Yesterday's self-imposed silence seems to have given my tongue some time to heal from a mysterious injury, perhaps caused from biting my tongue in my sleep. The Gryphon tells me I no longer sound like the sloth from Ice Age. Hopefully, it will get even better if I'm a bit sparing with my speech today, as well.

Since we're entering the height of the summer movie season, I'd like to share some found items that could very well be turned into popcorn flicks.

First up, a page from a coloring book, which as far as I can tell, appears to be a Power Rangers rip-off, featuring a character called Thunder Griffin (close to the Thunder Zords of the Power Rangers universe). On the back is an unnamed female character who looks a little bit like the robot from Metropolis, sporting a kabuki mask.

Given the success of Iron Man this summer and Transformers last year, Hollywood is anxious to jump on the bandwagon. Why not give Bryan Spicer a second chance at the silver screen? He directed Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie in 1995 and since then has refined his technique directing television episodes for such series as 24 and Bones. Hire a bunch of unknowns with some martial arts ability (after all, they'll be wearing suits anyway), splurge a little on special FX and voila! A straight-to-video hit!

Next is a script under development. It's called Super Girls! by Pinky Molley and Artho and Kamy. The creative team got as far as designing a cover page and stapling together six pieces of blank pages before the project fell victim to creative differences.

The Super Girls fiasco was a classic example of behind-the-scenes feuding. Pinky Molley insisted on getting primary writing credit, because she claimed, "They're my crayons." Meanwhile, Kamy soon grew disillusioned, insisting that "You're not the boss of me." Like the classic feud between Greta Garbo and Joan Crawford in Grand Hotel, Kamy and Pinky Molley began snubbing each other openly, with even-tempered Artho trying to patch things up. But when Kamy saw Pinky Molley had placed her own self-portrait on the cover page of the script, she abruptly withdrew from the project, which was shelved indefinitely.

As you may or may not know, an adaptation of Darren Shan's horror novel, Cirque Du Freak, directed by Paul Weitz (American Dreamz), and starring Salma Hayek and John C. Reilly, is currently in production. I didn't know this until I did a Google search on Cirque Du Freak, spurred on by this gripping book report. It reads:

The name of my book is Cirque Du Freak.

Darren is a half vampire. He wasn't born that way. He lived at home with his parents and younger sister Anne. A Freak Show came to town and his best friend Steve got tickets and they went together. At the show Steve recornize one of the proformers form a old book he read. The proformer name was Mr. Crepsley, and he was a vampire. After the show Steve told Darren to go home. Steve went to the vampire and told him he wanted to be a vampire assitant. But he told Steve he was evil by the test of his blood. Darren was up in the balcony listening to every word. Steve ran out. Darren didn't care about the vampire, he wanted his spider. One day he stole the spider, he told Steve that. And he started to do tricks with it and it bit Steve, Steve was in the hospital and Darren went to find Mr. Crespley for a position to heal Steve. But in return, Darren had to become his vampire assitant. He agreed and became a vampire assitant but he had to escape his family and Mr. Crespley help him fake his death and the rest was to be continue.

Actually, this is the very plot summary that convinced Universal Pictures to greenlight the project. Reading the summary, John C. Reilly immediately signed on to play Mr. Crepsley, and Chris Massoglia was cast as his vampire assitant, Darren.

And finally, a little nostalgia. Step back in time with me to an earlier, more innocent time, when screen heroes like Steve McQueen prided themselves on independence and on being a thinking man. I found this ad insert in a used book. It reads (emphasis added):

STEVE McQUEEN
STARRING IN

WANTED: DEAD OR ALIVE

CBS-TV SATURDAYS

"Every man should think for himself about filter
cigarettes," says Steve McQueen. "I did — studied
the actual facts on filters, and then chose Viceroy.
Viceroy changed the smoking habits of the nation.
"A thinking man's filter... a smoking man's taste
... that's Viceroy. And that's for me!"
              © 1959, Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp.

Also be sure to watch these other exciting
         shows brought to you by Viceroy:

THE TEXAN       NAKED CITY     WEDNESDAY
    Starring                New York's       NIGHT FIGHTS
Rory Calhoun.        own drama.          The best
  Mondays —           Tuesdays —         in boxing —
    CBS-TV                    ABC-TV               ABC-TV

Rarely in the history of advertising has there been a more appropriate ad campaign. A cigarette company sponsored a program called Wanted: Dead or Alive. If you're a thinking man, it might be enough to give you pause.

On the back of the ad is something called "TV Teletype," with the latest entertainment news from circa 1959. Here it is, along with my commentary.

Really? This is your selling point? That they'll be appearing on each other's shows? I'm not sure you know what "blockbuster" means, "Hollywood Dan Jenkins."

Wait a minute. On second thought, the Sinatra-Martin-Crosby thing is sounding much better. The episode, by the way, was called "Malihini Holiday."

According to one critic, Peck's Bad Girl was a deconstructed sitcom that was ahead of its time, which contributed to its short run. You know Patty McCormack better for her role as Liz LaCerva on The Sopranos. The series Ghost Squad doesn't seem to have made it to the small screen, unless the name was changed. A short-lived 1961 series by the same name focused on an undercover crime unit at Scotland Yard, not on World War II spies.

Moral:
The more that changes, the more stays the same.