Indie Film Premiere

What is Thor, the mythical Norse God of lightning doing in a Spielbergian suburban neighbourhood? Why spending his last day on earth pissed off that no one has noticed all he’s done to save the world. THOR AT THE BUS STOP, the directorial feature film debut of brother team Jerry and Mike Thompson had its premiere at the Brendan Theater in Las Vegas Friday night. The brothers have written and directed over a dozen multi-award winning short films together, this one being a compilation of two and an effort of their production company Light Forge Studios.


Jerry Thompson
The storyline is an interweaving of various day-in-the life scenarios catalyzed by the title character, whose angst over being the unsung savior of the world, sets off a string of random lightning strikes. Vignettes by comedian/magician Teller of Penn and Teller add a dash of wry humor (http://www.pennandteller.com/). If you’ve never heard him speak…here’s your chance.

THOR is packed with screwball characters and themes about goodness, apathy in the modern world and the power of cool. Subtle comedic antics are the superglue that holds this camp pop culture flick together. The brand of silly comedy will appeal to those who like SNL humor. This directing team is one to watch as they grow.

Mike and Jerry Thompson and non-directing brother Scott (actor in the film)
Produced by veteran internationally recognized feature film and television writer/director David Schmoeller, this newest offering is yet another addition to his impressive list of work. Schmoeller is currently an Associate Professor of film production at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and runs the Film Department’s UNLV Short Film Archive.

Coming to DVD October 31^st, an amusing look at a side of Vegas seldom seen can be pre-ordered through the film’s website http://thoratthebusstop.com

http://thoratthebusstop.com/products-page/items-for-sale/thor-at-the-bus-stop-full-length-dvd/

Gamer Explodes On Screens Nationwide

A modern day gladiator, the principal heroic character in the newly released Gamer is one of many participants controlled by other humans who play to experience their deepest fantasies fulfilled. One ruthless megalomaniac controls a new and dangerous technology allowing the rich to experience the most violent of games vicariously through the blood of death row inmates. Nanotechnology has allowed a reclusive billionaire to create this frightening world, all played out in front of a global audience.

The motivation behind the central “slayer”, Kable is strong, if not cliché. He wishes to regain his identity, rejoin his wife and child and ultimately save the world from this evil twist of technology and its number one pundit. The fast cut frenetic film making ramps up the tension as well as the audience blood pressure. Although this technique was used brilliantly in the 2006 film Crank (also directed and written by Neveldine and Taylor) it becomes a bit exhausting, taking up a good portion of the one hour four-five minutes. The element of humor so pervasive in the two Crank films is sadly missing form Gamer, thus binding it to an overfilled genre of action films relying on violence, profanity and explosions to keep the viewers riveted. Still one of the better permutations, Gamer non the less could have risen above had it taken a fresher approach.

The bright spot of the film, Gerard Butler as Kable, added layers to what could have been a very flat character indeed. While all the other players were predictably one dimensional, each portraying singularly minded driven individuals; Mr. Butler brought humanity to his role. He has a talent for conveying a well of emotion through his eyes as has been his strength in previous work. A man of few words, Kable moves through the insane world in which he is forced to participate with intelligence and pro-activity. More powerful than all the profane speeches given by others, Butler transmits an intensity and strength lacking in some of the more cookie cutter characters.

Moments of brilliance, including the way Kable figures to steal a disabled vehicle and a near Michael Jackson-esque dance scene pepper Gamer providing just enough spice to make this film stand out.

This is SO Important....

...I have to reprint it here. It is agent Nathan Bransford of Curtis Brown Agency's blog for today. Please chant it's message as a mantra to everyone you know...

The published! They are the hardy souls who have climbed the Mount Everest of the writing and publication process. They scaled the foothills of writing, ascended the steep cliffs of agent-finding, and rose to the pinnacle of authordom without being felled by a freak storm and resorting to cannibalism (that you know of).

These pioneers make the multi-year climb, they stand atop the peak... and then realize it's sometimes a little lonely and chilly up there.

They shout, "Please! Buy my book (book book book echo echo echo)....... Um... please? (um... please? um... please? um... please? echo echo echo)

How can you help out these writers, the ones whose book you happened to hear about on a blog or picked up off the street or checked out at the library and loved?

The best way: buy a new book.

Authors don't get royalties for used book sales, their sales reports aren't padded when 10 friends pass along their book to each other, they only get credit for one sale no matter how many times people check it out from the library.

So: In honor of published authors, especially the ones who are living in non-bestsellerdom... let's help these people out.

For Published Author Day on Writer Appreciation Week I encourage, nay, require, nay, okay you can do whatever you want, everyone to buy a new book. And then brag about it in the comment section.

If times are tough for you at the moment: totally understand. There are lots of ways to support our favorite published authors. And it just so happens that Eileen Flanagan has a great post on how to do just that. (via Janet Reid)

Write a positive Amazon review! Or a Goodreads review or Tweet or blog about how much you love it! Help out your favorite authors. And then brag about it in the comments section.

I just bought LOST CITY RADIO by Daniel Alarcon. And THE GHOSTS OF BELFAST by Stuart Neville.

What about you?

Nathan Bransford - Literary Agent (nb@cbltd.com)
http://blog. nathanbransford. com/