Favorite Movies of 2007
Category: Movies, TV, Celebrities

2007 in REVIEW – WHAT A LONG, STRANGE YEAR IT'S BEEN

by Steve Warren

You're all a bunch of idiots!

There, I've got that off my chest.  I don't mean you personally, of course.  If you have enough taste to read this column you're not one of the people who started 2007 by making huge hits of horrible movies ("Norbit," "Ghost Rider," "Wild Hogs"), then stayed away when the "serious" pictures started arriving in the fall.

Everything came in batches all year: great actresses (Julie Christie and Marion Cotillard) and failed "torture-porn" sequels in the spring, threequels in late spring/early summer, vigilante thrillers and Jane Austen-related romances in late summer, anti-Iraq War movies in early fall, African American holiday movies in late fall.  Whatever you liked, there would surely be at least one more just like it opening soon.

The studios continue making a self-fulfilling prophecy of the idea that awards go to late-year releases by saving their potential contenders at least until September, then flooding the market with them.  It's worth noting that most of my Ten Worst opened in the first half of the year, so I don't forget.

After eight months of crap, can the public really be blamed for not flocking to "Reservation Road," "Things We Lost in the Fire," "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead," "Lions for Lambs" and "Martian Child," some of which weren't very good anyway; or for confusing "Dedication" and "Delirious," "Rendition" and "Redacted," "The Hoax" and "The Host," "In the Valley of Elah" and "In the Shadow of the Moon," "September Dawn" and "Rescue Dawn" or "We Own the Night" and "30 Days of Night"?

As disappointing as many of the films themselves were, more disappointing was when one the masses should have enjoyed (e.g., "Shoot 'em Up") got lost in the shuffle.  At this writing the boxoffice jury is still out on those year-end releases that are supposed to make the wait worthwhile.  You'll see several of their titles in the "Best" list below and on many other lists of nominations and awards.  But will you go to see them when they're up against sequels to "Alien vs. Predator" and "National Treasure"?

Oh, YOU will, but what about all those other idiots?

As usual, some of the films listed are platforming and haven't arrived here yet, or were test-marketed and sent directly to DVD.

Top Ten:

1.  Atonement

2.  The Kite Runner

3.  There Will Be Blood

4.  The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

5.  Juno

6.  No Country for Old Men

7.  The Lookout

8.  Michael Clayton

9.  Lars and the Real Girl

10. Golden Door

Honorable Mention (listed alphabetically):

Away from Her

The Bourne Ultimatum

Charlie Wilson's War

Death at a Funeral

Hairspray

The Host

In the Valley of Elah

Knocked Up

Rocket Science

Shoot 'em Up

Best Foreign-Language Film: The Kite Runner

Runners-up: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Golden Door

Best Documentary Feature: Protagonist

Runners-up: The Life of Reilly, The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters

Best Animated Film: Ratatouille

Runners-up: The Simpsons Movie, Paprika

Best Director: Joe Wright, Atonement

Runners-up: Joel Coen & Ethan Coen, No Country for Old Men; Sean Penn, Into the Wild

Best Actress: Marion Cotillard, La Vie en Rose

Runners-up: Julie Christie, Away from Her; Jodie Foster, The Brave One

Best Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis, There Will Be Blood

Runners-up: Tommy Lee Jones, In the Valley of Elah; Joseph Gordon-Levitt, The Lookout

Best Supporting Actress: Amy Ryan, Gone Baby Gone

Runners-up: Cate Blanchett, I'm Not There; Tilda Swinton, Michael Clayton

Best Supporting Actor: Javier Bardem, No Country for Old Men

Runners-up: Tom Wilkinson, Michael Clayton; Alan Tudyk, Death at a Funeral

Best Original Screenplay: Judd Apatow, Knocked Up

Runners-up: Diablo Cody, Juno; Nancy Oliver, Lars and the Real Girl

Best Adapted Screenplay: Christopher Hampton, Atonement

Runners-up: Aaron Sorkin, Charlie Wilson's War; Sarah Polley, Away from Her

Titles I Hated to Leave Out but They Wouldn't Quite Fit: Across the Universe, Before the Devil Knows You're Dead, Black Book, The Bubble, For the Bible Tells Me So, The Namesake, No End in Sight, Rescue Dawn, Rendition, Sicko, Superbad

People I Hated to Leave Out but They Wouldn't Quite Fit: George Clooney, Michael Clayton; Angelina Jolie, A Mighty Heart; Ben Kingsley, You Kill Me; Sidney Lumet (director), Before the Devil Knows You're Dead; Laura Linney, The Nanny Diaries; James McAvoy, Atonement

Movie that Made Me Feel Best about Being a Human Being: Lars and the Real Girl

ROFLMAO: Death at a Funeral, Knocked Up, Superbad, Blades of Glory, Reno 911!: Miami

Best Creature Feature: The Host

Runner-up: The Mist

Breakout Actor: Justin Timberlake (Alpha Dog, Black Snake Moan, Southland Tales, Shrek the Third)

Runners-up: Homayoun Ershadi (The Kite Runner), Michael Cera (Superbad, Juno)

Breakout Actress: Amy Ryan (Gone Baby Gone, Before the Devil Knows You're Dead, Dan in Real Life)

Runners-up: Dana Fuchs (Across the Universe), Saoirse Ronan (Atonement)

Rediscovered Geezer: Hal Holbrook, Into the Wild

Runner-up: Andy Griffith, Waitress

Unstoppable Geezer: Vanessa Redgrave (Atonement, Evening)

Runner-up: Max von Sydow (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Rush Hour 3)

Return to Form: Joel Coen & Ethan Coen, No Country for Old Men

Runners-up: Sidney Lumet, Before the Devil Knows You're Dead; Brian DePalma, Redacted

Top & Bottom: Philip Seymour Hoffman (lead in The Savages and Before the Devil Knows You're Dead; supporting in Charlie Wilson's War)

Runner-up: Tommy Lee Jones, (lead in In the Valley of Elah; supporting in No Country for Old Men)

She's Everywhere!: Margo Martindale (The Savages, Rails & Ties, Paris Je t'Aime, Rocket Science, Feast of Love, TV's The Riches)

He's Everywhere!: Terrence Howard (Pride, The Hunting Party, The Brave One, August Rush, Awake, The Perfect Holiday)

Best History Lesson: The Great Debaters

Worst History Lesson: 300

A Nine-year Break Can Be Healthy: Tamara Jenkins, The Savages

A Ten-Year Break Can Be Deadly: Francis Ford Coppola, Youth Without Youth

Worst Daypart (Tie): Night (We Own the Night, 30 Days of Night); Evening (Evening, Starting Out in the Evening)

If I Go Down I'm Taking the Picture with Me!: Robin Williams, August Rush

Runner-up: Nicolas Cage, Ghost Rider

If One Line Could End a Career... (a.k.a., the No Wire Hangers Award):

"I am the super mother bug!" – Ashley Judd, Bug

Bottom Ten:

1.  Wild Hogs

2.  Romance & Cigarettes

3.  Norbit

4.  Daddy Day Care

5.  The Brothers Solomon

6.  September Dawn

7.  Georgia Rule

8.  King of California

9.  In the Land of Women

10. The Number 23

Dishonorable Mention (listed alphabetically):

Arthur and the Invisibles

Bella

Bug

Ghost Rider

Happily N'Ever After

Kickin' It Old Skool

License to Wed

Rails & Ties

Sleuth

We Own the Night

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The Departing
Current mood: hot

This morning I woke up in my own bed for the first time in four weeks and wondered,
"Was it all a dream?"

The day before had been hectic and stressful, with little time for goodbyes at the
end – a few hugs and handshakes and hollered farewells, but with John and Jesse
in a lunch-hour conference, no closure.  Who wants closure?  That would make it
seem like it was over.

A few days earlier I'd discovered John Geddes' dark secret: he was taking B-12 pills
for stress!  Anyone else in his situation – in Week Four of writing, producing,
directing and starring in a movie that requires him to run around barefoot in the
snow in his underwear, his head soaked in corn-syrup "blood" – would at least be
on heroin.

I'd had to shoot two scenes before lunch that day, about five pages of dialogue,
to get to the airport in time for my flight back to Atlanta.  The previous day's
blizzard had ended overnight so the roads were clear.

Both scenes involved driving an old pickup truck that didn't run that morning because
all the transmission fluid had leaked out.  After a run for more fluid by production
assistant Brian Cook, Jesse's younger brother, and some jiggering by director of
photography/mechanic John Lesavage, it would go the short distances we needed. 
Jesse's instructions - "Keep it in first, the brakes don't work" – weren't reassuring
to someone who hadn't driven on icy roads since before almost anyone in the crew
was born.

And the roads were icy.  The blizzard had followed the only two above-freezing days
I'd witnessed in Canada; 31 consecutive below-zero (Celsius) days had reportedly
set a local record.  But Friday the sun was out, making it difficult to match that
day's shots with those of the day before, when a planned car crash turned out not
to have been planned well enough.  After four attempts to get the Jetta to go up
a specially-built ramp and flip over, prop ninja Cody took the wheel and drove it
off the road into a ditch at high speed.

I hadn't been needed that day, although I was on standby in the afternoon in case
things had gone better than they did.  I had lunch with co-producer John Cowan,
one of the film's investors, who wanted to pump me for publicity ideas.  The best
advice I could give him was to ask the filmmakers what makes them want to see the
movies they want to see and where they hear about them.

"Scarce" is a movie they would want to see if they weren't making it, so whatever
motivates them will motivate a good chunk of the target audience.  The pages on
myspace.com and facebook.com are probably a good start, but how do you get people
to look at them?

Since I wasn't needed that afternoon Jake McNeil grabbed me for an interview for
his making-of video.  I had prepared a little bit of material, including a synopsis
of the story from my character's perspective: "It's the story of Ivan, a nice old
guy whose peaceful rural existence is disrupted by three vicious snowboarders, and
the things he's forced to do to survive."  Intercut that with shots of what Ivan
does to his snowboarder victims and it should be pretty funny.

DVD players on two floors of the farmhouse headquarters that also housed about half
the crew during the shoot are usually running, often showing cheesy horror movies
to stimulate a sense of, "If they can get distribution, we can!"  Early in the week
one of them was showing "The Departed," then just an Oscar nominee.  Listening again
to the brilliant four-letter dialogue, I wondered if "Scarce" would have more f.p.m.s
("fucks" per minute) than Scorsese's film.

Where was I?  Writing non-linearly always confuses me.  Oh, we wrapped my last scene
a few minutes past the scheduled lunch time; but the crew didn't grumble.  They
must have been glad to be getting rid of me.  I fixed a plate to eat on the road
and climbed for the last time into p.a. Travis Ainley's Toyota, which had carried
me to and from the set every day.  Travis starts film school in April and already
has a script he's promised to send me to critique.

We get to the airport in good time, so the Air Canada flight is almost an hour late
departing; but it makes up the time in the air and lands early in Atlanta.

I had decided to accept the Caribbean cruise I was offered, to put off my return
to reality for another week; so I have less than 15 hours at home before climbing
into the car to drive to Fort Lauderdale.  That night a radio station is playing
country oldies.  About 30 seconds into "You Needed Me" I break into a smile.

That's Anne Murray.  She's Canadian, eh?

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Held Captive by Popular Demand
Current mood: pre-depressed
Category: pre-depressed Life

Gary Fischer and I have been talking about the Stockholm syndrome, in which kidnap victims come to relate to and bond with their captors.  Gary thinks his character, Wade, was originally abducted by my character, Ivan, and our relationship, not defined or explained in the script, developed from there.

He's more analytical than I am.  I just say my lines, hit my marks and try not to fall down in the snow.  (After three and a half weeks I still haven't got my "C" – for Canada – legs, but I blame the old boots Ivan has to wear.  I swear someone rubs Vaseline on the soles every night because I get better traction in my own shoes.)

This is by far the longest I've ever been away on location, and the Stockholm syndrome applies here too.  Despite being in daily telephone and e-mail contact with Atlanta, the planet Scarce feels like home and the cast and crew like family.  I know I'll suffer post-partum depression when I leave at the end of the week.

It's a light week for me.  I was originally supposed to wrap at the end of Week Three but the ever-changing schedule exploded that myth a week or two ago.  I was off yesterday, which gave my cold an opportunity to take over and turn a day off into a sick day.  I shot a few snow scenes on Monday, including one in which I lay "dead" on an outdoor chopping block in a pool of sticky "blood," wearing a thin sweater.  It's nothing compared to the guys running barefoot in their underwear but it gave me a new understanding of the word "cold," plus an acting challenge in controlling my shivering while the camera was on me.

To earn my "dialogue coach" credit I came up with a little vocal exercise to help the locals de-Canadianize their speech while playing Americans:

There's a COW on the COUCH

and a SOW in the SOUTH.

I know HOW to say HOUSE

but OW! It hurts to say OUT and ABOUT.

I should probably copyright that and sell it for a million dollars (U.S.), so remember, you read it here first.

Our 3-D sound crew (Dallas, Dustin and Derek) took a P this week: Paul.  Our boom operators seem to last as long as Spinal Tap's drummers, but it's because they all have other work commitments.

I have a light day today and a possible day off tomorrow, depending on how long it takes to film the car wreck that strands the three snowboarders near my cabin.  But the first rule of independent filmmaking is that everything takes longer than you anticipate.  (The second is that everything costs more than you anticipate.)

If it goes well we can shoot one of my two remaining big scenes tomorrow, otherwise they'll both be on Friday, followed by a race to the airport in Toronto to catch a flight home(?).  If I don't have time to wash my makeup off I'll never make it back into the U.S.

The temperature's finally above freezing, which will make leaving even more diffcult.

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Love Lost and Found
Current mood: cheerful
Category: Jobs, Work, Careers

I have a dream!

Actually I didn't have any dreams the first week I was in Canada, but I've been pretty regular since then.  Last night I merged my Atlanta home with my current Canadian workplace in a dream with such a great concept I woke myself up to be sure I remembered it, before it had time to play out.

With apologies to Tom Stoppard's "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead," I dreamed that instead of its current screenplay "Scarce" was a revisionist version of "Gone with the Wind," focusing on two minor characters from the original, the cannibals Ivan (played by yours truly) and Wade (Gary Fischer).  Hey, it was a dream, OK?

It was hard to feel the love on the "Scarce" set on Valentine's Day.  The day started with the back window being accidentally broken out of the truck that brings the cast and crew up the steep, icy driveway to the cabin where we do most of our filming, and ended with disgruntled crew members balking at staying five extra minutes to complete a shot.

Anyone who's ever worked on an independent film (or most studio films) knows how patience wears thin at a certain point.  We reached that point yesterday, which also happened to be the coldest day of the year; and when it's cold in Canada it's really cold.

They sent for me at the last minute to shoot a sunset scene and I practically had to run up the driveway, since the truck was out being repaired.  Although I was there in plenty of time, by the time they were ready to shoot the sun, already at the horizon, ducked behind a cloud on cue at the call of "Action!"

Today seems to be going better.  We shot a big scene in which Trevor (Jesse Cook, who's also one of the producer-director-writers) is hung upside down by his ankles, bled and gutted – nearly naked outdoors in freezing weather.  Cook found the scene easier to write than to perform but was happy when it went well.

His filmmaking partner, John Geddes, who has more than his share of grueling scenes in this horror opus, seemed jealous about being left out of this one.  While the scene was being set up he kept volunteering to get hung up to test the apparatus.

At night Gary and I ate what were supposedly Trevor's remains, licking our lips and being thoroughly disgusting, followed by my last shot in the film, where Gary discovers my dead body.  It was the third time I had to get stage blood all over my face and neck for a portion of that scene, but it's one of my last times to come in contact with that sticky corn syrup mix on this shoot.

According to the current schedule I'll be needed as an actor on Monday and Thursday of Week Four, and as a dialogue coach on Tuesday, to be sure no Canadianisms slip out, eh?

In case you think God has no sense of humor, I've been offered a week's Caribbean cruise departing the day after I get home.  There's nothing I'd like more after a month in Canada – except maybe another month in Canada – but I can't put the rest of my life on hold for another week to go.

Tomorrow we're outside in the mountains all day filming a chase scene.  It's supposed to be a relatively warm winter day, but most of our locations are out of the sun.

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Life on The Planet Scarce
Current mood: relaxed
Category: Travel and Places

It seems like "a cold winter day in Canada" should be as redundant as "a hot summer day in hell," but it turns out to be a relative thing.  When we arrived this morning we were told that because the temperature was -30 (that's Celsius, but still cold) the shooting schedule for "Scarce" had been revised.  We'll wait until Friday, when it's supposed to be barely below zero, to shoot the remaining scenes of John Geddes and Thom Webb running through the snow barefoot in their underwear, with Gary Fischer and me chasing them and shooting at them.

We filmed some of those yesterday, when it was only about -10.  Geddes' co-writer-director-producer Jesse Cook, our first victim in the movie, also got chased through the snow in bare feet.  The gruesome prosthetic on his back, where we had supposedly already sampled a big chunk of flesh, didn't help to keep him warm.

It was sunny yesterday, except when we were ready to shoot and a cloud would delay us, and not bad for filming winter scenes outdoors.  Easy for me to say when I was dressed for the weather (in Ivan's big black coat that makes me feel like Neo in "The Matrix") and could run indoors between shots, unlike most of the crew, who were stuck out there all day.  But they're Canadians, eh?

The big scene yesterday, at least in terms of spectator interest among the cast and crew, was the cameo by Leigh Nash, Cook's fiancee and an all-around key person whose listing as Craft/Runner on the crew list doesn't begin to describe her usefulness.  (Assistant Production Manager would begin to.)  She appears in a flashback sequence as one of our earlier victims, running through the snow in nothing but bra and panties.

Not just "running through the snow."  In the brief scene she runs, falls, staggers and crawls through the snow, screaming all the time.  If Jamie Lee Curtis was the "Scream Queen," Leigh will have to be the "Snow Queen."  This shot has to find its way to YouTube!

The filmmakers think these authentic barefoot snow scenes will help sell the movie, so they're suffering for commerce as well as art.  Time will tell, but in the meantime they're learning the hard way why no one has done it before.

So goes life on what I've dubbed "The Planet Scarce," our mildly dysfunctional but hard-working family.  I've got the morning off while the others are shooting outdoor scenes in which they're fully dressed.

Incidentally, I've been asking people whether Canadians are offended by those of us from the U.S. referring to ourselves as "Americans," as if those who share the North American continent with us were chopped liver.  So far no one has said yes, although one thought a few other Canadians might be sensitive on that score.  I try not to offend – at least not accidentally.

Speaking of chopped liver, Gary and I have another eating scene tonight.  The Gore Brothers are cooking it now.  They said they were going to boil some steak, because it looks more disgusting that way, and leave it bloody.  I suggested injecting some bites with fake blood that could squirt out when we bite into it, and they agreed to experiment with the idea.

Did I mention that filmmakers Geddes and Cook are vegetarians?  I may be too, by the time this shoot is over.  Or maybe I'll be a real cannibal.

Thanks for the compliments on my new "headshot."  It was taken by makeup artist Charis Chattell, showing off her handiwork.

And since this may be my last chance to blog this week, a warm and happy Valentine's Day to all!

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Week Two: The Honeymoon Is Over
Current mood: content
Category: Jobs, Work, Careers

"The frustration will pass but the film will last forever."

Blair Lesage, our still photographer, has started a MySpace page, /scarcethemovie, but at this writing is trying to find an easier way to download a couple of hundred photos with more to come.  The buzz has begun, anyway.

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Super Sunday
Current mood: relaxed
Category: Travel and Places

Well, it's Super Bowl Sunday, or as I call it, February 4^th.  Time to review lines for the remaining scenes, although I'll be able to focus better when I find out which ones we're shooting tomorrow.

Gary Fischer, my co-cannibal has turned out to be more competition than I expected in the creepiness department.  Should have known.  With his background in children's theater he just has to take it to the next level – and the Gore Brothers have given him a great scar that does some of the work for him.  It's certainly better than working with an actor who gives you nothing in return.

Spent much of Saturday exploring Collingwood, Ontario, a 15-dollar (Canadian) cab ride from the lodge.  "The first downtown in Canada to be designated historic by the federal government," it's one of those towns that time forgot, not exactly hopping on a Saturday afternoon.

Off the beaten path (and speaking of paths, Collingwood has an extensive network of trails for outdoor activities: www.collingwoodtrails.ca) is the Station, a "Welcome Centre...designed in the spirit of the 1873 rail station."  Opened in 1998 it contains a museum and archive, brochures about everything in the area, and was the only place I found to buy postcards.  In the half-hour or so I spend browsing, shopping and resting, I see no one but the two women who work there.

Quaint used book stores have little or no business, while bigger clothing stores, cafes and a huge supermarket are somewhat busier – yet with enough staff that there's no waiting to check out at the market.

Prices, even allowing for the 15 percent difference from U.S. dollars, seem high on many items - $4.19 for a half-gallon of milk – but I'm shocked to see regular and organic bananas selling for the same price: 59 cents/pound.

I had thought bilingualism was only required in Quebec but it's nationwide, so every item in the store is labeled in English and French.  In some cases the languages are side by side but on other products the English label is duplicated in French on the other side.  I stare at a few cereal boxes, trying to interpret the photos when I can't translate, before realizing I only have to flip them over.

I stock up for breakfasts and the occasional dinner on days I'm released early and take a cab back to the lodge with a friendly driver (I'm convinced "friendly Canadian" is redundant).  When he learns I'm here making a film (and his interrogation techniques would be more effective than torture at Guantanamo) he suggests we add a part for "a cab driver in a brown hat" (such as the distinctive one he's wearing).

I go along with the joke: "It's a great idea, but I don't know where we'd ever find one."

Like everyone in Collingwood he has memories of the last big movie that filmed here, Renny Harlin's "The Long Kiss Goodnight," for which they closed off and redecorated the main drag, Hurontario Street, and used 600 local extras in one scene.

Hearing more about "Scarce" he makes a mental note to watch for it, although his wife is more into horror films than he is.

Back in my warm room I spend a big Saturday night watching a heavy snow fall and blow around.  The "Scarce" crew had done some filming in just such a storm after I left on Friday.  Technical problems made them work late for the first time all week and rendered the soundtrack unusable, despite the hours a sound man spent in the trunk of a car recording the dialogue.  "No worries," as they say a lot here.  It's Canadian for "We'll fix it in post."

It's back to light flurries under heavy cloud cover today, and time to head for the lobby to post my blog, assuming the wireless there works better than the dial-up service in the suite.

Currently listening : American Idiot By Green Day Release date: 21 September, 2004

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The Week Ends, the Weekend Begins
Current mood: content
Category: Movies, TV, Celebrities

Time flies when you're making a movie, eh?  Day Five/Week One is over, at least for me.  This morning we shot the scene with my favorite speech.  I needed some quick basic retraining when they decided to have me use a rifle in the scene.  I thought I'd have a little time with the gun wrangler before the hunting scenes, but it worked out.  I creeped myself out with my delivery.

With a few minutes to check e-mail I read that USAirways had withdrawn their offer for Delta.  I guess they were afraid of having their luggage lost too.  Sorry, "delayed."

I was on the set most of the last two days (12-hour days, plus an hour for lunch and dinner at the end), and got to see some of the dailies (shot on Super 16 and transferred to digital for editing), which look awesome.  It's funny how pissed off everybody is at the D.P. (John Lesavage) all day when he's being finicky about lighting and camera placement, and how he becomes a hero when they see the result of his work.

Got some good news yesterday.  The lawyer said my salary wasn't high enough to require Canadian withholding.  I don't know if that means I'll have to file Canadian taxes at the end of the year and pay the 23 percent then or what.

The best assistance I've ever had in understanding a character came about completely by accident.  Last Sunday, the morning after my arrival, I went to a buffet breakfast at the ski lodge where the film company's housing me.  There I was able to observe a group of snowboarders, exactly the kind of young men my character, Ivan, tortures and eats in "Scarce."  They were easy to observe because I, being older, was invisible to them.  (Ironically, one was wearing a t-shirt emblazoned with The Who, a band of "M-m-m-m-my Generation.")  Watching them, I began to understand how Ivan could see them as useless for anything but food.

I start each day of the shoot having my teeth painted a hideous brownish-yellow by one of "The Gore Brothers," our special effects makeup guys who also made some of the disgusting prosthetics and edible props.  A local dentist, one of the film's investors, had molded acrylic tooth coverings for us cannibals, but we weren't able to talk normally with them in place.

Yesterday I got to pour some of the Gores' "meat juice" on two of my victims, Thom Webb and writer-director John Geddes.  These two guys spent a large part of Week One in their underwear suspended from pipes they were chained to in our cold dungeon set, frequently being brutalized.

I've got to hand it to Geddes (when I'm not throwing it at him).  He's the epitome of a leader who wouldn't ask his troops to do anything he wouldn't do himself.  Watching him hanging there, shivering and in real pain, I felt sorry for him but thought of a couple of directors I'd pay to see in a similar situation.

This production has at least three Johns, three Jeffs, two Jasons, a Jesse, a Jackie, a Josh and a Jake (Jacob).  And speaking of J's – but that's a subject for a more private blog.

For all the advance planning a lot of things change every day.  The remaining schedule will be reworked over the weekend.  Apparently the new plan is to shoot the remaining interiors next week and save the exteriors for the following week, perhaps to keep everyone relatively healthy as long as possible.

As for me, I'll spend the weekend catching up on the rest of my life, exploring the nearby town, learning lines for next week and maybe watching some of the DVDs I brought along.

It's been a great first week.  If I'd known how nice Canadians are I might have dodged the draft back in the day and become one of them.  As it is I could live in Canada – if they'd move it someplace warmer.

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"Scarce" filming - Day Two (Tuesday to you)
Current mood: hungry

As Sarah Miles says in "White Mischief," it's "another fucking beautiful day" here in Collingwood, Ontario.  Not as many skiers going past my window as on the weekend, but enough to remind me I'm not home in East Atlanta.

With so much snow outside, and a few more inches fell overnight, you'd think Canadians wouldn't be so concerned about global warming; but there seems to be a greater degree of environmental awareness here than in the U.S.  Of course an indie film crew isn't representative of the general populace, but I've seen some local media too.

Finally got my luggage last night.  It's amazing how wonderful brushing your teeth and putting on clean underwear can feel after three days!  I'm thinking of removing my name from the petition to stop the takeover of Delta Airlines, if that's the best they can do.

Doing the research I should have done before signing on, I found the company's website: http://www.twodoorfourdoorpictures.com/  The poster is admittedly a ripoff from "Misery" they used in their fundraising, and will be changed.  The site at this point is geared more toward potential investors, but a full film site is planned during the post-production period.

Production, after two days, is a little behind schedule.  Shocking for an independent film, I know.  I've had one scene pushed back each day, so I didn't get my first shot in until the second day.  It involved brutalizing two of my victims, including one of the directors, who was pleased that I threw an extra punch at him and yanked him by the hair.

Tomorrow, first thing (more or less), a dialogue scene left over from today with my co-cannibal, Wade (played by Toronto's Gary Fischer).  In an early draft of the script he had been my son.  Now we're not sure whether we're brothers or "Brokeback Cannibals" living together in cannibial bliss.  Don't worry – character development will not be this movie's long suit.

Got better acquainted with some crew members during down time today.  As usual when meeting foreigners I get my political feelings out in the open before they can hate me for being American.  If any of them like W more than I do they don't say so out loud.

Another of my lines for charming Canadians: "Why should you have a national inferiority complex?  You gave us Leonard Cohen, k.d. lang, Atom Egoyan and Sarah Polley, and we gave you two George Bushes and a Madonna."

Forgot to mention in the first post that during the week before "Scarce" shooting started came the exciting news from Sundance that "The Signal," in which I played a small part, sold to Magnolia Pictures for $2.3 million after its midnight premiere.

Next year, maybe "Scarce" will sell at Sundance; but at the moment the filmmakers are hoping to get it into this year's Toronto Film Festival.

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AN AMERICAN IN CANADA, EH?
Current mood: creative

I peered through the curtains Sunday morning to see people skiing past my window.  Toto, we're not in Atlanta anymore.

Two weeks ago this would all have sounded like a dream, yet here I am in Canada, on location for my first top-billed role in a feature.  Fellow actors, don't let anyone tell you it can't happen.

It started, for me, with a craigslisting for "Villainous Hicks."  Fortunately Atlanta's not as provincial – or is it progressive? – as Philadelphia and other cities where the listing was pulled because of objections to the H-word.

So I submitted the usual stuff and got an unusual response: they wanted me!  Shooting was to start in two weeks, on January 29.  John Geddes, one of the two (with Jesse Cook) writer-producer-director-actors, called to discuss it.  Hearing his two-line description of the film, "Scarce," I responded undiplomatically, "It sounds like 'Wolf Creek.'"  He agreed there were similarities but didn't withdraw the offer.

There followed a few furious days of script-reading and decision-making.  One speech, in which my character, Ivan, relates how he became a cannibal, sold me on the project.  So did Geddes' professionalism.  For a young indie filmmaker he seemed to have his bases covered; and he used the same lawyer as Atom Egoyan.

Later Geddes and Cook would spend most of their last five days before filming working up a shot list so they wouldn't have to waste their creative energy on set doing the basics.  I also learned they had spent a year raising their budget, in the six figures, before going into production.

Their offer, reviewed by my agent at Houghton although she wouldn't officially get involved with a non-union project, was generous and well thought-out.  They would pay me in U.S. dollars, worth about 15 percent more than Canadian, but I would have to pay taxes in both countries (23 percent in Canada, according to information I found online).

There were a few other things to work out.  I had agreed just before Geddes' offer arrived to work in Atlanta on Craig Vogel and John Grubb's "Our Perfect Lives: The Death of Rocco," on January 28, and Geddes was hoping I could come up a few days early.  I got the other shoot moved up to the morning of the 27^th and flew out that afternoon, keeping everybody happy.

Incidentally, the phrase "on fire tonight" was in both scripts by both pairs of young writer-directors who offered me roles the same day.  Too much coincidence!

Then there was a backache I aggravated by walking in the MLK March just before the offers came pouring in.  I put off final acceptance of the Canadian offer until I saw my chiropractor that Friday.  Although I was in pretty bad shape at the time he encouraged me to take the job, perhaps because I told him I'd be able to afford to pay him if I did.

Over the next week my back improved ever so slightly each day, but three adjustments later I could barely stand erect or walk without a limp.

Still I got through the Saturday morning shoot, which was a blast, and made it to the airport.  There I learned of a strange Delta policy: If a ticket is purchased within five days of a flight, you have to present the credit card it was purchased with upon check-in.  Since the card in question was in Canada they issued a refund and I had to purchase a new ticket on the spot. 

That's not the worst.  My bag didn't make it to Toronto when I did, and when they located it the next day Delta couldn't deliver it to our location, 100 miles North near Collingwood, because the weather was too bad.  It reportedly made it to Geddes' house Monday morning.

The good news is that Geddes and Cook met me at the airport Saturday night and drove me to Collingwood, giving us about two hours to get acquainted.  As we had discussed, they would need my help in getting the "Canadianisms" out of their speech, eh?  For obvious commercial reasons the story is set in the U.S.  They're returning to their New Jersey home from a Colorado snowboarding vacation when they get stranded near my rural Pennsylvania cabin.

The better news is that my back improved about 500 percent between Saturday night and Sunday morning, even without the pain medication in the bag Delta had misplaced.  I've still got some occasional pain but I'm pretty functional and can at least fake whatever the role calls for.

It's Monday afternoon and I'm waiting to shoot my first scene, where I throw one of my victims down a flight of stairs.  I haven't yet gotten to know everyone in the crew of 30 – some from Collingwood, some from Toronto – but like indie filmmakers everywhere they seem like good people.

Well, I'd better get ready for my scene.  I have to figure out how to make "You're gonna know what real pain is" sound nasty.  Acting is such hard work.

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