World cultures, arts, painting and more.
March 10th, 2009 artmaster
When returning to the origins of The Fast and the Furious, the filmmakers knew they would be remiss not to revisit the city that helped originate the culture of street racing. Empty warehouses and long-desolate stretches of blacktop barely illuminated by city lights—in the easternmost section of downtown Los Angeles—once again hosted the party for the sexy underground set. The majority of filming during the 85-day shoot was spent on location in L.A. and within its surrounding suburbs. Some stage work was done in the cities of Sylmar and Culver City.
Just as important was the return of some of the previous locations from The Fast and the Furious—specifically, the most recognizable locale from the first installment, the Toretto house and surrounding neighborhood of Echo Park in L.A. The week of night shoots had cast and crew, as well as the growing crowd of onlookers snapping photos, feeling nostalgic and energized. According to producer Moritz, this was only one of “many days on the set when I remembered back to the first film and felt that same camaraderie we had then.”
But returning to these locations eight years later, the filmmakers were faced with a changing landscape. Although the Toretto house was still standing, the new owners had torn down the garage in the rear of the property, which had housed Dom’s beloved Dodge Charger. Not a problem for production designer Ida Random, however. Her team restored it down to the smallest detail.
Los Angeles, Miami and Tokyo served as the backdrop for the first three films, and now Mexico has the spotlight as the setting for Fast & Furious. Latin culture is also woven throughout the film—from the heart-thumping opening sequence in the Dominican Republic (DR) to the thundering chase sequences across the Mexican desert and into smugglers’ tunnels.
It was Diesel’s idea to incorporate the DR as one of the locations for Fast & Furious. References to the Wild West have always been a part of the series, and the raw beauty of the DR served as an ideal hideaway for Dom and Letty as they build a new life together south of the border. To re-create the DR’s diverse regions, Lin’s team lensed in several Southern California locations.
The opening sequence begins with a fuel-tanker heist of a land train rolling along a DR highway, setting the standard for the film’s no-holds-barred action. Letty and Dom lead a team of racers that plots the intricate job. The filmmakers discussed with writer Morgan the fuel problems in that area and how gas was an enormous commodity to regions that could be left without it…often for weeks at a time.
Diesel explains: “What Dom has been so skilled in doing, and has a reputation for in the underworld, is robbing things in motion. He’s a modern-day bandit, very much like the stagecoach bandits. When we see him, he is getting gas for not only himself, but for a whole neighborhood that’s been subject to the exorbitant fuel prices.” The racing tankers Dom and Letty are after were shot on the winding, mountainous roads of the Templin Highway—alongside the Golden State Freeway, north of Los Angeles.
The torch-lit coastline of San Pedro, south of Los Angeles, played home to the post-heist beach party Dom and Letty throw after they successfully score the fuel (and avoid an almost certain death). Naturally, the scene was filled with the requisite sexy, scantily clad beauties partying amongst stunning cars.
Filming the Mexico scenes was two-fold. The majority of photography for the Mexico scenes was conducted on the dusty, tumbleweed landscape of Antelope Valley’s Acton and Canyon County, while the more atmospheric elements of the Mexico locale could not be so easily duplicated. Cast and crew decamped to the small Mexican border town of Magdalena de Kino, located in the country’s Sonora region. A week of filming within the city limits followed.
Rounding out the production team is a band of artists who lent their talents to this latest installment. Some are talented new members, such as cinematographer Amir Mokri, while others are stalwart veterans, such as production designer Ida Random, costume designer Sanja Milkovic Hays, picture car coordinator Dennis McCarthy and 2nd unit director TERRY S. LEONARD.
Remarks Lin of the people who helped bring this installment to life: “One of the true luxuries of doing bigger budget movies is that you get to work with some of the best craftspeople—the most creative people in the business. To be able to harness all that and maximize everyone’s ability is the most exciting thing about Fast & Furious.”
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February 16th, 2009 artmaster
Paul Rudd (Peter Klaven) recently starred in David Wain’s “Role Models” opposite Seann William Scott. “Role Models” has grossed over $80 million worldwide and was nominated as Best Comedy by the Broadcast Film Critics Association and the St. Louis Film Critics Group. Rudd also served as a writer on the film.
Rudd currently lends his voice to the new 3D animated feature “Monsters vs. Aliens,” which co-stars Reese Witherspoon, Hugh Laurie, Seth Rogen, Stephen Colbert, Rainn Wilson and Kiefer Sutherland.
Rudd starred in Judd Apatow’s “Knocked Up” opposite Seth Rogen and Leslie Mann. “Knocked Up” grossed over $300 million worldwide and won the 2008 People’s Choice Award for Favorite Movie Comedy. It was also nominated for a 2008 Critics Choice Award for Best Comedy Movie and was named as one of AFI’s 2008 Top Ten Films of the Year.
Rudd’s other film credits include “Forgetting Sarah Marshall,” “The 40 Year-Old-Virgin,” “Anchorman,” “The Ten,” for which he also served as a producer, “Night at the Museum,” “Diggers,” “The Cider House Rules,” “The Object of My Affection,” “Wet Hot American Summer,” “The Chateau,” “Clueless” and “William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet,” among others.
On stage, Rudd starred in Richard Greenberg’s “Three Days of Rain” opposite Julia Roberts and Bradley Cooper. He also starred in Neil LaBute’s “Bash” in both New York and Los Angeles, as well as LaBute’s “The Shape of Things” in London and New York. After successful runs on both the London and New York stage, LaBute brought “The Shape of Things” to the big screen.
Rudd made his West End debut in the London production of Robin Phillips’ “Long Day’s Journey into Night” opposite Jessica Lange. Other stage credits include Nicholas Hynter’s “Twelfth Night” at Lincoln Center Theater and Alfred Uhry’s Tony Award-winning play “The Last Night of Ballyhoo.”
On television, Rudd guest starred on NBC’s “Friends” as Phoebe’s (Lisa Kudrow) husband, Mike Hannigan, for the final two seasons.
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October 18th, 2008 artmaster
BOOT CAMP
Basic Training, Forming Camaraderie
Director Spike Lee enlisted his soldiers-to-be in an intense two-week boot camp led by renowned military advisor Billy Budd (“Band of Brothers”). The experience enhanced the authenticity of the battle scenes—but that’s not all it did.
“The brotherhood became real in boot camp,” says Omar Benson Miller. According to Budd, that was the whole idea. “The goal of the basic training was to create
a cohesive unit of men that could confidently act like soldiers, handle and fire all weapons correctly and react as a soldier would during battle,” says Budd. “It was essential to also create a strong sense of teamwork amongst the men.”
The military advisor says the ‘Miracle’ crew did remarkably well. “The men responded
very well to the boot camp. Of course, you get the odd one or two that are so out of their comfort zone and struggle with what we call ‘Day 5 Blues.’ But overall, they gelled very quickly and helped one another, showing team spirit early on. The cast impressed me. I even gave them their cell phones back by the end of week one.”
Still, the job wasn’t easy. Budd cites the terrain as a challenge—the region’s rivers and mountains made it tough for the crew. But he says the hardest part was the historical significance of some of the scenes, particularly the massacre at St. Anna. “We shot it on the very soil where hundreds of civilians died. I can safely say that those two days were the toughest in my career.”
Miller had a similar experience. “It was physically challenging and really put you in a mindset of what it was that these guys, the actual Buffalo Soldiers, had to endure.
They were treated like they were ‘less than,’ and the physical conditions that these guys had to go through—like crossing the Serchio River in 30-degree temps—that stuff is no joke. But we had phony bombs going off, and they had real bombs going off. So these guys deserve a lot of respect.
Whatever physical prep I had to do is nothing in comparison to what actually went on.”
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September 24th, 2008 artmaster
IAN MCSHANE (Coach) is currently earning critical acclaim for his Broadway performance in Daniel Sullivan’s revival of Harold Pinter’s The Homecoming. It’s a 40th anniversary for both the play and McShane, as he made his Broadway debut in a production of The Promise in 1967, the same year The Homecoming first played on the Great White Way. McShane was recently seen on screen in Fox-Walden’s fantasy adventure The Seeker: The Dark is Rising, as the mentor Merriman Lyon in the adaptation of Susan Cooper’s beloved novel.
McShane’s unique and distinctive voice has made him an in-demand voice talent adding his vocal prowess as Captain Hook in Shrek the Third; the villainous snow leopard Tai Lung in Kung Fu Panda, bowing in 2008; Mr. Bobinski in Laika Entertainment’s first animated feature, Coraline, an adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s international best-selling book and directed by Henry Selick; and as Ragnar Sturlusson in the first installment of New Line Cinema’s trilogy The Golden Compass, alongside Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig.
McShane earned the coveted Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series-Drama for his versatile performance as Al Swearengen on HBO’s hit series Deadwood. His charismatic and alluring performance also led him to a 2005 Emmy and 2005 and 2006 SAG Award nominations for Lead Actor, as well as being voted “TV’s Sexiest Villain” by People magazine in 2005.
His performance in Deadwood gained him a wave of critical acclaim, which earned him the Television Critics Association’s annual award for Individual Achievement in Drama, and being selected as one of GQ’s “Men of the Year.” They described the character of Swearengen as “infectious” and “darkly irresistible.” The New York Times dubbed him as “one of the most interesting villains on television,” and Rolling Stone magazine bestowed the title of “Hot Barkeep” and described the character as “played to perfection.”
McShane has continually shown his range of talent over the last few years appearing in numerous projects embodying a diversity of roles from Hot Rod, a comedy directed by Saturday Night Live’s Akiva Schaffer, in which he played the macho, athletic stepfather to accident-prone daredevil Andy Samberg; Paramount Pictures’ thriller Case 39, playing a detective opposite Renée Zellweger; Warner Bros.’ true-life drama We Are Marshall, opposite Matthew McConaughey and Matthew Fox; Woody Allen’s Scoop, alongside Scarlett Johansson and Hugh Jackman; Rodrigo Garcia’s critically acclaimed true-to-life character study Nine Lives; and Jonathan Glazer’s critically acclaimed indie Sexy Beast, giving another riveting performance by transforming himself into the dark, sinister and very handsome character Teddy Bass, prompting one London writer to declare McShane “the king of cool.”
Having starred in more than 30 films, McShane made his debut in 1962’s Young and Willing, which led to other roles in Battle of Britain, The Last of Sheila, Villain (co-starring Richard Burton), Exposed and Agent Cody Banks.
McShane has enjoyed a long and creatively diverse career in both British and American television, including a role in the David L. Wolper’s seminal 1970’s miniseries Roots, as well as BBC and BBC America’s Trust, playing the eccentric megalomaniacal head of the firm, Alan Cooper-Fozzard. Starring turns in Whose Life Is It Anyway? for Granada TV, the role of Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights for the BBC and Harold Pinter’s Emmy Award-winning The Caretaker, are among his other television highlights. McShane has also stepped into roles as well-known figures, taking on parts such as Judas in NBC’s Jesus of Nazareth, directed by Franco Zeffirelli; Prince Rainer in the network’s The Grace Kelly Story; and the title role in Masterpiece Theatre’s Disraeli: Portrait of a Romantic. Additional miniseries credits include Wonderworks: Young Charlie Chaplin, A.D., The Great Escape II: The Untold Story, Marco Polo, Evergreen and War and Remembrance.
In the late ’80s, the actor formed McShane Productions, which produced the much-adored Lovejoy for the BBC and A&E. Lovejoy gave McShane a vehicle to star in as well as produce and direct. He followed his lovable rogue character Lovejoy by producing and starring in the darker and more serious lead role in Madson and the comedy drama Soul Survivors for BBC and Showtime. Lovejoy is currently enjoying a revival with audiences worldwide.
In 2000, McShane returned to the West End in London to make his musical debut starring in Cameron Mackintosh’s successful musical The Witches of Eastwick as Darryl Van Horne. His varied stage career has included roles such as Hal in the original cast of Loot, the title role of The Admirable Crichton at the Chichester Festival, Tom in The Glass Menagerie and Charlie in The Big Knife. He co-starred with Dame Judi Dench and Sir Ian McKellen in Promise, which successfully played London and debuted on Broadway. In Los Angeles, he starred in three productions at The Matrix Theatre, including the world premiere of Larry Atlas’ Yield of the Long Bond and two others for which he received the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award: Inadmissible Evidence and Betrayal.
Born in Blackburn, England, Ian is the son of professional soccer player Harry McShane, who played for Manchester United, and Irene McShane. He attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. Ian and his wife Gwen Humble reside in Venice Beach, California.
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September 4th, 2008 artmaster
MIKE NELSON (Executive Producer) most recently served as Executive Producer on Mike Judge’s provocative comedy Idiocracy, starring Luke Wilson.
Previously, Nelson co-produced the summer action film The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, which starred Sean Connery. Nelson’s recent credits as a line producer include A Man Apart, starring Vin Diesel, and The Anniversary Party.
In 1997, Nelson produced director Tim Blake Nelson’s Eye of God, which won an American Independent Award at the Seattle International Film Festival and a Bronze Award at the Tokyo International Film Festival. It also received nominations for The Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival and an Independent Spirit Award.
Nelson served as co-producer on the features Sugar & Spice, Drop Dead Gorgeous, S.F.W. and the television series “Fallen Angels.” He was also the unit production manager on director Baz Luhrmann’s groundbreaking film Romeo + Juliet.
Nelson learned the production business through jobs in various capacities such as associate producer, assistant director, locations manager and prop-master. He then spent four years as Vice President of Physical Production for Ron Howard and Brian Grazer’s Imagine Entertainment, where he oversaw films such as Backdraft, Far & Away, Opportunity Knocks, For Love or Money and Cry-Baby.
Raised in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Nelson is a graduate of Swarthmore College.
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