Latest news with #Koepp
Yahoo
18-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Historic home of one of Carmel's leading architects for sale. Sweeping ocean views offered
Sitting on a hill with sweeping views of the Pacific Ocean, a Carmel home that renowned architect Guy O. Koepp built as his personal residence in 1935 has hit the market for $4.45 million. Koepp's style influenced much of the charming Northern California town's architecture in the late 1920s and 1930s. His most significant work is the La Rambla building, which he designed in 1929 for Carmel resident Josephine Baber. La Rambla, today a mix of retail spaces and apartments, is known for its courtyard and location near Ocean Avenue. Jennifer Nazareno and Sterling Malish, who now own the Koepp house, bought the home in 2023 for $3.935 million, according to public records, and enhanced the property by turning a hill of dirt and wildflowers into a beautifully landscaped and terraced backyard that is ideal for entertaining. 'When we first saw the backyard, it was nothing more than a mountain of dirt — but we saw limitless potential,' the sellers said in an email. 'After the renovation, it became an incredible outdoor sanctuary, perfect for everything from cozy movie nights with our daughters to lively birthday celebrations and large family gatherings.' They created a seamless flow between the kitchen, deck and backyard. The Spanish-style house unfolds across 2,755 square feet with four bedrooms and four full bathrooms. Listing agent Mark Peterson of Compass said the location of the home is notable, both for its orientation and the little-known neighborhood where it lies. 'The Carmel Woods area of Carmel is often overlooked as people don't even know it exists,' Peterson said in a statement. 'But just above the Village of Carmel-by-the-Sea is this gently sloping southwest exposed area of homes. The climate is ideal as it basks in a little more sunshine and is protected from the prevailing northwest winds. Views of the iconic Point Lobos are found in these homes.' Koepp purchased one of the earliest lots for sale in Carmel and knew what he was looking for, Peterson said. 'This home is positioned perfectly to maximize daylight and warm sun exposure,' the listing agent added. 'It has views of Carmel Bay, Point Lobos and over the Del Monte Forest of Pebble Beach. The character and tasteful updates over time complement the original home. This is an authentic California Spanish Revival home.' Inside, the chef's kitchen contains La Cornue range, Brazilian granite countertops and custom cabinetry. Original refinished hardwood floors run through the interior living space, complemented by Turkish limestone in the bathrooms and lower level. Custom Spanish tiles adorn the risers on the stairs going up to the second level' Outside, the re-imagined backyard became a relaxing retreat that connects multiple seating areas and outdoor spaces. A separate guest house was once a Spanish carriage home and boasts its own spectacular ocean views. 'A rare gem in Carmel, this estate captures the essence of coastal luxury with history, elegance, and panoramic ocean vistas at every turn,' the property listing states. The home is located at 24410 S San Luis Ave. The sellers — Nazareno is a public health academic and Malish is a physician — decided to sell because they are relocating, according to a representative for Compass real estate firm.
Observer
15-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Observer
It takes a spy to hunt a spy
'Black Bag' is the third movie written by David Koepp and directed by Steven Soderbergh that's been released since 2022 and it's a banger. It's also sleek, witty and lean to the bone, a fizzy, engaging puzzler about beautiful spies doing the sort of extraordinary things that the rest of us only read about in novels and — if we're lucky — watch on screen. It's nonsense, but the kind of glorious grown-up nonsense that critics like to say they (as in Hollywood) no longer make. That's true to a great extent, despite exceptions like Koepp and Soderbergh, even if they're too playfully unorthodox to be prototypically Hollywood. The filmmakers' latest duet stars Cate Blanchett and Michael Fassbender as Kathryn and George. Cozily and happily married, the couple lives in austere luxury in a town house in London, where they keep long, eventful hours working for a British intelligence agency, the (real) Government Communications Headquarters. As spies go, the two certainly look and speak their roles, or at least the fictional versions of them: They're cunning, suave and as enigmatic as the title suggests. Unlike their famed counterpart James Bond (he's at MI6), though, they put in serious face time at the office. Inside a glass tower, they watch and are watched in turn, tracking enemies and sometimes eliminating them. The setup involves an explosively dangerous threat in the form of malware called Severus, presumably named after the despotic Roman emperor. There appears to be a mole in the agency and George is among a select few trying to identify the culprit. He has a list of five possible candidates, all of whom work in the agency's power ranks. Among the suspects is — ta-da! — Kathryn. Because this isn't a problem that George can take to a marriage counselor — even if one of the main characters is an agency shrink — he does what he's trained to do: He spies on her. It gets tricky. It also gets funny and predictably violent, with some of the sharpest, nastiest scenes unfolding across a family dining room table. Koepp and Soderbergh are virtuosos of genre and 'Black Bag' is right in their wheelhouse. Each has made a range of films (Koepp also directs) and they last collaborated on the ghost story 'Presence,' which came out earlier this year. If the two excel at thrillers, it's partly because, I imagine, high-stakes intrigues give filmmakers room to push norms to extremes and even ditch them. Koepp and Soderbergh's 'KIMI' (2022) is another tight genre piece that embraces and detonates conventions. Its myriad influences include films about trapped women as well as claustrophobic paranoid thrillers from the 1970s like 'The Conversation' and 'Three Days of the Condor,' reference points that also inform 'Black Bag.' To judge from George's chic glasses and turtlenecks, the filmmakers revisited some older Michael Caine movies, too. Fassbender doesn't have Caine's charms and he's less persuasive as a romantic foil. 'Black Bag' has its share of intentionally outlandish moments, some giddily funny (there are more ticklish moments than thrills), but among the less convincing plot points is George and Kathryn's oft-stated devotion to each other. On screen, Fassbender and especially Blanchett have an otherworldly quality that makes them reliably interesting to watch, but it's one that can feel like a membrane separating them from more ordinary souls. They both draw you to them, but unlike, say, Brad Pitt, they don't necessarily invite you in. Whether these nagging doubts about George and Kathryn's relationship are intentional, they work in a movie that teases you with secrets and weapons, border-crossing and misdirection and is filled out with a note-perfect supporting cast that includes Regé-Jean Page, Naomie Harris, Tom Burke and Marisa Abela. Even as the story heats up and starts to get crowded, George remains the intrigue's central question mark. He prowls into the movie like Henry Hill strolling into the nightclub in the famously long take in 'Goodfellas,' a scene that slyly suggests that George isn't to be trusted. He may be hot for Kathryn, but there's something 'bloodless and inhuman' about him, too, as Le Carré wrote of his famous spy, George Smiley. Throughout 'Black Bag,' Soderbergh has fun with the persistent romance and glamour of espionage or, more truly, spy movies. Bombs explode and so do people here, but the violence is flashily diversionary and absent of the soul-hurting, fantasy-bursting brutality of real-world power and statecraft. The players in this world never get too dirty; when a spot gets on George's otherwise immaculate, perfectly pressed white shirt, he merely changes it. That's how it goes for him and the missus, who are as sleek and polished as the stars playing them. By the time Pierce Brosnan shows up, you may find yourself giggling at the whole meta-deliciousness of this enterprise. You may also find yourself feverishly hoping that when it comes time to revive the Bond series, someone has the brains to call Koepp and Soderbergh. — NYT
New York Times
13-03-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
‘Black Bag' Review: Blanchett v. Fassbender
'Black Bag' is the third movie written by David Koepp and directed by Steven Soderbergh that's been released since 2022, and it's a banger. It's also sleek, witty and lean to the bone, a fizzy, engaging puzzler about beautiful spies doing the sort of extraordinary things that the rest of us only read about in novels and — if we're lucky — watch onscreen. It's nonsense, but the kind of glorious grown-up nonsense that critics like to say they (as in Hollywood) no longer make. That's true to a great extent despite exceptions like Koepp and Soderbergh, even if they're too playfully unorthodox to be prototypically Hollywood. The filmmakers' latest duet stars Cate Blanchett and Michael Fassbender as Kathryn and George. Cozily and happily married, the couple lives in austere luxury in a townhouse in London, where they keep long, eventful hours working for a British intelligence agency, the (real) Government Communications Headquarters. As spies go, the two certainly look and speak their roles, or at least the fictional versions of them: They're cunning, suave and as enigmatic as the title suggests. Unlike their famed counterpart James Bond (he's at MI6), though, they put in serious face time at the office. Inside a glass tower, they watch and are watched in turn, tracking enemies and sometimes eliminating them. The setup involves an explosively dangerous threat in the form of malware called Severus, presumably named after the despotic Roman emperor. There appears to be a mole in the agency, and George is among a select few trying to identify the culprit. He has a list of five possible candidates, all of whom work in the agency's power ranks. Among the suspects is — ta-da! — Kathryn. Because this isn't a problem that George can take to a marriage counselor — even if one of the main characters is an agency shrink — he does what he's trained to do: He spies on her. It gets tricky. It also gets funny and predictably violent, with some of the sharpest, nastiest scenes unfolding across a family dining-room table. Koepp and Soderbergh are virtuosos of genre, and 'Black Bag' is right in their wheelhouse. Each has made a range of films (Koepp also directs), and they last collaborated on the ghost story 'Presence,' which came out earlier this year. If the two excel at thrillers, it's partly because, I imagine, high-stakes intrigues give filmmakers room to push norms to extremes and even ditch them. Koepp and Soderbergh's 'KIMI' (2022) is another tight genre piece that embraces and detonates conventions. Its myriad influences include films about trapped women as well as claustrophobic paranoid thrillers from the 1970s like 'The Conversation' and 'Three Days of the Condor,' reference points that also inform 'Black Bag.' To judge from George's chic glasses and turtlenecks, the filmmakers revisited some older Michael Caine movies, too. Fassbender doesn't have Caine's charms, and he's less persuasive as a romantic foil. 'Black Bag' has its share of intentionally outlandish moments, some giddily funny (there are more ticklish moments than thrills), but among the less convincing plot points is George and Kathryn's oft-stated devotion to each other. Onscreen, Fassbender and especially Blanchett have an otherworldly quality that makes them reliably interesting to watch, but it's one that can feel like a membrane separating them from more ordinary souls. They both draw you to them, but, unlike, say, Brad Pitt, they don't necessarily invite you in. Whether these nagging doubts about George and Kathryn's relationship are intentional, they work in a movie that teases you with secrets and weapons, border-crossing and misdirection, and is filled out with a note-perfect supporting cast that includes Regé-Jean Page, Naomie Harris, Tom Burke and Marisa Abela. Even as the story heats up and starts to get crowded, George remains the intrigue's central question mark. He prowls into the movie like Henry Hill strolling into the nightclub in the famously long take in 'Goodfellas,' a scene that slyly suggests that George isn't to be trusted. He may be hot for Kathryn, but there's something 'bloodless and inhuman' about him, too, as Le Carré wrote of his famous spy, George Smiley. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Yahoo
09-02-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Alley Cat goes for nearly $400K at Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo Jr. Sale of Champions
It didn't take long to make the Junior Steer Show Grand Champion a rich young woman. Mattison Koepp won the prize on Friday, Feb. 7. On Saturday, Feb. 8, her American Crossbreed, Alley Cat, went up for auction. Within minutes, the bidding had reached six figures at the Junior Sale of Champions at the Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo. The pulse of the room rose with the tone and tenor of the auctioneer's voice with each new raised arm and shout. Soon, the numbers were dazzling 16-year-old Koepp as she led Alley Cat around the auction ring wearing a sparkling top and an awed look. When the gavel fell for the final time, Shane Vaden, owner of Vaden's Drywall, Plaster and Masonry in Fort Worth, had the top bid, dropping a cool $375,000 for Koepp's steer. Vaden, a long-time member of the Fort Worth Stock Show Syndicate, was overcome by emotion after securing the winning bid. He wiped tears from his eyes as friends, family members and well wishers clutched his hand and slapped him on the back. Beef on the hoof currently goes for around $2.05 a pound, so Vaden's price was just a little above market rate, but he was happy to pay the premium, he said, after watching Koepp win the Junior Steer Show the day before. 'I saw the excitement,' said Vaden. He then praised the effort it took Koepp to get to this point. 'You're a hard-working young lady, and you're going to be a success,' he assured her. Seated at a press conference table after the auction, Koepp appeared stunned. 'It's a dream come true,' she kept repeating. Her mom, Alicia, dad, Matt, and big brother, Mason, beamed with pride next to her. With the money she earned, Koepp, from La Vernia, plans to carry on a family tradition and attend Texas A&M University, where she wants to study agricultural management. After that, she says, she might become a steer judge and have the chance to make some other youngster's dream come true. Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo Director of Communications Matt Brockman called the Junior Sale of Champions 'the biggest Saturday morning at the stock show.' The auction began at 9 a.m., but long before that prospective buyers milled around the auction floor dressed to the nines in boots and suits, wearing faded jeans instead of dull trousers, silk wild rags in place of stuffy neckties. By 8 a.m., bottles were popping at the hospitality bar, and everyone was in a celebratory mood, poised to spend big money for a great cause, supporting the next generation of Texas ranchers. Two years ago, a record was broken when Grand Champion steer Snoop Dog commanded a whopping $440,000. While this year's bidding didn't get quite that high, Koepp was nonetheless pleased with her take, which should be more than enough to fund her studies at A&M. It wasn't all glitz and glamour, though, on Saturday. Koepp's eyes welled up with tears when asked how she felt about saying goodbye to Alley Cat. 'It's sad he can't come back with us,' she said. With so much money changing hands, it's sometimes tough to remember there's a young woman, a high school student, losing a beloved companion, an animal she's devoted her life to over the past year. As for the immediate future, Koepp said, she's heading home to La Vernia, where another steer awaits. She's planning to have that one ready for the San Antonio Stock Show and Rodeo later this month.
Chicago Tribune
29-01-2025
- Entertainment
- Chicago Tribune
Column: A movie's story exposition is a tricky thing. Consider how we learn what's what in ‘Presence.'
I saw a good movie the other night, guided by a tight, 85-minute narrative and a gratifying seriousness underneath its supernatural premise. The film is 'Presence,' made for a couple of million dollars, directed by Steven Soderbergh, and written by the equally versatile industry veteran, screenwriter David Koepp. They made 'KIMI' together, similarly scaled, and terrific. 'Presence' does, however, have a little trouble setting itself up for success. It's a matter of exposition, the stuff screenwriters typically crowbar into the beginning of a movie, with the intention of explaining the premise or a character's situation without too much fuss. In 'Presence,' Koepp's introductory scenes remain elusive as well as allusive on details regarding what sort of financial chicanery and potential legal trouble facing the Lucy Liu character. Her husband (Chris Sullivan) may be dragged into the circumstances. The family in 'Presence' has been living with evasions and secrets for years. The story unfolds from the visual point of view of the unseen, ghostly presence haunting this family's new house, for reasons revealed in time. Koepp's scenes, confined to the two-story house or just outside it, play out as acts of voyeurism, sometimes a line or two in a bedroom, sometimes longer scenes roving around the house. Soderbergh encourages us to lean in and judge some of the murmured conversational details for ourselves, avoiding (mostly, not entirely) the usual 'OK, this part is important' close-ups as a cue. There is a downside to this approach. Do we glean enough of what's at stake, outside Koepp's present-tense framework, regarding Liu's character? Does this guesswork feed the film's pervasive atmosphere of mistrust in a crafty way, or is it more of a wait what? Most folks tend to focus on two elements of movies: Plot, and acting. That's the movie, essentially. Acting, plus story. Most folks are not future or current or former critics, who tend to get into the whys and what-elses of the movies. Why is that pratfall funny? Why is this one mirthless and artless? Why does that extremely violent scene offend me, and this other extremely violent scene in another film, by another director, justify its particulars? Why is this elaborate camera choreography so beautiful, and why is another, similarly designed shot, in a lesser work, showing off like a pretender? The director Vincente Minnelli once cited 'a hundred or more hidden things' that conspire to create any single second of film containing a speck of magic. Digging for those hundred or more elements can lead to some compelling evidence for an aesthetic argument. Those elements of filmmaking contain the here's-why behind an opinion. The story's the thing, as Shakespeare almost said (he said 'play,' because he rarely went to movies). And expositional deftness doesn't hurt, whatever the narrative medium. Anton Chekhov's full-length plays made little sense to his initial audiences because he didn't write plots they could hum. With 'The Seagull' Chekhov threw out most of the heavy melodramatic narrative machinery dominating the 19th century Russian plays no one stages anymore. He didn't want it. Or need it. He only needed his audiences to relax and forget what they thought they needed. Every artist dreams a new world. Earlier this month, the globally mourned passing of director David Lynch sent millions into a collective dream realm of his film work. That work is nothing without one of Lynch's most cherished words: abstraction. Abstraction: the enemy of mundane clarity. Lynch returned often to that word, abstraction, in interviews and reluctant explanations of the dreams and nightmares he filmed. His screen imaginings took him, and us, to points unknown and unsettling, in shadow realms including 'Eraserhead,' 'Blue Velvet,' 'Mulholland Drive' and the far reaches of 'Twin Peaks,' especially the second, recent set of Showtime episodes. Often Lynch relied on mystery tropes, none more basic than the four words — who killed Laura Palmer? — that sold the first 'Twin Peaks' series to a huge initial ABC-TV audience, hooked by a fresh take on the whodunit genre. Earlier, Lynch's 1986 stunner, 'Blue Velvet,' created a distant relation to the whodunit: the whose-ear-is-it. The story begins with Jeffrey (Kyle MacLachlan) home from college after his father has suffered a heart attack. He finds a severed ear, crawling with ants, in a field near his home. Whose ear? Why does the police detective neighbor (George Dickerson, peerlessly sphinx-like) respond to the discovery the way he does? Is he a little off, like everything in Lumberton? There's hardly any exposition at the outset. None needed. The questions and the ear are plenty. Besides, Lynch is pretty hopeless with conventional exposition, and conventional anything. There's a scene later where Jeffrey is required to explain to someone (i.e. us) what's up with the 'well-dressed man disguise' worn by Frank Booth (Dennis Hopper) and its role in the story. It's not a scene anyone would teach screenwriting students. Lynch likely wrote it in a state of 'oh, hell, if I must.' Already, not to his career benefit, Lynch had adapted and directed 'Dune.' The expository demands of Frank Herbert's source material must've been vexing to the filmmaker, more than any American of his time or ours, who mainstreamed (and mainlined) Surrealism and its neighbor, abstraction. With 'Dune,' Lynch couldn't figure out a way of streamlining even a chip off that granite hunk of narrative into a tidy couple of blockbustery hours. It's a giant, toothy sandworm of expositional demands. And exposition is difficult to make interesting, even in projects requiring far less of it. Hardly any, even. What's slightly frustrating, in the end, about Koepp's script for 'Presence' boils down to a few unwritten (or unfilmed) lines at the beginning. Would the film succeed more fully — and it does succeed, on its own terms — if it were a touch more direct, less consciously dodgy, early on? Or would even an expositional micro-dump leave us with a more ordinary movie? And there's your nut graph. In journalistic phraseology, the nut graph sets up the premise or controversy or questions raised by a newspaper story. Or a column. Much like a typical bite of exposition in a movie, or a play, the nut graph belongs at the start of something, not the finish, lest people become disoriented. Lost, even. But this once, in honor of David Lynch, we'll make an exception.
