Santa Paws 2: The Santa Pups

Posted on November 19, 2012 at 1:36 pm

Lowest Recommended Age:	All Ages
MPAA Rating:	G
Profanity:	None
Alcohol/ Drugs:	None
Violence/ Scariness:	Mild peril
Diversity Issues:	None
Date Released to DVD:	November 18, 2012
Amazon.com ASIN:	B008C0C23I

If there’s anything cuter than the Santa Buddies, it is the sequel, the new DVD/Blu-Ray pick of the week, “Santa Paws 2: The Santa Pups.” The puppies stow away on Mrs. Claus’ trip to a Christmas-loving town and have a lot of fun granting wishes until something goes wrong and Christmas itself starts to disappear. Who can save the day?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rB8StgkqdQY

It was a lot of fun to catch up with Kaitlyn Maher, who returns for the sequel. “Santa is at his workshop and he needs a new child ambassador and he sends Mrs. Claus to go and find one. She meets the Reynolds family. Their town used to have the best city with the most Christmas spirit but the Santa pups decided that they were going to come and they took something without asking. Somebody wished for Christmas to go away and it happened. Mrs. Claus and my character have to help save Christmas, but I’m not going to say the ending,” she told me. The puppies were “so sweet and cuddly and cute,” she said, “and even sweeter when there was a dog treat around.” She said the trainers used “lots and lots of treats” and little toys and breaks, too, “if a puppy was being finicky or something, they would always have a new dog waiting. They were very professional.” The biggest challenge was that “there was a train that would go by six times every single day. We would have to stop recording, even if it was the best take we had done. We would have to stop until the train circled around the whole track.” She loved the set for Santa’s workshop. “I asked the producer where all the toys were going to be going.” When no one had an answer, Kaitlyn said, “Can I please donate them? I’d love to pick a few charities in Vancouver.” She became charity coordinator and the toys went to four different charities. “It was a great way to get the whole cast involved in sharing the joy of Christmas.” Her favorite prop in the workshop was a big bell. She thought it was funny when the elf fell off the bell in the first movie. Kaitlyn is home schooled and “I love that my mom teaches me.” She likes the American Girl books and Nancy Drew and loves to read about ancient history. And she likes movies that have a message. “The Sound of Music” is one of her favorites and she also likes mysteries. She says the buddies movies are popular because “the movies are fun and have a good message. The writers bring that message through magical and wonderful things that you could not imagine. Everyone works together and they’re family-friendly. People really feel blessed by them.” She loves to sing and her favorite scene in the movie was when she got to sing “O Holy Night.” She especially loves to write songs and will work on a new CD next year. “I like to make songs that are inspiring and encouraging. I like to make people smile.” And she is looking forward to Christmas with her family and spreading the joy of Christmas to everyone. “I think it is very, very important that people have the love they need on Christmas.”

MVP Of the Week: Lee Pace

Posted on November 16, 2012 at 8:00 am

I’ve been a big fan of Lee Pace since I first saw him in “The Fall” and “Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day.” He has a rare sincerity and magnetism on screen and shows impressive range in creating remarkably vivid characters with just a gesture or a look. This month, he appears in two high-profile movies. In “Lincoln,” he plays one of the President’s most outspoken opponents, Fernando Wood. In “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Part 2,” he plays a sinuous vampire who can tell stories about his days as a Revolutionary War soldier.

More Lee Pace:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRC_zw0q58Q

MVP Runner-up is Rami Malek, another vampire in “Breaking Dawn 2.” He also appears in last month’s “The Master” as the son-in-law of the character played by Philip Seymour Hoffman. I first noticed him as the regal but sweet young Pharaoh in “Night at the Museum” and I enjoyed his dim but sweet community college student in “Larry Crowne.” He also co-starred in “The Pacific.”

Here he is with fellow “Twilight” star Jackson Rathbone in the sitcom “The War at Home.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Alq1cFCOYL8

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The Mortified Sessions

Posted on October 20, 2012 at 8:00 am

One of the sharpest insights of the brilliant Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind was its recognition that the most painfully embarrassing memories are almost impossible to forget. And most of those excruciating memories occur in childhood and adolescence. The Mortified Sessions is a television series on the Sundance Channel, now in its second season, that invites celebrities to explore their most humiliating memories. They bring the artifacts of those years to talk about what mortified them then and how those experiences affect them now. David Nadelberg, author of Mortified: Love Is a Battlefield and Mortified: Real Words. Real People. Real Pathetic, is the sympathetic host. Guests have included Oscar-winner Mo’nique, “Dirty Dancing’s” Jennifer Grey, “Breaking Bad” and “Argo” star Bryan Cranston, “Cougartown” and “Freaks and Geeks” star Busy Philips, and “Modern Family” Emmy-winner Eric Stonestreet.

Because we know these people ultimately achieved great success, it is reassuring to see that they struggled with the same doubts and failures and middle school ugliness that we all experience. Nadelberg is supportive, never exploitive, and the show exemplifies the AA maxim that “you are only as sick as your secrets.”

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Interview: Michael Damian, Writer-Director of “A Princess for Christmas”

Posted on October 19, 2012 at 5:23 pm

Michael Damian played heartthrob Danny Romalotti on “The Young and the Restless” for 18 years, returning for the show’s 35th anniversary. He is an award-winning singer and songwriter and more recently he has been a writer and director. He and his wife co-wrote the charming modern fairy tale A Princess for Christmas and he directed it as well. He took time to talk to me about directing Roger Moore and the surprise actress he added to the film.

How does your experience as an actor help you in casting your films?

I know what the actors are going through when they go into the casting room, and I do understand that it’s very important to have a director who gives, off-camera, really good readings to actors. I think it helps tremendously, and we were very fortunate that our casting director London did a great job; she gives fabulous off-camera reads to the actors and really helps to get in on the character. I’ve been in casting rooms where the person reading with you is so terrible that it’s just like… “So what do you need?” and like, oh my gosh, please tell me they’re not going to read every line like that (in my head, of course, I’m saying it.)

You have to find a way to rise above that, but fortunately, we have really good casting people that worked with us out of London and when Sam came in, you know, he was amazing. Right away when we saw him we’re like, “Okay, there’s Prince Ashton. There’s our prince.” He was dynamic, he was charming; he had a sensitive side you could see, there was warmth in his eyes—it wasn’t very difficult to make up our minds once we saw his recorded audition. I wasn’t in London when it happened, I was in Romania in per-production, but I got the feed over the internet of the casting session and we were like “Wow, he’s fantastic!” And he’s even better in person and did an amazing job getting him on camera.

Tell me about working with Roger Moore.

Sir Roger Moore is phenomenal. He is so funny, you know? He’s got an incredible sense of humor, and that’s really wonderful because you’ve got to have that when you’re not shooting, because otherwise it can be very, very uncomfortable on a set when you have a star of his stature to be just not having a good time—and Roger Moore just really enjoys the process. He gave 110%, he was there for all the off-camera line reads, he was present, he was just a total joy. All the actors loved working with him and he treated them with great respect and kindness. And I’m such a fan of Roger Moore, I mean, The Spy Who Loved Me is one of my favorite Bonds. I had such high expectations just from a personal level, you know what I mean? He met them and exceeded them and it was just such a pleasure and honor to direct him and his lovely wife, Lady Kristina, was fabulous. I put her in the film because she was so gorgeous—and I didn’t realize that no one’s ever asked her to be in a movie. And I said, “Lady Kristina, you need to be in the film,” and she was like, “Oh, I would love to.” And I was like, “You’re in the next scene…” so in all the ballroom scenes, you see this beautiful, elegant, radiant woman in black that he says hello to at the entrance, and then you see her reacting during all the drama that unfolds…that’s his wife, Lady Kristina, she’s gorgeous. They’re a great couple, and they’re so in love with each other. I got to have dinner with them on their anniversary.

Tell me about Romania.

Well, Romania was an amazing experience. First of all, to find a castle like Peles Castle up in the mountains with this beautiful, I mean, just stunning. And to have the natural snow falling and the setting was so inspiring…it was a bit cold, 14 below zero, but besides that, it was a thrill.

Sam also did mention the cold.

Did he tell you how cold it was?

Yes, he did—and I thought, “well, if an English guy is cold, it’s probably pretty cold.”

It was cold, it was a crazy cold. But they were brilliant, nobody complained, Sam never complained and I hope he had a good experience, I mean, we had a great experience.

What were you going for in the costume designs to strike a balance between modern day and fairy tale?

First of all we’ve got this castle with all the staff and I wanted to keep them proper and dressed proper as staff, like “Remains of the Day” or one of those great films, you know? You keep everybody pretty formal. Katie’s dress, we had the costume designer, Oana Draghici, make several things for her and sometimes Katie McGrath would come in with something and she’d say, “What do you think of this?” and I’m like, “Great. Where did you get that?” And she’d go, “Oh, it’s mine, I brought it,” and sure enough, she wore it in several scenes and I’ve had so many people asking where they could buy it. I think it’s in some of the artwork or the press photos, it’s kind of a knit, sweatery dress or something that she wears and everybody keeps asking about it. I go, “well, it’s Katie’s personal dress, so I can’t help you with that, you’re going to have to call her.” You mix and match, it depends on which character. The great thing about Castlebury is that it’s our own—we created this small country that’s kind of like a Monte Carlo, so we were able to have a little more free reign with certain styles and things that people wore, you know, and the family starts in Buffalo so it’s pretty straightforward, there. I pretty much know how they dress in Buffalo and have a lot of friends that live there, so just try to keep it real…really each character define them and make sure they have their own style and that you just don’t, “Oh, yeah, put that on him, who cares?” I want to really make sure that it works with the character and that it works with the scene. Unfortunately, sometimes, it could be freezing cold but you’ve got to make it work. You put too many jackets on and it’s really unattractive, do you know what I mean?

What is it that we love about fairy tales?

Well I think, first of all, there are a couple of things here. You’ve got one of the most beloved holiday seasons, Christmas, and it’s my favorite. My wife and I love Christmas movies, and so we thought, “okay, what if we made a Christmas story/fairytale?” and it started with just a line. We were sitting in our office and and you know, “Once upon a time in a land called Buffalo,” and then we just started, “okay, let’s start from there, okay…” and we want to make it modern day, so we take a modern-day family—and what would happen if they found out that half of them were royal and didn’t know it? And went on this journey to this magical place, this beautiful castle and found the rest of their family that they didn’t know? What would that be like during Christmas? Could they come together and resolve all their differences and find love and find romance (I’m talking about Jules and Ashton.) So there are several different kind of stories running simultaneously. You’ve got Jules and her journey just to be a good adoptive mother. She’s young and she really hasn’t experienced love. There are a lot things in her life that she, I’m sure, was hoping to do and life sort of threw a curve at her and she now has to adapt and make it work. Without giving away too much of the story, you’ve got that and then you’ve got a lot of the things that unfold at Castlebury and one, being, of course romance. Which hey, come on, who doesn’t like that? You’ve got a Christmas movie, you’ve got a fantasy, you have the prince kind of story, you’ve got the family story and you’ve got the snowy white Christmas setting, so…there’s are all the big things that we talked about. Those are all the things we love, can we put them into a script? And shoot it and have people enjoy it and enjoy the journey, because you know really, as a journey, it’s about family coming together, resolving differences, it’s about forgiveness, which is very important.

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Interview: Bryan Cranston and John Goodman of “Argo”

Posted on October 17, 2012 at 8:00 am

In Argo, Bryan Cranston (“Breaking Bad”) plays the CIA chief who supervises Tony Mendez, the character played by director Ben Affleck. And John Goodman plays real-life Oscar winner John Chambers, the genius in make-up and prosthetics who secretly worked with the CIA on disguises. Mendez called Chambers for help in setting up the fake Hollywood studio they needed to create cover identities to get the six Americans hiding out in Iran back home. A small group of journalists met with Affleck, Goodman, and Cranston to talk about the film.

What is the challenge in playing a character based on a real person, knowing that people who knew him will see the film and people who didn’t know him will think that they know what he was like based on your performance?

John Goodman: First and foremost, I had a responsibility to the character I was playing because he actually existed. He was a well-respected makeup artist, so I just felt the responsibility to not step on my foot.

Brian Cranston: My character was a composite character, and I think it was carefully crafted that way because at the time that you keep cutting back to the CIA and finding out more information and what’s happening back there, it was important to not have the audience confused for a second. If there was numerous people that were at the CIA giving him instruction and guidance, if the audience is going, “Which guy is it? Was that the guy from the White House or is that the guy…” then, we’re in trouble, because then they’re not listening. So, we didn’t want to slow it down and so my character became the composite character. But you know, it’s interesting. Some people will say, “Well, actors, they’re liars, right? They get up and pretend and say they’re someone else,” and the truth is that we desperately seek the truth and the honesty of a character, and we don’t feel completely comfortable until we find out how to play someone with that integrity. But yes, I think Ben and John had slightly more sense of responsibility because they’re portraying real people.

What do you think was going on inside the minds of these men as they went through these extraordinary challenges?

Bryan Cranston: Well, I had the good fortune of coming to Langley, Virginia early on before we started shooting and I sat down with a few CIA officers of varying degrees of experience. I wanted to get sort of a baseline of who these people are, and get a sense of the culture that they live in, and I guess what I came away with is that it’s not dissimilar from any other corporate structure. They’re still complaining about the boss and his crappy idea, and “that’s not going to work,” and there’s stale coffee in the break room and there’s all these kinds of things that they have to deal with. I think at first they were a little reticent to open up to a stranger. At first they would say, “There are several things we can’t talk about, you know, mission wise.” And I go, “I’m actually more interested in what your personal life is like and what sacrifices that were made with your spouses, what were you able to tell your children? How did it affect you? Your relationships? Do you guys drink? Did you go to a certain place to associate with other officers?” And there’s very much a club, in fact, one of the things that I found interesting was that a lot of them will socialize within and marry within, so that one guy was married to a CIA officer and their daughter was a CIA officer, and so it’s the family business. What I thought, going in, was “This is going to be completely different from anything that I have ever known” but it became sort of familiar to me. I just wanted to craft this man being a dedicated servant, truly believing in the value of the CIA and what he’s providing for it. I had a sense that, if this worked, this would be Jack’s last mission, that I’m going, “it’s not going to be any better than this, so I’m going to get debriefed and walk away.”

John Goodman: It’s like the idea of a man who manufactures disguises, disguising a part of his life and hiding in plain sight and serving his countries with the tools of his trade.

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