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Shooting Fish #1 - Gremlins 3 (Part 1)

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Whether we like it or not, beloved movies from the 80s are going to be pillaged for illconceived sequels and reboots for the forseeable future. Always seen as an easy way to make cash and get the fans on side. Like shooting fish in a barrel! But things are never that simple. Shooting Fish #1: Gremlins 3 Part 1. The Background. Gremlins should have been a throwaway film. A forgettable piece of B-Movie genre cinema from an age when the screens were full of such movies. But much like the Gremlins themselves, who morphed into every movie stereotype the producers could think of during the famous scene at Dorry’s Tavern, the movie refused to be just one thing. It was a creature feature, a horror, a christmas film, a satirical comedy and a deliciously dark kid’s movie from the decade that defined what a kid’s movie could be and decided it didn’t have to be just Disney. And to people of a certain age, (ahem…. hi) it’s more than that. A cultural phenomenon with dialogue and lore still qu...
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Shooting Fish #1 - Gremlins 3, The Pitfalls (Part 2)

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Part 2: The pitfalls In 2025 Warner Bros. announced that Gremlins 3 had been greenlit and they were moving forward with a new writing team alongside Spielberg returning as Producer and original writer, Chris Columbus, moving to the Director’s seat. Fans were immediately concerned at Joe Dante’s absence from the production team fearing it wouldn’t work without him, with some suggesting he’d been snubbed. But I think Joe said everything he wanted to say about Gremlins as an ongoing franchise in the 2 nd film. I see it more of a respectful understanding that Joe’s relationship with The Gremlins ended exactly how he wanted it to. Either way, when the original writer and producer; the guys behind Harry Potter , Home Alone , E.T., Jurassic Park and Indiana Jones , are the ones pulling the strings, you can hardly say the film is in trouble from the off. Yet, the very fact it’s taken 30+ years to get to this stage suggests the sailing may not be smooth even now things are moving for...
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Shooting Fish #1 - Gremlins 3, The Story (Part 3)

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Part 3: The Story So how would I write Gremlins 3? Well, with the full first movie nostalgia route already plotted in, it has to start with Gizmo and with Billy. Let’s assume that Zack Galligan returns to the part, which also sets our “when”. This will have to be a modern day set movie with Billy in his late fifties or early sixties. And although it has never been expressively stated, there are enough canonical hints about the longevity of Mogwai in other media, the Gremlins novelisation mainly, that we can assume Gizmo is still around too, essentially unchanged by age. Having made a name for himself in New York, Billy has retired back to Kingston Falls, the town seemingly untouched by the passage of time, much the same as it was in the 1980s (and, indeed, the 50s if you’re a Back To The Future fan). With Phoebe Cates now retired, it seems fitting to have her character have died in New York at some point before Billy retires, so he is essentially returning to Kingston Falls a...
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11 yeas ago I wrote a book. It's probably (well past) time for a sequel.

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Back in 2014 I self-published a book. It wasn't my first manuscript, but was the first I was happy enough to publish. Boy, was I wrong. With all the over confidence of a rookie writer, I set it free upon the world when it was far from ready. I made all the classic mistakes. But eventually, I resolved most of the issues my impatience created and had a book I was proud of, available to buy. And then... I forgot about it. Well, not quite, but almost. Life just sort of got in the way. I stopped marketing it, stopped checking the laughable sales figures, stopped reading the occasional reviews and allowed it to float off into the virtual world, unloved and unread. Sales dried up and I had seemingly more important things to worry about. Then, earlier this year, someone purchased it. A notification popped up that a kindle version had been downloaded. It was a surprise. But, for the first time in a decade I thought about my book again. The story, the characters, the possibilities, and all...
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Books That Stuck With Me From School

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I previously wrote a post about the books I remember reading as a very young lad , from nursery age through to pre-secondary school. Re-reading this post recently I started thinking about what were the next steps in my reading education as a child.  By the time I was ten I was reading quite a few adventure books aimed at young readers, many based on World War Two, which even in the 80s was a huge cultural reference point. I was also a fan of the  Choose Your Own Adventure series, which were very popular at the time. (Do they still print those?). Others I remember specifically were The Iron Man by Ted Hughes, which was later made into a wonderful animated film called The Iron Giant;  as well as  Stig of the Dump by Clive King and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain, both due in part to the wonderful TV series which were broadcast in the mid-80s. But eventually, of course, the world of adult literature is forced upon you, usually at school. ...
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1991 in Music: Part 1. Journey

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No, not "Journey". You can stop believing if you so wish. THE Journey... How I got there. Where? Well, in this case, 1991. But we start a bit earlier, 1980 in fact... Assuming their family had a half decent record collection or radio around the house, it's fair to say that a young person's musical discovery starts pretty much as soon as they are able to dance to their favourite tunes. My earliest memory of having a favourite song was at the age of four when my *Mam walked into the room to discover I had found out how to work the record player and had put on one of her Beatles records. Specifically she walked in to find me dancing to Yellow Submarine. I actively remember that incident and the thrill of putting the the needle down (probably not as gently as i should) on the vinyl. My Mam being a young lady of the 60s and 70s, there was ample good music for me to discover when rummaging through her vinyl collection when she wasn't around. At the poppier...
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Re-reading books: Top 5 on my shelf

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Someone said to me recently, "Oh, I don't re-read books". In fact I know a few people who feel the same, though I'm certainly not one of them. I can understand where they are coming from. In many ways you will never be able to re-read a book and have it surprise and delight as much as it did on the first read. The magic will always be slightly diluted by fore-knowledge of what's coming, no matter how much you love the book. Others will point out that with so many books to read, re-reading leaves less time for new ones. Similarly, with so many entertainment and time killing activities available to us in the 21st century, time available to devote to reading is so limited it makes no sense to return to something you have already read. These are good points and I can't argue against them. Time constraints and an expanding TBR list will always put pressure on your next choice of book and I do try to go for a new one most of the time. But occasionally, just ...
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