There’s a brand new Regal Cinema coming soon not far from our home. I was hoping it would be ready to go by Christmas, but the folks in charge are now saying it won’t open until early next year. Hopefully we can see “Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins” there on Opening Night (Feb. 8). It’s the new Martin Lawrence comedy and the trailer is hysterical. Or maybe Nickelodeon’s “The Spiderwick Chronicles” (Feb. 15). It should definitely be ready by Leap Day, Feb. 29, when the new Will Ferrell movie, “Semi-Pro” comes out.
There’s nothing like seeing a movie in a brand new theater, don’t you agree?
Lights Camera Jackson (a.k.a. Jackson Murphy) began his career as a film critic in 2006 at the age of 7. To date, Jackson has written nearly 1,000 reviews of new releases and, in total, has seen more than 1,500 films. In 2010, Jackson became the youngest person to win a NY Emmy Award, for his on-air movie reviews on Time Warner TV station, Capital News 9. And in 2011, Jackson was inducted into the Broadcast Film Critics Association as their youngest member. The BFCA’s annual Critics Choice Awards is one of the industry’s most recognized and prestigious awards shows. Jackson is also a member of SAG-AFTRA and votes annually for the Screen Actors Guild Awards.
Since the podcast began in 2011, Jackson has welcomed-in more than 100 entertainment industry figures. Jackson’s first guest was Tom Kenny, the iconic voice of SpongeBob SquarePants. In 2012, Jackson interviewed Lee Hirsch, the director of the documentary “Bully”, actor/director Matthew Lillard and “The Middle” star Atticus Shaffer. 2013 guests included Oscar-winning director Chris Wedge (Scrat in the “Ice Age” movies). Also on the show that year were the directors of “The Croods”, Chris Sanders and Kirk DeMicco. 2014 guests included comedian Kathy Griffin, Chaz Ebert, wife of late film critic Roger Ebert and animation historian Jerry Beck.
The following year Jackson interviewed Oscar-winning screenwriter Diablo Cody (“Juno”) and “Hotel Transylvania” trilogy director Genndy Tartakovsky. 2016 highlights included comedian Adam Pally, LAIKA founder Travis Knight and Oscar-winning “La La Land” composer Justin Hurwitz.
In 2017, the podcast featured “Fairly OddParents” creator Butch Hartman, Emmy-winning game show host Todd Newton, and comedian Gilbert Gottfried. Also, popular talk show host Jenna Wolfe and Oscar-nominated writer and star of “The Big Sick”, Kumail Nanjiani dropped in.
So far in 2018, 4-time Oscar winning “Wallace & Gromit” creator Nick Park and “People NOW” host Jeremy Parsons have joined LCJ, along with both the star and writer/director of the critically-acclaimed film “Eighth Grade” – Elsie Fisher and Bo Burnham.