The Batman

Over the weekend, DC FanDome unveiled the teaser trailer to Matt Reeves’ upcoming film, The Batman, featuring Zoe Kravitz (The Catwoman), Paul Dano (The Riddler), Jeffrey Wright (James Gordon), an unrecognizable Colin Farrell (The Penguin), and Robert Pattinson as The Batman.

Holy shit does this thing deliver.

Not long ago, fans were debating if the dude from Twilight could be menacing as The Dark Knight. Behind the brilliant direction of Reeves (who also directed the last two installments of the recent Planet of the Apes trilogy), Pattinson puts that idea in a coma.

Needless to say, this raises the bar and expectations for the film, but there is nothing to suggest they won’t deliver. Anyone who saw The Lighthouse, knows Pattinson is plenty capable of intensity. And Reeves has a track record of delivering spectacular, big-screen action. I think we’ll be talking about this one for a while.

Let me know what you think. Did it meet your expectations? Surpass them? Or leave you flat? I would like to hear your thoughts. Post a comment.

Now I’m going to watch that trailer again.

Newsletter

Where is the USB port on this thing?

My newsletter publishes 4-6 times per year. The content includes unpublished stories, invites to read early drafts of upcoming work, photos, video and audio clips, and more.

Your contact information will not be shared with anyone.

Nice way to start the day…

I opened my email this morning and saw this link to a Tweet from one of my all-time favorite filmmakers. Aw, shucks, you’re pretty great too, Guillermo.

Of course, he wasn’t tweeting about me, but rather the monster artist, Mike Hill, the brilliant creature designer for del Toro’s Oscar-winning film, The Shape of Water.

His latest masterpiece is a recreation of Frankenstein’s monster.

Remarkable work by creature designer Mike Hill.

About

Michael K. Hill

I enjoy writing, photography, cinema, craft beers, and my family.

Self-portrait 1986

I’ve worked in film and television production for over twenty-five years.

My experience includes broadcast engineering, producing, directing, writing, editing, and mastering.

Show formatting for ESPN in Edit 2, in 1999.

I’ve created content for ESPN, ESPN International, ABC Sports, CBS News, CBS Eye On People, A&E, and many others.

Digital Suite

From 1988 to 1993, I worked as a writer, performer, director, and occasional video editor, for the syndicated sketch comedy program, Tonight @ 11:30. At its peak, T@11:30 was seen weekly in Boston, New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles.

Those aren’t my glasses.
In 1998 I co-created the kid’s TV show Tori’s Toybox with Michael Hand.

I started doing photography and graphic design work in the 1990’s, creating album covers, posters, and promotional material.

An album cover I designed in 2001.
The title art for my upcoming short story collection.
Preliminary art on an upcoming novel.
The first album cover I made in 1997.

My first published article was a profile piece sold to a British specialty magazine in April of 1999. I’ve continued to write reviews, articles, humor pieces, and others, for dozens of online services, and in print for The Hartford Advocate, The Litchfield Voice, Backstreet Entertainment Guide, and others.

In 1998 I collaborated with a group of friends to form Chimborazo Pictures. We produced Coventry, a black & white film about love and repression.

Coventry was recently added to the New York Public Library’s permanent film collection.

We followed that up in 2000 with another feature film, A Little Bit of Lipstick, a romantic comedy starring Mia Tyler and Soupy Sales.

Me and Soupy Sales on the set of A Little Bit of Lipstick, 1999.

Following the cancellation of Tonight @ 11:30, I moved the comedy production apparatus online. Making new content, while reinterpreting some of the old material, into what we called, Tonight on the Web.



Starting in 2005, I produced a number of different podcasts, including Tonight on the Radio, The Screening Room, and Rit & Mike’s Comedy Funhouse.

In 2008 I designed and created The Gamers Box, the first mobile video gaming service in Connecticut. It featured multiple gaming systems from Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo, with high-definition video displays, and customized gaming chairs. We operated from 2008-2017, serving thousands of gamers all over New England.

Head-to-Head video gaming action in the one and only, Gamers Box.

My first self-published book, The Bug, 1977.

I’ve been at this writing thing for a long time. And yes, I designed that cover too. Blue triangles in the corners were so hot in ’77.

Movie Bunker

Welcome to The Movie Bunker.

Constructed deep underground in an undisclosed location, The Movie Bunker is a film lover’s paradise. Capable of sustaining a nuclear explosion, it’s equipped with a backup power generator and over two-thousand film titles on DVD, Blu-ray, and Laserdisc. Plus access to the entire video libraries of HBO Max, Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, Disney+, and The Criterion Channel. That’s more video content than a human being can view in a normal lifetime, but I’m going to try.

One of my prized box sets from The Criterion Collection.

…in addition to the movie collection, there are also books, music, video games, and comic book collections.

You can search through the entire Tangent Entertainment Media Library: HERE

Take 3

Welcome to the latest version of the website.

I wanted to build something more streamlined and decided to remove all the old comedy stuff. If you’re looking for clips from Tonight @ 11:30 or Rit & Mike’s Comedy Funhouse, sadly they are gone, faded away into the ether of cyberspace.

Rit in the old writing office.

This new site will focus more on my writing and publishing, all the activities with The Movie Bunker, and our houseful of rescued pets.

The Movie Bunker
Johnny
My current writing space.

Welcome!