STRANGE ANGEL A Jack Parsons Biopic Is Set For Take Off At CBS

 

 

Hello all, Mad Dashiell here and thanks for joining me today.

The Main Cast-

    Jack Reynor (GLASSLAND) as Jack Parsons
    Bella Heathcote (DARK SHADOWS) as Susan Parsons
    Rupert Friend (THE DEATH OF STALIN) as Ernest Donovan
    Peter Mark Kendall (THE TICKET) as Richard Onsted
    Michael Gaston (FIRST REFORMED) as Virgil Byrne
    Greg Wise (SENSE AND SENSIBILITY) as Alfred Miller
    Rade Šerbedžija (MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE 2) as Prof. Filip Mešulam
    Zack Pearlman (THE INTERN) as Samson Hunt
    Keye Chen (SILICON VALLEY) as Gui Chiang



MAD DASHIELL'S SPACE FOR RANT- To start I will say when I herd breath of this project from the lips of Ridley Scott years ago I never thought that it would see the light of day, but here we are. So, you wanna talk about Jack Parsons do ya? Well, here we go, I am assuming you know nothing. To start with I have to say that the man is one of the more interesting enigmas I have come across in my armchair studies of colorful characters throughout history. JPL- Jet Propulsion Laboratories used to go by a different moniker, Jack Parsons Laboratories was the original title. Starting from an early age he was obsessed with the dark arts. But Parsons wasn't your average occultist because he was a man of science. 

 By day Parsons probed deep into the scientific fields of speed and sound and stratosphere and by night he sought the wisdom of cosmos in his attempts to weld philosophy, science, and religion into his sci-fi vision of a Utopian existence. So Crowley's axiom "Our method is science, our aim is religion, we put no faith in virgin or pigeon." really reverberated with Jack's vision. You have to take into account that this was a fairly revolutionary idea to have over a hundred years ago. Consider this in the wake of Darwin’s Theory of Evolution the practice of Science was considered by so many people of the time to be diametrically opposed to Religion. 

 As part of rocketry's Suicide Club(Despite the name the club was not actually about suicide), Parsons chanted Crowley's “Hymn to Pan” before he would launch his test rockets. But when Parsons wasn't blowing stuff up in the desert with his rocket engineering pursuits he went about regularly donning the Initiatic robes at the Californian branch of the O.T.O. trying to connect with discarnate entities. Jack quickly started rising to the top of the Ordo Templi Orientis so much so that for awhile Aleister Crowley himself saw Jack as his rightful successor to the Thelemic church he created. Parsons had inherited a nice huge place and opened it up to artists and occultists. L. Ron Hubbard responds to enters the picture here and no you cant even make this up. Here is a quote from a letter Parsons wrote to Mr. Crowley about his new pal L. Ron "no formal training in Magick he has an extraordinary amount of experience and understanding in the field. From some of his experiences, I deduce he is in direct touch with some higher intelligence, possibly his Guardian Angel.-- He is the most Thelemic person I have ever met and is in complete accord with our own principles." In his time being flatmates with Xemu's prophet to be Hubbard would tell fantastic tales of his Adventure Team's travels around the world blowing smoke of harrowing tales to anyone with an ear to hear. (Fun side note, this is a slick nod SOUTH PARK did in the death of Chef episode for the essoterrorists to catch.)

 So I'm skipping over a lot of things here but scandals of him erupted in the newspapers, Parsons has a new Girlfriend that he thinks he summoned, and its Marjorie Cameron. (Marjorie Cameron is also known later in her life for her psycho-pompous cinematic romp with Kenneth Anger and other filmmakers steeped in the occult.) L. Ron, Cameron, Jack and a handful of others go and open a doorway for Horus to spread the energy of rebellion over the world and gate the antichrist. The guy certainly didn't sell himself short. They did this massive ritual around the area now known as Area 51 and from what I recall in my digging, it was about four years later UFO sightings in that area became the norm. So, the madcap wacky magickal adventures ensue as Hubbard steals Jacks girlfriend and the two take off in a boat and Jack summons a Tempest to bring the boat back into the harbor. Like I said, this is just touching a few fun fine points of this crazy s.o.b.'s legacy. Aside from having a dark crater on the Moon named after him, He is kind of NASA's black sheep that is swept into the shadows of history. I didn't even touch on the murder trials he was linked to as a professional of explosions he put an officer behind bars with his testimony. So the show STRANGE ANGEL can go that route as well. I didn't spoil the crescendo of his fate for those that won't go digging on the guy and want to experience the show with a fresh slate, so enjoy!