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Renegade Entertainment

Actor Thomas Jane (The Predator) and producer Courtney Lauren Penn (Altitude) are teaming up to form LA-based content company Renegade Entertainment with Stephen King novel adaptation From A Buick 8 their first movie project on the docket.

Renegade, which will develop and produce film, TV, games and immersive content, is partnering with King to adapt and produce his 2002 thriller novel about a car which is a door to another dimension.

From A Buick 8 centers around the rural town of Statler, Pennsylvania where the state police have kept a mysterious 1954 Buick Roadmaster in the shed behind the barracks for over twenty years. When the town is plagued by strange and supernatural events, it turns out the Buick isn’t what it seems to be.

“From a Buick 8 is a thrilling and deeply personal project for us,” said Jane and Penn, “as we explore a uniquely structured mystery spanning the 70s, 80s, 90s and post-9/11 era, centered around a son’s search for the truth behind his father’s sudden death. Along with first love and grief, terrifying and philosophic mysteries are spawned by inexplicable events connected to the titular car. We are honored that Stephen is supporting our vision of his brilliant, provocative novel.”

Pic becomes the latest title on King’s in-demand back list to reignite. It was once developed as a vehicle for Night Of The Living Dead‘s George Romero and was previously in the works at Hyde Park Entertainment with writer William Brent Bell.

Multi-hyphenate Jane, who founded the graphic novel company RAW Studios in 2011, has featured in three previous King adaptations: 1922The Mist, and Dreamcatcher.

The Expanse star and Penn are currently working on a slate of projects including original and established IP, features, series, graphic novels and gaming.

“Renegade is a story and character-first company,” the duo said about the company. “We believe in those who believe in pushing boundaries. ‘Imagination is the voice of daring.’ We are thrilled to partner with visionary creators who dare to imagine for the now and for the future as we champion innovative ways to share stories with audiences. At Renegade, we believe that in story, as in life, true character is revealed in a storm.”

Penn continued, “Thomas has always been ahead of the curve, not afraid of change, and is an inimitable partner – a sheer force of creative ability, drive and integrity. We began collaborating on a genre-bending love story and discovered a beautifully balanced working partnership that connects a love of the classic and the new. Renegade was born of our shared tastes.”

Jane said of Penn, “It’s rare to find a partner who can merge significant ideas with the intelligence, skill and talent to bring them to life.”

Jane starrer The Expanse returns for season 4 on December 13 on Amazon Prime. Jane will also direct an episode for season 5 of the fan-favorite series, premiering in 2020. He can also be seen in movie Crown Vic.

Penn, a writer and former chess champion, was previously the President of Athena, a content strategy and advisory company. She also founded Boundless Pictures, an independent film finance and production company, where she led packaging, development, sales and production.

Renegade Entertainment and Thomas Jane are represented by Paradigm.

Deep Blue Sea 20th Anniversary

On May 28th 2019 Thomas Jane attended a special celebration screening of the movie Deep Blue Sea. The occasion was to mark the film’s 20th Anniversary.

The film is in fact 7,247 days old today, so we thought we would revisit what has now become one of the great shark movies ever to take a bite out of the silver screen.

The journey from page to screen took a while. Its writer Duncan Kennedy first wrote the screen play after witnessing a shark attack near his home in Australia.

The attack gave him reoccurring nightmares of being stuck in a water filled passageway with a shark who could read his mind and anticipate his actions.

Warner Bros purchased the script in 1994 where it sat patiently waiting until director Renny Harlin was hired to direct it in 1996.

After under going several re writes from Warner Bros and others a final version was green lit for production and an agreed budget of $82m.

Harlin wanted to ensure the horror element of the film really came through so decided not to hire any major Hollywood stars for the film. This ensured that the audience would not know who was going to survive to the end credits.

Well, except a certain Academy Award nominated actor whose middle name is Leroy and we all know how that turned out in probably the films most screamed at (and applauded) scene.

The cast was completed with LL Cool J, Saffron Burrows, Michael Rapport, Jacqueline Mckenzie, Stellan Skarsgard & some dude called Tom.

Production began on Aug 3rd 1998 in a very large tank of water that was also used for the film Titanic at Fox Baja Studios in Rosarito, Mexcio where most of the shoot was to be done.

After principal shooting was completed Harlin insisted that real shark footage was taken to be mixed in with the special effects and 26ft model sharks.

He took Thomas Jane along with him, much to Toms delight. On the experience he would later comment  “The first day, I was in a cage, but the next day, they swam me 30 feet down… Then this guy yanks the breather off me and the water’s churning with blood and guts and stuff… It was so terrifying that I don’t want to remember it.”

The film’s ending was changed shortly before its theatrical release. Originally, Burrows’s character would escape the shark infested water and live. However, the test audience, who saw the film less than a month before its release, disapproved of the ending because she was behind the shark experiments and was seen as the film’s villain.

As a result, the production team did a one-day reshoot in the Universal Studios tank and did some computer generated work on the sharks to change it before its release so you wont see this image very often.

Deep Blue Sea performed well when it opened on July 28, 1999 in 2,854 theaters, finishing third and grossing around $18.6 million at the US weekend box office. During its second weekend, the film grossed an estimated $11 million and finished in fifth place, behind The Sixth Sense, The Blair Witch Project, Runaway Bride, and The Thomas Crown Affair. Overall, Deep Blue Sea went on to make $73,648,142 in the United States and Canada, and $164,648,142 worldwide. 

The film’s performance was compared to Stephen Sommers’s The Mummy and Jan de Bont’s The Haunting, which had a similar budget and made a significant impact on the box office in the summer of 1999.

Almost 20 years later at the Chinese Theater in L.A Thomas Jane recounts some of his experiences. He remembers the films impact on his life (and the fact that he has a rash from filming in the tank that needs to be treated occasionally).

He continues to cherish the experience as do most movie aficionado’s as the film not only continues to find itself on the top five shark films of all time but remains a firm favorite for horror buff’s, shark film fans, fans of great death scenes and us RAWarriors.

Happy Anniversary Deep Blue Sea.

Thomas Jane Live Q & A

Howdy Folks, On Friday May 17th 2019 at 14:00hrs PST (That’s 2pm for some of us, 5pm on the East coast and god knows what time elsewhere) an exclusive live Q & A will take place on the RAW forum with none other than Mr Thomas Jane!

This is a special treat for fans of Thomas and is only happening here in the RAW house! If you’re a not a member of the RAW fraternity dont panic!!!! you can join in by simply registering on the forum which can be done HERE

Being a card carrying member of RAW doesn’t just give you access to the live Q & A and a chance to talk with Thomas on the 17th but it gives you a whole RAW world to immerse yourself, meet like minded RAWarriors and fully engage your geek

A special thread will be created on the night and Thomas will be available in the forum for as long as his schedule will allow to answer any questions that are posted.

This is YOUR opportunity to ask anything you have always wanted to ask….(within reason HUNG fans!) and Thomas will do his best to answer as many as he can.

Please remember however this is a special treat for fans and is not to be mistreated with any silly, rude or impersonal questions. Anyone not able to follow the simple polite rules will find their questions removed straight away and their access to the forum revoked!!!!!

So spread da word, tell your friends! tell your family, people in the street, your pets and anyone else who might listen to you and register on the forum to join in. Come for the Q & A, stay for the food (food for your soul, not actual chicken n stuff!)

RAW

Raw social media

With much of life these days viewed through a very small screen it’s important to know that, when you interact with Tom or Tim outside of our forum, that they are the real deal, as sadly there are people out there who enjoy the art of deception.

Now as much as the guys will not be competing with some stars out there with the level of activity, they do have formal social media accounts. These are the only “real” accounts and if you hear otherwise, well it just ain’t true!

You can either use the links on the home page, or use the “Contact” section of the website, or you can click on the links below and follow

Thomas Jane:

Twitter official : Thomas Jane

Instagram official : Thomas Jane

Tim Bradstreet:

Twitter official: Tim Bradstreet

Instagram official: Tim Bradstreet

RAW:

Facebook: RAW

Youtube: RAW

Or simply put your phone or tablet down, close your laptop or desk top and have a conversation but most importantly be supportive and excellent to each other.

RAW

Crown Vic

Friday the 26th April 2019 brings the movie Crown Vic to the Tribeca Film Festival for it’s World Premier.  The film directed by Joel Souza tells the story of one memorable night in the life of veteran patrol officer, Ray Mandel and ambitious rookie cop Nick Holland in LAPD’s Olympic Division. With two cop killers on the loose and hunting for more targets, the two must contend with a city about to boil over and rogue cop Jack VanZandt, running wild in their patrol zone out for revenge. ‬

Over the course of the night Mandel finds himself in a desperate race against the clock to find a missing girl as he and Holland prowl the dangerous streets of LA in their police car, protected by only a few thin sheets of metal and glass…

Joel Souza wrote the film back in 2015 and at the time was due to star Alec Baldwin. After various normal ‪exec meetings about getting finance etc. together everything was ready to go. Cut to 2017 and with Anjul Nigam also on board for production things were ready to start shooting in March of 2018 with one slight issue, Alec had to have surgery and wouldn’t be able to film but he loved the script so much that he stayed on as producer.

As the hunt began for a new leading man the script found its way to Thomas Jane who when I spoke to him on the subject said “Crown Vic is more realistic than say Training Day, it takes place over one night and is a hard look at being a cop in America these days. I like it because it’s way more complex than “good cop” “bad cop”. Sometimes you’ve got to do bad shit to do the right thing” ‬

With Tom signed on alongside Luke Kleintank, Josh Hopkins, Gregg Bello, David Krumholtz & Bridget Moynahan things were back on track allowing for filming to begin in June of 2018. With the film taking place over a single night Joel wanted to keep everything as realistic as possible which means night shooting. So for 20 days (or should I say nights) filming Crown Vic took place in Buffalo (standing in for downtown L.A.)‬

For Joel and our own night owl Thomas Jane the shoot was fairly easy but with filming being slap bang in the middle of the summer solstice it gave only 6 hours of darkness! That being said shooting completed on track and on time the film moved to post production and recently completed editing. At a running time of 110 minutes, Crown Vic is poised to be released upon us all. ‬

‪Here’s to a great film‬! 

RAW

(Photo’s courtesy of Thomas Jane & Anjul Nigam)

P R E D A T O R

 

“Coyle and Baxley,” or Baxley and Coyle? We just might have to shoot each other before we figure this out…

 

Thought I’d take a few minutes of precious life to offer up, to you, a personally curated, guided tour of what a typical day shooting the new PREDATOR looked like. Buckle up, Yautja fans…

 

SHOOT DAY 44:

The day started at about 5 pm. We piled into the transpo vans and headed for the black hills, watching the sunset, usually arguing along the way about who was going to get killed that day. (“Me, me!”) We hit base camp around an hour later, grabbed some grub and coffee and then pile into the trailers to don our gear. Our Predator gear.

Here we have Baxley’s necklace, (no, he’s not into the Skydaddy, but a woman he had a very brief affair with put it on him one day and the twitching stopped, if only for a moment. Baxley thinks it was just a coincidence, but the sex was pretty good, so he leaves it on. How’s that for backstory?), some kneepads, boots and socks.

 

The red doohicky keeps appearing in my boots at the beginning of each day. I’m not sure why. Whatever it is, it looks state of the art.

 

After a brief but tortuous ordeal with the lady with the scissors and the man with the brush, powder and paint, we assemble outside our trailers and begin the long journey to set. Everyone has to stick together because some of us have a tremendous knack for getting lost (ok no names, no names Olivia).

The path is serpentine. The air is misty and cold. Hooded figures wave red lanterns and chant under their breath. I’m not sure but it sounds a lot like, “Madness… madness….”

 

Soon we approach the gate. It is littered with the detritus of those who have tried and failed to enter here.  Woe to thee.

 

Lone figures wander through the mists and then disappear. Moaning is heard, but faintly. Just the wind… The long walk leads deeper into we know not where.

“That’s because we are lost,” whispers Trey. “Again.” This from Sterling. We ask our handler how much longer. Silence.

 

Finally, a clearing. The woods. Ah yes, the woods: this is where we will make our final stand. For weeks. Or was it months? In the cold and dark… stark staring eyes frozen with confusion, tinged with rage; this is what I see in my fellow thespians (rhymes with lesbians) faces.

Now I know why they keep putting those red things in my boots. To keep me from going insane.

 

Roll call. Yes, someone is missing. You know who. We are all hoping our handlers won’t notice.

They don’t.

After briefly considering sacrificing Jacob (the little stripling in the middle) to Nephthys, goddess of death, we continue on, into the woods.

 

Here’s a tree. Boyd says he’s pretty sure we passed this one before. I say that was yesterday. I take a snapshot to be sure. I’ll check it with the others later.

 

These people have nothing to do with us. Backpackers from Sweden, it turns out. They’ve been lost in the woods for several years. Augusto offers to lead the Swedes back to chocolate, watches, the first hardcore porn film and ABBA. They refuse.

 

“Now this one I know I’ve seen before.”

 

Larry Fong. Master of Light. Larry has asked me, yes me, to take his portrait today. I told Larry he would look much cooler if he raised his arm like that.

Obviously, I was right.

 

This guy is making airplane noises as he glides along (you can kinda tell, right?) all the while barking out complicated instructions. But no one else is around but me. He looks at me. I look at him. Suddenly it dawns on me: it took me eight weeks, but I finally figgered it out. Funny noises, barking orders, sometimes just barking? This guy…

This guy is our director.

(How we see Shane:)

 

(How Shane sees himself:)

 

Now, honestly, I’m not sure what’s going on here. No, it’s not that it was too long ago and I can’t remember. It’s not that it’s a very complicated technical piece of equipment requiring years of patient training and great skill. It’s not that I’ve never seen one before, I have. Lots of times. It’s that one dude down at the end there. What the fuck is he touching?

 

Finally, daybreak. I haven’t done a damn thing except wander around, get lost, find my way back to set, finally find the latrine, (the outhouse, the head, the Taj Mahal), get lost, hope no one finds me, they find me, stumble into the cast tent, (the palace, the mansion, the Taj Mahal) listen to Keegan tell that fucking joke again, try to convince Shane that maybe Baxley should die in this scene, and wonder, as a philosophical question, exactly how deep into the woods I’d have to go in order to jerk off without being seen.

It’s time for me to get angry. Really angry. So angry that I forget exactly why I am angry. But I am.

 

And then this happens.

 

End of day. We stumble back at dawn, exhausted and not really sure why. This is when the thoughts come, racing through my addled brain: What is becoming of the human race? We make movies about aliens invading our planet to hunt us for sport and steal our precious women – women who now demand equal pay, women who won’t stand for the abuse any longer, women who refuse to stay at home and make that baloney sandwich with mustard, hold the crust (good on ya, women!) – but while we fight the freaking aliens, and the religious fundamentalists, and the terrorists, the immigrants, the minorities, the Other, along with D. John Trump (and goddang it ‘mericans, we gonna have fun doin’ it, too!) – while we save the world from various invaders both foreign and domestic, perhaps we should be beginning to wonder: who is going to save us from ourselves?

Probably not this guy. Another day in movieland concludes with a goddamn selfie. Really, Jane?

I’m not even sure where that blood comes from, but it isn’t mine. This time. And that is good.

 

So shut up and dance. If we didn’t have rockin good movies to blow off some steam, to ease some of the pain, to blow some shit up, kill some freakin bad guys and win one for the Gipper every now and again, we’d have blown up ourselves a long time ago.

That’s right, I just said that movies have saved the world. And I meant it.

 

Meanwhile… a lone figure mutters instructions to himself. The crew is long gone; the bone-shattering explosions, just a distant memory. He thinks about what he has done. And he is proud.

 

 

 

art:

Vitalii Smyk

Admira Wijaya

1922

 

 

Howdy!

Been a while but i think i remem’r how dis thang works. Bear with me.

 

okey.   1922!

ye olde Netflix sent me some promo materials an’ I thought I’d share em witcha. Not sure if that’s kosher, but then again, i’m not Jewish.

 

We had a kick ass set photog – Jeff Topham. You can check him out at http://www.jefftopham.com/

he sent me some stills way back and I happen to hang on to ’em.

enjoy..

  

Now this was a quick shoot – 5 weeks i think it was, up ol’ Canadia, an actors home away from home. Little did I know that I would be back at that country barn that we used for – wait for it – the barn scenes in 1922; they would become a scene of high cinematic misery just a few short months later, when I was back to shoot Shane Black’s PREDATOR.

Here’s a piece of the darn barn. I’m pretty sure we lost a couple rats shooting 1922 in here.

On Predator, I got caught smoking a stogie in the barn by the owner, who gave me hell because he didn’t want his barn catching on fire. Thing was, it was raining – and I was jus trying to keep the head dry. You know, not mess up the hair, cause what happens is you get a whole bevy of ladies chasin’ after ya with blowdryers and brushes and pomade and the like. Anyway I tol the farmer i was jus lookin’ for the rats we’d lost on the last pitcher i shot up here, an then he recognized me, he said oh, yore that rat fella. Still he kicked me out anyway, an I had to git back into that rain.

But this weren’t jus any ol’ rain, this was a torrential, Biblical downpour of hellish, Vancouver, kiss-my-grits-it’s fuckin’-climate-change-bitches superstorm. It was so bad, the movie trucks was getting stuck in the muddy road and tearing up the grounds something fierce, so in the end, I was the least of that poor farmer’s worries.

Actually, predator is the last film that you’ll see that ol’ barn in for a good long while, because after us, the farmer said no f’in way will I ever rent my barn out to a bunch of Hollywood reprobates ever again.

Smart man, he jus caught on a little too late.

Ya’ll can see that barn right now, on Netflix. I’d love to know what ya’ll think.   Of the movie, not the barn.

1922 is a terrific novella by Steve King – it’s in a purty fine collection called Full Dark, No Stars. And boys and girls, it’s dark. The script was a doozy. I wouldn’t call it a horror show, not really, although there’s some fairly horrific things people got up to out there in what Wilf called, ‘The Middle’ — that long stretch of lonely out in the deep MidWest. I guess I’d call it American Gothic. Whatever it is, I had a blast bringin ol’ Wilf to life, but now it’s all over I can’t seem to shake him. That dern Steve King’ll do that to ya. Gets in the bones, if you know what I mean.

Anyway, I suspect there’s a lil Wilfred James lurking in all of us. He calls it the Conniving Man.

I jus call it bein’ American.

(more…)

EXPANSE DAY 1

as promised, here is a few BTS shots from II. i am probably breaking some rule here, so look while you can. i won’t show sets, scenes, other actors. i’ve made these shots hard so you can’t grab them. don’t share! don’t tell your friends. just don’t even look, okay?

i’m pretty sure this sign got messed up. I think it should read, ‘can’t remember shit’ but obviously the sign maker got confused.  long hours will do that.

 

 

 

 

here’s a piece of our glorious sound stage (one of them. i think we have four or five this year).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

sleeping quarters. they don’t actually let us leave set at night, except to pee, which is outside. thankfully, there is a ditch and a shovel for other biz. the guy at the end hasn’t been outside for at least a month, which has some of us sniffing the corners.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

no. this is not Expanse – it’s just Toronto. pretty sure there is no McD’s on Tycho.

for the record, i was just walking by. i don’t do the salted cardboard. unless it has hot sauce.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

here’s our director, Breck Eisner, just before we begin. Breck is the guy with the thumb. he’s happy to see me. Breck doesn’t yet realize that i’ve decided Miller is a deaf-mute this year.

also, he’s looking at me. that’s a no-no.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

these folks are not happy. they are pretending, like they’re supposed to do.   those suits are hot. and, there’s no zipper down there. no joy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

being in space makes you feel cool. as in groovy. this guy’s feeling it, even tho he’s really f’in hot.  (as in uncomfortably warm, dodo.)

but he’s lit like a sonofabitch, thanks to jeremy benning, our cinematographer.  who is a god.

 

 

 

 

 

 

this guy doesn’t know that i’m stealing his helmet, because it’s cooler than mine.      as in way-cool.   wally wood is sportin’ wood right now.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Belter pride.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

getting ready to make believe like i’m not really f’n hot. (extra-warm, genius.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

this is our director, after the scene is in the can. i think he likes me.

the finger is for some other guy, whom I’m guessing he doesn’t like so much.

 

 

 

 

 

 

gotta go pee in a ditch. more later.  T

Back to the Future

I’m packing my bag, they’re calling me back to deep space. Expanse starts shooting again later this month. read the script for episode 201, (season 2, ep 1) – loved it. looks like we’re starting off with a bang this year. those expanse boys sure can turn a screw. meaning they’re good with a twist. looks like a fun summer up in canadia.

i’m gonna talk to the boys and hopefully be posting some pics right here towards the end of the month. some non-spoilery type photos of regular-type stuff we do up there, like like fire off our blaster-type electric bullets, get funny haircuts, learn how to act in zero g. wait, was that a spoiler?

nah. it’s space, fer chrissakes. anyway i’ll post what i can while we’re acting all nonchalant about riding around in a spaceship, like we do it everyday.

i want everyone to know that, as requested, i did ask for my own sexbot this season. i got a lot of requests for the sexpot, er bot, and let me tell you i thought it was a grand idear. i’ve already got a name picked out: Calamity. Calamity the sexbot. got a ring to it, yeah?

hopefully, there will be some sexbot training, so me and the sexbot will look natural – like we do it everyday. okay? we’ll see how it goes. i’ll get pics.

T

Why there still may be hope for mankind

Mural of Strother Martin by Kent Twitchell –  Fountain and Kingsley, East Hollywood.

Yes, even little things like this count. Every time I begin to lose hope in my fellow man, something like this finds it’s way through the crumbling wasteland and blooms. Strother Douglas Martin was one of the great character actors of his generation. He was one of those one-of-a-kind individuals who project a singular quality. Y’know . . . those actors and actresses that once seen, you just can’t forget ’em. I mean, who paints a giant mural of an obscure character actor who has zero meaning to over half of America’s population? To the few, it is only just, that the late Mr. Martin is still held in such high regard today, 36 years after he took his final bow. An excellent tribute to be sure. Anyway, no need for school and soapbox. I wouldn’t even attempt to turn the younger generation of video-files and genre-junkies on to a cat like Strother Martin; for the righteous will discover him and his like in due time. As for the uninitiated? As Billy Shakespeare once intoned, “delays have dangerous ends.”