Celebrity pop quiz: What is actor/writer/producer/cult hero William Shatner’s middle name? A hint: If you’re a producer for “Range 15,” a veteran-made zombie-themed comedy that recently secured Shatner’s acting services, you’ve probably got it wrong. “Did you just say we got William ‘Star Trek’ ‘T.J. Hooker’ Priceline Negotiator Denny Crane Shatner?” Ranger Up CEO and former Army officer Nick Palmisciano asked in a very much not-safe-for-work video announcing the casting move. Mat Best, former Army Ranger and head of Article 15 Clothing, was a bit more succinct: “William F—ing Shatner?!” The video shows some “Range 15” team members shedding tears of…
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The zombies are screwed. Filming won’t begin until later this year for “Range 15,” the cinematic co-production of two veteran-owned apparel-makers that will feature stars from the companies’ viral-video hits battling undead hordes, but the producers have already concluded a successful crowd-funding campaign, more than doubling their initial goal with a take exceeding $813,000. The teams behind Ranger Up and Article 15 Clothing easily surpassed their $325,000 goal, but added new benchmarks and promised more monster-slaughtering firepower as the tote board kept rolling over. In addition to a bigger budget for ordnance and special effects, the film has expanded its military all-star…
The story of the first cultural support team member to be killed in Afghanistan will be brought to the silver screen with the help of an Academy Award-winning actress, Deadline.com reported earlier this week. Fox 2000 teamed with Reese Witherspoon’s Pacific Standard production company to secure film rights for the upcoming book “Ashley’s War: The Untold Story of a Team of Women Soldiers on the Special Ops Battlefield,” according to the entertainment-news website. The title references 1st Lt. Ashley White, who was killed in a roadside bomb blast in Kandahar province’s Zhari district on Oct. 22, 2011. White was part of…
The story of the first conscientious objector to receive the Medal of Honor could hit movie theaters in 2016, with a director who’s no stranger to telling epic tales. Deadline.com reported last month that Mel Gibson, the action hero-turned-movie mogul-turned-controversy generation machine behind “Braveheart” and “Passion of the Christ” is in talks to direct “Hacksaw Ridge,” which would introduce modern movie-goers to Pfc. Desmond T. Doss, an Army medic whose service on Okinawa in the spring of 1945 is the stuff of legend. His Medal of Honor citation reads like a half-dozen citations pushed together. Among the highlights: As his unit reached the…
The team behind the canceled Fox sitcom “Enlisted” will trade in fictional Fort McGee for a super-sized keyboard and a coin-operated fortune teller. Kevin Biegel and Mike Royce will produce and write a TV adaptation of “Big,” the 1988 coming-of-age-in-a-hurry movie starring Tom Hanks, according to reports from Entertainment Weekly and The Hollywood Reporter. The show reportedly would air as an “event series,” meaning it likely would have a predetermined end date — unlike the commotion that surrounded the pair’s previous project. The move comes after extensive, but ultimately unsuccessful, negotiations between 20th Century Fox Television and Yahoo to bring…
First the video, then some backstory. Key quote: “It’s not as black-and-white as they said it was going to be.” [HTML1] “Camp X-Ray” will hit theaters Oct. 17, and despite multiple stories in the entertainment media praising star Kristen Stewart for this departure from the vampire-vs.-werewolf genre, the buzz hasn’t been particularly kind. The film is batting just above .500 with critics on Rotten Tomatoes, with one asking whether stellar efforts from Stewart and co-star Peyman Maadi “outweigh a scenario that feels written by a politically outraged 12-year-old.” The above trailer, however, has drawn some interest — more than 3.5 million…
Actor Harold Ramis, who died Monday at the age of 69, leaves behind a lengthy film repertoire including “Stripes,” the 1981 movie about the hollow Army years between the end of Vietnam and before the Reagan military buildup. Ramis co-starred with Bill Murray in the film about two screw-ups who join the Army looking for some type of direction. SPOILER ALERT: The two end up invading Czechoslovakia in an experimental Army recreational vehicle to rescue their unit. While “Stripes” is no “Citizen Kane,” it’s a classic comedy that captures how America felt about its military at the time. Most of…
