Hump Day & Chill

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Film Buff Friday: Shortcut To Happiness

File this one under things that make you go Hmmmmm....

SHORTCUT TO HAPPINESS: After eighteen long years from production to release Shortcut to Happiness finally makes its debut on Blu-ray and DVD on July 16, 2019. Originally "The Devil and Daniel Webster" (the film's original title when it was in production in 2001) was to be the directorial debut of star Alec Baldwin. According to a 2007 Entertainment Weekly article, "production was vexed by alleged money problems and the FBI's bank-fraud investigation of a reported investor". According to a 2007 article in The Guardian, the movie grinded to a halt "during post-production when the FBI seized the investors' assets, including the film, in the course of a bank fraud investigation." Due to this and other rumored creative differences, Baldwin had his director credit removed from the film and replaced with the pseudonym "Harry Kirkpatrick". Baldwin's producing partner Jon Cornick told Entertainment Weekly in 2003, "We spent a lot of time and effort shooting the movie... It's not the movie that we intended to make." 

Producer Bob Yari rescued the film from bankruptcy court and finished the film without Baldwin's participation which received limited theatrical screenings in 2007. Years later the film aired on Showtime and Starz channels but had never received a proper release on home video. 

"I was presented with opportunity to license Shortcut To Happiness," according to MVD Entertainment Director of Acquisitions Eric D. Wilkinson. "Despite the movie's checkered past, I liked it. It reminded me of the high concept romantic comedies of the 1980's and 90's. It has a great cast and production values and I think fans of the genre will more than enjoy this film. So after eighteen years since the movie first started production, I'm excited to finally give Shortcut To Happiness a proper release on disc and digital".

 

Set in New York's literary world, Shortcut To Happiness is a contemporary re-telling of the classic short story ''The Devil and Daniel Webster'' featuring an all-star cast that includes Academy Award® Nominees Alec Baldwin (The Departed) and Dan Aykroyd (Ghostbusters), Academy Award® Winner Anthony Hopkins (The Silence of the Lambs), Jennifer Love Hewitt (Heartbreakers), Kim Cattrall ("Sex and the City"), Bobby Cannavale (Ant-Man), Amy Poehler ("Parks and Recreation") and Darrell Hammond ("SNL").

 

Jabez Stone (Baldwin), a down on his luck writer, sells his soul to the devil (Love-Hewitt) in exchange for fame and fortune. But when things don't turn out as planned, Stone ultimately decides that he wants his old life again and enlists the help of Daniel Webster (Hopkins) in order to win his soul back from Satan, herself!

Star Trek Realness

We Go Together Like...
Chris Pine & John Cho

As the world at large knows this past weekend Comi-Con in San Diego, CA happened. It's the biggest event of it's type that brings fans and stars together and melds them into one big...I was going to say "happy family" but having been I'm going to go with cluster fuck.

On hand to promote Star Trek Beyond were Captain James T. Kirk and Sulu aka the actors known as Chris Pine and John Cho who served up some fanboy realness by attending the Starz party together.

Since the latest Trek movie was number one at the box office this past weekend (how surprising, not!) I bring you an image of the two U.S.S. Enterprise crew members to commemorate Comi-Con 2016.

Enjoy my generosity and have a Trekkie Tuesday! 

Star Trek Beyond on IMDB:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2660888/?pf_rd_m=A2FGELUUNOQJNL&pf_rd_p=2495768522&pf_rd_r=1HR7TXAEPR9SEC6V1HRB&pf_rd_s=right-7&pf_rd_t=15061&pf_rd_i=homepage&ref_=hm_cht_t0  

"Evil Dead" The Mini-Series, Because They Can

Bruce Campbell Is Back To Kick Some Ash

OMG! This is very cool news indeed! I remember when I saw the first Evil Dead movie in 1981 with it's unique blend of horror, camp and over the top gore it was unlike any thing I had ever seen before, I was hooked!

Of course I saw the equally loopy and freaky Evil Dead 2 and Army of Darkness.

Well all of you "Dead Beats" get ready here comes Ash vs. Evil Dead. The Starz Network announced its plan to air the 10 half-hour episode miniseries, with the 1981 film's star Bruce Campbell back as Ash and director Sam Raimi executive-producing. Raimi will also direct the pilot. Raise a bloody stump and say Hallelujah!

"I'm really excited to bring this series to the Evil Dead fans worldwide," Campbell said in a statement. "it's going to be everything they have been clamoring for: serious deadite ass-kicking and plenty of outrageous humor."

Raimi added, "Evil Dead has always been a blast. Bruce, Rob Tapert, and I are thrilled to have the opportunity to tell the next chapter in Ash's lame, but heroic saga. With his chainsaw arm and his ‘boomstick,' Ash is back to kick some monster butt. And brother, this time there's a truckload of it."

Set 30 years after the first film, Ash vs. Evil Dead will follow Ash, who has spent the last three decades "avoiding responsibility, maturity and the terrors of Evil Dead," as he is forced to finally face his demons after a Deadite plague threatens to destroy all of mankind. "Destiny, it turns out, has no plans to release the unlikely hero from its 'Evil' grip," states the press release.

They're going to get you on Starz in 2015, take me, I'm ready!

We're Evil, We're Dead Get Used To It! at: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083907/

Got Chicken Wings? "The Great Chicken Wing Hunt"

When I saw this I laughed so hard the glass of water I was drinking came out my nose. Chicken Wing enthusiasts, uh, I like chicken wings, but I'm just sayin'...

Perhaps A&E can do a new series called "Wing-Hunters" ?

The brand new documentary and film festival favorite The Great Chicken Wing Hunt will be released on January 14, 2014 in select theaters and, in partnership with digital entertainment curator FilmBuff, across all leading Video On Demand

platforms.

Celebrating the wing's rise from lowly bar food from Western New York to one of America's (and the world's) most popular foods, the documentary directed by Matt Reynolds follows a group of self-proclaimed wing enthusiasts on a journey through America's 'Wing Belt' as they attempt to find the world's best Buffalo wing. Over the course of their journey the 'Wing-Hunters' stop at 72 bars and restaurants, travel 2,627 miles and try 270 types of wings. After 16 days on the road, and a contentious two-day deliberation, the judges finally settle on one winner, declared the greatest of all.

"The film celebrates the Buffalo wing as a uniquely American creation," Reynolds said, noting that 2014 will mark the 50th anniversary of its invention. "Experts in Wing Hunt make the case that the Buffalo wing may in fact be the first purely American food to have conquered the globe (hot dogs, hamburgers, etc, having roots abroad)."

Wing Hunt comes out just two weeks ahead of the Super Bowl, when Americans will eat more than 1.2 billion chicken wings.

In addition to Reynolds, the film's colorful cast of characters includes fellow judges Ben Beavers, a semi-pro eater, Ron Wieszczyk, an amateur sauce-maker, and Ric Kealoha, a Hawaiian chef based in Prague, as well as a befuddled Slovak film crew and Reynolds ever patient girlfriend Lucie.

Along the trip, the 'Wing-Hunters' visit Anchor Bar, in Buffalo, NY, where the hot wing was invented 50 years ago on March 4, 1964, and where the Hunters meet Dom Zanghi, the last living witness to the events of that fateful night that changed culinary history forever. The Great Chicken Wing Hunt marks the first time this story has been told on film.

The film is already available for pre-order on iTunes: http://bit.ly/18zyIYy

Grab yourself some wings on Video On Demand platforms in the U.S. on January 14, 2014, including Amazon Instant Video, Google Play, Xbox Video, Sony Playstation, Cinemanow and Vudu.

Wing Hunt was an audience favorite at dozens of festivals in 2013, including Woodstock, STARZ Denver and Austin, winning awards at Indie Spirit, Memphis, Big Apple and Williamsburg. 

Soylent Green is Chicken Wings at: http://chickenwinghunt.com/