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| ... January 2004 News willkemp.org |
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| January 30th: "The Wolf Man, he's like a wreck..." so says Director Sommers in a brief interview with Sci Fi Wire. Count us as wrecks waiting for more Wolf Man images. Jackmans Landing has been tipped that a UK version of Access Hollywood, Living TV, will air a similar Van Helsing segment this Tuesday, 03 February. Nice scoopage. Super Bowl Sunday this weekend. Rooting for the Van Helsing trailer to appear. Nice weekend all. January 29th: How a film about two people talking on the beach turned into a monster of a movie. Director Stephen Sommers clues us in on this and more in the February issue of SFX Magazine. Thanks to the gals over at JL. If you tuned in to E!News Live last night you had a nice surprise - Will being mentioned as one of the Sizzlin' 16. Don't panic if you missed it. They used the online photo (see below link) and he was not interviewed. But it is only a matter of time....(Thanks Carol). January 26th: "I've worn more make-up and tights over the years than my wife." Oh that Will, he really knows how to start our week off just right. And the rest of the interview with E!Online is just as fun as he admits to being psyched at the idea of being a character in a computer game and reveals his next ideal movie role would be that of a total psychopath. Who knew? Let's hope he gets his wish. Interesting they noted he has theatre commitments into 2006. And you know what I am thinking. But I'll spare you, I won't say it. Oh, by the way, the lead-in page to this is Sizzlin' 16 2004. A humongous thank you to Pat for the heads-up on this great article. According to an article in the February/March issue of Cinefantastique, part of the plot of Van Helsing involves Count Dracula joining forces with Dr. Frankenstein to make babies for his undead brides. Don't believe me? Well get yourselves over to Jackmans Landing where my pals have already transcribed the article for your ultimate reading pleasure. And when you have finished that, the rest of the screen shots have been loaded into the Van Helsing Gallery. Now, last Thursday I am eagerly leafing through the January 23/30 double issue of Entertainment Weekly which is their "Guide to 2004" (movies, television, etc.) I hit the movie section - 3 times - thinking my copy surely must have a page missing because Van Helsing is not mentioned anywhere, not even in fine print. What they have listed as the 'Big Events' for movies include such sure classics as Catwoman, Dawn of the Dead, Barbershop 2 and Starsky and Hutch. (Yes that would be sarcasm). These are considered to be some of the truly Big Movies of 2004? Well, I've nothing left to say on the subject except Letters to the Editor may be sent to letters@ew.com. I think I'll go back to pondering whether Will can give Hugh a run for his money in belting out "Oh What a Beautiful Morning". Before I do that however, step on over to Matthew Bourne's site to find out about his rip-roaring time in Japan. The man just does not know the meaning of pace yourself. Also in the update you will find a clip of Adam Cooper hoofing away, courtesy of our friends in Japan. Never seen him dance? Here's your chance for a taste. You'll also note, if you haven't before, that he does look mighty fine in black. January 22nd: The Wolf Man Speaketh. Finally, our guy gets some press. Of course, the writer called his character Vulkan instead of Velkan and Jackman's Gabriel instead of Abraham (according to IMDb), but we'll overlook those 'little' errors in the hopes that the quotes were accurate. Will talks about some of the wirework he did as Wolf Man; 'hanging from trees, swinging from vines, flailing around'.....and obviously loving every minute of it. We also get to hear from Dracula (Roxburgh) and Frankenstein (Hensley). The article appears in the March issue of Fangoria. Thanks to Joanne for the heads-up on the article and to Heather for very kindly and oh so quickly transcribing it. The gals over at Jackman's Landing have been sleuthing around again and report that Universal has given a possible film premiere date of May 3rd. Not written in stone yet, so stay tuned. Will, do you know where your talent agent is? This in from Variety: "Talent agent Joel Lubin has joined CAA after more than four years at the William Morris Agency. Among clients that Lubin brings to the agency are Ed Burns, Nick Nolte, Will Kemp ('Van Helsing'), and Jeremy Renner ('Dahmer'). Prior to WMA, Lubin ran Nolte's production company with Greg Shapiro, which produced 'Affliction'." Thanks Nic! January 20th: More Wolf Man coming at ya. The second set of Wolf Man stills have been added to Will's page, again nearly frame for frame. I think of the four spots, I like the one where Wolf Man is hurtling towards the camera still bursting out of his clothes. And wow - how did that shot look on the BIG screen? Wolf Man big as a semi jumping nearly off the screen at you. Can you imagine that in 3-D? In any case, as I mentioned yesterday, the entire rest of the trailer will be added into the respective galleries soon, though not frame for frame. Point. Counter Point. A second AICN scooper has seen the first ten minutes of the film and weighs in with his impressions at the link above. Van Helsing the movie, the soap opera, the game. Now Van Helsing the comic strip. Well, at least talked about in a comic strip. Check out Penny Arcade Comics. A scooper over at Jackmans Landing has found a solution for those having problems saving the Quicktime version on their computer. Check out their update from 19 January for the instructions and the trailer shall be yours forever more. Mindhunters - never far from our minds regardless how many times it gets pushed back. Got another review, and a good one, from Clint over at Moviehole. A man who knows his movies! Thanks a mil. January 19th: Open for business. The Van Helsing Gallery is ready to rock. Mind you, it took so long to set up, I didn't have time to add stills to anyone's page except Will's. But as you have probably already visited Lauren's site, you've got a feel for what is going in mine, though I will have a few different ones as well. I pretty much capped the two Wolf Man scenes frame by frame. So once you've gone through them you can use your backward and forward browser buttons to view them sort of like a slow movie. There are a couple news items just out as well. Creature Corner reports that one way Universal plans to stoke everyone up for Van Helsing is by releasing a box set of some of their classic monster movies. They are also releasing the animated VH feature with Hugh Jackman voicing Helsing. They've got the cover art out for the DVD of that release, which Creature Corner aptly commented, people will probably mistake it for the movie, the movie DVD reportedly coming out around Halloween. Redlands Daily Facts spoke with Director Stephen Sommers recently. Among Sommers comments about his monster movie, "I went into it saying it's not a movie about monsters. It's about people with very bad problems." Funny guy. A scooper for Ain't It Cool News went to Munich Film Week and saw the first ten minutes of the film as a promo shown by Universal International Pictures. You can read his review by hitting the above link. And if you haven't been over there yet, Matthew Bourne's site has also been updated today and includes the link to the official UK Nutcracker! site. The site includes video film clips of the production. Definitely worth checking out. I will slowly be adding screen shots to the Van Helsing gallery through-out the next week or two. I won't update you on that, so just peek in the galleries from time to time if you like. When they are all finished, I will make mention at that time. Hopefully the publicity machine will start up soon and we will have photos and articles to add as well. January 17th: Special weekend update. I am busy making screen shots for this site, but Lauren over at Daily Digest has worked feverishly to produce the first screen shots on the web. So head on over to her very cool site. She has made the super size shots (thanks Quicktime for the large screen format). Magnificent job Lauren!! The gallery on this site will open on Monday. Fantastic weekend all. January 16th: SECOND UPDATE: Oh how we love Quicktime. Watch the Van Helsing trailer the way it's meant to be seen. Don't forget. The trailer opens with the movie Along Came Polly at theatres today. So catch it on the big screen as well. Great way to start our weekend. January 16th: Was it worth the wait? Oh yes was it ever! At long last the Van Helsing Trailer - currently on Windows Media Player and later today on Quicktime. Screen captures will be made over the weekend. January 15th: THIRD UPDATE: Will - what can we can we say? May 7th cannot come soon enough!! January 15h: SECOND UPDATE: Our Wolf Man!!!!!! This is a short sneak peek at the VH trailer from Moviebox. Also, check this out for Entertainment Tonight. Thanks to Heather - you do rock! And so does Wolf Man!! How cool is he?!? Also, now would be a good time to let you know my bandwidth problem is well under control, so feel free to check back as often as you like. I've no idea how lucky we will be to have multi-update days, but let's hope there are lots of them. January 15th: TONIGHT!! My good friends over at Jackman's Landing report that both Access Hollywood and Entertainment Tonight plan to premiere the Van Helsing trailer this evening. Trailer-News.com loaded a few of the screen shots from last night's first peek alert on the two shows. Will this be the longest day at work or what??? January 14th: SECOND UPDATE - Wolf Man and Van Helsing 'go at it mid-air over a pit of fire' in the film's trailer? So says a scooper for Ain't It Cool News. Sleep....Thursday night? Not likely. January 14th: Do you want the good news or the bad news first? Well, let's start with the bad news first. Just when you thought it was safe to get excited about Mindhunters.....yep, it appears the release date has been changed yet again. Group groan!!! I called Dimension Films on Monday after Teri at Val Kilmer Newsletter had received info for a new date . I was told that the movie would definitely not open in January and that they did not have a new release date yet. The reason they gave me was that the marketing department had received some favorable response to early screenings and they wanted more time to promote the film!! Hello? Did I miss something? I wasn't aware they had done any promoting as of yet. In any case, don't know if that reason is truthful or not. And sadly, I am down to my last five screen shots to share with you. Again, courtesy of Teri at VKN - huge hug. As rotten as the news about the latest delay is, a couple of these photos should bring a smile, a grin and maybe a chuckle as we see Will's character, Rafe, appears to have perpetual bad hair days and must have hit the garage sales for his wardrobe. And where did those sunglasses come from? Will must have loved playing this character. Too fun! Too cute! Okay, so as I was getting ready to update this site, I came across a 'rumor' over at countingdown.com which said that the Van Helsing trailer might be pulled from this Friday's premiere of Along Came Polly due to a bad buzz on the film. So, I immediately emailed Universal and within ten minutes they replied that the trailer was not only premiering with 'Polly' but would premiere online that morning on apple.com! So, let's hope that is really, really true because we need it about now. Boy do we need it. Of course, with our luck they will show every character except Will's!! Also on the Van Helsing front, latinoreview has posted a really great new photo - this of Hugh Jackman, Kate Beckinsale and David Wenham. And SideShow Collectibles has given us our first good look at one of the Van Helsing dolls. No not Velkan/Wolf Man. I would have led with that story! It's Mr. Jackman and it does bode well for the style and quality of the collection. Pretty cool really. Be sure to check out ballet.co if you haven't already for this year's winners of the National Dance Awards. Four of the winners, Oxana Panchenko (of George Piper Dancers), Robert Parker, Carlos Acosta and Adam Cooper are in our Swoon Hall of Fame. Do we know how to pick 'em or what? Incidently, it's about time for a new swoon. I do have one to write up and you can probably easily guess who it is. Finally, I am happy to announce that my website honoring the world's greatest choreographer/director/story teller and entertainer, Matthew Bourne, has been completed and was launched yesterday on his birthday. He is off to Japan tomorrow to promote the upcoming tour of his Nutcracker!. Safe journeys to him. So, Friday, fingers crossed. Meet ya back here at some point, if it does come online. January 9th: Let's get ready to rumble. One week from today the Van Helsing trailer is set to premiere (we hope). The official site has just been updated so take a peek. In two weeks from today Mindhunters is set to open. And very soon we are going to start seeing some major blitzing for Van Helsing which will include photos and interviews with our Will. I've been told that this should start next month. I've contacted Interview magazine and they've indicated they are planning a piece on Will, but would not divulge the exact issue. Vanity Fair's Hollywood issue hits the stands around February 13th and it is rumored to have something for us to celebrate as well, though they were very secretive about it. So, now's the time to start getting cozy at Borders or your favorite newstand because there's going to be a lot to look out for. As always, if you find anything I've missed, please let me know so I can get it posted for everyone. Wallpaper for Van Helsing has been created by UIP Netherlands, who gave us the first one sheet on the film. Five more Mindhunters screen shots courtesy of Teri at Val Kilmer Newsletter. Two reviews from Wind in the Willows with my thanks to Mandy for securing these for us. Review One and Review Two. Matthew Bourne's Play Without Words and Nutcracker! are both still running and running on highs because of the incredible audience and critical response. I have started loading sections of the souvenir programme for Play Without Words onto Matthew's site and thought you might like to have a sneak peek at it. Great interview with Matthew, especially if you haven't been able to see PWW and wonder what all the raves are about. I also found a very interesting and fun piece on Matthew posted in The Independent. It's sort of a print version of MTV's Cribs. You get a bit of a tour through Matthew's current home which he is in the process of selling. It is a nice personal look at this amazing man and boy, would I love to be at that garage sale judging by some of the cool stuff he is parting with to move into a smaller home closer to the centre of Islington. So, that about wraps it up for this week. Don't know about you, but I'm definitely feeling a buzz of excitement building up. Have yourselves a terrific weekend. January 7th: Mindhunters on our minds. I've added five more screen shots, again not great quality, but something to to hang on while we wait for the movie and hopefully some better photos to post. Also, a couple lucky souls saw sneak previews and posted reviews over on Dark Horizons. You may click here and here for those reviews. Jackman's Landing has transcribed an article from the Daily Telegraph with his Hughness talking Van Helsing. They also have a scooper who let them in on more tie-ins for the film including a making-of-the-movie book which includes the shooting script, stills, storyboards and interviews. Now that is sweet! Be sure to check out their January 5th update for more info on this. I've got this year's Wind in the Willows programme loaded. It is not as good as last year's in that it does not have nearly as many photos. Especially missing are rehearsal photos which, don't know about you, but those are generally my favorite. And I also have one more review for WITW. My thanks to Mandy for obtaining it for me and to Heather for transcribing it for me. January 5th: So long Ratty! 'Wind in the Willows' closed out its holiday run this past Saturday and now Will shall have to turn in those tights and that twitchy mustache. However, I can attest that Ratty was definitely one of the audience favorites. Then again, it's hard to resist the swashbuckling bravado of Errol Flynn mixed with the cocked eyebrow and smirky but suave smile of a Clark Gable, all in the guise of a water rat. What's not to love? Will's Ratty is all that and delightfully more, especially in dealing with the madcap Toad played with utter joy and abandon by Matthew Hart. The entire cast is marvelous and the production has the earmarks of what ought to be a yearly classic because it really is a charmer no matter what your age. I did get a chance to sit and chat with Will. And of course, as we all want to know what's next for him, I asked. Not such an easy answer to that one as it's wise not to say anything until all the i's are dotted and all the t's crossed. Even then nothing is certain. 'Remains of the Piano', case in point. It could go either way, film work or dance. Thus, we will just have to wait and see who is lucky enough to lock on to his talents next. As this was just an informal chat, there wasn't any getting down to the nitty gritty of interview type questions. So please don't shoot me for that. Soon enough the Van Helsing media blitz will start and we'll probably be getting all those questions answered, lots of photos and don't forget that Wolf Man doll! But in answer to all those inquiring minds, what's it like to sit and talk with Will Kemp? Quite simply, what you see is what you get. He really is a terrific guy. Okay, twist my arm, he's a sweetheart. Another terrific guy, equally a sweetheart, is Matthew Bourne and the other half of my London theatre marathon was spent soaking up his 'Nutcracker!' and his 'Play Without Words'. I cannot possibly be succinct about anything that man does and I have more to tell you about Will's performance as Ratty, in addition to reviews, and whatever else I've missed regarding Mindhunters and Van Helsing, while gone. But jet lag has descended upon me, not to mention I do have to go back to work, so give me a few days to get things sorted out. Stay tuned, as they say. And thanks again Will. |
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| Click on image for first rough screen captures from Entertainment Tonight. |