Superman versus Batman

With the huge campaign promoting the return of Superman to the big screen next week, fans are hoping for a 2-part victory – a proper, successful movie version of the last son of Krypton and the subsequent JUSTICE LEAGUE movie which would finally provide DC Comics with their answer to the wildly successful rivals, Marvel’s THE AVENGERS.

So I was chatting with a couple friends and they were saying that they think Superman will be a dud. Superman, they said, represents ideals and values from a different time. Truth, Justice and the American Way. And in the post-9/11 world, it was Batman – the Dark Knight – who better captured the current mood of the country and the world – cynical, fatalistic, nihilistic.

And if you take this a step further, Superman and his god-like qualities and the practically Biblical story – Jor-El sends his only son to save Humankind – hits the screens right when people are more and more vocal about being atheists?

I’m not sure. All the MAN OF STEEL promos feature Christopher Nolan’s name – prominently promoted – hoping that some of that DARK KNIGHT box office magic rubs off on SUPERMAN. And when we look back at when Superman first appeared – in 1938 – it was during the Depression and the worldwide churn just before World War II. Times were pretty dark then too.

Everyone needs something to hope for, aspire to. I recently watched SUPERMAN RETURNS and was a little bored because the story-telling wasn’t particularly motivating. And let’s not forget that SMALLVILLE has kept the Superman torch burning bright for 10 years.

Here’s hoping that MAN OF STEEL is a good movie. Henry Cavill is a wonderful actor and looks the part. Zack Snyder can make good movies – check out 300 or his remake of DAWN OF THE DEAD.

ps
I originally wanted to blog a big thank you to everyone who’s bought the CHRISTIAN BALE biography. In the past 30 days, the book has won Best Biography by the Indie Excellence Awards, and was a finalist for Best Biography by the Indie Book Awards. As my first published book, I can’t ask for a greater reception than that! Thank you, all! I hope you stay turned for the next books!:)

Where goes Superman?

This past weekend, Henry Cavill’s new movie, COLD LIGHT OF DAY, bombed at the box office with nasty reviews and few dollars.  This is Cavill’s last movie as a civilian.  Next year, he either ascends superstardom or wallows in Brandon Routhdom as the next Superman in MAN OF STEEL.  Either way, he won’t be poor!:)

It’s also the Toronto Film Festival this week – one of my favorite film festivals from my old home town – and it always brings to mind my favorite topic about the battle between indie versus studio films.  And it is a reminder about a filmmaker’s passion and what kind of luck a film, its director and its actors can have.

It was at the Sundance Film Festival many years ago where AMERICAN PSYCHO blasted off to turn Christian into a star.  Indie films like JUNO became hits at a film festival when a major studio decided, “Hey, let’s buy this little movie and see how well it does!”  This month, I’m looking forward to seeing PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER because I loved the book, and I’d love to see how Emma Watson handles her post-POTTER career, and I think the next great actor is Ezra Miller.

In a similar way, my book, Christian Bale’s biography, is sort of like an indie film.  My publisher is smaller – think Summit Entertainment, not Paramount Pictures – and we had no advertising budget.  But the book has caught on and been doing well, consistently in the Top 100 Best Selling Celeb biographies on Amazon for the past 3 months.  Thank you all for your tremendous support!

The fan mail – yes, I’m getting mail! – has also been interesting as the nature of the readers have changed.  I think initially, hardcore Baleheads were bristling at any perceived criticism of their favorite actor.  But as the reviews have been getting out there, and people have been reading the book, the word of mouth is more like, “Wow, I didn’t know that!  I didn’t realize what it takes to be an actor!”

And this summer has been great proof of the power of fandom.  Witness the 2 Internet campaigns – the first one to get Christian to go to Colorado to visit the shooting victims, the second to visit with the cancer-stricken boy – I mean, really, Baleheads, you have to feel good about the power of the Internet and the continued proof of what’s in Christian’s biography – that fans have always mattered to his career.

I’m hard at work on my next book projects.  It’s too early to talk too much about them, but suffice it to say, you write what you know!:)

The Butterfly Effect – Jean McKay

We’re less than a week away from Comic-Con, and some sad news hit me today and made me think of a classic sci-fi theme – The Butterfly Effect.  I’m not talking about the Ashton Kutcher movies, but the concept of cause and effect explored in the movie.

As defined by WiseGeek, The Butterfly Effect is a term used in chaos theory to describe how small changes to a seemingly unrelated thing or condition (also known as an initial condition) can affect large, complex systems.

If you’re a Trekker, you know this concept in every episode when the crew of the Enterprise went back in time to ‘fix’ events.  Other people call this “alternate realities” – that they are infinite numbers of existence – a world where Germany won WW2, or a life where you decided to marry someone else, or you decided to take a left turn instead of a right.  Think about the FINAL DESTINATION movies and think, what if?  What if?

Some butterflies have more powerful effects on your life.  Maybe a different choice of cereal in the morning won’t change world history, but maybe if you went to a different school, a different college, if your parents hadn’t divorced, who knows how your life might have changed.

One great butterfly of change in my life was my high school English teacher, Mrs. Jean McKay, at Westdale Secondary in Hamilton, Ontario.  I’ve heard everyone has a special teacher or mentor who impacts your life, and mine was definitely Mrs. McKay.  She was my teacher for 3 years and she provided the blessing and drive for me to follow my dreams and love of writing.  She and her husband, Dr. Alexander McKay, encouraged me to move to Los Angeles when Christian asked me to relocate to work on his career.

It’s hard to describe her.  She personified elegance and class. A genteel reality from another era and civilization.  Her dinner parties were my first exposure to culture.  At any particular dinner, you could be seated beside a diplomat, a famous opera singer, or a government minister.  The McKays lived in a beautiful old mansion which Dr. McKay himself described as patrician.  The house had 2 baby grand pianos where guests could play duets, and her guests snacked on homemade candied almonds served in real 2,000 year old Roman bowls.  Dr. McKay was a professor of Classics, specializing in Roman history, you see.  Mrs. McKay happened to have been a trained opera singer before she became a teacher.

Before Downton Abbey, I had the McKays.  Mrs. McKay and her husband were fond of me and kept in touch after I graduated from high school.  When I moved to L.A., Mrs. McKay would tell me about any interesting books she thought would make great movies, and she told me about CAPTAIN CORELLI’S MANDOLIN which she thought would have been perfect for Christian.  Of course, we all were hoping for Christian to land the lead of Corelli, but the book ended up being optioned by Nicolas Cage’s production company instead.  Fortunately, because we were tracking the book so early on, Christian stayed involved with the project and landed the part of Mandras, the Greek fisherman.  One of my proudest moments was to invite Dr. and Mrs. McKay to the Toronto premiere of CAPTAIN CORELLI as both mine and Christian’s guests.

Today, I found out that Mrs. McKay had passed away, and I’ve been thinking in a cloud back to her wonderful dinner parties which were as exquisite to the senses as a Merchant Ivory film. It was easy to be dazzled and intimidated by the place settings, impressed by the sumptuous Italian food, the elegant mansion on Turner Avenue, her letters of encouragement and cheer, and her beautiful Christmas cards which featured Renaissance paintings.

I knew she was ailing these past couple years but I was happy that I managed to send her a copy of my book a month ago.  She is in the Acknowledgements as she should be.

Requiescat in pace, my teacher.

Comic-Con Cometh

In a couple weeks, I head to San Diego for Comic-Con 2012!  I’ll be doing book signings, meeting the press, and going on a week long press tour that culminates in a signing in Manhattan Beach’s Barnes & Noble which is sort of fitting because that’s where Christian used to live, so it truly brings my Bale journey full circle.

We’ve been thrilled that the book has been doing really well – consistently in Amazon’s Top 100 Biographies – and with Dark Knight Rises opening July 20, the book will probably get even more attention as people look for information on the movie’s lead actor.  I’ve been asked whether I’ll be dressing up as Alfred or…. Bane at Comic-Con!  No comment.:)  But I do want to thank the readers who’ve taken time to check out the book and to ask some really interesting questions about Fame, Celebrity, and all things Hollywood.  It’s always great to see that the book has inspired some intelligent discussion.

Last week, I did a very cool interview with The Patrick Phillips show. It was cool on many levels – I’ve done a ton of radio interviews, but none in-studio, so the sound quality is awesome, and I was channeling my inner NPR-SNL-spoof.Check out the classic Betty White Muffin SNL skit below!  And the host was very insightful as he had actually taken the time to read the book and come up with his own opinions about the book.  Check out the interview here:

SNL’s NPR Muffin skit with Betty White!

So if you’re headed to Comic-Con, come by the Smartpop Books booth and say, Hello! I’m hoping that the trusty iPhone will help me document the journey!
Thanks all!
HC

Lost treasures – Indie film

Thank you for the awesome reception to the book!

I’ve been doing a lot of press to promote the book, and I’ve been asked a number of times what were the pivotal indie films in Christian’s career.

If you’ve been reading some of the more sensational headlines about the book, learn to read between the lines!  It’s unfortunate how much of an interview gets cut out to leave in the headline crap.

I love independent film.  Those films are the ones made with love and passion, before a director, a writer or an actor has to worry about whether or not their project makes a studio any money.  Indie films typically have more interesting dialogue, more original storylines, and the most daring work of an actor.

So when I think back on Christian’s career, the obvious indie choice is American Psycho.  Without American Psycho, Christian would have been hard pressed to convince Hollywood that he could play American, be buff, and look good in that all important “Bruce Wayne” like tuxedo!

But if you’re a fan of Christian’s work, you’d be remiss to ignore Metroland (reviewed here) and films like All the Little Animals and The Secret Agent – where Christian would lay the groundwork of playing a part like in The Fighter.  Here’s a factoid for you – Christian was actually after the part What’s Eating Gilbert Grape which he lost to…. DiCaprio!  To prepare for that role, he went to schools for the mentally challenged so that he could study mannerisms and speech patterns.  DiCaprio ended up getting the part – and it earned him an Oscar nom!

My very first indie film that really caught my eye was a wonderfully dark David Lynch film called Blue Velvet.   It was the first movie I ever saw where the audience reacted so strongly, that some people walked out of the theater!  Next was one of Colin Firth’s early films – Apartment Zero.  If you love American Psycho, you might want to check out Apartment Zero since it garnered Firth awesome reviews and should have made a star out of Hart Bochner.  But alas – not every actor had Christian’s kind of indie film marketing to leverage the most out of every appearance! I also loved the Canadian indie, I’ve Heard the Mermaids Singing and a film noir called After Dark My Sweet which starred Jason Patric.  Patric was another great actor who coulda woulda shoulda been a star, but he hates the Hollywood game and was pretty anti-publicity.

I could go on and on about various films that impressed me at a film festival or left me wondering if an actor would make it big after being the toast of Sundance, but I guess the main point about these being “lost treasures” is that not all of these films get released on DVD.  So they disappear unless you’re lucky enough to get press screeners.  When you think about how many wonderful indie films missed getting distribution, it’s a little discouraging and should make you realize the tough odds of getting a successful Hollywood career!  Here’s a Bale-related example – both Metroland and All the Little Animals were distributed in the U.S. by Lions Gate.  They chose to acquire those titles based on the very successful film festival attendance for those films. So fan power got those films a distribution deal.

When Lions Gate was getting ready to produce American Psycho, the entire casting war between Christian and DiCaprio was again determined by fan voting and reaction.  The casting war left a bitter taste in Christian’s mouth.  Does he hold a grudge? Well, let’s say that he made it quite clear that he would not appear in Lions Gate’s American Psycho 2 or Rules of Attraction – both Bret Easton Ellis projects.

We all love the summer blockbusters – they are entertaining, but if you’re a movie buff, I hope you look up smaller films – there are a million gems out there that are worth seeing.  And chances are, they will be your own private treasure!:)

I wanted to send out a big thank you to American and Canadian readers who’ve made Christian Bale: The Inside Story of the Darkest Batman a Top 100 Best selling Amazon Biography for the past 2 weeks in a row!  I’ve done a couple more book events and have been so thrilled to meet movie buffs, Batman fans, Baleheads who are enjoying my book.

Coming up?

• The Patrick Phillips Show (podcast) on Wed, June 20
• The Writers conference – I’m on 2 panels (June 22, 23)
• Comic-Con, San Diego!
• Lots of press to be announced throughout July
• Book signing – Barnes & Noble Manhattan Beach, CA (July 20)

Headlines Don’t Sell Papes! Newsies Sell Papes!

So you want to be an author, and you’ve tried for years to get a literary agent.  Then the literary agent gets you a publishing deal.  Done?

Nope.  Then you work with a publisher and the publisher’s marketing team, and you hope that the final edit of your book is as close to your original draft as possible!  Done?

Nope.  Then review copies are sent out to see what book reviewers will think of your book.  In my mind, a book review should tell their reader:

1. What’s the book about?
2. Is it well-written?
3. Who would like this book?

But a funny thing can happen with a book – especially one like Christian Bale’s biography. Out of 300+ pages, a reviewer decides to mention “Christian Bale made girls cry” – one incident described in the book.  And that’s the headline that gets picked up around the world! Oops.  Not the nice incident about a boy telling Bale that Batman was his hero.  Not the touching deathbed story with his dad.  Nope, none of that.

As of today, I’ve done two book signings and have been really pleased to meet Baleheads, Batfans, movie buffs who have told me how much they enjoyed the book.  Warts and all, Christian is a human being, so to worship him unconditionally is pretty one dimensional, IMHO. My book gives some real insight as to what makes him tick, and that’s what I’m interested in reading about my favorite actors.

I’ve added an addendum page to the book web site which contains some of the scans of letters and faxes referenced in the book. Again, my advice to you is to READ THE BOOK first and don’t take the letters and faxes out of context.  What I hope you’ll get out of the letters is a first hand look at Christian’s thoughts, attitude and rapport we had.  You can decide what’s funny, sarcastic or angry, but it’s only fair to read it all in context.

I know it’s more fun to have a sensational headline to grab a reader’s attention, but as much as I support the press and free speech, I have a huge believer in CONTEXT! That’s the only way to keep alive the art of headline writing.

My co-author and I appreciate your support, advice and great words of encouragement.  Publishing is such a crazy world nowadays!  If you’re a book blogger or reviewer, the book is available on NetGalley.

Have a great weekend! The best is yet to come….

7 Day Countdown

The advanced book signing event at Book People was a tremendous success, with people stopped by the giant book posters of Christian’s face, and the scrumptious delight of “Bale Cookies.”  It was really cool to talk to movie buffs, Baleheads and celebrity biography readers all eager to learn more Christian and his career.  Next stop…. Dallas!

With just a week before the release of the book (May 29), I received my final copies of the book and was surprised to find a couple weird things.  First of all, the number of photos had been cut back to make room for words.  Here’s an interesting factoid for aspiring writers: the book publisher won’t let you go over a certain number of pages!  Second of all, scans of letters and faxes in the book were not included because the publisher thought they would be illegible, so I’ll be posting the scans up on the web this weekend.  And oddest of all, you know how usually the authors get their pictures on the back cover? Again, bumped for space.

It’s been a numbing week for me with the passing of Donna Summer. Her sudden death surprised the world, and I think it made me pondering life and mortality all the more.  Sheesh, let me shudder a bit and move on.

I’m thrilled with the advanced reviews and reception the book has been getting.  It was chosen to be on Los Angeles Magazine‘s Reading List, by Austin Monthly as a ‘Must Read’ for the summer, and by Tribute Magazine on their “What’s Hot” list.  And after my first TV appearance, I’m slated to do 9 radio interviews this week – from regional to national shows!  Well, I’ll look good on radio!:)

Christian Bale Biography – Book Contest – win a signed book!

If you’re in Canada or the U.S., I have a surprise for you!  I’m giving away signed copies of my new book, Christian Bale: The Inside Story of the Darkest Batman.  But you have to be a real Balehead to win – have a listen to the video below and post your answers on the Facebook page!

Top Ten Ways to Tell if You’re a Balehead

Define the word ‘fan.’  Define the word ‘fanatic.’  Define the word ‘Balehead.’ 🙂

I’ve spent many years talking to Christian, to  movie studio execs and to talent agents about the definition of a “fan” and what that means to different parties.  To Christian, as the object of adoration, a fan wasn’t an easy concept for him to grok.  Movie studio execs are a lot more pragmatic – fans are the people who are going to buy tickets, rent videos and make their movies number one on the Box Office charts.  Talent agents have probably been the most evasive about defining fans because they’re loathe to acknowledge any other person’s influence aside from their own.

So what makes a Balehead?  When the term was first coined years ago in a chat room, it was simple.  A Balehead was a fan of Christian Bale’s.  It’s evolved over the years as some fans splintered off to hardcore Newsies fans.  Others are purists – non-Batman fans – and they sometimes resent the multitude of new fans who’ve never heard of Christian before Batman Begins.

I think the Baleheads are like a thermometer – a scale – with degrees of fandom ranging from the Bale Wall of Fame to American Psycho ringtones, to clever passwords like sibibale4ever or mojobaledog!:)  You know who you are!

So with that in mind, I present to you the latest vlog from England:

Top Ten Things to Consider when Moving to Hollywood

A wonderful up and coming British comic actor (he’s 18years old and bears an uncanny resemblance to Daniel Radcliffe when he’s clean-shaven, and to Shia LaBeouf when he’s hairy) recently asked me and my co-author Nicola for advice in pursuing a career in Hollywood.  We came up with some ideas, tongue in cheek.  And he read them out loud in his own wonderful way. Enjoy!

 

And here’s a St. Patrick’s Day Greeting from Christian Bale! I’ll have a pint of Guinness, please!