New Trailers to check out

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A slight detour from what I sometimes write about. This has to do with a few trailers I've seen lately and would like to pass on my two cents to you, the film loving community. I hope you'll check out these little slices of hope as I will.

I love trailers frankly and love cutting them, sometimes it's the best part of the movie. What makes a killer trailer are ones that make you want to stand up and cheer or force those light hairs on the back of your neck stand up- or better yet, fill all those emotions including the slight tearing up as a hero who may enter screen right or an actor who has dusted off the cobwebs of time to emerge and deliver a memorable performance that hasn't been seen in a millennium.

Case in point-

"The Wrestler"
I'm a huge Mickey Rourke fan and have been since I was a teenager. My favorite film of his is "Angel Heart" and if you haven't seen it, I suggest you run and not walk to your local Ballbuster video store or cue it in your Netflix. There is a scene, well, I'm not going to say where in the movie because it may give too much away. But there is a scene that just gives you the "one, two" punch! You'll know it when it arrives and to this day it stays with me. He's a true gem of an actor who's taken his licks and nothing makes me happier than cats that come back from the mat for a knock-out and I can't wait to see this film purely just to watch him breath.

The next film I can't wait to see is from another actor who I've always enjoyed watching just to see what the hell he was going to do next. Good 'ol Jean Claude Van Damme, yes laugh, we all have a secret desire to watch his movies although you might not admit it. Now when I came across the trailer of his new film "JCVD" I was skeptical, but none the less wanted to give him a chance and I'm very happy I did. This looks like a killer flic and I'm sure it'll be whole hellova lot of fun to watch.

This post is looking more like a resurrection list of talent that time forgot so I will add another long time hero of mine and I'm sure yours if you're a Horror fan. The man himself, Mr. Bruce Campbell. Now Bruce is on a hit TV show and has made a career out of being the heal, the hero, the action star and even the man with two brains. But his new film, "My Name is Bruce" looks like a barrel of FUN! Bruce directs and stars in this Horror/Comedy which he made on his property in Oregon. Independent filmmaker through and though. I can't wait to see this little ray of sunshine, though where I live I may have to wait until video since even the new Bond movie hasn't made it here yet.

Those are my picks for this evening, I'll have another set up tomorrow, until then.

- KEEP IT DARK -

Darkside Tequila

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NIN_Worcester, MA show

Finally after 20 years of listening to NIN I finally popped my cherry and had a chance to go to probably one of the greatest concerts I have ever seen. There are so many reasons why I love this band and what Trent stands for as an artist and how he treats his loyal fans and this night was no exception.

The original show was supposed to take place back in August but he had to cancel due to an illness. Patiently I waited a few months until finally that day came and man it was well worth the wait. I can't remember what I paid for the tickets, it was the going rate at the time of when I bought them- probably $35 or $50 bucks. But I would have spent 5x times that in a heartbeat and especially after witnessing a killer gig like this it would have been money well spent.

Trent and Co. tore ass right out of the gate. I can't even remember which song they started with, it was all a happy blur of lights-technology-spirit and adrenaline ass kicking all rolled into one.

They played tracks from basically every album, covering about 31 or so songs in 2 hours. Trent also introduced the Godfather of Goth Peter Murphy, which was an incredible treat and who sang "Reptile" with them.

One of the other things I admire about Trent beyond his musical talent is a guy who always is revolutionizing his style and the use of technology. I have VHS tapes from 20 years ago of one of their gigs in Cleveland where there was a chain link fence, blood, fights and dreadlocks involved. Trent has come a long way as a smart business man and an incredible force that people either get or don't, but he doesn't care. I've always had the utmost respect for him going it "his own way." He is one of two artists who's work I still buy hard copies off and this show was something that was just one for the books.

BTW here is an embedded video of the show from a fellow fan.

Nine Inch Nails - Worcester, MA - 08, Nov from Sébastien B. on Vimeo.

One of the oddest things I have to admit seeing was not the two sisters next two me making out and grinding away on each other during the opening tracks. But was the sea of old school lighters flickering in the still hot air next to the eerie glows from hundreds of mobile phones during "Hurt." I'm not old fashion by any means, but this was just an oddity to me seeing the meld of two generations coming together to see a force of nature such as NIN take place. It was an experience I'll happily never forget.

"...all we ever were just zeros and ones." - Zero-Sum

Can the dead talk?

I've always been interested in criminology and came very close during the end of my college years at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh back in '91 to pursue a career in law enforcement. Part of it was because of my Grandfather who was a Waltham, MA cop, I guess part of it was doing something of worth.

Ironically 90% of my experience with police hasn't been the greatest, but I do believe that there are good police out there trying to do the right thing no matter how much bullshit they need to deal with to get a case turned from red to black.

Needless to say I'm a huge fan of police dramas, books, television, movies etc. Though I find myself rooting for both sides sometimes. Not certain what that means-

This brings me to how I found Miss Brittany Tate, a 21 year old woman from Indianapolis who was killed at the beginning of October of this year. I became aware of Miss Tate from a site called MyDeathSpace.com I had come across this site a few years ago after stumbling across several MySpace pages where the victims & killers pages still existed. It was always an eerie feeling to me to view information like this. I have read non-fiction books about crime scene investigations and have also done boat loads of research on serial killers, the mentally insane and your average criminal. People fascinate me, this is coming from a reccluse of course. But I think what it is, is that they interest me in their actions and I always find myself asking WHY? No matter if the crime has been solved or the killer has confessed, it's always a nagging question in my mind.

Now I go further back to a conversation I was having with my business partner about several projects that we're working on. Both "Sever" and "Frozen" are films that I wrote based off of research, personal experience and stories I've heard over the years etc. "Write what you know," RIGHT?

I guess, but most of my characters in these stories have a beginning middle and an end. With the exception of usually the protagonists who makes a decision and in the end someone is either hurt or killed. Then we as the audience follow and try to figure out why or accept what is happeing in front of us. Sometimes it's satsifactory but within my world of writing I've never come to a complete closure when it comes to characters I write, especially the bad guys or what I call the "grey guys". I guess it's because I've never been happy with the answers I've read or watched in various docs etc. where the "bad guy" gives his excuse why. Which usually placates the listener. So I find it very difficult to give my characters their answers because frankly after years of writing and doing the research, I guess there is no dead-on answer..DAHH No kidding...perhaps.

This brings me back to Miss Tate, I discovered an except on MyDeadSpace which was dated October 3rd 2008. So tonight I did a Google search to see if there was any further news on the case and there was. The full link is below which goes into detail.

She was shot in the head after asking her boyfriend's friend to "not play with a loaded gun" which was what he was doing in the backseat of the car. He didn't like the fact that she told him what to do so he shot her in the head. Now her boyfriend and another friend were also in the car with them. Now I can theorize the WHY until I'm blue in the face and frankly I could probably give you a dead-on or a very close answer to why the boyfriend aided in helping them get rid of the body.

What disturbs me about this story that you can read here, Indianapolis News.

Is that, Miss Tate, who after she is killed and before they dump her body the boyfriend and his two buddies decided to- "abuse her corpse." Now this could mean anything, but I'm thinking the worst.

How could her boyfriend not only sit by and watch this happen, but also participate. This excerpt below from what I assume is a family friend said it perfectly.

"They were so-called friends and that was so-called her boyfriend and he loved her and they cared about each other," Chapman said. "How could they just throw her away, like she was nothing?"

Since the advent of the internet and sites like these, I find myself staying up late at night. Reading about people I've never heard of or even met and try to understand the WHY? Perhaps I never will, Perhaps I'll never accept the answer I'm given. I know it's not denial I'm just looking for a deeper meaning that I hope is there and not something so mundane as...

"I don't like you telling me what to do." Then ending a life of a 21 year old woman from Indianapolis.

If only she could tell us why?

- DW

MST3K: FUTURE WAR IS FINALLY HERE!

To all of you who know of this fun little flic. It's finally arrived on DVD as of October 28th and yours truly among several of my close friends also appeared or worked on this classic. 

To the rest who have no idea what I'm talking about. "Future War" was a film I worked on back in the mid 90's just after I came off of "Mortal Kombat." It was a low budget Sci-Fi movie that starred Robert Z'Dar (Maniac Cop) and Daniel Bernhardt (Matrix Reloaded) plus a lot of new acting talent.

We shot it in the wonderful city of El Segundo (NOT) and on one of the smallest garage/stages I've ever seen. Though it later became a stage I used to shoot my short "Dead Soul" in.

I was the prop master, weapons wrangler, stunts, acted, stood in for Z'Dar in certain shots where they needed and arm insert or someone being tossed around. Mr. Z'Dar's actual stunt double was Kazja who also played the "mullet" cyborg who "The Runaway" fights.

This was back in the day before the digital revolution and we shot the film on 35MM. I have to say that this film has a warm spot in my heart. It was a total wreck to work on most days, but after just coming off of a $35M dollar picture like "MK" it was actually a hellova lot of fun.

Funny enough, I met three of my closest friends on that show and whom work with me now on my productions. We all thought the movie was a gas while filming and this was at the height of the MST3K comedy reign. I had always been a dedicated fan after first watching an episode New Years Eve 1989, or from what I remember, it was a blur. 

Regardless, at the time of "FW" we all thought it would be a killer film to be made fun of by the bots and Joel. But the humor never went beyond the room. Since the film was meant to be a straight "Jurassic Park" and "Terminator" knock-off. Needless to say years later before I left LA this little nugget, this wonderfully goofy movie, my generations "Rocky Horror" aired as one of the last few episodes on MST3K in 1999. 

Well I tell you, I was jumping for joy, this poor little low budget movie was now going to appear on my favorite television show and best of all I was going to be made fun of by my flesh and plastic heroes.

Joel had left the show and was replaced by head writer Mike Nelson. I as so many others really dug Joel and for me Mike was a tough sell in the beginning. But he grew on me and beyond that he would mock my ass. 

So the calls went out to all my friends who were involved and we gathered on a cool Los Angeles night with beers and BBQ to watch. Let me tell you, it was one of the greatest nights of my life. We were all laughing our asses off and reminiscing about the picture. But in the end we all felt a bit sad, because it was the end of a great show and trip down nostalgia lane.

That particular episode was one of the highest ranking ever for them. The one thing I think we were bummed about though was the fact that we didn't get ribbed enough. There times watching the film we expected to get nailed but didn't. 

Then again who can forget classic lines like:

SERVO: "Hey, it's Jean Claude Van Damme!"

MIKE: "Eh, it's more like Jean Claude Gosh Darn"

or

SERVO: "The movie packs more "Huhs" per second!"

I could keep going, but that would take the fun out of it for you. You know I've worked on more movies than I can count and most I remember. But there are few I have fond memories of, this is one of them. "FW" wasn't an easy shoot and perhaps after 13 years of separation, (wow that was a long time ago) memory smoothes things out a bit.

I really wish these cats were still around because I have a few other golden nuggets of cinema I would love to toss their way.

Kudos guys for making us laugh!

- DW Kann

Darkside Films: UPDATE

Darkside Films has recently optioned five projects from writer Edward Pickman and they will be put into the pipeline for development asap. We're very excited about the news since the properties vary in genre/scale and expand our current production roster.

The first two screenplays we're moving on are "Nocturnal" (working title) which is a monster movie and "Wetbacks" a comedy dealing with Hollywood's runaway production problems.

We're also pitching an in-house project entitled, "Shifters" a Sci-Fi film noir which deals with two detectives who discover a town in Maine that has many secrets.

Other than that we're still forging ahead with "Frozen" and "Sever" still working out the financial details but all is looking really good right now.

"Just leave the gasoline and I will spare you your lives...."

T-Shirts now available on Cafe Press.com

"Frozen" and "Sever" on track

Currently we are looking to shoot our two films "Frozen" and "Sever" in Wisconsin this coming Winter and Spring. We have brought on a new Executive Producer Wayne Clingman who was one of the people instrumental in creating the film tax initiative in his State. 

Wayne and I met last year at his "It Came From Lake Michigan" film festival where we began our friendship. At the moment despite the economy, we are forging ahead looking for investors to bring these two films to the screen.

We have Letters of Interest from key crew members and most of the actors on both films including almost all of the leads. Plus a Letter to Distribute from a distributor for both pictures. 

If you're interested in viewing our Investment Prospectus package please email us here at: d.w.kann@darksidefilms.com

You can also visit the Darkside Films main website where we have trailers and more info about both these projects.

Shark sighting a hoax!

Yes it's true, someone wanted to get their 15 min of fame and decided to create a story about not only one, but two 22' sharks....

Here's the article.

Boston Globe.com

Great White shark sighting off the coast of Martha's Vineyard

I guess we can't catch a break on the little island that could. The Summer is here and now we have several spottings of a 17' Great White shark off the coast. In the day and age of the internet I found these two links for everyone. Hell we even made FOX news.

Of course I heard this the old fashioned way, via a friend who works for the police department. This is all sounding very familiar.

MV Times article

Fox news report

Of course I recently started kayaking again and am not going to let this slow me down. I'll just need a bigger boat.

Bunch of Grapes & Cafe Moxie July 4th fire

My brother on the line.




July 4th is a day for fireworks, bbqs', going to the beach, watching "Jaws" for the 100th time and celebrating the Declaration of Independence. But today on Martha's Vineyard, July 4th will now be synonymous with a fire that destroyed two landmarks which date back to the early 1800's.

History of Main Street Vineyard Haven

Martha's Vineyard Gazette fire coverage

MV Times fire coverage

Video from Plum TV 

Friends of mine, some close and some I haven't seen in years were all there today watching the fire rip through these two buildings. Some of my friends work at the Bunch of Grapes bookstore and some are the firefighters who put out the blaze, including my brother. 

No one was killed and only one minor injury occurred from a firefighter which was amazing since the blaze started at 9:15am on a busy warm sunny day- on a little island known to most where they filmed "Jaws" almost 35 years ago or where the Clintons and the Kennedy's vacation. 

But to us who have lived here all our lives and for people who have been coming here for nearly that long or longer. It's a little humbling to see a place where you walk by everyday to pick up the paper or to sit on the bench parked in-front of Cafe Moxie now all gone. 

Tomorrow all that will be left is the charred remains of a history forgotten.

Official "Sever" poster

Going to Cannes!

Yes that's right, I've never been and with two films I just finished producing/editing over in the UK this past Fall/Winter we are taking them to the Cannes Film Festival to lock distribution.

I have also been accepted into the Producers Network at Cannes this year where I'll be able to meet and greet producers/distributors in the industry. Beside working the floor selling the UK productions "Witch House" and "Six Bend Trap," I'll also have press kits for my upcoming films "Sever" and "Frozen" to seek out distribution for those films which I'll be shooting Fall 2008 and winter 2009.

Pictures will follow.

- DW

Production looking good for "Sever"

After almost 2 years we are getting closer locking in financing, cast and locations. By Summer we will have finally locked financing and the film will begin shooting on the island of Martha's Vineyard in October 2008. 

Location pictures will be uploaded soon.

- DW

"Sever" promo pix

These are just some promo pictures for "Sever" which we are looking to shoot soon. -DWK

Witch House in UK Cinema!

News coming in from the Darkside:

The new horror film from English director Mike McCarthy edited by filmmaker D.W. Kann will hit Cineworld UK Cinemas at the end of January. Images below are from the Cineworld in Middlesbough, UK.

New Interview in G.A.S.P. Magazine

I was recently interviewed in G.A.S.P. Magazine which is a new horror mag located in Massachusetts for "Prison of the Psychotic Damned." Below is a smaller version of the article which you can read online or purchase it at www.gaspmagazine.net.

It Came From Lake Michigan

Well it's taken me a month, but here are some pics with Mars and myself at the www.itcamefromlakemichigan.com film festival held in late October. I will also be heading back to the States for two weeks during Christmas for a break, but will be heading back to England at the beginning of January to start cutting "Six Bend Trap" from Ironopolis Films. They will likely release the film in the UK early Spring...stay tuned.

England or Bust?

D.W. Kann has traveled back to England for the second time this Fall to close a deal with Ironopolis Film Company who will co-produce two of his upcoming features, "Sever" and "Frozen" which will be shot in early 2008 in England.

Midnight Screening "Prison of the Psychotic Damned"

PRESS RELEASE:

Director D.W. Kann from Darkside Films and Composer Mars from Dead House Music will be presenting the feature film "Prison of the Psychotic Damned" at a MIDNIGHT showing Saturday Oct 27th in Wisconsin at the "It Came From Lake Michigan" Film Festival which starts October 26th thru October 28th.

There will be a q & a after the screening and both Mr. Kann and Mars will be on hand for signings all weekend.

visit: www.itcamefromlakemichigan.com for more information.

Festival Held At:

Tommy G. Thompson  Youth Center
640 S. 84th Street
West Allis, WI 53214