Do any of you remember the mixture of giddy excitement and utter bafflement that swirled around the production of the “pre-pilot” for the Aaron Spelling series “Savannah” back in 1995? The production seemed to swing from silver spoon to shoestring with wild abandon. We were in high cotton during the swank wedding exteriors that we shot at the house of that Atlanta Barbecue sauce magnate (with the really hot redheaded trophy wife). And it wasn’t too bad when we shot at the clubhouse at Eagle’s Landing. But the day that we rolled into the as-yet-unfinished Delta terminal at Hartsfield International Airport? That was pure guerrilla filmmaking. We didn’t know it at the time, but we were really lucky to have Richard Lang directing.
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Have you ever been watching a car chase movie and thought to yourself “Gee, there sure are a lot of skidmarks on the road…” just as one of the onscreen vehicles slams on its brakes and goes into a mad spin? I personally never gave car chase continuity a thought until after I’d worked on a wreck of a movie named “Black Dog“, back in 1997.
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You’ll find a note on the Internet Movie Database that states that actor Kevin Sorbo, of televisual Hercules fame, was originally slated to star in the movie Black Dog, which shot in Atlanta and in Wilmington, North Carolina. It goes on to state that he had to pull out of the movie for medical reasons, which is correct. As one of the people who worked that show I can confirm that we were told that Kevin had an anyeurism in his shoulder, which was surprising because up until then I didn’t know that you could get them anywhere other than your brain. Looking back, I have to say that the man’s luck never ran truer than when he was forced to leave that ill-fated production. This is the story of the day that we met Hercules.
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Ahhh, good old Scene 144 (night). You’re the one that really gave me a headache. The one that came back to bite me in the ass. The one that made Denzel Washington scold me like a schoolboy. Yeah, I’m talking about you Scene 144 (night).
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Most mornings, on my way into Atlanta, I hop off the Downtown Connector and drive northward on surface streets, enjoying the ever-changing views of town. Quite often I drive past locations from old movie projects and am reminded of those past events in vivid detail. Most recently I’ve been pondering the day we shot in front of the historic Ponce De Leon Apartments at the corner of Ponce and Peachtree. We were there for the pilot episode of “Lawless“. That was the first pilot of Lawless mind you, the one with a very, very medicated Daniel Baldwin… so very medicated was he that I have until recently remembered his outlandish behavior on set far better than the day that I almost robbed a convenience store by accident. But now I remember…
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(Note: If you’ve missed them, my pictures from Sweet Home Alabama are in my photo gallery and I’ll probably be uploading them to Flickr soon.) One of the bottles that Josh Lucas dropped off the watertower didn’t break. Honest to gosh, hand to heaven, it didn’t break. He dropped the darned thing, it fell sixty feet (maybe more?) to the ground and stuck in the mud, intact. What’s so remarkable about that?” you may ask. Well, for one thing, the bottle was candy glass, from Alfonso’s Breakaway Glass. It’s made to break.
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This evening I caught the video of actress Kirstie Alley strutting her stuff in bra and panties to show off her “new body” to Oprah, God and Everybody. Nice job Kirstie, you’re elbowing your way back onto my list of sexy actresses. All this celebratory hooplah has nearly made me lose the remaining guilt that I harbor over my part in your breakup from Parker. What? Didn’t I ever tell you guys that story? Continue Reading

Did I ever tell you about the time that I lost Reese Witherspoon’s $4,000 custom-made wedding ring from Tiffany’s? About how I had visions of ending my film career by being stomped to a pulp by Disney’s studio goons and Tiffany’s prissy New York jewelers? I didn’t? Well obviously it all worked out for the best, and it’s hardly as exciting as it sounds, but I figure the statute of limitations has run out and it’s safe to tell the whole story…
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