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Set a realistic but challenging/inspiring goal. Take a big dream like "I want to be famous", and break it
down into smaller, more manageable steps, like "I want to star in a science fiction movie", "I want to go
to three auditions a week", "I want to move to another city" and "I want to save $5,000 so I can move."
Make the goal big enough to challenge and excite you, but not so big that you hesitate to take the first
steps.
Plan ahead. Once you've broken down your goal into pieces, write down the steps on a piece of paper to
make sure you have everything thought out. One of the worst things that can happen is you're almost to
the point of your goal, but you're not sure what to do next. Also, give yourself deadlines for each step.
Otherwise, you'll end up procrastinating and never achieving your dream
Be positive. Your goal should be written and have positive intent about what you want to bring into your
life. This is very important, since the focus of your goal should not be centered around describing a
problem you want to eliminate.
Learn from mistakes. Making mistakes should be a subject at school to teach all children how to learn
from them, instead of trying to avoid them. In the pursuit of a goal, you are likely to make some mistakes.
Don't see them as bad or get angry. They are important to correct you and to lead you to success.
Listen to your internal dialogue. What you are saying inside affects you physically, emotionally and
mentally. Is your defense system inside trying to make you stick to your past, limiting beliefs and
perceptions? Take over and challenge your inner critics. Monitor any excuses you might be making in
relation to your goal. For example, saying "I don't finish work until late and won't have time to cook!" You
must recognize that if you are truly passionate about your goal, it is up to you to make time.
Seek help. Find the information, skills and knowledge that you need from other people, books, and audio
or video programs. Speed up your learning process by emulating what other successful people have
done. You save time and get results faster. Self-hypnosis audios are a powerful way to help you get fast,
permanent results.
Be passionate. Striving towards a goal without passion is like a fire which slowly runs out of fuel to burn.
Get excited; this will mean that you will love what you are doing. Methodically check your behaviors
against impassioned dreams developed as a child. Always share the child within amongst your potential
peers, this empowers the Law of Attraction that shapes the dreams of the child into the creative force of
the adult.
I also want to ask the opinions of all of you, what is your favorite part of
the newsletter? Is there anything you would like to see added? What do
you think of the blog? Please email questions, comments, suggestions
to: info@montepictures.com
I will gladly answer questions and post the most interesting comments
on the next issue! We will also be grateful to any suggestions!
As I go through and help edit other’s work I am often amazed by the hidden talents that I
find, along with the shock of how many are unaware of how to write. Many people despise
writing, and I think this is one of the most unfortunate side-effects of our schooling system.
We only write when we are forced to, based on reading what the school tells us to, and
hardly ever are given a chance to be creative. Once I was given this chance in a college
writing class, I realized how much fun it can be. So I give advice to anyone that hates to
write, please try creative writing. If it seems daunting, just write what’s in your heart; I find
the most interesting stories are the ones that are real, which is why I love un-edited work, it
shows thought process and specific language to the person who writes it. I only like to clean
it up after, but never take away from the uniqueness put into it.
The blog was one of the greatest ideas to come to writing. Blogs let people express
themselves, however they want, whatever they want to say, in an almost diary-esque way,
laid out on the computer to share and keep for years to come. Blogs allow people to share
their life-stories to others. Some may not believe that writing a blog constitutes a writer,
but simply telling your friends online about your day and your thoughts, even your mood, is
all a story. Something to look back on years later and wonder, did I really think that back
then?
So please, do not ever be afraid to write, even if it’s only one sentence on Twitter, or your
mood status update on MySpace, or a detailed account of your day on Live Journal. It’s all a
record that you and others can look back on, and maybe one day you can put all those blogs
together and have a book without even realizing it!
Tom Selleck was offered the part of Indiana of Raiders of the Lost Ark, but he was too busy filming the TV
hit show, “Magnum P.I.” The part of the suave archeologist went to Harrison Ford instead.
George Raft had been the studio’s first choice for the role of Casablanca's Rick Blaine. But when the
popular leading man wasn’t available for the film, the then-minor player Humphrey Bogart,
was reluctantly offered the iconic role. Now fans can’t imagine anyone else uttering the famous words:
“Here’s lookin’ at you kid.”
Before Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger scored the now legendary roles in the acclaimed “gay cowboy”
film. Mark Walberg told the press he and actor Joaquin Phoenix were considered the top choice for the
roles. They passed because they were “a little creped out” by the sex scenes. In the end, the critically
acclaimed film scored both Ledger and Gyllenhaal Oscar nominations and generated $80 million at the
box office on the film’s budget of $15 million.
7) The Graduate . . . starring: Robert Redford
Robert Redford was originally considered for the part of Benjamin Braddock, but director Mike
Nichols didn’t believe the ravishing actor could convincingly play an underdog. Thus Dustin Hoffman
was the right actor for the legendary role.
A-list gorgeous actress Nicole Kidman was initially cast as former Nazi prison guard Hanna Schmitz,
in Stephen Daldry’s postwar-Germany drama The Reader. But when she became pregnant , the
Australian Oscar winner (ironically, she won her first Oscar directed by Daldry in The Hours in 2003)
was forced to step down, passing the Academy Award winning role to a much deserving
performance by Kate Winslet.
Sixteen Candles and The Breakfast Club star was originally offered the role as Pretty Woman’s,
prostitute but reportedly turned it down. That proved good news for Julia Roberts, who snagged the
famous part instead. The character not only earned Roberts an Oscar nomination but also an A-list
career in Hollywood.
Hard to imagine John Travolta saying “Life is like a box of chocolates.” and yet Tom Hanks only
snagged the role of slow-talking and brilliant-thinker Forrest Gump after the Pulp Fiction star turned
it down. It worked out well for Tom Hanks, who went on to win his second Oscar for the part in
Robert Zedmeckis’ 1994 film. Travolta has admitted his decision to pass was a mistake.
While it’s hard to imagine anyone other than Marlon Brando playing the don of the Corleone family,
Brando wasn’t the original choice. Academy Award winner Ernest Borgnine, famous for his portrayal
in the class 1955 romance film Marty, was an earlier candidate for the now legendary role.
The Devil Wears Prada star was originally cast as Knocked Up’s, Alison Scott (a successful
entertainment reporter whose one night stand with a slacker leads to a surprise pregnancy) before
dropping out for creative reasons. The film proved a smash hit at the box office, and the part made
Grey’s Anatomy actress Katherine Heigl a big screen name.
Had James Cameron had his way, Gwyneth Paltrow would have boarded the infamous ocean liner in
the box office smash Titanic. But the Shakespeare in Love star reportedly told the press the role as
Rose Dewitt Bukater did not interest her. Fortunately, this led Kate Winslet to nab the role and
become one of Hollywood’s most brightest stars.
Hilary
Swank:
The All American Woman
R on Howard does a far superior job of filming Dan Brown’s first Robert Langdon novel Angels &
Demons than he did with his lifeless blockbuster The Da Vinci Code in 2006. Picking up the pace
considerably and wisely trimming some of the more preposterous excesses of Brown’s book, Angels
& Demons is all the more intriguing for its setting in the murky halls of the Vatican and dusty churches
of Rome. Although The Da Vinci Code was slaughtered by critics after an ill-advised opening night
debut at the Cannes Film Festival, audiences didn’t seem too bothered and its grosses - $217m in
domestic and $541m in international – reflected the fascination that Brown’s well-researched books
inspire in the public at large.
Unlike the book, Angels & Demons starts with the death of the old pope and the arrival in Rome of
the world’s cardinals for the election of the new one. It then moves to CERN in Geneva where Italian
scientist Vittoria Vetra (played by Israeli actress, Ayelet Zurer) is experimenting with the creation of
antimatter, a powerful energy source which could change the world’s energy supply. The experiment
is a success, but just as it is completed, her scientist partner is found dead, a canister of antimatter
missing.
Harvard symbology professor Langdon (Hanks) is enlisted by the Vatican police, who race him to
Rome to help a critical investigation. A group claiming to be the ancient secret brotherhood of the
Illuminati has kidnapped the four preferred papal candidates and is threatening to kill them one by
one that night on the hour. They also have the canister of antimatter and plan to wipe out the Vatican
at midnight.
Star Trek
Release date: May 8, 2009
The Starship Enterprise is back and better than ever. “Star Trek” has been one of
several highly anticipated films this year and its already generating positive reviews
from both critics and audiences alike. This “Star Trek” is a fresh take on a franchise
that had gone tried, captivating only the most loyal followers all these decades.
However, director J.J. Abrams, most notably for directing the Emmy-winning show
“Lost,” takes on a new challenge of the “Star Trek” franchise, he directs today’s hot,
young, talented cast, which will allure prospect and youngster audience to see the film.
For “Star Trek,” they mix sweeping spectacle and thunderous action with intimate plot,
sensitivity and humor. It’s a rare Hollywood blend because it’s so easily to be lost when
the substitution of special effects becomes the dominate character in the film. The last
film that captivated audiences and critics was last year’s “The Dark Night,” grossed
over $500 million at the box-office, making it the second most successful film behind
1997 “Titanic”.
The story starts backward to the troubled adolescences of James T. Kirk and Spock,
whose future partnership forms the nitty-gritty of the story. Yet, not since “Star Wars”
has the scope, the characterizations, and the special effects been as memorable as this
maiden voyage of the U.S.S. Enterprise. Remember, its J.J. Abrams’ enterprise, which
means, a new commence of a franchise like George Lucas did for the new generation of
“Star Wars” fans.
Terminator Salvation
Release date: May 21, 2009
Infamous
1/2
Split Between Two Countries: Israel and Syria
In The Syrian Bride, the fate of a wedding rests entirely on a border official's willingness to
apply correction fluid to an exit visa. Unfortunately for the bride and groom, the would-be
ceremony takes place in the Golan Heights, where even the seemingly trivial is political.
Directed by an Israeli with a Palestinian woman as his co-writer, The Syrian Bride explores the
consequences -- sometimes comic, more often tragic and frustrating -- that can arise when
political hostility reaches fever-pitch absurdity. Mona (Clara Khoury), a Druze living in the Golan
Heights, wants to marry Tallel (Derar Sliman), a TV sitcom star who lives in Syria. It's a hostile
border: Golan, formerly part of Syria, is now under Israeli occupation, and Syria, which refuses
to accept Israel's sovereignty, will allow Mona to enter only if she settles permanently.
For Mona -- who has made the painful choice to leave her Golan family forever -- the big day
has arrived. She's surrounded by family and friends, and dressed in bridal white as she prepares
to join Tallel, who's waiting on the other side. But her plans are derailed by the Syrian
immigration officer who refuses to accept Mona's exit visa, which is in Hebrew, and his Israeli
counterpart back on the Golan side who declines to erase the stamp. Two families -- staring at
each other across the no man's land between them -- watch with mounting despair as
bureaucracy and political obstinacy conspire yet again to ruin their pursuit of happiness.
Real
Women
Have
Curves
The Role that Made Her a Star
With its cheesily empowering title, "Real Women Have Curves" may sound like a fable
for fat women who nonetheless have great personalities. But it has a much wider
appeal as a charming and funny story of clashing cultures and a clashing
mother/daughter relationship. Having just graduated from high school with grades
good enough for a scholarship to Columbia University, Ana is forced into a job at the
family dressmaking factory by her overbearing mother Carmen (Lupe Ontiveros), who
is also less accepting of Ana's curvaceous looks.
As sparkly as her mother is demanding, Ana refuses to be ashamed of her shape. She
slowly resigns herself to the fact her mother believes going away to university means
needlessly breaking up the family. You can probably guess what's going to happen
over the course of the story, but the real pleasure in "Curves" is in the pointed humor
and spirited characters that populate the film. And most notably, two superb
performances from Ontiveros and newcomer Ferrera. Natural in front of the camera,
with an expressive face and comic timing, Ferrera is everything your average high
school bimbo is not. Ontiveros is equally as bright and individual, and together they
create an absorbing dynamic.
Apollo 13
To Space and Back
Apollo 13 remains Howard's masterpiece. Here is that rare film that improves with
age, as all the little details, those tiny ever-so-right things tucked away in the nooks
and corners of the story, reveal themselves to you on second, fifth, twenty-fifth
viewing, while all the things that felt so right the first time feel just as right all over
again. I adored this film in 1995 and love it even more today. It is, quite simply, one of
the finest movies ever produced.
The film works because of its simplicity. Listen closely to the closing narration by Tom
Hanks, who plays veteran astronaut Jim Lovell, upon whose book "Lost Moon" the
film is adapted. Screenwriters William Broyles, Jr., and Al Reinert do not attempt to
flower the speech with lofty metaphors and grand eloquence; instead, Hanks talks in
a straightforward manner: here, briefly, is what happened after the mission ended,
and here is what I think of my experiences. There's no need to show off with
flamboyant dialogue. The story itself is exceptional, as are the people who lived it.
Mona Lisa Smile
There's much to enjoy in Mona Lisa Smile. This handsomely mounted and beautifully filmed drama sustains
your interest for most of its running time and features fine performances across the board. Roberts is warm,
forthright and intelligent as Watson. Dunst (crazy/beautiful) shines in a surprisingly unsympathetic role.
Stiles (Save the Last Dance) is appealing as the most mature of Watson's students, and Gyllenhaal
(Secretary) registers strongly, even if she's not given enough to do. And therein lies the chief flaw with
Mona Lisa Smile. Screenwriters Lawrence Konner and Mark Rosenthal introduce a host of potentially
intriguing characters but neglect to develop them beyond a superficial level. Some of the characters, like
Marcia Gay Harden's lonely poise and elocution teacher, border on caricature. Storylines also get dropped
and situations never play out to a satisfying degree. For example, in one scene Giselle confronts the
womanizing Italian professor (Dominic West) and tells him that they have to talk. If they do, it happens off
screen, because the next time we see them, they're all smiles and the matter is never addressed.
To Live
The Reader is also the kind of movie where characters gaze significantly out of windows to signal
that they have something weighty on their mind. In this particular case, the sad eyes and the
tortured mind belong to Ralph Fiennes. The year is 1995. His name is Michael, he's German, and
he's in his mid-forties. As he ponders the view, his mind (we assume) and the movie itself flashes
back to 1955, and to the first time that he met Hanna, played by Kate Winslet. Michael (in these
sequences played by young newcomer David Kross) is a horny, fifteen-year-old schoolboy. Hanna
is thirty-something, very beautiful, and seemingly just as horny, in her own way. She seduces the
boy, who is an unsurprisingly willing participant. Still, Hanna is not easy to be around. Her mouth
seems caught in a kind of perpetual frown, and her voice has the dark, hard edge that seems
constructed to belt out orders rather than coo sweet nothings.
If there is something strong and essential and deep about The Reader, it lies with Kate Winslet.
It's certainly not in it’s gloomy style and sense of importance. Screenwriter David Hare (Plenty,
Wetherby) and director Stephen Daldry (The Hours, Billy Elliot) appear to be overwhelmed by the
sheer weight of the themes and ideas being stroked here. This is a movie where characters
contemplate in lengthy dialogue scenes, the paralyzing notion of mass genocide - only for the
movie to move onto another turn in a plot that keeps boxing and beating its characters up. Yet in
Winslet's characterization, the movie finds itself. She is dark, mysterious and always human.
Where the other performances seem a little actorly (especially Bruno Ganz's law professor) or
glib (Lena Olin's turn as a hard-boiled Holocaust survivor is grating), Winslet's control, and her
sense of being (as opposed to acting) is staggering. It's not at all surprising that it's the film's
nude scenes that have received the lion's share of the pre-release attention. They are so far from
the smooth elegance of soft porn, however, that they're the most soulful, unaffected thing in the
movie.
"Jolie puts on a powerful emotional display
as a tenacious woman who gathers
strength from the forces that oppose her.
She reminds us that there is nothing so
fierce as a mother protecting her cub.“
—Kirk Honeycutt of The Hollywood Reporter
The film is ostensibly about Collins. There aren’t but a small handful of scenes in which she
doesn’t appear. In those moments, we finally recognize the other characters in the movie.
Michael Kelly is the one non-corrupt cop who seeks a resolution to several child murders that
may ultimately bring Collins some closure; John Malkovich plays a local radio evangelist who
has made it his mission to bring down the corrupt police department and decides to
champion Christine’s case as a way to achieve his goals; and Jeffrey Donovan as the face of
the police department who actively works to destabilize and embarrass Collins for
irreconcilable acts when she refuses to accept his version of events.
"It's a decent enough stab at being
what the old movie was to its time,
following the same basic plot, full of
respectful references to its model,
updated with a gallery of fairly
imaginative special effects.“
- William Arnold, Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Do not panic. It's not the end of the world. It's not even the end of the disaster movie. The genre is
just going through a natural transformation as it evolves into a higher film form. Back at the dawn of
the film age, the disaster movie was usually a moral fable borrowed from scripture. Then, the atomic
era suddenly eclipsed the power of God's wrath and put the onus on government leaders to resolve
big problems lest we destroy ourselves. For the past 50 years, the disaster formula remained pretty
much unchanged saves for a few gimmicks and a host of new special effects. But with Scott
Derrickson's, The Day the Earth Stood Still, we can safely say the disaster movie has turned a page.
The shifts may not be obvious when you take in Keanu Reeves as the latter-day Klaatu in the remake
of Robert Wise's 1951 classic about an alien visitor, but the signs of an important structural and
thematic rethink are all over this moody melodrama as we redefine what it means to be "civilized" in
the new millennium. It's not enough to be educated and logical, as it was at the turn of the last
century. Once we split the atom, "civilized" had to mean something more, and so moral justice and
compassion became part of the bargain -- because that's what separated us from the Blobs and
Things out to get us, not to mention the Hitlers and the Stalins.
The original The Day the Earth Stood Still explored this new concept of "civilization" by questioning
our violent nature and frequent acts of war. Reeves delivers the line without any expression
whatsoever, and for the first time in his long career, that's a good thing. The blank face makes it all
matter-of-fact instead of emotional and manipulative, which once again, redefines the image of the
"civilized being.“ Klaatu is not fazed by incendiary rhetoric so beloved by politicians. When a
presidential emissary calls Earth "our planet," Klaatu can only shrug and say "Your planet?" There is
no such thing as ownership of a life-sustaining cosmological anomaly like Earth in this new disaster
scenario. If we are to survive, we must see the planet as a gift -- not an entitlement. It's a subtle shift,
but one that's well-tailored to our modern paranoia, ensuring this remake is more than a retread.