Now, a couple of late notes from Ang Lee's set of "Ride With The Devil" (boy, Harry, that was such a trip...I'm still thinking about it). This will be a great one I think. The guys whose names I couldn't remember have now been provided by Ms Mae as Stephen Mailer ("Babe Hudspeth") and Matt Faber ("Turner Rawls"). Ms Mae also tells me that Ms Connie Dover and Company simply blew everyone away with their music and the actors and writer/producer James Schamus are enamored (as well they should be) and scrambling to get her albums. Ms Mae says further that word on the set is that some of the pieces were quickly thrown together the night before the performance in a "jam session" in which Jim Caviezel ("Black John") outlined a few scenes and the band arranged and tweaked traditional music to fit the action as he described the scenes. This, if true just amazes me as there are few music types in LA who can do that "on the spot" and make it seem like the music had been played like that for centuries. A big wow for this one. Hopefully the musical director will figure this out and do us all a favor by getting these folks into the score! I don't know about you Harry but I can't wait to see this one - a gritty, compelling drama with strong characters, brilliant and intelligent script, masterful direction and kick-butt music. Unless the suits screw this one up in post-production, this will be the one to look for early next year. (Suits and musical director, take note - we know what you've got here..DON"T SCREW IT UP!!!!!!) Mae now tells me that both Schamus and Ang Lee have asked for copies of the Custer book (copies of which you can see in trailers and dressing rooms everywhere). One of the crew said he had read one of the actor's copies while he was shooting and remarked to Ms Mae "Man, I thought Lonesome Dove and Braveheart were cool but this is just f......ing dynamite!
I want to work on this one. I hope they do it!" - So we might have even more good films to look for in the future.
keeping the old eyes peeled,
the ever-watchful The Man Who Never Was
