Movies Til Dawn

In an effort to not 'turn the other cheek' (HIS cap-centric words), Federal Prisoner Bernard L. Madoff has weighed in with his review of our mini-series about his life. It's a nice notice, given that he focuses primarily on the story points he feels were unfair (i.e. his brother wasn't a loser, he never hit his son) and doesn't seem to mind A) the acting B) the writing or C) the direction. Add to that the fact that he has no complaints about the camerawork, art direction, costumes or editing and I'd have to score the official Madoff Review of "Madoff" a good 80% fresh on the Bernie-meter. Make up your own mind.   Subscribe in a reader

You'd never know it from the puzzlingly different reports from different news orgs, but it turns out that our "Madoff" miniseries kicked some serious ass on its last night . As this is my first venture into TV, I'm learning a few things; namely that the news gets reported based on the news organ's opinion of the show. Variety, for instance, thinks we came in last--and, surprise, gave us a medium poor review. All things said, I'm delighted with the reception and glad ABC--who put an enormous amount of trust into me and my work--seems to be happy as well. Anyone got a job for an unemployed filmmaker?   Subscribe in a reader

Click here to read a wonderful article by Carlos Menendez, my production designer on the four hour mini-series "Madoff", which will air this Wednesday and Thursday night on ABC. Carlos wrote this for a terrific mag that for some reason I'd never been hipped to called 'Perspective'--it's the official publication of the Art Directors Guild. In the article you'll see some great pics of the sets that Carlos designed and built with his superb staff and will learn, from his pleasantly professorial manner, what went into making the look of the movie and the physical reality of Madoff's world happen. I just re-read that last sentence and it is by far one of the worst I've ever composed, but you get my drift. I have to get on a plane in a minute so leave me alone. Watch 'Madoff' for Chrissakes!!!   Subscribe in a reader