Day 46 of 60 was recently filmed at the tourist attraction “South of theBorder” for the film Forces of Nature starring Ben Affleck and Sandra Bullock.

“Whichever way the monkey jumps, he always sees his own tail.” That was thequote of the day on the call sheet for the first day of filming, TuesdayAugust 18th. One set was scheduled under “Big Pedro” the towering 97 footfigure of th resorts mascot.

“They pull into South of the Border and get off the bus,” the call sheetreports. Extras include bewildered parents, heavy set tourists, South of theBorder employees and kids. On Wednesday, “Sarah (Bullock) takes sunseekers andBen (Affleck’s real name and characters name) onto a ride.”

And who was the “Lava Lady” on the call sheets? “That’s just something we puton our call sheets,” Steve Saeta (production manager) replied. “Every day wehave a very good time on our set. There are jokes and bantering going on.”

While at South of the Border, half of the hotels 300 rooms were rented by thecast and crew.

The story involves a love triangle between Bullock (Sarah), Maura Tierney(Bridget) and Affleck (Ben Holmes), a New Yorker who has two days to reachSavannah to marry Bridget. His plane skids into Flushing Bay and he saves thelife of his seat-mate, Sarah.

“It’s a romantic comedy where Ben Affleck, sort of a yuppie New Yorker, isgetting ready to be married,” said Saeta. “He’s traveling down and suddenlyget thrown into a tumultuoussituation in which every way down the road, hegets slowed down by various ‘forces of nature,’ whether it’s a plane thatcan’t take off, a rental car that gets pulled over, a storm or whatever. Andduring the course of this, he meets up with Sandra Bullock who is on her waydown as well. It becomes a question of is he going to fall for Sarah or is hegoing to marry Bridget?”

The film should be out sometime in either March or April, although no exactdate has been set yet.

Tons of us geeks just love the comic called THE PREACHER, and it looks like the script and the film is getting off the ground. This would be fairly friggin awesome if it were to get moving. As for the two allegedly up for the main dude… Hmmmmm, I’ll have to sleep on it. I bet y’all have some suggestions. Well read away. Warning though, there are some SPOILERS below, so read at your own risk….

Harry I just wanted to tell you about a script I just covered, very cool, it sounds like your cup of tea. It’s called PREACHER, and it is to be directed by Rachel Tallalay (TANK GIRL) and it is some seriously violent, fucked-up, crazy, otherworldly type shit.

It is about a guy named Jesse (the Preacher) who is stuck being the preacher in a bum-fuck crappy mid-Texas shithole town. (No offense Harry of course!) Meanwhile, up in Heaven, or in the “next world” or whatever, a Demon and an Angel get together and have sex (usually they fight, and don’t fuck) and their child is called “Genesis”. Anyway, Genesis decides to go to Earth and possess the body of a mortal man, and that combination will create a super-powerful being. I realize this probably sounds totally crazy, but bear with me please.

Anyway, some Angels up in heaven decide that they have to eliminate Genesis, so they reincarnate the spirit of the most brutal, violent killer the Old West has ever known (He’s called ‘THE SAINT OF KILLERS’) and send him after the Preacher. Meanwhile, after Preacher gets possessed, he is able to speak “The Word Of God”–meaning he can tell anyone to do whatever he wants. I.e., if he tells someone “Pull down your pants and moon the traffic for 20 minutes”, that person would have no choice but to do it.

Then Preacher gets teamed up with his old girlfriend named TULIP, who has just been rescued from a random gunfight by a friendly Irish guy named CASSIDY, who incidentally turns out to be a bloodsucking vampire. Also, Preacher is running away from his two evil stepbrothers who have been programmed by their psychotic grandmother to ensure the fate of Preacher.

Yes this totally sounds crazy–but I’ll qualify it: The movie has a budget of $35 million, and the lead role of Preacher will be either Ben Affleck or Johnny Depp, The “Saint of Killers” role is supposed to be for Samuel Jackson, and the “Cassidy” friendly vampire role is already attached to Robert Carlysle, who as you know was awesome in FULL MONTY and TRAINSPOTTING.

This is a totally violent, nasty, fun-filled script, like FROM DUSK TILL DAWN but with much more of a gritty, well-written, and funny edge. Not just good guys against vampires, this is good guys against evil ghosts, angels, demons, vampires, and screwy inbred Texans. Anyway, it is cool and I’m sure you’ll hear much about it in the future.

-hermster

“So that’s it — the Marvel Knights lineup for ’98-’99. Folks have asked me what our objectives are in taking over the creative reins on DD, Black Panther, The Punisher, and the Inhumans. Do we mean to tell “…monumental stories,” I’ve been asked. And I’ve got to say, in all honesty… No. I think monumental stories leave a character very little room to grow. It’s hard to follow the further adventures of someone who’s already been killed and come back once. I mean, how do you follow that up? Everything else is going to seem like a letdown.

So I don’t think we’re looking to tell any monumental stories with the Marvel Knights. We’re just looking to tell those stories that either got us into or reminded us why we love reading comics in the first place, those stories you try to impart to complete comic-illiterate girlfriends (or boyfriends, if you’re one of those all-too-rare comics-reading chicks) when they ask, “Why do you blow all your cash on comics every week?” and almost win them over, or at least intrigue enough to take a look at the few panels you couldn’t do verbal justice to; those stories that instill in you that sense of childlike wonder (or, if you’re still a child, make you say “Cool!”); those stories you’ll take with you to your those stories that take new looks at old characters.We’re just looking to tell good stories.

And we’ll need good readers — folks who’ll tell us if we’re on the right track. So don’t be shy about dropping us a line and saying either “Nice work,” or “Would you hacks leave this stuff to the pros already?! You stink!” After all — we’re doing this for you.

But, in all fairness, if you mail us sentiments along the lines of the latter, we WILL be showing up at your door.

That’s really our secret objective.”