Bryce Zabel's FOR WHAT IT'S WORTH

God of War II (2007) -vs- God of War (2005)

Videogame Review by Jonathan Zabel

The Smackdown.  The "God of War" franchise is one of only a select few based on original IP that have broken out into major mainstream success.  Hard as it might be to believe today, SONY took a pretty big risk when they greenlit the original, "God of War."  We do live in the age of movie tie-ins and sequels, after all.  I can only imagine the reaction from execs when legendary designer David Jaffe gave them his first elevator pitch:  "There's this bald Greek dude, Kratos, OK?  And the gods screwed him over!  Armed with only a kilt, a bunch of body paint, and the two swords chained to his arms, he's going to get revenge..." But they bought it, obviously, because we have "God of War II" to play now.

"Griffins are mythical beasts with the body of a lion and the wings of an eagle... but don't worry, I fixed the second part."

The Challenger.  When you're making the sequel to an almost universally acclaimed game, you've basically got two options:  (1) Change as little as possible and improve by degrees or (2) spend the goodwill of the fans trying out innovative new mechanics.  SONY Santa Monica took the conventional path with "God of War II," but I can't say I really fault them for it.  Everything has been dialed up to 11 both in terms of scale and intensity.  Let's take the opening stage as an example, in which Kratos is drained of his godly powers and forced to square off against the humongous Colossus of Rhodes (which has been granted ghastly life by a vengeful Athena).  It chases you across the entire island as you frantically attempt to slow it down by breaking its arms and cutting out both of its eyes.  Eventually, you climb inside the statue and deliver the final blow using a sword given to you by Zeus himself.  Did I forget to mention that was the first level?

"Where's Harry Hamlin when you need him?"

The Defending Champion.  "God of War" impressed critics and gamers alike not because it was original, but rather because it took almost every concept that action games have been trying to do for years... and it did them right.  Most of the gameplay revolves around the combat, which is context-based.  Press the correct button or sequence of buttons at the right time and you'll perform a devastating finishing move.  You can never behead enough Gorgons if you ask me!  As far the story goes, there's no argument that ashen-skinned Kratos is a certifiable badass in addition to being one of the most unrepentant anti-heroes gaming has ever seen.  Finding out the true reason behind his unflinching desire to kill Ares (the God of War), regardless of how it might damn him, is a surprisingly compelling story considering the medium in which it's being told.

The Scorecard.   "God of War II" is, in many ways, simply the logical extension of the first game, but that doesn't mean there aren't some meaningful differences between the two.  More specifically, the plot of the second feels like a "greatest hits" compilation of Greek mythology, as you cut down heroes like Perseus (who killed Medusa), Theseus (who killed the Minotaur of Crete) and anyone else who happens to also be seeking out the Sisters of Fate to change their destiny.  Admittedly, having to pause to go Wikipedia a mythical figure or three is a bit distracting...

Crow DVD Audio Commentary

The audio commentary for the two opening hours of the TV series DVD release for "The Crow: Stairway to Heaven" couldn't have gone better.

Series lead Mark Dacascos and I sat in an audio room at Hollywood's Crest Digital, wearing headphones, watching the first two episodes back-to-back and talking like old friends watching a past project and remembering how much fun they had together.

I'm glad we weren't over-rehearsed because I think fans will enjoy the spontaneity and discovery we ended up having for our own work (and the work of so many others who worked so hard on the series). I think we both were honestly surprised by some things we saw and the memories came authentically flooding back. We each remembered different things and different people, from fight coordiantors and stunt men to writers and producers.

Something else that helped is that in the last year, Mark and I and our wives have had dinner together three times and really renewed our friendship. Sitting in that room was just as natural, well, except for the championship dining aspect. But we laughed a lot yesterday. So much fun...

The DVD is being released as part of the "TV Guide" brand by Hart Sharp Video. It will be out on July 24, just a few days before the San Diego Comicon which Mark and I will also attend. Thanks to the Crow fans who lobbied Hart Sharp to get Mark and I in that audio room together, and we'll see you in San Diego we hope!

The Crow flew again and it was a good thing. He wasn't dead after all!

As the Crow Flies... Again...

The DVD set for "The Crow: Stairway to Heaven" is set for release on July 24, 2007.

It comes from Hart Sharp Video out of New York.

Lead actor Mark Dacascos and I recorded a two-hour audio commentary for the project in May 2007.

I've also given them the show's "gag reel" for some comic relief, plus a collection of dailies and promotional materials.

So there should be sufficient "goodies" to make this stand out from any bootleg or anything else that has come before.

I've written extensively about the experience of developing the Crow franchise for TV and working as the executive producer on the series.

By going to that post, you can download either the original pilot script, or the series bible written before we got started, or even the episode summaries as they were kept by the writing staff. Just CLICK HERE.

My best wishes to all the fans for their continuing support!

*****

You Haven't Seen This One Before!

I guess most people who read this blog regularly know that I like history, and I like John Kennedy, and I like science fiction. I combined those into an alt.history for the NBC "Dark Skies" series and now it looks like I've done it again.

What if they missed in Dallas?

Yeah, I know, I know. This is the classic "what if" and it's been done a few times. Historians love to speculate on this scenario, wondering if magically the nation would have been spared the pain of Vietnam and even Watergate. Knowing what we know now, it seems like they've missed the point. There's a new twist to the answer that wouldn't have been possible to even dream of until about a decade ago.

If he’d gotten out of Dallas alive, John Kennedy might easily have suffered the same fate as his arch-nemesis Richard Nixon -- humiliation and removal from office.

That's the premise of a novel I've been working on for over a year with Harry Turtledove who is pretty much the dean of alternative history novels. Our project is called:

And before you freak out and start calling me names, both Harry and I are life-long Democrats. We don't hate JFK. We have been as compelled by his story as anyone. We just think that this is one of the best alt.history ideas either of us has ever worked on. Our premise is pretty simple:

With the eyes of the world on the United States and the media in a frenzy, with JFK himself alive and not a martyr, an immediate investigation would have been launched into who might have been interested in killing our popular American President. Starting with the Secret Service, the blame-game would have taken on a life of its own, forcing explosive revelations in mere months that have instead dribbled out over decades. Kennedy’s reckless conduct would have become public: the lies about his medical condition, contacts with mobsters, election money-laundering, numerous attempts to assassinate foreign leaders, and even the hundreds of high-risk sexual encounters that endangered Kennedy’s safety and, by extension, our country’s security.

This alternative history novel covers the period from the November 22, 1963 near-miss assassination attempt of President Kennedy in Dallas, Texas through the events of early 1966 when the fate of John F. Kennedy was in the hands of 100 United States Senators worried about their own careers in the next election.

If you'd like to see the whole bit, just CLICK HERE or on the BANNER ABOVE to visit the site.

The Crow: Stairway to Heaven

The Crow flies again... on DVD...

Must be something in the water. A few weeks ago, I got the news that my NBC series DARK SKIES (co-created with Brent V. Friedman) would be released by SONY on DVD this October. Now comes the news that THE CROW: STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN a series I developed and executive produced for Polygram TV will now be released by NBC-Universal this July. Woo-hoo!

Apparently, it'll be a four-DVD box set released under the "TV Guide Presents" banner. (And thanks to writer-pal Lee Goldberg for knowing this before I did and telling me!) I've been waiting for some kind of news peg like this to hang this blog-post on because I loved that series and it was a terrific creative experience.

It started back in 1998 when I was asked to develop "The Crow" film and graphic novel franchise into a TV series by the now-defunct Polygram TV. It raised an interesting challenge:

What do you do when the incredibly violent film you are asked to adapt to a TV audience is based on cruelty, and the main character is driven by a thirst for revenge?  

My answer? You expand the premise to fully explore the nature of life after death, and you change the character quest from revenge to redemption.

And how do you handle the fact that the cult film was made infamous by the horrible on-set death of its star, Brandon Lee?

That was a tougher question because the idea behind the TV series was to use the Eric Draven character, the one who'd been in the comics and that Brandon Lee had played. My take was that, tragic as Lee's death was, George Reeves' tragic death did not prevent Christopher Reeve or Dean Cain from playing Superman, and that we would just have to proceed and hope that our own version stood intact on its own. So, besides the conceptual changes, we also reached out to actor Mark Dacascos who created a Crow/Draven character that was unique itself.

In our 22 episodes, Eric Draven’s mission grew from simply wanting to murder the people who murdered both he and his girlfriend.  He began to climb… that’s right… a Stairway to Heaven.

Although the concept of the Crow had history when I came aboard, this shift was no small challenge.  The comicbooks by James O’Barr which started it all were intensely violent, bloodsoaked revenge fantasies.  Pretty cool in their own right, but impossible to sell to a mass TV audience. The films, brought to life by several different writers and directors, were dark, brooding mood pieces, also saturated by the blood of sadistic, drug-abusing, violent scumbags. An equally difficult sell. Yet the films built upon the comics, changed the mythology to adapt to a new medium, and grew the premise in the process.  That was the only way to go.

So the TV series had to become its own manifestation of the Crow. It, too, had to grow the mythology, and adapt to its own medium. At first, a lot of fans who came to the concept by way of the comics and the movies were taken aback. They felt it was not true to the spirit of O’Barr’s creation or the performance of Brandon Lee.  Yet we knew that even if every person who read a comic or saw the movie tuned into the series, it would still be cancelled. We had to bring new people in.

We did. We brought in women by making it a series with a love story as its central premise –- a love that survived even death. That started with our opening titles where we used the famous lines from the Crow movie (delivered only by Eric) about the "soul can't rest" and re-wrote it as a poem between Eric Draven and Shelly. This was my first draft:

WE HEAR two voices – Eric Draven and Shelly Webster.

SHELLY (V.O.)
People once believed that when someone dies, a Crow carries their soul to the Land of the Dead…

DRAVEN (V.O.)
But sometimes something so bad happens that a terrible sadness is carried with it and the soul can't rest…

SHELLY (V.O.)
Then sometimes, just sometimes, the Crow can bring the soul back to put things right…

DRAVEN (V.O.)
Things can never be right, my soul will never rest, until we are together again. 

We brought in others who found our new Crow’s mission to be more hopeful than the films and, therefore, more accessible to their lives.  We cast as our lead the incredibly talented Mark Dacascos whose performance gave the Eric Draven character an entirely new dimension of sympathy and whose martial arts skills were crackling and theatrical.  We wrote stories as smart as we could, expanding the mythology to include such twists as Draven being a suspect in his own murder to making literal the previously only mentioned Land of the Dead.  Basically, we tried not to pander to the audience, but to challenge them upward.

By the way, if you'd like to read the pilot script,  here it is:

THE CROW, PILOT EPISODE.pdf

If you'd like to read the series bible created before we went on the air (and, thus, something that changed), here it is:

THE CROW, Original Bible.pdf

Finally, if you'd like to read the episode summaries of the first season storylines, you can do that, too. I kept this document up-to-date throughout that season so that other writers could see where we'd been and it kept everybody "on the same page" as it were. This is definite SPOILER ALERT territory, however.

THE CROW, Episode Summaries, Season One.pdf

A number of people should be mentioned as having been part of this process. Ed Pressman and Jeff Most are the keepers of the Crow flame, especially in the feature world. Bob Sanitsky and Stephen Gelber were the Polygram execs who were smart enough to get us up and running, then support us creatively. The production wouldn’t have happened without Gregg Fienberg who came in as Polygram’s man on the ground, but quickly became my doppelganger, seeing my vision with me, and making it happen. Gordon Mark and Brad Markowitz took it from the page to the stage. The other staff writers and producers were Chad Hayes, Carey Hayes, Naomi Jantzen, John Turman and David Ransil. A great team.

It all worked. The show found its rhythm. Although the action was always intense by virtue of Mark’s fighting talents, some of the most heartfelt scenes I’ve ever written or re-written are in this series. It worked, and it was good. By the end of the season, we had a real friendship formed between Eric Draven and Detective Daryl Albrecht (played to awesome perfection by Marc Gomes) and Sarah (played so well by Katie Stuart).

The ratings were great by syndication levels (2.7 and above). Then Polygram was purchased by Universal, and it all fell apart. Universal, you see, wanted Polygram’s music division but, having gotten out of the TV business only the year before, had no desire to nurture a new series in the tough syndication market. It was just business. The show died.

Maybe, like Eric Draven, the show will come back to life some day. I’d like that. Maybe the fact that the underlying rights are now owned by NBC-Universal (which also owns the Sci-Fi Channel) will mean something. At the very least, I'd like it if this DVD release could spark the fire that would allow me to wrap up our Eric Draven arc with a film or a limited series, using Mark Dacascos. Then, maybe, Eric Draven really could rest in peace. Anyway, as the Crow flies...

Breaking News: "Dark Skies" DVD Coming Soon!

Once again, the truth about President Kennedy being assassinated in order to cover up UFOs can be told! Or at least the TV series purporting to be about the truth can be seen. Or something like that. Anyway...

After the thousands of e-mails I've gotten over the years from what seems like every corner of the globe asking me when they will be able to see the "Dark Skies" series on DVD, I finally have some good news!

I just received the good word today that "Dark Skies" is scheduled for DVD release in October 2007. Eight months and counting, but at least the countdown has begun...

A lot of copy's been written on this blog about the series. Go check here to read more about it. But, yes, the short story is that we were the people who were just enough south of sanity to write 20 hours of TV dedicated to the Unifed Field Theory of Conspiracies -- melding JFK's assassination with the UFO cover-up.

Flash forward to 2006. You may remember the poster you see here being ripped off (an homage?) by the "Path to War" publicity campaign. Since this similarity was reported on Salon, Slate, the Huffington Post and a lot of other places, maybe that extra notoriety helped move the show up the ladder of priorities. Whatever it was, it's great news.

If you'd like to read the pilot in anticipation of the DVD release, here it is.

BTW, my "Dark Skies" writing and producing partner Brent Friedman and I are working on a new project that is as insidious and mind-bending as our first project together. Also, Brent currently is the creative force behind "Afterworld" which has just launched on Bud TV after getting a build-up on the SuperBowl. Jim Parriott, the other Executive Producer on the show, has come off one success after another, most recently "Grey's Anatomy" and "Ugly Betty."

Because "Dark Skies" was a period piece set in the 1960s, it has aged remarkably well. I just screened a few episodes the other day, and they feel very fresh. Can't wait for those who want to see them to get the chance. The period music is terrific, the late J.T. Walsh is phenomenal as the leader of Majestic-12 Frank Bach. And Eric Close, now of "Without A Trace", portrayed the tormented and courageous John Loengard in one of the best performances he's ever given. And Jeri Ryan and Megan Ward were both great, regardless of which side of the Hive Mind they were on!

Thanks to Dave and SONY for making it possible, and congratulations to Brent and all the other people who worked so hard making those original 20 hours of TV!

For another alt.history way to look at the Kennedy years, CLICK on the banner below:

Sidney Sheldon & the UFO Conspiracy

I have only read one book authored by Sidney Sheldon who died Tuesday out in the desert at Rancho Mirage. It was his 1991 novel, The Doomsday Conspiracy, on the subject of UFOs. The plot and characters invovled the usual Sheldon formula applied to a global cover-up of a crashed UFO, complete with murdered witnesses and the like. Even though I hadn't read his other work, it still felt like maybe he'd stretched a little too far afield. But then, because I've done a lot of fiction-writing myself in the world of UFO's and aliens, I guess I'm a picky read.
In an author's note at the end of the book, he discusses the research he conducted in order to write the book. He really took no definitive position, preferring to couch most of his thoughts this way:

I have read a dozen books that prove conclusively that flying saucers exist. I have read a dozen books that prove conclusively that flying saucers do not exist.

Still, the last thing Sheldon said on the subject was a quote from Jill Tartar, an astrophysicist and Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI) project scientist at NASA's Ames Research Center. She said:

There are 400 billion stars in the galaxy. We're made of stardust, really common stuff. In a universe filled with stardust, it's hard to believe that we are the only creatures who could be.

Sheldon, in his writing career, preferred a more Earth-bound creature anyway. As the New York Times put it in today's obituary, he preferred to write about "stalwart women who triumph in a hostile world of ruthless men." Here's how Sheldon put it:

''I like to write about women who are talented and capable, but most important, retain their femininity. Women have tremendous power -- their femininity, because men can't do without it.''

One thing I always admired about Sheldon though was how he had achieved success in film and television and even on Broadway when, at the age of 50, he decided to try a life-change and turn his attention to writing novels. I guess by doing that he proved that you really are the author of your own life.

MOVIE SMACKDOWN! | Children of Men (2006) -vs- 28 Days Later (2003)

The Smackdown. The apocalypse has gone post(al) in both of these films set in England. The action in both starts in London then moves to the country where the living is not easier. In both of these sci-fi thrillers, man's command of science and control over his environment seems to have brought with it some terrifying and unexpected consequences.

"I read that book What To Expect When You're Expecting...twice...and none of this was in it!"

The Challenger. Just spreading now to theaters nationwide is CHILDREN OF MEN based on a book I actually read when it was first published by P.D. James. I found its central premise thrilling then, that mankind suddenly and completely goes infertile. I found the idea that if there are no people left in a few years that the sheer sadness that no one will ever hear Mozart or read Shakespeare again to be almost overwhelming. In the hands of director Alfonso Cuaron, this intellectual idea becomes gritty, dangerous and even more provocative. Clive Owen has been cast in one of his best roles here as Theo -- his face seems to register all the injustice and pain with a resignation to keep on living anyway finally giving way to a resignation to give it all up in a way that his life will have mattered.

"When I said that being a bike messenger was a great way to meet people, this was not what I had in mind."

The Defending Champion. While it's not impossible to think that infertility could bedevil mankind, I'm not particularly worried that 28 DAYS LATER premise will come to pass. This film basically has animal activists setting some lab animals free from their cages only to set loose a "rage" virus that transmits to humans. It turns into a zombie movie then, but probably the best one I've ever seen. And I was blown away by how awesome the "empty city" shots of London were when Jim (Cillian Davis) first realizes that something has gone wildly and insanely wrong.

The Scorecard. Both of these films are structured similarly: the opening in London, important mission of survival takes them into the country, fighting off zombies or immigrants who stand in their way, giving us a black woman as a main character who seems to be the toughest of the bunch, and ending with a sense of small hope for society after scaring the crap out of us along the way. Both were directed so intensely that they deliver their particular apocalyse believably and credibly. This is a close one. CHILDREN OF MEN, however, is a film that I could actually talk my wife into seeing while 28 DAYS LATER was dismissed by her as a genre movie she had no interest in seeing. And she had a point. Although the truth is CHILDREN OF MEN is actually scarier because it feels like a lot of it could come to pass if we're not careful.

The Decision. Years from now, CHILDREN OF MEN is going to be included in the group of films that include BLADE RUNNER. 28 DAYS LATER, though, is going to be compared to films like DAWN OF THE DEAD. Despite their structural similarities, this is still apples and oranges. I just hope there will be humans alive to listen to Mozart, read Shakespeare and watch CHILDREN OF MEN. It's a close decision on points...

{To read more of these MOVIE SMACKDOWN reviews, please CLICK HERE.}

MOVIE SMACKDOWN: Deja Vu (2006) -vs- Terminator II: Judgment Day (1991)

The Smackdown. We've put a couple of major star vechicles in the ring together, both of them about traveling back in time to change the future, both directed by major directors with reputations for getting the action up there on the screen.

"Using this thing to check out Pamela Anderson was a GREAT idea..."
The Challenger. That would be the Denzel Washington starrer, DEJA VU, which posits that with all those nifty satellites we have scanning the globe that there's a way to use them to "triangulate" and snoop on anybody we want ... only not in the present but four days and a few hours in the past. Okay, that's a stretch, but if you can get past it, the rest of the movie just charges ahead at full energy so that the whole thing still works.


"With Kid Rock gone, maybe she's ready for a real half-man!"
The Defending Champion. Remember how blown away you were when you first saw TERMINATOR II: JUDGMENT DAY? Granted, it's Arnold back as the Terminator, only he's playing a good robot in this one, and there's an even badder, improved model that's out to kill the boy who will grow up to save humanity. All of this is a stretch, too, but what fun! Seeing Robert Patrick re-assemble himself out of a pool of liquid metal, well, that had the theater I saw it in screaming.

The Scorecard. Both Tony Scott and James Cameron delivered big, intriguing films that are just plain fun to watch. Denzel is a better actor than Arnold. But the hooey-factor seems to be a little more in your face in DEJA-VU because in TERMINATOR II we just get the idea and move on. Also, DEJA-VU asks you to think about the thriller-mystery aspect of the plot which only shines a light on the logic holes while TERMINATOR II makes it all about the action. One robot wants to kill the kid; and the other wants to save him. Simple.

The Decision. I liked DEJA VU as a great Thanksgiving weekend afternoon diversion. But fifteen years from now, we won't be thinking of it anymore. TERMINATOR II: JUDGMENT DAY is a film for the ages that people will see multiple times, and talk about in film classes. This decision then goes to the rock-em, sock-em robots from the future...

USC School of Cinematic Arts Throws a Party

The gang was all there under a hot early afternoon sun: Steven Spielberg, Robert Zemeckis and, of course, the guest of honor George Lucas. The man behind "Star Wars" -- a 1966 graduate of USC's School of Cinema-Television -- has just gifted his alma mater 175-million dollars!

As an adjunct professor there this fall term (I'm teaching USC CNTV 589: "Produce or Perish"), I was there with several hundred others to hear the speeches and see the ceremonial lifting of shovels to break the ground on the new construction project. That's producer and trustee Frank Price, Dean Elizabeth Daley and University President Steven Sample all sporting hard hats along with George.

Buying naming rights is all the rage these days, of course, and Lucas got to give the school a brand new name for his chunk of change. Unlike Doritos Bowls and Tostitos Centers and Burger King Stadiums and whatnot, Lucas chose to use his influence to simplify and clarify. The new name of the USC School of Cinema-Television, effective today, is:

That's right. The USC School of Cinematic Arts. According to Lucas himself, here's the why of the name change.

“Though ‘cinematic’ was often understood in the 20th century as dealing with movies, in this century it is taking on a much broader context, looking beyond the media,” said Lucas. “I believe that the new name of the school embodies the movement of the industry and the art form, and positions all who learn here as leaders not just for the moment, but for generations to come.”

Just for the record, this is the largest private donation ever received by the university, period. For that kind of cash, USC would probably have called it Lucasville or Lucas World if he'd asked them to, so you really do have to admire the man's restraint.

As an aside to all this, one of the guests in my producing class this term talked about the illegal practice of "Block Booking" -– where a big feature film is tied to a less desirable film, forcing theater owners to take both. Back in 1977, Fox was fined $25,000 for this practice. The big feature film was "The Other Side of Midnight." The less desireable film? The one that nobody wanted? The one that theater owners had to be forced to take? Yeah, you guessed it. Some little thing called "Star Wars." From what I've seen today, this Lucas guy has done alright with it...

George Lucas has a lot on his mind about the industry. What he said to Daily Variety after the ceremony was probably more controversial and important than what he said during his time at the podium. For starters, he thinks the big tentpole mega-movie blockbuster strategy that studios are pursuing is exactly the wrong strategy. He sees a future of many, many smaller films and he's moving his own company in that direction.

The USC SCA (School of Cinematic Arts) donation puts $75 million toward the building fund for a brand-new state-of-the-art complex to house the school. The other $100 million portion of the gift will go toward support initiatives in four core areas: students, faculty and staff, technology and programming, and alumni outreach. The gift will also serve as a major catalyst for the school to reach the $200 million goal of its current endowment campaign.

Besides the obvious positive vibes, it was a fun outdoor event, too. We lunched at standing tables on chicken or beef sandwich rolls, french fries, pasta salad and cookies. The swag du jour included newly-minted hats with the new school name on them and t-shirts. Directors -- past, present and future -- will be wearing them all over Hollywood in the weeks to come. And, yes, that's Lucas getting "hatted" by Spielberg. It reminds me that JFK had a "no hats" rule during his campaign. People kept giving him hats but he never put them on because people take pictures of you wearing them -- you never look as good as you did when you arrived -- but the goofy hat picture is what gets printed. Having said that, I'm not giving back my hat, I love the damn thing.

USC's School of Cinematic Arts really is the best of the best when it comes to an education in film and TV and new media. My son is an undergraduate there now getting a major in "Interactive Media." He's been getting a spectacular education and, now, many more students just like him are going to get an even better one. The current class I teach, for example, is in another building besides the CNTV one, mine being described by staff as "the ugliest building on campus." Maybe in a few years, we'll get to teach this thing in the hip new hacienda-style architecture of the new so-far unnamed Lucas building.

Bottom line: George Lucas has made a lot of money in his life but, even so, nobody writes a check like this one without a wince. Thanks, George. It really is a great thing you've done. And we don't care what size movies you want to make from now on, just keep making them...