Released earlier this month, the Veronica Mars movie was written and directed by show creator Rob Thomas (who also co-created another cult favorite series, Party Down). In the film, Veronica (played again by Kristen Bell) returns to her hometown of Neptune, California, years after the show’s conclusion to investigate a murder that her former flame, Logan Echolls (Jason Dohring), is accused of.
But while fans (or “Marshmallows”) eagerly wait to see if Veronica Mars will be getting the sequel treatment, they can already find out what happens next to the beloved private investigator. Picking up almost three months after the events of the movie, 'Veronica Mars: The Thousand Dollar Tan Line' (Amazon) is the first installment in an all-new original mystery book series. Co-written by Thomas and author Jennifer Graham, the novel finds Veronica back in Neptune, this time trying to solve a missing person’s case. And when a second girl with unexpected ties to Veronica’s past goes missing too, it’s up to Veronica to uncover the truth surrounding one of her most personal cases yet.
-My favorite crime writer is probably Ed Brubaker. He and Sean Philips put out a comic called Criminal that I re-read half a dozen times while working on Veronica. It’s not a mystery per se, but it is pure pulpy noir in the very best sense–full of antiheroes, bad decisions, lost causes, tortured pasts, haunting secrets, and grit, grit, grit. Anyone who’s into Veronica‘s darker genre nods should absolutely check it out. I also re-read a lot of classic hardboiled and noir material while I was working on the book–Raymond Chandler, Patricia Highsmith, Dashiell Hammett, Chester Himes, Micky Spillane. I wanted to make sure the cynical, hard-edged element of those writers took up some residence in my prose. And I’m a Gillian Flynn fan, too.
-If you were a private investigator, what’s the first mystery you’d try to solve?
-This question runs the risk of exposing me as a total ghoul, because I am a little bit obsessed with famous unsolved murders. Zodiac, the Boy in the Box, the Black Dahlia, the Axeman of New Orleans, the Cleveland Torso murders. The obvious Whitechapel legacy. But morbid curiosity aside, I’d like to believe I’d also put my skills towards exposing corruption and inequality. Neptune is a convenient microcosm, but there are a lot of Sheriff Lambs in the world.
Source: popbytes.com
"Noir images, motifs, and characterizations appeared superimposed on the comedies. The clever and conniving woman in screwball was actually a comical sister of the self-serving seductress in noir. The screwball male, when portrayed as the object of the female's intentions, was oftentimes as hapless a figure as the doomed noir protagonist. There was a similarity in the complexity of plot construction. It became apparent that an undercurrent of cynicism ran like a continuum from the screwball comedies of the 1930s directly into the noir films of the 1940s. In 'Screwball Comedy: A Genre of Madcap Romance', Wes D. Gehring offers: In many ways -particularly female domination- screwball comedy of the 1930s and early 1940s anticipates the more sinister woman-as-predator film noir movies of the 1940s. One might even call screwball comedy an upbeat flipside of noir. In fact, the quasi-screwball comedy 'Thin Man' series might be seen as a bridge between the two genres, especially with the original novel being penned by Dashiell Hammett, also author of 'The Maltese Falcon' (1941), which became an early noir prototype." -"Screwball Comedy and Film Noir: Unexpected Connections" (2012) by Thomas C. Renzi
Screwball Comedies of the 1930's and 40's: "It Happened One Night" (1934) - The first true screwball comedy. The ultimate cover-up of a lovemaking scene in a romantic comedy occurs when the Walls of Jericho come down by choice of Gable and Colbert once the plot resolves in Ellie being freed of her marriage and knowing Peter wasn't out to get the reward money Ellie's father had out in finding her. Peter doesn't want the money and also confesses his love for Ellie. Let's also not forget the scene where Claudette Colbert shows her leg along a country road in order to get someone to stop and give her and Gable's character a lift. Even Colbert considered it a bit saucy doing that at the time (and it was all Frank Capra's idea!)--but showing leg fell within the Hays Code acceptability.
Source: voices.yahoo.com
At times, "Early Edition" (1996-2000) is like a fairly tale. There is a certain sense of whimsy in the story, a sense of irony. People used to say Capra-esque. When asked how he would respond if he knew the newspaper headlines a day in advance, Kyle Chandler says with a smile: "The first thing I'd do is go to a convenience store and get a tall fountain drink and fill out some lotto tickets. And then... I would help people. I would like to believe that anyone with even the smallest conscience would want to help someone if they had access to the information that my character has." -The Free Lance Star ('Early Edition Delivers Moral Dilemma') & Insider Magazine (1996)
Kyle Chandler: "I enjoy the screwball comedy when it presents itself. I like opposites. When it's a serious scene, I like to find the comedy. We have very good writers [in 'Early Edition']. And the mixture of comedy and drama, it's a dream for me as an actor." -TVGen / Yahoo! Chat Session with Kyle Chandler and Alex Taub (1998)
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