Nowhere Fast

Oh man, I am so $!@%^&ing sore from doing the yard this weekend. I gave myself tendonitis in my right arm (yeah, the poison oak one…I swear, this arm is going to try and secede from the rest of my body) so it is swollen up to almost twice the size it normally is…I look like a freak, but in a good way.
In the continuing saga of writer-slash-actor: My manuscript is still with my editor. He’s given me some very useful notes already, and I’m hoping to have the whole thing back by the end of this week. Sadly, it will not be ready in time for Xmas. 🙁
On the actor side, I have an audition today for “The Polar Express,” which is being directed by Robert Zemeckis, and stars Tom Hanks.
Yeah, I’m thinking the same thing you are, “Tom Hanks and Robert Zemeckis? Why the hell are they asking to see me?!”
I have no idea, but it should be an interesting experience…I haven’t auditioned for a major motion picture like this in quite some time.
Oh, and I have punk rock blue hair right now, because I figured there wouldn’t be any auditions until after the first of the year…uhh…oops.
The second shipmeent of 8x10s goes to the post office in about 30 minutes. If you ordered last week, you should get yours in a few days. I’ll get to work on the third shipment (orders received since Thursday) when I get back from my audition this afternoon, and they should all go out tomorrow or Wednesday.
UPDATE 3:53 PM PST: Well, I totally punted the audition. The pain in my body from the weekend is so severe (my arm is so messed up I can’t even grip my steering wheel in my car, and my back has been spasming all day long) that I just couldn’t focus, at all, and I sucked.
Shit.
I saw the tests for the movie while I was there, and I’m pretty sure that I’m not allowed to talk about specifics, so I’ll just say: this will be an amazing and beautiful movie. What I saw was a perfect 3-D rendering of the art in the book.
When I left, I walked down the hallway with my head hung. I’m really sad, not because I’m missing out on a job, but because this movie is just going to be so beautiful, and so amazing, I really wanted to be part of it.

95 thoughts on “Nowhere Fast”

  3. Indeed, tendonitis is a bitch. It sucks that your book won’t be ready before christmas, but soon enough hopefully. A lot of my friends and I are really looking forward to it. Good luck with your audition, you blue-haired punk rocker you.
    I just realized after reading your site for so long, I’m sitting here writing you a post like I know you…that’s really cool.

  5. OK, second post. But I should get some points for reading Wil’s interview on FARK before the man himsself mentioned it.

  8. The Polar Express, as in the Chris Van Allsburg book? That guy writes really cool kids books. My favorite is The Mysteries of Harris Burdick. If you’ve never seen it, you should. Not only will your kids like them, but so will you, I wager.

  10. Add me to the list of people who NEEDS to see the hair!
    Good luck with the audition, and the arm-healing.
    rae
    (ohh, breaking of the wheaton comment cherry…)

  12. What, pray tell, prompts someone who is not, in fact, an 80 year old woman with 26 cats, to delve into the realm of blue hair? Methinks the smurfy locks are not good for audition karma.

  13. Blue hair and Tom Hanks? That’s gotta be a hella combination! hehe If Tom is the kind of person that I think he is, even if the audition doesn’t go so well, I bet you’ll have a blast of a time :}
    Aye but I hope it does go well for you. Would like to see you on the big screen again.
    You know it’s kinda weird, last night I was watching ST:TNG on TNN, and the episode “Transfigurations” was on. And at one point, when “John” healed O’Brien’s dislocated shoulder, Wes was right there, but when Beverly came out of her office, Wes (who was standing next to O’Brien) seemed to get pushed back behind everyone else. Normally I would not have paid attention to such things, but after spending lots of time reading the stuff you put up on this site, and reading the published interviews with you, I think it sucks that you and Wes always seemed to get pushed around on the set. I still think another ST movie needs to be made, where Wes comes back and saves Earth, the Federation, and possibly the whole galaxy from an evil Q-like being (Not John DeLancie’s Q though, because he is too cool!)
    I wonder, does that make me a geek to say such things? 😉

  15. Unca Willie, blue hair happens. Just tell them that you dyed to it make your kids happy on Halloween and it’s still fading out…
    I have just GOT to see a picture of this. When you gonna post one?

  16. sorry to hear about the tendonitis, but the lawn sounds like it looks amazing.
    good luck with the audition. at least you know with the blue hair you’ll definitely be unforgettable no matter what. 🙂
    btw…i was watching entertainment tonight this weekend and it was all about TNG. they had interviews from the first day of shooting and a little interview with you about the time you were leaving the show.
    happy holidays, w2

  17. Would be great to see you in a Robert Zemeckis flick! I loved The Frighteners, Death Becomes her, and the Tales from the Crypt series.
    My friend Stevil & I were just discussing how much the ST:TNG movies have sucked compared to the original series. I dunno why they’ve never brought back Q.

  18. You know, I’m pretty sure I’m not going to have any auditions for the next…life and yet, no blue hair.
    Clean up your act you…hippie!

  21. Tell your editor to hurry up so we can all read this book already! Perhaps the author picture could feature the blue hair…
    And more good audition mojo headed your way.

  23. I’ll bet you look good with blue hair. Just as long as it’s not slicked back like Wesley’s third-season “pompadour”!

  24. Uh ok get some hair dye quick..this could be a big deal for you with this movie..Ya think? I love Tom Hanks…good luck!

  25. wash your hair several times a day with dish soap..blue is easy to get rid of…it’s green, pink and orange thats a bitch. You can also find a dark hair color (i would not suggest it unless youre desperate though) but your hair will still have a blue tint in the sunlight.

  28. Thats great! If they asked you then maybe they are trying to find someone with an actor to fit the look of the movie…that and intelligent, funny, and well, you get the picture.

  31. To those of you telling the editor to get off his sorry ass and get the edit done . . . the edit is done. The marked up manuscript should get overnighted to Wil later today.
    Although I’m tempted to hold it hostage until he posts a pic of the hair . . .
    Anyway, I apologize to everyone who wanted this book for Christmas; I got swamped at the Day Job and just flat didn’t get it done in time. Totally my fault.

  32. Blue hair for “Polar Express”? Sounds like fate to me.
    Much Movie Audition-Job Getting Mojo to you, Unca Willie.
    So Unca Willie decides to “stop acting”, and auditions pour his way. Would that Mojo work for me if I stopped dating? hee hee

  37. Wil can’t mention this right now but rumor has it he’s auditioning for the part of Milhouse in the soon-to-be-filmed live action version of the Simpsons.

  38. Add me to the list of those that want to see you with blue hair.
    Good luck with the audition!
    L.

  39. Robert Zemeckis, the man behind Contact and the Back to the Future trilogy is always pushing the boundaries of FX in films which you wouldn’t think need many (i.e. Castaway, What Lies Beneath). Now, The Los Angeles Times reports that his adaptation of The Polar Express, which stars Tom Hanks as a train conductor who takes a young boy on a ride to the North Pole, will utilize a technique rarely seen before. Seems that every scene in the film will be shot with digital cameras in front of a blank screen with the various actors using motion-capture sensors to capture every nuance of their performance for the computer animators to create later. In effect this is a digitally animated movie but unlike say Final Fantasy, here the characters will be designed to look like their voice counterparts to the point where a flashback of Hanks’s character as a young boy will be a virtual model using Hanks’ current facial and muscle structure combined with photos from his younger days to create the visual look. The announcement of these details have raised eyebrows in not only labor union official circles who fear regular film crews will be cut out but also by economists who suspect the budget, currently estimated to be $150 million, will blow out

  40. good luck on the audition. who knows maybe they’re looking for someone with “punk rock blue hair” though probably not. . . . so when are you getting some 8x10s of that huh? oh hell i think we’ll all settle for some 3x5s of the blueness 🙂
    have fun being a writer that gets lots of auditions for acting 😉

  43. Hey Wil,
    I’m taking classes to become a certified massage therapist. One of the things we learned to self treat tendonitis (as you can imagine, a stress injury many therapists suffer from) is called contrast bathing.
    You soak your arm in a cold bath for 5 minutes, then warm compress for 5 and back to a cold bath for 5, repeat the process, i.e. 5c, 5w, 5c, 5w, 5c. Always, always, always end with cold. The premise being, the cold causes vasoconstriction, the warm causes vasodilation. You create a “pump” in the tissues to flush out inflammatory chemicals and pump in fresh blood, which speeds healing.
    By the way, by “bath” I don’t mean getting in a tub, you can soak your arm in a basin or bowl, what ever you deem convenient.
    And if you choose to just ice your arm, make sure you don’t do it for more than 20 minutes at a time so you don’t become more sore.
    Hope this helps, and best wishes on your audition.

  44. “Yeah, I’m thinking the same thing you are, “Tom Hanks and Robert Zemeckis? Why the hell are they asking to see me?!””
    IIRC, I think Rob Reiner was originally pegged for director for this flick, and I’m sure He and Hanks had a few pow wows about possible casting before Zemeckis came on board…

  45. Oh, the FX thing…I get it. See, Wil already has a buncha experience reacting and emoting to stuff that, for the time being, looks like a big blue screen.
    But do the actors get paid for being computer-regenerated? Read the fine print on this one, Unca, or you’ll be in the fix the Beatles were after Yellow Submarine.

  46. I will always have a place in my heart for Robert Zemeckis. Just, mmm, beautiful job on Contact–the movie managed to capture all the most important themes of the book. I did not feel the limitations of film watching a 500 page book turned into a two and half hour movie. Good luck with that audition, I hope you kick its ass and we get to see you in the theaters!!

  48. I saw an article about The Polar Express just a couple of days ago, and I must say that I was minorly geeking out about how much fun it would be to try to render actual actors. (Yes, I am a CS major…) Since it *is* all computer, maybe it won’t matter if you have blue hair? 😉 Major mojo for the audition!
    And I think it’s safe to say that we’ll all be waiting (impatiently) in line for the book, as everyone else has said.

  49. Does POLAR EXPRESS have a bad guy? Maybe they want you to voice the character who kidnaps Santa, or whatever. Nah, they’ll probably get Walken to do that.

  50. “The Polar Express”? Like the book? That’s so cool! I love that book! I HAVE that book! And how exciting to be working with Tom Hanks and Zemeckis. That’s really neat!
    Just wish we could see a picture of the blue hair.
    Your friend,
    Tracey

Comments are closed.

Related Posts

Recent Posts