I never met Tupper Saussy in person but today I’m mourning him as if he were a blood relative. He died on March 16 2007 at the age of 70. Read the rest of this entry »

“Bandits vs. Smokies,” the show I’ve been working on, will debut on Friday, May 4, 2007. It airs on CMT (Country Music TV). The host is the very funny Jon Reep (”Hey! Does that thing have a hemmie?”) and I think the first episode turned out very well. The show consists of clips of police chases, crashes, etc. for which we’ve added funny voice-overs. And when I say “we” I mean we — my writing partner Pete Schwaba and I have recorded many of the voices ourselves. More details as they develop.

I’m excited to announce that I am serving as curator of another museum exhibit. As you may know, last year I worked with the great folks at the Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum to mount an exhibit called “Texas Movies.” It was an enormous amount of fun (and work) and I think it was received very well.

That success made me start thinking about doing a similar exhibit elsewhere. Since most of my family lives in South Carolina (the state where I was born and reared), I thought that would be the perfect location — especially since no one has ever done such an exhibit acknowledging the long, rich history of filmmaking in SC.

Luckily, the folks at the South Carolina State Museum in Columbia agreed and so we’ve all set to work finding props, costumes and other memorabilia connected with films produced in SC. We already have some wonderful items and there’s plenty more to come. The exhibit is slated to open in January, 2008. I’ll give you regular updates between now and then.

And certainly, if you have items that may be appropriate for the exhibit, please get in touch.

Since I worked on “The Bachelor: Paris” I’ve been hoping for another TV gig. Last week, my prayers were answered — twice, sort of. I got a call that there was an opening on two upcoming shows — “Speeders” for Court TV and “Bandits vs. Smokies” for CMT. They’re both basically comedy shows, so I thought either one would be fun. So it turns out that I’m kind of working on both of them. “Smokies” is especially enjoyable since it’s a little more wide open in terms of its comedy style and my assumption is that eventually, that’s the show that I’ll spend the bulk of my time on. As soon as I get air dates for either, I’ll post them here.

20th Century-Fox Home Video has released a new DVD set called “The Ernest Hemingway Film Collection.” The set consists of five excellent feature films based on the works on Hemingway: “The Sun Also Rises” (1957), “Hemingway’s Adventures of a Young Man” (1962), “The Snows of Kilimanjaro” (1952), “Under My Skin” (1950), and “A Farewell to Arms” (1957). The American Film Institute’s Patricia King Hanson and I provided DVD commentary on the first three films and the great film historian Anthony Slide did the honors for “Under My Skin.” All four of those discs also offer making-of featurettes, trailers, still galleries and much more. Oddly, “A Farewell to Arms” has no extra features at all, although the beautiful letterboxed transfer makes it worth getting all on its own. This is a terrific set of films and I’m proud to have been even a tiny part of the endeavor. Go to my “Video” section for a little more information about the discs I worked on and to see the cover art.

Well, it’s hard for the Thompson Family to believe that another year has gone by here on McCormick Street – a year of crushing debt, personal humiliation, unexplained odors and those strange mewling sounds that come from all of our electrical outlets. It’s especially hard for Frank to believe, since he has recently become convinced that there are two additional months in the calendar – Dennistember and Lollapatober.
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