Godzilla: Why 1978?

The new "Godzilla" film that will be released later this week got me reflecting on how I became familiar with "Godzilla" as a kid in the 1970s. Of course, the old B&W movies from Japan were shown regularly on TV on Saturday afternoons back then.  But I mostly knew Godzilla from this 1978 toy and from this 1978 cartoon.

Why was Godzilla suddenly revived in America in 1978 (seemingly out of the blue), I wondered?  (Marvel also published a Godzilla comic book at the time, and a set of "Godzilla" View-Master reels were released that year, too.) I couldn't find a single, definitive answer to that.  But it may've been linked to a proposed 1978 re-make of the original 1954 film that was to have been titled "King of Monsters: Rebirth of Godzilla."  You can read more about it on the Toho website HERE. ("But for whatever reason the project never came to pass.")

"Expendables 3" Trailer

There are two types of people in the world: the 99% who won't care about this, and the 1% who will love it.

Trailer For Upcoming James Bond Movie

Paraphrasing Kevin Dillon's character from Platoon, "Nothing beats a good James Bond movie...except maybe the Indianapolis 500." The trailer for the new James Bond film, Skyfall, has been posted on You Tube HERE, and it looks good to me.

Washing Machine Plays "Darth Vader Theme"

A bored husband apparently discovered that he could play the Imperial March (i.e. the 'Darth Vader theme') using the electronic 'beeps' made by the setting controls on his washing machine.  You can watch the 30 second You Tube video HERE.

"Matrix" Director's Sex Change Is Complete

I really like the original Matrix movie, and remembered that, when its less-well-received sequels were released in 2003, there was a lot of tabloid speculation about Larry Wachowski, who had made the films with his brother Andy. 

Larry, who had divorced his wife in 2002, was reclusive and enigmatic in the run-up to the release of those much-ballyhooed sequels.  There were rumors he was cross-dressing, and photos appeared periodically in tabloids which seemed to confirm that. Then came rumors that Larry was actually transgender and was in the process of transitioning into a woman.

Since several of the Wachowski's subsequent films, including Speed Racer, have been commercial and critical disappointments, this hasn't been of as much interest to the tabloids in recent years.  I more-or-less forgot about it myself.

Until today.

Promoting their upcoming film, Cloud Atlas, the Wachowskis have appeared in a new 2 minute video that you can watch at The Huffington Post HERE. "Larry" is now "Lana," and seems a lot more relaxed than in those tabloid photos 10 years ago.

American Overreaching: The Biggest House Ever

A self-made billionaire real estate developer (the "Time Share King") and his wife set out to build the biggest home in America ("because I could"), a 90,000 square foot colossus inspired by the palace at Versailles. 20 car garage.  Sushi bar. 10 kitchens.

But while the home was under construction the economy tanked and the couple nearly lost everything. The home, still under construction, faced foreclosure in May 2010. A new film profiles their rise and fall through the story of the construction of this monstrously large mansion, a tribute to success that was slipping through their fingers like sand as it was being erected.  In the process, this house became a metaphor for the tendency of ordinary Americans to 'overreach' in their own lives by maxing out their credit cards and buying homes they couldn't really afford.

MSNBC's Morning Joe did a segment on this new movie, including an interview with the director, that you can watch HERE.

New "Evel Knievel" Movie Coming

Channing Tatum is going to play Evel Knievel in a new biopic, according to The Hollywood Reporter today HERE. The movie is apparently going to be based on Stuart Barker's 2008 biography, Life of Evel.

I wrote HERE about Evel Knievel, a childhood hero of mine, whose life was apparently 'more colorful' than was publicly known during his heyday in the 1970s.

I liked the 2005 TV movie starring George Eads titled Evel Knievel (even if it went a little light on his 'dark side'), as well as the 1971 film of the same name starring George Hamilton (which I appreciated on its own, campier terms).  Does the world really need a third Evel Knievel biopic?

This upcoming movie may delve deeper into the darker side of the man, however.  The description of the book on which it is based states that Evel Knievel was, "a man whose love of gambling, women and drinking, ensure his legend will live forever."

The Next "James Bond" Movie Is Called...

The next James Bond film began shooting today, apparently.  It will be called "Skyfall" (a title I like) and will not continue from the end of the last, disappointing movie, "Quantum of Solace" (a decision I applaud).

You can read more about it HERE on AICN, which also has a 30 minute video of the star-studded press conference in London today.  I love James Bond. But I gave up on this press conference after just 12 minutes, finding it content-free and insipid.

"The Princess Bride" Reunion Photo

I really liked the 1987 film The Princes Bride. Though like almost everyone else, I first discovered it long after its theatrical run. It's a much-beloved cult hit today, as evidenced by the fact that Entertainment Weekly has assembled a star-studded reunion photo HERE.  They also posted a 2 minute video clip HERE of interviews done during this photo shoot that actually provides an even better view of them all today.

High Praise For New "Tinker, Tailor" Movie

I wrote HERE back in June about the upcoming movie adaptation of John le Carre's classic spy novel, "Tinker Tailor, Soldier, Spy," which in 1979 was famously adapted by the BBC into a multi-hour TV epic starring Alec Guiness.

The new film premiered in London a couple of days ago.  The Economist magazine ran THIS enthusiastic review. Unfortunately for us in the United States, the movie does not premiere here until December 9th.

Escape From New York

Escape from New York (1981), which I just bought on Blu Ray, is one of my all-time favorite films. 

The movie was scripted to begin with a 10 minute scene showing how Snake Plissken (played by Kurt Russel) initially gets arrested following a bank robbery, before being sent to New York.  This scene was cut from the final version released to movie theaters, however.  It was finally included as a 'deleted scene' on a recent DVD, though, and you can watch it HERE.  Having now seen it myself, I actually think the movie is better without it.

You can also watch a 15 minute interview with the film's legendary director, creator, and co-writer, John Carpenter, conducted in 1994.  In part 1 HERE he discusses the origin of the concept and the original script, the casting of Lee Van Cleef, and the special effects work done in part by (a very young) James Cameron.  In part 2  HERE, he discusses how the film is really a western and not a science fiction movie, the character of Snake Plissken (Kurt Russell channeling Clint Eastwood), and and the bizarre, unstated back story about why English actor Donald Pleasance plays the President of the United States.

As an epilogue, another sequel was planned to follow 1996's Escape From L.A. It was to be called "Escape From Earth," and was to begin right where Escape From L.A. ended, with the world about to be plunged into chaos.  The film proposal never went anywhere, however, because of the disappointing box office results of Escape From L.A.

Leia's Metal Bikini.Com

Personally, I was never as entranced as some by the metal bikini that Princess Leia wore as a captive of Jabba The Hut at the start of Return of the Jedi.  In fact, until I saw it parodied on an episode of Friends in the 1990s I was totally unaware that among guys from "Generation X" like me it apparently remained a powerful object of adolescent attraction even into adulthood.


But if I told you that there was a website devoted solely to every aspect of this outfit; one which features hundreds of photos of fans dressed in that same costume, would you click on it?  Only you can answer that for yourself..... HERE.

"Return of the Jedi" Deleted Scene

At the "Star Wars Celebration" this weekend, George Lucas has reportedly revealed that the original Star Wars trilogy will be released on Blu Ray in 2011, and that Return of the Jedi will include this never-before-seen 1 minute deleted scene. It features Darth Vader telepathically reaching out to Luke Skywalker while Luke puts the finishing touches on his new lightsaber in a Tatooine cave.  This was originally intended to be the opening scene in the film, apparently.

"The Hobbit" Movie Not Yet Started

You may have heard the news recently that the sequel to the three blockbuster Lord of the Rings films, "The Hobbit," had now been greelit and was to begin shooting in November. That is apparently untrue, according to an interview with The Hobbit's director, Guillermo Del Toro. The hold up is apparently MGM's insolvency, which has yet to be resolved. As I wrote here yesterday, this has also delayed "indefinitely" the next James Bond movie.

"There cannot be any start dates really until the MGM situation is resolved, explains Del Toro, "because they do hold a considerable portion of the rights, and it's impossible to make a unilateral decision by New Line or Warners to give the greenlight to proceed. We really believe that things will be known after the fact of MGM's fate. Whether they stay and get supported, or they get bought, or they transfer some of the rights: nobody knows. We've been caught in a very tangled negotiation. Now I've been on the project for nearly two years. We have designed all the creatures; we have designed the sets and wardrobes; we have done animatics and planned very lengthy action sequences and scary sequences and funny sequences. We are very, very prepared for when it's finally triggered, but we don't know anything is sold."

You can read more about this HERE.

New "Planet of The Apes" Movie In 2011

Fox has announced that it will be releasing a new "Planet of the Apes" movie next June.  Tentatively titled "Rise of the Apes," it will apparently be a prequel to the original 1968 film, showing how "man's own experiments with genetic engineering led to the development of intelligence in apes." According to an article in The Hollywood Reporter that you can read HERE, the apes will be rendered digitally using CGI in this new film, rather than being played by live actors in make-up.


The original "Planet of the Apes" starring Charlton Heston is one of my all-time favorite films. So I was really excited a decade ago when the 2001 Tim Burton remake was first announced. But I was really underwhelmed by the final film when I eventually saw it, and haven't ever bothered to watch it a second time.  Maybe that's why I'm so ambivalent about this new announcement now, especially since using CGI apes seems closer in spirit to the 2001 film than the original.  Hopefully it'll be better than the "Planet of the Apes" musical once envisioned on The Simpsons in this 2 minute clip:

The People Vs. George Lucas

A new documentary film debuted yesterday at SXSW called The People vs. George Lucas.  It apparently explores the unique love-hate relationship that Star Wars fans have with Mr. Lucas.  Below is a 3 minute trailer for the film. "How can you not feel bad," one fan says rhetorically in this trailer, "that people who love you and worship you like a god turn against you as if you're some sort of fallen angel?"

Investors May Soon Bet On Movies' Box Office

Two firms are reportedly seeking regulatory approval from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to establish new futures exchanges that would enable investors to bet on the future box office performance of upcoming Hollywood films. They apparently expect approval within the next couple of months.  You can read the entire Los Angeles Times article about this HERE. 


One of the firms is a start-up from Indiana.  But the other is the well-known Cantor Fitzgerald.  According to this article, the two firms "hope they can harness the national obsession" with box office performance, "to create a safety net for the risky and expensive business of producing movies."   Why does this bring to mind The Music Man?  Or Mel Brooks' The Producers?

"It also remains to be seen," the article goes on to say, "whether studios and producers will be willing to bet against, or short, their own films. In a business where relationships and reputation are crucial, such a move carries more risks than just losing money."

"Star Wars" Summarized By a 3 Year-Old Girl

I loved the movie Star Wars as a kid from the day I first saw it in a movie theater back in 1977.  I don't hold out much hope, however, that my young daughter might ever have much (if any) interest in it at all.


But I may have underestimated its continued allure today. In the 1 minute video embedded below, a 3 year old girl summarizes the plot of Star Wars with surprising accuracy, and with the characteristically off-beat but insightful observations of a young child.  (This video has already had more than 13 million hits on You Tube.)


If you don't have 90 seconds to watch it, here's some of what she says:

• On C3PO, "The shiny guy always worries..."
• On Obi-Wan Kenobi, "He keeps saying, 'Luke: learn how to do this little light up sword.'"
• On Darth Vader, "Don't talk back to Darth Vader... He'll getcha!"

SHAG's "Lowbrow" Planet of the Apes Art

Yesterday I watched a 1 hour TV documentary on the 'lowbrow' art movement called The Lowdown on Lowbrow. That was a term I'd never heard before. Among the influences on so-called 'lowbrow' art (which is apparently also known by the more formal title "pop surrealism," I learned) are 1950s and 60s "Space Age" culture, television, punk music, tattoos, hod rods and underground comics, to name just a few. While watching this documentary, the only artist whose name I recognized was Robert Williams, and that was only because a painting of his titled "Appetite For Destruction" was used as album artwork on Guns N' Roses' seminal 1987 album of the same name.


But it was the work of another artist named "SHAG" (real name Josh Agle) that most caught my eye.  Some of his pieces feature Planet of the Apes characters, usually in these incongruous 1960s "cocktail culture" settings (like the example above featuring Dr. Zaius).  What's his work like? Well rather than try to describe it further, I've embedded below a 2 minute video montage of his work set to jazz music.  I enjoyed it, but I should warn you that the slide-show images change quickly, and they're just a tad blurry I thought.  I counted 5 works with Planet of the Apes characters.  How many can you find?

"Vanity Fair" On John Hughes

I wasn't a huge fan of The Breakfast Club (1985), perhaps writer-director John Hughes' most iconic movie. But I did really like Sixteen Candles (1984) and Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986). And I liked National Lampoon's Vacation (1983) starring Chevy Chase, and Pretty In Pink (1986), each of which he wrote but did not direct, even more. The success of Home Alone (1990), which he wrote and produced, gave him the financial freedom to drop out of Hollywood (some said in J.D. Salinger style). But then he died suddenly last summer of cardiac arrest while on a morning walk in New York City at the age of 59.

This month's Vanity Fair magazine has a lengthy but fascinating portrait of him which you can read HERE. Among the many revelations in this article are details about the intense relationships he developed off-screen with two of his young teenaged stars, Molly Ringwald and Anthony Michael Hall, relationships he abruptly terminated without explanation in the mid-1980s in the midst of their greatest successes. The article reads in part:


"For Ringwald, the sheer bliss of working with a director who 'seemed like one of us' was sometimes offset by the discomfort of enduring Hughes’s very teen-like sulks. 'He was so easily slighted and hurt,' she says... Tucked away in the Time story, though, was an intriguing, unexplicated quotation from Ringwald. 'I don’t really see him anymore,' she said of Hughes. 'I still respect him a lot, and if he gave me a good script, I’d read it. But I don’t think we’ll work together again real soon.'

"In fact, they didn’t work together ever again. The story behind Ringwald’s words, she says, is that she and Hughes had by then fallen out—or, at any rate, he had fallen out with her. Near the end of the filming of The Breakfast Club, she and Hall began dating. Both 16, they were by far the youngest cast members; Nelson, Estevez, and Sheedy were in their 20s. It wasn’t a shocker that two teenagers working together on two consecutive films would hook up, but, in Ringwald’s perception, their little romance upset Hughes. 'He did not like it at all,' she says. She still doesn’t fully grasp why this was—perhaps because she and Hall had veered off script from the ordained narratives of their creator, creating a story line of their own?"