Hey, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab.

UPDATED INFO: To answer some of the concerns that are already arising in Talk Back, let me direct you to a good article that just ran on CHUD regarding the age of Jack Ryan and the rank of Jack Ryan and the continuity of the Jack Ryan films. They reference a CINESCAPE piece on the subject that included comments by Mace Neufeld and I'd also direct you to go look up the HOLLYWOOD CONFIDENTIAL column that Jeffrey Wells wrote at REEL.COM a couple of weeks back after reading the latest draft of the script. I'd look it up myself, but, um... well... I'm in the middle of something. Basically, Jack Ryan is an analyst again, not the Deputy Director of the CIA or the President. This is before everything that happens to him, and before he's even married. Yet, for some reason, it's set in the present day. Continuity? We don't need no stinkin' continuity!!

Got a great letter in tonight from "Norm," who spent the day on the set of the upcoming Phil Alden Robinson film SUM OF ALL FEARS. Now, Norm was an extra, and he was able to share his observations here. Extras are a great source of observations like this, and in the next few weeks, there's some big, big movies shooting scenes involving hundreds, even thousands of extras. If you're lucky enough to be on the sets of SPIDER-MAN for the Central Park Unity Day Festival or at the Lennox Lewis fight for OCEAN'S 11 or at any of Michael Mann's ALI recreations... LET US KNOW!! I'm dying to know what it's like to be there for some of these key moments in some of the big movies coming in the next few years. For now, here's "Norm" to tell you about his day with Jack Ryan...

Hey Moriarty !

I was an extra on the set of The Sum of All Fears today (March 13th), at Mel's Cité du Cinéma in Montreal. I played a major burn victim in a hospital bed, after a huge explosion that has also damaged the hospital itself. The wrecked hospital set is quite impressive, and there was plenty of extras in gruesome make-up (myself included).

The scene had a doctor played by Bridget Moynahan (the brunette in Coyote Ugly, whom I think plays Ben Aflleck's love interest here) running through victims and helping out. I'm not sure how this fits into the story.

It took 10 hours for something like 5 shots, but I didn't mind it too much. First, you're paid to lie in a hospital bed, plus it's interesting to watch the work of a director in action, in this case Phil Alden Robinson, writer-director of Field Of Dreams and Sneakers. I liked seeing how he exchanged ideas with his cast and crew and changed things on the spot.

One more thing, while I was leaving the set, I passed by a copy of the screenplay on a table. I'm not quite sneaky enough to steal it, but I glanced at the page it was opened on, and it said something about "Ukraine not producing much but being all over online". i guess that confrims that the "enemy" isn't Muslim but East European.

I might work on the film again next month when they shoot the Superbowl scene at the Olympic Stadium ; they need 5000 extras.

I'll keep you posted!

"Moriarty" out.