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June 20, 2014 |
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A quickie Q&A |
When a reputable British media outlet publishes a list of
dumb questions posed for Sam Shepard with his less-than-truthful answers, it's a
bit puzzling. When, how and where this opportunity arose is anybody's guess. If
you know Mr. I-don't-like-to-answer-questions, you'll be able to quickly pick up
the silly responses, such as "I am always relaxed". Echoes of James Lipton
here...
When were you happiest?
Before I was born.
Which living person do you most admire, and why?
That's a hard one. All of the great writers whom I admire have died. I guess the
most recent one would be Márquez.
Property aside, what's the most expensive thing you've bought?
A horse.
What is your most treasured possession?
A horse.
What makes you unhappy?
The rain.
What do you most dislike about your appearance?
My shoes.
What is your most unappealing habit?
Picking my nose.
What would be your fancy dress costume of choice?
I don't attend costume parties.
What is your favorite smell?
Magnolias.
What is your favorite word?
"Extemporaneous".
If you could bring something extinct back to life, what would you choose?
Mastodons.
Cat or dog?
Dogs.
What do you owe your parents?
Nothing.
Have you said 'I love you' and not meant it?
No.
Who would you invite to your dream dinner party?
Kate Moss.
Which words or phrases do you most overuse?
The words I overuse are all adverbs.
What is the worst job you've done?
Cleaning horse piss. I keep my horses out in the open, but when I was
working the ranches, I had to clean the stalls. It was a horrible job.
If you could edit your past, what would you change?
Nothing.
If you could go back in time, where would you go?
To the 1400s. Historically, I think it would be interesting – it was a
transitional time, like we have now.
How do you relax?
I am always relaxed.
What is the closest you've come to death?
I was shot in the wrist when I was a kid. Deliberately. I am not telling [by
whom].
What single thing would improve the quality of your life?
Maybe Kate Moss.
What keeps you awake at night?
Mosquitoes.
Where would you most like to be right now?
Where I am – in the Florida Keys, fishing for tarpon.
Now that's the truth. Filming for the unnamed Netflix
drama series has begun in the village of
Islamorada, the sportsfishing capital of the world! |
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New portrait from this year's Sundance Film Festival |
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Another summer project |
Sam will also be spending some time in Virginia this summer
taking on a role in the film, ITHACA, to be directed by Meg Ryan. Filming
will take place in the Richmond-Petersburg area. The story is set in 1942 in a
small town in California's San Joaquin Valley, where 14-year-old Homer Macauley
is determined to be the best and fastest bicycle telegraph messenger anyone has
ever seen. His brother has gone to war, leaving Homer to look after his widowed
mother, his older sister and his four-year-old brother. As spring turns to
summer, Homer delivers messages of love, hope pain and death to the good people
of Ithaca. He'll also struggle with one message that will change him forever.
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May 29, 2014 |
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Available on VOD |
In the past week COLD IN JULY
has garnered some great reviews since it was released on May 23rd.
Bob Grimm of the Tuscon Weekly writes, "Who knew Sam Shepard
could be so damn scary? As a deranged father recently released from prison and
seeking revenge, Shepard is just one of the many reasons to see 'Cold in July',
a first rate Texas thriller from director Jim Mickle that stands as one of the
better films of 2014 thus far... Killing Them Softly, Mud, Out
of the Furnace, and a short but haunting appearance in August: Osage
County reveal that the man with the golden typewriter has a whole lot of
powerhouse acting left in him." Though the film is presently
showing a 90% rating on the Tomatometer, I have to disgree with the critics.
After viewing it last night, I'm still having trouble swallowing its multitude
of implausible plot developments and twists.
Since the screenplay was based on a novel, I had higher
expectations but the script lacks cohesion as well as any sense of reality.
I have a penchant for this genre - love "Blood Simple", "Red Rock West" and
HBO's "True Detective" series. The audience is introduced to family man Richard
Dane, played by Michael C. Hall, and he comes across as a rather sweet and
somewhat timid man. He's a loving husband and father and law-abiding citizen.
His becoming Rambo with the decision to risk losing his family for a bunch of
low lifes does not fly unless he's suffering from some kind of Jekyl and Hyde
disorder. Sam was terribly miscast and barely exudes any danger or menacing
presence. Throw in Don Johnson with that laughable boyish grin and you've gotten
rid of all suspense. Such a disappointment! On a
personal aside, I previously mentioned that this movie was filmed in my backyard
in upstate NY. It was once a strong IBM community with as many as 7100 employees
back in its heyday. Upon reaching 25 years of service, an employee received a
pendulum clock with a gold plated inscription. My husband's gift still has a
prominent place in our living room. Obviously, the filmmakers took over an
IBMer's home because the clock shows up in the film as seen in the photo below.
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On the Bowery |
Here are some paparazzi shots taken in NYC this month. The
strange thing is they were all taken on Bowery Street. The first set shows
Sam's daughter Hannah out shopping with her mom.
The second set shows Sam with an unnamed woman. Since
they're standing with the arms around each other while he gives directions, my
guess is these two may be more than friends.
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Avant garde theater |
When
San Francisco theatrical group Word for Word wanted to stage Sam's prose
verbatim, he said he considered short stories a unique literary genre and when
he wants to write a play, he writes a play. "Why should I let you do this?" he
asked. Creator Amy Kossow admitted, "He liked the narrative voice of his prose
and didn't want to lose it." Eventually Sam caved in with his blessing for the
challenging project. "36 Stories by Sam Shepard" opened May 21st and will
run through June 22. Kossow selected material from five Shepard books - "Hawk
Moon", "Motel Chronicles", Day out of Days", "Great Dream of Heaven" and
"Cruising Paradise". Personally, I love his short stories, especially when he
reads them. My audiotape of "Cruising Paradise" is almost worn out! IMHO, to
take bits of his prose and scramble them into something anew certainly dilutes
the flavor and magic of each delightful story weakening its strength and
continuity.
Robert Hurwitt, theater critic for The San Francisco
Chronicle, agrees. He writes, "The pieces never cohere into a whole, narratively
or tonally - which isn't surprising given the wide range of Kossow's sources. As
engrossing as the actors make it in the moment, '36' leaves you not only without
much of a story but with only a vague sense of Shepard's voice."
Perhaps Miss Kossow's rainy day project should have been
shelved before gathering momentum. Personally, I dislike piggybacking.
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Praise for Shepard, the actor |
Film critic Nick Schager (5/27/14): "Shepard's 2013
work with Matthew McConaughey in Mud and Christian Bale in Out of the
Furnace provided additional confirmation that the actor is still one of
cinema's most formidable presences. In film after film, he comes across as a
man's man who's lived through wars (personal, familial, national) and has come
out the other side with an understanding of both his strengths and weaknesses.
That ability to naturally meld cocksure charisma and irreconcilable bitterness
and remorse — a marriage that bleeds into so much of his writing, be it for the
stage or the screen — continues to make Shepard one of the movies' most unsung
stars." |
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April 23, 2014 |
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Cannes screening |
Variety is reporting today that COLD
IN JULY will be among the 19 features set to screen next month in the
46th annual Directors' Fortnight sidebar at Cannes. It’ll be the second time
director Jim Mickle has bounced from Park City to Directors’ Fortnight, as he
did with his 2013 arthouse film, "We Are What We Are." Delegate general Edouard
Waintrop says this latest Mickle thriller "plays with three subgenres of the cop
movie — it’s a crazy and galvanizing movie."
The film has also been selected to screen at this summer's
Rooftop Film Series, which begins in Brooklyn on May 16. I particularly
dislike seeing movies outdoors but this outfit specializes in showing films atop
various NYC buildings! The series will have 45 screenings for its 18th edition,
which wraps mid-August. |
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Actors workshop on Shepard in NYC |
There will be a master workshop on our playwright at the
John Wills Martin Workshop at 4th Street, East Village, starting May 15.
Martin is a long-time acting coach and has acted and directed for both film and
stage. The workshop will be held on Thursday nights from 6 to 10 pm from May 15
to June 19. Martin is looking for eight experienced actors. His description
reads, "This is an intensive workshop, which focuses on the singular writing of
Sam Shepard. Rarely do actors get the opportunity to delve deeply into the great
writers' works. Immersion in the specific world of Shepard, attending to his
unique voice and vocabulary, and exploring his point of view provide the best of
workouts. Actors are assigned monologues and scenes from a range of his work,
which are workshopped in class. The goal of this class is to explore his 'junk
magic' American West and bring the page to physical life. It will be a
challenging and fun six weeks!" |
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The "Black Sheep" series |
Keys News has posted a few more details on the filming of the
upcoming Netflix series, yet unnamed. Since the creators have not been
able to come up with a title, we will presently refer to it as the "Black Sheep"
series. As previously mentioned, Sam plays the family patriarch, Robert, whose
'black sheep" son returns home causing dark secrets from the past to surface.
Production has begun in Islamorada on the Keys with The
Moorings Village and Spa designated as the base filming location. The
Moorings is one of the town's most luxurious resorts. Its 18 cottages sit along
an idyllic, man-made beach lined with coconut palms. Rita Troxel, the Monroe
County Tourist Development Council film commissioner, told the press most of the
filming is expected to be in Islamorada, but scenes will be shot throughout the
Keys. A crew of between 75 and 125 people will be on site during the seven
months of production. Location manager Maria Chavez provided a bit of depth on
the plot line saying that the essential conflict lies around the question of who
killed a young girl who was found in a swimming pool many years ago. "It's like
a who-done-it," Chavez said.
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April 17, 2014 |
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A devilishly handsome cowboy |
American Theatre magazine celebrates its 30th
anniversary this month. Sam graced the cover of its very first issue in April
1984. It featured an interview with the interview-shy playwright by a
19-year-old Amy Lippman, representing Harvard University's student magazine. The
photograph was taken by Melinda Wickman.
You might blame some of Sam's responses on his being a young man but he was
actually 41 years old at the time. He had won the Pulitzer Prize for "Buried
Child" five years before. Surprisingly, but in hindsight, not surprisingly, he
commented,
"I've been in a few rodeos, and the first team roping that I won gave me more of
a feeling of accomplishment and pride of achievement than I ever got winning the
Pulitzer Prize."
I suppose it was simply Sam being Sam. |
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Check out the trailer |
The trailer for Jim Mickle's COLD IN
JULY can now be
seen online.
The thriller is set for release across the UK on June 27th and will be available
through VOD in the USA on May 23. |
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April 3, 2014 |
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Netflix drama |
More information was released this week regarding the yet
unnamed Netflix series, which will partner Sam with Sissy Spacek once
more. Filming will be done in the Florida Keys in the town of Islamorada where
the story takes place. The production team has applied for permits for six
months which takes them through mid-October. The advantage of this location
is that it gives that tropical, isolated feel without being far away from the
mainland and the resources of Miami. A couple years back I visited Islamorada
and I have a feeling this will be a location Sam will thoroughly enjoy. |
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DVD release date |
Discovery Channel has announced that
KLONDIKE will be
available on DVD on June 10. The six-part mini-series at 429 minutes aired in
January and includes some major talent, beginning with Sam Shepard in his
awesome role as a Catholic priest. Also bringing their respected older artistry
to the Gold Rush drama is Tim Roth, Marton Csokas and Ian Hart.
This adventure about the ruthless and cut-throat quest for gold in
turn-of-the-century America takes its inspiration from Charlotte Gray’s book
"Gold Diggers: Striking it Rich in the Klondike".
The series debuted in the UK this past week.
Hugh David of Cult TV Times wrote, "Brit director Simon Cellan Jones does a fine
job in clearly difficult terrain, as do the crew and cast. The locations clearly
push everyone to a level of realism that it would be easy to waste, and he
doesn’t. It helps though when the cast is this good. Fans of westerns and
classic American historicals should give this a go, without hesitation."
The Evening Standard describes Sam as a "feisty priest with startled hair." Love
it!
I thought all the promotional artwork was fantastic and
captured the essence and time period of the story. Photographer Kevin Lynch
discussed the publicity shoot saying, "We had sometimes 15-20 minutes to get the shots
with people like Sam Shepard and Tim Roth. I wanted to get the actors to be in
character, and to comprehend what we were trying to convey. They have to look
like they’re in character without overacting." For some of the posters,
under-lighting in gold hues was used to add further drama to the images and it
works as seen below.
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March 24, 2014 |
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Fall U.S. Premiere |
NY's
Signature Theatre has just announced its 2014-15 season, which will include the
U.S. premiere of A PARTICLE OF DREAD as part
of its Legacy Program, which features works of past Signature
Playwrights-in-Residence. The play will be staged by Field Day Theatre Company
with its original director, Nancy Meckler, and its lead, Stephen Rea, at the
Alice Griffin Jewel Box Theatre in November. Simon Fallaha of Sight and Sound
described the Oedipus play as "a patchwork thunderbolt of human fear and
emotionalism in the guise of an unsophisticated plot. Call it 'collaborative
chaotic collective'". |
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Encore for "Peer Gynt" |
It
was in Paris in April 2012 when Sam worked with Irina Brooks on her production
of Ibsen's "Peer Gynt" for the 2012 Salzburg Festival, which took place
that summer. Two years later, the play will again be performed at London's
Barbican Theatre this fall.
Contributors to the play included rock artist Iggy Pop, who wrote two punk songs
about the rise and fall of a rock star while Sam wrote twelve poems which were
delivered in monologues by the play's lead, Icelandic actor Ingvar E.
Sigurdsson. Produced by the Théâtre National de Nice, where Irina Brooks works
as artistic director, there will be four performances from October 8-11. Here is
one of Sam's poems:
First light
Miracle of morning
Peeling back night
Like a page in a book
Snails peek at the doors of their shells
Gold in their mouth
Shining
Astonishing light
Courage pounding at the cage of ribs
Yet stillness rides
The steaming backs of grazing bulls
Quicksilver lizards
Snapping through
their thoughtless heads
A toad stone still
Peering out through the window
Of what he is
Indelible character
Obeying itself
Innocence
Watching
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Blast from the Past |
An Ed Fisher cartoon in the January 6, 1986 edition of The
New Yorker indicates how extensive Sam's popularity had become by that date.
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March 20, 2014 |
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"Brownsville Girl" gets resurrected |
Bob Dylan's '80s output doesn’t get a lot of love, but he was
plenty busy during the decade, and some of his best recordings from that era are
getting the tribute treatment from a diverse array of younger artists.
Titled
'Bob Dylan in the '80s: Volume One,' the new collection is due March 25
and, according to the press release issued by ATO Records, aims to shed new
light on a large cache of Bob Dylan songs that have long gone ignored. Featured
is comedian Reggie Watts, who offers a dancehall reprise of "Brownsville Girl,"
an 11-minute epic, co-written by Sam, that originally appeared on Dylan's 1986
LP, "Knocked Out Loaded". The song is a rerecorded version of an outtake from
the Empire Burlesque sessions and was originally called "New Danville Girl".
Click here for the lyrics.
In a 1987 interview with Rolling Stone magazine, Sam
described “Brownsville Girl” in the following way: "It has to do with a guy
standing on line and waiting to see an old Gregory Peck movie that he can’t
quite remember – only pieces of it, and then this whole memory thing happens,
unfolding before his very eyes. He starts speaking internally to a woman he’d
been hanging out with, recalling their meetings and reliving the whole journey
they’d gone on – and then it returns to the guy, who’s still standing on line in
the rain."
FYI, the "Rolling Thunder
Logbook" page has just been posted with these photos of Dylan and
Shepard in Massachusetts back in 1975. Up in my attic you'll find one of my
first LP's - "The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan", his second album released in 1963.
Oh, what great songs!
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Cold in July |
IFC Films has announced that
COLD IN JULY will have a limited theatrical release and become available
on VOD on May 23. The movie premiered at Sundance in January with The Hollywood
Reporter commenting, "Michael C. Hall's stunned intensity, flanked by wildly
enjoyable character turns from Sam Shepard and Don Johnson, should lure a small
but appreciative audience with a taste for unconventional action". J.R.
Lansdale, the author of the crime noir novel the film is based on, has a small
part in the movie and helped coach the actors in their East Texas accents. The
film was shot last summer near my Woodstock, NY home. The photo below shows
Michael C. Hall being photographed by fans while filming on North Front Street
in uptown Kingston.
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New Netflix drama from the creators of "Damages" |
A 13-episode drama series, yet unnamed, produced by Sony
Pictures Television, will be premiering on Netflix. Sam will play Robert, the
patriarch of the family, with Sissy Spacek in the role of his wife. This will be
their fourth collaboration having previously starred together in "Raggedy Man",
"Crimes of the Heart", "The Good Old Boys" and "Streets of Laredo."
The series centers on a family with four children whose
secrets are revealed when the estranged eldest son returns home. This black
sheep of the family will be played by Ben Mendelsohn. Norbert Leo Butz will play
the youngest son, who considers himself the unofficial mayor of the family's
small hometown. Kyle Chandler and Linda Cardelinni have been cast as the other
two children.
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"Out of the Furnace" out on DVD and VOD this week |
I checked out this film myself yesterday and I was definitely
underwhelmed considering how much I admired Scott Cooper's previous film, "Crazy
Heart".
Many reviewers have compared the film to Michael Cimino's "Deer Hunter" but it
sure lacks the gravitas to come anywhere close to that 1978 classic.
The one glaring question I have is what was the purpose of Sam's character? He
plays Christian Bale's Uncle Red, who has barely any dialogue and absolutely no
purpose to move the story forward. Well, we all know he's easy on the eyes so it
wasn't a wasted two hours. I will give praise for Masanobu Takayanagi’s stark
cinematography and Dickon Hinchliffe’s evocative score. And the outstanding
performances as well. Bale, Affleck, Dafoe, Whitaker, Harrelson and Shepard have
either won an Oscar or been nominated and they confirm their artistic talent
here. Casey Affleck blew me away. Wish we could see more of him.
FYI, another lawsuit has been filed against the
filmmakers as well as the New York Post. The plaintiffs are eight Ramapough
people who say the movie casts them in a "false light" and that it intentionally
inflicted emotional distress. The defendants include producer Leonardo DiCaprio,
director Scott Cooper and writer Brad Inglesby, of The New York Post, who wrote
a review describing the hoodlums as "New Jersey hillbillies". This lawsuit comes
weeks after a previous one was filed in December seeking $50 million from the
makers of the film. The 17 Ramapough who filed the December lawsuit say they
suffered ridicule and hatred after "Out of the Furnace" was released.
It appears that Premiere Props is trying to sell Sam's
wardrobe for the film. Do you have $400? The Amazon.com description reads:
"Tan oilskin with dark brown brushed collar 'Levis Strauss' jacket, burgundy
heavy cotton long sleeve button front 'St. John's Bay' shirt, (size XL) and
light blue denim 'Wranglers' jeans. (size 34)."
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March 4, 2014 |
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Independent Spirit Awards |
On Saturday evening, the Independent Spirit Awards
were held in Santa Monica. The Robert Altman Award was presented to director
Jeff Nichols and his cast. Sam was not in attendance.
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Father & Son |
On January 9th, Sam was caught by the paparazzi with son Walker as
they left La Scala restaurant in Beverly Hills.
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February 17, 2014 |
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On the Shepard Stage |
A Lie of the Mind: Prescott Center for the Arts,
Phoeniz, AZ - from March 6-16.
"This play needs music. Live music. Music with an American
backbone. All I ask is that there be music. 'A Lie of the Mind' is a play not so
much to be understood, as it is a play to be felt." ...Sam Shepard
Fool for Love: Alter Theater, San Rafael, CA - thru
March 9
"Sharp dialogue pours dizzyingly from Shepard’s pen,
making this reviewer wish the 90-minute play could tumble around longer." ...Cari
Lynn Pace, Marinscope.com
True West: Theatre Exile, Philadelphia, PA-
thru February 23
"The greatness in Shepard’s play lies in its dark side.
Beneath the surface comedy is a play full of mournfulness and violence."
...David Anthony Fox, Philadelphia City Paper
Ages of the Moon: Henry Clay Theatre, Louisville, KY - thru February 23
"Despite all the drinking, stewing and trash talking, this
play reveals a kinder, gentler side of Shepard to those expecting the ferocity
of earlier work like 'True West' or 'Buried Child'" ...Erin Keane,
WFLP News |
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Excerpt from UK's Independent (2/13/14) |
Julie Delpy has twice been nominated for the Academy
Award for Best Adapted Screenplay (including this year for "Before Midnight"),
and has directed four films. The actress says that an early run-in with
celebrated playwright Sam Shepard almost made her give up writing.
“I
was working with Sam Shepard on a movie when I was 20, and I kind of translated
a line of one of my films and he laughed and said ‘Julie, you’re very pretty,
please don’t do that to yourself’ ”, she says. “Listen, he’s a great writer,
he’s a much better writer than me… It’s very funny. But it kind of blocked me
for years, thinking ‘Ok, so I’m not a writer’. When I wrote 'Before
Sunrise', it felt so good and then I started writing again. So I had a block for
like two years because a great American playwright thinks I shouldn’t write, so
why should I write? But it came back pretty quickly, luckily it wasn’t forever a
trauma.”
While it’s not the only measure of success, she has one more Oscar nod than he
does. |
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February 14, 2014 |
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Shepard Sighting |
Valentine's Day and our playwright is spotted having
breakfast at the Counter Culture Cafe in Santa Fe, NM.
The above photo was not taken today but it's funny that there
is a man who resembles Sam but we know it's definitely not him because of the
laptop. Here's a pic of Sam's desk at the Santa Fe Institute.
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A man and his truck |
I found this b&w photo posted online and it was tagged "Out
of the Furnace". I'm not sure it's actually a movie still (de-colorized) or
was taken during filming. In any event, it's a cool picture.
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February 13, 2014 |
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Inspired by Shepard |
An
Israeli cartoonist has scored his first cover for The New Yorker, wowing
the editors with his submission, "Perfect Storm," which captures the romance of
a snowy Manhattan morning. Cartoonist Tomer Hanuka’s drawing appears on the
cover of the February 10, 2014 edition of the magazine. Hanuka actually
conceived of this drawing a few years ago when he read Sam's short story, "Indianapolis
(Highway 74)", that ran in the New Yorker. The story is about a middle-aged
man stumbling into a former lover in a hotel lobby during a snow storm.
Personally, I think the man in the drawing appears more youthful and resembles
the Sam Shepard who hung out with Patti Smith at the Chelsea Hotel during the
'70s. |
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Exhibition is extended |
Originally scheduled to run through February 14, The Wittliff
Collections have extended the exhibition, "The Writer’s Road: Selections from
the Sam Shepard Papers", through February 23, 2014. |
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Those Pearly Whites |
Excerpt from "Motel Chronicles" by Sam:
"I remember trying to imitate Burt Lancaster’s smile
after I saw him and Gary Cooper in 'Vera Cruz'. For days, I practiced in the
backyard. Weaving through the tomato plants. Sneering. Grinning that grin.
Sliding my upper lip up over my teeth. After a few days of practice, I tried
it out on the girls at school. They didn’t seem to notice. I broadened my
interpretation until I started getting strange reactions from the other
kids. They would look straight at my teeth and a fear would creep into their
eyes. I’d forgotten how bad my teeth were. How one of the front ones was
dead and brown and overlapped the broken one right next to it. I’d actually
come to believe I was in possession of a full head of perfectly pearly Burt
Lancaster-type of teeth. I didn’t want to scare anyone so I stopped grinning
after that. I only did it in private."
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February 6, 2014 |
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Soooo cool! |
A
photographic exhibition is opening tomorrow at the National Portrait Gallery in
Washington. It's called "American Cool". What is cool? According to its
creators, Joel Dinerstein and Frank Goodyear III, to be cool means to exude the
aura of something new and uncontainable. Cool is the opposite of innocence or
virtue. Someone cool has a charismatic edge and a dark side. Cool is an earned
form of individuality. Each generation has certain individuals who bring
innovation and style to a field of endeavor while projecting a certain
charismatic self-possession. They are the figures selected for this exhibition:
the successful rebels of American culture. From hundreds of actors, actresses,
artists, musicians and writers, 100 were chosen. Can you guess some of their
names? If you said Kerouac or Andy Warhol or James Dean, you're right. What
about Sam Shepard? Yes, he's on the list! No surprise. Friend Patti Smith made
the list as well.
Among the
photographers featured in the show are Diane Arbus, Annie Leibovitz and Robert
Mapplethorpe. The photo chosen for Sam is by Brigette Lacombe. It was taken in
1983 and the following two photos were also taken during Ms. Lacombe's shoot.
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January 29, 2014 |
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Coming in 2014 |
News reports from Berlin indicate that Sam will be starring
in ITHACA, from a screenplay by Erik Jendresen based on William Saroyan's
novel, "The Human Comedy". Production is set to begin this summer with Meg Ryan
making her directorial debut. Yes, you read that right. She will also don her
acting hat alongside son Jack Quaid and Melanie Griffith. I'm surprised. Both
ladies have not made any noteworthy films in over a decade. The film will be
executive produced by Tom Hanks and his partner Gary Goetzman. The story
is set in 1942 in a small town in California's San Joaquin Valley, where
14-year-old Homer Macauley is determined to be the best and fastest bicycle
telegraph messenger anyone has ever seen. His brother has gone to war, leaving
Homer to look after his widowed mother, his older sister and his four-year-old
brother. As spring turns to summer, Homer delivers messages of love, hope pain
and death to the good people of Ithaca. He'll also struggle with one message
that will change him forever.
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DVD & Blu-Ray Release |
Twentieth
Century Fox Home Entertainment will release OUT OF THE
FURNACE on DVD and Blu-ray on March 11, 2014. Director Scott Cooper's
crime thriller stars Christian Bale, Casey Affleck,
Woody Harrelson, Zoe Saldana, Willem Dafoe and Forest
Whitaker. Joe Neumaier of the NY Daily News wrote, "Like
'The Deer Hunter', from which it swipes its Keystone
State milieu, its haunted veterans, its
self-endangerment metaphor and a crucial central image,
'Out of the Furnace' gets under your skin. Bale’s
commitment etches a raw portrait of stagnation and
sadness. Affleck is heartbreakingly feral. |
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January 23, 2014 |
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Discovery strikes gold |
The Discovery Channel’s expensive gamble on
KLONDIKE is paying off big time for the network,
producing its biggest Monday prime-time numbers. The six-hour miniseries, which
finished its three-night run last night reached 1.9-million viewers in Canada
and 3.4-million American viewers. Reviews have been mixed, although it earned a
respectable 73 per cent approval rating on metacritic, but those who enjoyed it
were lavish in their praise.
The San Francisco Chronicle said, "With a cast headed by 'Game of Thrones’
Richard Madden, 'Klondike' grabs you with terrific performances, an unusually
rich script, magnificently sweeping visuals of jagged mountains overlooking
valleys of ice and snow, and such a convincing attention to period detail,
you’ll believe you’re back in Dawson City at the end of the 19th century."
While the Houston Chronicle gave it praise with,
"'Klondike' is melodramatic, but feels more substantial because of minutely
detailed scripts and fully realized performances. The mini-series was shot on
location, and the cinematography is spectacular, so much so that it's almost
like watching a top-grade travel documentary at times." |
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Vanity Fair Interview |
Vanity Fair's Krista Smith interviewed Sam while he was at
Sundance. He told her how "Cold in July" was shot on an extremely low budget
calling it "very much a handmade movie." Going into a big shoot-out scene, Sam
was handed the cartridges for the prop gun and told: "Make sure you make each
one of these count. It's going to be a big gunfight, but you only have three
cartridges." Another scene with characters shooting bottles off barrels involved
"a girl standing at the top of a ladder with a fishing pole and with fishing
line, and she's popping each one of the bottles off as you shoot".
In regard to his "Mud" co-star, Matthew McConaughey,
nominated for his first Oscar for his lead role in "Dallas Buyers Club", Sam
said, "It's really great to see an actor find himself in his sojourn."
What's he currently writing? He replied a "book", explaining
that he was determined "to sustain a piece of prose instead of having it all
broken up into stories."
When asked about being recognized in public, Sam related a
funny story how there have been times when a person would approach him and ask
if he's Sam Shepard. When he would say "yes", the person would say, "No, you're
not."
Asked about how he keeps his privacy, he replied, "I try not
to be in situations where I'm being grabbed at. For the most part you can avoid
them. Not here." What does he think of Sundance? "Chaotic. It's crazy."
He mentioned his next film project would be with "Mud"
director Jeff Nichols. I'm not sure if he was referring to the current project
now filming called, "Midnight Special", a sci-fi drama.
The photos below were taken at Sundance. The first photo was
taken by Vanity Fair and the second one is a tintype shot by photographer
Victoria Will for Esquire.
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French release |
On February 26th, "August: Osage County" will be released in
France with a different title. It will be called "Un
été à Osage County" - "A Summer in Osage County". Couldn't they come up with
the French word for August?
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January 22, 2014 |
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Great news from Sundance! |
The Sundance deals are now moving faster as the festival
heads toward its final weekend. IFC Films has just picked up North American
rights to Jim Mickle's COLD IN JULY. The film
premiered on Saturday evening to mostly positive reviews. Mickle announced, "Our
whole team is ecstatic to be partnering with IFC Films. This is the perfect fit
for our film." The distributor plans to release the film theatrically and on VOD
this summer.
Andrew O' Hehir of Salon magazine praises the film with,
"Mickle understands the psychological, spiritual and even erotic appeal of a
violent and damaged character like Shepard’s brooding, haunted Russel (Shepard,
at his creaky, ominous best)
and sees that Richard is drawn to the older man — the father of a long-missing
boy who is now a man around Richard’s age — for reasons he can’t control. 'Cold
in July' plays by thriller rules and teaches its lessons according to thriller
morality, which decrees that bad things happen because we secretly want them to.
But this thriller, which could easily have been routine straight-to-VOD garbage
in another director’s hands, has a powerful undertow that makes it seem more
profound than that, more observant of essential patterns in human nature. Is
that an illusion? Maybe so, but Jim Mickle isn’t — this dude can make movies." |
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January 20, 2014 |
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KLONDIKE premieres tonight on the Discovery Channel! |
"The
best of the townspeople is the priest Father Judge played by Sam
Shepard. Like other characters and events in the series, he was partly drawn
from Charlotte Gray's 2010 book, 'Gold Diggers: Striking It Rich in the
Klondike.' Father Judge is a small but bright light of goodness in a town where
most people go wrong at least in some way just to survive. An older Mr.
Shepard has let his face become more expressive than the younger one did,
giving him increasing power as an actor. A scene of Father Judge climbing up his
rickety church in a rainstorm to raise a cross atop it is a dramatic high point
of the series, too." ...Wall Street Journal |
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Reviews from Park City |
A few reviews of COLD IN JULY
have surfaced from Park City, Utah, and it's all positive for our man. In an
video interview with EW at Sundance, Sam shared that he wasn't sure he was up to
the role of the revengeful Ben Russel. He kept vascillating between taking it or
passing. Ultimately, he decided to jump in and the director conceded Sam did a
great job. According to the first reviews, he nailed the "menacing" look. One
critic said Sam seemed to model his personality on Robert Mitchum's turn in
"Night of the Hunter". Interesting...
Here's a portrait from Sundance taken by the Hollywood
Reporter.
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Mulroney on Shepard |
Interview magazine spoke with actor Dermot Mulroney,
also starring in "August: Osage County". He was asked about his thoughts
on two famous playwrights - Tracy Letts and Sam Shepard.
Mulroney: Often when I think of Tracy Letts, I think of Sam
Shepard's writing, which was my greatest inspiration as a student actor.
Subsequently, I've worked with Sam four times and we've become friends. So I
guess any modern American theater for me is seen through that lens. So picture
me at a table reading with two Pulitzer Prize-winning playwrights: I kind of
have an eye on my buddy Sam while this language is rolling over us all. We get
to that point in the play where it's about to be revealed that there's some
incestuous activity going on and I believe I detected glee in Sam Shepard's
eyes! Because, of course, his plays are rife with weird families and buried
bodies.
Question: Sam's character's presence lingers throughout the film. Is he as
elusive in real life as his image - the solitary cowboy/writer?
Mulroney: He's actually gotten to be more cantankerous as the years go by.
[chuckling] So you have to have already known him before, or you may not get to
know him now. Like, "Time's up!" He's not entertaining any new guests. But he
was whole-hog on this movie. He really put his soul into it. Instead of staying
in the city, he asked for a house in the middle of nowhere, so that he could
write. I drove out to where he was staying. It was just sunset and he was
walking up this dirt road from the house they'd rented, and he's running his
lines. The sun is setting and there's Sam Shepard in a field, with a screenplay
in his hand. I couldn't believe it. And then we went in and he cooked me a steak
and some broccoli. He travels with a typewriter and he writes on that. Not a
laptop, a typewriter. And his Gibson guitar. |
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Sundance Premiere |
I predicted on January 4th that there was a good chance Sam
would show up at Sundance and sure enough, he did. COLD
IN JULY premiered today [too early for any reviews] but you can check
out several photos in the Sundance gallery.
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January 18, 2014 |
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Something "Shepardy" |
Paste magazine interviewed director Jeff Mickle about his
film, COLD IN JULY, which screened yesterday at Sundance. The conversation got
around to casting. Mickle said, "We got Mike [Michael C. Hall] on board and then
[I heard] Sam Shepard was interested. I flew out to New Mexico where he lives in
Santa Fe - and my parents had just moved there - flew out, stayed with them and
had breakfast with him one morning. That was an amazingly memorable experience."
Mickle was told he was quite brave sending something to Sam
Shepard that he wrote, especially something about masculinity. Mickle replied,
"I can’t tell you how any times we were like, 'You know, we want this scene to
be kind of Shepardy.' The fact that it happened that way is amazing. At some
point we really killed ourselves - we couldn’t figure out how to make this one
scene that was really troublesome. I can’t say how many times we rewrote it over
and over, sent it back and forth to each other, threw it in the trash, picked it
up again, tried it again. And [at some point] he said, 'Oh, do you mind if I
take a stab at this?' I was like, 'Oh hell yes,' and he went home on his
typewriter in his hotel room and typed out the scene where he kind of reworked
his dialogue. He brought it in and said, 'Is this okay? Do you mind? Is this
something you guys are into? Should we run this by Nick first?' I was like, 'I
think that’s totally fine!”' One page, hand-typed."
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January 15, 2014 |
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Interesting idea |
Word for Word, a regional theater and performing arts company
in San Francisco, will be presenting "36 Stories by Sam Shepard" in May.
The company was asked to create an original work by adapting Sam's prose for the
stage. Company member Amy Kossow spent a year sifting through five of Shepard's
collections of short stories, eventually choosing to begin with a simple story,
set in a roadside diner. The resulting script weaves together tales of his
beloved great American desert highways, the endless lonesome roads along which
one may meet any type of fellow wanderer. The script was passed along to our
playwright who okay'd it. Opening press night will be Saturday,
May 24 at Z Space's new second venue, Z Below, at 470 Florida Street, SF. It
will run through June 22. More info can be accessed at zspace.org. |
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Underwhelming |
There
are so few interviews with our playwright that when I came across a recent one
published on an online UK film magazine site, I was delighted. Alas, what a
disappointment. It boggles my mind that someone who wrote about an afternoon
spent with Sam Shepard (the day of the La Cirque luncheon last month) would
ultimately be more interested in writing about herself. It's one thing to have a
super ego if you're a big-name celeb but as a journalist, humility is a must. I
could imagine this kind of blather coming from say, Rex Reed, but not from this
writer, a rather woeful Joyce Carol Oates look-alike who mixes a love for
wildlife with film.
And it's so unprofessional when an actor's name is misspelled in the headline as
in "STEPHAN Rea".
Ultimately, this British journalist decided to store away her goodies leaving
the reader with a few bread crumbs.
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In discussing Ireland, Sam remarked how folks play less
with their phones and devices than in New York. People actually talk to each
other.
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He admits that it still makes him feel uncomfortable to
watch himself on screen.
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Presently, he's focusing on his writing, namely
Christopher Marlowe's Doctor Faustus and deals with the devil. When asked
what would be exchanged for all the pleasure in the world in a Shepard play,
he responded, "His soul, of course." {Note that he says "his" and not "her"
or "their")
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He once rescued a starving egret.
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January 10, 2014 |
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The votes are in |
More than 125 film critics have had their say on
AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY. The Tomatometer is measuring
about 63%. Again, the concensus seems to be the problem of transferring dramatic
theater to the big screen. I appreciated film critic Frank Swietek's comments:
"The makers of this adaptation of Tracy Letts’s award-winning play made a serious
mistake in casting Sam Shepard as Beverly Weston, the Oklahoma professor and
poet whose death brings his family together for his funeral- and a release of
long-simmering hostility and long-held secrets. Not that Shepard is bad; indeed,
he gives a fine performance as a tired man who, in all likelihood, takes his own
life. It’s rather that his presence inevitably invites comparisons with his own
plays about troubled families - works that are far richer and more compelling
than 'August: Osage County.' Of course, screen adaptations of Shepard’s plays
have by and large been disappointing, and wisely some of the best of them, like
'Buried Child,' remain unfilmed. The rare exception was the 1984 American
Playhouse taping of 'True West' with John Malkovich and Gary Sinise, which was
exceptionally fine. That’s because they’re extremely theatrical pieces that
suffer when brought close-up; it’s the rare stage drama of this sort that can
withstand camera’s glare. Once again, there is a major exception - 'Who’s Afraid
of Virginia Wolff?' But that 1966 film had the benefit of Mike Nichols’
brilliant direction, and on the evidence of 'August,' John Wells is no
Mike Nichols."
And I loved what Wesley Morris of Grantland had to say:
"Nothing on the page of Letts's play goes that deep, but the
further out the story goes, the stronger the undertow is. Some actors, like
Mulroney, Breslin, and McGregor, drown in it. But Cooper, Martindale, and
Shepard are expert surfers. To all the hipster filmmakers treating Shepard like
a garnish, this is how you use him like a side dish: as a prevailing spirit."
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TCA Press Tour |
On January 4th, I posted news that Sam was in California and
yesterday he was in Pasadena helping to promote KLONDIKE at the
Television Critics Association (TCA) press tour. Executive producer David Zucker
told the press the hard part about recruiting the playwright for the new
mini-series was finding him.
Zucker said,
"We decided on a Friday we wanted to pursue him, which meant we had to get him a script. Well, he was out fishing, and he didn't have a phone. He also doesn't have
Internet, so we couldn't email him. So what we had to do was find the nearest Kinkos to make a copy of the script
and get it delivered. When he got back from fishing, he read it and called us back, and it worked
out."
Sam said he liked the script and
explained his lack of a phone by saying, "It's just another part of the
insanity we carry around with us."
One journalist wanted to know if writer Paul Scheuring was intimidated writing
for the actor-playwright. "I wrote it before I knew he was going to be Judge -
it’s easy to write in a vacuum." he responded. That said, Shepard "was willing
to collaborate; he had his thoughts," he continued, adding quickly, "It’s
obviously an honor – he’s Sam Shepard!"
Sam didn’t think much of a question about the difference between wearing the
"writer hat" and the "actor hat." "Hats look exactly the same. There’s no
difference between The Writing Hat and The Acting Hat," he said dismissively.
A question about his "motivation" for taking on this role, and whether his
motivation for accepting roles has changed over his long career, didn’t play too
well either. "Yeah. I was out of work…the landlord was going to kick me out," he
responded.
You know I've done Q&A's with actors Stellan Skarsgård and
Peter Coyote but I would never attempt one with Sam Shepard. The man can be impossible.
Here's what Canadian web site The Loop wrote:
"Shepard replaced Chris Cooper on Discovery’s project
'Klondike' when the latter suffered a minor heart attack, but while he was a
star to the critics in the room, he wanted nothing to do with it. He kept
his answers to less than a 100 words and gave the room pretty much nothing,
even noting that he took the part because he was out of work. Later on at
the Klondike-themed party, he was even more gruff, telling one critic that
he already answered questions and grunting at another one. One critic even
revealed that the horse parked outside the event gave her a nicer response
than Shepard when approached."
Here's a description of Sam's role as Father Judge - "Like the other men who come to Dawson City, Father Judge has a burning ambition.
But his quest is for the souls of the miners, not the gold in the dirt. In a
town filled with greed, envy and a willingness to kill over a few ounces of
treasure, Judge knows the risks he is taking. He establishes a church in the
middle of Dawson hoping to attract wayward men and women in need of salvation.
He gets his wish, but it’s not at all how he imagined."
In the Big Apple, someone snapped a photo of
one of the city's two-decker tour buses with the side splashed with "Klondike"
advertising, including Sam's face. Click here
for photos from the TCA press tour.
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January 4, 2014 |
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Netflix film |
For those of you who have a Netflix account,
SAVANNAH is now available via DVD or streaming.
The movie was an absolute bomb scoring an 8% on the Tomatometer. It doesn't get
much worse. I checked it out and it was terrible, more like a Lifetime TV movie,
but hey, it's always interesting to see Sam on the screen. Right? It wasn't easy
finding actual movie stills released by the studio because most of its publicity seemed to be
geared to production stills of Annette Hayward-Carter directing her cast. Rather
strange...
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Houston Screening |
There is little information on this upcoming event but I
thought I would post it anyway. Sundance Houston Cinema is bringing the Sundance
Film Festival to Houston with a special SFFUSA screening of
COLD IN JULY at 7:15 pm on January 30th. There will be a post-screening discussion with special guests.
Not naming the guests probably means they're not recognizable.
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Where is Sam today? |
He's in California in a town called Healdsburg, north of Santa Rosa.
Is it possible he'll stick around for the upcoming Sundance premiere of "Cold in
July" in Utah?
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O stands for Osage and Oscar ?? |
AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY had a
limited release in NY and LA on December 27th and will open in theaters across
the country on Friday. I've added several new photos to the film page (link
above). I'm not sure why the majority of them were found on Italian cinema
sites. Nathaniel Rogers of Film Experience wrote a blog on the film and its
focus on the Oscars. I absolutely agree with his opinion. He writes, "Usually
it's easy to separate films from campaigns but, in this case, the hunt and lust
for Oscar, either real or imagined, seems to make a corpse of the actual work
and the campaign becomes its restless ghost... Point me to one review or article
or conversation about the movie that DOESN'T mention the Oscars. It's the golden
filter through which this film is contextually and continually seen."
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