Old P.D. Stuff
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[url=http://us.imdb.com/Title?0087130]http://us.imdb.com/Title?0087130[/url]
anyone got this film? any good?
Yes, I remember this movie! Paul Donovan directed it? Wow. It’s not as bad as tbe amature reviewer makes it out to be. It’s a cold-war/post-apocalyptic movie, as was the fashion in the 1980’s. I really was into those kinds of movies like [i]Mad Max[/i] or [i]Red Dawn[/i]. I even sat down and watched [i]Warrior of the Lost World[/i]– the un-MSTied version! Rest assured, though, that [i]Def-Con 4[/i] was much better than that Italian stink-bomb.
[img]images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]I have some vague recollections of this film but Im not sure if Im getting it mixed up with “Damnation Alley”.
Is Defcon 4 still available on video/DVD. It would be interesting to see if there is any “Lexx” in there.
Well… It’s got Maury Chaykin (Paw from White Trash) as a redneck cannibal with a sexual thing for young girls and big nipples.
It’s got Jeff Pustil (Shlemmi, Fifi, etc.) as Lacey, in a uniform very similar to the one he wore when he became Duke’s henchman.
Early on in the movie, the designated hero is
killed leaving the weaselly sidekick to shoulder on as best he can. Shades of Thodin.Dave Albiston, the effects/props guy for
LEXX did FX plates for this. Emmanuel Jannasch was production designer, and went on to do some early contributions too LEXX.
As with LEXX, Donovan tried to get a diversity of look by using multiple production designers. Certainly the movie has the deep ground in vidual texture often associated with LEXX. The movie, like all PD movies was shot by Les Kriszan.So, if you watch for it, you can see some shadows of LEXX. There are traces of LEXX humour, surreality and plotting. But overall its a grimmer, dirtier and not nearly as much fun.
Paul Donovan attributes Defcon 4 as the movie that showed him there was a market for Sci Fi. Apparently he missed Star Wars and Star Trek, and prior to this, pinned his hopes on WWII submarine black comedies, a genre which the rest of us had failed to notice.
PD mentions this film in the extra stuff made for the UK S1 videos.
Every movie directed by Paul Donovan has at least one actor/actress that eventually ended up in Lexx.
Usually more than one, and sometimes odd connections.
Roman Podhora, who was in Lyekka was originally in Tomcat: Dangerous Desires.
But get this, David McLeod, who directed
three second season episodes, also appeared
as an actor in Tomcat: Dangerous Desires.Other prior alumni? Alan McGillivary, Jeff Pustil, Dave Albiston, Les Kriszan, Emmanuel Jannasch, Chas Lawther, Lex Gigeroff, Brian Downey, Maury Chaykin, Nigel Bennet, Steven McHattie, Marty Simon among others.
It shouldn’t be all that unexpected though – a lot of movies/programs made in Canada have the same actors & actresses.
I think Paul Donovan could be connected to any other Canadian actor/actress within a few steps.
Undoubtedly Paul could be connected to almost anyone else in the Canadian film community in a relatively few steps. But also remember, the Paul is occupying a fairly obscure section of the Canadian film community, the Halifax film community
Jeff Pustil, Walter Borden, Lex Gigeroff, Alan McGillivary, Dave Albiston, Mark Laing
and many others are from that narrow group.
Throw in the Newfoundlanders, Brian Downey, Andy Jones, Mary Walsh, and others who are closely identified, and the community gets fairly tight.There’s odd little crossovers. For instance, Geraint Wyn Davies who played Nick Knight in Forever Knight, did another TV series, set and shot in the maritime provinces, called Black’s Harbour. Both Lex Gigeroff and Jeff Hirschfield appeared in that show. Further connection: Forever Knight also starred Nigel Bennet, and both Ellen Dubin and Michael McManus appeared in that.
In addition, within LEXX people move around.
Dave Albiston started off as the mainstream FX guy, he did Kai’s crash into the Foreshadow, he did Bugbomb’s stop motion animation, in second season, he did many of the spaceship models. In third season, he appeared on camera as the first moth breeder. In fourth season, he was 2nd unit camera and actually dop on a couple of episodes including the Game.Or Alex Busby, starts off as storyboard artist, right now he’s Special Effects Producer.
Dave told me the same story. I loved it, in that moment, I knew that Paul had the bizarre sense of humour and relentless attention to detail that might have made a great James Bond villain.
Here’s an X-Post Facto spoiler for you. Cluster Lizards didn’t originally look like they do now. Originally, they were supposed to be four legged critters, a cross between an alligator and a pit bull. Early scripts and sketches refer to them in that way. The whole notion of rolling critters actually came up fairly late, as one of P.D.’s inspirations.
My guess is simply that animal puppets are very hard to do. Remember that Klingon dog?
quote:
Originally posted by :
Here’s an X-Post Facto spoiler for you. Cluster Lizards didn’t originally look like they do now. Originally, they were supposed to be four legged critters, a cross between an alligator and a pit bull. Early scripts and sketches refer to them in that way. The whole notion of rolling critters actually came up fairly late, as one of P.D.’s inspirations.My guess is simply that animal puppets are very hard to do. Remember that Klingon dog?
The Cluster lizard puppets in “IWHS” werent exaclty the best in the world either. I still laught when I see the hand puppets when Thodin is in his Cell.
You seem very well informed VALDRON. Whats your connection to Lexx?
Well…
1) I’m a major geek.
2) I’m actually writing a book on the subject.
quote:
Originally posted by :
Well…1) I’m a major geek.
2) I’m actually writing a book on the subject.
1) Arent we all?
2) A Lexx book? Sounds good to me. Any more details on this?
quote:
Originally posted by :
In addition, within LEXX people move around.
Dave Albiston started off as the mainstream FX guy, he did Kai’s crash into the Foreshadow, he did Bugbomb’s stop motion animation, in second season, he did many of the spaceship models. In third season, he appeared on camera as the first moth breeder. In fourth season, he was 2nd unit camera and actually dop on a couple of episodes including the Game.
David also said that when Paul and he were discussing design and logistics for the moths, he had said to Paul that they should design ‘moth breeders’ to show how the moths are created…Paul called him on it in Season 3… [img]images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif[/img] He told us that when he and his team were under the gun to throw something together in three days for Lexx, they would entertain themselves by creating little mock missiles which actually flew and exploded…scared the hell out of a few construction crews near their workshop [img]images/smiles/icon_wink.gif[/img]
It’s a book about the LEXX series from top
to bottom, nonfiction, sort of like the Outer Limits Companion, or the Making of Blade Runner.The writing part is going swimmingly, I’m probably around 90,000 words and hoping to bring it in around 150,000. What the publisher will do with it after that is anyone’s guess.
Research is ongoing, I’ve been to Halifax four times, Toronto twice and had Brian in
Winnipeg for a weekend, I’ve watched them
shoot pieces of a half dozen epps, and conducted 60 interviews with 40 or more people involved in the series, all the way
up and down from the beans to janitors and extras. There’s still maybe twenty more
interviews I want to do, and follow ups from
the fourth season stuff.Currently, there is an agreement in principle between Salter Street and ECW to publish the official LEXX book. But no contract yet.
Currently, the whole thing is held up with
Alliance Atlantis, who bought out Salter Street, its been hanging since July. My
fear is that it will take so long the
publisher just loses interest and decides
that the time has passed, or Alliance Atlantis puts up so many conditions that the publisher decides its not economical.In which case, I’m **** out of luck, all dressed up and no one to dance with.
But, if it all works out and the book that
gets published resembles the one I wrote,
it’s going to be just rocking.So cross your fingers
quote:
But, if it all works out and the book that
gets published resembles the one I wrote,
it’s going to be just rocking.So cross your fingers
Fingers crossed, Val! (and toes, and eyes [img]images/smiles/icon_razz.gif[/img] ) This is one book I definitely want to see! [img]images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]
Sounds like an excellent book. Hopefully Itll come out before Lexx finishes! Has it go any Season 4 info in it or does it cover the first three seasons?
PS Ill have signed copy when you get it out
[img]images/smiles/icon_wink.gif[/img]quote:
Originally posted by :
Here’s an X-Post Facto spoiler for you. Cluster Lizards didn’t originally look like they do now. Originally, they were supposed to be four legged critters, a cross between an alligator and a pit bull. Early scripts and sketches refer to them in that way. The whole notion of rolling critters actually came up fairly late, as one of P.D.’s inspirations.
My guess would be that his inspiration was one of three things.
1. The Ouroboros, a snake swallowing its own tail in Greek myth , thus symbolizing beginning and ending linked. This would be symbolic of the cyclic nature of time in [i]Lexx[/i].
2. Jörmungand the MiðgarðsormR, the giant serpent that frames the Earth in Norse myth, clenching its tail in its jaws.
3. The hoopsnake, a fearsome critter in rural American folklore that bites onto its tail and rolls after prey. To this day some hillbillies swear that hoopsnakes exist.
The ironic thing is that I had a race of vicious carnivorous reptilians that rolled in hoops in a novel I was writing, but after I saw [i]I Worship His Shadow[/i] I decided to change the species so it didn’t look like a ripoff on [i]Lexx[/i].
At any rate, the Cluster lizard is a great design.
Very very very good DT, that reproduced my thinking exactly. Of the three, I suspect that the Ourorous serpent may have been uppermost in Donovan’s mind. The Ouroboros
serpent has been a consistent literary metaphor for cycles and cyclical events, including time as a cycle or circle. These
themes of cyclical time have reoccurred
constantly through the series.I quizzed Dave Albiston on the subject,
he was one of the first to try to implement
the idea, doing a series of maquettes. He’s
not familiar with the literary philosophical antecedents. But he did note that the idea
of a Cluster Lizard rolling up, uncoiling into this Cobra like looming stance was
visually impressive. Much more impressive
than a slither.I’m all but certain that practical issues were also a consideration. For one thing,
it is almost impossible to effectively do
limbed animal puppets, not ones with any
mobility. I think the original concepts were that they’d CGI it, but that turned out not
to be feasible.On the other hand, all you need for a rolling
animal is a stick. I suspect one of the
other inspirations was the image or practice
of kids rolling a hoop or a tire along the
road with a stick.Doing a rolling creature saved a lot of
logistical headaches. The puppetry was immensely simpler.But the rolling Cluster Lizard concept
moved further. The circular segmented body,
according to production designer Mark Laing,
was the eventual inspiration of both the
Cluster symbol and of the Gigashadow/Insect
form.Either that or the beans watched [i]Millenium[/i] too many times. (The Ouroboros was the logo for that show.) Or maybe they thought the tatoo on Dana Scully’s butt was really cool! (She had an Ouroboros tatoo done in an episode of [i]The X-Files[/i].) Or maybe they were inspired by the origin of Dave Lister on [i]Red Dwarf[/i]. (Dave was abandoned as a baby. He was found under a pool table in a box marked, “Ouroboros”.)
[img]images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif[/img] [img]images/smiles/icon_wink.gif[/img] [img]images/smiles/icon_razz.gif[/img] [img]images/smiles/icon_cool.gif[/img][img]http://www.flamegrape.com/pic/danascullyouroborostattoo.jpg[/img]
[i]Dana Scully’s tattoo[/i][ 28-11-2001: Message edited by: Flamegrape ]
Brian Downey was in two episodes of Millenium, so who knows. Still, Millenium doesn’t seem to have contributed substantially to the underlying obsession with cycles of time and recurring history.
One of the underlying themes is “it has happened before, it has happened again”
the future is the same as the past, that existence is changeless and ultimately futile.The Red Dwarf connection is intriguing because of presence of RD stars in P4X.
But then, contrary to SFX magazine,
Gigeroff claims not to know much about
the series. Still, maybe Donovan is a fan.
Nevertheless, I think the two series handle
their themes rather differently.A better concept might be Scully’s tattoo,
but frankly, I suspect that the Cluster
Lizard and the tattoo drew on some of the same sources of inspiration, rather than
one from another.Besides, Paul Donovan wouldn’t even bother
to look unless it was positioned pertly on
some rounder portion of Scully’s anatomy.
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