The picture is just so full of awesome that I can’t not re-post it here.
Brian Schirmer
I write so you don’t have to
The Return of Whit Stillman
Writer/Director of Metropolitan, Barcelona, and Last Days of Disco. I had the good fortune to speak with him a couple times while he was on a book tour a few years ago. Very friendly chap. His return is long overdue. Here’s the overview of his next feature - Damsels in Distress - shooting this summer:
[The picture] centers on a group of college girls who take in a new student and teach her their own misguided ways of helping people. Lily, a new student at Seven Oaks University, winds up filling in with a dynamic and highly individualistic group of girls, addicted to the elegance of the past: Heather, Violet and Rose all volunteer at the campus Suicide Prevention Center, convinced that musical dance, sharp clothes and good hygiene — the Dior perfume “Diorissimo” is their trademark — can all contribute to staving off the inevitable self-destructive impulses that follow hard on the heels of failed college romances. Despite their sophisticated talk and savvy use of perfume, the girls are plagued by Cupid’s arrows and must adjust their psyches to the onset of amour.
When I first saw Metropolitan back in the early nineties on VHS, my girlfriend and I hated it so much that we ejected it and returned it to the video store after about a half hour. Speaking for myself, my palette just wasn’t attuned to his style yet. A few years later, I watched Barcelona on a recommendation from an acquaintance at a laser disc store - yes, I just completely lost the under-20 crowd - and marveled at the film’s humor, sensitivity, and humanity. After this, I tried Metropolitan again - and watched it back-to-back in the same night. It was - and remains - that good.
From the Trenches
Wondercon was a terrific experience. We met a plethora of great folks, traded more business cards than I can count, and engaged in a fair amount of “networking”, defined herein as “consuming generous amounts of alcohol in a social setting with like-minded purveyors of a craft”.
That’s me, just after completing set-up on Thursday.
Below, you’ll find artists Jeremy Saliba and Tareq Mirza, each doing what he does best.
Wondercon is Nigh!
If you’ll be at Wondercon this weekend, here’s where you can find me, several of the artists, and a few dedicated volunteers as we unveil Worlds Apart.
For those of you who are better with words than pictures, the above translates to Table SP7 in the Small Press area.
Worlds Apart: Cover #5
…of 5. Art here by Joshua Johnson. Worlds Apart will be available with all five covers at Wondercon in San Francisco, April 2-4. More info next week.
Grant Morrison & Stephen Fry Materialize on the BBC
Bleeding Cool has announced that Paul McGuigan will direct a seven episode series for the BBC, starring Stephen Fry and written by Grant Morrison. McGuigan elucidates:
It’s seven episodes. It takes place over seven days around an event that happens in Scotland. It’s a modern take on an old fable or fairy story. If you know Grant’s work you might have an idea of what it will be like. It’s like Twin Peaks meets Brigadoon! It’s off the wall and smart but in a watchable commercial way. It’s still in the early stages but I’m very excited about it.
Looking forward to this more than most anything else in any medium.