Tag Archives: movie

Movies

Movie Prediction Madness: June 25th-27th

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We’re back again with more Movie Prediction Madness!

For this coming weekend, expect the good-but-overrated “Toy Story 3” to have another #1 weekend, probably well north of $50 million. Why these movies continue to get higher Tomatometers than much better films like “Wall-E” or “Up” is beyond me. Probably because they’re not risky like the ones I just mentioned.

The other 2 openers are a bit of a wild card. Firstly, I think “Knight and Day” will open well, despite the media’s strange, continued desire to convince us Tom Cruise is no longer a movie star. Guess what – he is, and more so than media darlings Brad Pitt or George Clooney will ever be. I’d be more worried about Cameron Diaz who, for whatever reason, is one of the highest paid actresses out there. She’s had more turds than Cruise ever will.

So say $40-$50 million on that one, and could have decent legs. Even the negative reviews on Rotten Tomatoes give it a lot of compliments.

Then there’s “Grown Ups”, which I assume will be an entire movie about 45 year olds acting like children. While I’m sure this movie will be god-awful, it does have a “Couple Retreat” vibe going for it plus a bunch of washed up stars and the Mall Cop guy. So people will show up. Expect a bunch of nonsense, then a touchy feely ending where they confess to their wives / kids that they’re the greatest treasure of all or some BS like that.

$35-$45 million, possibly a close race with Tom Cruise for 2nd.

Tune in next week as I try and predict exactly how much more than $100 million Twilight will open at! Also, Last Airbender is going to bomb – big time.

Movies

Beyond Port Washington

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Click here for full-sized version

It’s official! Due to overwhelming demand the next Ben Heckendorn movie is going to be a sequel to one of our most popular titles called “Beyond Port Washington”.

SYNOPSIS:

It has been 5 years since the events of the first movie. Steve and Erica have been living together for a while now, things are going well, and marriage is on the horizon. However Mike has latched into a deep depression, much like Steve in the first movie, and has grown distant from his friends.

Living in New York, but back in the area on vacation, Ben decides to enlist the help of Steve and Erica to help Mike out. But after helping with some sneaky tricks, Erica realizes that Ben and Mike in fact influenced her love for Steve, and the cat’s out of the bag!

Now Erica questions the validity of her own relationship with Steve, but with a proposal looming can’t bring herself to tell him the truth. Meanwhile Ben embarks on a quest to find Mike’s dream girl – a mysterious World of Warcraft player known only as “hot_69_chik”.

Expect all of the madcap thrills, spills of laughs of the first movie with some new surprises along the way. The script, once again written by Ben Heckendorn and Dale Nauertz, has been underway since last fall and filming is slated to commence this summer. All major characters are returning.

Realistically we hope to finish it by Christmas 2010, I’m not going to kid myself with post production but I think if anything “Possumus Woman” shows we’ve sped the process up.

Stay tuned!

Movies

Possumus Woman finished

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In a shocking turn that will no doubt confound anyone who knows me personally, I have completed my movie Possumus Woman, and it took just under 5 months. For comparison, here’s my other movie “build times”:

  • Original Possumus Man (1995) – 10 months
  • Adventure (1996) – 10 months
  • The Adventurous (1999) – 24 months
  • Lizard of Death (2000) – 9 months (old record)
  • Port Washington (2006) -50 months (ug)

As promised, free downloadable versions will be available on the 31st, just in time for Halloween! They will be, for starters:

  • 720p 5.1 audio WMV, in 3 parts (for easier downloading)
  • 720p 5.1 audio WMV single file
  • iPod Video 640×360 large widescreen, stereo
Video Games

Possumus Man 2 Begins

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Long ago, before I was an internet celebrity, my hobby was independent filmmaking, with some modding on the side. Then of course the modding hobby took over my life and became my job, while other hobbies faded away… As of 2008 it’s been 6 years since we’ve done a movie – which might not sound like a lot but in the old days the biggest gap between our indy productions was maybe 11 months.

Snake? Snake! SNNNAAAAKKKEEEE!!!!!!
This snake slithered onto our filming location so I put it in the movie. Hopefully it’s not SAG because I didn’t pay it…

Not content with this state of affairs I set out to make a movie this summer, dammit. On a couple occasions we’ve almost made a sequel to our “amazing” 1995 effort Possumus Man and I decided this time we’d actually do it. Also it’s somewhat easy to film, compared to say Port Washington, as it takes place mostly in the woods. We’re shooting in hi-def using the Panasonic P2 camera – no more manual tape capture!


Mike Adsit and Jason Jones standing by a campsite where a horrific battle is about to ensue. Mike co-stars in this movie, while Jones thus far is mostly cameraman. Hi-def requires more emphasis on good focus, and he’s doing a bang-up job.

We started filming this last weekend and expect to continue about every other weekend this summer. Locations are mostly south central Wisconsin, though we may also do some shots up north around the Rice Lake / Birchwood area.

For up-to-date info, or to just check out another Benheck blog, visit The Official Possumus Man 2 blog.