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| ... July 2004 News willkemp.org |
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| July 26th: DVD News. The gals at Jackman's Landing have been keeping a watch on Universal's Home Video website and this morning report that the site has been updated in regards to the various features that will appear on the Standard and Ultimate Edition Van Helsing DVDs. It's good to see that there will be some quality time spent in chat with Will, Shuler and Richard. Also offered on both editions will be bloopers (werewolf bloopers?). There's lots of stuff really, so check it out for yourselves. You can preorder from their site, as well as from Amazon.com and Best Buy. But give a thought to ordering through JL's Charity Bazaar where a portion of your money goes to charities that Hugh and his wife Deborra-lee support. Thanks to JL and to William B. July 20th: OK UK. The UK release date for Mindhunters looks to be set (hopefully). Here's the lowdow in this tidbit from the July issue of Empire Magazine - If you've been waiting for the release of Renny Harlin's latest thriller, Mindhunters, well so has The Insider - after all, we visited the Amsterdam set back in March 2002! But the flick has finally been scheduled for November 5. LL Cool J, Kathryn Morris and Christian Slater star as FBI recruits sent to an island to begin serial killer profiling training - only to find that there's a genuine psycho in their midst, picking them off one-by-one with a series of booby traps! Word is that this is fiendish Harlin fun, with plenty of inventive murders, including a sequence where one star is dowsed in liquid nitrogen and smashed into pieces. Bummer..... Mindhunters opened for limited release in Thailand on May 7th, Finland on June 4th, the United Arab Emirates on June 16th, Austria and Germany on June 24th and the Netherlands on July 8th. The film is due to be released in several other countries over the next few months. The latest tally I've seen has gross receipts of 1,975,416 in the European countries alone. As for the US release date.......maybe we should start a pool on it. July 14th: And Cheer the Wolf Man! Will's parting words to us in this terrific interview given last week. Click here and then click on the link underneath Will's photo. You'll need Windows Media Player 9 for optimum viewing. Thanks again to Meg and Non for this great treat. July 12th: When in Japan...here's a little video clip of one of Will's press interviews. He comes bounding out movie star style to the pounding Van Helsing soundtrack and introduces himself in Japanese. Big smile. I have a second video interview I hope to share with you as well, but the link isn't working at the moment, so stay tuned on that one. I also have some photos from various online Japanese news sites. All of the above info is courtesy of my friends Meg and Non who run the Will Kemp Japanese FanSite. Great job and many thanks girls. And a safe journey home to Will and Gaby. July 9th: Good News/Bad News. Okay, the good news is - a whole lotta photos to share. Yay! The bad news is - they are all off limits to save unless you want thumbnails or watermarked copies. Boo! Ah well, at least we can look even if we can't touch. WireImage has quite a few photos from the press conference. You can see a larger image by registering and plunking down a few dollars/pounds/yen, etc. But if you try to save that larger image, they've got it rigged so that a SWAT team will come crashing through your living room window to arrest you. Well, that's the way they make it sound anyway. KRT, meanwhile, has some fabulous shots from The Soldier's Tale. Click here for a couple featuring the always beguiling Matthew Hart in two of his four Devil guises. Happy weekend all. Try to stay cool in this hot, hot summer weather. July 8th: Pressing Matters. Getty Images has captured some nice shots of our very dashing and debonair looking Will taken yesterday at a press conference promoting Van Helsing in Japan. Prepare to smile. *mmmwaa* to my pal Nic July 6th: At the Newsstand. I found a few more magazines that feature articles on Van Helsing. The best of the lot is the Cinefex #98 July issue which deals with special effects and is a good read. For we Velkan/Wolf Man fans, it gives a very detailed description of how they created werewolves from scratch; how they do the transformation from Velkan to the Wolf Man and how those scenes are shot. There is also an interesting discussion on Will's first scene where he is attempting to trap the werewolf. The article covers each of the creatures and some of the other elements used through-out the film. Here are a few of the photos featured in the article. This magazine is a good sidekick to the making of the movie book. The cinemagraphic side of Van Helsing is found in the May issue of ICT (International Cinematographers Guild). This too is a good read. It of course discusses how they chose to shoot the various scenes down to even such intricate details as how to best capture Kate Beckinsale’s eyes. There is a good deal about visual effects shots, filming on location, costumes, lighting, and the ‘flying cams’ that provided a ‘bat’s eye’ view in the vampire scenes. I myself thought the film's cinematography was breathtaking and it was great to learn a little more on how they captured it all. Okay, again, I must say….I love Richard Roxburgh’s Dracula for a hundred reasons. If you feel the same then you may want to pick up Xposé issue #85 which features an interview with the engaging Aussie. Amongst other things Richard reveals the most difficult scene in the movie. “The most grueling shot was the brides licking Dracula’s face. That was terrible to be doing all day”. What can I say? I think he is funny. Will and the other monsters also get their shot at some short interviews when they talk with Shiver’s Magazine (issue #112). Nothing really new though. Here is an excerpt from Will’s chat. “There’s one scene as Velkan, when he’s trying to trap the werewolf in the first part of the movie. Wirework, flips, climbing from tree to tree, it’slightly Errol Flynn-ish, which is great fun to do. It reminded me of when I was a tiny child – in this business, you get to be a little kid and get paid for it.” Bob Ducsay, who produced Van Helsing, talks about the problems and joys of bringing back the Universal monsters in Starburst magazine issue #310. Again, nothing really new in this interview, but it’s out there if you are collecting all things Van Helsing. July 2nd: Outtakes. Here are some more snippets from my conversation with Will....... On his role as Narrator in Soldier’s Tale I didn’t enjoy it as much at first or really know who ‘he’ was until the first night and then something just clicked. I think it was because the audience was there and my character relies on a certain relationship -- his relationship is not just with the other actors, it’s with the audience. And when they were there it was like, ‘ah, now I’m complete....I have an audience'. Which then helps with the ‘let me entertain you’ sort of thing. On Matthew Hart in Soldier’s Tale We all really went through a steep learning curve in a short number of weeks, particularly Matthew. It was a fight because he moves in such an incredible way. I mean he is phenomenal. And he had to join how he moves with how he speaks because he had never really ever done that; so he was battling against the text. And it was wonderful to watch because the minute he found the connection between how he moves to how he would act, it was just brilliant. On Hugh Jackman That’s a great show isn’t it? (referring to Boy From Oz) Hugh is amazing. I had always heard from others that he had this incredible magnetism. And I have never witnessed an audience visibly lean in during the performance and then at the end, all stand up. He is phenomenal in that part..... He is almost like a machine because the guy works every hour of the day. He just keeps going, going, going. And it’s fantastic to watch him. He's created a world around him where he can get on with what he has a sheer passion for and he is able to do what he loves. And he's got himself, through pure talent and graciousness, to a wonderful place. It was breathtaking to be a tiny, tiny part of that. On getting in proper shape for dance vs. film With dancing I know pretty much ahead of time - enough so to be able to get back into it. I intend for the rest of this year to keep up the dance stuff, to go to ballet class. It is more an issue the other way around as acting things can happen just like that. For Van Helsing I felt I wanted to be bigger than I usually am so I went to the gym. It is tough. I have no problem in saying that it’s hard work. And I am lucky in that I can fluctuate quite a lot as well. On Matthew Bourne Matt was the first person that I ever worked for and so I owe him a huge amount because he was the one who put his belief in me very early on and nurtured me to a certain degree. We have a wonderful working relationship. He gets me very well; he knows how I move and I love his choreography…….. **** Everything else has been incorporated into the article that I am working on. I can tell you that it will cover Will's earliest years as a professional dancer; the jump into the deep end of filmwork; honing his craft as an actor; directors and being directed; more on Highland Fling and Edward Scissorhands; working with Matthew Bourne; and the role of a lifetime - well in his short lifetime to date. He's got a long, exciting career road ahead. Lots of time for more roles of a lifetime and they will happen, mark my word. The article will appear in a late summer issue of the Ballet.co Magazine. I will keep you posted. Lazy days of summer and housekeeping chores. Please keep in mind there may be some very slow news weeks coming up. And this site will shortly be undergoing some server and editing tool changes which may affect the availability or appearance of the site at some point. I have been putting off these much needed changes, waiting for the slowest possible time to make them. So, I thank you for your patience and I will keep you updated on that. Remember to bookmark the following address because if the site does suddenly run amok, I will post messages there. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/willkemp_news_alerts |
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