A Pinoy Blog About Nothing

What’s neat about picking up a copy of Wired Magazine’s June 2005 issue? Not only does it feature one of my favorite directors Steven Spielberg and his version of H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds but also there’s an ad for Shark Boy and Lava Girl the next movie of another favorite, Robert Rodriguez.

When Spielberg unleashed Jaws, he along with George Lucas, started the concept of the summer blockbuster - event movies in which movie studios pour resources to saturate every possible venue for advertising for the upcoming movie. At the very heart of it, Spielberg has continued to show that he not only has the technical expertise to pull-off a movie with spectacular effects, but also care primarily about the stories which he has sought out to tell. Ever wonder why up to this point, we’re not seeing the aliens in his War of the Worlds movie in his trailers? Because he believs in the old school cinema tradition of not revealing the monster up until the very end (if at all). We’ll be seeing a lot more of Tom Cruise’s mug up until the release of the movie.

Rodriguez has similarities to Spielberg when the latter was starting out. Rodriguez is a more hands-on guy - he would direct, write, shoot, edit and do the music of his movies. With his recent success on Sin City, he has shown movie studios that you can do well made movies very cheaply using digital instead of film camera (Spielberg said he’s thinking of doing the next Indiana Jones movie digitally, with the help of Lucas of course). How cool is it to do a movie especially for your kids? Rodriguez did that in Spy Kids (yeah the 3rd one sucked but he was asked to do it three times). What more, Rodriguez would do his work away from Hollywood - in his high-tech ranch in Texas. Read more in Rodriguez’s Rebel Without a Crew: Or How a 23-Year-Old Filmmaker With $7,000 Became a Hollywood Player. It might be a few more years before Rodriguez gets the Oscar for Best Director but like Spielberg with Schindler’s List, it’ll be one hell of a movie when that happens.

Two mavericks and film-making pioneers in one issue. Worth the price of the magazine if you ask me.