Sunday, December 09, 2018

Auteur Watch - Anthony Hemingway

Damn.  Another long one.  Well, some people dream of directing TV, and they actually stay there!  It must put one in mind of prison, directing so much television.  I mean, check out the guy's tats!  But that's directing these days; some do it to tell stories, others to get on the cover of "Tattooed Director Monthly."  Others do it for the push-ups... see that most recent season of "Project Greenlight" for an example of that; maybe the only example.  But let's take a look at this thing a little closer!  It's not all Hallmark specials and "Moment of Truth"-type dealie boppers here.  We got "The Wire", we got "American Crime Story", and we got Red Tails.  I remember the ad campaign for this one, actually!  George Lucas wanted to add to his list of high-profile disasters.  You know, The Radioland Murders, Howard the Duck, what have you... well, he was clearly overdue for one.  Red Tails is a semi-comic book adaptation of the story of the Tuskegee Airmen.  I seem to remember the TV trailers differently; at about 0:51 is a shot of some soldiers about to get into their planes.  They seemed to have a little more rapper-type swagger in the TV trailers.  The focus of the movie is more on the aerial heroics, and a lot less on the experiments with syphilis that recently came to light.  I mean, why be depressing?  Why go for Oscar (TM) glory on this one?  Not like this... not like this.
Anyway, future TV directors, study this guy's résumé very carefully.  Look at all the episodes of the various things he's directed, and see if you can find a day off in there somewhere.  Get a cot!  Get yourself a comfy cot, because you'll be sleeping on the set, my friends.

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