Elliott Gould
Yet Another Encore!

By Shirley Craig

Elliott Gould’s acting career spans five decades from the 1960s. He has starred in some very notable films, including the groundbreaking Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice, for which he was nominated for an Oscar.  His portrayal of private investigator Robert Marlowe in The Long Goodbye is iconic. And then, of course, there is Mash, Robert Altman’s award-winning film about the Vietnam War. Today, Gould is still a prolific working actor that many younger audiences know him from his roles in Ocean’s Eleven and as Monica Geller’s dad on Friends.  I had the luck to catch up with him after seeing his recent film, The Encore of Tony Duran, which has just been released on DVD and video on demand.

You’ve survived a long career?

I’m surviving.  I’m still doing it.

Yes, you are.  But, I read that you had some tough times along the way. What keeps you going?

Oh, well, by embracing it, you know?  By not giving up and being open minded.  One of the major things that I've been able to accomplish has been to get to the roots of my insecurity, and how I've been able to do that has been to recognize and accept my limitations.  I didn’t know any limits before and compensated and overcompensated for insecurities and self-doubt and a lack of confidence and trust by going too far, by going further.  So I didn’t give up.  I have a working and living philosophy. I believe in the value of what we have to share, and it’s one thing to share goodness and accomplishment.  It’s another thing to share a problem.  Once people are willing and capable of communicating directly like this, we can then see that no one of us can have a problem that one of us didn’t have before.

That’s a great philosophy.

Thank you.

I think I’ll adopt that philosophy.

Please.  It’s universal.  It belongs to all of us that are willing to be here.

I just saw the The Encore of Tony Duran, I really loved it.

[Laugh] That’s great.  I’m delighted that you respond to it and that you like it.

What attracted you to the character?

I thought the writing was really good and, of course, what was attractive to me was the idea of someone who had lost everything, somebody who had succumbed to a value system that was killing him, and someone who was lost and out of control, and the idea of working and to be able to get back on track and get past yourself.  I know for me, to be able to recognize one’s problems, not deny them, not try to change them–because we have to evolve, to embrace our problems and love our problems and give our problems an opportunity to evolve–that’s the only way.  So that’s what attracted me to it, and the guy who wrote it, whose name is Mitchell Cohen, I thought he did a good job.

I do, too. I loved his line, “Nobody remembers your first act!”

[Laugh] That’s great.

Tell me how you got involved in the project.

When I met the fellow who plays Tony Duran, Gene Pietragallo, he had lived that. And I knew his family, and we met and it also seemed to mean a lot to Fred Sayeg, who directed it, and really, when you talk about passion, I appreciate the opportunity to work on something that has great meaning to other people, and that is important to me.

Is that how you got involved, because you knew a family member of Gene’s?

No, I got involved with the project because Fred Sayeg had asked if I would consider to do it, and then I read it and I got involved through the process of reading it, and then meeting some elements, and then having the time and committing to it.

Were you reticent at all working with a first-time director?

What’s reticent?  I've got to look up reticent.  I don’t quite know what that means.

Well, cautious.  Have you worked with many first-time directors?

I've worked with quite a few.  Paul Mazurksy was a first-time director.  Peter Himes was a first-time director.

That puts my question in perspective right there.

Elliott. [Laughs] Yeah, Peter Himes was a first-time director.  Monica Vitti, I believe, was a first-time director, and when she showed the film and she acted with me in her film, she didn’t speak English. But we had met, and I loved her work.  She introduced me to Michelangelo Antonioni, who was her boyfriend and, of course, one of his great films–and she was in it, I believe–was L’Avventura … It’s an adventure.  So you take your chance.  You take your chances, and I enjoy the privilege to be able to take a chance.  I don’t gamble anymore, but I want to have an open mind to be able to take a chance where I feel it’s worthy and it could be a positive.  I remember saying to our friend Mick Jagger, “What do you want to do next?”  This was in the early ’70s.  “You can do anything.”  He said, “I’d like to make films.”  I said, “Well, with your juice, with what you have going for you, you can do anything you want,” and he said, “I know, but I don’t have the confidence yet.”  I said to Mick, “So what you’re saying to me is with confidence you’ve yet to develop in yourself, something more could be possible for us,” and he gave me a reluctant nod, and I said, “I've got to repeat that,” because at that point, my kid Jason was about 7.  This was 40 years ago.  I said, “He’s stuck in the same place you are.  So with confidence that you’ve yet to develop in yourself, something more can be positive to us.  How else do we do it besides going out there and trying, going out there, and attempting and committing to it, and seeing what you can do with it?”

Very good advice.

During the course of the film, there was a problem.  Gene Pietragallo had had some problems.  He didn’t have any problems with me, but he was, for a while, he wasn’t going to be finishing the film or couldn’t finish the film and I said, I told the fellows, “I've committed to this a great deal because of Gene Pietragallo.  It’s not good enough to let him not do it.  You’ve got to allow me to help him even more,” and we were able to do it, and he accomplished it.  So I feel that a grain of pride is good for the heart but no more than that, because it’s blinding.  I just feel, you know, that it’s so meaningful. And then what’s a success?  What’s success?  Being comfortable in your own skin, being happy with who you are and what you are.  There’s nothing much more that we can ask of life, because it’s not about materialism.  What greater material is there than life itself?

Let’s go back in time for a minute. When you read the script to Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice, one of my favorite films, did you have any idea you’d end up with an Oscar nomination?

No. I almost didn’t do it.  I was extremely inhibited and repressed and, although I was married at the time, I thought that it might have been … an exploitative thing.  I did not have the kind of security or faith or confidence, but then I met Paul Mazursky and Larry Tucker, and they played me a tape of the bedroom scene, a rather brilliant and hysterical bedroom scene between Ted and Alice, and I could hear that it was funny– and I appreciate humor a lot.  One of the things, how I look at it in terms of drama and humor, is sometimes what’s funny is sad to me, but what’s dramatic is usually funny to me.

I’ve heard that playing Philip Marlowe  in The Long Goodbye was your favorite role?

It was for a while.  It was a great opportunity.  I felt it was the first movie I was able to sort of make, and that was great. And I’m just so gratified and so pleased that it’s held up, being that we broke a mold.  We went a little further, but it’s held up and it works and it still has an audience, and I won’t give up on the sequel until I can no longer do it and even then, I don’t want to be selfish, but the character is now a much older person, older than we’ve ever known him, but it’s still me.  You know, each one, it’s like a kaleidoscope.

Are there any plans actually to do the sequel?

There’s been some work for a sequel.  I've done some work with the Chandler Estate.  I've spoken with Bob Altman about it and shown him my treatment and then had Alan Rudolph write a first draft, but we can’t make plans until we have financing, and there’s no financing for it. And I’m just thrilled to have been able to participate in The Long Goodbye.

IMDB says you’ve made 99 films, but I think it’s more, isn’t it?

I think it’s more.  I can’t count.  I used to count, but I don’t count anymore.

It’s been an amazing career, but you must’ve turned down a lot of parts?

I've turned down some.

Any big regrets?

Well, of course.  I’m sorry I didn’t do McCabe & Mrs. Miller, because Bob wanted me to do it. … I wasn’t sorry that I turned down Portnoy’s Complaint because even though Philip Roth is a favorite, I hadn’t read the book, and I've only read it in recent years, and I didn’t think it was a picture, even though a good friend of mine had directed it.  That was Ernest Lehman, but it was mostly McCabe & Mrs. Miller.  Otherwise, I have no regrets because the picture that I did instead was I Love My Wife.  I had to do I Love My Wife at that point for Universal, which was the only Universal feature I've done so far.  So I don’t have regrets.

So, as an elder statesman of Hollywood, what advice can you give to young actors trying to get their foot in the door? Any words of wisdom today?

Education, an open mind.  Keep your ego and vanity at bay, or recognize where you’re either affected or influenced by that and, fundamentally, I just learned to listen ...  I didn’t know that at the time that I broke through, that I didn’t have perspective or judgment and I had thought, especially coming from the socioeconomic background that I did and being second-generation American, that it was about talent and being talented, and I've learned that it’s not.  It’s about character and to continually find education, not to forsake academic and formal education, and be careful of too much success too soon and stay humble.

Well, when you’re young, one doesn’t always have that perspective.

When you’re younger.  Well, we don’t have a studio system anymore. I would love to have a studio and that foundation like the trunk of a tree to work and help to educate our young people, young artists, because we revolve.  The young people write songs, poetry, things about it.  The young gets old.  Everything must change.  That’s a song.  I have a recording that Quincy Jones did of that.  Being young is no excuse, and youth being wasted on the young, I don’t adhere to.  We have to be green.  We have to learn.  We have to make errors.  Industry and business and materialism, you know, that has to be kept at bay too in terms of it having such an effect and influence on nature, because again, the greatest gift that we have is nature itself.

So how do you feel about Hollywood today?  What do you think about the state of the cinema? 

Yeah, I’m thrilled that it’s still alive and that people still love it, and people are working in it and at it. And there’s a show that has been on American Classics that Robert Osborne has presented called The Story of Film: An Odyssey, and I adore it.  I love to watch it.  People complain about Hollywood now.  People talk about how it was, how it is, how it will be, but just like the theatre was known as the fabulous invalid, I think that film and the arts and crafts and opportunities and possibilities to project hopefully intelligence on film will continue to survive.

You started in theatre.  Do you have any interest in going back to Broadway?

Well, you say theatre and then you mentioned Broadway, so the answer is, I mean, commercial theatre is another kind of, you know, it’s a business.  Regional theatre, scholastic, I mean, theatre, I’m very interested.  I’m extremely interested.

So if the right play came along, you’d jump at the opportunity?

Well, I don’t want to jump.  I mean, I support a large and growing family that is dependent on my employment, and so I would, I have to be comfortable.  I also have to really love it, really love it, you know, but yes, I’m very interested in it and I think it’s great.

Talking about family, with all demands of the movie business, how did you balance work and family?

Oh, my God. How did I balance?  I have a friend, I mean, John Wooden passed away at 99.  I was blessed to be his friend for his last three years.  He was one of two people I really wanted to meet, and we were able to arrange that.  John Wooden was known as “The Wizard of Westwood.”  He was the iconic basketball coach to the UCLA Bruins, and we met because his son belonged to my union. And when I met Coach, he told me that he had been an English teacher in Indiana, and then he said, “The most important word in the English language is ‘love’ and the second most important word,” he told me, “is ‘balance.’ ”  How?  Arthur Lawrence, who wrote Gypsy and wrote West Side Story and wrote The Way We Were and also the first thing he directed was I Can Get it for you Wholesale where I first met my son Jason’s mother, Barbra, who was my first wife.  He said to me shortly before he passed away, “How have you stayed so good?  How have you been able to stay as good as you are after everything you’ve been through?” and I said, “Arthur, I don’t think that way, but I feel you’re paying me a compliment, so thank you. And my answer to your question is simply that my mother never gave up.”

Your mother was a big influence in your life?

Oh, God, yeah.

Who have been the other strongest influences in your life?

Everybody, everybody I've touched.  You see, who?  Who have been influences on me?  Well, of course, the two women that I married, my father, my children, my grandchildren, my friends, and other artists and colleagues who I've had the privilege to work with, but the greatest influence, I think, is nature itself.

If you weren’t an actor, what would you have been?

At this point, what would I be?  Either a doctor or a lawyer or maybe, if I wasn’t an actor, yeah, I would really need a lot more education.

What are your passions outside of acting?

Outside of acting or playing, nature, just the majesty, the magic and the majesty of nature itself, being alive.  I’m very happy that I can read and to interact and communication, to communicate.  That’s also what acting is about, to be a vehicle, a medium, through which we can communicate and learn from one another.  So education is really important to me.

Have you ever thought of formally going back to school?

Yes, I do, but I’d have to have the time, and I have to be able to read.  So my life is like an education for me.

To change the subject back to film. If you were stranded on a desert island and you had to take only three movies with you, what would they be?

I’ll go off the top of my head because there’s more than just three … I would take The Quiet Man, in no particular order, Casablanca, and The Grand Illusion.

Are you going to write a book one day?

I don’t know.  I know the verse to it.  It goes, (Elliott starts to sing) “ABCDEFG, I never learned to spell, at least not well.”  I’m having a good time now, I hope you don’t mind.  “1234567, I never learned to count a great amount, but this busy mind is yearning to use what learning it’s got.  I won’t waste any time.  I’ll strike while the iron is hot,” which is the verse to, “If they asked me, I could write a book.”  Everybody does it.  I think it’s sort of boring.  I mean, I’m not so, you know, but it’s good information and the more I continue, the more I live, the more I learn, perhaps I get closer to chronicling all of the fabulous opportunities that I'm having in this life.

You know, I met John Lennon twice.  The first time, he judged me, and it sort of hurt my feelings, but I understood.  The second time, I was able to guide him a little bit, and he wrote a lot about this.  John Lennon was a fabulous spirit in a lot of what he writes.  We’re all over the place.  So even your talking with me, because I could tell from hearing you, that you formally do what you do.  I don’t formally do anything other than if I’m contracted to do something, I have to be somewhat formal as to living up to my commitments, but I’m extremely grateful and blessed and appreciate your interview.

Well, I appreciate your time.  I’m going to ask you one final question.  When you think of the word, “Hollywood anecdote,” what comes to your mind first?

What comes to my mind first is Groucho Marx. Groucho is quoted as having said that “Outside of a dog, a book is a man’s best friend and inside of a dog, it’s too dark to read.” Then another anecdote of Groucho’s was that he went out of the door and innuendo. He was a great friend of mine, and I was privileged to be his friend in his latter days. I used to shave him with his electric razor as he watched reruns of Burns and Allen and Jack Benny. He gave me the greatest review I’ll ever have. I changed a light bulb over his bed, and he said to me, “That’s the best acting I've ever seen you do,” which almost brings me to tears because you’re understanding me, and my greatest fear was to be misinterpreted or misunderstood and judged on something that was not necessarily what I meant, but meaning is pretty abstract. So a Hollywood anecdote, I’ll give you one more. I was really privileged to spend some quality time with Alfred Hitchcock, and I said to Mr. Hitchcock, “The American to me is that which has evolved from everyone else, as in the infant of the rest of the world.” I don’t know if I said, the infant, the rest of the world, and he said to me, “I accept.”

Thank you for your time.

Oh, thank you for your time and interest. I’m very appreciative, very much so, and I’m glad you liked The Encore.

I did, I really did.

I hung up the phone with Elliott Gould feeling privileged to talk to such an acting legend. I would like to recommend you all rent or buy The Encore of Tony Duran for a movie experience that will simultaneously bring tears to your eyes and joy to your heart.

The Encore of Tony Duran is availalbe at Amazon and iTunes.

And, click here to read my interview with Fred Sayeg, the director of The Encore of Tony Duran. 

The Magic Behind Cinespia

By Sam Davidson

If you do not live in L.A., then you probably do not know about Cinespia, and that is a crying shame! Cinespia is an organization that hosts screenings of classic films (and the occasional television finale or special) at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery. Sound creepy? Perhaps, but it works I promise you that.

Cinespia launched in 2002, from the genius of John Wyatt, a set designer who was in his mid-twenties at the time. The organization began as an Italian cinema club that Wyatt had with friend Richard Petit at the Crossroads School in Santa Monica.  However, several years later when Wyatt and Petit were working for designer Brad Dunning in helping with the restoration of the legendary Hollywood Forever Cemetery, the small Italian film club became something much more.

After Wyatt attended a Valentino birthday party at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in 2002, he approached the owners through a friend who worked there about arranging a screening of Alfred Hitchcock’s Strangers on a Train. Wyatt got his wish and was able to arrange the screening on July 20, 2002, using two 35mm projectors with a changeover mechanism on the back of a pickup truck. Eighty people showed up for the first screening, and he got such good feedback that they allowed him to do a second screening, which was Sam Fuller’s Pickup on South Street. The second screening for what would one day become Cinespia, brought in an audience of over 1000!  It was all downhill from there, and the word started to spread about this awesome organization and experience.

With The Hollywood Forever Cemetery being the burial ground for entertainers, musicians, and some of Hollywood’s elite, it became the perfect place to host these screenings purely because of the beauty and nostalgia the venue holds. Who would have thought that sitting on graves watching movies with a bottle of wine, snacks, and your best friends could be so much fun? The experience of going to see a screening at The Hollywood Forever Cemetery is one that every Los Anglian or entertainment enthusiast should have; it is truly magical.

As it turns out, trekking through tombs and monuments to see your favorite flick is an amazing experience that thousands of LA locals and trendy visitors now enjoy every weekend during the summer. The organization has grown tremendously, and so has the experience you get with a ticket to a screening for only fifteen dollars! Now, in addition to the screening, Cinespia gives its ticketholders a little pre-party with different DJs spinning at the cemetery before every screening. Since it is so popular now, ticket holders must arrive early. However, they make the experience so special that people want to get there early to enjoy the music, beautiful surroundings, and perhaps a couple of drinks (BYOB of course), before the film begins.

Cinespia has appeared in the 2008 Best of L.A. issue in the LA Weekly and was named on the “16 Best Things In LA” by the Los Angeles Magazine. In addition to the many accolades the organization has acquired over the past 13 years, Vanity Fair has said that “Cinespia captures the excitement of a drive-in movie date night of the 1950s but with a decidedly campy twist.”

While Cinespia definitely has an Old Hollywood feel to it by playing some of the classics that movie buffs drool over, they also have something for everyone, not just movie buffs. Cinespia plays an extremely eclectic group of films every summer, ranging from classic horror films to girly comedies. If your favorite movie is Clueless there is no shame in that! The cemetery screenings truly have something for everyone, and the best part is, if you think you are the only person that ever loved a specific flick, you will be proven wrong and will be able to enjoy it with thousands of others.

Here is a very eclectic list of some of the best films played at the cemetery:  Pulp Fiction, The Princess Bride, Ghostbusters, Annie Hall, American Psycho, Clueless, The Craft, Cat On A Hot Tin Roof, The Shining, Vertigo, Young Frankenstein, Boogie Nights, All About Eve, The Graduate, Aliens, Back To The Future, The Breakfast Club, Cabaret, Caddyshack, Taxi Driver, Scream, Roman Holiday, Some Like It Hot, Blade Runner, The Birds, Scarface, The Terminator, The Big Lebowski, Sunset Blvd, Hairspray, Chinatown, Jurassic Park, Silence Of The Lambs…the list goes on and on.

Even though Cinespia is almost exclusively in the summers, they do have the occasional event or special during the year. For example, Cinespia hosted an event for the Pretty Little Liars Halloween special last year, and they even had a Breaking Bad  finale/screening event!  At many of these events, including the regular summer screenings, the stars and the creators of the films and TV shows will actually show up and have a mini panel with the audience.

Hopefully now you too can experience the magic of Cinespia and support this absolutely amazing organization that keeps Old Hollywood alive. Screenings usually begin in May, but keep a look out for other events they may have in the interim, they may well be worth you time. Enjoy film junkies!

Hollywood Blockbusters
Fading To Black And White – Eventually

By Mike Cervantes

An important date in history is July 14, 2000. What’s that?, you ask, since it’s not a date that sticks out in many people’s minds. It should to movie fans, specifically those who enjoy the heroic adventures, gargantuan explosions, dazzling special effects and hype of a Hollywood blockbuster.

July 14, 2000 was the day modern films could be made about any subject and make boatloads of cash at the same time. It was kids’ stuff, really, but profitable kids’ stuff. July 14, 2000 was a Friday, a day my friends and I had off because we were still in college and summer school often didn’t bother scheduling classes on Friday. We felt the hype of a summer movie that never seemed possible: X-Men. Now, comic books, young-adult novels, Disneyland rides, cartoons, and even toys can be movies. In fact, if a studio doesn’t have these tentpoles on its schedule, it’s not one of the major players.

X-Men didn’t feel like a half-assed comic-book movie. A lot of serious Hollywood talent suited up in this film. Patrick Stewart of Star Trek: The Next Generation assumed Professor X’s wheelchair, sexy seductress Halle Berry played Storm, and respected thespian Ian McKellen donned Magneto’s mask. A little-known actor named Hugh Jackman took on the role of Wolverine. He looked just like X-Men’s most popular character, with bulging biceps and a pointy hairstyle. Of course, he had a disagreeable attitude. Jackman is an A-list actor now.

On opening day, we went to AMC Theatre at the Puente Hills Mall in City of Industry, Calif. We caught a matinee performance of X-Men. The theater wasn’t that packed. Today, a big blockbuster would have a long line on opening day at any time, even a midnight showing. X-Men, with its $75-million budget, made more than $296 million worldwide, proving that a modern comic-book movie could be profitable. Tim Burton’s Batman did very well at the box office (more than $411 million worldwide), however, that franchise soiled after sequels turned the movie public against the films in which Batman’s batsuit had nipples and the settings resembled a circus act rather than a gritty and dark Gotham City.

Turning The Page

After the success of X-Men, Hollywood started churning out comic-book adaptations, Harry Potter films, and Transformers movies. It didn’t happen overnight. Kids born in the 1980s had soft spots for cartoons and toys from that era, so when movies were released featuring this nostalgia, box offices blew up. Those kids were adults now; bringing younger siblings, cousins, or even their kids became the norm. Tickets sold like mad.

Director Sam Raimi set the bar extremely high with 2002’s Spider-Man. Raimi had been a huge fan of the webslinger, and it showed in his adaptation.The film smashed box-office records with a staggering opening, more than $114 million. Previous summer films would have been pleased with making that during an entire theater run. Spider-Man went on to make more than $821 million worldwide. I wasn’t the biggest fan of Peter Parker, but even I couldn’t deny its appeal. Spider-Man featured terrific action sequences, funny dialogue, and a sense of intrigue that seemingly brought the audience into the pages of one of Marvel Comics’ most popular characters.

Spider-Man became the blueprint for blockbuster success. You need likable characters, a plot that’s not overly complicated, flashy special effects, and ultimately, the film crew must take the genre seriously. Since then, we’ve seen Jack Sparrow (well, he’s made rather silly by Johnny Depp, but still, a fine performance), Clark Kent, Katniss Everdeen, and others star in major motion pictures. Many of these films have received positive reviews; however, nearly all of them fattened the pockets of studio executives, directors, actors, and anybody else involved with these film juggernauts.

Seventeen movies have made more than $1 billion worldwide. Only three of those films were made before X-Men. As long as these continue to be profitable, they’ll get the green light. This golden age of blockbusters can only go on for so long though, right?

Oversaturation

Ah, yes, the law of diminishing returns. Too much of a good thing isn’t so good. I may enjoy a double bacon cheeseburger, but I will hate having to eat four of those behemoths. Eventually, might we get tired of movies with inflated budgets and booming explosions? Michael Bay can only crash so many cars. Yoda can only bust out the lightsaber so many times. Marvel Comics can only recycle the Avengers so many times. A well-timed Hulk smash is a crushing spectacle. A dozen Hulk smashes are overkill.

Personally, I am enjoying this golden age. But even I see a slowdown of quality flicks. Last year, Marvel’s The Avengers flexed its collective superhero muscle to the tune of more than $1.5 billion, third best all time. The Avengers main team members consist of Iron Man, the Hulk, Thor, and Captain America. Robert Downey, Jr. has resurrected his career thanks to his portrayal of billionaire bad boy Tony Stark, the not-so-secret man in the Iron Man suit. Downey’s acting is always top notch. The second and third Iron Man movies have not been. Without Downey, who has said he’s done with Iron Man films — although he’s still game for The Avengers sequels — will the Iron Man franchise fall apart?

It’s inconceivable to think mega blockbusters are on their way out. Then again, at one time, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone were kings of the Hollywood action films. In 2013, the two of them starred in Escape Plan. Neither I, nor the general public, seemed to care. In their prime, a movie with these two muscleheads would have stopped time at the box office. Today, it barely gets a mention.

There are failures even today. Green Lantern, a top-tier DC Comics property, didn’t live up to expectations. Starring goofball Ryan Reynolds, a very weak actor who should be losing his leading man credibility every year, the budget reached a mammoth $200 million. The film made just $219 million worldwide. With a budget like that, results should have been closer to the billion-dollar mark.

Good Times

I see the bright side in every blockbuster. While some critics blast the costly spectacles, I embrace them. People didn’t like Man of Steel; I thought it was the action-centered Superman movie we’ve all been waiting for.

I worry about the future of Star Wars, which seems to me as if the newest incarnation is being rushed. I’ll never forget the time my friends and I waited in line to watch Episode III: Revenge of the Sith at 2 p.m. for a midnight showing. My friends and I brought two beach balls to bounce around before it began. The AMC ushers didn’t know what to do when hundreds of people started cheering as a couple of beach balls traveled near them.

Surprisingly, the anticipation and waiting in line on Day One for these premieres never irks me. I have a small contingent of friends and family who meet up with me. We wait, tell stories, and talk about what we hope to see in the newest blockbuster that won’t be shown for several hours.

The power of blockbusters will never fade. I can see a scenario in which these types are scaled back. Maybe we see half of what’s released simply because the budgets have gotten too big. I don’t know exactly when that is. The wonder and excitement of watching mutants, aliens, magical beings, monsters, adventurers, and other heroes on the big screen is something special that a novel or comic book cannot replicate.

In 2007, I took part in a gathering similar to a rock concert. Anime Expo somehow pulled major strings to show Transformers a day before it was released. I swear, I heard very little of that movie. Fanboys and fangirls cheered, yelled, and screamed at every Optimus Prime transformation or during any battle scene. Every few minutes the crowd had something to roar about. Normally, I would want to hear a movie in its entirety. But this was different. This blockbuster was its own event, an experience. Thanks to movies like Transformers, my summer schedule involves going to the theater a lot. I like what I see on an almost weekly basis. I am enjoying this golden age of movies while I still can.

Color Drawing: The Rolomite