27
Mar
The latest on Absolutely Anything
Check out Terry's amazingly frank and highly entertaining Empire interview about our movie. http://www.empireonline.com/interviews/interview.asp?IID=1858...
24
Mar
Absolutely Anything First Day’s Shoot
Absolutely Anything: First Day of Principal Photography Gavin Scott’s Production Diary The shoot gets off to a flying start when Simon Pegg, as Neil, goes into our bathroom set and sees his wish come true that the mess made by his dog Dennis cleans itself up. This scene did not take Terry and me long to write, but like famously expensive script line “the two armies met”, actually getting two items of dog poo to leap into the toilet requires a LOT of great British film making expertise. First … the dog...
23
Mar
Santa Monica Airport
COURTESY OF THE CITY OF SANTA MONICA The Santa Monica City Council will begin fleshing out the City’s options of Santa Monica Airport’s future next week. NEWS, SANTA MONICA, SANTA MONICA AIRPORT Airport2Park Urges Santa Monica City Council To Take Bolder Steps To Close Airport POSTED MAR. 22, 2014, 6:00 AM MIRROR STAFF The Santa Monica City Council will discuss the future of Santa Monica Airport at its Tuesday meeting. In the lead-up to the meeting, Airport2Park -- the organization a group of residents formed last summer to advocate for building a big public park on the airport site -- has...
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Santa Monica Airport
21
Mar
As seen in tonight’s London Evening Standard …
Kate Beckinsale to star in Terry Jones' film project that he spent 20 years perfecting “LOUISE JURY, CHIEF ARTS CORRESPONDENT Published: 21 March 2014 Former Monty Python star Terry Jones has admitted he is thrilled to have started shooting a film that he began work on more than 20 years ago. Jones and his team are taking over the former Ashmount primary school site in Hornsey to make Absolutely Anything, about a disillusioned teacher who is given superpowers by aliens. “We started it 23 years ago, but gave it up in 2003 when Bruce Almighty came...
19
Mar
Absolutely Anything Rehearsal Day Two
Today Kate Beckinsale has arrived and I get to read the part of fiancé. Well, the lunatic Marine Colonel who thinks he’s her fiancé, who’ll be played by a real Marine Colonel named Rob Riggle. But until then Kate nobly puts up with me leaping through the window and threatening to throttle Simon Pegg, who, as Neil, wants to be her fiancé but finds his talking dog Dennis has come between them. I also play the sandwich lady during the scene in which Neil’s best friend Ray is turned into a...
18
Mar
Absolutely Anything Rehearsals Day One
To our production base, the old Ashmount Primary School in North London, where Terry Jones has just arrived. It’s great to see him again and to celebrate the fact that the script we’ve been writing for so long is finally getting made. which is an abandoned educational establishment and the perfect location both for the school where Neil teaches and the flat where he discovers his supernatural powers. It’s now buzzing with set dressers and carpenters and even people doing up the daffodils in the school grounds – and the...
13
Mar
A Flight of Lies
A Flight of Lies was my second thriller, and introduced the character of Ronald Foster, a sort of modern comic counterpart to John Buchan's Richard Hannay: a wonderfully ill-informed, impulsive young man who stands for everything the British Secret Service likes least. the novel is told in form form of letters and memos which gradually reveal Ronald's unorthodox impact on international affairs. The story was inspired by a piece I did for BBC Radio about the hunt for the bones of Peking Man. A Flight of Lies - First 50 pages...
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Books
12
Mar
Rupert Bear in Space
One usually associates Rupert Bear with Nutwood, but in this marvelous images from a 1960's annual, here are his pals, pigs, badgers et all, gliding across the surface of a new planet as if they belonged there. And Rupert himself, of course, supervises from his personal UFO. Who else Albert Bestall and his heirs could have made space seem ...
12
Mar
Galactic retirees
This is a picture of a galaxy which has put its feet up. Dating back to the early days of the universe, it began its career creating stars as fast as it could. And then, for some reason, decided its stellar family was big enough, and stopped. What does that mean for the inhabitants of the stars it did create, billions of years ago? Have they evolved mightily since then? Are they the wise and far-seeing aliens of our dreams? Who knows. But this is what has just been reported about these...
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Commentary
11
Mar
Brocks Fireworks Poster
This poster for Brock’s fireworks perfectly conjours up for me the cosy world of my 1950’s northern England childhood. We never actually had a bonfire in our back garden, which was a bit small for that, but we did let fireworks off there, and the Big Bonfire was just across the park from our house. For weeks anticipation grew as we watched the park keepers add autumn leaves, fallen branches, old bedframes, decrepit sofas and all sorts of wonderfully inflammable things to the growing pyramid. Topped of course, by Guy...