We recently reconnected with composer Carl Thiel, and realized that it’s been three years since we last chatted. At the time, he had completed recording the music for Sin City: A Dame to Kill For (with Robert Rodriguez), and was also about to begin work on the From Dusk Til Dawn TV series on the El Rey Network. In that time, Thiel continues to grow as an artist. Born in Mexico City, and after living in Canada for a while, Thiel now calls Austin home. He comes from a family of musicians, and has a lot of music he’s interested to work on away from projects under the Troublemaker Studios banner. As such,…
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CONTEST CLOSED – Win A Copy of the ‘Sin City: A Dame to Kill For’ Soundtrack Autographed by Composer Carl Thiel
Attention: CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED. All winners have been notified. Thanks for your interest in Sin City: A Dame to Kill For. ——————————————————————————————————————————— This week, Sin City: A Dame To Kill For was released on Blu-Ray and this follow-up to Robert Rodriguez’s noir-fueled 2005 film is full of even more hard-edged and unsavory characters…and a whole lotta Eva Green, that’s for sure! But this grungy world wouldn’t have half of its gritty and slightly off-putting charm without the driving soundtrack to compliment the insane action and ultra violence. Earlier this year we again spoke with composer Carl Thiel about his musical contributions to the Double R universe. Along with insights about the…
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Ohhh, Look…First Clip from ‘Smoke and Mirrors: The Story of Tom Savini’
To anyone who knows anything about horror films (both campy or iconic) Tom Savini is more than a special effects icon. He is a bona fide superstar. Sure you’ve seen his face in From Dusk Till Dawn and Dawn of the Dead, but his real talent lies behind the camera creating the legendary effects in films like Day of the Dead and Friday the 13th to name but a few. So, while we just love talking about Tom’s work, there’s a new documentary on the horizon devoted to the man of the hour and that’s got us excited. The film, titled Smoke and Mirrors: The Story of Tom Savini, chronicles his…
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Interview…Film Composer Carl Thiel On Robert Rodriguez, Frank Miller and ‘Sin City: A Dame to Kill For’
The last time we spoke with film and TV composer Carl Thiel he had just finished up scoring the music to Machete Kills. The music was as much fun as the insane action on screen. Now here we are, less than a year later and Thiel has not only contributed music to another Robert Rodriguez film but also the themes for the TV series based on Rodriguez’ From Dusk Till Dawn. No stranger to tight time frames and working hard, Carl Thiel continues to add that gritty and hard-edged sound to each and every world Rodriguez puts on screen. It’s always a blast catching up with him, so enjoy our session with composer Carl Thiel…
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Ohhh, Look…Fake Trailer for 'Machete Kills Again…In Space!'
All of you Danny Trejo fans know that “Machete don’t text” and “Machete don’t tweet” but Machete, like James Bond, will always return…we hope at least. Those of you brave souls and die-hard Robert Rodriguez fans who supported everyone’s favorite machete brandishing vigilante already know the absurdity in the video below. Those of you who missed out really missed out – this has to be seen on the big screen – as Rodriguez takes insane to a whole new level. This the fake trailer for the sequel to Machete Kills that played…wait for it…before the film even started. Now how’s that for funny? Sit back, and prepare to laugh, a…
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Interview…(Part II) Film Composer Carl Thiel Talks More Music, Robert Rodriguez and ‘Machete Kills’
Award-winning music writer/producer and film composer Carl Thiel was born into a European family and raised in Mexico City, Carl was exposed to a rich and wide variety of cultural experiences and musical styles from a very early age. As a young boy, he would listen to his father (a Swedish immigrant with a doctorate in music) play Mozart and Bach on the piano, while his older siblings would play Beatles and Carpenters albums. His mother, a perpetual student of the spiritual and healing arts and the daughter of German and Austrian immigrants, shared her love for Strauss and Vivaldi, as well as meditation and inspirational music. Immersed in the huge metropolis,…
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G-S-T Review…Machete Kills
In the pantheon of Grindhouse revival films, if there ever were such a place, Machete Kills should go down as one of its stupidest but also one of the most fun times you can have in 2013. Now all you Trejo/Rodriguez fans can sheath your machetes, the term stupid is used with immense love and respect for Rodriguez and company…but this film is simply ludicrous. It goes without saying that a film like this makes no effort to be realistic. How can it when it’s a cornucopia of all sorts of genre-themed oddities, including but not limited to ray guns, clones, wacky explosions/violence, Mel Gibson as a Bond-esqe villain and Charlie…
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Interview…(Part I) ‘Machete Kills’ Composer Carl Thiel Discusses Collaborating with Robert Rodriguez
Film composer Carl Thiel is an award-winning music writer/producer. Over the course of his career he’s worked with a multitude of musicians and personalities including Willie Nelson, Bob Schneider, Los Lonely Boys, John Debney, and Del Castillo to name just a few. Carl currently serves on the Board of Governors of the Texas Chapter of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, and frequently volunteers his time to teach and work with high school and college students across the state during educational events. But it’s his collaborations with visionary director/filmmaker Robert Rodriguez that occupy a large portion of his resume (he’s even a member of Robert Rodriguez’s pet project band Chingón). In the last decade Carl has lent…
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G-S-T Review…Side By Side
For over 100 years photo chemical film has been the gold standard in the film industry. But in the last two decades the advent and advances in digital technology have offered filmmakers a cheaper, easier and sometimes better alternative as a means to capture images and tell stories. In Side by Side, Keanu Reeves and writer/director Chris Kenneally put their finger on the pulse film world and explore the levels to which digital capture technology has created a paradigm shift across the world. From directors, to colorists, to editors etc, no trade is unaffected by this change in the medium. Is this the end of film? Well, it’s not a clear cut answer…
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Interview…’Side by Side’ Documentary Writer/Director Chris Kenneally
In writer/director Chris Kenneally‘s documentary Side by Side, he and Keanu Reeves take us on a tour of the past and the future of filmmaking. For the past 100 years photo-chemical film has been the gold standard in the industry. But over the past two decades, a new form of digital filmmaking has emerged, creating a groundbreaking evolution in the medium. Covering a multitude of angles and showing points of view from many people who have an instrumental hand in the filmmaking process, Kenneally and Reeves put their finger on the pulse of the digital movement and showcase a good cross section of opinions. They explore the development of cinema and the impact of…
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G-S-T Review…Predators
In what is both a simultaneous reboot and a sequel to the beloved Predator, Robert Rodriguez and Nimród Antal looked to breathe new life into the severely failing franchise. In short this was a return to the basics and what the series needed, however I was simply underwhelmed. It was a fun outing that I had with some fellow Predator fans, but honestly I was more entertained with the fake Arnold voice-over trailer for the film. PLOT: To me, so much of the film just screamed “fan boy film”. They say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and in that respect this was highly flattering. The drawback here…
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Off the Shelf…'Planet Terror'
The write-up of this film comes, in part, because of this weeks release of the Machete trailer. Machete was one of the fake trailers created for this and the Quentin Tarantino Grindhouse “Double Feature”. As fans of Robert Rodriguez know, Double R is a filmmaker in his own category. He’s one part Roger Corman, one part John McTiernan, one part Steven Spielberg, and the rest of the equation is balls out, bad ass filmmaking. Robert Rodriguez is successfully able to combine elements of different genres in a way that, had it been anyone else, the result would result would probably be an utter failure. RR,in the way Tanarntino make his films, goes for…
