Roger Ebert RIP

Noted film critic Roger Ebert died a couple days ago on April 4, 2013. He’s probably best known for his TV show Siskel and Ebert with their thumbs up or down movie reviews and their sometimes funny bickering. For me, Ebert was also one of the first people who showed me how powerful the Internet could be.

Years before the Web, Ebert had a very active message board on CompuServe – an online community that even preceded America Online (AOL). He posted his reviews there and invited people to discuss movie topics with him. He deftly handled arguments – even in the early days of online community, we had haters and flamers – and he never failed to use the power of moderation to bring silly, pointless arguments to an end.

Ebert had declared that the Toronto Film Festival was one of his favorites because Toronto wasn’t so star-struck nor industry-ridden at the time. It was a film festival for people who love film, plain and simple. I messaged Ebert that I was in Toronto and told him that I’d be happy to recommend any restaurant to him. To my delight, he responded. He wanted to know about vegetarian restaurants because he was trying vegetarianism to address a number of health issues. I sent him a list, starting with Chinese restaurants and then expanding to a number of restaurants in The Beaches area. He was very pleased and went to a couple, even making his way into The Beaches to have a look around.

I guess because I have a memorable first name, Ebert occasionally messaged me privately in response to a couple of my posts. He was intrigued by the “Talk about Actors” folders I was moderating and building for Christian Bale. Ebert did not like any of Christian’s early works, but he was fascinated by the growing active and vocal audience I was cultivating. Within the space of a year (this must have been 1991), Christian was the most talked about actor on CompuServe and AOL. From Ebert’s point of view, here was an obscure British actor with an unremarkable body of work, so he wanted to know why was there the interest in Bale.

Simple. I responded to Ebert. I’m following your example and interacting with the online people. They have questions? I answer them. They want to know more? I supply them with details. When the audience realizes that this is an active actor’s forum, they start to flock and congregate. This was exactly the lessons I learned from watching Ebert’s movie review community on CompuServe.

Ebert’s online model got me very interested in the possibilities of using the Internet to promote actors and movies. He also fanned my own love of movies, and I was happy to contribute to Ebert’s book Ebert’s Little Movie Glossary.

I remember after I moved to Los Angeles, I posted a public question to Ebert, asking him how he liked vegetarianism. To my surprise, I was flamed by angry people all thinking I was insulting Ebert’s weight. (Ahhh, the danger of the Internet.) By the next day, Ebert had posted a reply that I was an “old online friend” and that I was kindly inquiring about his health. Period. End of argument. I was impressed with his fast reply because it showed that he was still very active online, reading his audience’s every word.

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….

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!

Comic-Con and Fan Power

“So heres how it is if we don’t act together then we nothin’. if we don’t stick together we nothin’. And if we can’t even trust each other, then we nothin’. So whats it gunna be?”

Newsies

I just found out that I’ll be at Comic-Con this July to sign and promote my book.  I haven’t been to a Comic-Con in years, so it’s really exciting to imagine going there as an exhibitor as opposed to a visitor or a behind-the-scenes guy.

I love conventions. I’ve been to Fangoria’s, fests and other sci-fi conventions in California and in Ontario. Conventions are the ultimate celebration of the Audience and the Fan.  There is great love and excitement and mob democracy – not like the snobby appeal of a film festival. The folks at Creation Entertainment have my dream job!  One of my fave movies of all time is Galaxy Quest.  I think that movie nailed the uneasy relationship between fan and star.  And by the end of that movie, remember how thrilled a young Justin Long was to have actually helped the crew of the Protector?

The funny thing about movie studios, agents and managers is that they have a general disdain for fans. During my years of working on Christian’s career, they all downplayed the power of the fan. They ignored real results – web site traffic, fan mail, letters to producers, polls.  And why not? Agents don’t want to admit that anyone else has any influence on casting decisions.

It’s a weird industry.  In most other industries, a “product” goes up for evaluation and gets chosen based on its merit, its performance.  But in Hollywood, where the actor is the product, a lot of casting decisions depend on schmoozing, agency and studio politics, the casting couch, and sheer dumb luck. Agencies like to “bundle” talent where, if a producer wants to hire a particular actor, they have to hire a director or co-stars from the same agency or manager.

In my experience, actors are also a little queasy about fans. Some actors absolutely appreciate their fans – they answer fan mail, sign autographs, and stop to say, hi.  Others are reluctant to admit that their fame and fortune are the result of others.

Christian also has an odd relationship with his fans.  I explore more in the book, but let’s take Newsies as an example.  Christian would say that if he followed the influence of his fans, he’d be making Disney movies forever.  So, as an actor, he felt it was important that his script decisions needed to be made with no fan influence in mind. That was the only way he could grow as an actor.  This was the artist in Christian.  The guy who played Jack Kelly is the same guy who played Patrick Bateman – that’s quite a range!

The flip side of this is that the many fans of Newsies have felt snubbed by Christian’s hatred of that movie.  Christian had some bad experiences with the movie (I have an entire chapter on Newsies in the book!) and Newsies’ cult status, staying power, and triumphant march to Broadway this year are reminders that his grown-up post-child actor career began with a movie he hated.

I was very touched by this Open Letter To Christian Bale Regarding Newsies. I think the author was very eloquent about her love for the movie.  There used to be this huge, elaborate fan site for Newsies built by a guy who actually changed his name to ‘Jack Kelly.’  Now that’s a fan!:)  He wrote fan fiction, did illustrations, and was very influential in helping Newsies get its 5th anniversary DVD edition. Without Newsies’ cult success, a lot of things would not have happened for Christian’s career. Imagine that parallel universe….

“You see, this is my life! It always will be! Nothing else! Just us, the cameras, and those wonderful people out there in the dark!”

Sunset Blvd

Origin Story – aka Christian Bale’s birthday

On the occasion of Christian’s birthday on January 30, it seems fitting to to talk about origin stories. Ever notice how we movie buffs – in particular, sci-fi fans – love origin stories?  How did Batman become the dark knight? How did an infant refugee from Krypton go to Smallville, Kansas by his parents desperate to save their son from destruction? Spiderman and the radioactive accident? Green Lantern inheriting a ring from a dying alien?

I think we love these stories because it’s part of our love of story-telling, of epics, of legends – that every tale has a beginning. Once upon a time. In the beginning. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.:)

Until my book arrives in May, Christian Bale‘s origin story has never been told before with much detail or depth. But as a former child actor from England, his journey to Hollywood is the main subject of my book.  It’s tough enough to make it in Hollywood if you’re moving from, oh, Iowa, but if you’re coming to America from another country, you have to deal with a whole extra bunch of problems. Visas, immigration, work permits.  If you’ve ever dealt with the shit that’s involved in moving – whether across the city or across the country – you get an idea as to what Christian, his dad, David, and his sister, Louise, went through.

One of the coolest and most fascinating things I learned about Hollywood is how much marketing goes into each movie and into each star.  But before you become a star, you’re in the battle of your life, fighting against every other actor who’s up for the same part.

Pre-fame Christian Bale. White male in his 20s. 6’1″.  His competition included: Leonardo DiCaprio, Ethan Hawke, Edward Norton, Christian Slater, Stephen Dorff, Joaquin Phoenix, Ewan McGregor, etc…etc…etc…  Knocked off his competition list?  Corey Haim, Brad Renfro, Jonathan Brandis, poor guys who’ve died, victims of missing or mishandling their chance at a Hollywood career.

It’s rough. Very rough.  An actor needs an edge.

You might think, how about a killer agent? Nope, agents don’t develop talent anymore.  They typically get involved only *after* an actor has momentum.  Christian’s previous agents were notorious for not returning calls for months, not attending premieres, or not using press kits or highlight reels. Think of talent agents like real estate agents and you’ll get the picture.  Is a real estate agent going to make more money selling the $20 million house or the $75,000 condo?  That’s why new talent, and up-and-comers have to fight to get their agent’s attention.

So an up and coming actor really struggles to get attention to make him stand out from his growing competition, because in the time it took to write this blog, another 1000 young actors have just arrived at LAX with stars in their eyes.

ps. I watched an episode of Selling L.A. on HGTV – luxury real estate in Los Angeles.  And on the episode, this rich couple from Chicago was looking for a place in L.A. for their young daughter to pursue a career in Hollywood. Budget? $5 million.

I remember how bitter Christian and his dad used to be, that some rich families could move to LA and buy the best stylist, publicist, tutors and trainers.  The rich could buy access that others could not get. Christian’s dad used to point at Balthazar Getty as a prime example, especially after Getty landed parts that Christian really wanted.

pps Christian is NOT Welsh. He was born in Wales but considers himself English.  He bristles whenever people call him Welsh.  I guess he’s as Welsh as I am Scottish – and I was born in Scotland!:)

The first Balehead

In my book, I have an entire chapter dedicated to the beginnings of Christian’s fan base on the Internet, but I learned that the editors and proofreaders do indeed chop off all the good stuff.  The stuff where I think I’m witty or snarky, telling tales that are related but tangentially so.

Long time Baleheads will remember that Christian’s Internet following was nurtured by his official fan club – the CBFC.  How the CBFC began is fortunately still in the book, but I wanted to tell you a pre-origin story.  A prequel, if you will.

Like many good things, this story begins in Canada, in Hamilton, Ontario.  I went to high school at Westdale Secondary, a giant stone building that was built in the 1930s with the proud claim that it was the “largest school in the British North American Empire.”

To non-Canadians, Hamilton is to Toronto as Chicago is to New York. A ‘second’ city, tough, working class, proud of not being Toronto, grumpy about not being Toronto.  But Hamilton was the place where a lot of Canadian comedians came from. Martin Short, Eugene Levy, and others went on to be the core of the hit TV series, SCTV.  And many writers and performers from SCTV (Catherine O’Hara, Dave Thomas, etc…) went on to careers at SNL and elsewhere.

I met Laurie in high school, and we remained friends although we ended up going to different universities.  By the time we both ended up in Toronto, working day jobs, we – meaning me, Laurie, and her husband, John – shared a love of movies and fine dining.

Laurie is still the queen of obsession, and I say that lovingly because her passion for movies, actors, sort of spurred me on. I think the clinical term is that she was my enabler!

In 1987, I saw Christian’s movie, Empire of the Sun. While the critics panned it, and movie-goers ignored it in droves, I was fascinated by a movie that was set during the SIno-Japanese war. My parents had gone through the war as children and they had their own tales of how their families struggled during the war.  My dad lost his mother when Hong Kong was bombed. My mother’s family left Nanking just a year before it fell to the Japanese and the Nanking massacre took place.  I looked at Christian in the movie and thought, “There but for the grace of God go I.”  I could imagine that if I were born just decades early, I would have had to survive a world war.

In 1992, Newsies opened in Toronto.  Laurie, John and I went to see the movie because Laurie LOVED musicals and the Disney publicity was bragging that Newsies was the first live action musical in decades.  To Laurie, the spirited young star, Christian Bale, reminded her of a young Jimmy Stewart.  Christian was like a Golden Era Hollywood star – he could act, sing and dance. She was the first Balehead.

I remember hating Newsies when I first saw it. It was long. It reminded me of Norma Rae  and I couldn’t stand Sally Fields, was lukewarm about musicals, and the Disney Happy Ending formula was soooo predictable.

But Laurie loved the movie, and when we found out that its star, Christian Bale, was the same kid from Empire of the Sun, I was very curious to learn more about Christian. Was he British or American? What else had he done?

Laurie happens to be an engineer and, although I’m Asian, she is much more of a technogeek than I am.  She promptly went out and bought a laser disc player because she knew all about the differences between widescreen versus pan & scan, and she pointed out that Newsies’ choreography was terribly truncated because of the poor pan&scan VHS version.  Additionally, getting a laser disc gave her a version of Empire of the Sun that was widescreen and included the “making of” documentary, ‘The China Odyssey.’

“Hey, we got an extra nun!” I remember her clapping her hands with delight the first time we watched Newsies on her laser disc player.  The scene was the opening “Carrying the banner” when a line of nuns on a bread wagon were handing out slices of bread. And sure enough, on widescreen, there were more nuns!

So began our arms race.  I quickly had to get a laser disc player of my own.  We competed trying to find laser disc versions of all of Christian’s movies.  We hunted down CDs of the soundtracks, movie posters, any memorabilia we could find.  And Laurie and I took great pleasure in tormenting her husband by having Bale Night – at the time, that was a movie night watching Empire of the Sun, Treasure Island, Newsies, and eventually Swing Kids. Our dinner parties were thematically planned around the movies. Of course, movie night on Christian’s birthday – January 30 – was called Balemas!:)

Originally, we formed an early version of the CBFC (Christian named the CBFC) called CCBALE which stood for “Cinemaphiles for Christian Bale Appreciation, Laud and Encouragement.”  We looked at Christian’s box office record – Empire was Spielberg’s biggest bomb, Newsies was Disney’s biggest bomb, then Swing Kids was another huge Disney bomb (through its subsidiary studio, Hollywood Pictures).  How could an up-and-coming actor’s career sustain that kind of bad luck?

Our next race would be to find an address for Christian to write him letters of appreciation, laud, and encouragement. In other words, fan letters. We spent hours researching – I think the bookstore was called Pages – it was the era before the IMDB, of course.  But we were on a sincere mission to save this young actor from obscurity. So when I fatefully got a reply from Christian, my life would change forever.

2012 – Year of the Dragon

To be honest, I’ve never really wanted to blog – it seems sort of odd to have, in effect, an open diary, but many people convinced me to blog about my upcoming book so I’ve been wondering out loud (or virtually, as the case may be) what to write about.

So first of all, Happy Chinese New Year’s.  2012 is supposed to be an awesome year for me. First and foremost is the May 29, 2012 release of my book, Christian Bale: The Inside Story of the Darkest Batman (BenBella). It has taken me many years and a long and winding road of inspiration and perspiration to write this book.

My name is Harrison Cheung. I was Christian Bale’s personal assistant, publicist, marketer – the real life Alfred to his Bruce Wayne.  I looked after Christian and his father during his formulative years – when he first moved from England to Hollywood to pursue a career.  I did everything from cooking, cleaning, script-reading, orchestrating his web sites, answering his fan mail, scheduling his photo shoots, booking his travel from location to location.  The list goes on and on.

The book is primarily Christian’s biography, but it’s also the story of how he became the biggest star of the Internet in the 1990s, and how I – a mere mortal, a movie buff, a fan – came to befriend him and his family.  I moved from Toronto to Los Angeles at his request.

To put it simply, my friend asked for my help to make his dreams come true.  How could I resist?

I have a web site for the book, I also have a Facebook page where I’ve been posting pictures of Christian over the years – my book publisher is only going to put in 10 photos, so I wanted to add more photos and letters and cards to the Facebook page. And I’ve even started up a Youtube Channel cuz the brave new world of book publishing means that I have to have trailers – just like the movies!:)

My wonderful co-author, Nicola Pittam, is a journalist. It’s absolutely incredible to have a journalist write a book with you, because facts are cross-checked and you constantly have a friend to keep you sane – otherwise this book could have ended up the diary of a blithering idiot!:)

I know there are Baleheads out there who will be surprised and amazed at how Christian’s career began.  I think his true fans are going to be impressed at the part they all played in his success.  Christian was the first actor to have an official site, the first with an alt.newsgroup, the first to have his highlight reel on the Internet, and so much more.  I also think people who love a good celebrity bio are going to enjoy the insight of what was it like to be a former child actor trying to make it in all-too-unforgiving Hollywood.

My book is not really a tell-all.  I think it’s a bit of history – about Christian Bale’s early years, about the rise of the Internet, about the power of fan activism. Look at the cult success of Newsies – from box office bomb to video hit and now to Broadway Musical – and you’ll get a hint of what my book is all about.  Fan power. Your power.  Our power to make someone’s dreams come true.

So I hope you’ll be curious and excited about the book – truly the first biography of Christian Bale.  I’ll end my first blog post with a wonderful quote from Marco Polo when he came back from China:

“i did not tell half of what I saw, for i knew i would not be believed.”

The Dragon year begins.