From: owner-chakram-refugees-digest@smoe.org (chakram-refugees-digest) To: chakram-refugees-digest@smoe.org Subject: chakram-refugees-digest V2 #247 Reply-To: chakram-refugees@smoe.org Sender: owner-chakram-refugees-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-chakram-refugees-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk chakram-refugees-digest Sunday, September 8 2002 Volume 02 : Number 247 Today's Subjects: ----------------- [chakram-refugees] Claire Stansfield Femme Fatales article ["Daniel T. M] Re: [chakram-refugees] <> [cr ] Re: [chakram-refugees] <> ["Cheryl Ande" ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 7 Sep 2002 00:57:06 -0500 From: "Daniel T. Miller" Subject: [chakram-refugees] Claire Stansfield Femme Fatales article Just saw the magazine at my local Borders Books It has an interview with Claire. Glanced through it quickly. Didn't know one of her short films was from a Dorothy Parker story and that she has been a Parker fan since she was a kid. Literate women are so sexy. :~) ________________________________________________________________ GET INTERNET ACCESS FROM JUNO! Juno offers FREE or PREMIUM Internet access for less! Join Juno today! For your FREE software, visit: http://dl.www.juno.com/get/web/. ========================================================= This has been a message to the chakram-refugees list. To unsubscribe, send a message to majordomo@smoe.org with "unsubscribe chakram-refugees" in the message body. Contact meth@smoe.org with any questions or problems. ========================================================= ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 8 Sep 2002 02:31:22 +1200 From: cr Subject: Re: [chakram-refugees] <> On Saturday 07 September 2002 12:12, Cheryl Ande wrote: > # > # > # > # > # > # > # > First, thanks a heap for transcribing this, Cheryl. I'm impressed with how much you can remember, after only one viewing. > Well I am now only a handful of people who have seen the pilot for Amazon > High. A good deal of it was used in the Xena episode Life Blood but to be > frank it was a bit confusing at the time. It (Lifeblood) did start to make more sense on repeat viewings as the original story became more clear. (Many snips for bandwidth follow) > Cyane is taken back to the tribe's cave. There she meets a young girl, > Olan (Monica Mcswain (?)) Yes, Monica McSwain, definitely. Love the hair! ;) > of about her own age who has sidekick tattooed on > her forehead (not really). Cyane is of course very confused - she thinks > she may have been kidnapped by cultists but when she and her young friend > meet up with a saber tooth tiger, she knows she is in the past. Ouch, I think. I'm sure sabre toothed tigers died out long before 'cave men' (i.e. Neanderthals and the like) came on the scene, and of course the proto-Amazons were well after caveman days. But still, Xena never took much notice of chronology, so I guess we should be used to it. :) > Cyane, > although wishing to go home, fits rather well into the tribe - there are > the requisite scenes where Cyane shows her friend how to chew bubble gum, > introduces her to lipstick and saves her friend from the tiger with moder > pepper spray . Karina (Claudia Black) the tribes leader is the epitome of > an earth mother kindly and wise with a gentle sense of humor, she seems > willing to accept her as the Atma. The only one not happy is Samsara who > finds Cyane woefully inadequate as the Atma. She of course challenges > Cyane to a duel - a duel Olan cheerfully informs Cyane she will probably > lose and if she does, could she please have her footwear. Hah! Love it. I rather think they pinched it from Orphan of War - "If this doesn't work....?" Dagnine: "One of you gets my tent, other one gets my horse" > Samsara is a formidable warrior but not very bright at times. Cyane > cleverly turns the challenge into a foot race much to Karina's amusement > and Sam's disgust. During the race Cyane falls into a river and is fished > out my Carl Urban, a monosyllabic cute caveman. He was way cuter than his reincarnation as Ceasar, Julius Caesar, I thought. > Cyane and cave boy are > attracted to one another but Sam shows up and tries to kill cave boy. He > is saved by Cyane but since cave boy belongs to an enemy tribe Cyane is in > big trouble. She must face a trial by the tribe. > Karina now explains to Cyane why her actions were so serious. (snip) > Her only chance now is to > convince the council to let her live. At the council meeting, Cyane pull > out all the stops and using every "can't we all just get along" clichi she > convinces the council to let her live. She has however tapped into the > tribe's real need to find a way to rebuild it's life Most of this we missed in Lifeblood, I think. > Apparently Olan has a very interesting talent she was the first Pet > Psychic, she can talk to animals. So she and Cyane go have a chat with the > stallion who leads the horses. I would have liked to see this. > The stallion however is not interested in > becoming a slave to humans and things get worse when Cyane and Olan are > captured by the cannibals. > > At the cannibal camp things aren't good. Although Cyane gets a proposal of > marriage from cute cave boy her happiness is somewhat dampened by the fact > that Olan will be the main course at the wedding reception. That would rather put a damper on things. One really wouldn't wish to eat someone one had been good friends with, I think. > Cyane and Olan > therefore plot their escape and while Olan makes it Cyane is captured > again. Cave boy is ordered to kill her but can't and just in the nick of > time Samsara and the female warriors rescue her. > > Meanwhile the medicine man, the last male in Karina's tribe, is dying. He > gives Cyane the power to return to her home and she does. Although gone > for only a moment in present time, Cyane is changed. At cheering leading > practice when her friend is harassed by the jock she gives him mean wedgie > and makes him apologize. She feels increasingly that she does not belong > in the present but that her heart is with the tribe in the past. She > decides to return and after thanking her uncle for caring for her, she uses > the dagger to return. She is now determined that the tribe will take back > the valley. And of course we missed all the 'present-day' scenes. I guess after confronting cannibals a present-day teenage yobbo must have seemed like a pushover for her. > Once back with the tribe, she and Olan go back to visit the stallion. This > time Cyane has a secret weapon - sugar cubes. The stallion now agrees to > help Cyane and an ambush is planned. Of course, *all* this bit about how they 'tamed' the horses was missing from Lifeblood. We just had to assume that it was all down to Cyane knowing how to ride one. > Cannibal tribe now is moving into the > valley, and cave boy is now their prisoner. Karina lures the cannibals > into battle and just as the women appear to be beaten, Cyane, Samsara, Olan > and a host of mounted warriors attack with Cyane shouting "Amazons rule" . > The cannibals are defeated. Although Samsara wants to massacre to enemy, > Karina stops her and Samsara storms off in disgust. Cyane rescues cave boy > and sends him off to lead his people in peace. At the celebration that > night, Karina declares that from now on her tribe will be known as Amazons > and in honor of their dead men folk no man will ever belong to their tribe. > The movies ends with Cyane and Olan, sporting a new pair of red sneakers, > dancing with the Amazons. These bits were the most 'intact' ones in Lifeblood, I think. Going from your description of the original, I think if anyone was short-changed in the bits that filtered through to Lifeblood, it seems to have been Olan. She had way more to do (including nearly becoming lunch!) in the original, than we saw in the episode. > The movie was directed by Michael Hurst and was thoughly enjoyable. It had > good action sequences and the acting was pretty good. Selma Blair was > spunky enough as Cyane, Claudia Black was great, and Daniel Cormack had > potential as Cyane's violent rival. The cannibals mostly overacted. It > would have been nice to see an action adventure series aimed at pre-teens > that emphasized sisterhood and self-reliance but the show didn't fly. I > guess there was a feeling that Ren Pictures just had too many similar shows > and there is always a concern that boys won't watch action shows with > female leads. Also you never can tell how the series would have played out > in a half hour format. In my opinion it would have been better than > Cleopatra 2525 and Jack Of All Trades. While I *love* the pilot (or at least the 25 minutes I've seen of it), I do wonder how well it would have managed as a series. But then, my standards are high (or picky, or something) and there are all sorts of apparently successful series made for the teen audience that I can't watch five minutes of. > In all honesty I have to report that other people at the con didn't like > the pilot. Others although enjoying the movies didn't think it would fly > as a series. I'm sorry it wasn't given a chance. Oh, I see I'm not alone. But yes, I would have liked to see it tried as a series. I did wonder about production costs though. The location they filmed it in was off the Napier-Taupo Road, which is bloody cold, but also 200 miles from Auckland (the same distance as The Debt and Sin Trade). And the series concept would have required a higher proportion of outside locations, I think, than Xena (much of which was set in towns, i.e. Lion Park). So, I think, they couldn't have used Lion Park or their studios for such a high percentage of their shooting. On the other hand, I suppose, they could have mostly used locations reasonably close to home, as Xena did - I guess the dunes and the stream and the pine forest at Bethells could have seen a lot of use. I wonder how we can persuade Renpics to release this on video? cr ========================================================= This has been a message to the chakram-refugees list. To unsubscribe, send a message to majordomo@smoe.org with "unsubscribe chakram-refugees" in the message body. Contact meth@smoe.org with any questions or problems. ========================================================= ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 7 Sep 2002 12:24:03 -0400 From: "Cheryl Ande" Subject: Re: [chakram-refugees] <> cr wrote: I did wonder about production costs though. The location they filmed it in was off the Napier-Taupo Road, which is bloody cold, but also 200 miles from > Auckland (the same distance as The Debt and Sin Trade). And the series concept would have required a higher proportion of outside locations, I think, than Xena (much of which was set in towns, i.e. Lion Park). So, I > think, they couldn't have used Lion Park or their studios for such a high percentage of their shooting. On the other hand, I suppose, they could have mostly used locations reasonably close to home, as Xena did - I guess the dunes and the stream and the pine forest at Bethells could have seen a lot of use." I can only assume that once the series went into production it would have had cheaper production costs. Yound Hercules started off as, I think, direct to video movies with pretty high production values the series was shot on the cheap and it usually looked like it. Perhaps this would have been AH's fate too. Anyway it was nice tour of NZ you provided. It must be great to look at a scene in Xena and know just what the cast had to cope with. "I wonder how we can persuade Renpics to release this on video?" Perhaps another extra for a possible DVD. But it could be a direct to video release. Ren Picture did well with the Darkman series I think so there is money in direct to video. They have the product I guess it would just be a case production costs. I don't know about the cast but Selma Blair is a bit of a name now (famous for kissing Sarah Geller) so there is a selling point. > CherylA ========================================================= This has been a message to the chakram-refugees list. To unsubscribe, send a message to majordomo@smoe.org with "unsubscribe chakram-refugees" in the message body. Contact meth@smoe.org with any questions or problems. ========================================================= ------------------------------ End of chakram-refugees-digest V2 #247 **************************************