Fenny plays the male version of Sophia Petrillo portayed by the late Estelle getty. Instead of stories of Sicily look for Fenny to tell Dublin tales.

Without further delay here is the first scene in our production:

EXT SHOT
Golden Girls house with palm trees swaying in the background. The familiar intro music wells as the director and screen writer credits overlay the image.

INT SHOT
Kitchen scene. Tony sits at the kitchen table stirring a cup of coffee. The door swings inward and Cobalt walks in wearing a flowing robe. Tony is dressed in an ornate Dorothy Zbornak blouse complete with scarf and shoulder pads.

Cobalt:
Good morning Tony.

Tony:
Good morning Co…wow…you look rough.

Cobalt:
I know…I look horrible. (Looks at herself in a small wall mounted mirror hanging above the kitchen phone.) I can’t sleep, I keep thinking about Sig and Fenny.

Tony:
Ever since Q/M called with their latest mission the house has been quiet. They’ve been gone for quite a while this go-round.

Cobalt:
(sighs, and sits down at the table and pours a mug of coffee.) I miss the boys…the way they talk about killing things, the way they are so top secret, the way they make me laugh…

Tony:
(interrupting)…The way Sig walks around shirtless

Cobalt:
Have a little decorum Tony…I just had these seats reupholstered.

Tony:
I remember feeling empty and alone when I put Ma in Shady Pines. I kept thinking that she would never forgive me. (Laughs) I still remember her face the morning I took her. ‘Are you ready to go to Disneyworld?’ I asked her. Oh she looked so happy. Then the look on her face changed as I slowed to a roll in the homes parking lot, reached over and popped her door and barrel rolled her out and took off down the road.

Cobalt:
Have you talked to her lately?

Tony:
I talk to her almost every day.

Cobalt:
That’s sweet of…

Tony:
(interrupting again)…I almost talked to her on Monday. I almost talked to her on Tuesday…Wednesday I almost called but it was the results show of the Maury Povich paternity test show. Turns out that Antonio was not the baby’s father.

Cobalt:
I knew it…that baby didn’t look anything like him. Glenda Hoelfenfeffer, St. Olaf’s famous midwife found herself in the family way.

Tony:
Please, not this early in the morning.

Cobalt:
You see…She was a widow…her husband died in a freak wildlife accident. A deer crashed through the window of their home and gorged him to death with its antlers. You would have thought that it was just a freak incident of urban sprawl encroaching on nature. But they lived on the twelfth floor of St. Olaf’s only high rise. How that deer managed…

Tony:
COBALT!!!! Please! Get to the point if you insist on me listening to this inane story.

Cobalt:
(Looking emotionally hurt and after a moment of contemplation on how to wrap up the story says…) The baby was born with hooves and a penchant for getting hit on the interstate.

Tony:
YOU’RE MAKING THAT UP!

Cobalt:
No Tony, I swear, to this day St. Olaf has a clause in their auto insurance policy claiming not to pay out on acts of God and Angus Hoelfenfeffer.

[SIZE="3"]see the 12/5 entry here:[/SIZE] http://repairmanjack.com/aboutfpw.htm#mylife

[SIZE="3"]Festa published a collection of RJ stories plus some others. Trouble is, I've forgotten which ones I sold him. Can anyone translate the titles?[/SIZE]

lf Meistererzählungen des Amerikaners F. Paul Wilson. Davon sechs um den Helden Handyman Jack, den ›Mann für alle Fälle‹, der seit Jahren mit jedem neuen Abenteuer die Bestsellerlisten stürmt.

Alle Handyman-Jack-Storys:
Zwischenspiel im Drugstore
Ein ganz gewöhnlicher Tag
Der letzte Rakosh
Der lange Weg nach Haus
Familiennotdienst
In der Mangel
Storys die mit Jack und/oder dem Adversary-Zyklus verbunden sind:
Untermieter
Gesichter
Dat-Tay-Vao
Krabbler
Mitgefühl
Nachwort des Übersetzers


Eine Festa-Originalausgabe
Aus dem Amerikanischen von Michael Plogmann
Hardcover, Schutzumschlag, Leseband, 352 Seiten
ISBN 978-3-86552-079-1

Now this was a fun show. It's like the A-team and Burn Notice had a baby. Essentially it's about a group of thieves who help out people wronged by those the law has difficulty bringing to justice. Effectively you have an entire team of Repairman Jacks, each covering one specialty. Just a fun, fun show.

This film was suggested by NetFlix based on my previous viewing habits.

It is a German thriller about a small town police officer haunted by the death of his sons girlfriend and the apprehension of the alleged killer.

The film knows it is trying to be a Silence of the Lambs with an over the top eccentric killer behind bars trading barbs with the part time police officer.

The dialogue is harsh and brutal and the alleged killer is over the top. But somewhere under the hyperbole is a wicked little story which twists and turns and we see the hero degrade into something sinister leading the viewer to believe that true evil is contagious and can taint the most steadfast hero.

It's a bad movie with a few good surprises and a tense climax. Worth the look because it is available through the instant play option on Netflix.

[SIZE="3"]go here[/SIZE]: http://repairmanjack.com/newsblog.htm#rjmovie

Unlikely to generate even a fraction of the posts that the "...Cast" thread has done, but here goes. Obviously we've been putting a lot of brain power into creating lists of our ideal actors, but it occurred to me that a lot of people who haven't read the books will be approaching this movie from another side of things- namely, the technical side. They might be attracted if there are big names attached to the project, but if they watch the trailers, a lot more interest might be sparked by how the special effects turn out.

The Fanart page is a case in point: It seems nobody has found the perfect recipe for what a rakosh looks like. This is interesting because many of the designs have obviously similar elements, but the problem seems to be in preventing them from getting stuck between the Mutant Ninja Turtle/Gozilla extremes of the spectrum. And not only does the design have to look good, it has to look good IN MOTION, not to mention being integrated with the human characters onscreen.

There's really only one studio that immediately comes to my mind, and that's the New Zealand-based special effects team WETA Digital. They did the effects for X-Men: The Last Stand, King Kong, I Robot and the Lord of the Rings trilogy. But the one factor that makes me think they could pull off a truly amazing Rakosh is a 2006 monster movie from Korea, THE HOST. And, actually, aspects of the plot might sound kinda familiar: A horrible monster kidnaps a little girl and hides her away in the sewers, and her family risk life, limb and the government to get her back.

I've included the Youtube video of the first monster attack. The quality isn't great, but if you like foreign cult horror/comedy (or just awesome films in general), I'd rent it anyway. Blockbusters has been known to carry it. To top it off, the monster attack is in full daylight, so I'm sure a rooftop scene at midnight would be cake for them. If they were to do half a good a job on the RJ movie as they did on THE HOST, I'd be a happy tech geek.

So. Feel free to discuss the special effects nature of the RJ movie, or any other films that have a certain look you'd like to see in the film. Also, definitely try and get your hands on THE HOST for a prime example of great creature design.

WETA DIGITAL
http://www.wetafx.co.nz/features/

Clip of the monster attack in THE HOST (the action starts at around the 2 minute mark, kidnapping at the 7 minute mark)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zcyc5nFjwDc

[SIZE="3"]Word from the publisher that JACK: SECRET HISTORIES has been selected for VOYA’s Top Shelf Fiction for Middle School Readers list. “This list is of books that adults and youth agreed were the very best of the best.” The list will appear in the February issue. VOYA is a trade magazine for librarians. This is a very nice surprise. [/SIZE]

Feel free to comment.