McCarty13

The good news is there's no bad news. Piranha 3D and more

Tue, 09 Jun 2009 05:12:52 GMT

Okay its been way too long since I said a peep. I've been little bo peepless. So heres the news thats fit to type. I finished up the new Hughes brothers film The Book of Eli with Denzel Washington, and Gary "coolest actor in the world" Oldman. We had a few laughs out there in the desert and buried a few bodies in the sand as well. I came off that show (three months in Albuquerque) to three weeks of prep at the shop for Alex Aja's next film Piranha 3D. Everyone at the shop had already been busy hammering out piranha chewed corpses and body parts as well as a ton of gags. Some of you may remember Alex talked to us about Piranha back when we did Mirrors in Romania. and I got excited way back then because I always loved the original (Im a sucker for things that take place in the water).

Between us and the physical FX crew this movie has the potential to out blood the 400 gallons we went through on Kill Bill. Remember Lake Havasu, the jewel in the Arizona desert, well Its red now. LOL. We are currently shooting the Lake massacre scene 100 boats, 500 extras, 400 gallons of blood, lots of screaming, lots of bikins, lots of torn flesh and its all in 3D. Come on!!! Tell me you're not interested in seeing this movie and I'll call you a liar.

Okay last bit of news. One of my short stories is in an anthology called Midnight Walk, that has just been released. You can get it here http://www.darkhousepublishing.com/ and signed copies here http://www.darkdel.com/. If you want a personally signed copy and you are in the LA area this weekend......Yes thats right, this coming Sunday the 14th we are doing a signing with almost all of the contributors at Dark Delicacies bookstore at 2pm. I'd love to see all you local friends find your way there. Hell I'm driving 4 hours straight from the set of Piranha just to do the signing and then driving back to the bloody lake that night. So whats your excuse?

If you can't make it and want one personally signed anyway contact me through my website and I'll give you an address to send the book to where I will get as many of the contributors to personalize it for you.

Thanks for the support!!

MM-OUT

I'm doing a Q and A this week

Sun, 26 Oct 2008 18:41:39 GMT

Hey guys Halloween is almost here so its nonstop horror movies on TV and my netflix is scaring the mailman. In honor of shocktober I am doing a little Q and A thing for the next week over at Brain Keene's website. So go there and check into the forum you can find the thread in One on One.

MM

http://www.briankeene.com

Starz documentary on KNB and much more

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 02:05:28 GMT

Been a while since I said whats up... so whats up. I hope every one is doing well and hopefully you got a chance to run out and see Mirrors when it was at the theater. I'm actually going to post a bunch of Mirrors set pics this week.

Things are iffy and slow in the movie industry at the moment SAG is threatening strike so we may all be in for a bunch more reality TV soon. Perfect time to strike isn't it. I mean come on already isn't the whole country in a bit of a financial crisis. Really SAG, really?? Traditionally entertainment is what is supposed to keep the spirits of the nation up in times of crisis. Not shoot it when its down. Don't we have a job to do. Oh well hopefully in a couple of months all of this national crisis will be over and people will be able to stop worrying about their mortgages and start worrying about who Lindsey Lohan is banging and what sex the are.

At KNB we are busy working on Quentin's WWII epic Inglorious Bastards. Starring a lot of people I'm sure you know and love. But the big news at KNB is this (drumroll please) a few months ago Starz was in the studio doing a documentary called Fantastic Flesh, on KNB and makeup fx in general. Well that documentary is going to be on tomorrow OCT 7th at 10pm eastern. Thats the Starz channel kids. It should be a part of your pay TV package. I believe its going to play in between the two Grindhouse films which is sort of apropos if you ask me. I have no idea if you'll see me in there or not. I don't know how much stock footage from the shop they used or if I was in any of it. When they were in the shop doing their interviews I was on set in New Orleans doing FD4, which you'll be pleased to know I'm hearing good things about and you may just get a chance to see as early as next summer in all of its blood squirting 3D glory. Anyway drop me a message here and let me know if you saw the documentary and what ya thought.

In writing I am almost done with a novella I'm working on with Michael Calvillo. My novel is still sitting at a NY publisher awaiting the inevitable "thanks but no thanks". The anthology I have a story in coming out next year has been given a title its called Midnight Walk. I'll give ya plenty of time to know when and where you can get it.

In my personal life I'm loving the hell out my Harley (ride it everyday my car is not only dirty but jealous). My PS3 is about to get a massive workout because EVERYTHING comes out this month. Look me up online for a game if ya want, madmax13 is my PSNID. I'm really excited about Deadspace and FIFA 09. Yes I am a huge futbol (soccer to most of you) fan. It has been in the last few years I've really gotten into the sport following the English Premier league mostly. Thats pretty much how my saturdays are spent. I tivo the games when they are live at 4am, wakeup, cook breakfast and watch them, Go Fulham!! My NFL fantasy team got its ass kicked this weekend. Speaking of NFL football why is it called football, shouldn't it be called throwball or handball, you rarely if ever handle it with your feet, thats a whole different game that the rest of the world calls football but we call soccer. Where did the name soccer come from anyway, someone enlighten me. Well I gotta go monday night throwball is on. Talk to ya soon.

MM

No Hollywood?....Go to Bollywood.

Sun, 03 Aug 2008 02:01:07 GMT

As I write this I am sitting at home sweating my ass off in the sweltering non air conditioned heat of my home in LA. I'm watching boxing, some white guy in pink trunks nicknamed "the persecutor" is fighting a black dude they call "the matrix". I expect the matrix to do big numbers and confuse the persecutor until the third movie (er round) and then the matrix will probably suck. This is real boxing, not that lame ass, lets hug on the ground until you can't breathe or I almost break your arm, whichever comes first shit. I'm sorry I've tried to watch those overblown steroid headed UFC fights and it always just annoys me. Boxing is the sweet science, nuff said.

At work things are quiet, the worries of strike hover in the air and as a result a lot of shows are not starting up until this whole mess gets worked out. I expect a lot of actors to be out of work and a lot of producers to continue working by poisoning the air waves with reality TV. Who knows maybe both sides will come to a nice agreement and no strike will happen (it sure would be nice). So anyway, due to the lack of work here in LA I am going to work for two weeks on a Bollywood film...

...in Ohio of all places. Yeah who woulda figured. I will be working at P13 with a lot of old friends so it will be a bit of a reunion as well as a needed job. I can't wait. I leave tomorrow for the midwest and coming with me is Alex Diaz, my KNB table partner for over 10 years...wait that sounded kinda gay. Its cool Alex and I are both married.

Oh shit. The Matrix just destroyed the face of The Persecutor with a straight left hand. Looks like I was wrong. Maybe it was the pink trunks. To fight in pink trunks and loose has got to suck.

In Myspace news join my mafia cause I'm getting my ass kicked, and please feel free to continue buying and selling me like a piece of meat. I think I'm worth 31,000 dollars at the moment. But I know you guys can do better.

In Writing news I am working on an exciting new project with fellow writer Michael Calvillo and its going really great!

I have a short story called the Grieving Process coming out in an anthology called Midnight Walk around Halloween and you'll have plenty of warning about when and where you can pick up a copy of it...and i expect you to do just that.

I am also lucky enough to have a huge interview (and my name on the cover) of the new Scars magazine. So If ya see it check it out. Makeup artist Toby Sells and myself interviewed each other and I think it came out really well.

A lot of you know I keyed Mirrors in Romania. Now I'm seeing some pretty awesome trailers for it. If you do a search for the R rated red band trailer you'll see what I mean. I'm really, really looking forward to sitting my ass in the theater and seeing how it all came out. Alex Aja was awesome to work with and I hope I get to work with him again soon.

Okay thats it for now. Hopefully i'll drop you a line from Ohio and let you know how its all going, or what drive-in you can find us at. Cheers

MM

Final Destination 3 (no not the third movie idiot, my third blog)

Fri, 25 Apr 2008 04:56:35 GMT

Yep still here in theLouisiana heat, where the blood never dries it just stays sticky. I do walk around set in a suave ass black cowboy hat though. I'm trying to get into the southern spirit. I heard someonethe other day say as I walked by there goes the "blood cowboy". I can live with that.

We are busy shooting the awesome opening of the film right now. I hope everyone is doing well. I know I am doing just fine. I turn 40 in a couple of days and its really no big deal to me. At least I think it is anyway. It's a bit of a drag being on location away from friends and family on what is usually considered a momentous day in ones list of birthdays. But fuck it. If you're in the New Orleans area we are going to be celebrating Saturday night to the heavy sounds of, A hanging and Suplex at Checkpoint Charlies. Which is a bar/club where you can also do your laundry. So bring some socks.

What else is new. Well I spent years just barely noticing basketball and now in the course of 5 weeks I have been to 5 NBA games and 1 playoff game. I'm now a huge New Orleans Hornets fan and I have already bought game 5 playoff tickets (should it be necessary) Hell I even find myself watching NBA playoff games every night in my hotel room. Mostly because I don't want to pay 20 dollars a movie to rent one to my room. Yeah 20 dollars! holy crap. Thems theater prices. For that price they should send two assholes up to your room to talk through out it and sell popcorn and soda for twelve dollars outside your door.

Wjhat else is new? I recently did an interview with NHV (New Horror Voices)web site so give it a look it's a decent little thing he's got going there.

http://www.freewebs.com/lucidnightmare48/menu.htm

To get to my bit scroll down to celebrity interviews(hehe yeah that's me the celeb) and click on my name.

Hope to see ya airing your dirty laundry at Charlie's Saturday night I know its Jazz fest so parking will suck.

MM(the blood cowboy)

Quote of the day:(part of a phone conversation between an FX guy Nash and myself)

"dude you left my party too early the other night, I got shot."

"you got shot?"

"hehe yeah."

"you okay?"

"yeah it was just a 22."

More on the Final Destination

Tue, 01 Apr 2008 16:19:21 GMT

Hey kids how’s it going. Things on FD43D are going really well. We spent a little time shooting in an "air quality approved" abandoned mall. There is still so much thats fucked and ready to be torn down in New Orleans. but without the money or concern it just all sits there. Hell they don’t even have street signs on half of the streets anymore. Getting around New Orleans is a pain in the ass. Hell it was hard before the storm. The mall has been vacant since Katrina and if you go too deeply into the areas where your not supposed to go (our first day on set we took a wrong turn trying to get out and discovered a crispy flattened rat.) apparently before the crew moved in and started the cleanup crispy flattened rats were a dime a dozen. Which is great for crispy rat stew, all you really need to add is water, which oddly enough is what killed them all.

The crew is fun and its really refreshing to work on a film where everyone seems to like each other and loves goofing around. Stashed around the set you’ll find airsoft guns and snowball sized chunks of foam because at any moment a battle may start between the stunt team and the director. Ya just sit back and laugh Its a fun easy relaxed atmosphere. It’s also a place for practical jokes. Lots of practical jokes. I already had a big one pulled on me but I’ll tell about that in the next blog.

The 3D process looks great! I mean GREAT! its not only in 3D but its HD as well. so you see every tiny little thing in massive 3D. The one biggest problem it will pose for me is cleanup of blood in between takes. Sometimes the coloring in the blood can stain your skin. Its typical KNB we show up and throw blood all over everything and then say "what?" like an innocent child. :) So Tami and I have been working with Robin Matthews makeup crew to try and make sure we don’t get boned with pink actors in 3D HD. Most of the problem has been solved by a little green can of derma shield. So keep that in mind. a generous amount of Derma Shield prior to major blood work will ease your cleanup.

Thats it for now. If I would have posted this a few days ago like I did on my myspace you would have known that I was spending this last weekend at the World Horror Con (for writers) in Salt Lake.

Anyway I'm home now and I go back to Final D next Sunday. Cheers

MM

The Final Destination (4) has just begun.

Mon, 17 Mar 2008 06:12:20 GMT

As most of you know I am currently keying the makeup fx and fantastic deaths in Final Destination 4 3D for KNB …shit I should have given you a spoiler warning before telling you there will be a bunch of fantastic deaths in this film... fuck what was I thinking. Next thing you know I’ll tell you that the sequel to HBO’s WWII drama Band of Brothers (currently shooting in Australia) will have a bunch of soldiers getting killed in it and a ton of dead bodies and that we sent a band called, The Sleeve, down-under to watch after them. (check my top friends and you’ll see em). Anyway If you’re a fan of the Final Destination films, like I am, this one is not going to disappoint you. Especially since they are throwing in the added dimension of the third kind. 3D has gotten a lot better in the last few years and is a lot less headache and vomit inducing. Now ALL the studios are rushing forth 3D films. Hopefully FD4 will hit the theaters before the oncoming tidal wave of shitty 3D films ruin their fair share of the box office. It should be cool though, they have already given up the beginning of the film online so I’m not ruining anything by saying think speedway, think cars flipping and burning into the stands, think the magic of 3D bringing said flipping and burningcars from the stands into your lap. Think awesome? I think your right.

I’m headed out tomorrow to New Orleans in the early morning, with makeup artist Tami Lane. Carey Jones and I have already been down there for a few days to kill one unfortunate character already and many more are to come. Tami, Carey and myself are pretty much gonna be the hired assassins for FD4. Check us out on IMDB and you will see how our keywords might bring a little something extra to the game. Have you ever looked at the keywords at the bottom of someones IMDB? They are usually pretty awesome. After all what says Mike McCarty more than the keywords death, murder, sequel and decapitation. I’m pretty proud of decapitation. How about Carey Jones who is also known in the industry as blockbuster, blood, disturbing and suspense. I always felt that way about Carey, so its really nothing new to me. And last but not least Tami Lane, who brings; fall from height, animal attack, based on a novel and blockbuster to the table. I’ll be honest I’m a little jealous of based on a novel, but then again I’m a writer why wouldn’t I be jealous of that. At least I can rest assured she doesn’t have decapitation in her top 4.

KNB is really busy right now. REALLY busy. We usually stay pretty steady this time of year but this is getting silly. We are currently doing hmmm let me think…..all of the movies in production I’m pretty sure. If you’ve heard about it we are working on it, or told we should be ready to work on it, or turned it down because we are too busy. Except for Terminator 4, that one we aren’t doing. And we aren’t doing Wolverine either but pretty much everything else is ours. Of course I’m kidding. We’re only doing 11 films right now. Some of which include David Goyer’s Unborn, Sam Raimi’s Drag me to Hell, NBC’s Fear itself, A Will Smith film called 7 pounds. A Bruce Willis futuristic action film called Surrogates. And a bunch more I’m not talking about yet. Anyway look for me to keep you updated about our FD43D onset shenanigans, rightfully kicking off on St. Patty’s day. Now kiss me… I’m Irish.

Killin' is just as easy as breathin'

Fri, 25 Jan 2008 18:40:33 GMT

It’s easy. It’s a simple recipe brought to us by the man himself, John Rambo. “When you’re pushed killing is as easy as breathing.” Can I get a HELL YEAH! So Rambo comes out today and I’m very excited. Its national Rambo day in fact AJ one of the guys here at the shop actually came in wearing a wig and headband (see pic). Rambo is one of the last of my childhood idols that needed to stage a comeback to save me in adult life like he did when I was young. The only other one I can think of that I desperately hoped would make a comeback, but now is too late, is Dirty Harry. And don’t think of fucking making a remake Hollywood because that would just annoy me.

Rambo come on! You’ve seen the R rated (what we call a red band) trailer right? I first saw that a few months ago and was immediately on board. He turns that guy in the jeep into red jello with that machine gun, it looks like he punches someone’s head off. He tears a guys throat out. Hello where can I sign up for Rambo = way fucking cool. I decided I cant see it with the normal crowd either. I saw Cloverfield that way and ended up HATING a movie everyone tells me is quite good and fun. I don’t want my Rambo experience to be tainted by. Idiot gangsta commentary track #1. or I have an important phone call I must take commentary track #2. Or flawed logic smart guy track #3. So I’m paying the extra money to go to the grown up theater The Arclight.

Anyway what’s new with me other than celebrating the Rambo Holiday is my novel Wereworld is sitting at a big publisher hopefully being read and hopefully being enjoyed. These things take a really long time so I may not know the answer for months. I am also working on the sequel as well as some other things I’m pretty excited about. At KNB I have just been put in charge of Final Destination 4 in 3D or “Fd43d-hut” as I like to refer to it (get it it’s a football thing…nevermind). If you’re a fan of the series, which I am, you’ll love it, plus it’s in 3D. When was the last time we had a cool 3D experience in the horror world.

Anyway I hope your all well. Throw your Rambo comments below even if you’re a blasphemous bastard with nothing good to say about it. Yeah I know Stallone looks like a drag queen in that wig…but he’ll still kill you just as easy as breathin.

My band is back together and Playing Sat Dec. 15th

Thu, 13 Dec 2007 23:08:07 GMT

Okay I have official orders for the wonderful McCarty Army.

My old band Twister Naked is back together. I was in this band a long time ago and it’s actually where I met my wife Grace(who plays bass). In the past year and a half we have been talking about getting this band back together and with the fact that everyone lives far apart, one even in Florida. It’s been tough to get it all going. But it has finally happened and…we have a show next Saturday. Yes that’s right and its part of your orders. Do you live in the Los Angeles area? How about and hour away? Well good! Then there is no reason why you shouldn’t be at the show. If you’re under 21 bring a fake ID, McLuvin.

December, 15
Mr T’s Bowl
5621 1/2 Figueroa Ave, Highland Park, California 90042
Cost : $5

It’s not like its gonna cost you a lot of money, unless you live out of state in which case take out a loan, or wait for us to leak a video of what you missed on You tube. The problem with that is Twister Naked is like crack and releasing it on an unsuspecting internet viewing public almost isn’t fair. This night is going to be unique. A lot of bands when they promote their shows will say blah, blah, were the best, blah, blah, your gonna love it, blah, blah, you’ve never seen a band like ours because were different, blah, blah, blahdiddy, blah, fuckin, blah. Well those bands are lying to you. I am not. You are NEVER going to see a night like this again.

First of all my guitar player Jay has made a real wacky movie that can only be described as a Benny Hill, meets the Ambiguously Gay Duo ground up in a blender and seasoned with raunchy punk rock. It stars members that joined Twister Naked after we left. That plays at 9pm and runs 69 mins. Hehe 69 dude.

After that The Punk Rock Elvises take the stage. They do Elvis style punk rock and even dress up like the king. Come one now that’s already reason enough to go. But wait there’s more I haven’t even taken the stage yet.

After the Elvises we get up and rock it hard with our own heavy fast loud and proud style of metal/punk. Showing influences all across the board. Members of this band have gone on to play and tour the world with such bands as Dr. Know, Damnation, TSOL, The Fixtures and The Dickies. And then there’s me. Those of you who have ever seen us perform many years ago, or who have seen any of my past bands know that I can’t stay in one place on the stage. In fact the entire club is mine to perform in running around like a demented mental patient who looks like Jesus but moves like Joe Cocker ate Henry Rollins. Forty minutes after we start your asking my sweat covered panting ass when you can come see us again because you’re not sure if you can go to a rockshow we’re not involved in. Well I can tell you the answer to that already. I don’t know when we can play again. Jay lives in Florida so this show is already a rare opportunity, in fact if you don’t want to feel like your coming off heroin three days later you should probably take lots of pictures and video to ease your instant addiction. We will play again someday, but we will never play again with….remember the movie from the beginning, well now those guys are going to take the stage. This is probably the only time you will ever see two separate Twister Nakeds fighting each other for dominance. Having been kicked out of many clubs in the past there is no telling what they will do.

So now your drained and tired and probably drunk and while your looking for a date to take home you can listen to the soothing sounds of The Mentors tribute band the Mantors that is closing up the night. Who cannot find someone to go home with while listening to them doing their version of Cat scratch Fever as High Priced Beaver.

So there ya go. I’m home from Shreveport it went great. I have more stories to tell you from there but I have been busy with getting back on track in the shop and scrambling to practice with the band before next Saturdays show. Now the second part of your orders. Click on the Twister Naked myspace below and friend us Do it now before you forget. We must show the band the power of the Army. The General has spoken see you at the rockshow. Now Soundoff!

MM

PS you can hear a couple songs there too, learn the words and try and take me out on stage and finish it yourself-it won’t be the first time…I dare you  Hehe yeah we were around such a long time ago they had black and white film. Thats Makeup fx great Norman Cabrera singing Night of the Living Dead with me. But It could be you.
http://www.myspace.com/twisternaked2006

Thu, 22 Nov 2007 01:59:58 GMT

Okay everyone I'm on set in Shreveport, the south's Hollywood hub. We are doing a film called the Killing Room. Heres the link.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1119191/

I promised this first blog a while ago but because I'm rolling solo on set I have been busy sitting down in comfy chairs and eating tiny sandwiches that craft services has offered up while I wait to do stuff on set, and by the time I get back to the oh so Comfortable comfort suites country crock Inn. The last thing I feel like doing is writing.

First of all this film is cool. No bullshit. I'm not gonna blow smoke up everyone's ass like they do on DVD commentaries and interviews these days. "Oh so and so is just fabulous, he's tremendous to work with I new we connected when blah, blah, fuckin, blah."

So no bullshit. This film actually is going to be pretty cool. It was one of those scripts that I read and gave it "the nod." I thought to myself. "Hey that's not half bad, in fact it's pretty good. I hope they can pull this off." You gotta understand we read a LOT of crap scripts. Then they went and cast good actors. And then they proceeded to get GREAT performances from those actors. It's a real small budget but this thing really is coming together and a lot of the people that are here doing it, are doing it because they believe in the project as opposed to they just needed a job. Anyway I'm pretty excited to see this thing come together and I'm looking forward to seeing it as a whole. I'm not going to give anything away about it and I'm not even going to suggest why a KNB representative would be on set. You can see for yourself when it comes out. The less you know about it the better for you. Nuff said.

Now lets talk movie sets, many of you readers have never had the opportunity to be on a real professional actual live movie set. So I'm gonna clue you guys in. Its not always hustle and bustle and action and cut and exploding cars and guys walking down to the commissary in space suits carrying their helmets followed by Indians and zombies. In fact it's a whole lot of boring. We like to refer to the old saying, "hurry up and wait." Your particular shot is scheduled to happen 30 minutes from now, times that by movie time (which is x3) and you get a whole lot of waiting. You end up having plenty of time to get to know those around you and come up with the stupidest shit there is, to amuse each other. Such as…Matt "Action" Goodwin our one and only set PA, took a damaged banana from Craft Services and turned it into a puppet. Who became (drumroll please)

Bananaman, Phil Bananaman, You may remember him from his previous roles in Bannana of Green Gables, Banannie Hall, and of course Bananaconda. He wrote the song Dueling Bananjos, He was in Time Banandits and he had the starring role in Smokey and the Banandit. Then he married Banangelina Jolie. It was a match made in heaven until she cheated on him with a bag of flour and had a baby Banana nut bread.
his picture is at the bottom he's sporting the new fall fashion in creamer hats.

Okay The Mist comes out today and I'm headed off to see it. I'm pretty excited. I hear good things about it and I know I am real happy that I got a chance to work on it. Ever since I read that story as a kid I wanted to see it as a movie. And Frank Darabont has a history of doing Stephen King right. So go check it out this weekend. I supervised most of the build for the show from the shop and I got to key the paintjobs on all the critters. I'll post some pics in a week or two so as not to spoil anything. See you all later.

MM

PS My band Twister Naked is off its 13 year Hiatus and will be returning to the stage on Dec 15th at Mister T's bowl in LA. I'm gonna promote the fuck out of it but you can check out the bands myspace page and listen to a few of the songs. If you're not afraid of the hard rockin sounds exploding your head.

The weekend of waivers

Tue, 11 Sep 2007 02:07:25 GMT

It been a while since I wrote, sorry.

It will go down in history as the weekend of waivers. And No it doesn't have anything to do with my fantasy football team (who got their asses kicked Sunday).

Contrary to popular belief, or her family lineage, my mother is not crazy…just adventurous. She told me years ago on the phone. "When I turn 60, I wanna jump out of a plane"

I rolled my eyes and flipped to another TV channel on mute. "Yeah okay," I said knowing full well it would probably never happen. But then she kept mentioning it.

"I'm gonna do it I'm serious." Yeah, Yeah, I thought to myself. She was definitely locked into the fact that some day it would happen. Then my cousin Annie got married in sunny southern Florida (isn't it all southern really). My mom went down there and spent a few days lazing around the beach and yucking it up in the bungalows. There was parasailing there and of course she jumped at the idea. Now parasailing is nothing. Its almost like diet sugar free skydiving and I figured it might curb her appetite. In my mind I'm thinking good, now I don't have to throw her out of a plane. Wrong!

Now she wanted to do it even more. So her 60th birthday came up two weeks ago and she had planned a trip to come and see me. As luck would have it my brother James was doing some of them Bill Shakespeare plays in San Diego. So he planned to come up and join us. It's so rare that we get to all get together. Even though the whole family wasn't there (her husband Fred and another of my brothers Darrell were not there.) It was still gonna be way worth it.

Skydiving is one of those things that you plan and never think it will actually happen. The car will break down on the way, or the wind will pick up and they will cancel it. But Nope. No such luck.

We left around nine thirty in the morning for a noon appointment, in the desert. It was hot as balls. (why are balls considered hot?) It felt like the earth was being punished. We signed our lives away and laughed at the video which states quite clearly you can be killed doing this and we are not responsible. Sign here, here, here, here, here, here, initial here, here and here, and sign and date here. Then you fill out the form that states what car in the lot is yours and where they can find the keys should you be dead. Then you make a video stating that you are aware of the risks, have read the paperwork, signed everything and are doing this of your own free will. Which feels a little bit like you should be denouncing the government the whole time while blinking save me in Morse code. Of course my brother did his in a Scottish accent so if he would have been killed we could have sued and said he wasn't in the right frame of mind. It's just a theory mind you, but I think it might be a loophole in the whole thing.

Anyway we suited up in our flattering flight suits, got the 5 minute run down from the instructor. You don't need much instruction when your doing tandem, which we all were. Seriously if you're gonna do this, go tandem, you don't have to worry about any of the technical stuff to save your life, its just a thrill ride at that point. After the quick instruction we were sent off to the plane. Where you see signs that say beware! Propellers can rip off heads…Awesome.

We loaded into the plane with a bunch of enthusiastic jumpers and in a loud ass whining of Prop engines we were off. Mom looked excited, she claims there was no fear at all just excitement of doing something she always wanted too. The boys in the plane yucked it up with each other and grabbed quick meals of power bars and bottled water. For some of them it was their 6th or 7th dive that day. I realized at that moment just how blasé they were about the whole thing. Falling out of a plane is just their jump. Then I noticed, everyone had a helmet except us. "Do I need a helmet?" I said to my guy.

"I hope not," he says with a smile.

When we got to 13,000 feet the entire back of the plane opened up like a bond movie. Within moments, a shit load of people leaped out at the same time, (shitload is a technical term for a lot.) It threw the plane for a loop as a 1000 pounds had just fallen off it. It's at this point you realize exactly what you are about to do. You can't think about it. You just wait till it's your turn, walk to the door and step out. Which I did.

You flip and spin for a moment and before you know what's happened you are screaming towards the earth face first and spread eagle like a cat. You free fall for about 40 seconds at around 120 miles an hour. They call it Terminal Velocity, I call it fucking amazing. I kept checking my altimeter and as we reached 6000 feet I reached back and felt for the ball. (no Jokes please, I did have a man strapped to my back after all.)

I pulled it.

The parachute makes a lot of noise as it comes out, but nothing happens, for a brief instant you say to yourself, It is working right? Then Wham. You're slammed into your harness as the chute bites air and fills.

Then it's a leisurely float to the earth as you enjoy the view. He let me control the chute for a bit and then took control and threw us into a few spins. Which was where my stomach said, Not today unless you want to see that breakfast again. So I warned him breakfast was knocking on the door and I didn't want it to rain vomit in the desert. He obliged and we safely quietly floated back to earth, The closer we got to ground the hotter it got, and with the adrenaline pumping through your body it was overwhelmingly hot.

Mom landed about 30 seconds after me and had the biggest smile I have ever seen.

So that's what we did on our moms 60th birthday…What will you do on yours?

MM

Heres the pics.

Lost Mirrors Diary chapter 6 -- veggies and other crap

Sun, 15 Jul 2007 18:21:00 GMT

Okay I'm officially home and jetlagged as hell, but I have more stories from the set of Mirrors in Romainia. We had been working hard on the set and we played hard too. With one day off a week we would finish shooting around midnight on a Thursday. Then straight to Terminus the pub/club we had come to call home when we could. The party would start right away and around 6 am the thrashed minions of mirrors would drag ass home. Some tossed into cabs by friends. Others led by me back to the hotel. They were like sailboats with no captains just drifting aimlessly. I would occasionally reach out and tug boat them out of the street as I listened to them prattle on about love. “I love you man.” “I love you too now get out of the street.” Noah Meddings (a brit) is one of my new friends and he had this idea in his head that he needed vegetables at 6am. So I let him wander off to the store and get what he wanted. When I talked to him the next day he had no idea why he woke up in bed fully clothed surrounded by fruits and vegetables. Like a veggie outline of a deadman drawn out by the coroner. Noah rules. Check my myspace top friends and “friend him” tell him you heard he’s a c*nt. Brits like that. Check the picture of myself Carlos and Noah, we are all labeled appropriately if you look closely.

I love food but somewhere I have to draw the line, check pic number two I bought some crap at a supermarket…but it tasted like shit.

Much Love

MM

Next chapter Dracula's castle!

Romanian Mirrors diary Chapter5 - Mayonaiza explosivo

Mon, 18 Jun 2007 01:03:33 GMT

Have you ever read your I-tunes license agreement closely.

THE APPLE SOFTWARE IS NOT INTENDED FOR USE IN THE OPERATION OF NUCLEAR FACILITIES, AIRCRAFT NAVIGATION OR COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS, AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL SYSTEMS, LIFE SUPPORT MACHINES OR OTHER EQUIPMENT IN WHICH THE FAILURE OF THE APPLE SOFTWARE COULD LEAD TO DEATH, PERSONAL INJURY, OR SEVERE PHYSICAL OR ENVIRONMENTAL DAMAGE.

Be very careful, I was extremely alarmed as I quite often put my life in the hands of I-tunes. To think that I had been so careless this whole time.

The other day Jaremy and myself went to grab a bite to eat at 11pm at night. We are a little fearful of some of the "odd" foods on set. So sometimes we starve ourselves, because partaking of the set meal is a little like salmonella roulette. Don't get me wrong, I love Roulette. I always bet on black. But here if you loose the bet you don't just loose that hundred you put down…you shit the bed. Which has happened to one crew member already who shall remain nameless. I texted said person the other night and said "hey you wanna go out and rock somewhere?" He texted back "Sick". It sounded serious and I knew 7 people on set had gotten food poisoning, so I let him be. Two days later I heard he had lost all control of his bodily functions and shit both the beds in his hotel room. I'm not sure if it was when I texted or not. I can just see it now. The room is dimly lit, covers cast aside in the failing air conditioning, shivers of sweat running down his skin, bzzzzzz "Ohh there's my phone Christ I just shit myself."

Sorry I slipped tracks there I was gonna tell you about my eating experience with Jaremy. Anyway we went to this place we have been twice before where the girls who work there seem to hate us. The moment I open my mouth they roll their eyes in annoyance. We each ordered a club sandwich, but Jaremy doesn't do Mayonnaise so he ordered his without. And we learned a new helpful phrase. Fara Mayonaiza, which means without mayonnaise (I think.) Cool. I like learning new stuff. I watched them make mine with and his without mayonnaise. When it came time to put the French fries in the box with our sandwhich's she looked at me and said "Mayonaiza" and I said "No I'm good." Then she took Jaremys box of fries and sandwich without Mayonnaise and squirted a half a bottle over the fries covering his sandwich and the inside of the box she gleefully handed it to us. Knowing she had got the order right. It was like a Mayonaise hand grenade went off in that box. Hilarious. Really. Jaremy was horrified and just sort of accepted defeat and traded some of my fries for his. So when in Romania If you want Mayionaise on everything except your sandwich order in "Fara."

Much Love

MM

Romanian Mirrors diary Chapter 4 -- The halfway party

Thu, 07 Jun 2007 12:02:19 GMT

First of all. Go support Hostel part II this weekend, lets give it some SAW box office numbers. Wish I was there to go see it but It won't be released here until after I am already gone. Heres a snipet of an interview with Kevin, Chad(Klaus von Polar) and myself from bloody disgusting.

http://www.bloody-disgusting.com/bdtv/Player.php?id=660

Still in Romania with a month to go. By the way my DVDs did show up. Minus the Sopranos. Yep some guy in customs opened the package to make sure it wasn't full of any subversive material and realized he had not yet seen Episode 4 of the final Sopranos season. So he took it. Fucker! He will undoubtedly be looking for episode 5 when it comes through, so Grace will send them unlabeled this time.

Heres is a bit of inter office email I thought you might find Funny. We are bringing another artist (long time friend Gino Crognale)out for the end of the shoot when we have heavier days. He sent me this email and my reply is below it.

Mike,
How's our hotel? Does it have towels, soap, shampoo, current
adapters, movies, restaurant
swimming pool, gym?
Concerned tourist
G

Dear concerned tourist,

The Howard Johnson name is synonymous with quality. Not only will you
find shitty movies on your TV for too much money, but you will also
find we offer an equally spotty internet service at the small cost of,
one arm and one leg. Our gym is available from 10 am to 9pm and has an
array of machines complete with loudly piped pop music horseshit. We
offer massages and a tanning booth as well. There is no swimming pool
as most of our beloved country cannot swim. The restaurant does
include a 24 hour room service for those rare occasions that you
require a baguette at 4 am. Current adapters. HA! our hotel is equipped
with our own power source from Romanian Bellskovich. It is much better
than the power you infidels use in the US and will destroy your feeble
products(bring your own). Of course we have towels and soap, what a
silly question. Thank you for considering the Howard Johnson Bucharest
for your stay here. We hope to be able to frown at you at the front
desk once we realize you speak only English.

MM

The world of mirrors is going just fine. We've had a few long makeup filled days running from first unit to second unit trailing droplets of blood everywhere and so far have been very pleased with the way things have worked out. Every actor that we have worked on has been great. That's always a wildcard, you never know how an actor is going to be once you start gluing shit on them for hours and hosing them down with sticky blood. But thankfully there has not been one complaint so far. In fact we have had a lot of laughs with them. Alex and his directing partner Gregory have been awesome to work with. They are so visionary and really know exactly what they want. I think this movie is going to be creepy as hell.

The production threw us a halfway party at a local club we have been frequenting and it was Great! It started at about 11pm with strippers promptly at 11:30. Yeah I said strippers. I know what you're thinking and NO. I did not have anything to do with that. I'm not sure why they even had them, it's just something the bar wanted to do for the production party. The strippers left by midnight with a great sigh of relief from the married women and gay guys on the crew. Both of which I don't think understood the appeal of nude European brunettes grinding each other in front of the grip, electric and camera crews. There was some little talk (from the gay guys and married women) about trying to get some guys to jump up there and strip afterwards and I guess I didn't because I didn't want to show off (yeah right!). I did get up there a few times during the night to draw attention to myself and the state of Rock and Roll in Romanian however, and the crew are really starting to catch on to me now. The first time there was too many astounded onlookers, now they all seem to be into it. I like to think of it as a musical soapbox. Jaremy got a chance to even DJ for a little bit. He's quite good and DJ's a lot in LA, so it was a great change of pace from the normal club DJ who seems to have one long string of mixes that he utilizes in the same way every night. The normal DJ got his ego bruised a touch I think so the club threw him back up there after about 45 minutes, but not before Jaremy spun a little AC/DC Highway to hell. (which I'm not sure has ever been played there) the crews faces lit up, as if the song was an anthem for us all on this cinematic journey which we are a part of. The place exploded with stomping feet, hook em horns, and loud "I Love you man" drunken singing. This forced the DJ into a 5 song rock block. Thanks Jaremy. Being one of the only non drinkers, by 6am I was shoving people into cabs and even walked a few back to the hotel like a line of drunken baby ducks.

MM

Quote of the day (read it in a smooth Italian accent): This KNB queen, I can hear him all the way outside of the building. -- Reno

Romanian Mirrors diary Chapter 3 -- Caught in the limelight

Wed, 30 May 2007 12:58:16 GMT

Once again we are caught in the limelight. No its not what your thinking. The Limelight is a little piano bar in Bucharest that has two musicians. One plays guitar and sings and the other plays piano and sings. Hits like. “Take me home country roads to the place I belong.” You know the iconic rock of John Denver, sung with a little bit of an accent = completely awesome. As well as anything from the Blues Brothers movie. The funny thing about the blues brothers bit is they also do the whole Dan Akroyd monologue about welcoming members of the Chicago police department to the audience. And who can pass up a little Eddie Grant. We all occasionally want to rock down through electric avenue, and now I can, on nightly basis if I wish. They are great guys, very friendly and they have promised to let me sing with them whenever I want. So I will peruse through their catalogue and choose a little Bob Seger or something like that. “Just take those old records off the Shelf!!!” maybe I’ll even drop my pants and do a Tom Cruise sock slide on the wood floor ala Risky Business. That’s bound to win over the Romanian crowds bigger than a plate of free indiscernible sausages.

We have also partied at another place called Terminus which looked like we were in the basement of the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyland. They played a lot of Euro trash disco BOMP, BOMP, BOMP. With an occasional “Summer lovin” from Grease. But I coerced the DJ into playing AC/DC and to my surprise the song he put on was Thunderstruck (which I sang from table tops everytime we were in the Harley bar in Prague) Naturally I vaulted to the Go-Go dancer pedestal and put on a show for the many drop-jawed onlookers. After about half the song people realized its okay to act like an idiot because I had shoved the stupid bar way higher than anyone else was going to that night. So besides Greg and Jaremy I got a few stumbling, fist raising, air guitar followers to rock along with me. All of this was a nice way to blow off some steam after we had a 16 hour day on set. Jaremy and I did a really tough makeup that could have easily been disastrous. It was the kind of gag that you toss and turn in bed fretting over days before, whether or not its going to look right or if everyone on set will look at what you did and wonder what it is your doing there, but instead it worked out very well.

We’ve done some good makeups on set and been talked up by the producers and others. Which is always a good feeling. Things are actually going very well here. Probably smoother in our department than most others, not to put those departments down, the trouble they are running into is local, as in getting the things and the help, they need to do their job. We’ve burned through a few gallons of blood already (on set, not on the dance floor, although that gives me an idea). One night on set, the set medic walked up to me stirring a cup of tea. He gave me a big toothy grin and kept right on stirring the cup. He even raised to me as if to say “check it out.” I glanced a little closer and saw it was a cup of steaming red water. He smiled again. “Your blood, it is sweet no?” I then realized he had made himself a cup of tea with our blood. I was a little too taken back to laugh…well it is the land of Vampires no?

MM

Mirrors Romanian Diary, Chapter 2: The Coyote and the Fish

Thu, 24 May 2007 22:53:53 GMT

The title sounds a little like a grindhouse type film and I guess in a way it could have easily become one…or a Hostel type situation.

First of all it’s been too long since I wrote. I blame it on…
A)work
B)homesickness
C)lack of a steady internet connection
D)all of the above.

The correct answer is D.

When I last left you we were under crushing deadlines to get our crates and it all just barely worked out. Everyone on the crew has the same problem and people who are not from here keep asking. Why are we shooting this movie (that takes place in New York City) here? They are certainly not saving any money given all of the communication problems and trouble the various crews are having getting the stuff they need. I even have regular mail tied up in customs somewhere. Grace, my wife has sent me an envelope with my favorite TV shows burned on DVD; 24, The Shield, Sopranos etc. She sent them over a week ago airmail and they still aren’t here. No one seems optimistic that they will even arrive. Somewhere a customs guy is enjoying what Tivo and Love hath sent me.

The internet(which is SHIT) at the hotel is costing me nearly 300 dollars a month. I could buy a child here for that. Production may be picking up the tab on this for me, but I suspect. In the end “zis vill be unfortunate I think.” I’m 80 people behind in my myspace friend acknowledgements. And other net stuff as well. But I’m doing what I can.

So heres a story. Greg (Nicotero) came into town and we had a few nights of stumbling about town eating strange foods, expensive Benihannas, with incredibly slow service, and quite a few drinks thrown in for good measure. One of the stars of the film brought her brother Adam into town with her and he did a lot of hanging with us. We sort of immediately indoctrinated him as a member of the KNB team. One night Greg turned in early as Jet lag and a Romanian cold were kicking his ass. So I talked Jaremy and Adam into rolling to some club a guy I met told me about. It was called the Coyote café, its owned by Americans and they have Karaoke and a live band that plays rock and roll twice a week. Well it was midnight on a Sunday. I figured we would give it a try. The Hotel front desk gave me confused looks, as always, when I asked them where it was. Finally through much deliberation they gave me dodgy directions. It took us 15 to 20 minutes of wandering around dark piss stenched streets shoving begging children away from us. The boys had zero faith in my navigation skills as I lead them down these eerie paths. “Come on this way,” I would say. “Isn’t this fun it’s an adventure.” We finally spotted the sign “Halleluiah!” We turned the corner to see it was in dark alley. And it was closed. Fuck. At the end of the dark alley just past the Coyotes subway like entrance there was a light. We saw two figures sillouhetted there. They waved us down toward them. Jaremy and Adam were locked in place, their feet sinking into the concrete. “Uhhh I don’t know” I heard one of them say. “Come one it’s an adventure.” I repeated. The closer I got I saw two waitresses similarly dressed in miniskirts and white tops. “Coyote is Finished,” they said. “come drink here.” I egged the boys on and they reluctantly followed me into the unknown. The closer we got I realized these girls aren’t all waitresses are they? A waitress begged us to sit and have a drink. The place was a small outdoor terrace, in the corner two old men sat playing chess, a woman in a babushka who looked like she should be pushing a mop on the Carol Burnette show nursed a drink with two friends, a fat guy in a blue jump suit made rounds with a couple of skinny girls in miniskirts, I looked at the boys who were now beginning to shit bricks. The thought in everyones mind was, this is not a place to sit and enjoy a drink after midnight on a Sunday in Bucharest. Eli Roth’s Hostel came to mind. Honestly at this point I was still a little clueless. Fuck it! We sat down and the fat guy in the blue jump suit dragged over extra chairs and put a girl next to each one of us. DING! A lightbulb went off in my head. I know what’s going on here now. But it’s too late to just go “Well we gotta go!” and bail outta there. Jaremy looked across the table at me and mouthed “I’m going to fucking kill you.” We ordered drinks. The girl sitting next to me tried to get me to order drinks for all of them and I courageously said No. For a split second I thought, if they just bring me a red bull in a glass I’m not gonna drink it. Thankfully they brought the can and an empty glass. I skipped the glass, whose lip was undoubtedly covered with American sleepytime, and started slurping my Red bull down. Adam awkwardly asked the girls “so are you from around here,”and I almost shot Red Bull out of my nose. Some drunken Englishmen wandered up the alley and The Fish (fat guy in the blue jump suit In Romania they call pimps the Fish) snapped his fingers, two of the girls bolted from our table and ran to his side to escort drunken Englishman down the alley to someplace secluded. I nodded to the whore sitting next to me and said “business?” she smiled and replied yes. Moments later she got up and left us. I guess the drunken Englishmen needed more than two girls. The fish then came over to our table and said “I have two more girls if you would like to see.” “No that’s okay we really have to be going anyway, but thank you.” I playfully patted him on the arm to show my solidarity. We finished our drinks and left. Once we hit the brightly lit street we all smiled and began to laugh relieved. Jaremy swears he’s going to drag me to a skeevy dirty gay bar as payback for the moments of mental anguished I put him through.

MM

Quote of the Day

Come to Romania, the land of supermodels and cavemen

Romanian Mirrors diary Chapter 1 Romania needs paint

Sun, 13 May 2007 17:34:24 GMT

WANTED!

Paint and lots of it. Dear America, Romania needs paint. Please send as much as you can spare. Romania is willing to trade stray dogs, hookers, and gypsy beggars. So please America box up cans of paint and send it along. We will send you One hooker with child beggar and one stray dog per box.

Well I'm here. And the key words I hear most on set is… "its Romania." The meaning of this phrase is. Things take a little longer here to get a hold of. We shipped our crates of tools and FX related goodies in two giant wooden crates along with a bunch of boxes of expendables. We had been told that they would be at the studio with a few days to get our trailer loaded and ready to go. The boxes showed up no problem, they even beat me and Jaremy here. The crates…is another story.

We were told crate #1 would be here Tuesday for us to unload. On Wednesday we found out it would actually be in on Thursday, and on Thursday we found out it would meet us on set Friday…for our first day of shooting. Mind you the crate is full of stuff that shoots first shot. So at noon we arrive three hours early before call time to meet our crate. YES!!!! Its there. Jaremy and I tear into it and find out…Whoops this is not Crate #1 with what we are supposed to shoot in three hours. This is crate #2 full of stuff which shoots in a week. I jump on the phone to the customs liason and say.

"Whoa hold on this is crate #2 we need crate #1."

"Crate #2?" He says in a thick Romanian accent.

"Yes", I say "where is crate #1?"

"zis is unfortunate I sink." Was his response.

I almost died laughing.

Crate #1 made it to the set with one hour to spare before the stuff inside was needed on set. We blasted through it got what we needed and made it just in the nick of time. And the whole time not too many people were worried. Why you ask? because "this is Romania."

MM

Mirrors Romania prolouge

Mon, 07 May 2007 19:10:44 GMT

Mirrors Romania Prolouge

RUN RUN RUN! That's what my brain is doing I am one hour away from my pickup to send me to Romania to work on Alexandre Aja's Mirrors. I got my flight confirmed yesterday (a little last minute) and I just found out one hour ago when the driver will be here to pick up. Last minute things are flying in. The props buyer just called me in a rush and wants to give me some taxi cab lights to take with me on the plane. Of course I already have two bags and I will have to pay extra to get it on board and then I will have to get my money back from production. I think I'm staying at the lovely Howard Johnsons in Bucharest (I guess Motel 6 was booked up) who knew they had a HOJOs in Romania. I bet it used to be a communist building with taps and cameras in every room. Should make for an interesting website. Let me know if you see me wearing just socks and a smile on the internet somewhere.

Big trips like this always make me nervous. Plus I think I drank too much coffee, and slept too little. I'll be blogging as much as I can about the trip hopefully every 4 days or so. So check in often. I will be there for two months. Both the wife and the dog looked depressed as I packed my bags. I think they both know what bringing the luggage out of the closet means and one of them is sorry they dug in the garbage. Just kidding baby.

MM

Tue, 01 May 2007 02:57:19 GMT

I have so much to say and so little time.

Well first of all. Grindhouse didn't do so well at the theater and that's a big drag. It is one of my favorite films that has come out that I had any part of. I guess the three-hour seat-time. And the fact that it's an homage to cult movies has turned it into just that….a cult movie. Most people I know who have seen it have seen it more than once and can't wait to buy it on DVD. Check out the making of Grindhouse book for a whole chapter written by Greg Nicotero about KNB and the stuff we did for it. Theres a few McCarty sightings as well. now "get the fuck outta' my way."

Now currently in the theaters besides Grindhouse, is Disturbia, which was surprisingly slick. I really enjoyed it. They cut out most of what we did for that movie but its still a good movie. Perhaps the DVD will show more. I have a Disturbia story I want to tell later. Also currently in Theaters featuring KNB work is Perfect Strangers, and The Reaping. Next week is Spiderman 3 (can't tell ya what we did for that one yet). Out on DVD last week was Deja-vu (I spent a few weeks on set for that one with some carnage) there's a great behind the scenes featuring our Paula Patton body. On DVD this week is The Hitcha!!!! Which my friend Staci Lane tells me there is a quite a good behind the scenes on the night we pulled Zach apart between the trucks. Which I guess I'm featured on, along with Little Al and Jake Garber who was my KNB partner in crime on that one. (parts of New Mexico and Texas are still reeling from us) Remember the General? Rocks Chosen Warrior? You can look him up in my old Hitcher blogs for a laugh.

I'm also featured along with Chad Atkinson (Klaus von Polar) and Kevin Wasner (check my top myspace friends list for both). In the new Fangoria article on Hostel Part II. Do me a favor and bug Chad to be his friend. He needs some love and I want to skyrocket his myspace friend request count to the point of absurdity. For more Hostel part II news than you can shake a bloody intestine twined stick at go to http://www.bloody-disgusting.com/film/1058 tons and tons of stuff there including a video of me sneaking up on Eli's brother Gabe to cut his throat and other goodies.

Jesus that's a lot of self promotional crap but enough about me, lets talk more about me. I'm still waiting for the cleaned up edit of my Wereworld manuscript, which has been requested by two publishing houses. I also have a few shorts out there I'm waiting to hear back on.

One of my old bands Twister Naked (check my top myspace friends again) is rearing its head again. We have been threatening to get back together for over a year now and hopefully this time it will truly happen. Although the power of the Rock we bring may be too much for some of you. We have been known to injure ourselves and cause injury among others with our loud racous symphony of metalic joy. You think me standing on tables in europe and singing AC/DC is funny wait till I try to stand on your head in the front row at a Twister show.

I'm leaving to go to Romania in one week. Greg Nicotero(the N of KNB)has seen fit to put me in charge of Mirrors, the next Alexandre Aja film starring Keiffer Sutherland. So I'm headed there with one of our sculptor/makeup artists Jaremy. Greg's gonna head out there for a bit too as soon as we settle in so we can wreck the eastern block proper. You remember what perdiem stands for right? Its French for "give to stripper."

Oh yeah and today is my birthday what did ya get me? :)

Ciao

MM

easy link to the myspace for all that checking you need to do.
http://www.myspace.com/mike_mccarty

Yeah I worked on it! Heres my Grindhouse review

Sun, 08 Apr 2007 19:02:49 GMT

First of all Happy Easter. I celebrated already by watching House by the Cemetery. I’m getting ready to write a Fulci zombie essay for an upcoming film review book. Plus its my tradition to watch zombie films on Easter. Because it seems more appropriate than watching Watership Down.

So here I am sucking at the teat of Hollywood, mmmm delicious. I’m about to drop a few names so get ready for me to be a suck ass. :)

Grindhouse!!!!

I went to a showing Friday night at the Graumans Chinese Theater in Hollywood, the one with all the hand and foot prints in the cement. I was prompted to go by a text message from Eli Roth saying everyone was going and to get tickets on-line. He was right everyone did go. Much to the surprise of the sold out crowd. Eli showed up with Quentin, Rosario Dawson, Jay Hernandez, Edgar Wright, Vera Jordanova, all of the producers and associate producers that I partied with In Europe on Hostel part II, (who all were associated with the Thanksgiving trailer which we shot at the end of our H2 shoot. ) a few more cast members, as well as a bunch of us from KNB. It was like a family reunion. Quentin rolled in like a champion prize fighter with his arms in the air followed by the entourage. When the crowd realized what was happening they went insane! Cell phones were pulled out, friends were called and anyone who was there to bootleg the film on video now suddenly had a special feature. I swear to god I saw two guys with digital video cameras. Hilarious. Someone associated with the theater got on a microphone before the showing and asked all the cast and crew to stand up I swear there were 30 of us. So this being said I am completely biased about this film as the experience of being there got us all wrapped up in the infectious moment.

This movie ROCKED! The crowd shouted and hollered and whistled and screamed. Planet Terror kicked major ass like a planet made of pure terror. It was so much fun. Freddy Rodriguez became an action hero, Rose Mcgowan was actually pretty good. There were interesting engaging characters, funny little sub plots, shocking surprises and enough splatter to fill any fans plate with grue. The FX, digital and practical were top notch, Greg Nicotero (the N of KNB) told me "I realize that KNB is already on the map, but this movie should make them change the name of the map from Rand McNally to KNB." We who had anything to do with this film are all real proud.

The intermission with trailers is fantastic, yes there are many rumors going around about Grindhouse 2 being the most popular trailers made into a double feature. If Grindhouse does big numbers this weekend I think we will definitely see this happen, but I think I can also answer this safely by saying everyone who did a trailer wants to do that full film.

Death Proof. I've heard a lot of complaints about Death Proof being too slow and not enough of what its promised to be. Actually as far as Grindhouse film making goes Death Proof is more spot on. I personally liked it better, but then again I am a "gearhead" and to see the climax as a final showdown between a 1970 Challenger and a 1970 Charger was awesome. The stunt work is also real!!!! yes not digital real. I miss real stuff these days there is too much CGI enhancement. When you see the stunts real life stunt woman Zoe Bell does (she plays herself in the movie) you will be on the edge of your seat. She is my new hero. Kurt Russel is awesome. he makes you smile, creeps you out, then has you howling with laughter at his character change.

I was so thrilled with this movie. As was my wife who's favorite part was Death Proof as well. The length of the whole film as one did not bother me. In fact I look forward to seeing an extended DVD.

Now as far as people complaining about why the film wasn't released uncut it really doesn't have that much to do with the Weinsteins wanting more of your money. Although they don't mind. Its the dreaded MPAA that is at fault. Most theaters will not carry an NC17 film. Therefore they will not get as big of a market penetration and resulting box office. This is also why you see so many horror films these days being released PG13. Because PG13 makes more money at the box office than R and with the advent of DVD technology these days they can release both versions there. My biggest complaint is when they wait 3 months after the first DVD release to do so. I hope they don't do this with Grindhouse. The second reason is running time. The studio wants to secure a specific runtime not just because they are afraid people may stay away if it is soooo long but also because it shows fewer times a day at every theater. Therefore making less money.

Anyway I loved this movie but like I said I am biased.

By the way pick up the supercool making of book. Greg Nicotero wrote a chapter on KNB in it and Eli Roth wrote a chapter on the Thanksgiving trailer. Eli drops my name in there a few times too. He’s such a suckass. Just kidding. :)

MM

My newest news and KNB's latest work to hit the big screen.

Sun, 25 Mar 2007 19:57:45 GMT

Well the most important thing is, I finished my novel. There were no horns or fanfare or balloons dropping from the ceiling. The catch cable snapped, the balloons got hung up in the net, and the CD with the horns and fanfare had an error read. Anyway It has taken roughly a year to do it. It’s part of a trilogy, or more, so it won’t be long before I’m into book two. Its currently being cleaned up before I send it off to Laurie, the patiently waiting agent.

I’m speaking on two panels at this years WHC 2007 in Toronto. March 29th to April 1st. I can’t wait it’s gonna be a blast. I went to WHC last year and made a lot of contacts and new friends. I’m just gonna up the ante this time. Especially now since Wereworld is finished. If your there give me a hockey hip check into the boards(we are in Canada after all) and say whats up!

The three latest movies to hit the theater KNB worked on is:
1)Hills Have Eyes 2, which we sent a crew to Morocco for while I was in Prague.

2)Grindhouse. The word on the street about Grindhouse is… its awesome, and I’m sure there will be an unrated DVD which will be even better. Watch for my Cameo in the Thanksgiving trailer. During a scene where a parade becomes a riot. I scream “Get the Fuck out of my way!” and plow my way through a bunch of thirteen year old impressionable(and confused) little girls. Good times.

3)The Reaping, which we actually finished a long time ago. I didn’t have much to do with this movie, at the time of the Reaping I think I was working on Poseidon.

Here’s a GREAT link you will not be disappointed with for Hostel Part II which hits theaters June 8th (I think)
http://www.diehostel.de/

Pick up the latest issue of Fangoria which seems to be another "heres what KNB has been doing issue." Like many issues actually. In the Hostel article they spelled my name wrong, oh well. I used to think LOST was a great show. Now I’m just lost. I saw 300 and think it should win the academy award for best movie…ever made. Here is an amazing review for 300 from a guy I wish I could say I knew. If you have to pee, better do it before you read this review. You might laugh so hard you’ll have an accident.
http://www.aintitcool.com/node/31520

MM

KNB's latest work to hit the big screen and more...

Sun, 25 Mar 2007 19:56:24 GMT

Narnia, the Mist and The reluctant rockshow

Sun, 18 Feb 2007 23:04:58 GMT

Well people have been bitchin’ to me in person, and online for not writing enough diaries, sorry let me catch you up.

At the shop we have around 60 people or so kicking huge quantities of ass. We are very, very busy doing the Narnia sequel “Prince Caspian” http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0499448/ Its more characters than we did for the first movie and they need it in less time. Typical movie making.

“Hey we want you to do more stuff this time. How much pre-production did you get last time.”

“Eight months.”

“Eight months huh, you’ve got three.”

Also in an unbelievably short time frame, we are doing “The Mist” monster fans this one’s for you. Ever since I read the mist around twenty years ago, I thought it work make a cool movie. Finally the wait is over and it’s being done right by Frank Darabont who has always done Stephen King well http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0884328/ If you read the story, which is the first 150 pages of King’s Skeleton crew collection, then you know what’s in it. And yes it’s pretty faithful to the story. Greg Nicotero and the boys headed to set already and start shooting soon. Me, on the other hand, have more or less been put in charge of getting that particular show out the door and on time here on the home front. Pretty cool. I’ve also been lucky enough to “key” a lot of the monster paintjobs. Which is one of my favorite things to do.

In the writing front my novel “Wereworld” is kicking along very well, I’m over 315 pages or a 110,000 words already and getting dangerously close to the end. Maybe its time I gave you a little taste of what it is just to wet your appetite. The one line pitch is; It’s sort of a cross between Highlander and Anne Rice’s Vampire chronicles, but with werewolves. It’s planned as a trilogy…or more and most of the first book predates ancient Rome. That’s about all I’m going to tell you for now but I’m pretty happy with how its turning out. Plus I have some very interesting things that will go along with it as well, that I’m keeping a secret for now.

Okay now lets get to other stuff. My brother James was visiting a few weeks ago and we went with a bunch of the KNB boys to see Helmet and Totimoshi. Totimoshi is great. I really like them a lot I’ve seen em twice now and have most of their CD’s you should give em a listen http://www.myspace.com/totimoshi
When Helmet took the stage the floor filled in completely and the place was packed. Packed with 30 something dudes with well crafted facial hair and piercings, dressed in Black hoodies with brand names on them. Most of these guys had their girlfriends with them looking cute in their club clothes, holding fancy drinks packed with fruit and umbrellas . We were shoulder to shoulder with cute and cool. Not your typical slam pit crowd. The band took the stage and started their first song, something newer, something power rock ballady, and definitely “safe.” I was immediately disturbed. At some point Helmet became safe college “hard” rock. They looked a little too “Posery” up there on stage. After about 5 songs I went outside with Chad where we talked to the Bass player from Totimoshi, Meg. We told her Helmet sucked. Nobody was moving or rocking out. Typical “too cool to move” Hollywood crowd. She said don’t worry they’ll play their older stuff later. We went back in and sure enough within three more songs they played one of their old hits, Unsung. Still nothing was happening in this dead crowd. With a mighty cry of “fuck this!” in my head I bumped into a few cute people with their drinks letting them know “The Rockshow” was about to happen. Chad took a cue and gave me a shove driving me into a now scattering and confused crowd. Instantly about ten other people with an attitude of “ITS ABOUT TIME!” jumped in and we had us a good old fashioned pit. A pit started out of boredom, that the band appreciated, and it actually lasted the rest of the show. After that song some big guy an accent thanked me and hugged me with sweaty arms.

Flipping through the TV channels last night I saw Busty Cops 2 listed on Cinemax. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0815123/ It had the best TV log line I have ever seen in my life. “Three voluptuous women use time travel to fight injustice and wrongdoing.” Awesome! Some 14 year old in Illinois is loosing his mind because mom and dad are out to dinner with the Torgenson’s from up the street and won’t be back until the credits roll. Whats even funnier is I have worked with that director before on something called Munchie strikes back. Where the cute character Muchie was voiced by Dom Deluise. Again awesome!

MM

PS I have the Transformers trailer(another film we did) on my myspace page.

Primeval...not so prime, less than evil.

Mon, 15 Jan 2007 17:52:57 GMT

Congratulations Primeval on an opening weekend at the highly coveted spot #8 (sarcasm) First of all let me say we worked on this movie and we were so proud of it(more sarcasm) that for the second time in KNB history we all wanted to give fake names for the credit list, Al Bregyorneck, Hugh Jazz, Oliver Closov, Mike Oxsmall, you get the idea. I wish we had. Not, mind you, because what we did was bad. It's how it was used or…not used in this case. We made a bunch of full size insert croc pieces one that worked like a submarine, one full insert attack head and an attack tail (see my pics section on www.mikemccarty.net). They were "approved" by production and shipped to Africa with a crew. Our boys were there for three weeks testing and prepping for shots they kept saying were coming but each time they would "cancel" the shot. After three weeks they just sent our guys home deciding CGI was the way they wanted to go. They never shot a single frame of our stuff. Or least if they did, we weren't there to handle it. If you bother to see this movie on late night cable someday you will probably wonder why they went with a CGI croc instead. If you saw any of the trailers, up until the day of its release, you would not even know it was a giant crocodile movie. For some reason they played it up really hard to make it look like a serial killer movie. Don't ask me why, I guess that didn't help them though. In fact its gathered some negative press there is some guys whos calling for a boycott of the film under the pretenses of false advertising. So far it has a 16% percent fresh rating out of all of the reviews at Rotten Tomatoes. Here's a little tid-bit Taken from a review by Scott Weinberg

Step right up, ladies and gents, and get a peek at the amazing three-headed undercooked movie! It's Primeval, folks, and it's a horror flick, an action movie and an unintentional comedy at the same time! But wait, there's more! Not only is this sad and somewhat sorry excuse for a matinee packing two more genre formulae than it actually needs, but it also hits the screens more than three months before its due date! It's a stompin', chompin' lunatic romp, my friends! Thrill at the unfinished CGI! Shriek at the outrageously silly crocodile footage! Chuckle at the downright ineptitude of the plot holes, the doofy dialogue and the egregious editorial mishaps! Hurry now, moviegoers, because Primeval is sure to vanish from your local multiplex in the time it took you to say "Wow, I've never even heard of this movie!"

Mind you I have not personally seen this movie. I'm waiting for it to be released on the FX channel. Chime in with your own reviews if you have seen it. Don't be afraid to tell if you liked it either.

MM

The Highway to Hell and other news

Tue, 19 Dec 2006 05:38:39 GMT

Well it’s near the holidays and we are winding down at the shop (kinda). Winding down means we are resting for the holidays because when we come back we are full force with a TON of work to do. Grindhouse still needs to be finished. Narnia is finding its way out of the wardrobe and the shop is soon to be surrounded by The Mist. Then there are a few other projects looming as well. Yes I’m afraid we are going to be doing all the movies this year at KNB. That’s okay we can handle it. 

If you pick up the latest issue of Stuff Magazine. Kevin and I get a quick mention in the “how to have the best year of your life” article. It goes month by month and gives tips on what you should do that month. We got our mention in what else but good old “Shocktober”. The Stuff guy that interviewed us about KNB when we were on set for Hostel: Part II asked us a few questions about cool things to do with costumes. We gave him a bunch of tips and he sort of ran with it. Although it makes it seem like we make fake eyes out of condoms, when really Kevin explained how he quickly whipped up the Eye-gasm gag on the first Hostel out of a condom. So I guess theoretically it will work, but kids all over the world are gonna be disappointed when they can’t quite figure it out with a box of Trojans in their greasy little hands. Good luck kids! Also if you read the article, you really shouldn’t use grease paint underneath gelatin for burns, the gelatin won’t really stick to it too well. We meant regular paint like those tattoo palettes we all love nowadays. Use the grease paint on top. Again good luck kids!

Well we rocked so hard in Prague that Chad and I decided we really shouldn’t stop. We have been to three rock shows in the last two weeks. Well, calling them rock shows is really being generous. I think it might be better to call them Mock shows. As all three were tribute bands that play at this place in the valley where metal heads go to die. We saw The Iron Maidens – an all girl Iron Maiden cover band. With lead singer Bruce Chickinson. They were awesome. The next night we came back to see the ever popular Atomic Punks, probably the best old Van Halen tribute band you will ever see. They look and sound the part, and as they like to say “The more you drink the more we look and sound like Van Halen.” They’re right. Chad still thinks we saw Van Halen that night. (Just kidding Chad I know you don’t remember much from that night) Cut too Chad calling me a jerk tomorrow at the shop. He-he sorry Chad I couldn’t resist, you know I love you in a non-gay way.

The next week everyone that was supposed to come out with us bailed. Nobody can keep up with us I guess. We saw Bonfire a Bon Scott years AC/DC coverband . Also dead ringers for the real thing if you’re hammered. Well I don’t drink, but they are still pretty fucking good. They closed the show with Highway to Hell. People were up next to the stage raising their fists and drinks every time they sang the chorus “Highway to hellllll” There was this one overweight fella raising a Lite beer and I found that kind of funny. Every time they hit the chorus he raised his Lite beer. Just letting everyone know he was on a low calorie Highway to Hell, which seemed kind of Ironic. “Yeah I’m going to hell, but I would like to slim down a little on the way there if I can.”
I hear ya buddy.

In novel news my novel, Book one of the Wereworld trilogy, will hopefully be finished in January. It’s going very well. I can’t wait for you all to read it one day.
Good Times. Hope you all have a great Holiday.

MM