I am the fountain of affection

... is the theme of the sci-fi movie marathon I'm in right now. And we just watched Alien Raiders, a really excellent low-budget sci fi suspense/thriller. Perhaps because they shot it during the writer's strike, they got some really excellent cast involved, including Carlos Bernard, Mathew St. Patrick, Rockmond Dunbar, and an actress who I haven't noticed before but who I liked a lot--she reminded me pleasantly of Maggie Gyllenhaal--named Courtney Ford.

I've got a Donnie Darko vibe about this movie, in that I saw it in a theater before anybody knew about it and it enormously exceeded my expectations. It's just really well done suspense, that knows when to show gore and when merely to suggest it, and that is written, paced, edited really well. We had the director, Ben Rock, for Q&A afterwards, which was enjoyable, though he didn't reveal any deep dark secrets. He comes out of The Blair Witch Project and related projects, but I promise, the shaky-cam is minimal, used in a couple expository bits, that's it. It was shot entirely in a supermarket and surrounds, and it uses its resources really really well. Big thumbs up for the foley and editing. Big thumbs up in general, and rmd concurs.

It's direct to DVD, coming out this Tuesday, and I highly recommend.

[Thanks for birthday wishes, folks. The winter blues get me enough that maybe I should have a birthday-observed at a sunnier time of year!]

[[I have a movies tag and a films tag? Must fix.]]

[[[This is my one entry that garners spam. Screening comments from non-friends now.]]]

Thanks to riba_rambles--I'd have gotten to this on the browncoat forums, but it could have taken weeks.

Joss Whedon posts about Summer Glau (Firefly's River) reading for Kitty Pryde in X-Men 3. It requires you to be logged in to read his post, but hey, anyone can join the browncoats and log in. But here's the body of his post, anyway, in typical weirdo Joss style. The context is, Lost's Maggie Grace was going to play Kitty but now isn't. Rumor is, Summer is being considered.

Here's an odd little story:

Summer did read for Kitty in X3. I know because she called me and mentioned she was going to and did I know anything about the character (there were no 'sides' to study -- they had to get them when they came in). So the girl I turned into sort of a superhero in my movie was going to read for the character that most influenced ALL my girl-heroes, Kitty Pryde. Karmically funky. Anyhoo, she called me after and said it was very emotional and kind of like when she read for FIREFLY, she just got into a very intense groove. She started telling me about the scene she read and that's when I realized WHY it was kind of like she read for FIREFLY. 'Cause (as you may know) it was a scene I wrote for Astonishing X-Men issue #5. I assume they just didn't have sides ready and used that but this was like a karmic moebius strip, it was just too folded in on itself. In this time of odd, I turned to beer. (No I didn't. Stay in school.)

I don't know what the X-peeps are looking for -- or even if that other girl has really dropped out -- but for my money, Summer would make a wonderful Kitty. (And I don't say that lightly.) As long as it doesn't interfere with SERENITY II: RICARDO MONTALBAN'S STILL PISSED -- or, much more importantly, SERENITY III: SO VERY NUDE.

I have shared my tail. (Lord, that's what I actually typed! I mean "tale"! What will people think of me?) No tail sharing. Oh so lame.

now off to make blinis!

-j.