Bumblebee Writer Christina Hodson Never Really Left the ’80S Behind
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Community Community According to Akurana a research, Community P4heart attack P16 Qatar or stroke may be carries out an early sign of philanthropic cancers, especially work in Qatar in older adults. and Sri Lanka. Friday, December 28, 2018 Rabia II 21, 1440 AH Doha today 180 - 250 COVER Nostalgic rush STORY Bumblebee writer Christina Hodson never really left the ’80s behind. P2-3 CUISINE SHOWBIZ Khaman vs dhokla, Best of 2018: In jazz, powerful the Gujarati cuisine. voices demand being heard. Page 6 Page 15 2 GULF TIMES Friday, December 28, 2018 COMMUNITY COVER STORY Timeless magic For Christina Hodson, the London-born writer, it made sense to set the movie Bumblebee in the ’80s PRAYER TIME because that was the era that Transformers originated Fajr 4.56am Shorooq (sunrise) 6.18am Zuhr (noon) 11.35am Asr (afternoon) 2.33pm Maghreb (sunset) 4.54pm Isha (night) 6.24pm USEFUL NUMBERS Emergency 999 Worldwide Emergency Number 112 Kahramaa – Electricity and Water 991 Local Directory 180 International Calls Enquires 150 Hamad International Airport 40106666 Labor Department 44508111, 44406537 Mowasalat Taxi 44588888 Qatar Airways 44496000 Hamad Medical Corporation 44392222, 44393333 Qatar General Electricity and Water Corporation 44845555, 44845464 Primary Health Care Corporation 44593333 44593363 Qatar Assistive Technology Centre 44594050 Qatar News Agency 44450205 44450333 Q-Post – General Postal Corporation 44464444 Humanitarian Services Offi ce (Single window facility for the repatriation of bodies) Ministry of Interior 40253371, 40253372, 40253369 Ministry of Health 40253370, 40253364 Hamad Medical Corporation 40253368, 40253365 Qatar Airways 40253374 ote Unquo Qu te “Be brave enough to live life creatively. The creative place where no one else has ever been.” — Alan Alda The ’80s is when I fell in By Tracy Brown love with Transformers, and it kind of felt right hristina Hodson spent so much time air Community Editor and good to go back to drumming to music by the Smiths when she Kamran Rehmat that decade was younger that her e-mail: [email protected] CNew Year’s resolution in 2002 was Telephone: 44466405 to stop. She didn’t. Fax: 44350474 — Christina Hodson, It’s a love that still runs so deep that asking the Bumblebee ‘ screenwriter ’ screenwriter to pick her favourite Friday, December 28, 2018 GULF TIMES 3 COVER STORY COMMUNITY Bumblebee is an upcoming American science fiction film centred around the Transformers character of the same name. It is the sixth instalment of the live-action Transformers film series and a prequel to 2007’s Transformers Smiths songs could be considered the adventure and the girl was that’s when I discovered the Charlie’s garage, and the Autobot’s One of the many ’80s movies an act of cruelty. maybe along for the ride,” Hodson Smiths,” Hodson said. “That resulting affi nity for the 1985 John Hodson recalls being obsessed Hodson has passed this love said. “The girls were rarely the ones opening sequence of her waking Hughes fi lm was also a part of the with in her youth was The Lost for the British alternative band leading the charge, and that was up in her bedroom and putting story from the start. Boys (which starred Jason Patric, along to Charlie, a wise beyond always what I wanted to see.” on the headphones is very The development spoke to Kiefer Sutherland and Jami Gertz her years teenage girl (played by The Times spoke with Hodson autobiographical. I used to do a lot Hodson emotionally, and she was alongside Corey Haim and Corey Hailee Steinfeld) who discovers that — who is also writing two highly of air drumming to the Smiths at glad that they were able to keep Feldman and coincidentally hit the beat-up car she has recently anticipated DC Comics movies: that age.” the reference because “it does kind theatres in the summer of 1987). salvaged is actually an alien robot. the upcoming Harley Quinn She added: “Initially of end up being this key thing for “I wore out a lot of VHS tapes Set in 1987, this Transformers vehicle Birds of Prey and a Batgirl [Bumblebee] rejects that music. Bumblebee.” in my time, and Lost Boys is prequel is peppered with references standalone adventure — about But the fi rst time he uses a sentence “I just love The Breakfast Club,” definitely one of the most worn- to the era. But instead of serving some of the more prominent ’80s to speak to [Charlie] is using the Hodson said. “I really loved that out ones,” said Hodson, explaining as mere nostalgia bait, these references that appear in Bumblebee Smiths and using her language. It movie and, yes, it is dated in some that she and her sisters rewatched elements evoke the timeless magic (as well as one that doesn’t). felt like a lovely way to bridge the ways and it is a movie about tropes, the tape over and over. emblematic of certain ’80s classics. gap between them and bring them but it’s also a movie about denying “One of the surprising, Hodson cites [Steven] Spielberg’s Charlie and the Smiths together.” the tropes. That ending is so iconic delightful treats of this movie is Amblin movies as a prime Charlie’s love for the Smiths and so great, and I love that song” that I wrote all of the boardwalk inspiration for Bumblebee, “both was baked into the story from the Bumblebee and The Breakfast — Don’t You (Forget About Me) by stuff imagining the boardwalk the ones he directed and the ones he very beginning and helped set the Club Simple Minds.” from The Lost Boys.” And though produced,” she said. “They feel like heroine up as a bit of an outsider. Bumblebee stumbles across she didn’t tell him, director Travis they exist almost outside of time.” “When I was Charlie’s age, a VHS of The Breakfast Club in The Lost Boys Cconnection Knight also had that boardwalk in For the London-born writer, it mind when scouting locations for made sense to set the movie in the the film. ’80s because that was the era that “We ended up shooting in Santa Transformers originated. Cruz exactly where The Lost Boys “The ’80s is when I fell in love shot, which of course made for with Transformers, and it kind of the greatest set visit of all time,” felt right and good to go back to Hodson said. that decade, because I think that’s when a lot of people fell in love with A Wham! moment that got Transformers,” Hodson said of the cut franchise that launched as a toy line There are always some scenes in 1984. and references that don’t make it From the pop culture references into the final version of a movie. and household gadgets to the For Bumblebee, one of these music Bumblebee relies on to involved a more comedic take on communicate after losing his robot a scene that just didn’t work out. voice, Hodson admits that there [Minor spoiler alert for those who was plenty of research involved haven’t seen the film yet.] when penning the script for this “I did used to have a silly, origin story. funny beat when [Bumblebee] But Hodson’s fond recollections first comes back to life in the of days wearing out VHS tapes hangar where he starts singing watching and rewatching her Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go,” favourite movies with her sisters Hodson recalled. “Which I always — as well as the “labour of love” found really funny. But, to be fair, that went into recording mixtapes does not really work in the more on cassettes — makes it clear that emotional version of the scene.” the decade is one she was happy to In this “slightly more comedic revisit. iteration of that scene they’re There’s at least one thing she putting him back together, and would be pleased to see remain a he keeps singing that song and relic of that era, however: the lack they’re, like, ‘Shut up!’ ” of aspirational female characters. It turns out there’s only so “I would watch a lot of these DIFFERENT: The spin-off is very diff erent from the five Michael Bay films. Notably, there are fewer Transformers — it’s much ’80s goodness one movie movies growing up and it was mainly Bumblebee and the two Decepticons who chase him to Earth in 1987. The heroic Optimus Prime only has a can safely contain. always the boy who was going on cameo. —Los Angeles Times/TNS 4 GULF TIMES Friday, December 28, 2018 COMMUNITY BODY & MIND Heart attack, stroke may predict cancer risk INCREASING RISK: The risk of having a heart attack and stroke jumped by 70 per cent in the year before cancer diagnosis. The risk was most acute in the month immediately before cancer diagnosis. eart attack or stroke as advanced-staged cancers, appear Babak Navi, Associate Professor at thromboembolic activity, before heart attack and stroke risk were may be an early sign to be most strongly associated with Cornell University in the US. they come to medical attention, he increased in the months before of cancers, especially an elevated risk of heart attack and “These results suggest that explained. cancer diagnosis, although heart in older adults, say stroke caused by blood clots in cancer’s eff ect on the clotting system For the study, the team included attack events were slightly more researchers. the arteries, according to a report may be what’s predominantly driving 748,662 people (67 years and common than strokes. HThe fi ndings showed that the risk published in the journal Blood.