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June 14, 2008
Harrison Prepping for Crowley?
HARRISON PREPPING FOR CROWLEY? |
According to the San Diego Union-Tribune yesterday, Harrison will appear at at a private reception hosted by biotech r&d company Invitrogen at the 2008 Bio International Convention in San Diego, CA. The convention is on from June 17 - 20. |
| The Union-Tribune says Harrison's appearance stems from his involvement with biodiversity conservation but we take the liberty to presume that the worthy cause is not the only reason: He's also got more than a random chance to meet some of the real life principals re: his next project (Crowley) - and get important contacts re: necessary preparation for his part as a maverick biotech research scientist. Harrison also serves as exec producer of the movie. The 2008 Bio Convention will be the place to find the big global biotech and pharmaceutical giants next week and among the participants and sponsors of the event are Genzyme and Cytovance. Genzyme is the manufacturer of the first medication for treatment of Pompe disease. The head of Genzyme Glycobiology Research Institute and also the president of Cytovance is Dr. William Canfield - the real life person we assume Harrison will be portraying in Crowley. John F. Crowley -- the father of the two children with Pompe -- is one of the founders of Cytovance. Invitrogen (also a sponsor of the 2008 Bio Int'l Convention) is one of the foremost providers of life sciences technologies in the world and the opportunity is indeed there to arrange for proper life scientist character study while maintaining the proper distance to the persons and companies portrayed in the upcoming movie. Invitrogen is situated in Carlsbad, CA, roughly midway between Los Angeles and San Diego. See also our news item of June 9 re: the Crowley project. Big thanks to Mary Marshall for the tip re: the Union-Tribune notice!! | |
Posted by Grethe at 01:52 AM
June 13, 2008
Indiana Jones and the Darabont script
INDIANA JONES AND THE DARABONT SCRIPT |
It's been all over the Internet for the past few days: the assumed genuine Frank Darabont script for Indiana Jones IV -- and the verdict is unanimous: this one would have made a better fourth Indiana Jones movie than the script that ended up as Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. |
| Here are reviews from two sites: G4TV For the record: we basically agree with the reviewers above. Genuine or not, this script is better in many ways: the story is far more poignant and congruent and the characters are better evolved and tied in -- especially Marion Ravenwood but also Indy himself. We also found the side character gallery more interesting and to the point - villains and shady characters included. Best twist: there's no Mutt Williams (no sour grapes to Shia LaBeouf: he did very well with the material he was handed). Nevertheless: we feel this script would have needed some tightening up, especially on a couple of the action sequences. Like the movie, we'd also have loved Indy to be using his wits and cool sense of improvised practical solutions a bit more. P.S. Surprisingly many of the most criticized scenes in Crystal Skull are in this script -- and we feel the same way about them that we did re: the ditto scenes in Crystal Skull: one waterfall is quite enough, thank you (this script has four of them!!). The bungee tree still doesn't tickle our fancy. To make things a bit worse: Indy is (part time --) snake food in this script. The idea is logically grounded (well, sort of) ....but really a goofy bite too much for our taste. The Temple climax scenes are far superior, though -- and unlike the movie they make sense. We suspect the critical voices may be met with a shrug and a little reminder of the very nice Crystal Skull box office. So be it. We can only retort we think present and future B.O would have been at least as glorious had things been different -- notwithstanding the issue of an heir apparent in the franchise. | |
Posted by Grethe at 01:44 PM
June 11, 2008
World Bank Tiger Preservation Campaign
WORLD BANK TIGER PRESERVATION CAMPAIGNHarrison, Bo Derek, Robert Duvall support
Citing tiger population counts that have dwindled to a few thousand, several Hollywood stars have come out in support of a preservation campaign announced on Monday June 9 by the World Bank. Amongst them: Harrison Ford, Bo Derek and Robert Duvall. The head of the World Bank, Robert Zoellick, said at a news conference at the National Zoo in Washington D.C that the conservation initiative will find out "how to work with the local communities, so we can preserve some of the areas in which the tigers live." The World Bank will initially explore local and regional programs that have worked against poaching of endangered tigers and will next determine how much financing it would take to help replicate the programs elsewhere. Regional programs against tiger poaching are linked with rising populations tallied in the Russian Far East, according to a report from the World Bank. Mr. Zoellick emphasized his group is "not the key player" but only serves as a catalyst for countries in the region to coordinate efforts to save tigers at risk in their areas. The World Bank's initiative will focus 13 countries where tiger poaching threatens remaining populations in the wild: Cambodia, Laos, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Malaysia, China, Thailand, Myanmar (Burma), Indonesia, India, Russia and Vietnam. In most cases, tigers aren't shot to protect human lives, they are hunted for profit and their dead bodies are being used for anything from trophy mounts to traditional Chinese medicine. |
CNN
Reuters
The Washington Post
Posted by Grethe at 08:56 AM
June 09, 2008
College of Lake County + HFW = True
COLLEGE OF LAKE COUNTY + HFW = TRUE |
Professor John Tenuto at the College of Lake County in Grayslake, Illinois will be teaching a special class in the Fall 2008 semester: Introduction to Sociology: The Sociology of George Lucas and Steven Spielberg's Films -- and HFW is one of the reference websites for the class. As per arrangement with Professor Tenuto, we will also be be answering questions from the students about Harrison Ford, Steven Spielberg, George Lucas and the movies mentioned in the course description below. Here goes: | |
To give you a visual idea: here's professor Tenuto teaching That 70s Class: The Sociology of 1970s Popular Culture last semester (January - May 2008). Don't hesitate to contact The College of Lake County for more information on the college, the new sociology class or other classes offered by the institution. Go to this page to enter your question(s) or give them a call at (847) 543-2000. | ||
Posted by Grethe at 02:43 PM
New Project For Harrison: Crowley
NEW PROJECT FOR HARRISON: CROWLEYWill also serve as exec producer
  John Crowley  Dr. William Canfield  Harrison Ford  Dr. Yuan-Tsong Chen |
According to Variety yesterday, Harrison Ford has agreed to star in Crowley for CBS Films. The movie is based on the real life story of John F. and Aileen Crowley, whose two children have a rare genetic disorder (glycogen storage disease type II or Pompe disease), leading to severe muscle weakness. The disorder is lethal in infants and young children unless treated. Harvard Business School graduate John Crowley refused to give up hope, raised USD 100 million and found a researcher with a potential cure. The movie is based on Pulitzer Prize winner Geeta Anand's Wall Street Journal article and subsequent book The Cure. Variety reports that Harrison will play the maverick researcher, he will also executive produce the film. Scottish director Tom Vaughan (Truel, Starter for 10, What Happens in Vegas ) is in negotiations to direct. We've been looking a bit into this and it seems most likely to us that Harrison will play Dr. William Canfield, the founder of Novazyme Pharmaceuticals Inc in 1998, then a small (four persons) company. Dr. Canfield had been awarded a research grant for his work on finding a drug to help slow down or at best cure Pompe. When John Crowley and his wife discovered that their kids had the lethal disorder, Crowley quit his executive job at Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. and took over as chief executive of Novazyme. At the time (in 2000), Novazyme had USD 37,000 left in the bank - barely enough to cover the payroll -- consequently Crowley and William Canfield went on a quest to raise money, turning to Neose, the company that had awarded Canfield his research grant. Neose was eventually convinced, contributed USD 27 million and Novazyme developed an experimental drug. Crowley and Canfield later sold Novazyme to biotech giant Genzyme, a Cambridge, Mass.-company with resources to conduct more testing and research. Novazyme became a research and development facility for Genzyme and kept Canfield as president of the Genzyme Glycobiology Research Institute. John Crowley became the director of Genzyme's Pompe disease program. But -- but there were concerns: some people initially had questions about whether he could be objective about work that could affect his children's lives. When clinical testing started. Crowley's children didn't qualify. Genzyme arranged a separate small sibling trial for them, but a Philadelphia hospital rejected it because officials were concerned about the fairness of treating the children of the company's executive only. When the company applied for a trial at St. Peter's University Hospital in New Brunswick months later, Crowley quit Genzyme to make sure his children could be treated without any questions - and they were. John Crowley continued his work to raise money and he is now president and CEO of Amicus Therapeutics, a company working on Pompe and related diseases. Amicus has raised USD 150 million in venture capital, and hopes to have another Pompe drug in clinical trials around 2008. |
| Dr. William Canfield has also continued being a highly succesful entrepeneur. Siwa Biotech was founded in late 2005. Canfield is also president of Cytovance, a biopharmaceutical company acquired in 2006 with funding from the Presbyterian Health Foundation and Oklahoma investors. Former Novazyme executives John Crowley and William Fallon founded Cytovance and Fallon was retained as president. The first drug for treatment of Pompe was approved by the FDA in 2006 and is called Myozyme The manufacturer is Genzyme. According to Wikipedia it was primarily developed by Dr. Yuan-Tsong Chen. then on staff at Duke University. Dr. Chen is currently the director of the Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan and one of his ongoing research projects concerns enzyme and gene therapy and targeting mechanisms of Pompe disease. | |
Variety
Wikipedia (on Pompe)
Wikipedia (on Myozyme)
FDA approval for Myozyme
aismme.com
Harper-Collins Publishers
thecurebook.com
bNet (Article on Dr. William Canfield)
Business Week (John F. Crowley profile)
Academia Sinica
Posted by Grethe at 04:43 AM
Crystal Skull Box Office Third Weekend
CRYSTAL SKULL BOX OFFICE THIRD WEEKEND| US Domestic | USD 253 million |
| International | USD 326 million |
| Total | USD 579 million |
Variety
Posted by Grethe at 03:17 AM