Ed Westwick @ Soho Hotel

Ed Westwick (Gossip Girl, 100 Feet) is the American actor who plays Chuck in the hitseries "Gossip Girl" was in London to promote the upcoming E1-movie Chalet Girl (I'm already looking forward to the DVD-release of that one, see if it gets a DVD-menu!). I met him when he checked out the Soho on his way back to the States. For me signed a group photo of Gossip Girl and also the first season on DVD. With help from Tom he also signed the second season on DVD and the DVD-cover of 100 Feet! He posed two times for a photo, which you can see are both not brilliant!

Critic's Circle Film Awards 2011

Last year the Critic's Circle Film Awards were being held in the Landmark Hotel in London. A location I liked very much. It was the location were I met Quentin Tarantino, Timothy Spall, Michael Fassbender and a handfull of other great people. This year they changed the location to the BFI building unfortunately. That means more and better security and less access to the stars. But this year the Critic's Circle Awards had less stars than the last year.

I've managed to meet Will Poulter (Son Of Rambow, The Chronicles Of Narnia 3) who posed for a picture with me.
Olivia Williams (The Ghost Writer, The Sixth Sense) is not a new one for me, but because she is always nice to her fans I decided to make another picture with her.

Valerie Leon (who was a Bond girl in The Spy Who Loved Me and Never Say Never Again) posed for a picture.

Aaron Sorkin (who is going to win the Academy Award for best screenwriter for The Social's Network) is the creator of the television series The West Wing. Therefor he signed my DVD-Boxset of The West Wing and posed for a picture.

Thomas Turgoose (known from This Is England and Eden Lake) posed for a picture.

So compared to last year the Critic's Circle Awards weren't that good at all...

Julie Walters @ BFI London

Julie Walters, the acclaimed English actress known for her parts in Harry Potter, Calendar Girls and Mama Mia! had a talk in the BFI building in London. There in the crowd, she signed my DVD-covers of Mama Mia! and Calendar Girls. When I asked for a quick picture she first refused by saying there is no such thing as a quick picture. Later, she decided to do it anyway...

Luckily for me I got my picture with Julie Walters before fellow collector Tom decided to rape the poor old lady! (Sorry Tom, I couldn't resist...)

The Children's Hour @ Comedy Theatre

Keira Knightley (Pirates Of The Caribbean, Love Actually) also did a play again, again at the Comedy Theatre. And again she was as rubbish there as she was last year! For me she "signed" the DVD-covers of The Duchess, The Hole and The Jacket but unfortunately she "never has the time" to pose for a picture with fans...
Ellen Burstyn (Requiem For A Dream, The Excorcist) was very friendly! The Academy Award winning actress signed my DVD-covers of The Exorcist and Requiem For A Dream and posed for a picture.

Below is the trailer for Requiem For A Dream, the movie is which Ellen Burstyn's plays the part of her life.

Elizabeth Moss, known due to her part in the series "Mad Men" signed my boxset of Mad Men and posed for a picture.

Lisa Blackwell, known due to her part as Pandora in the third and fourth season of Skins posed for a picture.

Below is a poster for the play "The Children's Hour" at the Comedy Theatre.

Twelfth Night @ National Theatre

Another theatre stagedoor I visited was "Twelfth Night", again at the National Theatre. Not because of the female lead, upcoming actress Rebecca Hall (The Town, Vicky Christina Barcelona), but more so for he supporting cast.

Marton Csokas (The Lord Of The Rings, XXX) was one of the friendliest actors I have ever met. When he came out of the stagedoor he appologised to me, Tom and Teflon/Pannensponsje because he had a few drinks inside and let us wait because of that. He signed my Lord Of The Rings filmcell, my Aeon Flux DVD-cover and my Blu-Ray cover of XXX and posed for a picture. After that he walked away with us and chatted to me and Tom about a lot of things. Again... A very pleasant meet!

Simon Callow (Amadeus, Ace Ventura 2, Four Weddings And A Funeral) looks a little bit strange. Although he was friendly enough to sign my Blu-Ray cover of Amadeus and posed for a picture.

Below is the poster for the play "Twelfth Night"

Frankenstein @ National Theatre

While being in London in lately I couldn't resist to take a look at a few stagedoors of theatres. This time I decided to take a look at the stagedoor of the National Theatre, where Danny Boyle directs a play called Frankenstein. In this play a few "famous" actors act live on stage. Among these actors were Johnny Lee Miller (whom I never saw!), Benedict Cumberbatch (Will play the lead in the upcoming Steven Spielberg movie "War Horse"), George Harris and Naomie Harris.

Benedict Cumberbatch, known due to his part as Sherlock Holmes in the latest acclaimed series, will also play the lead in the upcoming Steven Spielberg movie calles "War Horse". So he is probably going to be bigger than he is even now! He didn't mind to pose for a picture...
George Harris, the only pirate who wasn't in a pirate film, is known for movies like "Raiders Of The Lost Ark", "Black Hawk Down" and "Layer Cake". After he signed my DVD-cover of "Layer Cake", he again posed for a picture.

Naomie Harris, known for her part in the Pirates Of The Caribbean movies, signed my DVD-covers of "After The Sunset" and "Ninja Assassin" but didn't want to pose for a picture... unfortunately.

XL Schnitzel With Bacon!

A new year doesn't always mean a new beginning... Sometimes people go on with what they are doing best. Last year I closed with Michael Madsen. This year I've opened with Kevin Bacon. Together with his brother Michael he formed "The Bacon Brothers" and they performed in Bochum, Germany. Fellow collector Roy accompanied me to Bochum and when we arrived at the venue (Zeche) we were not convinced that we would be able to meet him. Luckily for us we managed to see in which hotel he was staying, and while we were leaving all the German collectors at the venue we drove off to the hotel. When we arrived there we saw Kevin but we were unable to get him at that point. We decided to get something to eat in the nearby shopping centre (The same shopping centre we visited a while back for the Fast & Furious premiere.). After I had a few delicious "schnitzels mit jagersauce" at Currie Karl, we went back to the venue , but the situation still wasn't hopefull. Because we were the only 2 collectors who knew where he was staying we decided to wait for him at the hotel when he would come back.
When he arrived at the hotel he signed (the following DVD-covers; "Mystic River", "Tremors", "Wild Things", "Stir Of Echoes", "A Few Good Men", "Hollow Man", "Death Sentence", "Sleepers", "The River Wild", "Apollo 13", "Trapped" and "The Woodsman") and I got my picture with him and we drove back home.

Trailer: Wild Things

Trailer: Sleepers

Trailer: Tremors

Stuck In The Middle With Michael Madsen

One of the coolest actors ever is without doubt Michael Madsen (Reservoir Dogs, Kill Bill, Species). Although he doesn't make many decent movies, a couple he did make were instant classics. For example I cannot imagine a "Reservoir Dogs" without Michael Madsen playing Mr. Blonde. So you can imagine I was very pleased to hear to he was coming over to out small country to be present at a festival in The Hague. When he arrived at the venue he signed my DVD-covers of Reservoir Dogs and Donnie Brasco and my poster of 24. He was really friendly and chatted away with us. Off course he didn't mind taking a picture with me...
Reservoir Dogs-Michael Madsen

Weekend Of Cancellations November 2010

It has been a year since the last Weekend Of Cancellations. The show formerly known as the Weekend Of Horrors this year was ready for some big announcements and even bigger cancellations. The last weekend of cancellations was even cancelled completely due to vulcanic ash, which was only affecting the area of Bottrop, Germany and not the rest of the world.

After the organiser decided he was not going to book flights for a few big guests, and a couple guests decided to cancel themselves there wasn´t really much going on this particulary weekend. But that didn´t matter to the massive amount of visitors who decided to visit the well organised show.
Amongst these visitors were besides myself fellow collector´s Bart, Gregory, Tom and off course Rene.

Legendary director Dario Argento, known for directing movies such as Suspiria, Il fantasma dell'opera, Giallo and Tenebre, was the most important guest for me this time. For 30 euro he was willing to pose for a picture during the photoshoot at the show.

Udo Kier, known for movies such as Halloween, FeardotCom, End of Days and off course Blade, posed for a picture during the photoshoot.

Fred Williamson, known for movies like Starsky & Hutch and From Dusk Till Dawn, posed for a picture during the photoshoot.

Tito Larriva, known for parts in From Dusk Till Dawn, Desperado and Machete posed for a picture during the photoshoot.

I met actor Danny Trejo before, but now he was the main actor in the movie Machete, I decided to meet him again. so was willing to sign my poster of Machete and due to friendly but not so bright crewmember he signed a postershot of Machete as well...for free! I would like to thank this crewmember and I would love to see him next year again!
I also did a grouppicture with every guest who attended the show (except for Dario Argento who went home early). On the picture are (from left to right) actor Fred Williamson, composer Harry Manfredini, Italian actor Fabrizio Jovine, actor-musician Tito Larriva, actor Richard Brooker, actor Tom Savini, actor Kane Hodder, actor Udo Kier, actor Danny Trejo, actress Lisa Wilcox, Italian actress Cinzia Monreale, Italian actress Zora Kerova and actor Ari Lehman.

Celebrities @ Covent Garden Hotel

Two of the biggest surprises of my two day trip were the actors I was lucky enough to meet at the Covent Garden Hotel in London.

The first surprise was actor Colin Farrell, known for his parts in movies such as Miami Vice, S.W.A.T., Minority Report and off course Alexander. When he checked in at the hotel, two minutes after Rene decided he wouldn´t wait any longer and left, he was willing to pose for a picture.

Trailer "Miami Vice"

Academy Award winner Geoffrey Rush, known for movies such as Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, Quills, House on Haunted Hill, Elizabeth and The Tailor of Panama posed for a picture. Trailer "Quills" (One on the best movies ever made!)