Was Booker a Mistake?

Hollywood.com has included Booker on a list of spin-offs that shouldn't have been. Though I agree with several of the selections, I can't get on board with this one (and that has nothing to do with the whole "just an excuse for Richard Grieco to get naked" thing).

Unlike some shows that made the list (Joey, for example), the writer doesn't actually criticize Booker. Rather, the argument seems to be that it would have made more sense to keep Dennis Booker where he was, as added "edge and man candy" on 21 Jump Street.

Yep, I've totally posted this before...in my very first post.
You know you wanted to see it again.

While I'm sure none of us are going to argue with that characterization, I think that 21 Jump Street ran its course, and I don't think I agree with the writer's suggestion that Grieco's continued presence could have kept the show aloft after Johnny Depp's departure.

What do you think? Did Fox make a mistake spinning Dennis Booker off into his own series? If so, was it an "ugh, that show really sucked" kind of mistake or more of a "wow, 21 Jump Street was so much more awesome before you pulled that character out of it" kind of mistake? Would the original series have lasted longer with Richard to hold our attention?

Minutes to Midnight Update

Last month, we learned that Richard Grieco had been cast as the Sheriff in the upcoming thriller / horror flick Minutes to Midnight. At that point, we knew that Kane Hodder and WWE's John Hennigan would also appear in the film, that the story centered on a series of murders in a ski lodge on New Year's Eve and that Friday the 13th franchise composer Harry Manfredini had signed on for the score.

This week, joblo.com told us that Bill Mosely and John Kapelos had also joined the cast.

More interestingly, the update also included new plot details, including the fact that one of the villains is a painter who uses human blood in his work, to capture the souls of his victims. Though it's a fairly unusual niche, this won't be the first time Grieco has portrayed a character investigating a murderous artist. In The Apostate, Richard stars as a priest drawn in to the investigation of a serial killer when his younger brother becomes a victim.

That role, as you may know, turned out to be life-altering for Grieco. It was co-star Dennis Hopper (the murderous artist) who persuaded Richard to go public with his real-life artwork, now emerging as the cornerstone of his creative and professional life.

Richard Grieco's Roses

If you haven't seen Richard's 1991 appearance on the Arsenio Hall Show, you're going to love this video. (Hey, let's be honest...if you saw it 22 years ago, you're still going to want to watch it again.)

The opening bit where Arsenio basically calls Richard a liar when he claims to grow roses is funny, and you'll pick up some charming confirmation that Grieco is not a celebrity at heart.

 

Minutes to Midnight

Not to be confused with After Midnight, which was completed last month--Richard Grieco has a brand new film in the works.

This one co-stars Kane Hodder of Jason X fame and John Hennigan, better known as the WWE's "Johnny Nitro".

There isn't a lot of information available about Minutes to Midnight just yet, but it's classified as a horror film and the high-level story line involves a group of people targeted by a killer in a ski lodge on New Year's Eve.

I've commented before on how often Richard plays a dangerous man, but in this one he's the good guy.  Or, at least, he's the Sheriff. I suppose that doesn't entirely rule him out as the killer.

Another interesting note: the film will be scored by Friday the 13th franchise composer Harry Manfredini.

More information to come as it's available!

Director Thunder Levin Talks about Filming in the Jungle, Richard Grieco and Really Big Spiders

Technology in the jungle: Richard Grieco, Adrian Paul and
AE Director Thunder Levin play back a shot on set in Costa Rica

I wanted to talk to AE: Apocalypse Earth Writer/Director Thunder Levin after the film released at the beginning of the summer, but Levin's life got a little crazy soon after the release, when Sharknado became an overnight sensation. 

As soon as the flying sharks started to die down, Levin agreed to answer a few questions about working with Richard Grieco, plate-sized cave spiders in the Costa Rican jungle and what’s coming up next.

I've heard you filmed AE: Apocalypse Earth under rough conditions. What was it like taking actors like Adrian Paul, Richard Grieco and Bali Rodriguez--accustomed to more upscale accommodations--into the jungle to work?

It’s funny, you include Bali in this list and my first thought is, “Wait, she’s Costa Rican, we didn’t take her anywhere!”  But of course, we did.  She’s no more a jungle girl in real life than Adrian is a soldier, or Richard a starship captain.  The answer to your question though, is that they were all great about the conditions.  I made it very clear in our first conversations that it would be a physically demanding shoot in difficult conditions, and I never really heard any complaints.  There was one scene where Bali was lying on the ground for quite some time and bugs started crawling on her, but we still got the shot, she  would just jump up after every take to knock them off.  The cave scene was pretty difficult because the floor of the cave was covered in about a foot of bat shit.  Adrian and Richard were lucky because their characters wore boots.  But Bali and the “Humanoids” were in open sandals.  But after the initial “Eew”’s and “Oh gross”’s, everyone handled the conditions like troopers.

Tell us about the bugs. In the film's commentary, Richard talked about encountering "dinosaur bugs" in Costa Rica.

We frequently encountered scorpions and poisonous snakes on location.  Fortunately, we had Roberto, our Costa Rican version of Crocodile Dundee.  He and his son would go into every new location before us and literally beat the bushes, to drive out any lurking dangerous creatures.  And if something deadly slithered or crawled onto our set they would quickly dispatch it with a machete.  I think the dinosaur bugs that Richard was probably thinking of were the plate-size cave spiders.  Here’s a photo of Robert showing one off.

What did you learn about Richard during this shoot that his fans would like to know?

Well, he’s very different from the image I’d had of him before we met.  He’s actually a very quiet, sensitive, thoughtful, artistic man.  The Hollywood Bad Boy that I’d imagined was nowhere to be seen.  He’s also very funny.

Dude--you took Richard Grieco into the jungle with a camera and kept his abs covered the whole time. What's up with that?

Honestly, I had no idea the kind of shape he was in until one day in the middle of the shoot he had his shirt off at lunch time (it was very hot & humid).  I joked with him that we weren’t doing a GQ photo shoot.  But the boring answer is that his character is injured for the first half of the film, and after he recovers he’s a Captain trying to maintain command.  Having him shirtless just didn’t seem appropriate.

Your career took kind of a crazy turn not long after AE, when Sharknado became an overnight sensation. What's next for you?

It’s really been kind of surreal.  I signed with a very prestigious agency within a week of Sharknado’s release and I’ve been meeting with many studios, networks, and production companies that I didn’t have access to before.  I’ve got a couple of TV series I’m trying to get set up, and several feature films.  We’ll see which one gets the most interest.  And of course, there’s Sharknado 2 which we’re just getting started on.

A Walk on the Beach with Richard Grieco

Here's another flashback--from the 1991 Summer Movie Preview. Mobsters is the last film previewed (beginning at 5:26) and the host takes a walk on the beach with Richard to talk about Bugsy Seigel, his penchant for violence and his way with women.

Sin and Redemption

Quite by accident last night (no, I mean it this time), I discovered another of Richard's old movies available in full on YouTube--and it's one you probably haven't seen unless you happened to catch it on television back in 1994.

Richard Grieco in Sin & Redemption

Embedding is disabled for the video, so if you want to watch the movie you'll have to go to YouTube. I haven't watched it yet, but it's based on a fairly shocking true story in which a young waitress is raped by an unseen attacker. Her ultra-religious father doesn't believe her and insists that she put the baby up for adoption, but a good-looking young man from a wealthy family who frequents her place of employment sweeps in and offers to make an honest woman of her.

Probably, you can see where this is going, but I won't spell it out for you. You can watch it for free. I mean, Richard Grieco is in it--how wrong can you go?

If you want a little more information before diving in, here's a news story from when CBS aired the movie in the spring of 1994.