Tim Hines and Thistle Theatre

[FALLINGSTAR]

Have you heard? - Hines is now working full time at Thistle Theatre. He's a muppet stand in!

One of the lines he says in their latest puppet offering is - "My film is not an epic with thousands of effects - so take that you fools - mwahahahahahahaha!. Only a Matrix, Star Wars obsessed teenager would want decent special effects to tell an epic story. Mwahahahahahahaha. My film is for pretentious geeks who think decent special effects are beneath them when it comes to adapting a great science fiction story. Mwahahahahahahah. Mwahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!!! And anyway you fools....................I haven't got enough money for decent production values [ even though I'll pretend I have ].....................so sod off!

[Spirit of Man]

Its a damn shame, im not sure if it would have even come close to saving the movie, but decent special effects would have made a significant difference.

One of my least favourite scenes in the film is where they reach Weybridge, the Tripods legs are flying all over the place and the machines are barely moving.

I actually feel a bit sorry for Timbo, If I'd have spent alot of time working on a film, a decent amout of cash and was part of the whole creative process, even if the film turned out to be poo at the end, I'd probably still defend it. That being said, I am currently fully aware of my film making capabilities and thus am not involved in the making of any films, which is why I also feel sorry for anyone who has either by choice or force, had to endure all 3 hours of this film.

[RustiSwordz]

Look Hindsey just took the blatant piss out of the lot of us and he knew full well he was. Man is a tosser.

[FALLINGSTAR]

Don't feel sorry for him Spirit. When I look back on some of the interviews with him [ if there really is a genuine Tim Hines by name, ha, ha! ] I can't believe some of the complete and utter B.S. he talks. Before the film was released I and others predicted that he would sort of blame another company for his film not being released in the cinemas" - and bingo! - that's exactly what he did. This film was NEVER going to be a cinema release and was always going to be straight to dvd cheapness.

One of his best lines was - "If people think we're making some straight to dvd thing - then I think they will be stunned when they see what we have done". Not to mention the phoney sounding recollections of his youth when he almost burned his house down - making miniature houses and setting them on fire. Sounds suspiciously like an interview that I seem to remember Spielberg giving - about his film making youth.

[Spirit of Man]

Well, ok, fell sorry for him is maybe a bit strong & I didnt really keep up with all that pre-film talk so maybe im cutting him more slack than he's due.

Like I ended my post though, I am aware of my film making talent, which is why I dont........... which leads to the question, why wasnt/isnt Timbo aware of his film making capabilities?

[FALLINGSTAR]

Your guess is as good as mine. Maybe sinister forces set him up as the Ed Wood 'WOTW hate figure' cos they new he made crap films. ;D

[Lensman]

For all that I think the Pendragon film is one of the worst I've ever seen, I still don't understand the attitude of those who seem to think they did not have the right to make it. I was raised to think freedom of speech and freedom of artistic expression is a *good* thing. Perhaps others here were raised differently. Am I ticked off at Hines for promising the moon and delivering rubbish? Of course. But his abysmal film in no way detracts from the quality of Wells' novel.

[FALLINGSTAR]

Obviously they had the right to make it within copyright law. Just like people have the right to criticise it!

[the Donal]

I understand what you say Spirit- you wouldn't spend all the money you could get hold of, months of work (and other peoples' work) and then just say 'this is rubbish'. That would be daft. He could have gone a little easy and often caused his own problems in terms of pr- however, not to stand by his work and the cast at the end of it all would have been wrong. And it is sometimes too easy to get caught up in what you're doing and think that it is so much better than it is (perhaps not often to the point of Hines' over-enthusiasm perhaps) and in hindsight (Hinesight?!) see it for what it is.

At the end of the day, Rusti, despite your reasons (of which some I'm aware), I think you do take it a little too personally- not a dig, just an observation. You've still got the novel and Woking. He did get all of our hopes up an awful lot- but I really don't think that he was intending to rip us off. I still think most of his spin was to attract attention and therefore more investment so that he could make it as good as he was able, even though he had taken on more than he was capable of. We all looked on with the starshaped, rose coloured glasses of hope- and like the Thunderchild, our hopes were soon drowned! I haven't managed to bring myself to watching it a second time (I'd best dose up on the St Johns Wort first!), but I don't think it was all bad- it had a few moments that were actually quite good. It was just all executed with such poor judgement! Those glasses of hope again I s'pose. And it had to happen anyway so the Blackmoon edit could be done- and that isn't nearly as funny unless you've watched all 3 excrutiating hours of the original! I don't hate Tim Hines (I don't know him for starters- hate is such a waste of energy too)- I just hope he learned from the experience.

By the way, Fallingstar, have you actually seen it yet?

[SEAN]

I showed my mate the blackmoon edit the other day, to which he nearly developed a hernia from. A couple of questions though. Does anyone know what, if anything Mr Hines is up to these days, and do you still think he frequents these boards? Also, how can blackmoon get away with what they did without getting bollocked?

[the Donal]

Five choices on this one I reckon-

1) Tim made a considerable loss on this and couldn't afford the lawyers, even though to successfully sue Blackmoon may recoup some of the lost capital
2) He is waiting for Jeff Wayne to get there first so he can be smug about Blackmoon getting their arses sued of without any extra effort
3) He's trying to put the whole thing behind him and really can't be bothered to pursue it
4) He realises that it is actually VERY funny and right on so many levels that he admires it considerably
5) Given the success of his movie- ie not very considerable- and the derision and verbal bullying he has suffered, his confidence has completely gone nowso won't even try

[Lensman]

sean said:

Does anyone know what, if anything Mr Hines is up to these days

"WAR OF THE WORLDS will be released Summer of 2005. CHROME will be released Summer 2003. "

Must be true, here it is in black and white ;D ...er, black and gray ;D:
www.scifi2k.com/misc_html/chrome/chrome_press2_17_02.html

~~~~~~~~~~
Here are a couple of posts from the IMDb.com forum for "Chrome":

by - Evy4Eli19 (Sat Feb 25 2006)
I've looked up everything I can and there's nothing anywhere on it's release date and I've sent Pendragon Pictures about ten emails on the subject and they haven't answered one so I just gave up in that aspect.

by - Goldblat (Thu Mar 2 2006)
I worked on this project a few days, and really liked the little footage I saw. I also had a positive experience working with Tim on set. Thought the trailer was very good considering the resources they had to work with. However, I have heard nothing from the company in a year and a half. Hope they can pull it off someday.
~~~~~~~~~~~~

I can offer one tiny clue: A link at Pendragon's website is labeled "Chrome-- post production"

sean said:

and do you still think he frequents these boards?

Well I suspect it was his friends and/or employees monitoring this forum, rather than Tim himself, but it's been awhile since any moderator mentioned that fact, so AFAIK no evidence his people still are. If you really want to know, you might send a private message to Rob or ENH.

sean said:

Also, how can blackmoon get away with what they did without getting bollocked?

Well perhaps they actually asked permission in advance. *GASP!!* What a concept! (Pardon the sarcasm... it's not directed at you Sean. It's directed at people who seem to think they have a *right* to steal other people's ideas and intellectual property via the Internet, and act wounded if they are requested to take down copyrighted material from their website.)

At any rate, Blackmoon has the following posted at their website: "Many thanks go to uncle Tim for letting me do this". So apparently they got permission either before doing it, or before publically posting it to their website.

[jeffwaynefan]

sean said:

how can blackmoon get away with what they did without getting bollocked?

Because 'Blackmoon' are like us, we and they don't give a toss ;D

[FALLINGSTAR]

Or because Blackmoon's part of this fake "let's make Spielbergs film look better than it is and any authentic adaptation of Wells story look like a bad idea" Pendragon/Paramount company hoax.

Don't be fooled by the sinister men in black suits my fellow WOTW fanatics - Pendragon are a Paramount set up. He! He! It's all a conspiracy I'm tellin ya! ;D

[mctoddridesagain]

lensman said:

sean said:

Also, how can blackmoon get away with what they did without getting bollocked?

Well perhaps they actually asked permission in advance. *GASP!!* What a concept! (Pardon the sarcasm... it's not directed at you Sean. It's directed at people who seem to think they have a *right* to steal other people's ideas and intellectual property via the Internet, and act wounded if they are requested to take down copyrighted material from their website.)

At any rate, Blackmoon has the following posted at their website: "Many thanks go to uncle Tim for letting me do this". So apparently they got permission either before doing it, or before publically posting it to their website.

Blackmoon's acknowledgment to 'Uncle Tim' strikes me as a total p*sstake. PP are such a small outfit that I doubt if they could seriously threaten anyone with legal action, so for all we know Blackmoon hasn't got permission and any threatening noises PP made were dealt with the same way I dealt with Susan Goforthandmultiply when she threatened me with legal action ages ago - i.e. they were told, in the nicest possible way, to go forth and whistle.

Of course, unless, and until, Blackmoon reveals all, anything anyone says is speculation, but I wouldn't assume from his rather ironic acknowledgment to 'Uncle Tim' that that in itself necessarily constitutes firm evidence of permission from PP.

[Lensman]

mctoddridesagain said:

I wouldn't assume from his rather ironic acknowledgment to 'Uncle Tim' that that in itself necessarily constitutes firm evidence of permission from PP.

Fair point, it may be only the same sort of hopeful disclaimer that the Star Wars parody "Troops" has at the end of the credits:

(Thanking you in advance for not suing us, George!)

OTOH 20 minutes out of a film is an *awful* lot to take without permission, even for a parody. That's a heck of a lot more than someone just posting a few screen caps to their website without permission.