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NEW Sketchbooks! The Hollywood Reporter!

William Stout: 50 Convention Sketches Volume 17

Yup! THEY’RE HERE! Fresh from Comic-Con!

William Stout MONSTERS Sketchbook Volume 3

I’ll have these at my show and convention appearances this year. But if you can’t wait…

Stout's cover for The Hollywood Reporter's special Comic-Con issue

If you’d like to read more about the items, I’d like to direct you to their entries in my website’s online catalogue, the William Stout Bazaar. The two sketchbooks are listed under “Books”; the Reporter is listed under “Magazines”.

I think you’ll love ’em all!

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Harry Potter Triumph!

Many hundreds wait to see the exhibition (photo by Samantha Holmes)

Wow! What an amazing opening for the Harry Potter art exhibition this evening at Gallery Nucleus (See the Appearances section of this website)! The line to get in was over a quarter mile long!

It’s a beautiful show on both floors of Gallery Nucleus. I have three pieces in the exhibition. I didn’t have time to do anything new but my work should be of interest to Harry Potter fans as it was drawn and painted prior to the making of the first film. My visual interpretations came completely from my reading the first book.

Drew Struzan & William Stout (photo by Samantha Holmes)

Worth seeing all by itself was the spectacular original Harry Potter movie poster art by my friend Drew Struzan. Incredible!

There were free lottery tickets and prizes galore from the gallery. About 80% of the crowd were dressed like characters from the film. A good time was had by all, even by the folks waiting to get in.

Ya shoulda been there!

It’s still not too late to see the exhibition, though.

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Happy Zombified 4th of July!

Happy 4th, Zombie Lovers!

Happy Independents…er…Independence Day! Either way, take today to celebrate your uniqueness as an individual — all together with everyone else!

This image is from my forthcoming 2012 Zombies! calendar. Hey! I just happened to get a batch of these in from the publisher. I just posted this new calendar (12 new paintings!) along with my 20th Anniversary commemorative Rocketeer print on my website’s Bazaar (my online shop) moments ago.

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Unwritten Rules of Hollywood #3

Although this rule is Unwritten, it was verbally told to me by Buzz Feitshans, my line producer on Conan the Barbarian and First Blood. No one is ever supposed to tell you this stuff — you’re just expected to know it.

Rule #3: Never say anything bad about anyone in the business.

This is still a hard one for me. I have met some real scum masquerading as human life while making movies. My natural tendency is to think people should be warned.

But because it’s rare that anyone in The Biz will tell you any of these rules, I took Buzz at his word and (for the most part) have adhered to that policy.

I’m glad I did.

There have been people I have wished dead (or at least maimed) who, to my amazement, have recommended me for some of my best film jobs. Whatever our differences — and they were often huge if not downright vicious — they were able to look beyond what was going on personally between us and see that, nevertheless, I worked hard and fast and was excellent at what I did. And, hence, recommendable.

Buzz knew that you never know where your next great gig is coming from. It might just be from someone you hate.

That rule is a little looser when it comes to actors. Producers will not hesitate to tell you what a pain in the ass it is to work with certain actors and actresses. Most people in The Biz tend to keep that information to themselves, however. A variation of this rule is “Don’t Tell Tales Out of Class”. In other words, what happens on The Set stays on The Set — it should never go public or even be told to other people in The Biz (although it’s rare to find someone in The Biz who doesn’t enjoy good dish).

There have been actors, favorites of mine, brilliant at what they do, that I used to wonder as to why they didn’t work more often — until I began to work with some of them.

I found out that a different line producer I was working with had just made a picture with an actress considered unbelievably sexy — a real hotty. For the purposes of this story, I’ll call her “Mamie Smith”. This producer was a notorious Lothario — he hit on anything and everything in a skirt, especially young gals like Ms. Smith — so I was curious to learn his take on Mamie.

I was so shocked and surprised by his answer that it instantly burned itself into my brain, word for word:

“Not for all the penicillin in the world would I fuck Mamie Smith.”

There are always exceptions to the rules.

By the way, whenever Buzz was asked about people he loathed, he wouldn’t say anything — positive or negative. If they knew Buzz at all, his silence spoke volumes and answered their question.