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(April 24, 2003) NEW VIDEOS FOR
TAMIA, TYRESE, ASHANTI; NEW COMMERCIAL FOR SPRITE
Lots of BIG news today. Paul Hunter has directed new videos
for Tamia & Tyrese, about to shoot one for Ashanti,
and shooting an upcoming commercial campaign for Sprite.
Paul has shot a video for Tamia's Officially Missing You,
the first single off her upcoming third album entitled Still (due
out July 15). It will be the 4th video that Paul Hunter has shot
for Tamia (he has previously directed Make Tonight Beautiful
[1997], Imagination [1998], & Stranger In My House
[2000]).
Paul Hunter has also directed an upcoming
video for Tyrese for the track Signs of Love-Making.
Although this is the first video that Paul has directed for Tyrese, it
is not the first time the two have worked on a project together.
Tyrese appeared in the 1998 Usher video My Way (dir: Paul
Hunter) as the leader of the rival gang.
In addition to the two videos, Paul
Hunter is also scheduled to shoot the upcoming Ashanti video Awww
Baby, as well as an upcoming commercial campaign for the soft
drink Sprite.
(April 22, 2003)
BULLETPROOF MONK PREMIERES |
NIKE ADS PREMIERE
Paul Hunter's film directorial debut, Bulletproof Monk,
premiered mid-last week to pretty poor reviews (both by critics and fans
alike). The movie, which opened last Wednesday, came in fourth in
the box-office tallies this past Easter weekend, behind the movies Anger
Management, Holes, & Malibu's Most Wanted. The movie managed
to make only $8.65million the first weekend; a total of $11.75million
from Wednesday-Sunday. With such a weak start, and with
much-anticipated movies X-Men2 & The Matrix: Reloaded coming out in
the next few weeks, BPM is expected to, if anything, barely make up its
reported $55million budget. To read reviews of the movie, go to rottentomatoes.com.
Images from the film's L.A. premiere on April 6 can be found at news.yahoo.com
and corbis.com
On a more positive note, the first three
of 6 commercials that Paul Hunter shot for Nike Basketball have
recently premiered on television (and online). The 6 commercials
are a collection of clips that mix together the sounds, action, and
excitement of the sport. The first two clips, The Battle:
Elevation and The Battle: Speed, are both currently airing on
television stations across North America. They can also be seen
(in Quicktime format) at nikebasketball.com.
The site also offers MP3 downloads of the soundtracks to these two
commercials, as well as featured-player stats and behind-the-scenes
clips from the commercial-shoot. An unreleased third clip, The
Battle: Boom, can be previewed at a special "sneak-peak"
site by clicking
here. The 4th, 5th, & 6th spots have yet to premiere, but
expect to see them in the coming months.
(March 31, 2003)
BULLETPROOF MONK |
NIKE ADS
Just 2 1/2 weeks until Bulletproof Monk is released into
North American theatres (on February 16, 2003). The official bulletproofmonk.com
website was updated last week, filling in some gaps that were previously
listed as "coming soon", including the Production section
(which includes a background of the movie including info on the original
comic book, the movie studio & producers' process of developing the
project, and selecting Paul Hunter as the director); and the Cast &
Crew section which includes a brief bio on Paul Hunter (which is
basically the same stuff that's mentioned at the HSI
Productions website). Promotion for the movie has already
begun in the media. Along with the teaser & official trailers
appearing in North American movie theatres in the past few months,
television commercials have also begun airing on network television, and
online "banners" have appeared on sites such as DarkHorizons.com.
The Los Angeles movie premiere is scheduled for April 9 and the movie
officially opens on February 16.
At the end of Paul Hunter's bio on the
Bulletproof Monk website, it mentions that he has directed 6 clips
for an upcoming Nike ad campaign.
(March 18, 2003) 8
MILE DVD RELEASED TODAY
The DVD for the Eminem movie 8 Mile comes out
today. The DVD includes the controversial new Eminem video Superman,
directed by Paul Hunter, which is limited only to the DVD as a Special
Feature because the video is too graphic for regular airplay on
television. (read March 3 News posting below for more info)
(March 10, 2003)
FULL BULLETPROOF MONK OFFICIAL WEBSITE OPENS
The full website for Bulletproof Monk (bulletproofmonk.com)
went online a few days ago. The Flash site includes
downloadable media such as a gallery with images from the movie and
behind-the-scenes images featuring director Paul Hunter; links to both
the teaser & final trailers (in various formats and sizes);
wallpapers; e-cards; and AOL Buddy Icons. Perhaps the most
interesting feature on the site is the Storyboard feature. Various
storyboards (rough pre-production sketches of each scene of the movie)
are presented for a pivotal fight sequence. The storyboards are
presented in a slideshow as director Paul Hunter provides audio
commentary frame-by-frame. A few features on the site are
"coming soon", including video clips, production report, and
cast & crew info (most likely including bio & info on Paul
Hunter). click
to visit bulletproofmonk.com
(left) image of director Paul Hunter in the Gallery section;
(right) Storyboard feature with audio commentary by director Paul
Hunter
(March 3, 2003)
CONTROVERSIAL NEW EMINEM VIDEO
Paul Hunter had taken more than a year off from directing music
videos to direct the upcoming feature Bulletproof Monk. He returns
to music videos with a brand new video for Eminem. However,
don't expect to see this particular video getting any airplay on
MTV. His newest video in over a year, the new Eminem video, Superman,
is only being released on the rapper's upcoming movie DVD for 8
Mile because the video is too racy. The video shows Eminem
having a one night stand with a really slutty looking model, then
throwing her (half-naked) out of his apartment into the hallway, as she
bangs on his door to let her in. We see both Eminem & the
model through the perspective of looking through the peephole, with
Eminem rapping inside the apartment and the model enticing him to let
her back inside by exposing her breasts, etc. The camera zooms
into the girl's eyes where we see her idealistic image of Eminem as the
perfect "Superman"-type man: a dream-like sequence with Eminem
wearing an unbuttoned white shirt and tie (a very cheesy 80's-type
feel). Paul Hunter recently explained to MTV.com
why the video is going to be only released on the DVD: ""He is laying next to about 100 girls like totally,
totally naked, so we pushed [the boundaries]." You can
actually VIEW the video in its entirety at the HSI
Productions website, where they have posted the video in full
Quicktime and Windows Media formats a few days ago. The 8 Mile DVD
arrives in stores on March 18.
(thanks to Cihan & Kevin L. for the MTV.com link)
(February 4, 2003)
MORE INFO ON EMINEM VIDEO
It seems that MTV.com
ran a short blurb on the upcoming Paul Hunter-directed Eminem
video in mid-December. The video for Superman,
Eminem's next single off his The Eminem Show CD, was shot in
Los Angeles during the week of December 11. The upcoming DVD
release of the Eminem-starring movie 8 Mile (scheduled for release in mid-March)
will exclusively include the video for Superman. The Eminem video
would be Paul Hunter's first music video in more than a year (the last
video he directed was for Thalia's Tu Y Yo, which was shot in
late-2001 and released in early-2002).
(thanks to Kevin L. for the info)
(January 29, 2003)
NIKE & EMINEM PROJECTS
Word has it that Paul Hunter is working on projects for Nike
(commercial) and Eminem (video?). He is also currently busy
in post-production for Bulletproof Monk, which is expected to
come out April 16, 2003.
(January 18, 2003)
DR. PEPPER COMMERCIAL FEATURING RUN DMC & LL COOL J TO PREMIERE THIS
WEEKEND
Yahoo! News
reports that the new Dr. Pepper commercial featuring Run DMC
& LL Cool J will premiere on North American television this
weekend. As previously reported, Paul Hunter shot the commercial
in New York City in September 2002. The commercial was shot just
weeks before the shooting death of Run DMC member Jam Master Jay, and
will have a message included at the end of the clip in memory of the
slain rapper. Visit DrPepper.com
to view the commercial in Quicktime & Windows Media formats, as well
as read a press release on the commercial.
click
to read "Slain DJ Jam Mastesr Jay to Star in Dr. Pepper Ad"
(Yahoo! News; January 17, 2003)
(December 31, 2002 -
January 1, 2003) 2002 YEAR-END REVIEW
In 2002, Paul Hunter took a break from directing videos to
concentrate on his upcoming movie Bulletproof Monk (starring Chow
Yun Fat, Seann William Scott & Jaime King). The movie was shot
from March to June of this year, in Toronto, Canada. I was
fortunate enough to get a visit to the Toronto set of the movie, and got
to meet Paul Hunter in person (click here
for more info). 2003 brings the release of the movie
(reportedly in April 2003).
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