Is Book of Eli based on Wheat Soup?

Kevin and I went to "The Book of Eli" tonight. We didn't expect much and so it was a bit better than we expected. I was reminded of "Wheat Soup" at least a handful of times throughout it, not only the basic story (which was not highly original in either case: a lone traveler in a wasteland, guided by the principles in a book he carries) but more so by the lens choices, it being shot in telephoto with significant heat waves, long takes, and even a 500 mm sunset shot at the very end. Subtle but amusing corresponding elements kept me quite amused throughout.

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Talked on phone with Kodak reps today, confirming various details about yesterdays order. I was told by one guy in Vancouver that since I don't have an account, I would have to pay the $200 shipping bill on my order. I called the guy in Toronto to set up an account and after explaining the situation and that I don't have much need of my own account due to my association with the university for my regular business, he said he'd sort it out and I wouldn't pay shipping (I still recall that we ordered over $2000 worth of black and white film for Wheat Soup in 1985 so didn't have to pay shipping.) I posted my new video, chapter 2 of my "How To Be An Experimental Filmmaker" series. I watched the Ian Toews films that I have that will be shown next week at the Filmpool. I've been asked to write the program notes for it. Great work, I'm surprised at how well his "commercial" Landscape as Muse series fits into the rest of his body of short experimental films.

28 Days Later

In the fall of 1987, to promote some Filmpool screenings, me and a couple colleagues shot three TV commercials revolving around the image of the anvil, chosen for purposes of absurdity and for convenience as we happened to have a 175 lb anvil of our own that we purchased for the film Wheat Soup that was premiering around that time, and so there I was, letting machismo get the better of me as I hauled this brutal steel object up a snowy incline not once, but twice, to drop it onto an (unsuspecting) television set below, and then I was surprised to start having strange pains running down my leg in the months that followed that only increased as months passed and flare up from time to time to this day. The last two days have been very painful as this 20 year old back injury is debilitating me once again, but of course it was worth it, we got the shot.