Ethan Hawke Sparks 'Tesla' Biopic Take Me out to The
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CALENDAR E WEDNESDAY,AUGUST 26, 2020 :: LATIMES.COM/CALENDAR MOVIE REVIEW Ethan Take Hawke me out sparks to the ‘Tesla’ e-ball biopic game ‘Blaseball’ is the new Michael Almereyda’s word-of-mouth unconventional film baseball-inspired gives the pioneering video game hit. scientist his due. TODD MARTENS GAME CRITIC VICTORY JUSTIN CHANG Melanie Ramos rolls for the opening credits on July 5, a few days after rain canceled a first attempt. FILM CRITIC Baseball right now is weird. The past few years have It’s nice, of course, for brought a fresh resurgence fans to have something to of interest in the life and lega- watch, but with empty stadi- cy of Nikola Tesla, the popu- ums, games postponed be- larity of an Elon Musk elec- cause of players becoming tric car being only the best- sick with COVID-19 and au- known example. You can diences represented either find Tesla’s tall, dark-suited by cardboard cutouts or vir- frame and mustachioed tual avatars, something feels frown in graphic novels and ... off. video games; you can hear But thereis a version of his innovations extolled in baseball that has taken the the lyrics of rock songs and summer by storm, an online even a 2018 stage musical. universe where teams such The movies have done as the Baltimore Crabs, the their part to exploit his con- Hades Tigers and the siderable mystique without Charleston Shoe Thieves necessarily drawing him in seem as popular and hated from the sidelines: David as the Dodgers, Yankees or Bowie played him as the the Cubs, complete with fan- drollest of enigmas in “The run Twitter accounts and Prestige” (2006), and Nicho- social media feeds that act las Hoult gave us a peek at as fictional news networks. Tesla the wily young upstart It’s weird, yes. Umpires in “The Current War” (2017 ). have the seemingly unpre- You could say that his- dictable ability to disinte- tory itself consigned Tesla to grate players with their eyes. asubordinate role, that of The woeful Los Angeles Ta- the tragically thwarted ge- cos are currently without a nius —remembered as much city, as the team appears for his lopsided rivalry with SET SAFETY trapped in multiple dimen- Thomas Edison and his ill- Director Betty Kaplan on set with actor Esai Morales, who is unmasked to shoot a scene. sions; and peanuts — or a fated dealings with various peanut — may or may not titans of industry as for his have deity-like abilities. groundbreaking advances in With no advertising and the study of electrical power no real graphics to speak of, and wireless communica- the free, Web-browser-based tions. “Blaseball” has become so In their quietly entranc- popular that its creators, ing new drama, “Tesla,” writ- L.A.-based game studio the er-director Michael Alme- Game Band, had to hit the reyda and his star, Ethan pause button and figure out Hawke, have conspired to away to regroup (just under give this Serbian-born, 1,500 donors support the American-made visionary game on crowd-funding site his cinematic due. Their aim, Patreon). It also gives those superficially stated, is to illu- who aren’t playing a chance minate how a turn-of-the- to partake in “Blaseball’s” century iconoclast managed fourth season, which began to anticipate and revolution- Monday. Each season lasts ize a future that few of his only a week andbuilds upon contemporaries saw coming. the rule changes of the previ- But Almereyda, never ous one, meaning the under- one to embalm unconven- lying narrative of the tional minds in conventional “Blaseball” of today looks storytelling, has no interest different from the “Blase- in a mere recitation of his ball” of July, when it began. subject’s accomplishments. The core hook is that As in “Experimenter,” his players pick a favorite team, aptly titled, thrillingly un- follow them, bet on them orthodox portrait of the so- and use their fictional win- cial psychologist Stanley nings to vote on elections — Milgram, he infuses classical successful ones generally narrative with an invigorat- Photographs by Laura T Magruder garner more than 10,000 ing formal playfulness. NIGHT SHOOT votes — that changes the If “Tesla” emerges a re- Director of photography Sonnel Ve lazquez gets a shot on the set of “Simone” in San Juan, Puerto Rico. outcome of future seasons. markably intuitive match of While this work clearly filmmaker, actor and sub- comes from pandemic-chal- ject, it is one that took its lenged imaginations, its idea time coming together. Alme- was seeded in a prior base- reyda wrote the script dec- ball season during a playoff ades ago (Polish filmmaker game at Dodger Stadium, Jerzy Skolimowski was eye- when two anchors of the ing it in the early ’80s), ‘MAGIC Game Band asked them- though it wasn’t until re- selves what would happen if cently that the stars aligned baseball could break free and the financing was ac- from its “chains of tradition quired. and history.” There is nothing new “It was a pretty big about the challenges of game,” says Joel Clark, a bankrolling an intelligent Game Band designer and drama for discerning adults HAPPENS’ Dodgers fan who went to the or about the oversights of a postseason bout with studio film industry where poten- founder Sam Rosenthal. tially great projects can lan- “But we sat there the guish for years. But they are An inside look at film production during a pandemic whole time and riffed on the especially worth noting in rules of baseball, and how it the case of “Tesla,” which is, could be different. It’s a in more than one sense, a BY JEN YAMATO >>> Betty Kaplan was nine days away from wrapping her latest film [See ‘Blaseball,’ E2] movie about the uneven dis- tribution of power. It’s the when COVID-19 prompted closures in Puerto Rico in March, halting her production with story of a stubborn, uncom- no guarantees of when it could resume. Tears were shed. Someone passed around a bottle [See ‘Tesla,’ E3] of vodka. The future of the movie was suddenly thrust into question, but Kaplan, the writ- Harnessing the er-director behind literary adaptations “Of Love and Shadows” and “Doña Bárbara,” was mystery of trills no stranger to perseverance. What to listen for in Franz Schubert’s She’d spent seven years fighting to get her fifth feature, “Simone,” made, navigating fi- extraordinary 21st nancing setbacks, false starts and, in 2019, her own cancer battle. Adapted from Eduardo sonata. E6 Lalo’s award-winning novel of the same name, it had finally gone into production in San A film and TV Juan, where Lalo’s tale of a university professor entangled with a mysterious admirer is set actress in 1950s and where the New Yo rk-born, Caracas-raised Kaplan is now based. Lori Nelson, who worked with James That afternoon in March, on Day 13 of the shoot, she gathered her crew and cast, led by Stewart and Jerry Esai Morales and “Tigertail” actress Kunjue Li, and delivered the news: The entire island Lewis, has died. E6 Cara Howe IFC Films was shutting down. Comics ................... E4-5 ETHAN HAWKE stars What’s on TV .......... E6 in the biopic “Tesla.” “There’s a line in the film the [protagonist] says: ‘We’re on a voyage [See ‘Simone,’ E2] E2 WEDNESDAY,AUGUST26, 2020 LATIMES.COM/CALENDAR Filming during a time of pandemic [‘Simone,’ from E1] master, two shots and close- to where there are no ups, and then do the scene maps,’” Kaplan said from prior to the party outside in her home last month, where the writer’s car. Our trans- after finishing the film under port team had studied and COVID-19 guidelines she is gotten their authorization to now in post-production, disinfect cars. Our editor working virtually with an Luis Colina had sent the L.A.-based editor. “That line edited scene so we could all has become where we all match, tone, texture, move- are.” ments and wardrobe. In June, after a three- “We shot the missing month hiatus, “Simone” be- scene. Then moved on to do came just the second U.S. asmall scene without ac- production allowed to shoot tors.” amid the pandemic, the film- makers say. With strict new Day 4 | July 5 health and safety processes Masks were required on in place, Kaplan and her set, though the actors could crew finished their shoot and remove theirs to shoot. “Ev- wrapped in July, without a ery four hours, we had to single case of COVID-19. stop,” Kaplan said of in- “I don’t think I’ve ever creased protocols. “And we made a film that’s had this coordinated it so I would be much magic happen,” Kap- blocking the actors while the lan said, “in more ways than camera crew was disinfect- one.” ing the cameras.” Morales had long been at- tached to star as a writer and “Call is 6 a.m. in the mid- professor who enters into an dle of the financial zone of intriguing relationship with San Juan. You could call it an aspiring artist, played by Puerto Rico’s Wall Street. Li, in the Santurce neighbor- We had wanted to do the hood of San Juan. Kaplan scene in the middle of decided to film in reverse Laura T Magruder Muñoz Rivera, the main chronology, a choice that BACK TO WORK street running between all would prove fortuitous as it Production resumes June 30 on “Simone” in San Juan, Puerto Rico, with safety protocols in place on set.