Hero Lost Movie Heroes
What movie or movies inspired your hero and why?
Jen Chandler:
This is a great question! When the story came to me, it came with the very first line. I had no idea at first who Gaston was or who the narrator was. Then it hit me: The Angel of Death. The very first thought I had after that was of the Shinigami (god of death) Ryuk from the movie Death Note. It was originally a manga series of the same name and turned into an anime series then a movie in 2006. I definitely picture Gaston looking differently, though, because I don't believe Death should be frightening. I love the idea of Death being a beautiful being, not at all terrifying. Still, it was Ryuk that popped in my head and I went with the Angel/God of Death theme because of Death Note!
Ellen Jacobson:
Hmm...good question. I think I'll have to go with the classic Star Wars movies and Hans Solo's character. He hesitates to join in with the rebellion, but in the end he does the right thing and helps save the day. The hero of my story is reluctant to join the fight against the powers that be, preferring a simple, ordinary life, but in the end he conquers his fears and summons the courage to join in with others like him who are different.
When I was envisioning Cormac, I started a very traditional knight, so if I had to relate to a movie, it would be A Knight’s Tale (because come on, Heath Ledger). Although the story differs greatly from the movie, I’d like to think that Cormac came from the same place as William Thatcher with their humble beginnings and their desire to embody the values and honour of a knight. And despite facing different foes, William with the villainous knight and Cormac with a dragon, they both do end up testing their mettle, with varying outcomes.
Roland D. Yeomans:
My mysterious Caretaker was inspired by a book that became a movie: American Gods by Neil Gaiman.
Erika Beebe:
Star Wars. I’m thinking Ethan closely resembles Hans Solo, a man with great character who doesn’t use it. Life has hardened his skin and he’s crawled into himself as a defense mechanism. Like Solo, Ethan thinks first about himself “and what can I get out this?” Love transformed Solo in the end and maybe the new purpose of noble cause did too. It’s the lost soul idea. They often need something profound to shake them out of their inner worlds.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens was a big influence on me for the early stages of “The Last Dragon.” It kind of all started with this idea of someone who once was a hero and now is gone, and we don’t know why, kind of like Luke Skywalker in the movie. In my story, Raynor and his sister are in search of their uncle not only to find out why he left, but so that he can help defeat a new evil that has risen in his absence.
Elizabeth Seckman:
King Arthur—but without the cheating queen.
Olga Godim:
No movie inspired my protagonist. I’m not a big fan of movies in general, so no movie ever inspired any of my characters. When I first wrote about my heroine, Altenay, in another story altogether, she came to me as a non-white, some kind of an eastern girl or maybe a Gypsy. I started looking for a name for her and came up with a real woman I admired. Her name, with a slight change in vowels, became the name of my heroine. The real life inspiration for my Altenay’s name was a prima ballerina with the Marriinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, Russia, Altynai Asylmuratova. Ethnically she is a Kazakh, and like many women of that nation, very pretty, with a breathtakingly beautiful body lines. A superb ballerina too, she was very popular in the Western world while she performed in the 1980s and 1990s. She doesn’t perform anymore. Since 2000, she has been the artistic director of the Vaganova Ballet Academy, a teacher of many young ballerinas.
Yvonne Ventresca:
The Handmaid’s Tale, based on the novel by Margaret Atwood. Sylvia in “The Art of Remaining Bitter” questions society’s values and beliefs the same way that Offred does. They both have to face insurmountable forces to attempt to retain their individuality.
A movie that inspired my hero? Hmm. I didn’t think of one before I wrote the story, but I guess that my character Maud reminds me a bit of Mal in the Firefly series – he has lost his sense of purpose and thinks that his highest calling is to serve his own sense of freedom, but a heroic spark still flickers on the inside.
Lots of Star Wars influences. (It also influenced my first book.) Do you have a movie hero that inspired one of your stories?
Review – Ayreon: The Source
The storyline: The Alphas’ world is dying and the President gives the supercomputer known as The Frame total control to find a solution. It does – exterminate all of the humans. The race is on to select a group to voyage into the stars to a new planet. A drug called The Source will enable them to live underwater on the new planet, although due to the drug, they begin to forget what happened on Alpha. They take one robot with them, who at the end predicts he will become the new Frame. Thus it leads into the first song on 01011001, Age of Shadows.
Arjen Anthony Lucassen is the brainchild and anchor – a true musical genius and legend in prog rock. He has consistently pulled storylines, music, and musicians together to make cohesive albums over the years, no small feat indeed.
The music harkens back to earlier Ayreon albums. The music is both complex and accessible, and the musical harmonies and talents incredible. James LaBrie, Tommy Karevik, Simone Simmons, Tobias Sammet, Russell Allen, and Floor Jansen are among the voice talent, not to mention a slew of great musicians.
The Source is a prog lover’s dream album! There’s also a bonus DVD. Highly recommended.
New Releases
Find it on Amazon
This is a collection of the animal paintings she did a couple years ago for the A to Z Challenge.
MST3K and NetFlix
Tom Servo and Crow took their ideas to NetFlix this week with this video - Tom Servo and Crow Pitch Shows to Netflix.
Then JoBlo posted the results. Now, we can see them doing what they do best: riff on other movies, or in this case, other Netflix shows:
There’s a couple other videos to watch at JoBlo’s site.
RiffTrax: Live
Summer Shorts Beach Party is on June 15 and features the guys along with Bridget Nelson, Mary Jo Pehl, and a couple special guests.
Then on August 17, Mike, Kevin and Bill riff the legendary 1983 feature-length Doctor Who episode "The Five Doctors."
You don’t want to miss either!
Do you have a movie hero that inspired one of your stories? Have you listened to The Source yet? (I’d featured two videos from the album earlier this year.) Excited Tom Servo and Crow are tackling NetFlix shows? And who’s catching the RiffTrax: Live shows this summer?
My wife found these notebooks and insisted I take a photo...
