Angel's awesome unicorn drawing.

"What's up Sluts?" "Eat Pussy"

pooping.

cat drawing, graffiti, pegasus drawing, sticking out tongue, unicorn drawing, wood.

What's up sluts?. eat pussy.

attic, Clint and Carolyn's house, Alexandria, Virginia.

September 6, 2013.

Art by Angel Preble.

... Read my blog at ClintJCL at wordpress.com

... Read Carolyn's blog at CarolynCASL at wordpress.com

... Read Angel's blog at ansaphone4.livejournal.com/

... View Angel's photos at www.flickr.com/photos/ansaphone4/

BACKSTORY: We took pictures of the graffiti that people left in our attic during past parties.

Who doesn't want this job?

Looking for an heir to his chocolate empire, reclusive chocolatier extraordinaire Willy Wonka (Johnny Depp) opens the gates of his factory to five children who have won Golden Tickets for a tour. As they get a behind-the-scenes glimpse into Wonka's twisted world, he weeds them out and finds the winner. But does the winner want the prize? Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is Tim Burton's take on Roald Dahl's classic book.

How dare they?

The generations who grew up watching Gene Wilder as Willy Wonka in Willy Wonka and Chocolate Factory couldn't imagine another version. When I read the news that Tim Burton was "remaking" it with Johnny as the chocolatier, I was simultaneously ridiculously excited to see it and worried about the inevitable impending fury awaiting them from loyal fans of the original. I wasn't alone: "As soon as I said that I was in, I knew there were going to be great risks involved because we could very easily blow it," Johnny says. "But again, that's very exciting for an actor. It's a challenge. It's a very loved character, both from the book and Gene Wilder's brilliant performance from that earlier film. So, I knew that the risk was that I had to take it from somewhere far way from the area that Gene Wilder had stomped. There's a twisted, perverted kind of side to the character, and so I ran in the direction that seemed right to me."

Pretty quickly, everyone involved in the film clarified what they were doing: This movie is not a remake; their focus is to stay true to the book. To help with the distinction, the two films even have different titles. While I grew up watching and loving the Gene Wilder classic (and still do), I always think of this one as separate and different. This one is a Tim Burton movie, and Tim Burton movies are unmistakably Tim Burton movies. I knew it couldn't go near anything like Gene Wilder's Wonkavision. Tim Burton even had the Dahl family's blessing, with Felicity Dahl serving as one of the executive producers. Everything would be okay.

Really, what's the difference?

"We just decided, when I got involved with it, to just go back to the basics and try to be as true to the book as we could be," Tim Burton says. Screenwriter John August can attest that Johnny was in on this plan too: "When I sat down with Johnny to talk about the character and as we were looking through the last three of four dialogue changes, what I loved is that he pulled out his Roald Dahl book and wanted to go through and add in a few extra lines from Dahl's original book." Dramatizing the book did call for some deviations, but it all seems to work. "Even with the things we added, we tried to at least channel the spirit of Roald Dahl," Tim Burton says.

The film spends more time exploring who Willy Wonka is: How did he become a chocolate magnate? Why did he close his factory for 20 years? Why does he need an heir? Once all those questions were answered, they added some closure to all his issues at the end. (Willy Wonka has some serious issues!)

I recently read a fan's take on the two films, observing that the Gene Wilder version focuses more on a child's innocent love for candy while Johnny's version shows the greedy side. I'd agree with that.

Willy Wonka is weird.

Johnny's Willy Wonka didn't sit well with most critics who said he'd gone too far in the weirdo direction. I admit there are moments in this movie when I've agreed, but I blame the reviewers who contaminated my first impression. Once I heard what other people thought of it, I couldn't get those ideas out of my head. So, I won't repeat them here. (This is why you should never read reviews before seeing things for yourself.)

Despite the critics, this film did really well at the box office and is popular among a new generation of fans. These days, it's on TV just as often as Gene Wilder's version, and as I've watched it over the years, Johnny's Willy Wonka has really grown on me. He's supposed to be eccentric, bizarre, and questionable. Who pulls that off any better than Johnny? I admire his subtle moments amid the gam-show atmosphere in which, with a quick look or move, Johnny makes you wonder if you should feel sorry for Willy Wonka or call the police about him. As Felicity Dahl says of Johnny, "he just has that twist, that humor, that wickedness, that naughtiness, that delight that Wonka should have."

Johnny's first inspiration for Willy Wonka was a local children's television show host, "a guy who certainly puts on a face every day." Tim Burton explains further, "You don't question it as a kid, but as you got older, you kind of go, 'That guy was really wierd!' So, we sort of got into that kind of thinking about those kinds of people that stay in your subconscious somehow."

Being a recluse for 20 years with only Oompa Loompas for company, Johnny figured that Willy Wonka is stuck in an era of the past, makes old references from that time, and doesn't know how to relate to people anymore, least of all children. This guy didn't get out in the sun, which is why he's so pale, and he has that awful haircut. (I think that haircut disturbs me more than anything else.)

As a result, at times, Johnny's laugh-out-loud funny in this movie, especially when interacting with his guests. "I always like working with Johnny because he's an actor who likes to try different things all the time, and that excites me," Tim Burton says. "And, each time I work with him, it gets better." Co-star David Kelly, who plays Grandpa Joe, agrees, "Watching Johnny, you can't see the wheels going round. You keep saying to yourself, 'how is he doing that?' I don't know!"

Welcome to the factory.

Aside from Johnny, the two other best things about this movie are the supporting cast and the production design.

The Costars

Everyone is fantastic in their roles, including Helena Bonham Carter and Noah Taylor as Charlie's parents, David Kelly as Grandpa Joe, the three other grandparents (Eileen Essell, Mrs. Snow in Finding Neverland, among them), and all the other winners' parents. I can't imagine anyone else playing them.

The Oompa Loompas are all played by the same person, Deep Roy, who I think got the hardest job of all. Every shot of an Oompa Loompa doing something new--dancing, playing an instrument, making a face--is all him. They used a combination of animatronics and computer graphics to multiply his work in the musical numbers. For one scene, they may have shot him in various spots doing different things 60 times and then compiled everything together into one. His days must have been long.

The biggest surprise was the amazing kids: Philip Wiegratz as Augustus Gloop, AnnaSophia Robb as Violet Beauregarde, Julia Winter as Veruca Salt, Jordan Frye as Mike Teavee, and Freddie Highmore as Charlie Buckett. "I was lucky," Tim Burton says of casting them. "I think, most of the time, when the right one walked in, I just sort of knew it." You may remember that Freddie Highmore did brilliant work with Johnny in Finding Neverland. Reunited here, he fits right in: "Not only did he look the part, but you could just tell he's an amazing person and has got a real gravity to him, a simple but very deep emotional depth," Tim Burton says. "There was just no question about it!" But more impressive is that some of the kids had little or no experience in movies. Can you imagine your first movie being this one? There's a Golden Ticket prize for you! "They're just an incredibly varied bunch of kids, and they're just great fun to be around and great company," Adam Godley, who plays Mike Teavee's dad, says. "They keep us all in tune with what this whole project is really about and who it's really for."

Willy Wonka's World

I love that Tim Burton goes old school: As much as possible, he had real sets built so the actors could really get a feel for it. "Willy Wonka--It's kind of all about texture," he explains. "It was important for us to build the sets, make a real chocolate river, make a real chocolate waterfall....To have as many real things for them to react to, I think, was really important. If you're in one of those green screen rooms for too long, you know, you start to go kind of nuts after a while."

The rooms in the factory are a treat for the senses; each is unique with its own character. As Johnny describes it, "the factory itself is like walking through Wonka's brain--complicated, strange, fun, disturbing, outrageous." Only on a Tim Burton movie would you have Squirrel Training Camp for a scene in the Nut Room. Again, they used a combination of animatronics and computer graphics. For this scene, they created a room full of 200 busy squirrels on the job, 40 of which are real, very talented nutcrackers.

The Chocolate Room is the stunner, where edible delights abound! Johnny remembers visiting Pinewoods Studio early on in production and seeing the production designer practicing chemistry in a bucket to concoct the perfect chocolaty mixture. "I came back a couple months later, and the bucket had turned into huge vats. There were millions of liters of this chocolate flowing!" It took them 5 days to fill the studio with it. Seeing the final result, Felicity Dahl approves: "When I went to Pinewood and saw the whole of the Pinewood lot covered in Wonka, I knew if Roald had seen that, he would have just said, 'This is what I had in my mind.'"

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was nominated for an Oscar for costume design. While it didn't win that, it was nominated for a bunch of other awards and won a couple for favorite family film. Freddie Highmore won a best actor award from the Broadcast Film Critics. And, despite his controversial performance, Johnny earned a couple of acting awards too. Was there ever any doubt?

The Kitties are all about the candy.

On February 1, Willy Wonka opened his factory gates to five children and their parents for a tour. With the Oompa Loompas (Simon) always on the job, Willy Wonka whittles down his choices to find the perfect heir to his fortune. Greedy Agustus Gloop (Norman) gets sucked out of The Chocolate Room. Competitive Violet Beauregarde (Mini) balloons into a blueberry. Squirrels toss spoiled Veruca Salt (Lily) down the garbage shoot, and cheater (or "Mumbler!") Mike Teavee (B.J.) shrinks down to size after he breaks some rules. In the end, both Charlie (Comet), who inherits the candy-making business, and Willy Wonka, who is warmly welcomed into Charlie's family, are the lucky winners!

What's Next?

Johnny gets animated and accidentally married in Tim Burton's Corpse Bride!

To see more images from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and learn more about Johnny Kitties, visit my blog: melissaconnolly.blogspot.com/2013/05/johnny-kitties-celeb....

What is Johnny Kitties? See Johnny Kitties: Celebrating Johnny Depp for all the details. Visit the Johnny Kitties page for a full list of Johnny Depp's filmography and links to all previous Johnny Kitties blog posts.]

I really only wanted Johnny Depp for this role. I know there was a version of Russ Poole in someone else's hands that was just potentially boring, and uninteresting – and I knew in Johnny's hands, that would never be the case. – Director Brad Furman

This is the guy you want on the case.

Based on true events, City of Lies presents the intricate unsolved mystery around the murder of rapper Christopher Wallace – better known as the Notorious B.I.G. or Biggie Smalls – who was gunned down at a stop light after leaving an event in Las Vegas in 1997, just months after the similar death of rapper Tupac Shakur. Based on the nonfiction book LAbyrinth by Randall Sullivan, this film follows Detective Russell Poole (Johnny Depp) as he seeks and becomes obsessed with the truth – at the cost of his family, health and faith in the Los Angeles Police Department.

Why is everyone shooting each other?

City of Lies was a surprise release in 2021 that I found out about from Johnny himself when he publicized it on his Instagram account. (I could get used to this.) The movie was actually ready in 2018 but shelved days before it was supposed to be released. There are many theories why, but none provide a definitive explanation, so I will just take this sudden treat and forget about the drama around it.

This is a fast-paced, intense movie that presents plenty of theories of its own about the murder of Biggie Smalls. Detective Russell Poole was hot on the trail but hit roadblock after roadblock as he discovered involvement and cover-up activities by several of his fellow police officers in the Los Angeles Police Department. He became so obsessed with cracking the case that he studied it for more than 20 years, until his death in 2019.

The film was originally called LAbyrinth, after the book on which it's based, because that's what this investigation became. There are so many people involved, it took me a few viewings to track who they all were and why and how they took part. (I'm not sure I fully get it yet, but it doesn't matter.)

To help us along, Forest Whitaker plays an invented character, Darius "Jack" Jackson, a journalist who reported wrongly on the murder when it happened and is now trying to correct his past mistakes. He seeks out Detective Poole, hoping to figure things out together. "Jackson is a made-up character, but he's the kind of made-up character that's necessary because Poole's going through something very serious and very intense, and he's got no one to turn to," Johnny says.

This is not a spoiler: The murders of Biggie Smalls and Tupac Shakur remain unsolved. Despite the subject matter being more than 20 years old, the topic is extremely relevant today. Director Brad Furman hopes City of Lies will peak enough curiosity to keep the investigation going.

Was this one worth the wait?

Of course, my answer is yes!

City of Lies is like a mix of documentary and film noir styles. Director Brad Furman strove to give it a more realistic feel, and I think he succeeds. It starts off with a bang, literally – a case of seemingly unrelated L.A. road rage – and doesn't let up. It's dark, gritty and uses footage of actual news reports and interviews about Christopher Wallace's murder. In fact, his mother Voletta participated in one of the movie's scenes. The director read LAbrynth years ago and wanted to make the movie but wouldn't do so without the approval of both Wallace and Shakur families. He got it. And, with the untimely death of Russell Poole before production began, everyone involved with this film was committed to getting the message and story right for the real families involved. They still seek resolution and peace.

I was also really excited about Johnny and Forest Whitaker working together in City of Lies, so many years after their first movie together, Platoon. Apparently, they were keen about this chance, 32 years later! Most of their scenes were tense, argumentative and confrontational, as they pushed each throughout the investigation. "For me, Jackson is the alter ego of Poole, but mostly the pessimistic side. Mostly, Poole is facing a side of him that he is not and refuses to be, and Jackson is looking at a version of himself that he could never be," Johnny says. "He doesn't have that purity, that belief that you can make a difference – one man."

These two actors also work differently, as the director explains, "Forest had a lot of questions and wanted a lot of things from me that Johnny just wasn't asking. They have very different approaches and my hope and goal was that that would create some time of energy on screen that would be exciting for us to watch." The rest of the cast is full of fantastic character actors, who matched their energy and created a fitting murky, volatile atmosphere for them. Two standouts for me are Glen Plummer as Psycho Mike and Rockmond Dunbar as Dreadlocks. (They both have good hair.)

These days (and, really, always), I love seeing Johnny work without any accent or elaborate costume or disguise. It's in these kinds of roles that his talent as an actor really comes through clearly. Writer Randall Sullivan knows what I'm talking about: "When I watched the film, it really struck me more than it ever has that film actors have to be masters of such subtle expression. I mean, a lot of acting is done with the eyes. Johnny was really able to convey a lot of deep emotion that brought Russ back to me with a pretty stoic – apparently stoic – demeanor."

Here, Johnny plays an average, good guy whose work has taken over his life. I can see why he connected to this role of someone who will go to extremes to get to the truth. As the director explains, "I felt, in getting to know Johnny, there was a real innocence...He's a big believer in just truth and justice, simplicity. And, when you take all that, and you understand that he looks at it through this innocent lens, I felt that the role of Russell Poole fit just like a glove...I believe Johnny felt a real deep connection to the material and his fight for truth and justice. That was something we talked a lot about on Day 1."

True to form, Johnny did exhaustive research and met with the director for hours that day, during which they connected on everything from the book and character to life and music, in general. As usual, he added his own personal touches to this project, including friends Joe Perry on the soundtrack and activist Killer Mike in a scene.

Russell Poole steadfastly believed in the Homicide Investigator's Creed, which he taped to his desk: "No greater honor will ever be bestowed on an officer than when he is entrusted with the investigation of the death of a human being. It is his duty to find the facts regardless of color and creed." After being shut out by his fellow officers during the investigation, he quit weeks before his retirement, but continued the work on his own. He lost his family over his obsession with the truth and worked at it until the day he died. "It's shocking that the truth can actually be buried if a couple of powerful institutions want to collaborate to do it, but it leaves the people who know the truth in an unbearable situation because they can't unknow that truth," Writer Randall Sullivan says. "To live with the fact that it's being buried, in Russel Poole's case, it just sort of killed him day by day."

The Kitties are on the case now.

In this movie, I loved watching Forest Whitaker and Johnny in their tense scenes and how thoroughly Russell Poole worked to put the pieces together to solve his case. Here, our Kitties, Walter and Gordon, depict one of their fights, an argument that questions Detective Poole's integrity. That's not the right thing to question because you can see how his apartment was consumed by his work, everywhere you look. He was connecting the dots all over the walls.

What's next?

I'm still waiting to see Johnny as war photographer W. Eugene Smith in Minamata, which was supposed to be released last February 5 but wasn't. Is this some strange new Hollywood publicity tactic? It's okay. I'm game for another surprise movie treat. Minamata won't be any happier than City of Lies, but I'll be happy to see it whenever it shows up. Stay tuned....

Pencil, mixed media . My senior cat Lyric feeling quite conspicious , while viewing his first snowfall . He was 5 months old at the time. This is all done in pencil, but I colored in the eye and colar just for fun. Lyric turns 10 Nov. 08

Kitty branches feel really good on the feet.

"I always feel that with Captain Jack, you can chuck him into any situation and have a ball with it." Johnny Depp

Where do they go from here?

The idea for Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides came up while Johnny Depp was shooting the franchise’s second and third films back to back. The writers, Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio, brought a book to producer Jerry Bruckheimer’s attention. Once he got the rights to On Stranger Tides by Tim Powers, which focused on Blackbeard and the fountain of youth, they set the stage for it in the last scene in the third Pirates movie with Captain Jack on his way to find the fountain.

Right after Johnny excited everyone by showing up as Captain Jack at a Disney event, where they announced that another Pirates of the Caribbean movie was on its way, news broke that it might not happen. Disney chairman Dick Cook, who had advocated for Johnny’s inspired take on Captain Jack Sparrow from the beginning, abruptly left the company, and Johnny started talking like he was going to back out too. "There’s a fissure, a crack in my enthusiasm at the moment," he said upon hearing the news. Oh the drama! Don’t worry; after Johnny met with the film's new director Rob Marshall, the crack was sealed.

Aside from this change in Disney personnel, Johnny was also concerned about the script. "Things got very mathematical, very subplotty, on the last movie because there were lots of things that needed to be resolved with the characters," he says. "I wanted to make a film that was more like the first one, that was more character-driven." Apparently, Johnny now deserves a writing credit. "With this one, in terms of story, my involvement was a little more, just because I felt that if we were going to do a 4, that—more than anything—we owed the audience a fresh start," he explains. "I felt it was very important to eliminate as many complications as possible." Co-writer Terry Rossio confirms, "Johnny has a huge influence on the script. He’s invented characters, story lines, jokes. We had lots of creative dinners. They’d normally start at 11 p.m., the drinks would arrive around 1 a.m., and we go on to around 5 in the morning."

A fresh start calls for some fresh blood.

This new stand-alone story introduced several new characters, including new shipmates, some freaky mermaids, Jack’s old flame Angelica (Penelope Cruz) and a few historical figures like King George II (Richard Griffiths), King Ferdinand VI (Sebastian Armesto), and the dreaded pirate Blackbeard (Ian McShane).

I love Ian McShane’s performance as Blackbeard so much. It wasn’t until after I saw the movie that I discovered Blackbeard was a real 18th century pirate who sailed the seas around the West Indies and Americas. "Blackbeard is pure evil," Ian McShane says. "Blackbeard’s the most infamous pirate that ever lived. He was feared by everybody, probably because he never actually killed anybody; he just looked fearsome. He’d light torches in his beard so he could impress everybody, or so the legend goes..." In this movie, he scares people just by mere presence.

Equally fantastic in this movie is Penelope Cruz as Angelica. "She’s a pirate. She’s Jack Sparrow’s equal," she explains. "They have a history. A part of her wants revenge and a part of her still cares about him, and they have this dance going on of fights and words." Although Penelope Cruz discovered she was pregnant with her first child halfway through shooting, it didn’t affect the swashbuckling adventure. She and Johnny worked together 10 years before in Blow, and their reunion was a fun experience. "The weird thing was that, when we saw each other again, it felt like we'd wrapped Blow the week before, or a few days before," Johnny remembers. "It just clicked instantly. Whatever exists in terms of chemistry was just instantly firing on all cylinders. It felt completely right." Penelope Cruz agrees, except that, "Johnny is such a funny person. The main problem is that he’s so funny, it was hard to film the dramatic scenes because I could not stop laughing."

It was Rob Marshall who persuaded Penelope Cruz, whom he’d directed in Nine, to join the cast. Although I was sad (but understanding) about Pirates franchise director Gore Verbinski’s decision not to direct this Pirates movie, I was excited by the prospect of Rob Marshall taking over. "For me, if the movie had continued with the same cast, the same story lines, it would have been very difficult to come into the project, but I felt like it’s a new beginning in many ways," he says. Though it doesn't make much sense, I had a good feeling about Rob Marshall because of his background in directing musicals. Johnny must have felt similarly. "He has fantastic ideas and a brilliant handle on the way the story gets shaped together," Johnny says. "He’s totally open to ideas. If he likes it, it’ll get used, and that keeps everyone on their toes, keeps it fresh."

So, what’s changed?

I was thrilled to see some returning characters, like Captain Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush) and Mr. Gibbs (Kevin McNally). Be on the lookout for some surprise cameos too! And, of course, Jack is as entertaining as ever. "The one thing we couldn’t change was Jack. That would have been a mistake," co-writer Terry Rossio says. "He’s always been the trickster character, and we had to carry that through. And with Johnny, there’s no need to embellish the performance on the page because you know that he’ll do it all himself."

From the start, everyone was wary of boring audiences with yet another Pirates movie. "He's created this iconic character for the ages," Rob Marshall says of Johnny's Captain Jack. "But he also knew about the danger of a fourth anything, how it quickly can become a caricature. So we were very careful to make sure that Jack Sparrow [stayed] real. I mean, he's hilarious, but it all comes from a real place." In this story Angelica reveals a new side of Jack—a soft one! He regrets having wronged Angelica in the past, and it’s the reason he sticks with her throughout this adventure rather than doing his typical cut and run. "What’s nice is you get a sense that Jack has a heart. He’s doing something heroic in a way. For him, for a pirate who thinks selfishly, it’s nice to see that," Rob Marshall explains. "He really has a conscience, and he’s protective, caring."

With a new director comes a new perspective, and I like Rob Marshall’s! Maybe because I know of his musical background, my vision is biased, but some of the stunts in this movie were so meticulously choreographed, they felt like dances. "Some filmmakers go into a film and it's already shot and cut in their head. I didn't get that feeling from Rob," Johnny says. "What I got from Rob was that he heard it as music, in a weird way. It was rhythmic. And, he knew tempo and a way to finesse the sound, which became visual as well. It was an incredible experience. His timing—and not just his choreographic timing, but his sense of comedic timing—is impeccable." The movie begins with Captain Jack escaping King George’s Court by swinging on chandeliers and flags and hopping from one moving carriage to another down the streets of London. Later on, Blackbeard maneuvers all the ropes on his ship to capture his crew, leaving them swinging like rag dolls from the sails. Rob Marshall even got Johnny to tango in this one for a bit. Now there’s a stunt worth the price of the movie ticket!

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides is also the first movie of its scale to shoot in 3D on location. Although some interiors were filmed in Los Angeles, the rest was filmed around the world in Hawaii, London, and Puerto Rico. Can you imagine carrying all that equipment through the jungles of remote islands? "I couldn’t decided if we were stupid or pioneers, but there’s nothing like doing it for real and not being on a stage with a green screen, " Rob Marshall says. The results are worth it. Unlike the previous films that feature sea battles galore, most of this one takes place on land. The scenery is lavishly green and a bright change.

It's mutiny, Captain!

Put The Kitties on a boat with a bunch of dangling ropes, and I can't be held responsible for what happens. After discovering that his crew has declared mutiny, Blackbeard (Norman) takes control of the situation. With a wave of his sword, the ship comes to life and ties all the traitors up for a good scolding. (Among them, with Gordon, are Comet, Simon, B.J., and Tyrone.) Despite how evil Blackbeard gets in this sequence, I love his dramatic entrance and how he can make such a grand statement with a flick of his wrist. (I told Norman not to go too Method with this performance.)

When will Captain Jack set sail again?

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides successfully refreshed the franchise for audiences, so a fifth installment, titled Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, is in the works. I’m glad because, though a stand-alone story, On Stranger Tides left some unfinished business. I don’t have any secrets to share about the film yet, but Dead Men Tell No Tales starts filming this fall and is scheduled for release in 2016. Have you marked your calendar?

What's next?

Johnny makes good on a promise to friend Hunter S. Thompson with The Rum Diary.

For more images from Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides and information about Johnny Kitties, see my original blog post here: melissaconnolly.blogspot.com/2014/03/johnny-kitties-celeb...

Note: For information about Johnny Kitties: Celebrating Johnny Depp, please see my introductory blog post about it here: melissaconnolly.blogspot.com/2010/06/johnnys-kitties-john...

Film #2: Private Resort (1985)

Johnny Depp actually survived A Nightmare on Elm Street and next signed up for a teen sex comedy called Private Resort. (Hard to believe, I know.) I feel as though every actor in the United States was in one of these movies back in the ‘80s, and I’m sure they are all a bit haunted by them.

I had hope for this one, though. Not just because of Johnny's involvement, but his costars included Rob Morrow of "Northern Exposure" fame and—more impressive--Hector Elizondo, who’s in hundreds of good movies and TV shows. On the other hand, Andrew “Dice” Clay is also in it.

You can probably guess from the title that this movie is about teenage boys on the prowl in a sunny vacation spot. In this case, it’s Miami. Johnny plays Jack, who spends all his time checking out the ladies in skimpy bikinis. Ben (Rob Morrow), his shy best friend, meets a sweet waitress, with whom love blossom. In the meantime, The Maestro--a jewel thief played by Hector Elizondo--is after a diamond necklace worn by of wealthy old lady, who has hidden kung fu talents. As you can imagine, chaos ensues.

Private Resort isn’t a shining moment in Johnny’s career, but it was a job that helped him pay the rent. Back then, his heart was all about music. As he put it, “At the time, they could have said, ‘Listen, we’re gonna strap Dom Deluise to your back and you’re gonna climb this building,’ and I said, ‘Fine.’”

For me, there are too many boobs and bums in this movie, but it’s not the worst I’ve seen. This is a batty comedy, but it actually has some good slapstick moments. And there's Johnny--so young and so pretty....There are worse ways to spend 82 minutes.

All of The Kitties wanted to be in this tribute because it meant a fun day in the sun. We decided to highlight the ensemble cast of crazy characters, lounging by the pool. We had to add some "extras" because there are too many of them, but The Kitties had first dibs on who they wanted to be.

Here, Jack spots his latest conquest lounging on a float, and Ben (Comet) notices the cute waitress (Ashes, of course). Norman was the only one willing to play The Maestro because no one wanted to shave their shiny coats. (In the movie, Ben gives him an unfortunate haircut.) The Mother Kitty had the seniority to demand the part of the diamond-wearing socialite, but really she just wanted an excuse to do some kung fu fighting. Everyone agreed that Simon was perfect to play the 8-year-old kid on the loose at the resort, but they were all envious of B.J. who scored the role of the punk. (They may not have wanted to cut their hair, but they like the spikes!)

And, yes, there is a girl who wears a turban throughout this movie, and she's very attached to that flowerpot. I said this movie was batty, right?

Stay tuned for next month's Slow Burn!

"What fascinated me more than anything is the correlation between technology and power–the idea that a guy who is able to download his sentient being into a machine can become god, or a version of god. Religion is a fascinating black hole to me." – Johnny Depp on researching his role for Transcendence.

What?

When I read the first few blurbs trying to quickly sum up the plot of Transcendence, I rarely made it much farther than the first sentence. Passing by terms like "artificial intelligence," "super computer," and "uploaded consciousness." I gave up and decided to wait for it.

In this movie, Johnny Depp plays Will Caster, a computer scientist studying the point at which artificial intelligence and human intelligence will achieve singularity or, as he calls it, transcendence. About 15 minutes into it, he is shot by an anti-technology activist using poisoned bullets. When Will finds out that he has about a month left to live, his wife Evelyn (Rebecca Hall) convinces him to try to upload his mind into the quantum computer he'd invented. About 10 minutes after he settles into the computer, his ghostly voice asks for more power, and his soul ends up online.

He instructs Evelyn to buy land in the middle of nowhere, and she contracts the development of an underground facility there so that Will can continue his work. With his heightened capabilities, he is able to heal the sick and disabled, which at first seems like amazing good fortune. Soon, however, it is discovered that everyone Will heals becomes a part of him, inheriting his strengths, and the townspeople become a kind of superhuman army. Morgan Freeman describes Transcendence pretty well: "The whole movie is about the development of artificial intelligence and a situation that gets out of hand."

It's a leap of faith.

As far-fetched as this movie sounds, everyone involved who researched it thinks that we are well on our way. Some scientists believe we could reach this kind of immortality in the next 30 years. "The combination of technology and biology–I think it's inevitable," producer Aaron Ryder says. "We did a fair bit of research and talked to a lot of different people in this field. What was astounding to us was how advanced technology was and how close we were at things that I always thought were just science fiction as being reality."

Transcendence got mixed reviews, some of which were as complicated as the movie sounds. Overall, I think this movie has too many big, stretchy ideas for a 2-hour story. But I didn't really mind that. Here are my own issues with this movie:

- As I warned earlier, Johnny starts dying about 15 minutes into the movie, which is depressing enough. Then, he's basically on a TV screen for rest of it. I suppose I'm used to Johnny Movies in which he has more to do.

- When I first heard about this project, I was most excited by the prospect of Johnny working with Morgan Freeman. It turns out that they only have a few short scenes together, and one of them is when Johnny is already uploaded. Does that one really count?

- There are lots of computers, coding, and typing in this movie, and no matter what you do with it, that's just not interesting–unless you're an artificial intelligence scientist, I suppose.

But just go with it.

There are things I like about this movie too. Yes, the premise is outlandish, and the creepy half-human/half-machine population Will creates is over the top. Yet, whenever I watch Transcendence, I get into it. Its big, stretchy ideas are fantastic and make me think for a long time afterward, which was apparently one of the goals. "This film will force people to ask questions," Johnny says. "How far should any of it go? That kind of intelligence in the wrong hands could be quite devastating." Adding to that warning, Wally Pfister notes, "It's my hope that people will think carefully whether technology can be used for the betterment of mankind or to its detriment."

Wally Pfister was Christopher Nolan's cinematographer for many years, so the special effects in this movie are impressive. I love the visuals and the starkness and clean lines of the sets in the laboratory.

While I'm disappointed that Johnny and Morgan Freeman didn't have much to do together in this movie, Transcendence also offers a great ensemble cast. I particularly like Paul Bettany as Max, Will and Evelyn's old friend, who serves as the voice of reason and gets most of the action in this story. Paul Bettany worked with Johnny previously in The Tourist and has already finished working with him on another upcoming film. Whenever interviewed about these projects, he's often asked how it feels to be in a Johnny Depp movie and responds jokingly that the question should really be asking how Johnny feels about being in a Paul Bettany movie. To me, Transcendence really is more of a Paul Bettany movie (and that's not a bad thing).

What's really going on here?

For this Johnny Kitties tribute, I wanted a scene that included Johnny with Morgan Freeman, which meant I had few choices. I decided against depicting Johnny in dying mode and instead opted for a healthier-looking computer-generated version. Here, Evelyn (Lily) leads Will's colleague Joseph (Morgan Freeman/B.J.) and FBI agent Buchanan (Cillian Murphy/Tyrone) into Brightwood Data Center's underground laboratory, where Will makes a surprise appearance.

Don't forget to see For No Good Reason too!

Shortly after the release of Transcendence, Johnny showed up at my local theater in a 2012 documentary called For No Good Reason, which explores the life and work of artist Ralph Steadman. Ralph Steadman is most famous for his collaborations with Hunter Thompson, for whom he provided illustrations to pair with the writer's Rolling Stone articles, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, and other publications. In this fascinating documentary, Johnny pays his quiet friend a visit and serves as interviewer from a fan's perspective.

I loved this documentary for shining light on Ralph Steadman's amazing talent and artistry, which I always felt was considered secondary to the work of his more outspoken, eccentric friend. In the documentary, someone commented that while Hunter was considered the crazy one, Ralph was actually more fearless in his artwork. Check it out, and you will see what he means. One of my favorite parts of this documentary is witnessing the artist create an illustration from start to finish. He just doesn't see things like the rest of us. As Johnny puts it, "Wow."

What's next?

Johnny Kitties is going on hiatus again until more of Johnny's movies are released on DVD sometime next year. The movies that are next in line, Tusk and Into The Woods, have to hit theaters first.

Tusk, a horror flick written and directed by Kevin Smith, is due out September 19! While Johnny's role has been kept pretty well under wraps, here's the trailer to get you excited about the creepy weirdness of this story: youtu.be/60EUG-CDC_k)

For those who are interested, Johnny's daughter, Lily-Rose, appears in this film alongside her friend Harley, Kevin Smith's daughter. You can see them in this trailer as the store clerks. (Lily Rose is the one who doesn't speak.) It was announced recently that these characters will have much bigger roles in another upcoming Kevin Smith movie with Johnny, a comedy called Yoga Hosers! So, if Tusk doesn't freak you out too much, we have another Kevin Smith treat in store for next year!

But I digress. Into the Woods, a Stephen Sondheim musical directed by Rob Marshall, will be released on Christmas Day! In this fairy tale, Johnny plays The Wolf. I think it's safe to say that all Johnny fans are pacing the floors for this one, and the studio apparently knows it. Here's the teaser trailer that barely gives us a glimpse of what's to come: youtu.be/sNVGDZHRJXM. It's pretty much all I want for Christmas.

"We're obsessed with deliveries and packages and magazines in this movie." Director David Koepp

"You stole my story."

In Secret Window, Johnny Depp plays a divorced and depressed author, Mort Rainey, who is accused by a Southern dairy farmer, John Shooter (John Turturro), of stealing his short story. He wants him to "fix the ending." This premise made me laugh: It's a thriller about plagiarism! Director David Koepp sells it better, "It's the ultimate writer's nightmare that some crazy character comes along and not only accuses you of plagiarism but forces you to do a rewrite!" As anticlimactic as that sounds, I was intrigued by this movie's enticing ingredients:

- If anyone can make this story interesting, Johnny can.

- David Koepp recently directed Panic Room, another thriller I really like.

- Secret Window's fantastic supporting cast, includes John Turturro and Charles S. Dutton--both of whom have worked with Johnny before--and Maria Bello and Timothy Hutton--who haven't. Timothy Hutton has held a place in my heart since I was a kid when I saw his Oscar-winning performance in Ordinary People. Now, whenever I see him elsewhere, I think, "Awww....it's Timothy Hutton..." (If you see that movie, you will do the same.)

- Secret Window is based on Stephen King's short story, "Secret Window, Secret Garden." While some movies based on Stephen King stories are awful, some are fantastic. Of course, in this case, I leaned toward the latter!

I tried to avoid seeing anything about the movie until it was released, but a photograph caught my eye of Johnny on the set doing what looked to me like some sort of silly walk down the street next to Timothy Hutton. (I wish I could find that photo!) I thought,"Awww, it's Timothy Hutton," and instantly couldn't wait to see them work together. Whatever happens, it'll be okay!

Heeere's Johnny!

Inevitably, this movie was compared to other Stephen King movies about authors (The Shining, Misery) by all the critics. I see why, but I think this one's got its own Johnny Charm. One of the many things I love about Johnny's movies is that he always makes them his own: He adds his sense of humor no matter how intense the scene, he comes up with ideas that no one else would ever think of, and he gives looks that without a word say so much. If you're a Johnny fan, this movie is for you because he is in practically every scene and, most of the time, he's by himself. (He is a writer, after all.) That's one aspect that attracted Johnny to the part: "It's always great to get in the ring with actors you respect, but when you're in there by yourself, it's quite challenging. You're not reacting, which is mostly what acting is," he explains. "Instead, you have to just be. There are scenes where it's like 2 minutes of just scratching the tablecloth. That interests me." David Koepp has a different theory: "I'm not really sure why he wanted to do it. I'm grateful, but it's hard to be certain of what motivates Johnny. It's possible he just wanted to play a character named Mort." I believe both.

My favorite part of this movie is the first 2 1/2 minutes, not just because it opens on a close-up of Johnny's face but because his face is angry and you don't know why. You don't know where he is. You don't know what's happened or what's going to happen. And, when it does happen, you understand everything and you're in it.

I can't imagine anyone else but Johnny playing Mort Rainey. I may have laughed when I read the plot, but I also think Johnny is a perfect fit for it. Johnny attributes the well-written script by David Koepp as hooking him on the story: "The dialogue is real. It's not forced. The dialogue is just very train-of-thought. The situation seemed real and ugly. Reading a little further, I got to the point where I had total emotional investment in this guy, in this character of Mort, and the situation."

I had a good feeling about this one too, and Johnny didn't disappoint. It's true, I'd be happy to watch Johnny sit and stare off into space. (And, playing a writer, he actually does some of that in this movie.) But I find his performance pretty fascinating in Secret Window. Director David Koepp had Johnny in mind to play Mort while he was writing the script. "Johnny's just one of our most gifted actors, period,"he says, noting Johnny's endless input into his character. "What I like about his ideas is that you're not sure if he's kidding or not at first because they're off the wall. But then they make perfect sense and you wouldn't have it any other way. He's not an actor who does what he's told. he's an actor who takes what he's been asked to do and runs it through his brain and then does it. And that's a wonderful gift because he's got a marvelous twisted brain!"

It can't be easy to act in a room by yourself in most scenes with nothing but your thoughts and your dog to keep you company. "The great thing about him in this movie is that he's so inventive," David Koepp says. "He makes napping relatively interesting to watch. The degree of bedhead was a major consideration in this movie."

Johnny spends the majority of the movie in a raggedy bathrobe thinking about sleeping, sleeping, or just waking up from sleeping. It's quite entertaining! "Most good actors have pretty strong ideas about how they should look for a part and he certainly does," David Koepp says. "The bathrobe he immediately sparked to and wanted to wear for the whole movie. I got it down to not quite the whole movie."

I'm not telling.

I can't say much about this movie because I'll ruin it for anyone who hasn't seen it. If you've been reading my Johnny Kitties posts, you probably know by now that I have no tolerance for scary movies, not even some PG-13 thrillers. The idea of Johnny being in a Stephen King movie worried me just for that reason. While I watched some of Secret Window peeking through my fingers, I realize that, to most people, it's probably not scary at all. Some even thought it was predictable, but I fell for everything.

At times, though, even I wish this movie was scarier. I wish Johnny and John Turturro could just go at each other in an R-rated sort of way, but the studio insisted that the film be PG-13 because of Johnny's devoted teenage audience. By the end, I felt that this movie teetered into TV Movie of the Week territory--not because it's bad, but because it includes the cliche of the screaming girl who always trips and can't start her car. I hate that. Do guys ever have that problem when they're in a jam?

But that's a minor annoyance in a movie that, for me, is mysterious and really interesting to watch. Like Johnny, I love the interactions and dialogue among the characters. Although Johnny and Timothy Hutton play rivals in the movie, they created some of my favorite scenes. And, John Turturro is a creepy stranger! "What you think you're going to get from Stephen King material is not what you actually do," David Koepp says. "What you get is extremely well developed characters and really well thought-out psychology. All of the main characters were very well developed and had really clear psychological needs." Stephen King even gave David Koepp his stamp of approval: "I like your script, man. Everyone in it's a rat bastard."

If that doesn't convince you to check out Secret Window, there's also some great animal acting from Mort's blind dog Chico, a mouse, and a squirrel. Hands down, the squirrel wins the Oscar.

Shhh, the Kitty is sleeping.

In this movie, Mort takes lots of naps, and Gordon was all for that idea! So, for our Secret Window tribute, here's one of the naps, during which Mort dreams of napping. That is, until he rolls off the couch and falls over a cliff. He awakes on his living room floor. We've all been there, right?

TV Break: How about a stretch?

A fan of Mike Judge's cartoon series, "King of the Hill," Johnny voiced a character in the episode called, "Hank's Back," which aired in May of 2004, a couple of months after the release of Secret Window. I had never watched a full episode of "King of the Hill" until this one, so I'm not familiar with the storyline and characters. But, in this episode, the show's main character Hank hurts his back and is advised to go to yoga class. Johnny is the yoga instructor. (Can you believe it? Why doesn't he show up in my yoga classes?)

What's next?

Johnny plays another American in Paris for Ils se marierent et eurent beaucoup, or ....And They Lived Happily Ever After. (My review will not be in French.)

For more information about Johnny Kitties and images from Secret Window, you can view this blog post here:

"Mortdecai is very unique and special. It's very different from anything I have done before. We haven't seen that type of caper movie for a number of years. If you go back and watch movies, like The Pink Panther or some of the wonderful French films with Louis de Funes, there's really something great about those caper films that teeter toward farcical. – Johnny Depp on Mortdecai

Who is Mortdecai?

Based on the novel Don't Point That Thing at Me by Kyril Bunfiglioli, Mortdecai stars Johnny Depp as an aristocratic art dealer, who is drowning in debt and denial. When his old friend and rival, Inspector Martland (Ewan McGregor), ropes him into helping to search for a stolen painting, he becomes bogged down by Russians, a terrorist, and other troubling inconveniences. With a beautiful but unhappy wife (Gwyneth Paltrow) at home, Charlie Mortdecai at least still has his trusty man servant Jock (Paul Bettany) always nearby to take care of everything. But will everything turn out all right in the end?

I tried to tame my anticipation.

Ewan McGregor has always been one of my favorite actors, but – unlike my Johnny Experience – I'm not sure how or when my love for Ewan McGregor began. I don't always know what movies he'll be in or when they're coming out, but I see them all. I love catching him on talk shows, but I never think to check for his name on the schedules ahead of time. I've even read his books about his motorcycle trips around the world, and I don't even like motorcycles.

So, when I found out that Ewan McGregor signed on to co-star in Mortdecai with Johnny, I was thrilled. Then, when the Mortdecai previews came out, they made me laugh out loud. I was really excited about the director, David Koepp, who directed Johnny in Secret Window, and the rest of the cast, which included Paul Bettany, Gwyneth Paltrow, Olivia Munn, and Jeff Goldblum. Then, one day, it occurred to me that I was setting this thing up for failure: No pressure, everyone, I just want this to be the best movie ever.

So, I went back to trying to ignore it was happening. It wasn't too hard because I was distracted by an endless string of colds that I was trying to expel from my body with Sudafed and sleep.

There's a first time for everything.

By the time Mortdecai opened, my most recent persistent cold had dragged my mood back down to blahville, and I kept putting off seeing Mortdecai during opening weekend. Because I was indecisive about when I had to leave my apartment, I ended up scanning the theater schedules on Fandango, where I couldn't help being shocked by Mortdecai's cumulative critics' score of 12 out of 100. So I did what I never do – looked at what critics had to say. I didn't actually read the reviews, but saw some short, memorable takeaways, like:

– "Charmless, mirthless, witless, this waste of time is another black mark on Depp's card, while his co-stars fare little better. Even low expectations won't help you here."

– "Mortdecai is an anachronistic mess that never succeeds..."

–"What a frantically dull spectacle this vanity project is."

– "Johnny Depp's done so much for us over the years; let's forget this movie ever happened." (I don't think this one was from Fandango, but it's my favorite.)

Come on, it can't be that bad, I thought. Yet, by the time I got out of the house to see Mortdecai that Sunday afternoon, I approached it like an errand.

And I hated it! I couldn't believe how much I hated it so immediately. I sat, stunned and annoyed by Johnny's wimpy character, pleading in my head to him to talk normally and slower and just be more Johnny-like. When that didn't work, I searched frantically for something good to say about Mortdecai. What about his co-stars, the sets, the direction, and the story? What was even going on in this story? I couldn't follow it. Why were the jokes so stupid? How many times were they going to refer to that horrible mustache? I finished my popcorn and began falling asleep – another troubling first. In the theater, though, one person kept me awake: A big black guy, who sat a few rows in front of me, cracked up at everything! Does that guy represent the audience for this movie?, I wondered. I left the theater bewildered, disappointed, and very panicked that I got nothing out of what I just saw; did this mean the end of Johnny Kitties?

"Johnny doesn't have to make awesome movies every time," my dad said when I told him my horrible news. But he does and he has, I disagreed unreasonably in my head. Clearly, I was under the influence of nagging illness, Sudafed, and mean critics when I first saw Mortdecai. (My advice to everyone is don't read reviews before seeing a movie and make up your own mind.) Still, I worried while waiting for the movie to be released on DVD. What if, after my cold is gone, Mortdecai is still completely awful?

Relax, I'm over it.

I may have been recovering from something still when Mortdecai arrived from Netflix. I had to restart it a few times because I kept falling asleep. Maybe it was leftover trauma from my first viewing, my fear of a second reaction, or maybe I was just really tired. My unplanned naps were a good thing: the more times I had to start the movie over to watch it again, the funnier it got. It turns out that I actually like Mortdecai after all!

Still, this isn't my favorite of Johnny's roles. His accent, which didn't bother me at all in the commercials, sometimes gets on my nerves after a while; other times, I can't even understand what he says. Also, this character bumbles around a lot. When trouble brews, he just asks his man servant what he should do and waits around for someone else to fix his situation. This helplessness takes me out of the movie at times because, obviously, Johnny can take care of himself. In some moments, I just want him to be cooler, as I know Johnny can be. Johnny's above some of this movie's humor, in my opinion, which I just don't always find funny or clever. Maybe I'll get there after more viewings.

In any case, Johnny explained himself in a DVD featurette, which helped me appreciate everything about Mortdecai more. Someone gave him the book that Mortdecai is based on, which he describes as "one of those books that makes you laugh out loud. It's just so beautifully irreverent and insane, but it's one of those stories, you're thinking, it translates to cinema only if you go to the extreme." He describes his character as pure and honest, someone who never thinks about what others are thinking. Charlie Mortdecai always assumes things will work out, despite whatever chaos is surrounding him, and whatever he says he believes to be true. Knowing that, I found everything about this character funnier and even a little endearing. Maybe I need to read the book for a full understanding.

By the fourth and final time I restarted and watched Mortdecai, I found plenty to like about it. Before the movie came out, everyone involved was comparing it to The Pink Panther movies,directed by Blake Edwards and starring Peter Sellers. Comparing this or any new movie to any classic, like The Pink Panther, is not a good idea; why put that standard in people's heads? However, I know why they all made the comparison, even if it's an unequal match. I see what they were going for with the performances and David Koepp's slick direction. From the opening credits on, you get the light-hearted, comedic feel for what's to come.

Johnny's performance may be distracting in some moments, but it's brilliant in others. The rest of the cast is wonderful too. My favorite is Paul Whitehouse – who's shown up in several of Johnny's movies, like Finding Neverland, Alice in Wonderland, and Corpse Bride. His brief appearance here as Spinoza makes me laugh out loud every time. I'm also happy to see Olivia Munn in this movie because she always makes me laugh too. Paul Bettany, who previously co-starred with Johnny in The Tourist and Transcendence, makes an impressive, funny tough guy. Gwyneth Paltrow is great, as usual (and in an equally great wardrobe), and Ewan McGregor is, of course, awesome.

Timing is everything in this movie, and this cast not only gets it right but seemed to have a blast working on it. "It's the most fun I've ever had on set," Johnny says. His kissing scene with Gwyneth Paltrow, in which she's too repulsed by his new mustache and which was in all of the commercials for Mortdecai, apparently took 15 or so takes because they couldn't stop laughing. "Most of my energy on set has been spent trying not to laugh," Paul Bettany admits.

These high spirits come through in the final product. I suspect they might even be contagious; as I said, I laughed more and more with each viewing. And, again, I saw some critic reviews without even trying – this time noting the DVD release – saying that Mortdecai is worth another look. But don't take their fickle word for it. I promise, Mortdecai will grow on you, so give it a chance!

These are my two favorite kitties!

I was really worried about finding something to draw for Mortdecai at first; it's one of the reasons I had to watch it four times. Since the most exciting thing about this movie to me was the prospect of Johnny and Ewan working together, I limited my options to the scenes they shared. Unfortunately, they don't have many. (They'll make up for it by working together again someday, right, casting directors?) Luckily, however, I realized eventually that one of their scenes is the key to everything.

In this scene, Inspector Martland (Comet) reveals the plot when he enlists Charlie Mortdecai (Gordon) to help him find a stolen painting. In return, his host offers him some rancid cheese. This scene not only tells you the plot, but captures Charlie Mortdecai's posh lifestyle and past, these characters and their rivalry, and even secret treasures. I stuck Jock (Norman) in there too because he really is always around to save the day.

What's next?

Johnny hears my illness-induced complaints and sinks his teeth into a serious drama, playing mobster Whitey Bulger in Black Mass. I haven't seen the previews yet and am afraid of the violence in store, but I'm very excited just the same. See it September 18th! A Johnny Kitties tribute will follow its DVD release.

To see photos from Mortdecai or other Johnny Kitties tributes, visit my original blog post (melissaconnolly.blogspot.com/2015/07/johnny-kitties-celeb...) on Melissa's Kitties or the Melissa's Kitties' Johnny Kitties page (melissaconnolly.blogspot.com/p/johnny-kitties-celebrating....) Thanks for visiting!

Love, Marriage, and All the Rest of It

...And They Lived Happily Ever After (known in France as Ils se marierent et eurent beaucoup d'enfants) explores the complexities of relationships between men and women. Focused on three buddies, the story introduces several characters--some happily married, some not so much, some who cheat, and some who spend all day screaming at each other but are still in love at the end of it. Writer/Director Yvan Attal stars with his wife Charlotte Gainsbourg as Vincent and Gabrielle, a seemingly happy couple with a young son (Ben Attal). While their friends consider their union golden, no one is immune to problems or temptation. Vincent is torn between two lives, while Gabrielle fantasizes about living a different life with a stranger. The Hollywood endings I grew up on don't really exist, do they?

Where's Johnny?

Johnny Depp makes a "special appearance" in this movie, but it's really a two-scene cameo during which he barely says anything. Despite Johnny's involvement, I couldn't find this movie right away! I had to wait for the DVD, which I think was released in the U.S. a few years after it was made. When I finally saw the film, I didn't like it much: Almost everyone is in a sad situation, arguing, suspecting, accusing, and cheating on each other.

But then Johnny brings in some sunshine. He is Gabrielle's mysterious stranger.

Yvan Attal sent his script for ...And They Lived Happily Ever After to Johnny, asking him to be in it. "I wanted to write more because I really like him as an actor," he says. "I felt ridiculous to give him these two ridiculous scenes." It being his first film, the director was shocked that Johnny invited him to his home in France for dinner to discuss the role. They bonded within 10 minutes and spent the night talking about all sorts things well beyond movies.

I was really excited that Charlotte Gainsbourg was in this movie. At the time, she had just impressed me in The Science of Sleep. I also knew that her father, legendary French artist Serge Gainsbourg, collaborated on an album with Johnny's partner Vanessa Paradis in 1990, and he meant a lot to both of them.

Emmanuel Seigner, who costarred with Johnny in The Ninth Gate, is also in this movie. (Yeah, the flying demon lady with mismatched socks!) Funnily, I didn't recognize her the first time I watched this film. Clearly, I was only focused on looking for the American back then.

Wait, what's this about?

While watching this movie again for Johnny Kitties, I found it really fascinating! Yvan Attal was inspired to write this film after walking his son to school and realizing that most of the other parents were divorced. "A few years ago, they swear their love for each other, and then they made a child. Then, suddenly, bang! Two years after, so many parents were divorced," he describes. "I started to think about that, and that's the way this project arrived in my mind."

This movie depicts relationships so realistically. It cleverly catches all stages and perspectives: You could be madly in love. Or, you may have a huge end-of-the-world fight one morning but fall back into your routines by nighttime. You might feel bored with your partner right now but suddenly be reminded in a moment of the great love you once felt for each other. You could be in love with two people at the same time for different reasons. Or, maybe you've been married for so long and are so comfortable that most communication can be left unsaid. "It's always difficult to live with somebody," Yvan Attal explains. "It's not, 'everything is great and happily ever after.'" While many people found this view to be pessimistic and sad, I loved that this film showed the good and the bad. It's real, refreshing, and makes you think.

I can relate.

Of Johnny's two scenes in this movie, the first one is the best. One afternoon, Gabrielle (Lily, who has the perfect eyes for this role) browses in a Virgin Megastore. While tuned into "Creep" by Radiohead at one of the store's listening stations, Johnny--walking up behind her--comes into focus. Like her, he slips on headphones and listens to the song. And, with this fantastic tune blasting in their ears, these strangers are awkwardly polite and friendly, making quick eye contact and unsure of where else to look. But, Gabrielle catches a moment when he's not paying attention and takes full advantage to stare.

When I first saw this moment, the look on her face made me laugh out loud because that's what I would do in that situation! (Of course, Charlotte Gainsbourg is much calmer and more serene here than I ever could be.) When he leaves, she watches till he disappears into the crowd, panics, and even gets clumsy too. I mean, that's me up there!

I'd tell you the rest of it, but why ruin a special appearance? Rent ...And They Lived Happily Ever After and enjoy some Frenchness with an excellent soundtrack.

What's Next?

Johnny portrays Scottish writer J.M. Barrie, as he creates his beloved story and everlasting character "Peter Pan, or the Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up" in Finding Neverland.

For more information about Johnny Kitties and images from ...And They Lived Happily Ever After, visit Melissa's Kitties blog: melissaconnolly.blogspot.com/2013/02/johnny-kitties-celeb...

"Johnny's an alien!"

That's what my mom said as we left the theater after seeing The Astronaut's Wife. Here's the story: When Spencer Armacost: (Johnny Depp) and fellow astronaut Alex Streck (Nick Cassavetes) abort a shuttle mission after a 2-minute "incident" in space, their wives notice some peculiar changes in their personalities. Soon after their return, Spencer's wife Jillian (Charlize Theron) learns she's pregnant, which sparks her suspicions about her husband's motives, what really happened up there, and the future of their unborn twins.

"Huh. I wonder why Johnny made that movie."

That's what my dad said as we left the theater after seeing The Astronaut's Wife. I don't know all of Johnny's reasons, but he was fascinated with the idea of the all-American hero not being who he seemed to be. Never in a million years did I imagine Johnny playing an astronaut--Let alone one named Commander Spencer Armacost! A manmade boy with scissorhands didn't phase me, but an astronaut?

I admit, when people have asked me if there's any Johnny Movie that I don't like, this is the one that comes to mind. First, I was already annoyed before I saw the movie because critics everywhere were comparing it to Roman Polanski's classic creepy movie, Rosemary's Baby, just because Charlize Theron had a pixie haircut and became pregnant with babies not of this world. Critics also said that Johnny was unbelievable as a menacing bad guy. I do not agree with that. But, aside from having no stomach for scary movies anymore--no matter how predictable they may be--my main problem with this one was that I never liked Spencer Armacost, even before he became an alien trapped in a human body.

Usually, Johnny somehow finds ways to get you to like his bad-guy characters, so you're practically rooting for them by the end of the movie. And, he'll always interject funny moments that lighten the mood. This movie doesn't seem to have that, and this cocky Southerner never appealed to me. "It was fun to play a redneck, an all-American hero gone wrong," Johnny said. "What interested me was not the idea of some kind of 'being' possibly inhabiting his body. Whatever happened in space just allowed him to reveal who he really is. He's got this image of being an all-American guy, with bleached white teeth and sun-kissed hair, but he's an awful person." Okay, I don't feel so bad now.

I've never forgotten Johnny's description of his hair--"sun-kissed." (Why, why do I remember these things?) I had a photo of Spencer Armacost on my wall for a while. He is a good-looking alien, at least.

Watching it recently for Johnny Kitties, I discovered that The Astronaut's Wife is actually not that bad. The acting is solid, and I really like director Rand Ravich's stylized shots with sharp graphic shapes and cool lighting. There's a good sense of atmosphere and the sets are all pretty visually interesting.

The Kitty From Another Planet

Aside from Johnny playing an astronaut with awesome hair, the other most exciting thing about this movie--to me--was Johnny's costar, Joe Morton. He's the brother from another planet! I don't remember much about The Brother From Another Planet from when I first saw it in the '80s but, ever since, my family has pointed Joe Morton out whenever they find him in his other movies, exclaiming, "Oh! It's the brother from another planet!" So, now, I can apply that to a Johnny Movie. It's the simple pleasures, right?

So, here's a scene featuring Joe Morton (B.J.) as Sherman Reese, a NASA representative who first uncovers the alien invasion and tries to warn Jillian (Lily) of his discovery. Here, she's on her way up from the New York subway to meet Mr. Reese to discuss it. But she's stopped abruptly when her husband shows up out of the blue. Mr. Reese leaves his bag on the stair railing for her to take, as he heads off to have coffee with the commander. Too bad Spencer snatches it up before she can grab it! (Yeah, this is G-rated level of suspense I can typically take.)

What's next?

Johnny stays in suspense and takes it to France to work with Roman Polanski in The Ninth Gate.

"From now on, when the American public thinks of John Dillinger, they'll think of Johnny Depp. Whoever Dillinger was in real life is going to be subsumed by the Johnny Depp version--which, in a way, is the best thing that could have happened to John Dillinger."

-- Paul Maccabee, author of John Dillinger Slept Here

Meet Public Enemy #1.

It's 1933. After nearly 10 years in Indiana State Prison for a $50 robbery of a local grocery store, John Dillinger helps his friends break out of jail in the first scene of Public Enemies. From that point on, you're on the run with Dillinger, the first U.S. Public Enemy #1, as he robs banks and lives the high life as fast as he can, always a step ahead of those hunting him down. Based on Brian Burroughs's book, Public Enemies shows how Dillinger lived his short life in the moment for the moment until star FBI agent Melvin Purvis (Christian Bale) catches up with him.

Can we put this guy in jail instead?

Even though gangster movies are not my favorite, I couldn't wait to see Public Enemies, probably because Johnny looked so dapper in the previews. Weeks before its release, I got an email from Fandango that opened with this photo. [See my blog post for the image, here: melissaconnolly.blogspot.com/2013/10/johnny-kitties-celeb...]

It actually took me a few seconds to realize who that movie star was. You've got to love it when Johnny cleans himself up and puts on a nice suit. Thanks for the awesome costumes, Colleen Atwood!

Against my better judgment, I went to the theater on a Saturday night the weekend that Public Enemies opened. It was July 4th and I thought everyone else would be outside watching fireworks, but apparently everybody in my neighborhood opted for gun fire. The theater was packed and, as excited as I was, I knew immediately this was a mistake.

I got there early enough to find a good spot, but just when I thought I was in the clear, a huge guy came in, fumbled in the dark during the last preview, and decided to sit next to me. Because I didn't want to be rude, I didn't move over to the empty seat next to me, and instead I suffered.

This guy bought a $10 movie ticket and at least $30 worth of greasy, smelly food, of which he only ate a few bites before falling asleep 30 seconds later and snoring! While he slept, his cellphone rang at full blast multiple times for multiple calls to no avail. Maybe gangster life was rubbing off on me as I tried to watch Public Enemies, but I really wanted to punch this guy awake. Instead, he woke up on his own in the middle of the movie and left!

The best part of this experience was getting this free Public Enemies lobby poster [See my blog post for the image, here: melissaconnolly.blogspot.com/2013/10/johnny-kitties-celeb...] from a pile outside the theater. It's too bad Johnny's holding a machine gun, but I took it anyway after what I'd just been through.

How can anyone sleep through this?

I was a complete ball of stress through this entire movie. Aside from the expected bloody gangster-related activities--the chasing, the shooting--and the guaranteed unhappy ending, it doesn't help that everyone close to Dillinger calls him Johnny throughout the film. Because Director Michael Mann used so much hand-held camera, the action is in your face, giving the movie a documentary feel. It's as if you're in the bank getting robbed or running with the gang, trying not to get killed. This flick is fast-paced, nonstop, exciting, and tense!

Gunshots aside, this great story is rich with history. Johnny, Michael Mann, and Christian Bale worked hard to make everything on film as accurate as possible. Filming took place in several locations where Dillinger actually was. They restored and filmed in Indiana's Crown Point jail, from which he once escaped using a wooden model of a gun. When Dillinger was arrested and transferred from Ohio back to Indiana State Prison, the media swarmed for an impromptu press conference. That scene in Public Enemies is filmed in the same room, which looks unchanged from Dillinger's original photographs. Similarly, Little Bohemia Lodge in Wisconsin, where Purvis nearly catches Dillinger, still stands and has much of the same furnishings. Michael Mann filmed Johnny's scenes in the same room that Dillinger used. At the end of the movie, he even dies in the same spot on the street in Chicago. (I'm not giving anything away here.) I love these kinds of details in movies!

It's in the stars!

What really makes this movie great for me is the performances by its stars: Christian Bale, Johnny, and Marion Cotillard. The entire cast is great and full of surprises: you'll even find Channing Tatum and Carey Mulligan in there for a bit. But these three main characters, with their different dynamic personalities, keep me captivated.

Melvin Purvis

Working for Herbert Hoover, Melvin Purvis rose from the ranks after some success in capturing popular gangsters of the day. "When he went up against Pretty Boy Floyd, he was very successful," Michael Man explains. "When he had to go up against John Dillinger, he was getting in the ring with Mohammad Ali." Purvis was energetic and focused on his work. Unlike Hoover, who relied on torture and intimidation to get information from and about criminals, Purvis was interested in new techniques in law enforcement that relied more on research. He was among the first to intercept phone calls, and when Dillinger left his coat behind after a bank robbery, he used a national network of Bureau contacts to track down where he bought it. "By the time they got Dillinger, he had to compromise himself and his own values so much by that point that he was questioning who is the real loser here," Christian Bale says.

Christian Bale researched his role with typical precision--reading, watching footage, and even asking the Purvis family endless questions. Purvis is portrayed as a methodical man of few words, who was ahead of his time. In this movie, he's like a quiet terminator on a mission, like the tortoise after the hare.

Funnily, because Purvis is always a step behind Dillinger throughout this movie, Christian Bale and Johnny were only in two scenes together. These two great actors met during a script reading but barely saw or spoke to each other while filming.

John Dillinger

John Dillinger was born into a lower middle class family in Mooresville, Indiana. In his youth, he got drunk, robbed a grocery store, and served nearly 10 years for it. "Dillinger's prison years was really a graduate school in bank robbery," Michael Mann says. "Dillinger, in a way, became a poster boy for the notion that criminals are made, not born, that criminality may have to do with personal characteristics but also with circumstances, with environment, with things that happen to you in your life."

Unlike Purvis, Dillinger was a charismatic people person. He understood how to work the press, which at the time glorified outlaws and their seemingly glamorous lifestyle. "He exploited the good press he got and knew how to manipulate the media to continue to get good press," Michael Mann says. "That was a great defense that meant that even though there might be a reward for him, people really kind of liked him and would think twice about betraying him. Dillinger was a folk hero to the majority of Americans."

During the Depression, most people blamed the banks for their financial woes and felt that Dillinger was acting out on their behalf. Everyone was also angry with the government for not coming to the aid of areas ravaged by dust storms and drought, fixing the financial crisis, and taking care of the homeless. They appreciated Dillinger's talent for making fools of those in charge. "He built himself into a legend," Johnny says. "I think Dillinger had some idea of what he was doing. I really believe he was at peace with the fact that it wasn't probably going to be a very long ride, but it was going to be a significant ride."

Jail time back then meant being completely cut off from the outside world. There were no TVs, radios, or other forms of contact to keep prisoners up to date. So, when Dillinger got out of jail, it was sensory overload just to be sitting in a modern car. What he knew about life on the outside came from watching movies. And, by that time, Dillinger was so popular that his lifestyle had become a theme in gangster movies. He was killed outside Chicago's Biograph theater, where he had just watched Manhattan Melodrama, a gangster film starring William Powell, Myrna Loy, and Clark Gable. Apparently, Clark Gable's gangster character is loosely based on Dillinger.

Johnny's performance in Public Enemies is fantastic! Being an performer who acts and improvises in the moment and always puts his own creative stamp on his characters, it must have been difficult for Johnny to work with a director like Michael Mann, who has an exact vision of what he wants to see in his film. "They should invent a word to describe it," Johnny says of Michael Mann's attention to detail. "Because it's not just details, it teeters on microscopic obsession with every molecule of the moment. You've got to salute that." The intensity on the set probably added to the great performance Johnny gives. You may not notice them amid all the stress and chasing and gunfire involved in Public Enemies, but Johnny's subtle moments and quiet scenes are my favorite. Michael Mann first noticed this quality when he saw Johnny on 21 Jump Street. (Yeah, 21 Jump Street!) "What was inherent in him were these deep currents of meaning, a sense of the unseen that's not necessarily demonstrative, but you sense darker currents," he says. "You sense the layered awareness behind his eyes."

When preparing for any role, Johnny always finds music that helps him connect to his characters. While working on Public Enemies, he constantly played "Nightmare" by Artie Shaw to stay in the mood. When I heard it, it seemed to be a perfect match to the feel of the movie. What do you think? [Check out my blog post to hear the song: melissaconnolly.blogspot.com/2013/10/johnny-kitties-celeb....]

Like Christian Bale, Johnny always researches his roles incessantly, especially when he's portraying a real person. For this one, he visited Dillinger's childhood home, a farmhouse in Mooresville, Indiana. When the movie came out, most of the media talked about how similar Johnny's background and physique were like Dillinger's. No, not the criminal part exactly, but Mooresville is about an hour away from Owensboro, Kentucky, where Johnny was born, so he already felt a familiarity. Because no audio recording of Dillinger's voice exists, the closest Johnny could get was to listen to Dillinger's dad. That voice sounded just like Johnny's own grandfather, so it wasn't hard to find that Southern drawl he uses for this role.

Johnny also went to The John Dillinger Museum, where he read Dillinger's letters and discovered that he fit into his own clothes. Dillinger is also one of those people that Johnny was fascinated with as a kid, so he already knew a lot about him. "Some people might disagree, but I think he was a real-life Robin Hood," Johnny says. "I mean, the guy wasn't completely altruistic, but he went out of his way not to kill anybody. He definitely gave a lot of that money away. I got a sneaking suspicion that he was probably a very lovable character. His choice of occupations was potentially questionable, although during that period, he was a man of the people."

Billie Frechette

Some of my favorite scenes in Public Enemies are those Johnny shares with Marion Cotillard. Billie Frechette was Dillinger's girlfriend for about six months before she was arrested for harboring her criminal boyfriend and sentenced to two years. Dillinger was killed while she was in jail. She was a waitress and singer since an early age. Of Native American and French descent, most of society looked down on her because of her Native American roots. But Dillinger saw what he liked and took it: As Michael Mann says, "Dillinger had no thoughts about the future until he meets Billie."

Although they are only in a few scenes together, I love the history and attitude that Marion Cotillard brought to her character. This role in Public Enemies is her first since her Oscar-winning performance in La Vie en Rose. The pressure was on, but Johnny put her at ease, and they got along great. "Marion really worked hard on that accent, and I think the way she speaks in the film adds so much to the personality of the character she plays," he says. "You can see why Dillinger fell in love with her so easily." Casting directors, I am waiting for Marion Cotillard and Johnny to work together again!

Hot off the presses: Dillinger is caught!

What surprises me about the '30s is how glamorized gangsters are, but I can see why, given the hard times everyone was experiencing. Dillinger was the leader and most liked among them all. Even Will Rogers joked about how Dillinger kept a step ahead of the FBI. When Dillinger is arrested, the media swoops in to capture his arrival for more jail time in Indiana.

Here, he addresses the press before heading to his cell. Reporters hang on every word he says, and the policemen seem just as pleased to host their new guest. (You'll find Norman, B.J., Simon, and Comet among them.) Sheriff Holley (Lili Taylor/Ashes), however, is having none of it. In the movie, she never actually makes the face that Ashes is making in this drawing, but I'm sure she's thinking it. Now, that's good acting!

Let's lighten things up a bit.

Aside from being a gangster, that same year, Johnny lent his voice to an episode of SpongeBob SquarePants called, "SpongeBob SquarePants vs. The Big One." At the time, Johnny and his son Jack were huge fans of the cartoon. (Maybe they still are.) In this episode, SpongeBob and his friends are swept out to sea by a tidal wave and left stranded on a tropical island. To get back home, they need to learn how to surf. Their teacher, surfing guru Jack Kahuna Laguna, comes to the rescue! He is too cool for school and pretty hilarious. Remember, "Just breeeeaaatheee...."

What's next?

Johnny makes time to pay tribute to a dear friend in Terry Gilliam's The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus.

For more images from Public Enemies or Johnny Kitties, see my original blog post, here: melissaconnolly.blogspot.com/2013/10/johnny-kitties-celeb....

I think it was during Season 2 of 21 Jump Street that I went bonkers for Johnny Depp. The Sunday night show became the highlight of my week, and I bought every teeny-bopper "Johnny Magazine" (i.e., any magazine featuring Johnny--which was all of them) I could find in our little Ohio town. As soon as I got home, I'd read it, tear it up, and cover my large bedroom closet's fold-out doors with Johnny's photos.

Can you imagine how I felt when I found him on the cover of our copy of TV Guide? I loved getting TV Guide in the mail every week and reading its articles about all the stars and shows, so it wasn't unusual for me to ask as soon as I got home from school whether it had arrived.

Here's how the conversation went between Mom and me that week:

Me: "Did we get the TV Guide today?"

Mom: "Yes. DON'T tear it up! You have to wait till the end of the week! I want to read it. We have to use it."

Me, upon finding it: [Gasp!!!]

Mom: Remember what I said!

Jump Street's on a Roll

Season 2 of 21 Jump Street may be my favorite of the series. By then, all of the actors on the show were making the characters their own. The cast chemistry was golden. Johnny was most often paired with Peter Deluise, who he later said was his closest friend on the set. Watching their scenes together, you can tell! They had lots of fun working together and coming up with characters and back stories for their undercover assignments.

During Season 2, we all learned more about the personal lives and backgrounds of the show's characters, from the arrival of Penhall's high school sweetheart, Dorothy, to Ioki's harrowing escape as a teenager from Vietnam. Tom Hanson, who seemed a little more relaxed and cooler, had his own set of problems. In this season alone, he revealed the story behind his father’s death, was kidnapped, had a slight midlife crisis, considered quitting his job, witnessed his girlfriend’s murder, and got shot! Some of that was in consecutive weeks! No wonder I fell so hard for this guy: He needed several hugs!

The show continued to tackle difficult subjects, including AIDS, drugs, alcohol, weapons, and racism. Guest stars included Christina Applegate, Peter Berg, Mindy Cohn, Jason Priestley, and Ray Walston. Watching these episodes now, I found some that I knew entirely by heart, specific scenes and images that are still--after all these years--clear in my head, and moments that will remain there for at least another 20. There's no getting rid of them now.

Here, The Kitties explore some of Season 2 episode highlights:

Episode 24. Christmas in Saigon: This exciting episode delves into Harry Ioki's past as a Vietnamese refugee, a story based on actor Dustin Nguyen's real-life escape during the war. How intriguing it was to find out that Harry Ioki wasn't who he said he was! As he retells his childhood story, we relive his horrific memories. On the lighter side, everyone spends Christmas dinner at Sal's house where we meet his wife Rosa (Mindy Cohn) and their four kids. [Kitty Note: Welcome, Lily, who is thrilled to take the role of Rosa. Mindy Cohn reprises her role once more in episode 27, "Chapel of Love."] Also in this episode, Hanson brings his girlfriend Amy home to meet his mom. (In one of the episodes that I nearly remembered by heart, Orpheus 3.3, Amy is tragically killed during a convenient store hold-up, and Hanson--who feels he could have saved her--nearly drowns in guilt. That episode is stellar but too sad to highlight in the kitty tribute.)

Episode 25. Fear and Loathing with Russell Buckins: In this episode, Hanson meets up with one of his childhood friends, who takes him on road trip to crash the wedding of an old flame. During this trip, Hanson reveals a rebellious side--something he missed out on growing up. He gets a tattoo, wrestles a bear, misses a court date, considers quitting his job, and--as depicted here--crashes into a cow.

Episode 26. A Big Disease with a Little Name: Considering the time, I think it's fantastic that 21 Jump Street featured a story about AIDS. This is another episode in which Hanson is confronted with his beliefs, mortality, and the direction of his life. He does a lot of soul searching this season! For some comic relief, we're treated with the arrival of Doug Penhall's high school sweetheart, Dorothy, played by Peter Deluise's then-real-life-wife Gina Nemo. Dorothy appears in a few more episodes before she leaves Doug for good. They reminded me of The Honeymooners while it lasted--always arguing, but clearly in love.

Episode 27. Chapel of Love: It's Valentine's Day, and the Jump Street crew have no plans. Instead, they play poker and recount their worst dating stories. Judy shows up late to the game, having just returned from her worst date. This episode is really funny and entertaining until you get to Hanson's story. After dropping him and his date off at a Valentine's Day high school dance, Tom's father--also a policeman--went on patrol with his partner. During a stop at their usual coffee shop, he is shot and killed by a startled burglar!

Episode 28. I'm OK, You Need Work: This week, Hanson goes undercover--without telling anyone--in a drug rehabilitation center to help one of the kids he busted during Season 1. Sadly, the kid dies during a lone escape attempt, and--for being a troublemaker--Tom is drugged up and nearly sent to a state institution to be "lost in the system." Luckily, Captain Fuller figures things out and comes to his rescue. Oh the drama!

Episode 32. Raising Marijuana: I didn't remember this episode when I watched it this time around. (Johnny's not in it. Is that why?) It's not a favorite, but it marks the first time that Harry Ioki lets loose and takes on a fun undercover character. Although usually paired with Judy Hoffs, he was teamed up with Penhall for this one. They play geeky Siamese twins with matching clothes, moles, and hairdos.

Episode 35. School's Out: During the last episode of the season, the Jump Street program is under threat to be shut down, so everyone is out looking for a back-up job. Judy Hoffs got the best one--to her great dismay--as Officer Milk Carton. On a field trip while teaching grade-schoolers about street safety, she spots a thief running out of a convenient store, orders the kids to stay put, runs him down, and saves the day. Thanks, Officer Milk Carton! (Holly Robinson in this costume is one of the images that has always remained in my head! Do you think she'd be pleased with that?)

What are your favorite episodes from Season 2?

Tune in next month to catch highlights from Season 3 of 21 Jump Street. (Johnny is getting antsy.)

[See my blog for more photos of Johnny from back then: melissaconnolly.blogspot.com]

Recently, I read that a French cat named Felicette was the first and only cat to travel in space. In 1963, she flew about 100 miles and experienced weightlessness before returning to Earth.

Mini looks a bit like her and is proud to honor this heroic trailblazer here, but she has no plans to follow in her footsteps.

"The danger of this kind of film is having it categorized a mob film, which this film is not. It's a real absurd kind of love story." Johnny Depp

Johnny goes undercover.

Based on the New York Times bestseller, "Donnie Brasco: My Undercover Life in the Mafia" by Joseph D. Pistone, this film gives a realistic account of mafia life. There's no glamour or grandiosity about it: They spend their days meeting on the street corner, waiting for instructions from the boss. They make minor drug deals and steal parking meters. Occasionally, they are unnecessarily violent and kill people (usually within their own organization).

This true story details Joe Pistone's 6-year infiltration into New York's mafia world in the 1970s under the persona "Donnie Brasco." Posing as a jewel thief, Donnie (Johnny Depp) first befriends Lefty (Al Pacino), who takes him under his wing and shows him the ropes of mafia living. Soon, Donnie's loyalty to his work and to Lefty clash, leaving him alone, confused, and in danger.

"Johnny Depp grows up!"

That's what all the headlines read when Donnie Brasco was released. I suppose, up to this point, most of Johnny's characters were labeled "innocents" or "outsiders." So, signing on for a bio-pic about an undercover FBI agent infiltrating the New York mob scene opposite Al Pacino, may have seemed like a left turn.

I never really saw it that way. This is a different kind of movie, but all of Johnny's movies are different from the last--That's one of the many Joys of Johnny. But, like some of Johnny's other characters, this guy was alienated and lonely. As director Mike Newell notes, he's locked in his own head, saddened and stressed by the pressure.

To prepare for this role, Johnny spent a lot of time with the real "Donnie Brasco," Joe Pistone. "I studied him like he was a science project," Johnny says. "I mean, I really sponged as much as I could from the guy." Mike Newell noticed: "The thing he got out of Joe is this extreme immobility in his face. If you look at him, he almost doesn't move his face at all in the movie. It's like a mask. You can never tell what Joe is thinking." In the end, I think Joe Pistone approved of the performance: "He picked up all the mannerisms, the voice--It's kind of eerie."

"Fuggetaboutit!"

I'm not a big fan of mafia movies--too much glamorized violence--but I had a feeling this one would be different. Every time I see Donnie Brasco, I'm reminded of how brilliantly it's put together. Here's my list of highlights:

1. Mike Newell. I was most eager to see this movie because of its director, Mike Newell, who is best known for his 1994 comedy hit Four Weddings and a Funeral--the movie that made Hugh Grant a star. However, my favorite Mike Newell film, Enchanted April, came two years earlier. That quiet, beautiful movie follows four British women--strangers--who decide to escape the dreariness of London's rainy season and spend a month renting a villa in Italy, where they rekindle romances and find new love. (It will make you think that all you have to do to fix your life is rent an Italian villa with strangers for a month of sunshine and flowers.) "I was sick of charm," Mike Newell says of his decision to direct Donnie Brasco. But I paced the floors waiting to see how he would bring the sensibility of Enchanted April to a movie about the mob.

As I suspected, he brought such a new perspective to Donnie Brasco that it doesn't really fit under the mafia movie label. The story is more about friendship and loyalty than car chases and machine guns. By the end, you feel bad for the "bad guys" and bad for Donnie, who feels bad for them too. Mike Newell said he thought a lot about Arthur Miller's classic play, "A Death of Salesman," while planning to make Donnie Brasco. I totally get it! And, you will too when you see this movie.

2. The script. This is a sad movie, but I love that it has funny moments and how complete and authentic the story is. You'll recognize every character and know what they're about through simple actions or dialogue. Nominated for an Oscar, the screenplay written by Paul Attanasio, captures it all--the language, the differences between Brooklyn and Manhattan, and the conflict between Donnie's undercover life and his real one. Best of all, it's given us great words like "fuggetaboutit" and "fugazi."

3. Al Pacino. I mainly knew of Al Pacino as a mafia movie bad guy until I saw his documentary Looking for Richard, in which he explores the impact of Shakespeare on the arts and analyzes "Richard III," acting out various scenes from the play. This fascinating documentary shows what an amazing actor Al Pacino is, how he can play any part, and how enthusiastic he is about his craft. Of course, I've seen a bunch of great Al Pacino movies since then, but Looking for Richard made me pay more attention.

So, hearing that Johnny would be playing "Donnie Brasco" opposite Al Pacino as "Lefty Ruggero" was thrilling. "When you look at all the characters that Al has played, there's something inevitable about him playing Lefty," Paul Attanasio

4. The supporting cast. This movie has some of the best mafia guys in it, including Michael Madsen and Bruno Kirby. But the scenes that were brightest for me were all the domestic ones with Joe's wife Maggie (Anne Heche). Anne Heche is only in a few scenes but she makes the most of them all. I think the marriage counsellor scene is my favorite of the whole movie. Anne Heche won the Best Supporting Actress Award from The National Board of Review for work in Donnie Brasco.

5. Johnny. I love everything about this performance; there are so many layers. "Johnny is one of those actors who performs like a long distance runner. In any film, you stay with him throughout in anticipation of the finale," Mike Newell says. "He tells you a story in his own good time. And, more important, you are willing to wait for it." Joe Pistone agrees, "He brought a sensibility to the part. That's a side of my not many people see." In his review of Donnie Brasco, Gene Siskel called Johnny the film's secret ingredient--a big, big talent to watch. (I say that all the time!)

Can you believe they were filming in a card shop in my neighborhood in Brooklyn while I was living there for my internship? (See the Florida gift shop scene.) I felt the vibes but was never lucky enough to discover anything interesting around town. I guess he was working undercover.

The secret is out!

This is the moment when Donnie's real identity is revealed. (I'm not giving anything away here, am I? You knew they'd all find out eventually, right?) Against his wishes but for his safety, the FBI pulled Joe Pistone out of the undercover operation 6 years after it began. Here, Lefty (B.J.) can't quite believe it, despite the photographic evidence they provided.

Joe Pistone's work led to 200 indictments and 100 convictions. The mob still has a $500,000 contract out on his head.

What's next?

Johnny takes on a tough story that's a tough sell and a tough job--writing, directing, and starring in The Brave.

A bit under the influence, Simon settles in his sunny window seat for an afternoon nap.

I pushed whimsy all the way into making a movie, one of my favorite movies I've ever made....a movie that absolutely changed my life....Push whimsy; that's all I'm gonna say.

Let's see how weird we can take this.

– Writer/Director Kevin Smith on making Tusk

What kind of movie is this?

In Tusk, a horror movie written and directed by Kevin Smith, controversial podcaster Wallace Bryton (Justin Long) gets into a bad situation while looking for a story for next week's episode. He meets old seafaring adventurer Howard Howe (Michael Parks), who has a story to tell and a hidden agenda. Eventually, Mr. Howe reveals that, while trapped on an island, he formed a life-changing connection to a walrus and, since then, intends to find someone to replace his long-lost friend. Wallace's podcast partner (Haley Joel Osment) and girlfriend (Genesis Rodriguez) become alarmed by phone messages from Wallace, saying that he's in the backwoods of Canada, trapped in a creepy house with a crazy guy who wants to turn him into a walrus. So, they set off to rescue him with the help of a special investigator who's already on the trail.

Why does Johnny have to be in this movie?

I've never been so freaked out about seeing a movie. You might remember that, these days, scary movies really scare me. I must have watched An American Werewolf in London and Poltergeist too many times as a kid.

When Tusk arrived in D.C., I planned to see it in the middle of the afternoon so that I'd be able to go home in broad daylight and have the rest of the day to shake it off. As it happened, however, I was out of town over opening weekend and realized the following Thursday that Tusk wasn't going to last in theaters. I had to go that night, if at all. I texted my dilemma to a friend, who always helps me reason these things out:

- Me: I think Tusk is leaving local theaters today. I might have to see it tonight, in the dark.

- Her: Don't do it! For your own sake!

- Me: Really? Is it THAT bad?

- Her: It depends on your tolerance, but the trailers are not encouraging.

- Me: I know, yet I'm hoping for some Kevin Smith humor to diffuse things...I'm reading moviegoer reviews...

- Me, a little later: Reviews are not helping to make up my mind.

I made it across the street from my apartment before I realized that my friend is right: there is no shame in waiting for the DVD so that I could be freaked out in the comfort of my own apartment with my cat for company. Netflix delivered Tusk to me in January, and I texted my friend the news:

- Me: I just watched Tusk and survived.

- Her: Ewww!

I can't believe I'm saying this, but I really like this movie! I started out peeking through my fingers to watch it, waiting for something sudden, awful, and disgusting to happen. I was cozy under a blanket with my cat by my side and found myself entertained, intrigued, and impressed.

See where creativity can lead?

I think most people know Kevin Smith from his popular films Clerks, Chasing Amy, and Dogma. As his popularity grew, so did his studio offers. One of the best things about Kevin Smith's work, though, is that he fully immerses himself in it by writing the story and script and filming it as he sees it. When he started getting hired as a director for movies he had nothing to do with developing, he didn't see the point and became disenchanted by the movie business. So, he walked away from Hollywood, content to make a decent living doing other things, like making live appearances about his work and podcasting.

Since 2007, Kevin Smith has been broadcasting podcasts (or SModcasts, as he calls them) through his company, SModCo. During his SModcast, called "The Walrus and The Carpenter," he mentioned an ad that he saw in a British newspaper: someone has a room to rent, and all you have to do to live there is dress up like a walrus for 2 hours every day. "The line that really captured my imagination was, 'I have for some time been constructing a realistic walrus costume.'" The story was a hoax, but by the end of the podcast, Kevin Smith had worked out a horror flick based on the story. He called for the opinions of his listeners: if they want to see this movie, tell him through Twitter by using #WalrusYes. If not, use #WalrusNo. More people responded positively, so he got started on a script. "I could've been stopped any step of the way," he says. "I could've been stopped easily, but I just pushed whimsy every day. I said, 'let me see how far I can take this.'" Along the way, many people encouraged him because they just wanted to see if he could pull off this crazy idea.

Why didn't this horror movie traumatize me as expected?

Apparently, Kevin Smith and I love movies for the same reasons.

Good acting gets us every time; it beats car chases and explosions, hands down. "The movie magic to me is always performance. Acting is the real magic trick of movies to me – that goes beyond even movies, into theater and stuff like that – telling a lie that tells the truth. So for me, the idea of Tusk was a movie about acting. It's an acting movie. It's actor porn. It's like watching people delve so deeply into their character that you forget."

Michael Parks is in some things I've seen, like the Twin Peaks TV series, Kill Bill Volume 1, and Argo, but I don't remember him in those. In Tusk, he's amazing as a calm, creepy psycho. I was hooked very early on by his lengthy conversations with Justin Long, which slowly reveal that he's off his rocker. As Kevin Smith says, this is Michael Parks's movie.

Kevin Smith takes the best approach to horror.

Because this movie is so focused on the actors' performances, you only get suggestions of something disgusting. I appreciate that! This movie only shows a few glimpses of blood and gore and let's your imagination do the rest. Your imagination can probably create something scarier than anything anyone could physically show you. The gross factor is not overplayed in Tusk. It's on film purposefully, though the premise of Tusk does call for a little shock value: after all, this crazy guy has a hostage whom he plans to turn into a walrus. Be prepared: you will see some making of a walrus costume out of disgusting materials. You will see the walrus costume itself, which is disgusting (especially when you think about how it was made and with what).

But don't worry; it's movie magic! Makeup and special effects expert Robert Kurtzman created the walrus costume lovingly, thoughtfully, and with skilled detail. "Where I think Bob really earns his money is in the eyes, Production Designer John D. Kretschmer says. "He created these wonderful imaginary creatures for the show, and for several weeks, we saw the creatures on the worktable, but what really surprised me is how elegantly and seamlessly he can join the actor to the creature. The money's in the eyes – the expression, the emotion, stuff that prevailed in the walrus suit is amazing, and that's truly where I see his genius." I can handle it when you put it that way.

Kevin Smith is a clever writer and makes me laugh.

As I had hoped, Kevin Smith did for Tusk's script what he does for all his scripts. Tusk is infused with smart dialogue and his sense of humor. What you get is a great mix of creepiness and horror with a wink to the over-the-top ridiculousness of this situation. "Tusk is best viewed through a comedic lens," he says. Some lines in this movie made me laugh out loud. One of my favorite conversations follows, courtesy of Hayley Joel Osment as Wallace's best friend Teddy and Johnny Depp as investigator Guy LaPointe:

- Guy: "These are guns."

- Teddy: "I don't want one."

- Guy: "You don't want a gun? What kind of American are you?"

- Teddy: "The kind that's never used a gun before!"

Can you believe I haven't mentioned Johnny until now?

Johnny's involvement in Tusk was kept pretty well under wraps. The credits even say that "Guy LaPointe" is played by Guy LaPointe. I found out about his secret role through other fans and eagerly awaited this collaboration with Kevin Smith, despite my reservations about the genre. Guy LaPointe is a character from one of Kevin Smith's older SModcasts. Originally, Quentin Tarantino was approached to play the part but turned it down to focus on non-acting pursuits. I'm glad because I immediately fell in love with Johnny's performance – the accent, mannerisms, and humor. I should disclose that I was also very relieved to see him and that he offered some laughs after all the stress that Michael Parks was inflicting on me. Some reviewers think that Johnny's performance in Tusk is out of place but most were just surprised by it and his unrecognizable look. Entertainment Weekly's synopsis of Tusk recommended, "Wait until an uncredited A-lister (we won't say who) turns up two-thirds of the way through to hand in his most berserk performance to date (and that's saying something)." I won't ruin it for you, but I agree.

The Kitties are in Canada

The most exciting thing about this movie for me is that Johnny's daughter Lily-Rose makes her screen debut. Kevin Smith's daughter Harley is always in his movies somehow, but Tusk offers her first speaking role as a teenage store clerk. I think Kevin Smith and Johnny have been good friends since their daughters met in kindergarten, and the day Harley shot her scenes, Lily-Rose came to the set. Kevin asked Johnny if he thought she'd want to be in the scenes with Harley, they asked, and stars were born!

Aside from these girls' convincing performances as teens tied to their cell phones and bored by their after-school jobs, I love the store's Canadian decor with a bunch of flags of all sizes, tourist traps, and a wall of maple syrup. I also love that when Guy LaPointe does his trick with the pad of paper, Teddy (Comet) explains to Wallace's girlfriend (Ashes) that it was done in The Big Lebowski (because that's the first thing I thought of when he started scratching away with that pencil).

Tusk is among Kevin Smith's favorite film experiences for many reasons:

- It gave him the opportunity to share the creative process with his fans from start to finish. The moment of inspiration and brainstorming phase are captured on that infamous SModcast episode. His followers encouraged him from the beginning to move his idea forward, and they watched it grow from there to silver screen.

- The experience of making Tusk was similar to that of Clerks: he was making a movie because he wanted to see it, and he did whatever he could to take his inspiration as far as it could go. The experience reawakened his love for filmmaking.

- He worked with his daughter and witnessed how she and Lily-Rose discovered how much they liked acting. Their few scenes in this movie led him to write another movie, called Yoga Hosers, in which they are central characters. (Guy LaPointe returns in that movie too!) In fact, Kevin Smith was so inspired by Tusk that he turned it into The True North Trilogy. Can you guess what the third installment, Moose Jaws, is about?

- Because of Tusk, he has the money to finance Clerks 3, a sequel that continues Kevin Smith's cult classic.

See what can happen when you get the silliest of ideas and a little encouragement? Kevin Smith is a believer and he hopes we all are too: "It costs you nothing to pat an artist on the back, man, and the potential yield from it: maybe you get your favorite movie, a song that saves your life, or an idea where you get to express yourself through art. Keep doing that! People who are really profoundly affected by the movie, they're going to make some art, and that to me is one of the many reasons the whole journey was worth it, man. That's a cool thing! Art begets art, even weird art." I'm a little late to the party, but #WalrusYes!

Johnny seems more like himself here.

In 2013, Johnny made a quick appearance in a film called Lucky Them. In this movie, a music journalist (Toni Colette), whose musician boyfriend released a spectacular and hugely popular debut album and soon after disappeared, is tasked with trying to find him 10 years later. As I watched this movie, at first, I was unsympathetic toward Toni Collette's unlikeable character until I realized that, if I were traumatized by my boyfriend's disappearance and possible suicide, I'd probably be pretty messed up too. Then, the ending credits turned me into a fan of this movie. It is sweetly dedicated to one of my heros, Paul Newman, and produced by his wife Joanne Woodward! Here's the scoop:

Lucky Them is written by Emily Wachtel, who is great friends with one of Paul Newman's daughters. He read drafts of her script, gave her some advice about it, and even planned to be in the movie. Years went by, he got sick and died, and his wife helped out once the project started to gain momentum. Johnny was the first choice for his role, and I see why the character appeals to him. Besides that, a couple of his old friends are in this movie: Thomas Hayden Church, whom he first met on the set of 21 Jump Street, and Oliver Platt, with whom he costarred in Benny and Joon). For me, Lucky Them is as close as I'm going to get to my dream of having Johnny and Paul Newman work together. I'll take it, even if one of them is only helping out in eternal spirit.

And I think Johnny did this too.

Though they haven't confirmed it, evidence is out that Johnny and Amber Heard, his costar in The Rum Diary, got married last month in a private ceremony at home in Los Angeles on February 3. They followed that with a fancier ceremony and party the following weekend on Johnny's private island in the Caribbean. Congratulations to the happy couple. I'd share photos, but they're not.

What's next?

Let's go Into the Woods, but beware the Big, Bad Wolf! This DVD is set for release on March 24, 2015. A Johnny Kitties tribute to it will soon follow.

To read this original blog post and see images from the movie, visit Melissa's Kitties blog: melissaconnolly.blogspot.com/2015/03/johnny-kitties-celeb.... While there, you can find all other Johnny Kitties blog posts and artwork on Melissa's Kitties' new Johnny Kitties page: melissaconnolly.blogspot.com/p/johnny-kitties-celebrating.... Enjoy!

It has its own very, very special, very unique look, movement. And it's beautiful. And, also, it's like a lot of great things: it's a dying art. Johnny Depp on the stop-motion animation used for Corpse Bride

It's a perfect match!

Have you ever been in the situation where, nervous on the eve of your wedding, you go for a walk in the woods to practice saying your vows, and you slip the ring onto a branch, pretending it's your bride-to-be's finger; but the branch turns out to be an actual hand of a dead lady who grabs you, accepts your proposal, and drags you down to the Land of the Dead to live happily ever after? That's what happens to Johnny's character in this movie.

Corpse Bride is a stop-motion animation film directed by Tim Burton and Mike Johnson. The story takes place in Victorian England where two families have arranged the marriage of Victor (Johnny Depp) and Victoria (Emily Watson) for the sole purpose of marrying into wealth. After a disastrous wedding rehearsal, shy Victor practices and perfects his marriage vows during a walk in the woods and slips Victoria's ring onto a branch that comes to life. He finds himself married to the corpse bride (Helena Bonham Carter) who drags him "downstairs" to the Land of the Dead. Torn between two worlds, Victor must decide whether to fight his way home to his true love or stay in his new, more welcoming community.

I want a wedding invitation!

"That sounds like a movie Tim Burton would want to make," I thought when I heard its story was based on Jewish folklore about a guy who accidentally marries a corpse. It seemed to be a perfect fit, and the more I heard about it, the more excited I became about seeing it! When I first saw the "coming attractions" preview for Corpse Bride, I knew it was going to be special! You can see the trailer here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9boDkpEyvc&feature=player_em....

Beautiful, right? Who knew dead people could be so cute?

Some weddings are difficult to plan.

For stop-motion animation, puppets are painstakingly positioned and shot frame-by-frame. Tim Burton's featured it in his movies before (see Pee Wee's Big Adventure, The Nightmare Before Christmas, and Frankenweenie.) He's a fan and so am I! Corpse Bride was a project in the making for 10 years, as Tim Burton waited to get all the right people involved. "A lot of people get sucked into doing computer stuff, but there's still this great group, a rare group of people, that are still into this type of animation," he explains. "There's just an energy that gets infused into these puppets from these amazing animators, and there is something quite special about moving an inanimate object frame-by-frame." It's tedious, hard, physical, fascinating work with spectacular results.

At least 85 characters and 200 puppets were built for Corpse Bride. "Stylistically, stop-motion offers something very unique, which is every single thing you see on screen was created by a crafts person or an artist," Art Director Nelson Lowry says. At the forefront of stop-motion animation is codirector Mike Johnson, who oversaw the day-to-day process on this project. For this film, the crew used computers for the first time to assist in the process, perfecting the quality and flow of the animation. "A lot of people thought that computers and digital technology would be the death of stop-motion animation, but really, it's bringing it forward," he says. Shooting the film digitally allowed the crew to see the results instantly and make changes as needed. They used the computers to trigger the camera to shoot the frame and move on to the next shot. "So much of this is a traditional, old-fashioned method of shooting a film," says Producer Alison Abbate. "With the advent of CGI, audiences have become very used to a very slick look, and I think stop-motion's charm is in that it's not slick and not feeling like it's made in a computer. It's nice to sort of walk that fine line between keeping it in the realm of beautiful and a slickness just because it's so flawlessly executed."

The finished product is very much Tim Burton's vision. Most of Corpse Bride's characters are based on his drawings. "Tim had a very clear idea of how he wanted the puppets to look and he'd been working on designs, sketches, and paintings before we met up with him," Puppet Maker Peter Sauders says. While he designed most of the characters on his own, Character Designer Carlos Grangel brought them to life, though they brought on new challenges. His characters are typically tall and skinny with tiny feet, so the team had to explore different ways to engineer the puppets' joint systems to support the weight of each character and its heavy, complicated head. These models were built in a new way with gear- and pulley-filled heads that allow for freer facial expressions. "People get very attached to the characters they're working on and I think, especially with this project, the character designs are so fantastic that people want to make every element of that puppet shine," Puppet Maker Ian Mackinnon says. "They have spent hours on every little detail of that character."

It shows! In 2010, I saw some of the drawings, paintings, and puppets created for Corpse Bride in an exhibit on Tim Burton's career at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Because of the detail involved, they are perhaps more amazing in person than on screen. "They do such beautiful work," Tim Burton says of the animation crew. "These puppets are very sensitive and textural and really like Swiss watches, they're made so nicely!"

The stars aligned!

This cast of voices for Corpse Bride is dreamy! With Johnny is a bunch of my favorite Brits: Helena Bonham Carter, Emily Watson, Albert Finney, Christopher Lee, Tracey Ullmann, Johanna Lumley, Michael Gough, Paul Whitehouse, Jane Horrocks.... Can you imagine having all these people in the same room together? Well, keep imagining. "I have scenes with Johnny Depp, Johanna Lumley, and Albert Finney, and I've never met them," Emily Watson admits. "I was shown work in progress of the way things look and the style of it, but you're sort of trying to make it happen in your head, really." So much for that fantasy. In any case, these actors are perfectly cast. "It's a fairly low-budget movie," Tim Burton says of Corpse Bride. "I was very lucky and grateful to get people to do voices for just the love of doing a project."

One of my favorite special features on the DVD is seeing the actors speaking as their characters in their solitary recording booth next to the actually scene they are playing out. They all get animated in that booth while reading their lines, and their reactions translate into the final scene. "When you're recording your voice, you do find yourself moving as the character within the parameters of the microphone and everything," Johnny says. "There's a kind of great spontaneity in that." Helena Bonham Carter, whose work in Corpse Bride stands out to me, agrees: "It's nice to act something when it's so not dependent on what you look like. You can completely create a character, and you're not limited by your own physical envelope. That's fun and, in that way, it's very liberating. In a way, it's sort of pure acting because you don't really have anything. You can be completely selfish. You don't have any marks to hit."

For Corpse Bride, Tim Burton worked with his long-time collaborator Danny Elfman, who wrote the score and voiced the skeleton character of BoneJangles. Like Tim Burton's work, Danny Elfman's music is just as instantly recognizable. For this movie, some of it's haunting, some of it's sweet, and some of it's funny. It's another perfect fit.

And we all got a happy ending!

When Tim Burton described it to me....it sounded really scary, Gothic, and horrible," writer/lyricist John August says of the story's premise. "And, yet, we ended up making a really charming movie. You don't really think about the characters being dead or alive. You sort of see it as this really sweet little love story."

The artistry and passion that went into the making of Corpse Bride is undeniable. This charming, bittersweet, scary, funny, fantastic, beautiful work of art earned a Best Picture Oscar nomination. But who needs awards? "To be able to see these characters in the studio environment, against the sets and speaking dialogue and what have you--It's been a great revelation." Puppet Maker Peter Saunders says. "You think, 'Wow, that's what it's all about!'"

Marriage is hard.

It's hard to match the artistry on display in Corpse Bride and decide what scene to highlight. I chose the moment when The corpse bride (Mini) realizes that Victor is trying escape his current situation and return to his fiancee in the Land of the Living. She'll have none of that and drags him back "downstairs." I see her point: She's his wife, after all.

What's next?

Johnny heads back to sea in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest.

To see more images from Corpse Bride and learn more about Johnny Kitties, visit my blog: melissaconnolly.blogspot.com/2013/05/johnny-kitties-celeb....

"One of the reasons why Alice and Tim are such a great match is because nothing is exactly as it seems in Wonderland. Nothing is entirely good or entirely bad." - Anne Hathaway on Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland

Where did she go?

At her surprise engagement party, Alice Kingsleigh (Mia Wasikowska) disappears. Chasing a white rabbit (voiced by Michael Sheen) through the garden, she falls down a rabbit hole. While pleased to have escaped the boring party and the pressures of society's expectations of her, Alice is now trapped in an underground room surrounded by locked doors. The only door she can unlock is too tiny for her to fit through. Luckily, she finds a potion and some cake that help her get down to size.

After some trial and error, she makes it through the door and discovers that the residents of this foreign land have their own expectations of her. Her strange new friends, a Mad Hatter (Johnny Depp), roly-poly twins Tweedledee and Tweedledum (Matt Lucas), a White Queen (Anne Hathaway), and a few animals, inform her that she is their champion. She must battle the Jabberwocky, a dragon-like creature (voiced by Christopher Lee), so that the White Queen can regain rule from her sister the evil Red Queen (Helena Bonham Carter) and restore peace. No pressure. Get ready for a trip in Tim Burton's dreamlike adventure, Alice in Wonderland.

Don't worry, it's just Johnny.

I won't lie: Seeing these giant posters of the Mad Hatter's smiling clown face on bus stops and in Metro stations around D.C. kind of freaked me out for a while. I'm not afraid of clowns, but I don't like them. (Thanks, Poltergeist.) While not a clown by any means, the Mad Hatter's look reminded me of one. It's hard to see Johnny under all that makeup and costume; I was especially disturbed that his eyes were digitally enlarged and covered with neon contact lens. But I got used to it, eventually, because if you really look at the makeup and the outfit, it's a quite beautiful mix of colors and amazing detail.

Most fascinating to me was that when Tim Burton and Johnny, who both like to paint, created images on their own of what they thought the Mad Hatter would look like, they were very similar. It's no wonder they work so well together so often! Here are their watercolors. (You can see the paintings in my original blog post here: melissaconnolly.blogspot.com/2013/12/johnny-kitties-celeb...).

Makeup Artists Patty York and Joel Harlow referred to Johnny's paintings when working their magic on his face. Johnny requested those electric eyes, with one contact painted slightly off. "He's never really looking straight at you. He's always looking a little farther off," he explains.

For the Mad Hatter's outfit, Johnny worked with Costume Designer Colleen Atwood. "We talked about him having all the tools of his trade apparent, so they aren't just on a shelf. They're a part of his costume," she says. "He's got his thimbles, his pin cushion ring, and all these things. We just kept pushing it, and it was great fun to make him all his bits and stuff." While the original hat was finished before the painting above, it is a pretty close match, don't you think?

That is not Johnny!

When Alice first meets the Hatter and his friends at the table, I love how vehemently he promises to "futterwacken vigorously" when the White Queen regains her rule, but I hate the celebratory dance that is included in the movie. I mean no offense to David Bernal, who created and performed the dance in the film, but I didn't expect that, during it, the Mad Hatter's head would spin around like The Exorcist at warp speed. The sudden, out-of-place music and the head spinning ruined the scene for me and made me sad. Despite his madness, crazy orange hair, makeup, and extra-large neon green eyes, I believed the Hatter to be a real person, like Alice. Is he not? Can everyone spin their head around like that in Wonderland? This must be a part of the book I don't remember. Oh, it bothers me!

I realize, however, that maybe I'm not the audience for that level of ridiculousness; it made the little girls sitting near me in the theater laugh. Yet, whenever I watch Alice in Wonderland, I'm still taken aback and disappointed by how unbelievable and disjointed the dance scene is in this magical world that otherwise I'm lost in every time.

But let's just focus on the Hatter!

I'll get over it. Futterwacken only takes up 30 seconds of a great movie, and you can tell Johnny had a good time exploring this fascinating character. "After doing something like John Dillinger [in Public Enemies], a performance where it's so restrained because of the responsibility you have to that guy, the Mad Hatter was like being fired out of a cannon," Johnny remembers. "The Hatter was great fun and, again, it's one of those things where you're just amazed that I'm not fired. I truly am."

Johnny's performance is wonderful! To research the role, he got clues about the character from Lewis Carroll's book and then read about real hatters who used glue with high mercury content. The glue would stain their hands and eventually the mercury would affect them. "They'd go goofy from the mercury and go nuts," Johnny says. "It did happen to people. They went mad as a hatter!" He imagined that's what happened to his character. Johnny saw the Mad Hatter as a more tragic figure than typically portrayed in other versions of Alice in Wonderland. In the 10 years since Alice has been away, he's gone through a lot: Aside from the occupational hazard of mercury poisoning, he suffers from depression caused by the Red Queen's oppressive rule over the once peaceful land. "I think he's been sitting there at that table, having the same tea with the same people in this kind of spaced-out funk for 10 years," Johnny says. "I think he's been frozen in time, waiting for Alice to come back." Now that she's returned, the Hatter has hope and is eager to fight back and free everyone from the Red Queen's domination.

My absolute favorite thing about the Hatter is his voice. I love how it changes depending on his emotional state. When not provoked, the Hatter is kind and playful, but when angry or scared, he acquires a heavy Scottish accent and a deeper register. "It's one of those things where it's hit or miss, and you just hope that it works. The accent, the switching, it's the merging into another character basically," Johnny explains. "It's the Hatter's safety mechanism kicking in when he needs to become tough, when he needs to become angry, when he needs to be protected, or when he's fearful. It's kind of like experiencing a kinder form of personality disorder in a way."

Reflecting on how Johnny developed his Mad Hatter character, Tim Burton observes, "He likes dressing up. I think, with Alice in Wonderland characters, they've often been portrayed as just crazy without much subtext, and I think he tried to bring something, an underlying human quality to the craziness. He tried to understand it a bit more....And, he's good at sort of exploring that, I guess, because he's crazy. I don't know." It's genius!

This Alice has muchness!

I was very excited to see this version of Alice in Wonderland. I have a clipping from USA Today that was published during production and offered a preview of the film's sets. The title of the article, "Alice in Wonderland, Burtonized!" and the images accompanying it were enough to get me pacing the floors. Alice in Wonderland is a perfect kind of project for Tim Burton's imagination.

A part of me wanted this movie to be darker, but I guess it is a children's classic. This film used a mix of live actors, full animation, and a hybrid of both. "The idea was to explore the nature of dreams," Tim Burton says. "With all the cast, it was important that they felt like they were in the real and unreal world at the same time." I love how dream-like everything is, from the concepts to the visuals. The whole time, its unclear and questioned whether Alice is dreaming or not. She pinches herself to try to wake herself up. She tries to convince herself during scary moments that it's only a dream and that she can control it. Everything and everyone is strange in some way, in looks and personality, and some of the visuals are inspiring. After a long fall down the rabbit hole, for example, Alice lands upside down on a ceiling. And, when she drinks a potion that makes her shrink, she disappears into the folds of her dress's fabrics.

Alice in Wonderland's cast is fantastic, of course! Aside from the Mad Hatter, Helena Bonham Carter as the Red Queen is easily my favorite. She is creepy and hilarious at the same time and delivers some great lines so perfectly. Anne Hathaway is a complementary opposite as the White Queen, and Crispin Glover, who appeared with Johnny in Dead Man, is wonderfully slimy in this movie as Stayne. You'll hear many familiar voices from the animated characters too, including Alan Rickman, Paul Whitehouse, Timothy Spall, Michael Gough, and Christopher Lee. "He's always had a compassion, I guess, and been drawn to outsiders," Helena Bonham Carter says of Tim Burton's view of Alice in Wonderland's characters. "I think it's quite tricky for Tim because he said they're all mad. We all have to make them mad in a different way."

The most inspiring takeaway from this movie for me is Alice's character as she tries to prove who she is to everyone around her. She makes her own decisions and, by the end, builds up the courage to fight for what she wants. "The idea of Wonderland is kind of, in a surreal way, representative of, [in] some way, shape, or form, issues that she's dealing with in her own life," Tim Burton explains. Through her emotional journey, she becomes a really strong character. As Mia Wasikowska explains, "Her experience in Wonderland is her finding herself again and finding that she has the strength of being more self-assured."

Where will Alice go from here?

Alice in Wonderland never made a lasting impression on me as a kid. Aside from all the famous characters and a few memorable moments, this story was relatively new to me when I saw Tim Burton's version in theaters. Now, if I read the story again, I'll probably picture it through Tim Burton's lens, at least until May 2016. That's when, it has just been announced, Johnny will reprise his role as the Mad Hatter in a sequel to Alice in Wonderland, directed by somebody else! [Imagine dramatic music here.] I know! Details our sketchy, but as of now, the movie will be directed by James Bobin. He directed the last Muppets movie and he's a co-creator of "Flight of the Concords." I think I can live with that. Stay tuned for another two years!

The Kitties are always up for tea.

After falling down the rabbit hole, Alice (Lily) finds her way to the Mad Hatter's dilapidated tea party. A 10-year wait is a long time. She's terribly late, but now they can start their adventure!

What's next?

Stop the presses! The world's biggest movie stars join forces as Johnny caps off the decade with Angelina Jolie in The Tourist.

For more information about Johnny Kitties and images from Alice in Wonderland, see my original blog post here: melissaconnolly.blogspot.com/2013/12/johnny-kitties-celeb....

[What is Johnny Kitties? See Johnny Kitties: Celebrating Johnny Depp: melissaconnolly.blogspot.com/2010/06/johnnys-kitties-john...]

Johnny's in your dreams.

After Edward Scissorhands, Johnny Depp showed up in Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare--a thank you to the people who cast him in his first movie. In this funny cameo appearance, he makes an anti-drug public service announcement on late-night TV. It's only a few seconds before Freddy interrupts the commercial with a classic slapstick move. I didn't draw anything for this--I don't want to ruin the surprise--but I thought I should mention it. If you're not an avid follower of the Nightmare on Elm Street series, you can find Johnny's cameo on YouTube. I was going to post it here, but Freddy Krueger makes The Kitties and me nervous.

Johnny has his own weird dream.

With that, we move on to Johnny's next movie. Yesterday, I found a 12-page research article, printed in the European Journal of American Studies in 2010, that analyzes how Arizona Dream reflects the director's European view of America and details all the intentions and symbolism that go into that. Maybe I'll read it someday, but my short analysis is that Arizona Dream, the first American project by Serbian film director Emir Kusturica, is a work of art. It sparks all sorts of emotions: happiness, sadness, fear, unease, confusion. The director manipulates the film throughout--smearing and blurring images, highlighting reflections, or maneuvering objects for a dreamlike state. The characters and situations are absurd, and there are flying fish and Eskimo dreams. I may never understand this movie fully--maybe I should read that study--but every time I play it, I find something new. Whatever it really means, Emir Kusturica's ingredients make this movie highly entertaining.

In this coming-of-age story, New Yorker Axel Blackmar (Johnny Depp) is dragged back home to Arizona to attend his uncle's wedding. Uncle Leo (Jerry Lewis), a used car salesman, guilts Axel into staying in town to help him run the business. On his first day, he meets Elaine (Faye Dunaway) and her step-daughter Grace (Lili Taylor). The three become involved in a relationship that is at times sweet, weird, hilarious, and toxic.

At their first meeting, Emir Kusturica and Johnny hated each other, but they shook off their first impressions and got along fine during their second meeting 3 weeks later. (Today, they remain great friends.) For unexplained reasons--Johnny doesn't even know--Johnny saw his character as a chicken, growing up and becoming a rooster. You'll notice this in his hairstyle, mannerisms, and impeccable impression. "He lets you do anything--anything!" Johnny said of working with Emir Kusturica. "If you go to any other director and say, 'I'd like to seduce her by becoming a rooster,' that's it. You're fired. Get out!"

What excited me most about this film was the people involved. I hadn't heard of Emir Kustrica at the time, but Johnny was working with Faye Dunaway, Jerry Lewis, and Lili Taylor! I was sold. Faye Dunaway is brilliant as Elaine, and while I never caught on to Jerry Lewis's trademark humor, he's really good as the grown-up in this movie. In a dream sequence during which Axel and Uncle Leo are Eskimos fishing in Alaska, they have a conversation in the native language. On the set, Jerry stopped Johnny from learning his lines in proper Eskimo, saying that they could just make it up during filming. (I think the Eskimos would notice, wouldn't they?) Johnny was terrified, but did his best trying to keep up with what Jerry Lewis could probably do in his sleep. I think it works, just as Jerry said it would. There's some talent in that, but you've got to love Johnny's preference for authenticity. The Eskimos probably would have appreciated that more too.

What's Tom Petty doing here?

Amid filming, Arizona Dream was stalled a bit due to illness. During the break, Johnny made a quick trip to star in Tom Petty's latest music video, "The Great Wide Open." At the time, MTV was still playing videos, and Tom Petty was riding high as one of the art form's pioneers. His videos are like short films, and they became increasingly star-studded. Johnny plays Eddie in this story, but you'll also find him making a quick cameo as the tattoo artist working on Matt LeBlanc's arm. When Johnny asked Faye Dunaway if she would like to "meet my friend Tom" and shoot the video with him, he said she turned into a squealing teenage girl. Of course, Comet just dug this video out of the archives, and The Kitties are already singing along. You can see it here: www.dailymotion.com/video/x4upv_tom-petty-into-the-great-...

Everybody get back to work!

After that side job, Arizona Dream was completed. Johnny looks back on the film fondly: "Everybody in Hollywood, in the movie business, is always concerned about how much a movie's going to make in the box office and how many theaters it's in, how popular it becomes," he said. "Who cares about the numbers when you're able to experience something like this, live through something like this, and be involved in something as magical as this."

Though Arizona Dream did have a limited theatrical release somewhere in the world, I couldn't find it. "I imagine that when Warner Brothers saw this film, they must have been shocked,"Johnny said. Its sudden appearance on video and DVD 3 or so years later must have been a result of Johnny's increasing popularity. I think I bought the video through eBay, but I also saw the movie on cable, which gave me the full picture. Sadly, the video and DVD versions are not adjusted for letterbox format, a frustrating lapse. For example, you miss the full humor of the scene where Uncle Leo and Elaine are discussing Axel's future over a civilized cup of tea because Axel and his cousin Paul (Vincent Gallo)--who are rolling around in the dirt beating each other up in the background--are cropped out of the frame. The DVD is also missing the subtitles for the conversation between Uncle Leo and Axel in the final Eskimo dream sequence that I mentioned earlier, a conversation that touches on one of the film's main themes. Dedicated to the memory of his father, Emir Kusturica's film reminds us that, in order to grow, you need to remember your roots, respect your elders, and learn from your ancestors.

Despite these flawed products, the film still comes across well. I was absolutely thrilled when Roger Ebert featured the DVD on At the Movies, calling it a whimsical love story and pointing out the fine performance by rising star, Johnny Depp. (Why do I remember these things?) People listen to Roger Ebert, I thought; the movie will be seen now.

The Kitties and I are unanimous.

For Johnny Kitties, the scene to draw was clear: Axel and Paul enjoying their first dinner with Elaine and Grace. One of the great things about this movie is that so much is going on in each scene, and this 15-minute, hilarious, crazy scene tops them all.

Elaine (The Mother Kitty) spends the evening talking about one of her obsessions, Papua New Ginea, a topic that is killing her step-daughter Grace, who threatens to yank the tablecloth off to destroy the table setting if she mentions it one more time. Meanwhile, Axel is explaining his recurring Eskimo dream (while keeping his eye on Grace's pet turtle, who has his mind set on escape.) Paul is focused on Elaine's legs--and the big plate of spaghetti in front of him--and Grace is playing footsie with Axel under the table. Through it all, the wobbly ceiling fan is threatening to crash on the party, and Django Rhinehardt's fantastic song "Minor Swing" is whirling in the background.

The Mother Kitty insisted on playing Faye Dunaway's role. No one could deny that she's perfect for it, though I hesitated considering Axel and Elaine's romantic entanglements later on in the story. But, if we're just doing this scene, I suppose it's okay. Simon was supposed to play the part of Axel's wily cousin Paul, but was bullied out of his seat once Norman saw all the food on the table and found out that all he had to do in the scene was eat the spaghetti. Ashes, who loves Lili Taylor as much as the rest of us, was excited to play Grace because she couldn't wait to smash the dishes. (She's disappointed that we didn't get to that point.)

I added some windows in the background to highlight some other interesting movie moments: The first introduces Uncle Leo (B.J.) and his new wife Millie (Paulina Porizkova/Lily) next to his newly planted cactus on the front lawn of his flamingo pink home. The middle window shows the Eskimo family in Axel's dream after Dewey, the dad, returns home with fish for dinner. (Simon was happy to switch roles with Norman and play in the snow with Mini here.) The last window displays one of Elaine's beloved flying machines, which Axel keeps building and Grace keeps destroying in this story.

None of this makes much sense does it? Well, I don't always say this, but listen to Roger Ebert and rent Arizona Dream. It still might not make complete sense, but it'll be worth it.

What's coming up?

Simon is busy teaching Gordon his favorite circus tricks. He's practicing his pratfalls now.

Next month, Johnny channels Buster Keaton in Benny and Joon.

For more Johnny Kitties, visit Melissa's Kitties' blog: melissaconnolly.blogspot.com.

[What is Johnny Kitties? See Johnny Kitties: Celebrating Johnny Depp: melissaconnolly.blogspot.com/2010/06/johnnys-kitties-john...

In the summer and fall of 1990, magazine advertisements for Edward Scissorhands started popping up in my entertainment magazines. "Edward is coming" or "Edward was here" read the tag lines, looming above topiar or heads with strange haircuts. I knew Johnny Depp was working on this film about a guy who had some sort of scissors for hands. I was excited that Johnny was working with Tim Burton, whose movies so far, I loved--Pee-Wee's Big Adventure, Beetlejuice, and Batman. Pee-Wee was hilarious and caught the perfect spirit. Beetlejuice was one of a kind and entirely imaginative. And, when Tim's version of Batman came out, I thought it was exactly as Batman should be: dark, twisted, and funny. These were all big hits, and I was thrilled for Johnny, having snagged this interesting opportunity in a movie that was a little more mainstream. Unlike Cry-Baby, Edward Scissorhands had potential to show up at a theater near me. Then, everyone would start seeing Johnny's movies! Apparently, my inner cheerleader slipped out. As soon as it was released, we got to the theater. Dad walked up to the ticket counter and asked, "Can we have four tickets to Johnny Scissorhands?"

Johnny meets Edward and makes a new friend.

Edward Scissorhands is a story about a man created by an old inventor (Vincent Price) who dies before completing his creation. Edward is left with sharp shears for hands. He lived alone in a mansion on a mountaintop overlooking the town of Suburbia. One day, the local Avon Lady, Peg Boggs (Dianne Wiest) discovers him and brings him home to live with her family.

Edward Scissorhands was written by Caroline Thompson, based on one of Tim's early drawings, and many say that the character is very close to Tim himself. (They do look alike, minus the scissors.) The story stemmed from his teenage feelings of isolation and misperception, a universal feeling that Johnny also connected to growing up and, more recently, when pushed into the TV spotlight surrounded by teenage mania.

"I read the screenplay to Edward Scissorhands and lost my mind," Johnny said in 2005. "It was one of the most beautiful things I ever read whether it was a book, a screenplay, poem--whatever. It was just a beautiful piece." After he read it, Johnny tried to cancel the meeting that his new agent, Tracey Jacobs, set up for him with the film's director. He figured everyone in Hollywood would want the part and assumed that he--mainly known as a TV actor and teen idol--would have no chance at the role. He wanted to avoid the rejection. Luckily, Tracey forced him to go! Not only did he get the part, but their 3-hour meeting over coffee and cigarettes was the start of a lifelong friendship and prolific working relationship that has led to 8 films so far. (They're working on their 9th collaboration right now!)

"After sharing approximately three to four pots of coffee together, stumbling our way through each other's unfinished sentences but somehow still understanding one another, we ended our meeting with a handshake and a 'nice to meet you,'" Johnny remembers in Burton on Burton by Mark Salisbury. "I left that coffee shop jacked up on caffeine, chewing insanely on my coffee spoon like a wild, rabid dog. I now officially felt even worse about things because of the honest connection I felt we had during the meeting. Mutually understanding the perverse beauty of a milkcow creamer, the bright-eyed fascination with resin grapes, the complexities and raw power that one can find in a velvet Elvis painting--seeing way beyond the novelty, the profound respect for 'those who are not others.' I was sure we could work well together, and I was positive, if given the chance, I could carry out his artistic vision for Edward Scissorhands. My chances were, at best, slim--if that."

It's true. All the big stars in Hollywood were fighting to play this part. People I can't imagine! William Hurt? Tom Hanks?? Tom Cruise???!!!

While Johnny waited for the phone to ring, he studied. After reading the script, his immediate impression of the character mirrored the unconditional love and innocence that newborn babies and animals possess. The character sparked memories of a pet dog he had growing up. He read child psychology books, children's books, fairy tales and whatever else he could get his hands on to prepare for the role. "It was now not something I merely wanted to do, but something I had to do," he said. "Not for any ambitious, greedy, actory, box-office-draw reason, but because this story had now taken residence in the middle of my heart and refused to be evicted."

Johnny: "I am Edward Scissorhands!"

After weeks of waiting, he got the call. "When I met Johnny I knew right away that he was The One," Tim Burton said on the DVD commentary. "I had a feeling about it....He just had that quality. You could see it in his eyes."

I have to agree! Johnny has an amazing talent for saying volumes with a flicker of an eyeball. "It's a very tough thing to play somebody who is created--you know, other than the normal way," Vincent Price said of Johnny's performance. "What do you do? You're an unreal character, and yet he's in very real situations. And there are very few people with scissors for hands--fortunately!"

"I can remember when I finished Edward Scissorhands," Johnny said, "looking in the mirror as the girl was doing my make-up for the last time, and thinking, 'Wow, this is it. I'm saying goodbye to Edward Scissorhands.' It was kind of sad." Aside from all the critical acclaim--Edward Scissorhands still shows up on Most Memorable Movie Characters lists around the world--Johnny received his first of many Golden Globe nominations for his performance. He also won the 1990 ShoWest Award for Male Star of Tomorrow. (Yeah, he is!)

Most people I know find Tim Burton's work too dark or weird--or both--but I have always marveled at the worlds he creates. You know a Tim Burton movie when you see one. Edward's pale, scarred face, mangled hair, and scissorhands never frightened me. I don't remember even thinking that the idea of scissorhands was strange, but maybe I was just focused on Johnny's quiet, gentle performance. This movie does get dark. I find it hard to watch Edward Scissorhands in its entirety. If it's on TV, I often change the station before the neighbors start turning against Edward. No one should be mean to Edward.

This is sort of plopped in here, but I have to also mention the Edward Scissorhands soundtrack by the great Danny Elfman, Tim's frequent collaborator. (Didn't you already love him as the lead singer of Oingo Boingo in the '80s anyway?) The music is enchanting and timeless. It transports you to Christmas and gives you visions of snowflakes. Today, the themes are still copied and can be heard everywhere from other movies to TV commercials. I hear it all the time and yell at the thieves, but who can blame them?

How does Johnny Kitties Measure Up?

Of all the Johnny Kitties drawings so far, this one took me the longest--from coming up with an idea that would do such a special film justice to drawing what was in my head. I adore the first half of this movie, watching Edward experience Suburbia for the first time, meeting new people, and trying to fit in. There are so many memorable scenes--Edward trying to get dressed. Edward trying to eat his peas and carrots, Edward exploring Kim's room. (Kim is Peg's teenage daughter, played by Johnny's then-girlfriend Winona Ryder.)

There were too many moments and characters I wanted to capture in this drawing. Johnny worked with Vincent Price on his final film. Diane Weist, Alan Arkin, Kathy Baker--and everyone--made up a fantastic cast of extreme, yet believable Suburbia citizens. I couldn't make up my mind about any of it. Of course, Edward's world--the gothic mansion, the snow, the topiaries--was necessary, but all the other characters didn't live there. There's no way to mix them together on one sheet of paper. I feared that my Johnny Kitties project would end before it had hardly begun. While I was pondering how to avoid stalling Johnny Kitties indefinitely or creating some sort of Richard Scarry layout of Suburbia, Gordon busied himself by creating ice sculptures of some of our favorite moments. (He's so Method.) Problem solved!

In our drawing for Edward Scissorhands, you'll find Edward in his mansion hard at work on one of his many ice sculptures. He's far away from his experience in Suburbia, but his memories are still clear:

- Smiling for the first time as The Inventor (B.J.) reads him poetry.

- Meeting wonderful Peg Boggs (The Mother Kitty), who gave him a new set of clothes and introduced him to the rest of the world.

- Getting his first hug, from his true love Kim (Lily)

Suburbia's at the bottom of the hill, but really--who wants to live among those crazy neighbors?

What's Next?

Filmed in Florida, I don't know how Johnny survived making Edward Scissorhands dressed in that leather suit and massive wig with such heavy make-up on in 90-degree weather every day. What's a few cases of heat stroke for the sake of art? Well, now he leaves one hot climate for another. Tune in next month, when he'll hang out with Faye Dunaway and Jerry Lewis in Arizona Dream.

Visit Melissa's Kitties' blog for photos from Edward Scissorhands and more Johnny Kitties drawings: melissaconnolly.blogspot.com</a

watercolour and pencil.

Tears and a cat cuddle

come over to my blog

heidimmcdonald.blogspot.com

"Sands is one of those people who's just absolutely, totally for himself, only himself. Any opportunity to create chaos or kill or trip someone up is purely for his own humor, just for his own benefit. He just has a very, very perverse sense of humor." -- Johnny Depp on Agent Sands

What kind of fairytale is this?

Once Upon a Time in Mexico is the third of an action-packed Western trilogy written and directed by Robert Rodriguez. I still haven't seen the other two films, El Mariachi (1992) and Desperado (1995), but you can guess why I saw this one: Johnny Depp plays corrupt CIA agent Sheldon Sands, who likes to run things on his beat, Mexico. He recruits legendary gunslinger El Mariachi (Antonio Banderas) to kill guerrilla force leader General Marquez (Gerardo Vigil), who himself has been hired by Mexican drug lord Armando Barillo (Willem Dafoe) to assassinate Mexico's president (Pedro Armendariz, Jr.) and overthrow the government. El Mariachi agrees to do it, as he seeks revenge against Marquez for killing his wife Carolina (Salma Hayek) and their daughter long ago.

Meanwhile, Sands gets retired FBI agent Jorge Ramirez (Ruben Blades) to agree to kill Barillo, who Ramirez hates already for murdering his partner years before. Sands also assigns military operative Ajedrez (Eva Mendez) to keep an eye on Barillo's activities for him, but she has her own plans....

More happens: More characters show up, more plots twist around, lots of shooting occurs, and Johnny loses his eyeballs. It's all a little convoluted, but don't worry. It doesn't matter.

Why is Johnny here?

When I first heard that Johnny signed on to be in the third installment of some sort of shoot-em-up, action-fueled, stunt-stuffed movie with Antonio Banderas, I couldn't imagine it. I couldn't picture Johnny doing crazy stunts while shooting guns. And, I really wasn't looking forward to it when I heard he loses his eyeballs in the middle of it all. (How dare they mess with that feature!)

All the other Johnny fans I came in contact with were so excited about this movie and thrilled by the images they saw from the set. They were apparently more in-the-know than I was. I tried to avoid seeing or reading anything about it before seeing the finished product, and all I knew about Robert Rodriguez was that he was the director behind the family-friendly Spy Kids movies (which I also haven't seen). People thought Johnny was crazy for doing a Disney pirate movie, but I thought this choice was more bizarre. This is not my kind of movie at all--guns, stunts, explosions. But okay, Johnny, I'll go see it.

"Are you a Mexi-can or Mexi-can't?"

In the theater, I discovered Johnny has some great lines in this movie (see above). In fact, Sands is a great role. Despite the fact that Johnny loses his eyeballs in this adventure, Once Upon a Time in Mexico is actually a clever, thrilling, entertaining ride....Yeah, this movie rocks! It hit me that I lost sight of my steadfast rule to trust Johnny's choices of roles. He always makes things more interesting than expected, and a movie is always better with him in it. George Clooney was the first choice for Agent Sands: I'm so glad that didn't happen because what would this movie be like without Johnny's Agent Sands? I don't know because I probably wouldn't have seen it.

Sands is not a good person. He bosses people around through his cellphone. He kills people who are "too good" just to keep the status quo around town. And, he wears really tacky t-shirts and obviously fake disguises. "I kind of saw Agent Sands as this guy who had been in the CIA, who had probably been so annoying and so dangerous that the agency moved him as far away from them as they possibly could," Johnny says. "A total psychopath, psychotic, you know, not well." You're not supposed to like him. But, in typical Johnny fashion, you end up rooting for Sands by the end.

Sands was the first character Robert Rodriguez fleshed out for this story. "I liked the character so much in how despicable he was. It was going to be interesting and fun--I think this is what Johnny liked about it too--taking somebody that despised and giving the audience a conflicting interest in him, where they're actually kind of cheering for him by the end. The guy's a complete scumbag but by the end, by the second half of the movie, he becomes really redeemable in a way, in an odd way, even though he's not redeemable at all."

It's true! I can't really explain what a likable slimeball Sands is. It's something you just have to witness to appreciate those Johnny touches.

- It's the way he always talks and does everything--threatening or not--so calmly: You don't know if he's about to kill somebody or not. Johnny based his voice and demeanor on someone he met in the movie business years ago, someone he immediately knew couldn't be trusted.

- It's that he wears ridiculous wigs and mustaches, tacky touristy t-shirts, and Fannypacs. Johnny sent his assistant on the movie, his sister Christy, on a mission to find the tackiest stuff she could for him to wear on film. "I thought that would be something that Sands would wear in order to try to get someone to mention it," he says. "He would be hoping that someone would say, 'Is that mustache fake?' just so that he could kill him."

- And, then, there are the one-liners and physical comedy that only Johnny thinks to add, whenever and wherever he can. (You'll just have to watch the movie to know what I'm talking about.)

"He added a lot of things to this character, obviously," Robert Rodriguez says. "I mean, that's why you hire someone like Johnny. I wrote the character Sands, and what Johnny did was give him a whole identity."

Johnny was only on the set for 8 days and loved every minute of it. I think Robert Rodriguez has a coolness factor that makes everyone love to work with him. He wrote, directed, and even mixed the music. Johnny was already impressed with him, having heard he completed the first of this trilogy, El Mariachi, on a $7,000 budget. Shooting in digital HD, as he did for Once Upon a Time in Mexico too, is much cheaper than the traditional way. Because it's just videotape, rather than film stock, he could keep shooting for as long as he wanted. With film always rolling, the actors were on their toes. Robert Rodriguez explains, "If you never call action and you never call cut, you're always in rehearsal mode, which is a really free time to be, and you get really great performances."

Another thing he asked of his actors was to contribute to the film score. On this movie, all the principle players had some sort of musical background--Antonio Banderas and Johnny play guitar, and Salma Hayek likes to sing. So, Antonio Banderas wrote and performed a mariachi song in the movie. Salma Hayek sings the song that plays during the film's end credits. But Johnny was the only one who showed up with a complete piece of music, his character's theme song, which he produced and performed for the soundtrack.

Johnny had so much fun making this movie that he scanned the script on his last day to find any other characters he could sneak in before getting on the plane. Keep an eye out for the Marlon-Brando-esque priest.

Do you have a guitar gun? (They do.)

If someone described Once Upon a Time in Mexico to me, I'd say this isn't my kind of movie: I'm not one who thinks bad guys with guns are cool. I have no stomach for violence. But this movie has a sense of humor about itself. It is violent, but you don't actually see much (which is the best way to do it). Everything is heightened in a way. The plot is complicated, and you may lose what's going on, but it doesn't matter much because you get the style. "This is definitely a desperado movie; they never really make sense," Robert Rodriquez admits. "Coming from a cartoonist's point of view, the guitar cases full of guns and all that, it's not a real Mexico. All the movies I've always done have been somewhat fantasy, and this is no exception. It's sort of a surreal take on Mexico and its culture and it's iconic imagery."

The stunts are elaborate and unbelievable, but you just go with it because you're in on the idea: Of course the legendary El Mariachi and his sexy wife, linked together by a chain they'd been handcuffed to while sleeping, would be able to swing five floors down the side of a building like monkeys to escape assassins. A shootout in a church is halted when the only innocent bystander, an oblivious old lady who just finished her prayers, shuffles her way out the door. That's right out of a Bugs Bunny cartoon. "I consider this movie to be a visual fantasy." Antonio Banderas says. "It goes so far that I think you have to have a sense of humor to understand it. I feel like I'm doing an action movie but, at the same time, I feel like I'm doing comedy." Enjoy it!

Gordon is too cool!

So, I dreaded whenever Johnny was going to lose his eyeballs during this movie. But I also heard from those who had already seen the aftermath that Johnny was the coolest eyeless character ever. I couldn't imagine it, but Johnny did it. He is the coolest eyeless character ever!

"There's something really beautiful and kind of poetic about a blind gunfighter, a guy who goes out there with no eyes, knows he's going to die, and has to defend himself," Johnny says. Gordon couldn't resist such an iconic image! (Too bad he couldn't fit into the all-black outfit.)

And, he's even cooler when you play his theme. Visit my blog to hear it, see more images from Once Upon a Time in Mexico, and learn more about Johnny Kitties: melissaconnolly.blogspot.com/2012/12/johnny-kitties-celeb....

What's next?

Johnny's eyes are okay behind some glasses in Secret Window. (But he's still a bit off his rocker.)

"It's interesting how far we've come, that Johnny Depp playing a talking lizard is now totally normal. It'd be weird if he wasn't playing a talking lizard." Ignatiy Vishnevestsky, Ebert Presents At the Movies/mubi.com

This lizard is a chameleon in more ways than one.

While on the road in the back of a Volkswagen, an aquatic chameleon (voiced by Johnny Depp) passes his time with thespian pursuits, using the props in his fish tank. A sudden swerve on the highway causes his home to crash to the pavement, and the lizard finds himself lost on the side of the road. The antelope who caused the accident sends him on a journey through the desert to a town called Dirt to find the water he (being an aquatic chameleon) desperately needs.

In an effort to blend in with Dirt's desert citizens, the lizard impresses them all in his most adventurous role yet. As Rango, he invents a gun-slinging past that wins him the position of sheriff in charge of solving the mystery behind the town's dwindling water supply. With sparkling animation and an impressive cast of voices, Rango is Gore Verbinski's salute to Spaghetti Westerns, a hilarious tale about finding your own way through life.

Life in the desert is better than it seems.

When I heard that Johnny and Gore Verbinski were considering doing an animated feature with Johnny as a lizard, I thought they must be getting loopy spending so much time together on the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy. Johnny figures that his director got the idea of this role for him because of all the lizard-running-on-water Captain Jack did in the Pirates movies. (Watch Captain Jack run, and you'll see what I mean; a running lizard really was Johnny's inspiration.) "It sounded so strange because the only element that existed at that time was his idea of a lizard who is on an existential, spiritual sojourn. I only knew that it's going to take place in the Wild West...It made so little sense then that I thought, 'I want to see this,'" Johnny says of hearing about the role of Rango for the first time. "Gore has an extremely sick mind. He can really go out there with various ideas, and I have a tendency to travel pretty distant myself with these kinds of absurdist ideas. He's been an incredible collaborator all the way up to now."

For me, a cartoon about reptiles in the desert did not sound appealing. I prepared to be squirming in my seat, watching snakes, tarantulas, and scorpions. I didn't pay much attention as they worked on this project and suddenly it was nearly completed. I noticed their progress when I saw this ad for it on TV. (See it here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDyYGBL0HKw.

This animated feature - the first from George Lucas's Industrial Light & Magic - was shot like a live-action film, an idea I fell in love with immediately! To me, somehow, Rango looked exactly like the kind of lizard Johnny would be. These desert creatures were actually cute (in their own worn, grimy way), and so many great actors (Bill Nighy, Alfred Molina, Abigail Breslin, Isla Fisher, and others) were providing the characters' voices. Upon seeing this goofy trailer, my doubts disappeared instantly, and I bouncing off the walls to see this thing! Typical.

Get ready to laugh.

Since Johnny had already done great voice work for Tim Burton's The Corpse Bride years before, I couldn't understand why critics were so shocked by how fantastic he was as Rango. I suppose, compared to bashful Victor, his character in The Corpse Bride, he had more freedom in Rango as a lost, theatre-loving chameleon. "The fact that he's a lizard attempting to adapt to his surroundings and assume these characters to be accepted is very, very fitting," Johnny says of the role.

The beginning of the film grabs you, showcasing the lizard's wild imagination as he makes up stories within the confines of his fish tank. Then, when the aquatic chameleon is faced with the desert (where aquatic chameleons aren't expected to survive), he has a real adventure at his feet. Arriving in Dirt, he stands out as the obvious stranger, with his bright green skin and red flower-pattern shirt. He creates Rango on the spot, assuming the character to instill fear and gain the respect of the town's weary citizens.

This wonderful script, but John Logan, is packed great lines, jokes, broad comedy, and pop-culture references that can be enjoyed by the whole family. "You can be 3 and you can be 93 and virtually get the same charge out of it," Johnny says of Rango. Kids will like the bright colors, amazing detail, and textures in each frame; the slapstick comedy; and Rango's charismatic personality. "This part was designed for Johnny," Gore Verbinski says about the starring role. "There is no movie without Johnny." In Rango, Johnny's great sense of humor comes through in just the way he says certain phrases, and I'm sure that some of the jokes are his own. He must have contributed to the script; he always does. The cameo by Raoul Duke and Dr. Gonzo may be the first clue. Adults should recognize and appreciate other salutes to such classic films as High Noon, Dirty Harry, Chinatown, and even Star Wars.

"The humor in the movie is very funny and irreverent but underneath that, there is a deeper, darker story and theme," Actress Isla Fisher (the voice of Beans) says. This lizard has issues; while endlessly entertaining, using his own imagination, he doesn't know his own purpose in life. Director Gore Verbinski explains the dilemma of finding one's own identity: "Who are you if you just spend your life pretending to be other things? At the core of that is, really, who doesn't want to be loved? Who doesn't want to blend in? Who doesn't want to feel like they belong?" The chameleon has to stop changing, learn to be himself, and figure out who he wants to be - an important lesson that kids can take with them after they've had a good laugh.

Enjoy the visual feast!

I figured Johnny would not disappoint as Rango. Aside from his work and the clever script, the ingredient that surprises and impresses me most about Rango is the artwork. "There's a kind of beauty to this very dry place," Johnny says of the desert. Rango proves it with dazzling animation that brings these reptiles, birds, and other creatures to life. As ridiculous as this sounds, at times, I actually forgot I was watching a cartoon when I first saw it. Everything looks so textured and realistic. "We decided we were going to really push the level of detail and level of textures and level of heightened realism that came with these characters," Story/Character Designer James Ward Byrkit says. Although all the characters are animals, I couldn't always tell what animals they were meant to be. Rather than cute and fuzzy, these animals were rough and dirty, some with bad manners, inadequate personal hygiene, blood-shot eyes, and past injuries. While the crew knew they had to populate Dirt with desert creatures, they had the freedom to invent looks based on the characters' personalities. "There were no rules, just creatures from the desert and characters from our Western genre," Director Gore Verbinski says. You can tell that these characters have been built for survival in the harsh desert environment, and they've all fallen on hard times as the drought worsens.

How'd they do that?

As you could see from the trailer, unlike traditional animated features, for which actors record their characters' dialogue alone in a recording booth, Rango required the entire cast to act out every scene, interacting with each other while being recorded. They even used costumes and props to help them realize their characters.

"Normally, what we'd do is we'd film ourselves doing various scenes and use that as reference," Associate Animation Supervisor Kevin Martel explains. "But if we can reference Johnny Depp's behavior and the quirks that he has, I mean, it's just going to help the animation so much more. It's just going to form the character a lot better." In the end, the design of the animated character focused on the whole package - the expressions and features of the real animal they were drawing from, the actor's own expressions and personality, and ideas for the character's overall look and outfit. "It's a completely different thing that hasn't been seen before," Character Designer Eugene Yelchin says about the approach. "You kind of invent as you go along. You invent every single thing."

Having the actors so involved in preproduction seemed to bring new energy and level of detail to the final product. "What we're doing on this project that's different is we've got all the actors together ensemble, interacting with one another, trying to get that magic that happens when the actors are together," Animation Director Hal Hinckel explains. "So we're getting a lot of improv and interesting accidents and things that you don't get in a recording studio with a single actor." Drawing from his film-directing experience, Gore Verbinski had no qualms about having the entire cast acting on the set for Rango. "Animation's not a genre; it's a technique for telling a story. So, why abandon the things that you've kind of relied on in your career? When making a film, you've got everybody on set and everybody gets on their game because there's another actor. They're reacting to each other."

The cast and crew found this atmosphere hugely beneficial. "Gore and Johnny have no reservations about playing, and it sort of frees everyone up or gives us permission to really physicalize and vocalize the lives of these characters," actor Lew Temple (the voice of Furgus and Hitch) explains. Isla Fisher agrees: "Just the interaction you get from the other performers, it's so much more creative and so much more rewarding, really, as a performer."

The unorthodox production and hard work paid off. Among other honors, Rango won the Oscar for best animated feature! (Johnny earned Teen and People's Choice Awards for his efforts; only Johnny could win our hearts as a lizard.)

Gordon can adapt to life in the desert too.

I thought this drawing was going to be so easy - a single split image of Gordon as Johnny in the studio, talking for the character of Rango on one side, and Rango acting it out on the other side. After watching Rango for Johnny Kitties, though, I wanted to draw every frame of the movie to capture the amazing animation, and write every line to capture the quick-witted humor. Well, I can only fit so much on a page (and still my scanner is not big enough), so here's a teaser of a few scenes, drawn as slices of film strips.

In the first row, the antelope sends the lizard on his journey. The next row shows the stranger trying his best to mimic and fit in with Dirt's locals. The remaining rows recount the scene during which the chameleon introduces Rango, inventing his character's backstory on the spot after receiving a chilly reception from the town's residents in the local bar. (Here, you will find Simon, Norman, Comet, B.J. and the newest member of Melissa's Kitties, Tyrone, among Dirt's citizens.)

It's the start of a grand adventure as the lizard falls deeper and deeper into his own lie. Rent the movie to see what happens next because it'd be hard to guess.

What's next?

Johnny reprises the role of Captain Jack Sparrow, this time on a quest for the fountain of youth, in Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides.

For more images from Rango and information about Johnny Kitties, visit my original blog post here: melissaconnolly.blogspot.com/2014/02/johnny-kitties-celeb....

Beware Sleepy Hollow.

At the turn of the 18th century, New York City Constable Ichabod Crane (Johnny Depp) is just beginning to introduce his colleagues to the scientific approach to criminal investigation using homemade primitive tools and potions. Laughed out of town, he is sent upper state to Sleepy Hollow, where he will use his "experiments" to solve the mystery behind a series of random beheadings. Upon arrival to this quiet village, Ichabod meets an odd cast of characters who tell him the legend of the headless horseman (Christopher Walken), an evil Hessian who rises from the dead to collect the heads. A squeamish man of science, Ichabod must forget reason and face his fears to solve this case.

Do it with style!

Sleepy Hollow marks Johnny's third collaboration with Tim Burton. As with the previous two (Edward Scissorhands and Ed Wood), they shared a common interest and vision for it. "It's the type of movie that I used to like to watch all the time and actually made me want to make movies," Tim said. "It has a good healthy mix of excitement and [being] slightly scary but funny all at the same time. That is always interesting, trying to mix all those things together." Johnny agreed: "I used to watch all sorts of horror films as a kid. I loved them. I was obsessed with them and wanted to recreate that classic style of horror film acting." (Think of Vincent Price and Peter Cushing.) Sleepy Hollow turned into an admirable salute to Hammer Horror Films, which both Tim and Johnny grew up watching.

The film's fantastic supporting cast includes Christina Ricci, Miranda Richardson, Christopher Walken, and a bunch of memorable character actors--all of whom, reviewers noted, have great silent-movie-era faces. Because of their great faces, Tim began treating the film like a silent movie, despite all the dialogue, letting the actors convey things without saying them. Christopher Walken actually modeled the headless horseman after Lon Chaney's "Wolfman" character. "My figure is a little like me: After a day of chopping heads, he just goes home and has dinner," he joked. "My forte seems to be psychotic, twisted people. He's very like that." (I love that he does nothing but growl.) And, Tim even got Christopher Lee ("Drakula" of the Hammer Horror Films) to give a cameo. "That was a real honor to have him play this part and sort of set the tone for the film," he said. "It's amazing to watch this person work, this person who's inspired you. He has such a power to him."

Ichabod Crane was originally written as an unattractive fellow, and Johnny was all for using a prosthetic nose and big ears. Thankfully, his director talked him out of it. "Tim was very smart in thinking that we didn't need it, that there were other ways," Johnny explained. "I think, ultimately, he was right to show an Ichabod Crane who--on the surface--is kind of stoic and likes to think of of himself as a sort of manly man. But, in fact, he's very fragile, sensitive, and flawed." For his inspiration, Johnny gave Ichabod Angela Lansbury's "Murder She Wrote" super-sleuthing talents mixed in with the squeamish fears of a little girl.

"Johnny is so kind and such an amazing actor," Christina Ricci, who also worked with him in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, said. "He takes risks and does things that other actors wouldn't do because of their vanity. He's willing to make a complete fool out of himself for the performance." Tim explained, "Johnny was excellent at pretending you know what you're talking about when you haven't a clue. He's also a very good physical actor. He understood--when you look at people like Peter Cushing--these actors in these kinds of movies, where there's a kind of style. It's almost like animation poses, where movement is very much a part of the character. He's very good at that." Johnny is really funny in this movie.

Based on Washington Irving's "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow," this is a story that everyone involved remembered as a kid, either from the classic book or the Disney cartoon. Tim stayed true to the story and its fairytale feel. But, built from scratch in the English countryside (or in studio), everything from the village homes to the haunted Western Woods are unmistakably Tim Burton's vision. Everything is a little off, twisted, eerie--and fantastic. "I think Tim, first and foremost, is an artist. He has an artist's approach to every facet of the film," Johnny said. "Everything within the frame is of great importance to him--the composition of the shot, the colors, the movement." When I first saw photographs of the set during filming, I immediately started bouncing off the walls to see the finished product. "Tim is so incredibly visual," Christina Ricci said, "His movies are just really beautiful but strange, and for this kind of movie, that's exactly what it needs." Miranda Richardson agreed, "When you walk on to a set that Tim's made, it's extremely magical. It's like another world. It's very exciting to see his beautiful drawings realized in full." Simply put, Johnny said of Tim's Sleepy Hollow, "I want to live there."

Sleepy Hollow was nominated for a bunch of awards. It won an Oscar for best art direction/set decoration, and Johnny won a Blockbuster Entertainment Award for Favorite Actor of the Year (Horror).

Nothing brings the family together like a Johnny Movie.

Released on Thanksgiving, my entire family was around to be dragged to the theater during Sleepy Hollow's opening weekend. Everyone liked this one, lopped off heads and all.

The Kitties revisit Sleepy Hollow.

As many of you may know, I participate in IllustrationFriday.com, which gives a word for artistic inspiration each week. One week, Illustration Friday's word was "hollow," and I couldn't think of anything else but this movie. (I really can't help it.) Here's the drawing I came up with for it back then: www.flickr.com/photos/melissaskitties/4458922346/

After watching the film for Johnny Kitties, I'm still in love with Tim Burton's Tree of the Dead, but more Kitties wanted to be involved in the illustration. Here, Ichabod, Katrina (Mini) and Young Masbath (Marc Pickering/Simon) look on as the horseman reclaims his head and sets toward his resting place with some company, Katrina's stepmother (Miranda Richardson/The Mother Kitty). Tim considers this a happy ending for all.

Johnny kept busy in the '90s.

If you haven't noticed already, Johnny's a pretty prolific guy with interests all over the place. Since I missed mentioning some of his side projects and extra-curricular activities at the time, here are some highlights from the 1990s.

1994:

-- Introduced Neil Young singing his Oscar-nominated song "Philadelphia" at the 66th Annual Academy Awards.

1995:

-- Participated in The Help Album, a charity recording benefiting The War Child Project targeting such war-stricken areas as Bosnia and Herzegovina. Johnny plays guitar on a song called, "Fade Away," with Oasis and friends.

-- Formed a band called P with Gibby Hanes, Bill Carter, and Sal Jenco. They record and release an album on Capitol Records.

1998:

-- Met French model/singer/actress/soul mate Vanessa Paradis: "It was love at first sight," Johnny said. "Vanessa, to me, has been a kind of miracle."

1999:

-- Portrayed one of his literary heroes, Jack Kerouac, in an American Masters documentary called The Source: The Story of The Beats and The Beat Generation.

-- Received an honorary Cesar--the French equivalent to an Oscar--for his body of work.

-- Was honored with a star on The Walk of Fame.

-- Became a father to daughter Lily-Rose, born in May, who magically, instantly, and noticeably made Johnny a calmer, happier person: "My daughter, the birth of my daughter, gave me life. I'm sure I smiled before, laughed before, but now I can really feel it."

Bring on the 2000s!

Next month, Johnny fills up on Chocolat.

For more images of Johnny and Sleepy Hollow, see my blog post on Melissa's Kitties: melissaconnolly.blogspot.com/2012/04/johnny-kitties-celeb....

Where are they headed?

When we last saw Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp), Elizabeth (Kiera Knightly) had handcuffed him to the Pearl. He faced the Kracken and an eternity in the no-man's land of Davey Jones's Locker, while the rest of crew made their escape from that unfortunate fate. Luckily, the crew has a conscience and agrees to do whatever it takes to save Jack, and with the help of Tia Dalma (Naomi Harris), Captain Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush) returns to navigate their rescue mission.

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End finds the East India Trading Company set on squeezing out the pirate population and achieving world domination. Elizabeth is carrying the burden of guilt for trapping Jack for the Kracken, and its weight is made heavier as she keeps her secret from Will (Orlando Bloom). Will is committed to saving his father, Bootstrap Bill (Stellen Skarsgaard), from the cursed vessel, the Flying Dutchman, but hasn't shared those plans with Elizabeth. Once they find Jack, who has even more screws loose than before, the nine pirate lords who rule the world's seas must convene to figure out how to keep the East India Trading Company from closing in on them. Basically, everyone's got problems. With new colorful characters and unexpected plot twists, everything is miraculously solved in this story and topped with a spectacular stormy finish!

How'd they do that?

Plenty of action leads up to the maelstrom at the end of this adventure. While visual effects were used, director Gore Verbinski created that storm as realistically as possible for the actors. "It's a torrential downpour and probably 75 knots of wind in this building," Johnny describes. Lifesize ships were moved into a hanger, and all the actors and extras fought amid the manmade storm. "You have all these plans to act and maybe do it rather elegantly, and then they turn the rain machine on," says Bill Nighy (who plays Captain Davy Jones). "The bad news is that all your ideas go out the window. The good news is that the action is very authentic because you're in a maelstrom!"

While the maelstrom may be the showstopper, this movie is full of other fantastic visual effects. On their way to the end of the world, Barbossa and crew sail through mirror-like waters and frosty seas. They tumble over the edge of a waterfall and eventually capsize their ship on purpose. Having lost his mind on land, Jack is stuck on a crab-infested desert with several other Jacks for company.

Before directing his own movies, Gore Verbinski was an accomplished special effects supervisor and commercial director. "He can see things in a shot that an average director without that technical background wouldn't see, and it ends up making the movie that much better." says Executive Producer Mike Stenson. With more than 2,000 visual effects in this movie, the work required that everyone employed at ILM (the company tasked with creating these effects) to work on this film, something that hasn't happened since Return of the Jedi. That's good company to be in, isn't it? This film earned two well-deserved Oscar nominations, one for visual effects and one for makeup.

I'm on board!

I was thrilled that Geoffrey Rush returned for this third installment of Pirates of the Caribbean! As much as I love Bill Nighy's performance as Captain Davy Jones, I felt Geoffrey Rush was a missing ingredient in the second movie. One of the reasons I tell people Pirates 2 is my least favorite in the trilogy is because Geoffrey Rush's Captain Barbossa isn't there.

A friend told me he thought Pirates 3 has too much talking in it, but I'll take story over action sequences any day. While I admit the story here is all over the place, I liked exploring all the different personalities, and their issues, obstacles, and histories. I also loved that this journey took us to Singapore, where we were introduced to Asian pirates, headed by Captain Sao Feng (Chow Yun-Fat). Better yet, we meet all kinds of pirates from around the world when they join forces against the East India Trading Company.

Some people say the Pirates of the Caribbean movies are too long, but when you have so many characters and storylines, it takes time to resolve everything. These movies are a package deal, and I like how so much is stuffed in them. You can watch them over and over and always discover new things. This one is a fitting finish to the trilogy. Over the course of these three movies, Elizabeth and Will grew up, and by the end, Elizabeth becomes the strong leading force driving the story--which, as a girl, I appreciate (even if she did handcuff Jack to his sinking ship).

Despite (and maybe because of) his predicament, Johnny is a treat to watch in this movie. He's just one of many characters in this story, all of whom have their own quirks. But since Jack a bit madder than usual, due to his imprisonment, Johnny could do whatever he wanted. As cowriter Ted Elliott says, "We're on our third movie, and we said, 'How can we keep it unexpected? Let's just get weird.'" Captain Jack sees things no one else sees and talks to himself more often these days. It makes for some really imaginative scenes that I won't spoil here. "Johnny's very improvisational," says costar Jack Davenport (who plays Commodore Norrington). "You have a choice: You either freak out or you go with him."

Aside from the Oscar nominations, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End won several other awards for visual effects and production. The cast, too, was a big hit at fan-driven award shows, like the MTV Movie Awards, and the People's, Teen, and Kids' Choice Awards that year. Johnny even won a Rembrandt Award for Best International Actor, voted on by the Dutch public. "I'm sort of amazed that so many people in so many corners of the world have embraced the films and the character," he says. "It's very moving....Nothing like that has ever happened to me." We like our Pirates!

"This is politics."

One of my favorite things about Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End is meeting all the other pirates of the world. They are all distinct, extravagant characters. Their meeting to discuss how to conquer the East India Trading Company is just like Congress but more productive and entertaining. When they disagree, they call on Captain Teague (Johnny's rock star hero, making his second cameo appearance in these Pirate movies). As keeper of the Pirate's Code, he straighten them out quickly! Maybe, on some days, Captain Teague should come to D.C. to help out our president. Do you think he would do it? Maybe if Johnny asked him....

To pay tribute to this democracy, some of The Kitties are channeling the nine pirate lords. Here they are gathered with their crews, listening to Captain Jack, Pirate Lord of the Caribbean Sea, as he proposes his strategy against the East India Trading Company: "We must fight....to run away." Among the crowd, The Kitties chose their own parts:

- The Mother Kitty is Mistress Ching (Takayo Fischer), Pirate Lord of the Pacific Ocean.

- Simon is Capitaine Chevalle (Marcel Lures), Pirate Lord of the Mediterranean Sea.

- Norman is Sri Sumbhajee (Marshall Manesh), PIrate Lord of the Indian Ocean.

- Comet is Captain Jocard (Hakeem Kae-Kazim), Pirate Lord of the Atlantic Ocean.

- Ashes is Elizabeth, most recent PIrate Lord of the South China Sea/Pirate King.

- B.J. is Captain Barbossa, Pirate Lord of the Caspian Sea.

Also, in the picture are familiar faces from Jack's crew (Mr. Gibbs, Pintell, and Ragetti) and the dog, who luckily escaped that cannibalistic island he was trapped on at the end of Pirates 2. Having reviewed the Code, Captain Teague monitors the debate from his seat while strumming his guitar. Don't worry, they work it out.

What's next?

The murderous barber Sweeney Todd seeks revenge, singing Sondheim all the way!

To all the Johnny Kitties fans out there, next month's post will be about a week or so late. On September 9th, I'll be amid a vacation in California, away from my computer. I promise to post my Sweeney Todd tribute as soon as I get back. I'll do my best to make it worth your wait.

To see more images from PIrates of the Caribbean: At World's End or more Johnny Kitties, see my original blog post here: melissaconnolly.blogspot.com/2013/08/johnny-kitties-celeb....

I hope that people will be able to watch and learn from it. I hope kids will. We've all gone through the whole thing of thinking that drugs are just party time. You can sort of live that lie that it is recreational, but it's not. We're trying to hide from something, trying to mask something, trying to numb ourselves from something. Really, getting loaded to that extent is just postponing the inevitable, which is you are going to have to face the demon someday. You're gonna have to look him in the eye and go, "Okay, let's get through this." -- Johnny Depp

Meet George Jung.

Blow chronicles the life of George Jung (Johnny Depp), a kid from Weymouth, Massachusetts, who wanted to break out of his father's working-class lifestyle. He began by dealing marijuana in California and eventually worked with Pablo Escobar, becoming one of the most wanted drug traffickers during the 1970s and '80s. Between 1977 and 1985, he smuggled 85% of all the cocaine available in the United States. Although in and out of jail and battling addiction and its warning signs, including illnesses and heart attacks, he continued to fall back on the only trade he learned in life: dealing drugs for profit. George Jung amassed $100 million but eventually learned his father's lasting lesson--that money means nothing--when he lost it all, including everything and everyone who mattered to him.

If I think about it too much, I get conflicted about this movie. The main character is a drug dealer, who introduced the majority of the United States' cocaine supply. Yet, by the end of this movie, I was rooting for him. Director Ted Demme felt the same way: "When I met George in prison, I went in not knowing what to expect because all my expectations of these kinds of guys were thug-like and kind of scary, and I met a guy who was really funny, really smart, really sad, really well-bred. I spent 4 to 5 hours with the guy and ended up really liking him and feeling sorry for him and--at the same time--being very judgmental about what he had done. For me, as a filmmaker, I thought it'd be a great challenge to present the classic antihero on the page as a sympathetic character. I always knew what the final frame of the film would be: a man in prison alone, no friends, going to be there for a long time, family estranged from him. And I find sadness in that, in any human being. I thought it was a great challenge, as a filmmaker, to tell this story."

Based on the book Blow by Bruce Porter, Blow, the film, presents George Jung's story as a wild ride. I don't know how he has survived the amount of drugs he consumed and dealt or the dangerous situations in which he found himself. These days, he doesn't recommend it: "I think it boils down to a man bent on self-destruction. It's a guy who chose free will over the love of his daughter and his family. I can't say that he loved himself, but he loved free will and adventure more than he did the people around him. I mortgaged my whole life for several moments of freedom. Who the hell does that?"

It's all about the accent.

I saw Blow with the whole family, and the only review I remember is from my dad: "Johnny was good in it. He did a good accent." This is high praise, considering my dad's side of the family all have heavy Bostonian accents. I was pleased. And, I agree. In some scenes, he sounds just like one of my uncles!

Johnny played his character with typical precision. "Johnny Depp blew my mind. It was me," George Jung said when he saw the film in prison. "He portrayed me and he literally became me--his voice, his mannerisms, his actions--everything, totally! It's almost frightening." Ted Demme concurred: "George was spooked by it because it was so right and perfect. Johnny is, amongst many things, a great mimic and he can really scare you with how good he is at being a mimic. When I finally got a script that I was happy with, I went and tracked Johnny down in Europe ('cause you kind of have to go find him). From my perspective, I wanted an actor to give me George Jung. I didn't want a movie star to come in and star in Blow. I really wanted the guy to be George. Johnny has done that on every film."

It's got that Ted Demme touch.

I don't know if it's because I'm aware that Ted Demme worked for MTV at the start of his career, but Blow reminds me of the same exciting style, pace, and fantastic music that MTV had in its golden years. I see so much potential, and so many exciting ideas in this movie too. Maybe that's heightened awareness again because I know it's his last piece of work. Ted Demme died of a heart attack at age 38, less than a year after Blow was released.

Despite that sad story and the seriousness of this movie's topic, Blow is a very entertaining! Aside from Johnny, the great cast includes Penelope Cruz, Franka Potente, Ray Liotta, Rachel Griffiths, and--most exciting to me--Paul Reubens! (It's a great, dramatic performance too!) Through George's eyes, I can see how the lifestyle would be enticing--having all that money and material possessions without the burden of much responsibility. But it's important to remember the lessons he learned. As Ted Demme explained, "I think George has a real clear idea of what drugs do to people because he's looked in the mirror and sees what its done to him. It's not only aged him and taken a huge chunk out of his life, but it's put him where he is right now--in isolation. He'd like to, right now, make a difference. That's one of the reasons he allowed me to make this film." George Jung wants people to see his story and hopefully have an impact on people who are thinking of getting into this business, are in this business and thinking about getting out, or have gotten out of the business already and are thinking about getting back in. His message is simple: It's just not worth it.

Johnny had an experience similar to Ted Demme's when he met George Jung in prison. They became friends pretty instantly, having discovered many common interests and beliefs. Since making Blow, Johnny has been a strong supporter for George Jung's release. "I hope the audience is able to understand to some degree what George went through and why he made the decisions he made and why he became what he became. A lot has to do with the conditioning he went through as a kid. He became everything he didn't want to become," Johnny said. "George Jung is a lot of things. He's a complicated guy. But first and foremost--what I was really happy to find out--is he is just as human as can be. There is no evil. There is no malice in him. He's not greedy. He's just a good man who recognized his mistakes and has to live with his sort of devastation every day. I saw a strong guy when I met him. He's a very strong, kind of ironic, funny, broken man."

"My opinion is that George Jung has served his time and paid his debt to society. He's not doing anyone any good rotting away in a prison cell," Johnny continued. "The guy is rehabilitated, and I'm not sure the system rehabilitated him. I think he rehabilitated himself based on the hideous thoughts he's had to live with and realities he has had to deal with. I think he could do much more good on the outside. He's doing work with the DARE [Drug Abuse Resistance Education] program right now. He could, potentially, go on the road with DARE and teach kids the dangers of drugs. And, he could also pay his debt to his daughter and try to give her a father."

George Jung is scheduled to be released from the Federal Correctional Institution in Anthony, Texas, in 2014. He'll be 72.

The Kitties say they've had no catnip.

Ted Demme conveyed various scenes in Blow through collages of Polaroids rather than play them out. Instead of showing parties on film, for example, photo after photo flashes on screen. Keeping with that idea, this month's tribute offers Polaroids spanning George Jung's life:

-- As kids, George Jung and his best friend Tuna (Norman) found ways to pass the time, like roller-skating down the streets of their hometown.

-- George and Tuna moved to Manhattan Beach, Florida, in the late '60s. There, George met his first love Barbara (Franka Potente/Lily) and began dealing pot.

-- In the '70s, George started doing big business in Mexico. The whole gang [including Barbara, business partner Derek (Paul Reubens/Simon), and childhood friends Tuna and Dulli (Max Perlich/B.J.] was one big happy family.

After George and Derek celebrated their first big job, clinking glasses amid piles of cash, business grew.

-- With their drug distribution system smoothed down to a science, George felt ultra-cool. (This scene, in which Johnny walks through Miami International Airport wearing an all-white outfit and big shades to the tune of "Black Betty" by Ram Jam, is what Ted Demme called, "one of the greatest moments in film history" while Johnny referred to his outfit as, "the ultimate in bad taste." It's an awesome combination any way you look at it.)

-- But these illegal activities landed George in prison for a few years in Danbury, Connecticut. While there, he learned from his cellmate Diego how to deal cocaine.

-- Once out of jail, George kicked off the '80s by getting in with Pablo Escobar. He became part of the family by marrying Mirtha (Penelope Cruz/Ashes).

-- When their daughter Kristina was born, George stayed sober and enjoyed a normal life for a while--birthday parties and all.

-- But old habits die hard, and George got caught on what he said was his last job. He's still in jail for it today.

We're not getting any cheerier.

Next up, Johnny turns detective again: This time, he's tracking down Jack the Ripper in From Hell.

For more images from Blow or more information about Johnny Kitties, visit Melissa's Kitties Blog: melissaconnolly.blogspot.com/2012/08/johnny-kitties-celeb...

"My part was just a slice of the pie, and it felt great to have that collaboration with everybody--from the focus puller to the extras to the DP to the director. We were all in there swinging at the same beast and fighting for what was right. It was very intense, down and dirty, swinging and clawing the whole way. I'm very proud of the film." -- Johnny Depp on making The Libertine

"You will not like me."

The Libertine (Johnny Depp) is John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester (1647-1680), a favorite of and foe to England's King Charles II (John Malkovich). Director Laurence Dunmore explores Wilmot's gritty world torn between his domestic country life with his wife (Rosamund Pike) and precarious existence in London as outspoken writer, promiscuous drunk, and popular wit. Loved and hated by the king, who had high hopes for his prodigy, Wilmot lived his short life to the fullest, said and did what he wanted, and usually got away with it. He died at age 33, probably of syphilis. Before that happens, you'll catch a glimpse of his fast-paced life and the guts it took for him to speak his mind. An avid fan of theatre, the Earl also falls in love with upcoming actress Elizabeth Barrie (Samantha Morton), who breaks his heart. Yeah, this is a cheery one, alright.

It was a long, bumpy road.

This movie was at least 10 years in the making. Talk of it would appear, disappear, and reappear while Johnny made other movies. It all started with John Malkovich, who starred as the Earl in The Libertine, the play, in Chicago in 1995. He got the playwright, Stephen Jeffreys, to adapt it to the screen. And, after working with Laurence Dunmore on a commercial, he hired him to direct the movie. He met Johnny for dinner and asked him to play the starring role. "Why don't you play the part?" Johnny asked, since John Malkovich had already received critical acclaim for the role in the play. "Because I want you to do it," he responded. Good choice!

The Libertine was plagued with financial, scheduling, and whatever other problems for years. I saw it as a labor of love among the small group of people involved from the very beginning, even though I knew nothing about the story or this guy it was all about. I wasn't sure if it would ever come to life.

By the time it did, I was excited to see it just because it had taken so long. Even during production, the British government cracked down on filmmakers shooting in Great Britain, closing a loophole for filming incentives and ultimately taking away more than 30% of production funding. Some films shooting there had to shut down completely and were lost, but The Libertine survived! "I think everyone across the board who was involved in this production put their hands into their own pockets," Director Laurence Dunmore says.

Before this film was released, the MPAA threatened to slap it with an NC-17 rating, unleashing the imaginations of Johnny Fans everywhere. I didn't know what all the fuss was about when I saw the film in the theater. It was only after the fact that I realized what I saw was rated R.

It was a muddy, mucky, chaotic world.

Reviews for The Libertine were mixed. I remember a couple of bad ones saying how dark, muddy, and unpleasant everything is. To me, that's a success because I figured it looked that way for a reason. "I wanted this film to be swamped with mud and smoke and mists and rain!" the director confirms. "You've got to literally smell the film." Johnny concurs, "It was really down in the dirt. You got in there, and it beat you up." It works! Practically everything is lit by natural light and candles, mud and mist are everywhere, and most of the filming is done by hand-held camera so you feel as though you're in it.

This movie is grimy in look and feel. And, being completely unfamiliar with John Wilmot, I even found his life story sometimes confusing to follow, but I guess it's because you can only fit so much into 2 hours. "Normally when you're faced with writing a dramatized biography, you invent a lot of stuff to make it more interesting," Writer Stephen Jeffreys says. "With Rochester, it was the other way around. I had to leave all this stuff out because it's so much." If you're really interested, the DVD's director's commentary is helpful in understanding all the background and course of events in Wilmot's life.

Even though I don't crave to watch this movie very often, every time I do watch it, I marvel at it all--the cinematography, direction, design, costumes, acting. This film has its own distinctive look, energy, and personality. Even if you didn't know all the trouble they went through to make it, you could feel the passion everyone involved felt for it. Every performance is fantastic. Though Rosamund Pike plays Wilmot's tormented wife in only a few scenes, she won a well-deserved British Independent Film Award for her amazing work.

While watching through the lens of a hand-held camera usually has me craving stillness after just a few minutes, it works so well in The Libertine that I don't even think about it. You feel as though you are there with them in that world. All these ingredients make for an extremely intimate film-going experience.

"I am up for it all the time."

Some of the things that John Wilmot pulled off are so outrageous, it's hard to believe that this guy was a real person--living in the 15th century as a member of the king's court, no less! He was continually banished to the country, most notably for creating a scandalous satire about the king's obsession with sex. Even if you don't like what he has to say, you have to admire a guy who has no fear of speaking out the way he did.

As always, Johnny researched his role incessantly. "I felt this very strong responsibility to play him right--so much so that I became obsessed," he says. "Without wanting to sound all kind of New Agey, I do believe he paid me at least a few visits." Johnny travelled to all the places where Wilmot lived and where he died. He read his letters, available in the British Library, took notes on them, and incorporated as much as he could into the script.

All his research revealed myriad layers of the man. "He was written off as a satirist, rogue, hedonistic lunatic, complete drunk, pornographer, and all those things, and he was all those things," Johnny says. "But he was also a beautiful poet. He was a loving father, a confused and tormented husband. He was a very tortured man. He was obsessed with honesty. He couldn't allow for a lie. He had no tolerance for it from anyone, not even from King Charles, which got him in a lot of trouble. I salute that!"

But even the king couldn't deny Wilmot's talent, which at times was the only thing that held their strained relationship together. "He was a guy who was, I think, probably two or three hundred years ahead of his time," Johnny says of the Earl. Stephen Jeffreys agrees, "Nobody writes like Rochester. Nobody wrote before him like that. Nobody really writes in the same vain about sexuality until the 20th century." But I think Samantha Morton sums up the man most efficiently: "He was a poet, an artist, and revolutionary of his day. And if he were alive today, he'd be certainly very rock and roll!"

Johnny rocks it!

Johnny is Amaze-balls! in this movie--capital A, exclamation point! He is in nearly every scene of The Libertine, a grueling 45-day shoot, and you can tell he's in it for love!

"From an actor's standpoint, when you read that opening monologue and then the ride commences, you know when you're reading that beautiful dialogue and these incredible scenes--one after the next--that you'll never ever see the likes of it again," he says. Since the movie is based on a play, it very much feels like one because of the heavy dialogue and long scenes. Wouldn't it be fantastic if Johnny were ever in a play? Well, this is as close as you're going to get for now.

Of course, Johnny's dedication goes deeper than saying some gorgeous prose. He got to know the person behind the story and how he really lived. "Why? How do you arrive there? How do you arrive at that need for such excess and the need for self-medication because I don't think it was about fun for him," he says of Wilmot. "My angle was ultimately an attempt to understand the guy, and then trying my best to please him. It's ultimately a kind of love letter to him. Hopefully it comes off that way."

Long before shooting began, Johnny and Laurence Dunmore worked collaboratively on his character and how Wilmot impacted everything, from the cast and story to the movie as a whole. "Our process was one of continual discussion. It was a constant collaboration and a constant evolution that I certainly found immensely rewarding," the director says. "Johnny was very engaged and absorbed in Rochester as a man, as a historical figure, and as a writer. I think we were both informed and yet we were also empowered to interpret Rochester and how he comes across on screen."

Johnny admits that had they made the film when originally planned a decade before, it wouldn't have been the same. "It might have been okay, but I don't know that I was ready or that I could've understood so much of Rochester," he says. But, of course, everyone had great faith in their star: "Johnny Depp possesses an incredible ability to engage both on an individual level and an audience as a whole," Laurence Dunmore says. "His power in this piece, I think, is a testament to his ability as an actor to both transform and also to bring an audience into a world that he exists in." And, Writer Stephen Jeffreys points out what I'm always thinking: "You could look at his face for a minute and it's never doing the same thing twice in all that time. He just has that ability to convey deep feeling and what's going on in his head through his eyes and his mouth and these tiny moves of the face, and I think that's an incredible skill." It's true!

And, it's not always pretty. He is dying of syphilis through about half the movie, and he's quite wretched by the end. Johnny admits it wasn't an easy road: "It was a long, long way from sitting with John Malkovich in Chicago, and sitting in a restaurant saying, 'Yeah, I'd love to do it,' to suddenly, you're standing there almost 10 years later, and you realized what you've gotten yourself into: You've made a serious commitment, and you now have a very serious responsibility to this guy. You've got to dig down deep. You've got to get a little squirrly here and there and go places you don't necessary enjoy going to. I think, as an actor, you have to constantly test yourself, or push yourself, to go places that maybe you're scared to go to or places you haven't wanted to go to. I think you have to put yourself in a situation where you go, 'I could fail miserably.' I felt myself there. But I've felt myself there in a lot of things I've done. And I think it's a good thing." The Libertine brought out some of Johnny's best acting ever. Ever!

Who knew Gordon could get there too?

I was afraid of getting to this movie for Johnny Kitties. Was I bound to draw some Kitty-inappropriate scene? It turned out to be an easy choice.

I love that, in this movie, nearly everything indoors is lit by candles! It's beautiful! In one of my favorite scenes, John Wilmot visits his latest muse, Elizabeth Barrie (Mini), at the theatre to help her with her acting. Gigantic chandeliers hang low above the stage at mid-day, as everyone is preparing for that evening's performance. It's as if the room is on fire as Johnny and Samantha Morton play this intense 11-minute scene.

You can tell by the movement of the camera that Laurence Dunmore is following them around with the equipment on his shoulder getting in their faces. (At one point, lost in the moment, he actually did catch fire and the actors rushed to put him out.) Despite such distractions, these actors are deep in it! The director says that each time they shot those 8 pages of dialogue was a single take. I mean, come on! Where are the acting Oscars for this one?

What's next?

Johnny gets a little lighter...and frothier...as Willy Wonka in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

For more images from The Libertine or information about Johnny Kitties, see my blog post, here: melissaconnolly.blogspot.com/2013/04/johnny-kitties-celeb...

a graphite and prisma study drawing of my sweet kitty Lyric at age 17 ..and 1998 - 2015

"I don't want anyone to feel sorry for me. Not just me, a lot of people put an incredible amount of their life into this thing, and it all fell apart. For all of us, in that sense, [Lost in La Mancha] is the only postcard we've got of what happened." --Terry Gilliam

This disaster actually happened.

When Johnny Depp signed on for The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, reteaming with director Terry Gilliam and costarring with his real-life partner Vanessa Paradis, I instantly couldn't wait to see it! Johnny was to play Toby Grosini, a modern-day advertising executive who travels back into the 17th century, where Don Quixote (Jean Rochefort) mistakes him for Sancho Panza. Vanessa Paradis was to play Johnny's love interest, Altisidora.

It's tragic that this project never got off the ground. (Tragic, I tell you!) But Lost in La Mancha is a worthy keepsake. This fascinating documentary chronicles Terry Gilliam's efforts to get The Man Who Killed Don Quixote made, starting from preproduction and ending after the sixth day of shooting, by which time they accomplished completing about 7 minutes of film. Everything possible went wrong, and they were all out of the director's control--illness, F16 drills, monumental storms, floods. This was an extreme case of fate.

The curse of Don Quixote lives!

In 1957, Orson Welles started working on his own version of Don Quixote, the story of a delusional old man wearing a homemade suit of armor who seeks adventure with his sidekick, Sancho Panza. The film was left unfinished when he died in 1982, and I hope the same doesn't happen to Terry Gilliam! Whenever I watch Lost in La Mancha, I'm reminded that I still want to see The Man Who Killed Don Quixote--Gilliam-style!

Because I love movies, I love this documentary, which offers a behind-the-scenes look at the tedium of moviemaking (basically lots of meetings and zillions of details). Fascinating, right? Well, what I find exhilarating is watching a team of people bring one person's vision to life--building sets and designing costumes, talking through the script and rehearsing scenes, etc.--especially when that person is as imaginative a director as Terry Gilliam is.

Terry Gilliam began working on The Man Who Killed Don Quixote in 1991. He had tried to film it in 1999, but funding for it fell through. This second attempt was to be the most expensive film made solely with European funds, and it's only half of the budget that the director needed. Terry Gilliam has a bad reputation when it comes to financing, which is why he went to Europe to make this movie. It stems from his experience making The Adventures of Baron Munchausen in 1988. During that shoot, problem after problem occurred and spending got out of control. The film was finished but didn't recoup its losses at the box office, and it got around town that Terry Gilliam was a wild director who didn't know how to manage. I'll never understand the taste of the general public, but The Adventures of Baron Munchausen is one of my all-time favorite movies, and it's because Terry Gilliam made it just right.

Lost in La Mancha hints at how The Man Who Killed Don Quixote might become Munchaussen Revisited for the director, but these new problems were unavoidable. While Terry Gilliam is an over-the-top showman who's entertaining to watch doing just about anything, the film combats his reputation by reflecting a serious, methodical director with a clear plan.

He asked filmmakers Luis Pepe and Keith Fulton to create a diary of the making of this film. "It may be the kind of narcissism that wants to see what the truth is--Because I don't know what reality is, let's assume that for a moment," Terry Gilliam says. "And here's a chance for someone to record what's really going on and then maybe learn something." Having worked with Terry Gilliam before on a documentary about the making of one of his other movies, 12 Monkeys, it's pretty amazing to see how much they capture in this one and how candid everyone is on film as things begin to go downhill. "It's not an exploitative kind of documentary," co-director Keith Fulton says, "It depicts a disaster, but it doesn't take it apart and look to see whose fault it was because, in fact, it wasn't really anyone's fault. It was a lot of ugly fate at work in what took this film down."

Here's a few of the problems during preproduction and on the set of The Man Who Killed Don Quixote that get Terry Gilliam and company Lost in La Mancha:

-- Star Jean Rochefort becomes ill the day before filming is to begin. Terry Gilliam decides to shoot scenes that don't involve him until he returns.

-- The first location to be shot is a NATO bombing training area. Officials say they'll only be training for an hour each day, which really meant all day long and ruined any chance of recording suitable audio. Johnny describes being near target practice of the F16s: "I remember being completely shocked by the sound of this plane screaming in--deafening! Between the set, where we were shooting, and the base camp, which is where our trailers were, you heard the plane scream and then a bomb exploding--and fire, a little blast of fire."

-- During lunch on the second day, the clear sunny sky is invaded by black clouds of death. Unlike everyone else who takes cover as rain and hail drench the desert, Terry Gilliam finds a rock to sit under and waits it out: "It was a great, biblical storm. It was God's vengeance! It was everything you ever hoped for! Everything howled, shattered, and crashed, and the rain was coming down, and this barren land was suddenly full of waterfalls! Then, it turned to hail the size of golf balls! And, I'm under this rock yelling, 'Yes! Yes! Gimmie all you got! You're not going to get me!'"

-- The rain stops, Terry Gilliam emerges from under his rock, and finds that everything is washed away--Everything. "There's nothing left. The tents are down. The sets are gone. The people are gone. There's nothing but mud as far as you can see," he describes. "I thought, 'I'm free at last. This burden of a film is off me, and I don't have to do it again!'"

-- On Day 4, the land is dry again, but the water from the storm has changed the landscape's hue and shape. It looks completely different and won't match the scenes that have already been shot on Day 1.

-- Finally, there's some good news: Jean Rochefort returns and shoots a scene! And, then there's bad news: It's clear that he's in serious pain. A few days later, doctors discover that the star has a double-herniated disc. His return is questionable.

After a while, the filmmakers felt awkward hanging around with cameras with everything falling apart around them. They called Terry Gilliam to voice their concerns, and he told them to keep going: "I've been working for 10 years to try and make this film. It's starting to look like I might not get to make the film, which means only one film is going to come out of it, and it's not going to be mine. So, it better be yours."

Don't worry, nothing happens to Johnny!

Because much of this documentary covers preproduction, Johnny isn't in Lost in La Mancha very much. He shows up, fresh from the set of Chocolat, about a week before shooting. If, like me, you love to see the man at work, there are some snippets of him discussing the script with Terry Gilliam and Jean Rochefort and--of course--some of him acting whatever scenes they could actually get in the can that first day. If, like me, you are also perfectly happy watching Johnny just sit around sipping coffee or whatever, there's some of that too. Among the DVD special features, he'll treat you to some interviews about the experience too.

Johnny was eager to work with Terry Gilliam again, having really enjoyed the experience of working with him on Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas in the '90s. "He is a lunatic, but I mean that as a great, great compliment because Terry, in a lot of ways, is really free. He's not bound by the realities that 'this is possible, this is not possible.' Terry's a great dreamer. He's able to put his visions into an arena and make them come true."

Despite everything, Johnny remained optimistic: "Against all odds, it felt like it was going to be a really great film." But Vanessa Paradis never even made it to the set. She arrived to do costume and makeup tests, seen to the right, but she wasn't scheduled to arrive on the set until Day 7--the day after everything shut down.

Vanessa Paradis is hugely popular in her native France as a model, singer, and actress. Johnny met her 1998 while filming The Ninth Gate in Paris, and they have two kids together. They've never worked on film together before, and I've barely heard Vanessa speak any English during their 14-year relationship, so I was keen to see her in this movie, where she would be in an English-speaking role. Alas, it wasn't meant to be. And, since she and Johnny decided to go their separate ways last June, I don't think it's going to happen. Sad, all around.

What now?

After everything that happened, Terry Gilliam remains defiant: "I'm going to make the film. I may have to recast the thing. There are a lot of things that may be different, but it's too good a script. I just know it's good. Everyone who reads it says this is magic. "As the years have gone by, he has fought to regain the rights to his script from investors, and Johnny's schedule has become increasing packed. The last I heard, our hero director had his script back and recast the film with Robert Duvall as Don Quixote and Ewan McGregor as Toby Grosini. (I'll take it!) He hopes they'll start shooting next spring. Keep your fingers crossed.

For a glimpse of what The Man Who Killed Don Quixote could be, you can see the trailer to Lost in La Mancha on YouTube: youtu.be/5dGJnttADJA

Fish fights? Giants? I don't know what it all means, but--come on--don't you want to see it?!

Do The Kitties need to know what's going on?

Rather than focus on all the disasters and unfortunate events, The Kitties celebrate what little film Terry Gilliam was able to shoot of The Man Who Killed Don Quixote. Contemplating the untimely demise of his 10-year project, Terry Gilliam (Norman) watches with (I think) Casting Director Irene Lamb (Ashes) a bit of film he shot of Johnny leading his horse through the desert. I think the horse is carrying Don Quixote (B.J.), but no one can say for sure because none of us has seen this movie!

What's next?

Johnny signs on to play a pirate in a Disney movie based on one of their run-down theme park rides. I keep the faith but am slightly worried that he may have lost some marbles.

For more images from Lost in La Mancha or information about Johnny Kitties, visit my blog, Melissa's Kitties: melissaconnolly.blogspot.com/2012/10/johnny-kitties-celeb...

"He who makes a beast of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man." Samuel Johnson

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas really is a savage journey. Journalist Raoul Duke (Johnny Depp) takes his Samoan attorney Dr. Gonzo (Benicio Del Toro) to Las Vegas for three days. Officially on assignment to cover the Mint 400 motorcycle race, they instead end up on a psychedelic search for the American Dream, which they see slowly disappearing at the start of the 1970s. Based on Hunter S. Thompson's classic book and directed by Terry Gilliam, this movie is one crazy, hard-to-describe trip. Really, you just have to follow Hunter Thompson's mantra: Buy the ticket, take the ride.

Hunter Thompson is credited with inventing gonzo journalism, for which reporters become part of the stories they're writing. Fear and Loathing is based on two of those experiences, which Hunter shared with his attorney, Oscar Zeta Acosta. The manuscript originally appeared in Rolling Stone magazine but was later published as a book, which many, many people love--including Johnny and lots of other celebrities. "The thing that's interesting about Fear and Loathing is that it's one of the great American books and, luckily, some of the fans of that had risen to positions of power in Hollywood," Terry Gilliam said. "So, they were the first victims of this project."

I read Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, but I didn't become a cult follower. In fact, I don't remember much about it. Full disclaimer: I don't remember any books much after I read them. But, I do remember that the writing was fantastic--descriptive, vivid, and exciting--so I understood why people would fall in love with it. I think I just didn't relate to all the extracurricular activities.

Don't see this movie with your parents.

My parents hated this movie. I can't blame them; the movie is shocking when you first see it (or maybe every time you see it). I felt pretty sick afterward myself. This film polarized people when it was released: Some loved it and some despised it. It was killed at the Cannes Film Festival, but it now enjoys a prolific life on DVD, even becoming a quick member of the Criterion Collection (Awesome!).

The people who hated this movie, mainly saw it as two drugged-out idiots on a joy ride to Las Vegas and claimed that it somehow glorified drug use. While I don't usually let bad reviews bother me, reviews that took this viewpoint really made me angry. (Do you hear me, Roger Ebert?) After seeing this movie, the last thing I wanted to do was drugs. By the end, the state of things--their trashed hotel room, their attitudes toward each other and others--gets disgusting and dangerous.

Terry Gilliam showed Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas to people in recovery from substance use. While they got into it quickly, laughing during the first half of the film, they got quieter as it went on. By the end, they were all ashen and white-faced. (I've never had an addiction, but this, basically, was my exact experience with the film when I first saw it. What's that mean?) "There was one particular actor I knew who wouldn't comment. He just had to leave at the end," Terry Gilliam said. "He called back a couple hours later, having escaped, and said, 'No one will ever have to make a drug movie ever again.'"

Raoul Duke and Dr. Gonzo aren't heroes, and this movie isn't about taking drugs. I always saw it as a period piece, marking the end of the '60s, the decade of love and peace. These two guys are still in that era and wondering what new darkness--the assassinations of the John Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, and Martin Luther King, the Vietnam War, Richard Nixon's corruption--is surrounding them. It's about hypocrisy and something lost. "These characters were pretty angry about the system, about how the system had failed them," Benicio Del Toro said. "The '60s had blown up in their faces--their ideals."

"Never trust anyone in the depths of an ether binge."

There are a lot of drugs in this movie. It's constant, and you can't help but feel it. But that's what Terry Gilliam was going for: "It was very important to show that the drugs, right from the beginning, were in their brains, that the world itself was what it was, but the way they saw it was completely altered by whatever it was they stuffed into their bodies. The point was to try to disorient the audience as quickly as possible." By the end of it, you feel nauseated and wonder how Hunter Thompson and Oscar Zeta Acosta survived that long weekend. For a long time afterward, Johnny and Benicio Del Toro were asked how they managed to film Fear and Loathing while being under the influence the whole time. (For the record, they both have repeatedly confirmed that no drugs were ever taken. Simply put, Johnny said, "You couldn't do it.")

Listening to the DVD commentaries helped me understand and appreciate the film better. After listening to all the passion and thought everyone--director, cast, and crew--put into it, you realize that blood, sweat, tears, heart, soul, and guts are in this movie. Terry Gilliam describes the film as a journey through Hell: At first, it's not that bad, then it's horrible, and then you make it to the other side. Others have described the first half as the fear and the second half as the loathing. I see both really clearly!

So what's to love about Fear and Loathing?

- Johnny's performance: Genius! If you've ever seen Hunter Thompson in action, Johnny captured it. It's practically uncanny. He spent months with the author, living in his basement, stealing his clothes, voice, mannerisms, and whatever else he could. "He was creepy, always hanging around, mimicking everything I was doing," Hunter Thompson said. "He would do it with other people around!" In that time, they became dear friends and comrades until the author's death in 2005. By the time Johnny got on set, being Hunter was second nature, and I'm pretty sure Hunter Thompson's under his skin now and forever. I'd sing the same praises for Benicio Del Toro, but his performance scares me! (I think that means he did an equally excellent job.)

- Terry Gilliam: I was ridiculously excited when I heard Johnny was to work with Terry Gilliam, whom I grew up watching as part of Monty Python Flying Circus. (If you haven't seen Monty Python, why not? Aside from his parts in the sketches, Terry Gilliam did all the animation on the show.) He also directed one of my favorite movies ever, The Adventures of Baron Munchhausen. I couldn't imagine a better director for this movie. Funnily, the producers were concerned when he confessed to them that he'd never taken acid before. "We worried that he wouldn't know how to do Fear and Loathing," said producer Laila Nabulski. "But what we realized quickly was that Terry's a very different kind of guy and doesn't need to take acid, and hopefully will never take acid because God knows what would happen then!"

- Hunter Thompson: You wouldn't have this movie without the author. What I find interesting about this film is that it's based on a true story. The names aren't the same, but Hunter Thompson and Oscar Zeta Acosta went through it. They were real people, who were highly respected, and had real jobs. Oscar Zeta Acosta was an important lawyer who became an activist for the Chicano Movement in Los Angeles. Hunter Thompson met him in 1967 while writing an article for Rolling Stone about the injustices in the East L.A. barrios and the trial for the murder of Los Angeles Times columnist Ruben Salazar. It was during that first meeting that they made their first trip to Las Vegas that led to the writing of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. After seeing this film adaptation, Hunter Thompson said,"It was like an eerie trumpet call over a lost battlefield." Johnny was pleased.

No catnip was used during the creation of this drawing.

Like Terry Gilliam's friends in recovery, I enjoy the first half of this movie most. You can't beat the film's opening sequence with Duke and Dr. Gonzo zooming down the highway on their way to Vegas. My favorite part is when the bats appear: You get your first taste of the visual genius Terry Gilliam's got in store. You're in for the ride--like it or not.

Meanwhile, Johnny revisits William Blake.

In addition to Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Johnny filmed a pretty substantial cameo in another movie in 1998 called L.A. Without a Map. I just saw this film recently. While it was released internationally in 1999, it wasn't available in the United States until years later. Who decides these things?

In this movie, a British writer named Richard (David Tennant) falls in love with a visiting aspiring actress (Vinessa Shaw). In a grand romantic gesture, he follows her to Los Angeles to win her heart and start life anew. Throughout the movie, Richard asks advice from Johnny, addressing a Dead Man poster he has displayed on his apartment wall. It's a the head shot of Johnny as William Blake, aiming his gun. While Johnny doesn't speak from the poster or the other film billboards that Richard sees from his L.A. apartment, he shrugs or gestures what he's thinking. I loved the creativity of this kind of cameo. Later on, Johnny does speak, showing up as himself in a couple of scenes with Richard.

This is a cute little movie. I assume Johnny was asked to participate in it, since he's sort of an essential character in the story. I suppose they could have picked any actor to be Richard's idol, but maybe Johnny's name came up because he is friends with some people in the cast (including Vincent Gallo, his costar in Arizona Dream). Or, maybe he was eager to work with the director (Mika Kaurismaki). Or, maybe he was excited to share a scene with Anouk Aimee. I'm not sure, but there are my theories. I think he did it as a favor, since he's uncredited and didn't get paid. He's like that. If you can't find this movie, you can see clips of Johnny's cameo on YouTube.

What's Next?

Johnny is invaded in The Astronaut's Wife!

For more images of Johnny in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and L.A. Without a Map, see Melissa's Kitties blog: melissaconnolly.blogspot.com/2012/01/johnny-kitties-celeb...

A Look at a Hard Life

Based on the autobiography by Reinaldo Arenas, Before Night Falls explores the life and times of the Cuban poet/novelist from childhood through the Cuban Revolution to his death in the United States. This powerful drama, directed by Julian Schnabel, offers an unforgettable glimpse into the repressed yet prolific life of an artist, fighting for the universal rights of acceptance and freedom of expression.

When I came up with the idea of Johnny Kitties, this is the movie I dreaded revisiting. My sister and I saw it together in Cincinnati, where she lived at the time. One of her friends described it as "just beautiful." I only knew two things about it: Johnny was in it, and it was directed by one of his friends. We had to see it! We eagerly entered the theater but left slightly traumatized. Knowing nothing about Reinaldo Arenas, we weren't prepared for the oppression, false imprisonment, solitary confinement, horrific failed attempt to escape from Havana for Florida by inner tube, sickness, AIDS, death..... My sister summed it up well, "Ugh, that movie!" It was kind of a downer, and I dreaded seeing the movie again because all I remembered were the bad and sad bits.

But it's worth a look!

It turns out that this movie is beautiful! All those things do happen during Reinaldo Arenas's amazing life but, through it all, he continued to write and his voice was heard. Can you imagine being in those circumstances--falsely accused and jailed in dingy, over-crowded prisons--and yet finding a way to write vivid literature amid the chaos? After publishing only one book in Cuba, he had to smuggle the rest out of the country to be printed. "He's a symbol of endurance, and he had a lot of character," director Julian Schnabel said of Arenas. "He would have had it a lot easier if he wasn't true to himself."

Although he fought with the rebels, Reinaldo Arenas was constantly repressed by authorities who shunned not only his books for their accurate portrayal of Cuban life but his homosexuality. "The important thing is not that he's gay or not," said cinematographer and friend Guillermo Rosas. "It's that he's a person who is fighting for his freedom, for his own beliefs, and for his own personality. That's what counts." Javier Bardem, who is brilliantly portrays the writer in this film, agrees: "This movie is not about Cuba or Fidel Castro at all. This movie is fighting intolerance, and intolerance happens all around the world." Reinaldo Arenas eventually got a pass out of Cuba when authorities were purging anyone who didn't support the regime. In New York, while he became a reluctant political symbol against Cuba's oppression, he could, at last, live and write freely. Too bad he dies at the end.

But Reinaldo Arenas left a lasting impression on many. "We all feel that we have difficulty expressing ourselves. We all feel that our forms of expression are under-appreciated and repressed," film composer Carter Burwell said. "Here's a man who manages to overcome that in much more dire circumstances than most of us will ever know. In that sense, he's a hero because he gives, hopefully, direction and form to these unformed feelings that we have of not properly expressing ourselves." Javier Bardem said we could all learn from the writer's life: "His example to us is a person with the strength to survive without hurting anyone. Reinaldo didn't hurt anybody. He put all his anger, sadness, and happiness into his writing, so he made art with that."

Director Julian Schnabel is a prominent New York painter. You can tell this movie is directed by an artist because the scenes are all visually moving--evoking emotions, sometimes just with color and space. The film is in free form--sometimes telling the story, sometimes looking like a still painting, sometimes seeming like a documentary--pieced together like a collage. Julian Schnabel explained, "This movie is made for the screen. I mean, you can lick the colors off the screen. I used different filmstocks and gels to make the color of the movie seem like you were in a time warp, like the movie was Life magazine, 1959. If you're going to make a movie about Cuba, time has to stand still." Though I haven't seen them all, he's directed several interesting films so far, including Basquiat and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (both of which I recommend highly).

Before Night Falls was nominated for a bunch of awards, several of which went to Javier Bardem for his amazing performance. (Is he ever not amazing, though?)

Bon-Bon vs. Lieutenant Victor

Johnny is only in this movie for approximately 6 minutes. (They should tell you these things in the previews.) After all the talk, you'd think he had a starring role. I guess it was big news because he signed on to play two roles, one of which happened to be a glamazon transvestite named Bon-Bon. The other role, Lieutenant Victor, is an angry, mean interrogator.

Johnny worked on this movie for free, just for the chance to work with Julian Schnabel, his old friend. (Julian taught Johnny how to paint. If you haven't seen Johnny's paintings, I can tell you that Julian Schnabel is a good teacher! You can see some of Johnny's paintings, including one of Julian himself, here: www.deppimpact.com/artwork.php.) "Johnny couldn't have been cooler about the whole thing," Julian Schnabel said. "He really loved the story we were telling and wanted to help get it told. Johnny is incredibly exacting. He brings energy and a sense of playfulness to his roles. He's just inspired, and totally free--no hang-ups." I remember Johnny talking about his role as Bon-Bon, thinking it'd be a quick, simple job--just fly in for the day, do the work, and go home. In the end, he instead summed up portraying his Sophia-Lorenesque transvestite with, "This is hard!"

Gordon can't be two cats at the same time.

While Johnny is great in both roles, as Bon-Bon and Lieutenant Victor, Victor is not a nice person. When you have the choice of an evil authority figure or an alluring transvestite who brings sunshine wherever she goes, it's an easy one to make.

So, here, Reinaldo (Simon) watches Bon-Bon make her entrance, to the joy of all the other inmates (including B.J., Comet, and Norman). As Reinaldo described, "She was so glamorous that, when she walked by, she made everyone feel like they were in the movies." With Bon-Bon's special help, Reinaldo Arenas was able to smuggle one of his novels out for the world to read.

What's Next?

Johnny is the strong silent type in The Man Who Cried.

In Other News....

Happy birthday, Johnny!!! :-)

To see images from Before Night Falls, visit Melissa's Kitties blog here, melissaconnolly.blogspot.com/2012/06/johnny-kitties-celeb...

Ad hoc wood "flooring" made out of our old built-in shelves (painted purple after the addition, but ultimately fell apart), a freecycle shelf, my boss's old desk, pieces of my old entertainment center, and various wood we had leftover from installing the attic dor/etc. No built-in light, but a nail to hang a flashlight from. No outlet for a boombox, but it's right above our main music room.

I take huge pieces of styrofoam up there to put under the ducts, so the air has a straighter path, and so if something puts weight on them, they are less likely to get torn. Our ducts are torn to hell from raccoons and have a lot of duct tape, anyway.

Why is there a frying pan up there? To collect a leak that was happening once upon a time? Did we bring that back to the kitchen?

"Eat Shit & Die" "Heather is cold and done... Like Really" "What's up Sluts?" "Eat Pussy"

pooping.

ashtray, bucket, cat drawing, graffiti, ladder, pegasus drawing, sticking out tongue, unicorn drawing, wood.

Eat shit and die. What's up sluts?

attic, Clint and Carolyn's house, Alexandria, Virginia.

September 6, 2013.

Art by Angel Preble.

... Read my blog at ClintJCL at wordpress.com

... Read Carolyn's blog at CarolynCASL at wordpress.com

... Read Angel's blog at ansaphone4.livejournal.com/

... View Angel's photos at www.flickr.com/photos/ansaphone4/

BACKSTORY: We took pictures of the graffiti that people left in our attic during past parties.

[What is Johnny Kitties? See Johnny Kitties: Celebrating Johnny Depp for all the details here: melissaconnolly.blogspot.com/2010/06/johnnys-kitties-john....]

The Final Year

I know, you've been sweatin' it all month long, but don't worry: Hanson got out of jail during the first episode of 21 Jump Street's fourth season. Imagine how I felt when I had to wait all summer! It turned out that, even though he thought he might have, Hanson didn't murder anyone at all! He was framed! I knew it!

As the years went by, the producers must have realized the Jump Street cast was getting older. While the show still covered its typical issues—drugs, violence, abuse—the series seemed to be running out of ideas true to its original premise of crimes in high schools. I remember Season 4 most for the main characters’ personal stories. This season, Hanson--who 4 years ago was squeaky clean and green--experiences life in and after prison, Ioki recovers from nearly fatal gunshot wounds and his addiction to pain killers, and Hoffs is assaulted! Booker breaks some rules to get Hanson out of jail and loses his job as a result--all commendable, but I still find him to be an untrustworthy mystery.

Star of the Season

For me, Penhall (Peter Deluise) stole the show in Season 4. We bonded over our mutual disgust with Booker’s involvement in Hanson arrest. Then he fell and love and turned into a prince. In a storyline that had me glued to the TV, Penhall falls for Marta, an illegal immigrant from El Salvador, whom he later suspects being involved in a baby-selling ring. (See what I mean about the lack of student-driven stories?) After realizing he was wrong, he asks her to marry him in an effort to save her from deportation. Since this all happened within 5 days of their meeting, the judge in charge of Marta's case refuses to recognize the marriage and sends back to her war-torn country. In a later episode called "La Bizca," Penhall and—for moral support—Hanson travel to El Salvador to find her. Although too late, Penhall agrees to care for her nephew Clavo and adjusts to fatherhood for the rest of the season.

Aside from this fascinating drama, this season is jumbled. Episodes aired out of order. (One week, Captain Fuller has a beard. Next week, he doesn't. The week after, he does. Then, he doesn't. In one episode, he says he can't remember the last time he saw his son Kip when loyal viewers know it was just a couple of years ago that Kip visited and was introduced to everyone at Jump Street.)

Star Ready to Go

By now, Johnny was clearly over working on 21 Jump Street. In some episode--in what I can only guess is protest--his face is covered by his hair and he barely speaks. This tactic is most noticeable in "Blackout," an episode that was filmed during Season 4 but aired as the first episode of Season 5. In other Season 4 episodes, Johnny occupying himself in scenes by tossing fruit or playing with desk props. In the Halloween episode, he dressed up as Robert DeNiro's character in Taxi Driver.

Peter Deluise explains, "Johnny was always very cool, a very misunderstood guy. He was incredibly shy and because of that, he'd keep quite quiet." Many people mistook Johnny's shyness for aloofness, and the massive publicity caused by the show drove him crazy. Growing out his hair until it completely covered his face, Peter says, was a reaction to all that.

In a 2008 interview with David Letterman, Johnny recalled an incident that expressed his feelings back then. Driving on Fox's California lot, he spotting a billboard that featured his close-up, posing with a gun. "Some kids pack lunch," it read. He and a friend returned to the site that night on roller skates. Armed with paint buckets and rollers, they blanked out the gun and were improving the rest of the image with their own artwork before being interrupted by a security guard.

Confused, the guard notices the resemblance: "That's you."

--"I know." Johnny confirms.

--"Well, what are you doing?"

--"I don't like it. I think it's wrong."

Frustrated, the guard looks at his watch and responds, "Well....hurry!" The billboard was gone the next day.

Despite his frustration, Johnny put in some spectacular performances this season, from the El Salvador to his salute to Charlie Chaplin. Exciting guest stars included: Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Vince Vaughn, Rosie Perez, and John Waters. Let's get to it!

Here, The Kitties highlight Johnny's fourth and final season on 21 Jump Street:

• Episode 56. Draw the Line: In the first episode of the season, Hanson fulfills my fantasy and punches Booker out for getting him arrested for murder.

• Episode 57. Say It Ain't So, Pete: I randomly videotaped this episode when it first aired and since saved and savored it. It's an ordinary episode, but I came to love it just because—until these DVD sets came out—it's all I had left to remember the Jump Street Years. Investigating a college gambling operation, Hanson (shown here) is taken to the racetrack and wins a bet on a horse. Also in this episode, Hoffs is promoted to detective, and Ioki returns to work after his long, worrisome hospital stay.

• Episode 59. Come from the Shadows: Penhall experiences love at first sight with cafeteria lunch lady, Marta, an illegal immigrant from El Salvador.

• Episode 66. Wheels and Deals, Part 2: Because he ran the risk of being recognized by those involved, everyone but Hanson helps bring down the top guy behind his murder charge in this two-part episode. Hoffs--who was kept out of the operation--becomes suspicious when everyone comes down with a mysterious case of "bad clams" and she finds Hanson lounging behind Captain Fuller's desk, eating grapes. I remembered nothing from this episode except for their scene together, which still makes me laugh.

• Episode 73. Hi Mom: Captain Fuller gets a second visit teenage son, Kip, who first appeared in Season 2. Enrolled in college, Kip decides to move in with his dad instead of the dorms.

• Episode 74. Awomp-Bomp-Aloobomp, Aloop-Bamboom: Hanson and Penhall follow a student who is searching for his ex-girlfriend during Spring Break in Florida. To get there from their cold, snowy surroundings, they end up on a bus trip led by cult leader, Mr. Bean, played by John Waters. I didn't remember John Waters being a guest star on 21 Jump Street--a very strange place for him to be. But it was a wonderful sign of things to come! It meant that, by this silly episode, Johnny had seen light at the end of the tunnel, having spent his summer working with this famed director on his next film project.

• Episode 75. La Bizca: In one of my favorite episodes, Penhall and Hanson go to El Salvador to save Marta. Tragically unsuccessful, Penhall returns home with his adorable nephew Clavo. (Mini is thrilled to join the cast in this role!)

• Episode 79. How I Saved the Senator: This is the best episode ever. It ended up being Johnny’s last for the series. All of the Jump Street officers attended an event during which a senator is attacked. They each claim to have a hand in saving the day. A reporter comes to them for their stories in hopes of scoring a movie deal, so each tell their version—imagining themselves as the star of a movie in their favorite film genre. Ioki's Bruce Lee tribute was my favorite. Hoffs played a '40s jazz singer with a sly ex-boyfriend played by Ray Parker, Jr. Sal was stuck in a horror film fighting off a multiple-masked killer with a plunger. Penhall channeled James Bond. As a cowboy, Captain Fuller rode on horseback into the sunset. Asked to tell his side of the story, Hanson responded, "There are no words," and paid tribute to Charlie Chaplin in his own little silent movie.

Johnny made a fitting exit from his 4-year stint on TV, don’t you think? What’s your favorite episode from Johnny’s last season on 21 Jump Street?

Glory, hallelujah!

Although committed to one more season of 21 Jump Street, Johnny is released from his contract, finds a fantastic new agent named Tracey Jacobs, and heads back to Hollywood on his own terms.

See you there next month when we meet Cry-Baby!

Visit Melissa's Kitties' blog: melissaconnolly.blogspot.com.

Happy birthday, Johnny!!!

Are you singing, eating cake, watching a Johnny Movie?

Find a way to toast Johnny Depp today on his 48th birthday!

Can you believe it's been a year since I started Johnny Kitties (http://melissaconnolly.blogspot.com/2010/06/johnnys-kitties-johnny-depp-project.html)? And I'm still in the '90s! The Kitties and I are having a fantastic time chugging along Johnny's filmography. Some drawings have been quick; some have taken weeks. (It's a good thing that this is only a once-a-month treat!) But what's the difference when it's a labor of love?

Speaking of love, what are the odds that my all-time favorite Johnny Movie would be posted on Johnny's birthday? I don't know what it means, but it's got to be more than a coincidence, don't you think?

Let's get to it!

Who is Gilbert Grape?

Because he had already read the wonderful book by Peter Hedges, Johnny Depp agreed to star in What's Eating Gilbert Grape? before the script was written. "If Johnny had not said, 'I'll do it,' without a script, I don't think the movie would have happened," Hedges says. That would have been tragic!

What's Eating Gilbert Grape? chronicles a year in the life of Gilbert (Johnny Depp) in Endora, Iowa. Nothing much happens in Endora. It's the type of town you pass through, but Gilbert is tied to it in a life consumed by family responsibilities. He lives with his two sisters, his mentally challenged brother, and his morbidly obese mother, who hasn't left the house in years. Gilbert spends most of his time taking care of his 18-year-old brother Arnie (Leonardo DiCaprio), who has the mind of a 5-year-old and who doctors warn "could go at anytime." Gilbert's routines consist of working at the local grocery store, carrying on an affair with Mrs. Betty Carver (Mary Steenburgen), and having mundane conversations with his two buddies Tucker and Bobby (John C. Reilly and Cripin Glover) at the town diner.

Every year, Arnie and Gilbert wave to the annual parade of trailers that drive through town on their way to more interesting places. When one breaks down, Becky (Juliette Lewis) and her grandmother see Endora in a different light while waiting for their trailer to be fixed. Meeting the stranded strangers changes Gilbert's life, helping him see things a little differently too.

The One that Captured my Heart

By now, my parents realized that my loyalty to Johnny Depp was not dwindling. I was really excited that Johnny signed on for this movie because I admired the director, Lasse Hallstrom, whose great award-winning Swedish film, My Life as a Dog, I had somehow recently seen. To my great surprise, Dad suggested that we take the 90-minute drive to an artsy theater in Cleveland, the only theater in the vicinity showing What's Eating Gilbert Grape? Part of the deal was to stop by my dad's friends' house in Broadview Heights beforehand. They were happily surprised to see us, and shortly after our arrival, dad explained what brought on this sudden visit. Here's how that went:

Dad: "Well, do you know Johnny Depp?

Friends: "Yes."

Dad: "Well, Melissa is deeply in love with him."

Me: "Daaaaaaaad!!!!!"

Dad: "What?"

I don't remember the rest of that conversation. Maybe I fainted.

For the longest time, I referred to What's Eating Gilbert Grape? as The Best Johnny Movie Ever. Some newer Johnny Movies may have assumed that title for a while, but this remains in my heart as The One. I can't really articulate why I love it so much: Granted, I gravitate toward quiet, character-driven films. And, at the time, I lived in a town similar to Endora and understood Gilbert's frustrations of being stuck in the monotony. But I think Lasse Hallstrom put it best: "This film was a wonderful coincidence of the right people getting together with the right story at the right moment. I was very lucky for that." (Yes, we all are!)

Endora and its citizens are completely believable and recognizable. With a stellar cast, the acting is so natural that you can't help but think it's all real. In Endora, the big news is the impending arrival of Burger Barn, a fast food franchise. "They are cutting edge," Gilbert's friend Tucker says. "They use Canola oil! I bet you don't even know what that is!" Bobby runs the local funeral parlor with his father. When Gilbert asks him how business is going, he responds, "Not good. No one is dying." No wonder Becky, with her fresh perspective, is just who Gilbert needs.

When this film was released, two of its stars got all the press. There's no doubt that Leonardo DiCaprio deserved all the praise, awards, and Oscar nomination he received for his genius performance as Arnie. And, after being spotted on Sally Jesse Rafael's talk show discussing obesity, Darlene Cates scored the role of Mama and won the hearts of audiences--and everyone around her--because of her remarkable spirit and bravery. She turned out to be a true natural. But I have to commend Johnny for his performance. So far, Johnny had been playing film characters labeled "oddballs," "outsiders," and--Ugh!--"quirky." Some might consider Gilbert another outsider, but to me he's an ordinary guy stuck in extraordinary circumstances. Everything is internal with Gilbert, and Johnny's talent for saying everything with his eyes is on brilliant display. Writer Peter Hedges agrees: "In some ways it's the harder performance, particularly since, in the novel, he gets all the thoughts," he says. "There's so much life going on in his performance. I don't think there are very many actors who could have come close to what he did."

Every time I watch this movie--and I've seen it many, many times--I feel the same amount of emotion as the first time, and I find something different to love about it with each viewing. Johnny feels differently: Once, he caught What's Eating Gilbert Grape? on TV and had to quickly change the station when he realized he began hyperventilating. He says of the filming experience, "I don't know if it was coincidental that I was going through this emotional turmoil or if it was something that, maybe--on some weird level--I had done to myself subconsciously because of what was required. But, anyway, I was kind of miserable at the time, and it's pretty plain to see."

Johnny modeled Gilbert after his childhood friend, Bones, which accounts for the red hair and crooked teeth. But I always felt that this character was very close to who Johnny really is. Maybe Johnny, helping to take care of his own mom while growing up in a small town with sights of a brighter future, understood Gilbert's frustrations a little too well. I could list a few parallels from his life but don't want to speculate about what only Johnny knows. What connected with me was that Gilbert was always trying to do the right thing, putting everyone else first and forgetting about himself. When Becky asks him what he wants, his response benefits only his relatives--until she interrupts,"What do you want for you, just for you?"

"I want to be a good person," he says, an improvised line that says it all.

The Kitties visit Endora.

Watching this film recently for Johnny Kitties, the latest ingredient I've come to love about What's Eating Gilbert Grape? is the amazing cinematography. Swedish cinematographer Sven Nykvist is a pioneer of the art who worked consistently with Igmar Bergman. "I loved the reverence that he inspired in people on the set," Peter Hedges remembers. "Everyone knew that they were in the presence of a master."

Deciding on and drawing a tribute worthy of What's Eating Gilbert Grape? was daunting: At first, I considered my favorite scene, Gilbert's first kiss with Becky. But Gordon and Ashes looked at each other and laughed. Next, I thought of the water tower scene, and Simon got very excited about the thought of climbing to the top. I ruled that out because of safety concerns. While the water tower scene is probably the most recognizable image from the movie, I prefer the quiet moments that make this film a gem. Since I couldn't just draw a picture of Gordon staring at something, I picked a scene at the lake.

True, this was a night scene, but it was filmed during the day and then darkened on film (by the master). Since the scene was so dark, I had to create some of my own background; then I just decided to make it lighter because what if you couldn't see it either? Chalk it up to artistic license.

Following a frightening fight with Arnie, Gilbert runs out of the house to escape what he'd done. He eventually ends up near Becky's trailer and finds her in the lake. She's coaxing Arnie, who hadn't bathed for days after having a scare with water, to join her for a swim. For a moment, Gilbert manages a flicker of a smile. Maybe he's seeing what the next chapter in his life could be like.

Did I mention I love this movie?

What can follow Gilbert Grape?

Something completely different, of course: Johnny gets in a good mood, channeling Edward D. Wood, Jr..

(Visit Melissa's Kitties' blog for more images of Johnny and from What's Eating Gilbert Grape?: melissaconnolly.blogspot.com.)

[What is Johnny Kitties? See Johnny Kitties: Celebrating Johnny Depp: melissaconnolly.blogspot.com/2010/06/johnnys-kitties-john...]

Johnny's a Lemonhead!

Before getting started with this month's tribute film, I need to mention that Johnny starred in another music video called, "It's a Shame about Ray" by the Lemonheads, a band led by his friend Evan Dando. I'm not sure exactly when this video was made, but it was around this time. This video isn't as elaborate as Tom Petty's mini-movie, "Into the Great Wide Open," but it's another good song. Besides, it's always nice to hear from the Lemonheads, and Comet--who just found the video in his MTV archives--would not let me move forward without them. The Kitties are already singing along. See it here: www.dailymotion.com/video/xunrt_the-lemonheads-it-s-a-sha...

Head back to Hollywood. Benny and Joon is about a mentally ill woman named Juniper Pearl (Mary Stuart Masterson), who has lived with her brother Benny (Aidan Quinn), an auto mechanic, since their parents were killed in a car accident years ago. One night with his buddies, Benny's sister engages in a poker game that gets out of control. Before Benny finds out about it, she loses a bet. In the pot is his friend's "stupid" cousin Sam (Johnny Depp). Reluctantly, Benny honors the wager, and Sam becomes Juniper's new caretaker, replacing the one who had quit that morning.

Sam is a movie fanatic, dresses and does tricks like Buster Keaton, and has all sorts of other eccentric habits. When I first saw this movie, I actually thought that he, too, was mentally ill, but it turns out he's just dyslexic. In this new triangle, Sam and Joon (as he spells it) are pretty much on the same wavelength. Things inevitably get complicated.

It's just a movie!

When this movie came out, commercials seemed to be everywhere, and everyone was calling it the perfect "Date Movie." The label instantly annoyed me. I hadn't seen Benny and Joon in years when I popped the DVD in for Johnny Kitties. Watching it now, I realize why the label bothers me so much--This movie tackles a serious subject.

They never explain what mental illness Joon has and instead focus mostly on the love story. Although Mary Stuart Masterson studied certain behavioral guidelines, director Jeremiah Chechik was afraid that naming any specific mental illness would bring a completely different dynamic to the film. This is probably true. Getting so specific could go horribly wrong, but I also think not knowing what's wrong with her is a missing element in the film. While Chechik wanted to blur the lines between reality and fantasy, I sometimes find situations too cute without knowing the seriousness behind them: After the last caretaker quits, for example, Benny is forced to run home from work because Joon is causing a traffic jam--wandering in the middle of the street wearing a snorkel mask and waving a ping pong paddle. Sam teaches Joon how to cook grilled cheese sandwiches with an iron, something later used to show how he and Joon will live happily ever after. By the time Joon has a real breakdown, I find it sudden, scary, and jarring.

Despite this unevenness, Benny and Joon is a very sweet film with some wonderful moments and unforgettable lines. The heart of it--and what I love about it--is the relationship among these three people, how they help each other in their own special ways. This focus is probably why the mental illness factor was left out. Benny and Joon are stuck: Benny can't do anything or go anywhere because he's always worried about Joon. Joon can't do anything or go anywhere because Benny is always worried about her. Sam, who needs a little help himself, brings absurdity, strangeness, and joy into that mix. Or, as Chechik puts it, "just the kind of nonsense these two people need."

Johnny channels Buster Keaton.

As a kid growing up in Florida, Johnny was hooked on silent movies, thanks to a TV channel dedicated to the genre. Johnny was already a lifelong fan of the era and Buster Keaton when he signed on for Benny and Joon. "The subtlety of the acting to clue the audience into Sam's character with so little said and so much expressed is a testament to Johnny Depp's work here," Chechik says.

Benny and Joon marked Johnny's most physical role yet. He worked with a circus trainer to learn tricks and Buster Keatonesque flips. "There's only one way to find out if you can throw your feet over your head," Johnny says. "That's by doing it." He also learned Charlie Chaplin's famous "Roll Dance" from The Gold Rush. "The 'Roll Dance' was more difficult than bashing myself around the park, just because it was so specific," he says. Chechik says that Johnny learned much, much more than what fit into the film. (He must be saving all this priceless footage for the Criterion Collection edition of the DVD, right? Right???) He confirms Johnny's preparation: "Johnny and I watched hours and hours and hours of Keaton films at various speed. We really studied these wonderful movies that Buster made, and Johnny was very inspired to really see what he could do with that kind of physical comedy and grace, and I think he did him proud." Johnny was nominated for another Golden Globe for this performance.

Though Johnny's role probably gets the most attention and his costars are wonderful, the supporting cast is solid. You'll find Julianne Moore and William H. Macy, early in their careers, along with Oliver Platt, C.C.H. Pounder, and Dan Hedaya.

Gordon has been practicing too.

The Kitties and I (and probably anyone else who has seen and loves this movie) are all in agreement about the moment to honor in our drawing. Actually, I think the last 10 minutes of Benny and Joon make the whole film worth it. After a psychotic episode, Joon ends up in the hospital and refuses to see anyone, but Sam and Benny work together to find her. Sam helps Benny into the locked ward where Joon is staying so that he can talk with his sister. Then, he finds his own way to catch a glimpse of his girl.

As luck would have it, hanging off the side of the hospital building is the perfect contraption for Sam to use to reach Joon's window. Inside, Benny (Norman) and Joon (Mini) are discussing Joon's options with her doctor (played by C.C.H. Pounder/Ashes). Amid this serious conversation, Sam sudden appearance--swinging by in slow motion to sweeping orchestral music--is heartwarming comic relief genius.

I should mention that Benny and Joon's musical score by Rachel Portman is so perfectly suited for the film that the few pop songs they stuck in there don't seem necessary. I admit, though, that at the time I was completely obsessed with the Proclaimers' "500 Miles," the song that opens and closes the film. (Oh no--Now, it's in my head again.)

I only wish I could have somehow included Sam's swinging and Joon's reaction to seeing him in the same drawing. Sparked by Sam's surprise, Joon's joy is infectious. And, their hug when she gets discharged from the hospital is another beautiful moment. (That may deserve a third drawing, to complete this warm-and-fuzzy trilogy.) Yeah, the last 10 minutes of this movie are golden. But don't take my word for it: rent it, watch the whole thing, and see for yourself.

What's next?

Johnny gets a little too close to home and the world is introduced to Leonardo DiCaprio. What's Eating Gilbert Grape? Find out next month.

To see more Johnny Kitties and Johnny Depp images, visit Melissa's Kitties' blog: melissaconnolly.blogspot.com

Buy print: oksana-ariskina.pixels.com/featured/cat-in-flowers-winter...

Hi everyone,

Happy Inauguration Day! As we begin a new era in the United States, let us be intrepid in our choices, words, actions, love, and kindness towards others. We can make the world a better place for all of us.

I didn't have this in mind when I drew the illustration below. My inspiration actually came from Drew Barrymore (and my cat). I found out about Drew's new daily talk show – launched amid the pandemic in late September – and set my DVR for it because who doesn't like Drew Barrymore?

At first, I must admit, the overt joy, love, silliness, weirdness, and hippie-dippie positivity that is The Drew Barrymore Show was a shock to my tired, heavy system. But I kept at it and now look forward to this mood board of a show, as she refers to it, as my time to decompress with a cup of tea. It's a daily shot of sunshine, whether you want it or not.

One day, Drew showed up carrying her personal, giant dictionary and unveiled the show's first Word of the Week: Intrepid. This revelation made me gasp because I had been trying to think of a way to revive my blog with new drawings.

Until 2019, a website called Illustration Friday posted a new word every Friday that served as my inspiration for a weekly drawing challenge. I had been doing this routinely since 2006 and, eventually, I saw the site repeat some terms, which was disappointing. (Sometimes I drew something newly inspired by the repeated word, but usually these repeats inspired nothing new for me.)

As a result, some weeks, I skipped the drawing challenges and, as time went on, I found it harder and harder to feel motivated to draw and post because of other things going on in my life. Then, I unintentionally took 2019 off from drawing anything, and my typical schedule faded away. It was during this time that Illustration Friday's website disappeared. You may have noticed that new posts since then has been sporadic at best.

In my attempt to start fresh in 2021, it occurred to me that I could come up with my own inspiring words of the week, creating my own drawing challenge and schedule. A few hours later, Drew Barrymore showed up with her dictionary and gave me this word – intrepid – to kick things off.

What are the odds? (This is one of the many reasons I love Drew Barrymore!) This happened before Thanksgiving, and I don't think she has introduced another Word of the Week since then, but still: Thank you, Drew Barrymore, for blowing the dust off and sparking my imagination!

According to Merriam-Webster, intrepid means being characterized by resolute fearlessness, fortitude, and endurance. Here, Lily faces her own daily challenge – a brave leap from our comfy lounge chair to her trusty window seat. She makes it every time. Go, Lily!

Until next time, be intrepid, friends...and, also, still keep your distance, wear your masks, and wash your hands!

Love, Melissa

melissaconnolly.blogspot.com

Hi everyone,

Here's a true story: In 1987, not long after we moved from Massachusetts to Ohio and were steeped in culture shock, Dad heard about a homeless cat who was hanging around the University of Akron, not far from where we lived.

He brought her home as a surprise, leaving her in our garage for us to find. The Kitty was scruffy and gray in spots from spending too much time outdoors, under cars and in other unladylike places.

But this is how she looked to me when I first saw her. We were instant best friends.

Mom insisted that The Kitty have a bath in our kitchen sink, which revealed a snow-white, fluffy coat. Afterward, The Kitty said, "Thank you," proceeded to give herself another bath on her own (as cats do), and began to explore her new home.

The Kitty settled into our hearts for the next 20 years and beyond. She became The Mother Kitty after having six kittens, including her world-traveling son Gordon.

Later in life, she shared her space with her kind-hearted and entertaining Siamese friend, Simon, who ran literal circles around her daily – just for fun. This pastime has nothing to do with demonstrating his level of intelligence. Instead, it relates to his days as a traveling circus performer. He wants to keep in shape and his skills sharp for whenever the circus comes back to town.

Granted, we all know who is the smarter one in this odd couple, but The Mother Kitty would never brag about that. When you are Kitty #1, you don't need to brag about anything.

The Mother Kitty is a one-in-a-million original beauty, inside and out. And she knows it.

Check out my full blog post: melissaconnolly.blogspot.com.

Love, Melissa

It could have been anyone. These girls might have very well known the guy, and at the same time, it could have been some major conspiracy. It's impossible to know. Johnny Depp on Jack the Ripper

It's gruesome.

The Hughes Brothers, best known for depicting ghetto life in films, such as Menace II Society and Dead Presidents, take their talents to 17th century England in From Hell. The film chronicles Jack the Ripper's five serial murders of prostitutes in London's Whitechapel District from August to November of 1888. (The film's title comes from pieces of evidence--letters supposedly written by the killer and signed "From Hell.") Based on the graphic novel by Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell, From Hell follows Inspector Frederick Abberline (Johnny Depp), a clairvoyant drug addict enlisted by police sergeant Peter Godley (Robbie Coltrane) to help solve the mystery and prevent more murders from happening. As Abberline uncovers the conspiracy, he falls for Mary Kelly (Heather Graham)--one of the women targeted by the killer--which makes this assignment a personal race to save her.

But The Hughes Brothers got style!

Why was I so concerned a few months ago about revisiting Before Night Falls, a beautiful film about a struggling poet, when I had a disturbing movie about Jack the Ripper to soon follow? I must have blocked this one out of my head. I remember seeing From Hell in the theaters but forgot how gritty and realistic it all was. Heather Graham explains that Hughes Brothers touch: "I think they're bringing to the movie a real rawness. Instead of this overly precious period feel, I think they're bringing a raw, emotional, passionate, exciting take."

While this isn't typically my kind of movie, I always love that kind of detail in films and admire what The Hughes Brothers made. They rebuilt Whitechapel to a tee: They showed what the world was like then--how it looked, felt, and smelled. Johnny agrees: "What was really impressive about it is that the Hughes Brothers, Allen and Albert, were really, really, really sticklers for details and for the truth--the exact position of the body, the exact position of this window here, where the window was broken in Miller's Court--I mean, down to the cobblestones!" But all that hard work didn't weigh down the set: "They're so fun," Heather Graham says of the directors. "They're so well prepared and everything is so well thought out that, when they came to work, they're just incredibly relaxed."

Like Before Night Falls, this film is not always pleasant to watch, but it's got great style. When I dreamt up Johnny Kitties, certain movies lent themselves well to drawing: I got instant ideas. Surprisingly, one of them was for From Hell. I remembered a few exterior shots of Whitechapel silhouetted against a blood-red sky (and the grapes, more on that later). Another cool touch the directors added was showing the passage of time by literally speeding up the film or having people appear or vanish like spirits. They also lit all the nighttime scene naturally with streetlamps, candles, or other lighting props on the set, which I think adds to the atmosphere. And, they even made some mini-movies within this movie: One of the plot points is that Abberline is struggling with his chronic depression by feeding his addiction to Absinthe. This addiction would be hard to kick, even if he wanted to, because it turns out that the drink sparks his clairvoyant dreams, in which he sees the killer's next move and gets that much closer in solving the case. These dreams present entire scenarios in artistic, surreal flashes of images.

As the killer descends into madness, the murders become increasingly grisly. More than anything, I appreciated that the directors didn't show as much as they could have! The point is made more effectively because your imagination goes wild about whatever might be going on. Still, you see enough to know the murders are disgusting. And, knowing that Jack the Ripper was a real psychopath who terrorized London and escaped capture--that the mystery remains unsolved--compounds the shock.

But what I found almost more disturbing was the bigger picture. The Hughes Brothers painstakingly recreated how people lived in Whitechapel, showing how they suffered, with social barriers, prejudices, and racism, and dealt with their own vices. Meanwhile, across town, high society was exploring medical breakthroughs and oddities: In one scene all the rich doctors are gawking at the Elephant Man. In another, they're calmly demonstrating a new experimental procedure, giving terrified patients lobotomies! Those scenes freak me out more than hearing Jack slashing whatever off-screen.

You get a real feel for the atmosphere and realize the sad circumstances these women--the murder victims--were in during that era, dealing with the hypocritical connection that wealthy society had to them and the overbearing control men had over their lives. The film presents a conspiracy reaching as far up as the royal family. Seeing From Hell this time around, I was intrigued by the murder mystery. With so many suggested suspects, it'll keep you on edge and guessing till the end.

And Johnny's in it--and into it!

Brad Pitt was originally slated to play Abberline. Can you imagine!? Luckily, it wasn't meant to be. When Johnny signed on for From Hell instead, those in charge at the studio were worried--as usual. "Studios love Johnny, but they're scared of Johnny too," Albert Hughes says. "They don't necessarily see him as a bankable star because of his own choices. He's made interesting choices instead of the obvious choices."

As a kid, Johnny was fascinated by the Jack the Ripper story. (Do you think his parents were ever concerned?) "The guy was serious!" Allen Hughes confirms. "He actually did own a lot of the books for many years and knew a lot of the theories. He was a buff!"

Everyone was impressed with Johnny's work. While they all admired him as an actor already, working with him on this project took their opinions to another level. Having worked on From Hell for 5 years, Allen Hughes explains that Johnny's excitement about it was contagious and boosted both directors' confidences, helping them to keep going and get the movie made: "Everyone's all over him as an actor, but when it comes to the script, when it comes to ideas, when it comes to overall energy and intelligence and what he brings that's intangible to the project, it's like, wow, this guy doesn't get enough credit!" Not that he ever slacks in the acting department: "The thing about Johnny Depp is that it's cliche to say that he's a great actor who doesn't appear to be acting, but he really doesn't!" Scriptwriter Rafael Yglesias says. "I'm convinced that there's 60 to70% of him that isn't even working most of the time because he can so quickly reach a performance that's absolutely excellent." Agreed!

The Kitties are on the lookout.

What I like most about this movie is the historical accuracy, the details involved, and the overall style. You feel like you're there and you're always on edge. Like the Hughes Brothers, instead of depicting all the blood and guts, I opted for atmosphere and surroundings in this tribute.

The Jack the Ripper case was one of the first to be fully dramatized by the media. Here, Abberline investigates one of the murders amid a growing crowd who want a glimpse of the sensational crime scene. (You can find Norman, Simon, and Comet policing the crowd of onlookers, including The Mother Kitty, Mini, Lily, and Ashes.) Amid the chaos, he discovers grape stems and shows them to Sergeant Godley (B.J.), explaining that this clue points to a killer who is wealthy enough to afford such luxurious fruit. It must be someone from the other side of town!

What's Next?

Johnny gets Lost in La Mancha!

(To see images from From Hell and for more information on Johnny Kitties, visit Melissa's Kitties' blog: melissaconnolly.blogspot.com/2012/09/johnny-kitties-celeb....)

Johnny is going to be late for his next appointment.

In Nick of Time, Johnny Depp plays Gene Watson, a public accountant returning from the funeral of his soon-to-be ex-wife with their 6-year-old daughter Lynn (Courtney Chase). Spotted in the crowd in Los Angeles's Union Station, he is chosen by Mr. Smith (Christopher Walken) to assassinate California's governor (Marsha Mason). After snatching Lynn, Mr. Smith gives Mr. Watson 90 minutes to do the deed: Kill the governor, he demands, or your daughter is dead.

Has Johnny gone Square?

Two types of headlines dominated the reviews for Nick of Time: Johnny Depp can't open a movie on his own, and Johnny Depp can't play "normal."

Johnny's always said that his career was built on a series of box office failures. Up to this point, most of his films--whether liked by critics or not--didn't make enough money at the box office for people to notice them for long. Who cares as long as it's a good movie?

In Nick of Time, Johnny does so many things he hadn't before: With no odd costume, make-up, accent, or fantastical story, he plays a straight-laced accountant and father in an action/thriller. I think it was too much for critics to take, and they translated this move as an attempt to go commercial and become an action star.

Johnny never chooses roles based on commercial success. He goes for the experience. Here, he had the chance to work with Christopher Walken. (Yay!) and be directed by John Badham (director of Saturday Night Fever, another good movie). Reading the script kept him on the edge of his seat and reminded him of an old-fashioned Alfred Hitchcock story. Can you blame him for going for it?

My review isn't that bad.

My own family gave Nick of Time mixed reviews: My sister got wrapped up in the story and felt for Johnny's situation, but my dad found the whole thing too unbelievable. I'm somewhere in the middle: It's a respectable movie. Watching it again for Johnny Kitties, I was struck by how tense I felt throughout. Shot in real time before "24" made it popular, the use of handheld cameras amid crowded, busy scenes gives a raw, documentary-like feel, as if you're really there, witnessing what's happening. Marsha Mason's performance as Governor Grant is great, and I love Charles S. Dutton as Huey, the shoe-shine man. (In a key role, he offers some comic relief with some great lines.) And, really, you can't go wrong with Christopher Walken when you need a crazy bad guy.

Johnny's right: The story does have that old Hitchock feel to it. But, I admit, there are a few corny moments and lines that make it seem more to me like a TV Movie of the Week. It's too neat-and-tidy in some places, and there are lots of shots of clocks to constantly remind you of the time. I caught Nick of Time on TV once, and it had an alternate ending that wrapped things up even more neatly than that theatrical release. I can't tell you what it is without ruining it, but it might have solidified my comparison.

Maybe the PG-13 rating was the ultimate problem. At one point in the film, Johnny falls 90 feet into a fountain below. Someone asked him which was scarier: Doing the stunt or Christopher Walken? Of course, he responded, "Christopher Walken, definitely!" Really, if you've got Christopher Walken as the bad guy, go for the R.

While Christopher Walken was my favorite ingredient in Nick of Time, I think Johnny does a fine job as our accountant hero. Like my sister, I found him completely believable--always trying to get out of the situation and ultimately focused on keeping his daughter safe. Johnny has a knack for getting you to care for his characters, whoever they are, without having to do much. Director John Badham agrees, "Johnny has a basic sweetness to him. He's a classic movie actor, like the true greats--Paul Newman, Gary Cooper, even Steve McQueen. Minimalist in approach, but extremely honest. Johnny is that kind of actor. He has this great ability to be in a scene where he may do nothing, yet he establishes his presence on the screen." It's true!

The Kitties get ready to race against the clock.

I picked my favorite scene here: Mr. Smith (Norman) and his accomplice, Ms. Jones (Roma Maffia/Ashes), are scanning the floor of Union Station to find someone to blackmail into committing murder. Meanwhile, Gene Watson (Gordon) is trying to protect his daughter (Mini) from some pestering rollerbladers (B.J. and Simon) who were bothering her while he was on the phone. As he walks away, he knocks over the ashtray can to get rid of them, giving Lynn a valuable lesson, which always makes me laugh: "That's why you should always wear a helmet and kneepads because you never know when you're going to fall down and go boom." The ruckus startles some bystanders (The Mother Kitty, Comet, and Lily) and gets the bad guys' attention.

What's Next?

Next month, Johnny's a Dead Man. (Wait, I'm not sure I like how that sounds....)

For more images from Nick of Time and Johnny Kitties, visit Melissa's Kitties' blog: melissaconnolly.blogspot.com.

Don't forget to look up every once in a while. (I'm off to San Francisco for a week. Maybe you'll see me on my way tomorrow morning.)

Colored pencils (Caran d'Ache Luminance, Pablo and dry Museum Aquarelle) on A4 sized Fabriano black black paper

Category: advanced

Challenge: BLACK BEAUTY colored pencil art challenge

Completed: October 2024

Free ref. photo (unsplash)

Inspired by our neighbours cat who is totally black and always watching me in the evening while I`m walking the dog. Sometimes I only can see her eyes glooming in the dark. My dog gets scared if he sees her and so I thought it fits to the spooky month, too 😄

At the end of October, I took the train up to New York for a three-day Broadway Extravaganza. I saw four fantastic shows!

- The River, at Circle in the Square, is a drama about a guy with relationship issues and his love for fishing. In the scene here, our man (Hugh Jackman/B.J.) is surprised by his girlfriend's (Laura Donnelly/Mini) beginner's luck.

- Cabaret, at Studio 54, is an iconic musical set in 1930s Berlin about a cabaret singer and her relationship with an American as the Nazis begin to gain power. In this scene, the cabaret's emcee, played by Alan Cumming/Simon introduces some of the cabaret's dancers (Ashes and Lily), including its main attraction Sally Bowles (Michelle Williams/Mini).

- Set to some amazing music by Sting, The Last Ship at the Neil Simon Theatre, is a new musical about a man (Michael Esper) who, after 15 years, returns to his hometown – a working-class shipbuilding community in Northern England, where he faces his first love Meg (Rachel Tucker) and unresolved issues with his father. As Father O'Brien (Fred Applegate), the town's beloved minister, brings the community together to give the dying industry a proper send off by building one last ship, memories arise and old wounds begin to heal. Here, the foreman Jackie White (Jimmy Nail/B.J.) directs his workers (Comet, Gordon, and Simon) as they build the massive ship with Father O'Brien (Norman), Meg (Lily), and her son Tom (Colin Kelly Sordelet/Tyrone) watching the feat.

- On the Town, at Lyric Theatre, is the classic musical about three Navy sailors (Tony Yazbeck, Jay Armstrong Johnson, and Clyde Alves) on 24-hour leave in New York City. In this scene, the boys (Comet, Gordon, and B.J.) get off the boat at 6 a.m. to start their day, just as a construction worker (Philip Boykin/Norman) arrives for work.

I've been slow drawing and blogging these days, but I hope to post reviews of these shows here sometime soon. In the meantime, get your tickets now because these shows are all worth seeing! Cabaret now stars Emma Stone in the role of Sally Bowles! The Last Ship, my favorite of the four, now has Sting himself in the role of Jackie White for a limited time through January 10th! What are you waiting for? Treat yourself and go!