Tag Archives: Detroit

BURN: One Year on the Frontlines of the Battle to Save Detroit

Currently in the final funding stages is a documentary titled BURN: One Year on the Frontlines of the Battle to Save Detroit. In the film they explore the relentless fight against the seemingly endless rash of arsons that have plagued the city for years. Original home of “Devil’s Night”, where the city would burn annually, Detroit has always had a history with fire. This is the story of some of the men and women who fight these fires…

This comes from the movie’s official website:

“WE HOPE FOR BETTER THINGS; IT SHALL RISE FROM THE ASHES.”
– FATHER GABRIEL RICHARD, WHO WROTE DETROIT’S MOTTO AFTER FIRE NEARLY DESTROYED THE CITY IN 1805

Detroit is an iconic city. Go anywhere in the world, say “Detroit,” and it strikes a set of images — Motown. Hockeytown. Chrysler, Ford, General Motors. Eminem, 8 Mile … Also crime, foreclosures, poverty, white flight, race … and fire.

But these are mere snapshots, glimpses into a deeper, more complex panorama.

Once the proud center of the American industrial machine — its cars gleamed, its culture was rich, its future boundless. Now, it is an omen, a ghost of America’s future. No one understands this better than the people literally putting out the fires, battling every day in an uncertain war.

BURN is a character-driven documentary about Detroit, told through the eyes of Detroiters who are on the front lines, trying to rescue and rebuild it. BURN will follow the firefighters, the men and women charged with the thankless task of saving a city that many have written off as dead. We’ll also look at the educators, the reformers, the activists, the enthusiasts — those who have the vision and the heart to bring a forgotten American dream back to Detroit.

The Detroit Fire Department is one of the oldest, proudest fire forces in the world, and certainly one of the busiest.

Every day, these firefighters face injury, disablement, illness, death. But still they come back, day after day, resolved that they can make a difference.

The city’s future is uncertain — record foreclosures, unemployment, and a struggling auto industry have made it ground zero of the floundering American economy. But there’s still life here. And people are listening. These firefighters and a cast of visionary citizens argue that it’s worth saving, and they’re fighting the battle with unparalleled commitment and a remarkable sense of humor.

BURN will embed with Detroit firefighters and follow a rich tapestry of other Detroit stories. We’ll explore human struggles, hope and personal courage in the face of overwhelming odds.

Until now, no one has properly explored the city with the depth and detail it deserves.

Among the filmmakers is not only a native Detroiter, Brenna Sanchez, but it’s also produced by Resuce Me star Dennis Leary

This project was brought to my attention by one of Detroit’s Bravest, my uncle, David Kronner, who has been with the department for just shy of 24 years. And while Uncle Dave isn’t directly involved in the movie, he respects the message behind and it. To get that message out however, they’re still in need of some funding. PBS fronted the cash to produce this 9 minute trailer here. Take a look…

I’ve spoken with the filmmakers, who hope to have the movie done by late summer/early fall, but that will only be possible through additional donations. To help out…

DONATE HERE 

And while we plan to keep you updated on the progress of the production, you can visit the official website at DETROIT FIRE FILM, and you can follow them (obviously) on Facebook and Twitter.

Robocop: Coming Back from the 80s in a Strong Way

In 1987 Paul Verhoeven released one of the most awesomely violent movies ever made, so violent in fact that it initially received and ‘X Rating’ for it’s graphic nature. It told the story of Detroit cop Alex Murphy being brutally murdered by Red Foreman, before OCP (the company that owned the police) stole his body and using state of the art 80s technology, brought Murphy back to life. Kinda. Robocop was born, more machine than man, at least early on. The movie was incredibly dark as some of Murphy’s memories surfaced and Robocop was forced to deal with the fact that he was once a man with a family and he struggled with his own existence. He did not however let this struggle interfere too much with the downpour of justice he rained onto New Detroit.

In the years to follow Robocop inspired 2 horrible sequels and a slew of crappy TV episodes. In addition though, he did also star in some pretty legit comics and video games. Then a couple of years back rumors surfaced that Darren Aronofsky, who has a penchant for making some pretty dark shit, was tapped to helm a series reboot and bring the iconic 80s hero back to the spotlight. Well delay after delay, including the production of Black Swan, for which he would receive an Oscar nomination, eventually took him out of the running and it was believed that the project was dead.

So while in ‘New Movie Limbo’, the old tin can cop went and got himself nominated to into statue-hood. What started as a joke on Twitter, directed at Detroit Mayor (and NBA Hall of Famer) Dave Bing was a suggestion to build a statue of Robocop downtown to bring in some tourism. Mayor Bing quickly shot this down, and by simply acknowledging it, the interwebs took it and ran. Internet geeks everywhere started pledging money towards the erection of the statue, but it was one geek in particular, Pete Hottelet, threw in $25,000. Who is Pete Hottelet you might ask. Well he is the owner of OCP, his company, named after the corrupt company that ran New Detroit in the movies, makes movie related memorabilia. His donation, combined with the rest of the internet patrons resulted in $67,436 being raised through Kickstarter. That statue is currently in the production stages.While we’re waiting to see the monument built, interest in the movie spiked back up. This time with Brazilian director José Padilha (Elite Squad) helming the project, and our favorite fictional Cyborg cop is set to be played by The Killing star Joel Kinnaman (below).

Well that had been the extent of what we’d heard for a while. Until just the other day when it was announced that Gary Oldman would also be joining the cast…

Oldman will be playing a new character named Norton, “the scientist who creates RoboCop and finds himself torn between the ideals of the machine trying to rediscover its humanity and the callous needs of a corporation.”

 Gary Oldman is fricking awesome. I’m pretty excited for this movie, which is believed to start shooting something this fall, possibly in Toronto. I was really hoping they’d shoot it here in Detroit. I have to say if this time around, it’s set somewhere other than Detroit, I’ll be upset. Anyway, Oldman makes everything better, so that good.

Ok, that’s all I got.

Justified: Season 3 Finale – “Slaughterhouse” (Also Season 4 Casting Rumors)

Tuesday night marked the close of Justified‘s third season. And while the episode, titled ‘Slaughterhouse’, did not result in killing off as many characters as it’s title might lead you to believe, it did deliver an emotional conclusion. Going into the episode there was a lot of stuff up in the air – The explosion at Boyd’s bar, Winona’s pregnancy, Arlo’s degrading mental health, the fate of Dickie Bennett, the future of Noble’s Holler, and the shooting of State Trooper Tom Bergen. In the middle of it all, US Deputy Marshall Raylan Givens.

SPOILERS TO FOLLOW… 

SUMMARY: The finale picks up after the shooting of State Trooper Bergen, which we learn was indeed fatal. This sends all the Law Enforcement into an uproar, and focuses Raylan’s rage towards the alleged shooter – Robert Quarles. As Art and the State Troopers mobilize to hunt down the man from Detroit, Raylan launches his own investigation. One that is sure to bring a lot of shit down on the heads of Limehouse, Wynn Duffy, and the Crowder gang. Anyone Raylan thinks might be able to lead him to Quarles. This results in a great scene in which Mr. Duffy is forced into an involuntary game of Russian Roulette. This scene shows Raylan displaying very little caution in the wake of his friend’s death, and clues us in to his state of mind a bit. Someone is gonna pay for the death of Tom Bergen.

After his dealing with Duffy, Givens take a much bigger risk as he marches into Noble’s Holler to to threaten Limehouse. This, as expected, does not go well. Raylan, finally after weeks of build up, takes a swing at the esteemed leader of the Holler, it does not work out as planned…

Limehouse, knowing Raylan’s death means only more trouble for the Holler, makes a deal with the Marshall to get Boyd Crowder back in prison. He informs as to where the body of one Mr. Devil is buried, and from here it seems only a clock’s tick away from seeing Boyd back in an orange jumpsuit. It would seem that someone let word slip of the murder and unmarked grave to Mr. Limehouse, and the most likely candidate for that honor is – Arlo. Raylan’s father.

Now as Raylan is tearing apart Harlan County looking for Quarles, the man himself decides to kidnap Vic Mackey’s wife and her 2 sons. He then contacts Detroit and learns that it’ll cost him $500,000 to return home. At this time he contacts the man hunting him and adds Marshall Givens to his group of prisoners. You see, Quarles knows the only place he can get the money he needs, is from Limehouse. He sees Raylan as the insurance he needs to exit the Holler afterward. Here’s the thing though, we soon learn the ol’ crazy Quarles was in fact NOT the man who shot Trooper Bergen, and that Johnny Crowder, the very man who pointed the finger at Quarles to begin with, was a liar. Despite the new found truth about the Trooper however, things still do not end well for Mr. Quarles.


As Quarles lies on the ground, bleeding out, he drops a bomb on Raylan. Tom Bergen was shot by none other than Arlo Givens. During the interview with Arlo two major events occur. First he covers for Boyd and cops to the murder of Devil. This lets Boyd off the hook and out of custody. Secondly he reveals he didn’t know who the Trooper was, only that it was a man with a hat, pointing a gun at Boyd. In one swift moment Arlo delivers a crushing blow to Raylan, while freeing Boyd and reuniting him with Eva.

REVIEW: A man with a gun and a hat – like Raylan. It’s at this point that we see an already strenuous Father-Son relationship get even more strained as we learn that Arlo made a choice. Boyd over Raylan. Father of the year or what? The end of the episode features a voice over by Raylan as he tells the story to Winona, and in essence what will undoubtedly be his own son.

While Season 3 was no where near as good as Season 2, Justified remains one of the best shows on television and consistently one of the safest bets to spend an hour of your time. The whole cast is superb and I especially enjoyed Jere Burns as Wynn Duffy, as he often steals near every scene he is in. I’d give the finale a 5/5 and the season overall a 4/5. 

As for next year…

Likely Season 4 will reduce Johnny Corwder, Limehouse, and Dickie Bennett to a subplot as there are already rumors of Jeff Goldblum and Eric Stonestreet being brought in as new villains next year.

This comes from The AV Club:

 The hat-smoke has barely cleared from last night’s Justified finale, but already showunner Graham Yost is looking ahead to the next wave of character actors he can bring in to drive Timothy Olyphant into a terse, squinting rage. In an interview with The Wrap, Yost says he’s currently trying to coordinate schedules with the Modern Family production team to get Eric Stonestreet down to Kentucky, a casting choice prompted because, as Yost says, “He’s a Kansas boy, and he’d like to play a bad guy”—particularly a bad guy on a show where the bad guys get do most of the fun stuff while racking up Emmy nominations. Also on Yost’s wish list: His former Raines collaborator Jeff Goldblum (who could definitely make up for that show by playing a Justified villain), displaced Luck star Jason Gedrick, and “anyone from Boomtown, anyone from Band Of Brothers, anyone from The Pacific,” as the show apparently looks to branch out beyond mining the former cast of Deadwood. This is despite the fact that they still haven’t brought in Ian McShane yet, and we’re probably just going to keep muddying Justified casting reports by bringing that up until it happens.

Personally, I loved Raines and I really enjoy both Stonestreet and Goldblum so I hope Yost can snag them both. I also suspect that we’ve not seen the last of Theo Tonin and his Motor City based syndicate.

2012 Super Bowl: Chrysler Does it Again, Clint Eastwood Spotlights Detroit

Last year Chrysler made waves in the ‘Best Super Bowl Commercial’ discussions with their CHRYSLER 200 ad featuring Eminem. Imported from Detroit. People here absolutely loved it, fans of Slim Shady or not…

Well this year Chrysler choose a spokesman without the local association, but one universally respected – Mr. Clint Eastwood. The legendary film icon was here in town a couple of years back while shooting his movie Gran Turino, in which he played a retired auto worker who can no longer relate to the world around him. Well, apparently he made an impression on the execs, cause they hired him to be their new voice this year. Check it out:

This year was certainly less about Detroit specifically, and more about the country in general, but it still gave me chills.

“This country can’t be knocked out with one punch.” 

If only we were all as tough as Dirty Harry. I just wish I saw more when I was in the City of what they talk about in these spots…

Justified: New Season 3 Villains – Neal McDonough & Mykelti Williamson

Somehow, the second season of Justified managed to be better than the first one. I don’t know if it’s possible to expect the same level of improvement this year, but the casting director isn’t hurting their chances. It was announced this week that the show has added 2 new villains who are sure to run into conflict not only with Raylan, but Boyd, and maybe even Dickie too.

Former Boomtown co-stars Neal McDonough and Mykelti Williamson join the cast in an attempt to replace the Bennett clan this season.

Neal McDonough (Band of Brothers) will portray ‘Quarles’, who Screen Rant described as “a Detroit gangster looking to make a power play in the void left by the Crowder and Bennett families from seasons past. Given Quarles hails from the Motor City, and supposedly has a penchant for fine tailoring – he may find himself a fish out of water in Harlan County.” 

I’ve been a big fan of McDonough since his turn as ‘Buck Compton’ on Band of Brothers, but that’s certainly not the extent of his resume. I’ve like him in just about everything I’ve seen him in, and that includes a much underrated performance in SyFy’s Tin Man (right), and of course that fact that he appeared in the only season of Terriers only further endears him to me. And Marvel fans may know he has a long history with the Comic Book Giant having voiced ‘Bruce Banner‘ in The Incredible Hulk cartoon from the 90’s and is now playing ‘Dum Dum Dugan‘ in Marvel’s latest line of movies, including this summer’s Captain America: The First AvengerThe guy is a boss actor and the fact that he’s coming to Harlan via Detroit – I can’t wait.

 

As his character is from Detroit, this is one of the few roles I would expect him NOT to wear a Cowboy hat…

The other new hire – Mykelti Williamson: “plays ‘Limehouse’ – the decidedly more homegrown of the two baddies in season 3. Limehouse comes from a small, predominantly black town in Harlan County – and has no qualms with breaking the law in order to keep his holler protected.”

Now Williamson has been in plenty of roles over the years, everything from Free Willy 2 to The Final Destination. He played a convict in Con Air and the director of CTU on 24. But the role he is still most known for is that of Forrest Gump‘s best friend – Bubba Blue.

‘Limehouse’ seems like he’ll be the one we are more conflicted towards, as ‘Quarles’ will more than likely be a straight up dickhead from the get go. Maybe a little bit like Wynn Duffy, but less crazy. Anyhow, they’ve already begun filming and the show is set to return with another 13 episode set in January. We’ll try to keep you updated till then.

And to close things out, in case the pregnancy ruins her figure, here is Natalie Zea:

Natalie Zea, Justified, Baby, Esquire
Raylan put a baby in there.
Annnnnnnnnd, you’re welcome.