A taste of Hollywood

Author: Eugene Asis
Column: Black & White

GLENDALE, CA. — PATRICK'S Café in Glendale was teeming with people Tuesday. But they were not just people—they were in the circle where we move around: showbusiness.

A stone's throw away was Motel Glen Capri where parts of the films, The Good Girl, starring Jennifer Aniston, and Georgia Rule, starring Jane Fonda, Lindsay Lohan and Felicity Hoffmann, were shot.

We wanted to be part of Hollywood history, even just a bit. So, two nights ago, we checked in there to get the feel of The Good Girl, and Georgia Rule. Two days later, we didn't realize that it would be more than that.

That day, another feature film was being shot in that motel. Filming equipments, Hollywood-style, were around. There were huge HMIs, four-camera set ups, more than a hundred film crews, over-the-top reflectors, high-tech cranes and what do you know? Actor-rapper Ice Cube was shooting some scenes for his new feature film, Janky Promoters in the area. Like Triple XXX, it is an action-packed feature, with a touch of comedy and the whole morning saw a car chase and a running gunbattle scenes with the police and the thugs ending at Motel Glen Capri. The other stars were Mike Epps, Tamara Jones and rap artist, Young Jeezy, directed by Marcus Raboy (who directed most of Ice Cube's MTV). The movie will be released next year yet.

Too bad Ice Cube had to leave right after his shoot for a concert in London that day we didn't have a chance to interview him.

FACE-TO-FACE WITH EMMY AWARD-WINNING DIRECTOR

But our "rubbing elbows" with Hollywood people didn't end with Ice Cube.

While at Patrick's (owned by Filipino businessman, Rogel Aragon), a group of people whom Rogel identified as "from Warner Bros. " arrived to have an ocular inspection of the restaurant.

"They're taping some scenes in this place for the initial episode of a new TV series," Rogel disclosed.

The Warner Bros. people (there were about 20 of them) took a good look around the place, and discussed with Rogel some shoot details, including the storyline. The new series is called The Mentalist with TV star, Simon Baker in the lead. It starts airing this fall on CBS Channel 2. The location manager, David Marmolejo, a Fil-Am guy (his grandfather was from Cebu, but he doesn't know how to speak Cebuano or Tagalog at all) introduced us to the series director, David Nutter.

Mr. Nutter struck us more like a corporate guy than a film director (in slacks, tucked-in long sleeved shirt and eyeglasses), but after a short talk with him, we realized we were actually face-to-face with an Emmy award-winning director.

Best known for directing pilot episodes for new television series, an Internet search (which is more reliable) stated: Nutter's big break came in 1993, when he began directing episodes of The X-Files. From there he would go on to direct the pilot, and help with the creation of, Space: Above and Beyond, Millenium, Sleepwalkers, Roswell, Dark Angel, Smallville, Tarzan, Without a Trace, Dr. Vegas, Jack and Bobby, Supernatural, Traveler and Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. He also directed Replacements, the fourth part of the mini-series, Join the Club, and shared in that series' Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Miniseries, Movie or a Dramatic Special. Other directing highlights include Band of Brothers, an Emmy-nominated episode of The Sopranos, and the 1998 feature film, Disturbing Behavior. This year, LG used Nutter's pilot expertise to create a campaign for its new "Scarlet" line of HDTVs by creating a promotional clip in the style of a trailer for a TV pilot.

Wow.

We were dumbfounded we became an instant fan. In fact, we like Band of Brothers so much we had a (BoB) big poster in our halfway house in Cubao years ago.

We told him that, and his eyes lit up: "Oh, really?" and had a good laugh.

We had a good experience.

Source: People's Journal