Friday, September 17, 1999

James Marsden has been cast as Cyclops in the new X-Men movie. Evidently he’s been babbling away about how cool it is. Which I like; it’s nice to see an actor who absolutely enjoys the coolness of a role.

In other film news, there are reports that Disney will be making a Pearl Harbor film that they want to make “more expensive than Titanic.” Excuse me, but I hate it already. The point is not to out-spend each other, people! I despise this whole idea that, if you make the movie more expensive or more explosive or more effects-laden, it will automatically be better than another film that’s less expensive. Titanic was expensive because it had to be. There was no other way of telling that story than to make it expensive. Saying that you’re making a movie just so you can spend money puts my teeth on edge.

OK, enough ranting. I started and finished The Princess Bride (the “good parts version”) yesterday, and sure enough it’s better than the film, and the film’s a rare gem. The film is a retelling that is extremely faithful to the book (except for excising one or two bits that would have taken up a lot of screen time). Even so, the book is better, mainly because of those bits which would have stretched the film to two and a half hours. Highly recommended (hey, it’s not often I read a book cover-to-cover in a day).

Tonight I hope to get working on Daemonsong Productions — there are a number of advertising and general business details to take care of. DSP is a site dedicated to helping web-based fiction productions get off the ground…basically we take care of the business and monetary side of things, while the author(s) take care of the writing. Drop us a line if you’re interested.

And hey, I got some fan mail today! Check it out:

I must be getting popular! Thanks for the feedback, J.

You Must Be Kidding Me is getting some great comments! I added two more pictures today, one featuring Microsoft chairman Bill Gates with a rather…um…interesting expression.