Okay, that's enough Star Wars...To the point!
And yes, I completely bypassed December, but for forgotten reasons...Now, if you read a few posts back, you'll have come across a bit of a rant against the 'catagorising' views of Hollywood. Whilst I still stand by my views (in a more calming way, of course), I do believe there is a bit of hope...
Mentioned amongst the written rampaging was a mention of Zooey Deschanel's 'New Girl', which I was slightly worried about due to the afore-written reasons. However, I did watch it and from the first few moments I was relieved! For me it throws away the cringe-worthy conventions of so called 'quirky/geek' based humour and doesn't focus on it! See that's the beauty; the advertisers have it wrong really, as the 'quirky' nature of Zooey's character isn't in your face (or on the nose, if you prefer) and doesn't get in the way of setting up a promising sitcom. (Plus, it's laughter-track free, like 'Scrubs'! Which in US Sitcom terms, is a treat!) And the second episode was even better! It's technically the first regular episode, so the writing is more refined and dialogue more natural, so I say bring on the rest and congrats to the cast and crew! (I hope the 'Douchebag Jar' comes back...Actually we should incorporate those into real life. The again I think somebody on Twitter had a whole selection of them...!)
Right, point two; I shall be starting a Film Production course next week. And as a kick-starter, here is a list of my favourite directors! And as I play fair, instead of 'no particular order' or 'most favoured', here they are in alphabetical order!
By surname...
Mel Brooks
Clint Eastwood
Alfred Hitchcock
Peter Jackson
Sergio Leone
Christopher Nolan
Ridley Scott
Quentin Tarantino
Guillermo del Toro
Edgar Wright
Although to be honest, if I were to do them by absolute most favourite first, then it would have to be Sergio Leone. He inspired many of the other directors in the list and below mentions. Best example is of course 'Star Wars'...His iconic realisation of Clint Eastwood's 'Man with No Name' and Lee van Cleef's 'Man in Black'/'Angel Eyes' have given birth to two equally-as-iconic bounty hunters; Boba Fett and Cad Bane respectively.
Now whilst Cad Bane has a long way to go before he is considered a 'classic' like Boba Fett, Bane has already made several impacts on the 'Star Wars' universe, created in 'The Clone Wars' to be the top dog (no pun intended*) until Fett grows old enough to take his place. I'm exremely very pleased that, just like in 1980, Lucas has brought forward inspirations from the Spaghetti Westerns and it's a really good feeling that he still may be continuing to inspire the newer 'Star Wars' fans to look back at where these ideas came from and experience for the first time, Sergio Leone.
(*...'Top Dog'...Duane Chapman'...? 'Dog the Bounty Hunter'? Oh never mind!)
Honorary mentions; Paul W.S. Anderson, James Cameron (Pre-1997), Jon Favreau, George Lucas, Steven Spielberg and the great John Ford (who I would place in the favourites list, but I haven't seen enough of his work to honestly say he is a favourite yet!)
(Okay, you know I'm joking; never enough Star Wars! May the Force be with you all!)
AM
EDIT: Two lovely ladies that I know of have recently become fans of Sherlock and, therefore, BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH (particularly in a scarf).
As such, here's a gif(t) for them! ^^
