Ask celebrated "Die Hard" and "48 Hours" screenwriter Steven de Souza about the theme of his new, episodic online series "Unknown Sender," and he'll tell you it's simply an old favorite -- but with a modern-day twist and some familiar faces.
"Back in the day, we had a show called 'The Twilight Zone,' where strange stories took place in that conceptual domain called 'The Twilight Zone,'" de Souza told MTV. "We also had another domain called 'The Outer Limits' -- which was maybe two freeway exits past Twilight Zone. But what is the domain where strange, weird things come to us in the Internet age? You already know the answer: 'Unknown Sender.'"
The sixth episode of "Unknown Sender" goes live today, and like many of the other series sharing a home on Strike.TV -- the online "channel" conceived during the '07-'08 strike by members of the Writers Guild of America -- it features a cast of notables from the television and film industries. After the jump, check out a new image from the latest episode, "Spin Cycle," featuring Mindy Sterling (Frau Farbissina in the "Austin Powers" films) and comedian Jay Davis ("Tourgasm"). Read more...
FROM SPLASH PAGE: Sure, everyone's been talking about Frank Miller's "The Spirit," but this isn't the first time Will Eisner's classic character has taken a turn in the live-action medium.
Way back in 1987, screenwriter Steven de Souza was fresh off a pair of genre-defining hits with "48 Hours" and "Commando." Just before undertaking the project that would become one of his best-known films, "Die Hard," de Souza wrote and produced a television pilot based on "The Spirit" -- the first live-action adaptation of the long-running comic strip. While the series was never picked up, the 74-minute film has lived on as a cult classic of sorts among comic fans.
With Miller's take on "The Spirit" currently suffering the slings and arrows of early fan critique, MTV News thought it might be interesting to reach out to the writer who first brought "The Spirit" into the live-action world for a chat about Miller's spin and the task of bringing the character to screens big and small.
Read more about Steven de Souza's take on "The Spirit" and Frank Miller's film at SplashPage.MTV.com
There aren’t a lot of guys out there who can claim to have had a hand in creating such awesomeness as “Die Hard,” “48 Hours” and “Knight Rider” (the old/cool cheesy show, not the new/lame cheesy show). But since Steven E. de Souza was also the man who wrote and directed 1994’s “Street Fighter” movie, we were eager to get his thoughts on how next February’s re-boot film will compare.
“I heard that it’s the story of just Chun-Li,” he said of the film. “That has to make for a better picture.”
“When we were making the original one, they insisted that all of the characters be in the movie,” de Souza remembered with a sigh. “And if you do the math, that gives you about 7 minutes per character if you split it up equally.” Read more...
As Captain Kirk, William Shatner has saved the world on more than a few occasions. But could anything possibly prepare him for having to save Christmas?
We better hope so, writer/producer/"Die Hard" godfather Steven de Souza laughed – cause the holiday season is about to get seriously messed up. No, really messed up. As in so messed up the term messed up doesn’t even do it justice.
Shatner will star as the voice of Santa Claus in de Souza’s Rankin-Bass-esque animated “Gotta Catch Santa,” the filmmaker revealed, detailing a science-fiction fantasy plot which owes as much to quantum mechanics as it does to Christmas cheer. Read more...
His films have earned over two billion dollars at the box-office, but the best of Steven E. de Souza’s screenplays will likely always remain “Die Hard,” the 1987 Bruce Willis flick that invented the modern action film. And although the writer jumped off the franchise following “Die Hard 2” as if he were John McClane going over the side of the Nakatomi Plaza building, he insists there’s still life in the series.
“The franchise can go on and on, because it no longer has to be a ‘Die Hard’ movie,” explained the screenwriter. “Only the first two movies were actually ‘Die Hard’ movies, which I would define as the solitary hero with little or no help, largely alone for long stretches of time, trapped in an enclosed area he cannot escape. The first two pictures held to that model.”
Along with fan-favorites Bonnie Bedelia (as Holly) and Reginald VelJohnson (as Twinkie-loving cop Al Powell), de Souza was removed from the series for 1995’s “Die Hard With a Vengeance” and last year’s “Live Free or Die Hard.” “[Now] they go out and they travel,” he said of those films. “They go to Canada and come back, and they go to New Jersey, and they drive around in cars and go all over the Eastern Seaboard in the fourth picture. Those are excellent pictures. They’re well-made movies, but I think it’s interesting that neither one of those - three or four - was originally written as a 'Die Hard' movie.” Read more...
