Archives: What’s Happening in HTG Town

By Rambosus

HOLLYWOOD, CA (Rambosus News Services) — With the rising revenues of superhero-themed films over the past decade, there has been a corresponding increase in the elaborateness of their launch parties. The soiree celebrating the impending release of The Darker Side of Superheroes was no exception.

The stars began arriving at around 9pm, and they represented much of Hollywood’s A-list. From Scientology “it-couple” Tom and Katie to resurgent stars such as William Shatner and rising talk-show host Chuck Norris, it truly was an event that had to be seen to believe.

The highlight of the party, however, may have been when Darker Side co-star James Franco made his final toast of the evening. Witnesses report that he had been drinking heavily immediately prior to proposing the
toast, noting his slurred speech and the telltale odor of vomit that followed him around the room. Shortly before midnight Franco rang the toast bell.

“I don’t know what’s going on, but I’m so damn happy right now that I could just kill the world!” exclaimed the normally brooding actor.

Pandemonium briefly ensued before Darker Side super-villain Patrick Stuart (aka Odium) managed to restore order by assuring those guests who had not yet fled that any plans to “kill the world” would not commence
until after the night’s festivities had ended.

The remaining guests resolved to “party hardy for the sake of every man, woman, and child on Earth,” in the words of one British rock star attendee who asked not to be identified, as he had earlier been seen making out with a woman who was not his wife, the lovely and talented Ms. Gwen Stefani.

Franco’s agent later claimed that his client had been tragically misquoted, his slurred speech having masked the intended desire to “kiss the world”. Franco himself was not available for comment, as he was undergoing what was described as an “enforced Justice League debriefing” at the time the article went to press.

By MC48

Welcome to the official Studio Tour for United Filmworks Inc. Upon hearing the news of our counterpart’s tour over at the Flip Brothers lot, UFI decided show off our own magnificent ocean-view studio lot located in the southeast side of town.

Welcoming visitors to the prestigious lot are the rows of HTG Awards UFI has gathered up over its one-year history. Though a temporary exhibit as next HTG Awards season is coming up (the statuettes are usually displayed in a seperate buildings), the showcase is nonetheless impressive, boasting a grand total of 11 statuettes.

A little bit further into the studio are the studio’s usual welcome showcase: twin buildings situated right next to each other, each dedicated to one of the two UFI founders, Joe “Blacksmith” Blackerby and J.P. “Sureshot” Thompson. Both Hollywood legends in their own rights, the Blacksmith Building boasts various exhibits concerning his various films, including “Indiana Jones and the Serpent of Eden,” “Hawkins,” and “The Seventh Son.” Over at Sureshot Structure, meanwhile, is another large exhibit honoring his HTG-Award winning production, “The Sweet Forever.” Both buildings are a standing symbol and loving tribute to the past and foundation of United Filmworks Inc.

After that welcome, tourists are now ushered onto a bloated Batmobile-themed trolley to help ease the burden of traveling through the sprawling studio lot. Naturally, the first stop on the tour is the set of Gotham City, in use for both the Channel One TV show, as well as the upcoming film scheduled for a May release. Tourists often chuckle at this segment, especially with the “No Boreneaz” flyers pasted onto the wall.

Next stop is the UFI development building where screenplays and franchise possibilites are being developed. A look into a window reveals a room full of storyboards and concept art depicting images ranging from a raging Oliver Stone (”The Film Protectors 2″), an screaming evil squirrel (”Once Upon a Time in the Future” Trilogy), stunning space views (”Godsend Conspirator” and “Babylon A.D.”), and a bulletin board filled with mugshots of producers marked as M.I.A. (including Bryan Bishop, Ste300, Dream, and Kylaar). Also sitting in the corner are two ancient-looking film reels that are marked with a mysterious “?”. Whatever’s on those reels, their contents look like classics and nothing but that. The BatTrolley rumbles on.

A peek into yet another window in the development building reveals a group full of VPs shouting into various phones. Their desks are lined with all sorts of material including books (most notably Tom Clancy novels, “Relic”, and “Jurassic Park”). Written on a whiteboard in HUGE BLOCK LETTERS are three ominous words: “80 MILLION FLAT”. Tourists often puzzle over the meaning of the cryptic words, but it’d none of their goddamn business.

Moving on…

The BatTrolley comes to its next stop, UFI’s in-house Public Relations building where a press conference is currently being held. Regular UFI producer, Andrew Newman and legendary horror director, Wes Craven, are sitting on a long table addressing various questions on their first collaboration, “Dark Shadows”. Also busy are the UFI marketing department, who are seemingly brainstorming about something around a round table. Sitting in the middle of tabletop are various posters including those of “Watchmen”, “Was”, “Justice”, “Schism”, “Just Like Clockwork,” and “One Hit Wonder”. Whatever they’re planning, buzz words from the conversation include “bribery,” “extortion,” “blackmail,” and “Weinstein”. Conclude whatever you wish.

Just in time for lunch, the next stop in the tour is the studio’s very own restuarant. Lovingly named, “Eate, Shite, and Dye,” the restaurant offers the very best cuisine from all over the world. The international dishes include everything from Walker, Texas Pudding to Miss Saigon Surprise. From Small Town Soup to Zelda’s Links. Despite the varied dishes, though, only one beverage is served. What is it? Why, Pepsi, man!

Today, not only are the visitors treated to the food, but also the presence of Oscar-Winner Denzel Washington in full-on doctor’s garb. Before he got to answer questions, however, he finished his meal and disappeared out the door. Not disappointing, however, was fellow Oscar-Winner, Robin Williams. Just finished shooting “Brain Wars”, Williams treated the crowd to an impromptu stand-up performance, surprisingly profanity-free, no doubt having had heard enough swearing from producer Clint “Pedro” Laird on the “Brain Wars” set.

After a hearty meal with Coheed and Cambria blaring the background, the visitors were escorted back onto the BatTrolley and into the, by far, the largest set on the studio lot. The science fiction backlot, newly purchased from Men At Work Construction, is currently hosting the principal shooting for upcoming summer feature, “Godsend Conspirator”. While no stars were at set for today, a large crowd of extras in Red Army costumes were gathered and marching ominously in the foreground of a gigantic red planet backdrop.

Last but not least on the studio lot tour is a stop at the ghetto-themed section of the studio, dubbed “Streets of Jericho.” Housing a ton of shops, small restuarants, various attractions, this is where UFI coerces even more cash out of the public. Goods available include a Chris Harmer explodable doll, Mike’s Roulette Set, and Resident Evil Zombie Plushies. Other family attractions include a bowling alley named “Gutterball”, the Cannonball Run Jr. go-kart track, and the Crosshairs Laser Tag Battlefield, a fitting end to a fun-filled day at UFI Studios.

Something’s always happening in Hollywood the Game. Sometimes it’s quite visual – the upcoming HTG Television season, for example. Sometimes it sneaks up on us.

A little birdy told me that soon we may be seeing memorabilia factories and stores in HTG Hollywood! Memorabilia includes items such as DVDs from previously released HTG films, T-shirts and toys like action figures.

Although still in development (always some number crunching and game balance to consider, I guess), I hear that memorabilia stores will be another office type. Cool, huh, considering we have plenty of restaurants in town.

Stay tuned, buckaroos. Ol’ Buzz will keep an ear out for the square poop and let you know.

By RS

Welcome to the official Studio Tour for the Flip Brothers Studio. The sprawling studio is located on the north western side of Hollywood and overlooks the ocean and city. The lot is nestled next to the Channel One network TV building and the Hollywood Times office building.

As you enter the huge gates to the studio you can notice Flip Brother’s Pizza on one side of you and Rico’s Cool Cars on the other side. But neither is the focus of this article.

“Welcome to Flip Brothers Studio Lot.”

Upon entering the parking garage you’ll notice a huge mural of movie posters from the Studio painted by Alex Ross, including in the mix is Ritchie Steven’s “Of Love and Shadows”, “Going Home”, “Batman”, “Monster in NY” and a freshly painted “Green Lantern”. The guard leads you to the main studio office entrance where you are greeted by life sized statues of the Predator and the Crow. Both rendered perfectly and are almost too life like.

As you move down a long hallway, you’ll notice that one side has painting from the old sci-fi TV show Sliders and the opposite side has paintings from the classic video game series Mortal Kombat, both of which are properties owned by co-Studio Head Ritchie Steven. As you move down this hallway you find the development offices for the Flip Studio adaptations. Through rather large windows you can spot concept art for an Evil Dead 4 AND an Evil Dead TV Series, neither of which have yet been given the greenlight. The next office is shared between True Crime 2 and The Getaway 2. On any particular day you can spot actors from the two films that are helping to develop the storylines for the sequels.

Moving forward even more you are taken to a bus, where the tour continues through some of the studio built sets and back lots that are currently being used. With narration by Bruce Campbell and Ted Raimi on a video monitor, we learn about some of the history of the studio and see some clips of the studios early pictures, “The Paw”, “Going Home” and “Crimson Moon”, Bruce jokes that we can forget about that one… that he tries to every night.

The first permanent set you notice is a huge spaceship that you might remember from David Lynch’s “Near and Dear”. Ted jokes that RS will not let anyone take it down because he wants to reuse it on a Star Wars flick. Like George would ever let that happen.

The city block is a classic lot and has been used in numerous Flip Brothers films, including “The Paw” with Natalie Portman, “Magi” with Chuck Norris and William Shatner, “Of Love and Shadows” with Sean Connery and Pedro’s “Blind Money” to name a few. The city doubles for New York, Los Angeles and many fictional DC Comics cities. As we move towards the east part of the city blocks, we can see Arnold’s double in his Redwing costume for Christopher Harmer’s untitled superhero epic. Bruce mentions that he has a part in it. A small part. Ted Raimi makes a joke that I will not repeat here and is slugged by the cult hero.

The next big attraction we see is the outside of the church from “Of Love and Shadows” that is being worked on to be a central location in Mattrick’s “The Crow”. If you come on a lucky day you can actually see Mattricks and PJ arguing over the film. Ok, that’s a lie. PJ doesn’t talk. But if he did, they would probably argue about the film.

Next we went into this special built part of one of the studio buildings. This is by far the coolest part of the tour. Trust me on it. Inside the studio, the lights were dimmed and the camera was rolling… on HELLBLAZER 2! The scene was a seance where a trio of corpses were telling a creepy story. Can’t really hear what they were saying, but I think one corpse mouthed the workds “Jack the Ripper”! Paul Bettany (Constantine) and Anthony Hopkins (Sir Peter Marston) were both on hand for the scene and standing by for their close-ups. Paul popped us the birdie as a joke. Both were in costume and looked very badass!

This was the last part of the actual set tour, but then you are allowed to walk through a Studio “museum” of sorts. Costumes from “Green Lantern” and the upcoming “Superman” are on display along with “Quickie” and “Ultra Slow” costumes and Clint Power’s jacket. There is a huge display of different weapons, guns from “True Crime”, a bloody chainsaw from “Crimson Moon”, to name a few. Dozens of different squirrels are perched all over the room, reflecting different characters in the Bruce Campbell cult horror film, “Night of the Squirrels”.

And that’s the end of the tour. Depending on when you visit throughout the year, new sets may be built and new movies may be filming. Thanks for coming!