Section B · Page 4
The University Daily Kansan
Tuesday, October 31, 2000
Director calls show 'hopeful'
The Associated Press
LOS ANGELES — Dark Angel has the dubious distinction of being the only major network series to compete not just once but twice with the Bush-Gore presidential debates.
If viewers expected sheer escapism from Fox's new science-fiction drama, however, they misjudged James Cameron. The film director's TV venture is serving up philosophy and a dab of politics along with the special effects.
Sci-fi shows tend to dwell on big themes, especially when they have a big thinker like Cameron (The Terminator, Titanic) at the helm. He co-created and produces Dark Angel (9 p.m. Central Tuesday) with Charles "Chick" Eflee (Murder One).
The hero of Dark Angel, a genetically engineered, smartmouthed superbabe (Jessica Alba), has escaped her military handlers and is on the lam in 21st-century America.
The series delivers action, but also offers a society in which computer data has been wiped out by a weapon that left humans untouched. It also left them scrambling to make their way without their now-vaporized stock portfolios.
That's not necessarily a bad thing, said Cameron.
"I think people are way too focused on money and what I think of as the new national lottery, tech stocks," he said. "And everybody is thinking it's OK for our culture to just be a service culture and not create anything and just make money as sort of gatekeepers.
"I think that's problematic. I think we lose touch with creativity. I think we lose touch with the work ethic."
He's not trying to be a complete downer. The title may be *Dark Angel*, and the look of the show may be dark, but there's light in its soul, Cameron insists.
"The show tends to be hopeful. It asks, "What if you took the most prosperous nation in the world and put it back in a depression? What would people be like?" And the answer is they'd get by. They'd work with each other, learn to adapt."
Not without rough times. Alba's character, Max, and allies she meets along the way (including Michael Weatherly as a bold crusader) have to cope with relentless government scrutiny and official corruption.
The chief villain is Lydecker (John Savage), the military man hunting Max and other test-tube prototypes who also managed to escape a top-secret compound.
Dark Angel has its share of special effects. The two-hour pilot episode reportedly was budgeted at $10 million, and although it came in for somewhat less, it cost considerably more than other pilots.
"There's truth in advertising: Jim Cameron's name is on the show and that creates a set of expectations in the audience's mind, and we need to be able to deliver on that," Eglee said.
The weekly budget has been reined in, Cameron said without naming a figure, but it "scales" to the premiere episode.
While Max copes with trying to save the world, how much pressure is there on box-office king Cameron to make his maiden television venture a winner?
Dark Angel has yet to match its Oct. 3 debut when it drew about 17 million viewers against the first presidential debate, but it is performing respectfully for Fox.
"I don't feel that much pressure," Cameron said. "I do my best with everything I do."
He said a series was "very different thing than a movie, where you just fire it off like a missile and it either hit or it doesn't and it's all over by mid-day Saturday. With this, we not going to know where it's at for a long time."
Helen, Sweetheart of the Internet
Latin rocker hopes for breakthrough
LOS ANGELES — When he looks in the mirror, A.J. Vallejo sees what census takers describe as the future: a young Hispanic American, fluent in Spanish and English, belonging to one of the fastest-growing ethnic groups in America.
What Vallejo hopes he might also be seeing is the future of rock 'n' roll: young, brash and loud as always, but raised on a musical mixture of Tito Puente and Jane's Addiction; Los Lobos and Frank Zappa; Black Sabbath and the Tijuana Brass.
Still, Vallejo hopes the Austin, Texas-based band that carries his name will be the next successful Latin rock band. "We've definitely got our fingers crossed on that one," he says.
Vallejo was the first rock act to sign with Crescent Moon, which released the band's third album, Into the New, this summer.
Ricky Martin, Christina Aguilera and Jennifer Lopez are among the hottest names in music. But they are mainstream pop acts, not rockers.
After years of false starts, two well-received albums on the small TVT label and one minor hit, "Just Another Day," on Latin MTV, Vallejo now has a contract with Emilio Estefan's Crescent Moon label.
"A lot of labels try to sign what is predictable," says Estefan, who believes Vallejo can do for Latin rock what he and his wife, Gloria, did for Latin pop in the 1980s. "Crescent Moon would like to let people have their own sound and respect them."
Vallejo plays loud and hard, performing a diverse mixture of rap, mariachi, jazz, rock, Emilio Estefan-influenced Cuban pop and other styles.
The Associated Press
"I got a job at Musician," he said. "The boss was making name tags for everybody one day and said, 'What's your name?' I said, 'Alfred Jr.' He wrote down A.J. and handed it to me, and I've been A.J. ever since."
But as his tour bus barrels up the East Coast, somewhere between Pittsburgh and Cleveland, he chuckles, "People still come up to us and ask, 'What does Valley-Joe stand for?'
He remembers when people in Birmingham couldn't pronounce his first name.
Is the American public ready? Vallejo is optimistic.
The time seems right. Or is it?
Crossword
ACROSS
1 Four-posters and singles
2 Large, thick slice
3 Foals' moms
4 Spoken
5 Yield
6 Vibrant
7 Rescuer
8 More pleasant
9 Sleuth's specialty
10 Tractor manufacturer
11 "The _ and the Pendulum"
12 Actor Connery
13 God of war
14 Pixie
15 Posture
16 Coupe or sedan
17 Unrestrained
18 Add up
19 Gem State
20 Adage
21 Send payment
22 Demilitarize
23 Risque
24 Dr. dr.
25 Pablo nap
26 Self-out letters
27 Questions
28 Purchases
29 Inc. in Great Britain
30 Compare
31 Type of geometry
32 Milo of "The Verdict"
33 Follower of Moses
34 Viewpoint
35 Tidy
36 God of love
37 Feel
38 Advantage
39 Part of USDA
DOWN
1 Brave
2 Cleveland's lake
3 Wacky
4 Visits dreamland
5 Disperse
6 Jacob's third son
7 Gulf of the Arabian Sea
© 2009 Tribune Media Services, Inc.
All rights reserved.
8 Ice masses
9 A must
10 Estrange
11 Houston university
12 Always
13 Withered
14 ___fi
14 Winter hours in NYC
15 Etching fluids
16heel spokes
17 Rubber
18 Guitarist Paul
19 Dreads
20 Titles
21 Hoosegow
22 Senator Kefauver
23 Lucky
24 Washed-up celebs
24 Armed hostilities
24 Receives permission
24 Assemble in sequence
Solutions to Monday's crossword
50 Confused
52 River of Rouen
54 Bond
55 Profit's
partner?
58 Capri or
Anglesea
57 Genghis
59 Exploited
60 Steep, rugged rock
61 Ireland
62 Resting on
63 Cozy retreat
Roommates stuck to the couch?
Kansan Classifieds
· Find them a job. Find new roommates. Sell the couch.
Don't forget the 20% student discount on Kansan classifieds