Adventure Musings

So as I move SOTAQ closer to production, and have finished my three-year non-fiction project about the same time I finished the accompanying novel inspired and written during that time, and I've attended my last and eighth Comic Con as a mere professional attendee, my mind is meandering toward the next adventure novel. It's time, I think. Julius Corbin is calling for another expedition...

It looks like I may start traveling for pay again. That'll really put the adventure focus into high gear. I've been spending time in the travel section of the bookstores, considering which maps I'm going to need. My eye was on a really good South America map, as well as a nice waterproof map of India.

I've also been in REI and Bass Outdoor World, making a serious assessment of particular accessories and specialty items. It sincerely enthuses me just thinking about travel again. I wrote both Corbin novels entirely out of the US, so if I start consulting again, you can look for that third Corbin book by Christmas.

However...it does take place mostly in North America and the Arctic...I've decided I want a little getaway to Big Bear Lake in August, so I may just pick up where I left off in Saudi Arabia a few years back, with Chapter Two of Black Apples...

Barnes & Noble has a 30% discount on a copy of one of my favorite films of that prolific year in cinema, 1939: Only Angels Have Wings.

This one has Cary Grant as a postal pilot in the Andes. I've mentioned it here before, I believe. I place this film in that category of light adventure dramas, a favorite of mine which classic Hollywood did so well. Great trappings and atmosphere, the right attitude, and the right kind of broad for when there's gotta be a dame in the story (No friggin' Willie from Temple of Doom - Ugh, she ruined that picture!)...

Recently I watched March Or Die,

a mid-70s attempt at an homage to a Marlene Dietrich/Gary Cooper film titled Morocco (1930). It may have had a little touch of Lost Patrol, but all the Foreign Legion flicks do.

Anyway, after hearing so much bad about this film, I had to see it because I'm a Gene Hackman fan. I decided that March Or Die is not such a bad film. Again, adventure drama, trappings and atmosphere, and a broad, but I liked it enough. Not everything adventure needs to be wall-to-wall bullwhips and bullets...

Still waiting for the latest on the Lost City of Z movie. I'll have to do some browsing. I did see some months back that David Fincher was still doing 20K Leagues, maybe in 3D. Not sure what the latest is on that...

If you haven't seen the 40's serial of The Phantom, I recommend it.

Not as cheesy bad as many. And I'm finally working my way through my Terry and the Pirates serial set, and it's not drudgery. I'm liking it a lot, actually. Remember back in 1980 when someone was seriously considering T&theP? It was in a movie mag that summer with a really cool tableau painting and logo. I did an article on T&theP including this possible movie in my LCL Mag. I was thinking while watching the serial how cool it would still be if they did a movie trilogy. Since Lucas has given Indy the slow death, we've all been cheated out of great high adventure so he could give us the slow death with the ruination of Star Wars. T&theP would be a great idea right now, especially since Tintin looks pretty cool...

When are we gonna see the first great steampunk movie of this century? What would it be? Any ideas?

Not sure what I'll watch tonight before hitting the hay, but it'll be an adventure film...