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Cool Movie Toys, Film, Interviews

Interview: NECA’s Randy Falk talks Guillermo del Toro action figure, more

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The creation of action figures for movies and television series is big business in the toy and collectibles industry, but generally the assortments that emerge from any given line generally consist of the characters, creatures and vehicles associated with film or TV shows and nothing more.

But thanks to the National Entertainment Collectibles Association (NECA), the action figure business is taking an exciting new direction.

Appealing to the fans who appreciate the talent both in front of and behind the camera, the New Jersey-based specialty collector company has found a niche by making action figures of directors behind famous films. To date, NECA has released seven-inch action figures of directors Quentin Tarantino (in a “The Hateful Eight” costume) and James Cameron (in “Aliens” attire); and now, for a limited-edition figure that will be sold the San Diego Comic-Con (SDCC) this week, Oscar-winning director Guillermo del Toro.

(photo: NECA)

In a recent email interview, NECA’s director of product development, Randy Falk, revealed that the idea to immortalize “The Shape of Water” filmmaker came about when the company and del Toro worked together on creating figures and sets for two of his classic films.

“We have a great history working with Guillermo del Toro, and when he attends SDCC he always comes by the booth to check out our latest and greatest,” Falk said. “The idea to actually create a figure of del Toro himself grew out of our experience collaborating on ‘The Devil’s Backbone’ and ‘Pan’s Labyrinth’ over the past two years. We’ve had success in the past creating director figures of Quentin Tarantino and, last year, Col. Cameron (James Cameron), so immortalizing Guillermo was a no-brainer. He loves toys and collectibles and is an icon to our fanbase since he is such a visionary director.”

In addition to selling the 8-inch Guillermo del Toro Signature Collection figure and other exclusives at SDCC, NECA will be revealing upcoming licenses. So, given that “The Shape of Water” won the Best Picture Oscar at the Academy Awards earlier this year, could an Amphibian Man figure be in the works?

“Possibly — (that is) certainly something that is very high on our wish list considering how beautiful that film was and the critical acclaim that followed,” Falk said. “Perhaps we will have more news on this come SDCC.”

In a wonderful bit of symmetry, another exclusive NECA action figure of a director will be available at SDCC this week. The interesting bit is, it’s a 7-inch figure of Shane Black, the director of the upcoming sci-fi thriller “The Predator,” but of Black as his character, Hawkins, from the 1987 classic “Predator,” starring Arnold Schwarzenegger.

“I was fortunate enough to visit the set of the latest ‘Predator’ film back in the spring of 2017 and I sort of bounced the idea off of Shane and his people at that time,” Falk recalled. “We had just finished up our ‘Predator’ 30th anniversary collection and felt like it would be great to incorporate Shane into it … to be able to do his character as Hawkins would be a perfect lead-in to him taking over the franchise as a director and was just perfect synergy. Luckily, he liked the idea and wanted to do it. The timing really was perfect. With the film having a big panel and presence at SDCC and releasing in September, to have the exclusive Shane Black as Hawkins release this July couldn’t be more perfect. The toy gods were smiling down upon us for this entire project.”

While fans are getting the unique opportunity to get action figures of del Toro and Black at this year’s SDCC, Falk said NECA isn’t “actively pursuing” any other filmmakers to make into action figures at the moment. He’s completely open to the idea of creating more, however.

(Photo: NECA)

“We agree it is a really nice addition to get the actual creators involved and into the line where it makes sense. Everything so far has grown out of special circumstances or situations that lent themselves to the creation, and there has been a narrative or compelling reason behind it,” Falk said. “The ‘Aliens’ 30th anniversary for example, Shane being director of ‘Predator,’ the launch of the Guillermo del Toro Signature Collection we have worked so closely with him to create. All those factors helped make those possible and make them special. So, along those lines, I would love to do something with, say, Wes Craven or George Romero if we could find a way to make it special and have it make sense.”

In the meantime, Falk said, fans can look forward to plenty of surprises as the company reveals new lines at its booth at SDCC throughout the weekend.

“We definitely have some incredible surprises in store! I think there is truly something for everyone in this year’s reveals and a few jaw-droppers that no one will have seen coming,” Falk enthused. “We have some reveals involving horror, classic TV, classic ’80s films, lots of nostalgia and lots of fun. I can’t wait to be in San Diego again to debut all the great new items our team has worked so hard to create.”

Tim Lammers reviews movies weekly for The KQ92 Morning Show,” “KARE 11 News at 11” (NBC), WCCO Radio, WJON-AM, KLZZ-FM, “The Tom Barnard Podcast” and “The BS Show” with Bob Sansevere.

Copyright 2018 DirectConversations.com

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Film, Movie Reviews

Movie review: ‘Pacific Rim: Uprising’ falls flat

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“Pacific Rim: Uprising” (PG-13)

A refreshing idea from five years ago is essentially turned into the latest chapter of the dreadful “Transformers” movie series in “Pacific Rim: Uprising,” an unnecessary sequel to writer-director Guillermo del Toro’s entertaining robots vs. monsters sci-fi action thriller from 2013. Boring and predictable, not even the franchise’s engaging new lead, “Star Wars” star John Boyega, can save this action movie mishmash from being a disappointing misfire.

Boyega stars as Jake Pentecost, the estranged son of the late Stacker Pentecost (Idris Elba), a dying hero who ultimately sacrificed himself to help save the day in the first movie. With the film’s other big hero, Raleigh Beckett (Charlie Hunnam), noticeably out of the picture, Jake, a jaeger pilot who inherited the skills of maneuvering the giant robot like his father, is recruited to serve when a new threat emerges. It seems while the humans have been successfully able to keep the original film’s giant sea monsters (the kaiju) at bay, a shadowy villain has found a way to use the kaiju to turn the robots against one another.

Sadly, it shouldn’t take fans long to realize that “Pacific Rim,” del Toro’s story of monolithic sea creatures emerging from the Pacific Ocean (clearly the man has an affinity for the shape of water), has gone the “Transformers” route, a once-promising film series (the 2007 original was great) that quickly devolved into annoying exercises of crash-boom-bang filmmaking.

The low point for that series came with “Transformers: The Last Knight” last year, where a mechanically gifted streetwise orphan girl (Isabela Moner) enters the fray and joins forces with the film’s lead (Mark Wahlberg). Basically, with “Pacific Rim: Uprising,” the same thing happens, where a mechanically-gifted streetwise orphan girl (Cailee Spaeny) joins forces with Jake, leading to a predictable ending that becomes obvious 10 minutes into the movie. That’s not to say that aren’t impressive new kaiju creatures to marvel at; it’s just that it takes too long to get to them, and in-between, the film seems intent with trying to entertain its audience with a series of robot clashes.

Apart from retreaded plotlines, another huge factor that plagues “Pacific Rim: Uprising” is the film’s lack of interesting characters. True, unlike his turns in the “Star Wars” chapters “The Force Awakens” and “The Last Jedi,” Boyega gets to sport some of his natural charm (and his original British accent), but it’s not nearly enough to carry the film.

Ron Perlman, Elba and Hunnam gave the original quite a bit of weight with their charisma, as did Rinko Kikuchi (who only reprises her character for a few brief scenes), but in their stead, Scott Eastwood seems to have been given a mandate by director Stephen S. DeKnight to mimic his famous dad as much as possible. The always great Burn Gorman is about the only returning cast member who turns in an entertaining performance, while Charlie Day reprises his character with a twist, but is out of his depth considering the burden the sequel assigns his already quirky character. Unless somehow del Toro, Pearlman and Hunnam miraculously return to right the shit, it’s time to set “Pacific Rim” franchise adrift.

Lammometer: 4 (out of 10)

Tim Lammers reviews movies weekly for The KQ92 Morning Show,” “KARE 11 News at 11” (NBC), WCCO Radio, WJON-AM, KLZZ-FM, “The Tom Barnard Podcast” and “The BS Show” with Bob Sansevere.

Copyright 2018 DirectConversations.com

Film, Movie Reviews

Oscar picks: ‘Shape’ to stay above water … barely

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The 90th annual Academy Awards ceremony is Sunday, and you can bet some people will be solely tuning in to see if there will be a screw-up as monumental as last year’s Best Picture envelope fiasco. That’s unlikely, but with any luck, host Jimmy Kimmel will have fun with the faux pas all night long. The show simply needs something out of the ordinary, because with the predictability of this year’s nominations, the show, barring a couple of potential upsets, is shaping up to be another 3 1/2-hour Academy borefest.

Despite the formulas pundits put into play to make their picks, predicting the winners of the Oscars doesn’t take much homework. Basically, ignore the awards handed out by the critics and the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (the members of which hand out the Global Globes), because journalists don’t vote on the Oscars. Instead, the trends lie with industry awards – the Producers Guild of America, the Director’s Guild of America, the Screen Actors Guild and the British Academy of Film and Television Awards – because some, but not all, are voting members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences.

With that, making this year’s picks quickly fell into place. Here are my predictions and some potential upsets.

Best Supporting Actor nominees:  Willem Dafoe, “The Florida Project”; Woody Harrelson, “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”; Richard Jenkins, “The Shape of Water”; Christopher Plummer, “All the Money in the World”; Sam Rockwell, “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”

Will win: Sam Rockwell, “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”

Possible upset: Willem Dafoe, “The Florida Project”

MORE: Hear Tim’s Oscar picks on KQRS-FM, WCCO-AM and “The BS Show with Bob Sansevere.”

Best Supporting Actress nominees: Mary J. Blige, “Mudbound”; Allison Janney, “I, Tonya”; Lesley Manville, “Phantom Thread”; Laurie Metcalf, “Lady Bird”; Octavia Spencer, “The Shape of Water”

Will win: Allison Janney

Possible upset: Laurie Metcalf, “Lady Bird”

Best Actor nominees: Timothée Chalamet, “Call Me by Your Name”; Daniel Day-Lewis, “Phantom Thread”; Daniel Kaluuya, “Get Out”; Gary Oldman, “Darkest Hour”; Denzel Washington, “Roman J. Israel, Esq.”

Will win: Gary Oldman, “Darkest Hour”

Possible upset: Not a chance. Oldman is due for what is easily the best performance of the year.

Best Actress nominees: Sally Hawkins, “The Shape of Water”; Frances McDormand, “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”; Margot Robbie, “I, Tonya”; Saoirse Ronan, “Lady Bird”; Meryl Streep, “The Post”

Will win: Frances McDormand, “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”

Possible upset: Sally Hawkins, “The Shape of Water”

Best Picture nominees:

“Call Me by Your Name”; “Darkest Hour”; “Dunkirk”; “Get Out”; “Lady Bird”; “Phantom Thread”; “The Post”; “The Shape of Water”; “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”

Will win: “The Shape of Water”

Possible upset: “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.” The recent claims that writer-director Guillermo del Toro lifting the story from the 1969 play “Let Me Hear You Whisper” (just in time for voting!) may come back to bite “The Shape of Water.” A harbinger of that will be if Christopher Nolan upsets del Toro for Best Director. Nolan winning wouldn’t be a huge shame. Nolan is way, way overdue and deserves the honor for the expert direction on “Dunkirk.”

Tim Lammers reviews movies weekly for The KQ92 Morning Show,” “KARE 11 News at 11” (NBC), WCCO Radio, “The Tom Barnard Podcast” and “The BS Show” with Bob Sansevere.

Copyright 2018 DirectConversations.com

Film, Interviews

Interview: Oscar nominee J. Miles Dale talks ‘The Shape of Water’

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There’s no question that director Guillermo del Toro’s fantasy romance “The Shape of Water” has received a lot of love this awards season, including the Directors Guild of America award for del Toro, and the best picture trophy from the Producers Guild of America for the filmmaker and his fellow producer, J. Miles Dale.

And yet, while “The Shape of Water” is up for a leading 13 Academy Awards Sunday, including nominations for Best Picture, Best Director for del Toro and Best Actress for Sally Hawkins, Dale said there truly is no better honor for any filmmaker as the heartfelt feedback he’s heard from fans about how deeply moved they were by the film.

“It’s gratifying that the movie is resonating with audiences. It has universal themes, no doubt, with love, tolerance and inclusion and all those things,” Dale said in a recent phone conversation from Los Angeles. “But I think what the movie has really going for it is nobody goes into it knowing what it’s going to be. Sure, from the trailer you can think, ‘Ah, it’s a Cold War thriller’ and it’s a little bit ‘Creature from the Black Lagoon,’ but I don’t think anybody is ready for where the love story lands. So, it’s really satisfying to see that people really get the movie, and maybe how it helps move the needle a bit with how they treat other people.”

Co-written by del Toro and Vanessa Taylor, “The Shape of Water” follows the unlikely path of Elisa Esposito (Hawkins), a mute janitor in a top-secret government research facility at the height of the Cold War in the early 1960s who forms a unique bond with an amphibious creature (del Toro’s longtime collaborator Doug Jones) with human characteristics. Finding a way to effectively communicate with the creature, Elisa’s love for the amphibious being grows, but since he’s being subjected to torturous experiments by the leader of the research project, Col. Richard Strickland (Michael Shannon), Elisa must formulate a daring escape for the creature from the facility before he faces a certain death.

Dale — who previously collaborated with del Toro as producers on the 2013 Andy Muschietti-directed, Jessica Chastain thriller “Mama” and most recently, as a producer and director on the del Toro-produced FX horror series “The Strain” — said pitching “The Shape of Water” to its studio, Fox Searchlight, wasn’t that difficult. That’s a pretty startling revelation, considering the film’s unconventional interspecies romance narrative — a narrative that ventures to daring, if not unfathomable lengths before all its pieces intersect and flow into the film’s genius conclusion.

“It’s funny, because I have made many jokes about how it should have been a hard pitch, but it actually wasn’t,” Dale said. “To Guillermo’s credit, he took them out to the museum that he has in his house in the San Fernando Valley, so he pitched it in the context of his incredible museum.”

Dale is speaking of Bleak House, where del Toro houses countless artifacts from horror, sci-fi and fantasy films and television series, as well as other mediums. The atmosphere of Bleak House (despite the foreboding implication of its name) no doubt enhanced del Toro’s pitch to Fox Searchlight’s executives.

“They loved it off the top. They saw the beauty of the idea from the beginning,” Dale said. “It should have been harder than it was. If he pitched it to the studio anywhere else, it probably would have been difficult. But Searchlight has been incredible partner and they’re not afraid to take chances, especially with great, visionary filmmakers, and I think they saw the opportunity to do something with Guillermo that was unique instead of fearing it.”

Doug Jones in 'The Shape of Water' (photo: Fox Searchlight)

Dale believes by showcasing his otherworldly artifacts for Fox Searchlight, the studio fully realized the commonality that exists within many great filmmakers: a passion for the work not only because they know the material, but because they’re fans of it. And with the artifacts that he harbors in Bleak House, as well as a film collection that includes the “Hellboy” films and “Pan’s Labyrinth,” del Toro is completely at home with “The Shape of Water,” Dale said.

“What (Bleak House) really drives home is that Guillermo is such a fan,” Dale enthused. “He’s really just a fanboy who’s found his way. It’s cool that he has that purity of spirit. He’s dyed-in-the-wool with this. He’s not into sports or anything else. He’s all-in on arts and culture and spends half his money on movie props.”

Copyright 2018 DirectConversations.com

Tim Burton Book 2
Click book cover for info on how to buy!