TANK GIRL: The Deleted Scenes

Director Rachel Talalay's 1995 adaptation of the popular British comic book Tank Girl may have been raked over by critics and generally ignored by audiences during its brief theatrical run, it has managed to gather a small cult following.* Unfortunately, that following isn't enough to ensure that studio MGM would want to put the time, money and effort towards a special edition DVD release that would improve the current barebones release already out there.

But for those fans of the film looking to see more of what Talalay had in mind for the film before she had to deal with interference from higher-ups in the studio, there's hope. Over at her personal site, Talalay has posted some material in the form of photos and several previously unseen clips from Tank Girl that wound up on the cutting room floor. Included among the clips are the film's original intended beginning (with some storyboards filling in for never finished effects shots), the film's original ending, a different cut of its mid-film Cole Porter musical number and more. One of the photos features the film's original Tank Girl, Emily Lloyd, before she was replaced by Lori Petty.

You can check it out here.


* A few years back, I attended an appearance by Malcolm McDowell, who plays Tank Girl's villainous Kesslee, where before he spoke, a montage of his various film roles was played. By far the clip that got the biggest cheer was a scene from Tank Girl.

Trailer Park: Opening This Weekend

Here's a look at some of the films opening this weekend-


Blades Of Glory



Lookout



After The Wedding

THE GOONIES: Good Enough For Broadway?

Entertainment Weekly is reporting that while director Richard Donner never really had a solid script for a sequel to his 1985 film The Goonies, he may be revisiting the story of a group of kids who go on an adventure to find fabled pirate gold to save their land developer-imperiled neighborhood in another form- as a musical! The magazine’s website is reporting that Donner states that there is an active attempt to mount an adaptation of the film onto the Broadway stage.

''Steven [Spielberg, the film’s producer] and I have discussed it, and it's something that I'm fairly passionate about right now,'' Entertainment Weekly quotes Donner.

But what are the chances of actually seeing this movie hit the boards? Better than average, I would say.

Sure, both Evil Dead: The Musical and The Wedding Singer have closed in the past few months, but Broadway producers haven’t given up on adapting movies for the stage. Currently a production of the 1980 disco movie musical Xanadu is rehearsals for a May opening while last month saw casting notices circulating for an adaptation of Mel Brooks’ comedy Young Frankenstein. As long as The Producers, The Color Purple and Monty Python’s Spamalot continue to rake in the cash, there will be financial backers willing to pony up cash to mount a stage adaptation of any film they think will draw an audience.

Besides, you know you want to see what kind of production number they turn the “Truffle Shuffle” into.

Shooting ANIMAL HOUSE

Pre-Saturday Night Live, the predominate comic voice in America in the 1970s was the National Lampoon magazine. It should come as no surprise that several of those responsible for the Lampoons's early success - Michael O'Donoghue, John Belushi, Chevy Chase - would be the ones who would chart SNL's early fortunes.

But while some of its leading writers were striking out on their own to Not Ready For Prime Time fame, those still at the Lampoon turned their eye towards expanding their own brand, in the realm of movies. Three of their writers, Chris Miller, Harold Ramis and Doug Kenney, would collaborate on a screenplay about a misfit fraternity house called Animal House, based in part on two of Miller's short stories that had appeared in the Lampoon- "The Night Of The Seven Fires" and "Pinto's First Lay."

When it came time to shoot the film, both Miller and Kenney were given small parts as Delta frat members, giving director John Landis two of the screenplay's writers to fall back on if the need arose.

Recently Miller has written up some memories of his time on the Oregon college campus filming Animal House over on his website. Miller has also recently published The Real Animal House, a memoir of his college days that influenced his short stories and the Animal House screenplay.

Screenwriting 101: Grabbing Reader's Attention

It’s always important for a movie to open with a scene that grips its audience, pulling them into its celluloid world for the rest of its runtime.

Although not meant for general consumption, screenplays need to do the same job to whomever is reading them. A junior executive wading through dozens of scripts, hoping to find the next big blockbuster, doesn’t have time to plow through all 100-plus pages of every script in their slush piles. A screenwriter has maybe ten pages at most to grab the attention of a reader who may hold the script’s fate in their hands.

Perhaps the best example of this that I’ve come across in a while is script for the opening scene of writer/director Robert Rodriguez’s segment of Grindhouse, a zombie thriller called Planet Terror. (Yes, what a surprise. We're talking about Grindhouse. Again.) In just a few sentences, Rodriguez sketches out his protagonist Cherry, giving us some tantalizing information about her that will be explored through the film. And than he hits us with that last sentence, almost daring us not to continue reading.


1. INT. SKIP’S GO-GO-GO DANCE CLUB - STAGE – NIGHT

Over titles, we are close on a pair of red go-go boots as the woman wearing them strides confidently onto the well worn stage.

This is CHERRY, a go-go dancer. She’s too good at what she does, meaning she should think about doing something else.

Oddly, tears run down her face through her dance.

Side Note: The next time Cherry does this dance, people will die.

Trailer Park: Opening This Weekend

Lots of new films opening this weekend. Here's what you have to choose from-

The Hill Have Eyes II



The Last Mimsy



Pride



Reign Over Me



Shooter



TMNT

The GRINDHOUSE Gang

We still have a little over two weeks until Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez's Grindhouse, but that doesn't mean we still can't get some glimpses of what's in store for us.

Thanks to the folks over at Yahoo, you can get to know "The Girls And Guys Of Grindhouse," courtesy of a short video hosted by Tarantino and Rodriguez. Since Yahoo doesn't offer video embedding (Get with it guys!) you'll have to click on this link to check it out.

The Battle for THE UNIVERSE

Across The Universe, the 1960s set musical utilizing the songs of the Beatles, is at the center of yet the latest round in the ongoing Hollywood struggle between art and commerce.

Specifically, director Julie Taymor is upset that Revolution studio chief Joe Roth has taken the film, re-edited it without her knowledge and test-screened the result last week. In a report in yesterday’s New York Times, an unnamed source has described that Taymor is feeling “helpless and [is] considering taking her name off the movie.”

The film stars Evan Rachel Wood and Jim Sturges as a young couple whose relationship is tested and torn asunder by the social turbulence of the 1960s. I have previously discussed the project and posted its trailer here.

While it is normal for a studio to test various edits of a film to determine what will respond most favorably with audiences, it is a process that usually includes the participation of the director. For Taymor to not even be informed of Roth’s cut is a marked departure from the standard operating procedure.

Taymor’s version clocks in at a reported 2 hours and 8 minutes. The edit overseen by Roth – who, in addition to his duties as Revolution’s head since 2000 has also directed America’s Sweethearts (2001) and Christmas With The Kranks (2004) – is reportedly a half-hour shorter. The Times is reporting that Taymor does not have final cut.

It seems to me that Hollywood has forgotten the lessons learned two decades ago when Terry Gilliam duked it out with Universal Studios head Sid Sheinberg over how Gilliam’s film Brazil (1985) was to end. Sheinberg argued that the Gilliam’s darker ending tested poorly and took the film away from the director to have it re-edited to include a more upbeat ending. Gilliam countered by taking ads out in the press chastising Sheinberg and by holding clandestine screenings of the film for Los Angeles critics, who promptly and loudly hailed Brazil as one of the best films of the year. Chagrinned, Sheinberg relented and released Gilliam’s version of Brazil. But the victory came at a price for Gilliam, and despite successful projects such as The Fisher King (1991) and 12 Monkeys (1995), he is still thought of in some circles as a “difficult” director to work with.

As noted, Taymor is reportedly contemplating removing her name from the film if Roth goes ahead and releases his shorter edit. The cat’s out of the bag though, and viewers know that any shorter version that shows up in theaters isn’t Taymor’s. Will this affect the film’s potential box office? Very probably. Although Taymor may not be a household name yet, her work on Titus (1999) and Frida (2002) have proven her to be not only a capable director but one with an exceptional eye for visuals. A move like Roth’s is just plain insulting to a filmmaker of Taymor’s track record.

It has already been announced that the Sony-owned Revolution Studios will cease operations in October of this year with Roth moving on to a producer position at Sony. Revolution already has a varied history, producing hits like Black Hawk Down (2001) and Rent (2005). It also has had its fair share of misses including The Master Of Disguise (2002) and Gigli (2003). With a release scheduled for September 28th, one hopes this would get resolved fairly quickly so Revolution can close its doors on a high mark rather than a low.

Not Starring In...

Last month I told you about how Howard Stern almost starred in Barry Levinson’s film Man Of The Year. But it’s no secret that actors are linked to films that they never actually appear in. Often, the actor and the production have parted ways before the cameras start rolling. George Raft made a career out of rejecting roles that would make Humphrey Bogart a star. Other times, it’s discovered early in the filming that an actor is not quite suited for a role as hoped and another actor is brought in to replace them as Michael J. Fox memorably replaced Eric Stoltz on Back To The Future (1984) (see picture on right).

Now there’s a new website called NotStarring which features a database of actors and the films they almost appear in. Since the entries are submitted by users, some of the information found here should probably be taken with the same brand of salt grains reserved for the Internet Movie Database. Still, it makes for some interesting reading. Can you imagine Sylvester Stallone as Richard Donner’s Superman (1977) or Toshiro Mifune in Star Wars as Obi-Wan Kenobi?

Trailer Park: Opening This Weekend

Daydreams of infidelity and impending disaster dominate the two major studio realeases this weekend while the indie studios give us tales of love in London and tribal conquest in 18th-century Kazakhstan.

I Think I Love My Wife


Premonition


Dead Silence


Caffeine


Nomad

MPAA Clarifies R Rating, World Shrugs

The Hollywood Reporter has posted a story today where the Motion Picture Assocation of America's Classification And Ratings Admission has announced a change of wording that will accompany the "R" rating certificate on future movies receiving the rating.

Previously, the wording accompanying the rating went "Children under 17 not admitted without parent."

Going forward, the new advisory will read "Generally, it is not appropriate for parents to bring their young children with them to R-rated motion pictures."

Gee, you think?

You mean the "graphic battle sequences throughout, some sexuality and nudity" which is already noted in the R rating for 300 needs to be reinforced with the additional warning that it wouldn't be appropriate for parents to bring their you children with them to see it?

If this the MPAA's ideas of their recently promised improvements to their much (and quite possibly rightfully so) maligned ratings system, then I can't say that I'm impressed. If this is the best that CARA chairwoman Joan Graves, MPAA general counsel Greg Goeckner and MPAA chairman and CEO Dan Glickman can come up with, than perhaps its time for them to clean out their desks and get some new blood in there.

Right now, I can only imagine that the meetings leading up to this revision mirror an early scene from Mel Brook's 1974 classic Blazing Saddles- "We've gotta protect our phoney baloney jobs, gentlemen!"

The Spoils of 300

This past weekend’s $70 million box office gross for the historical action/drama 300 surprised and surpassed nearly everyone’s expectations*, making its director, Zack Snyder, Hollywood’s Golden Boy of the moment. And that’s good news for those comic book fans who have been waiting for a big screen adaptation of the seminal classic graphic novel Watchmen. Created by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, Watchmen was a deconstruction of superhero tropes disguised as a murder mystery that not only forced those beyond comic book fandom to re-evaluate the potential of the graphic storytelling medium but also became the only graphic novel named to Time magazine’s list of 100 Best Novels Since 1923.

Watchmen has been in on-and-off again development almost since its publication in 1986. Director Terry Gilliam had been anxious to do the film, working with Batman (1989) screenwriter Sam Hamm on the screenplay. Gilliam even wore a Watchmen blood-splattered smiley pin on a 1995 appearance on The David Letterman Show while promoting his just-released Twelve Monkeys. Darren Aronofsky and Paul Greengrass also took cracks at the project before moving on to other films. Chief among the reasons that none of these versions came to pass is the amount of money needed to bring the sprawling epic to life.

But now the Watchmen ball is in Snyder’s court and has been since this past June. Snyder has been deep into script development and has already done some costume tests, as evidenced by the quick image of Watchmen character Rorshach discovered hidden in the most recent 300 trailer by Snyder.

Snyder has stated during the press rounds for 300, itself an adaptation of a comic book miniseries from Frank Miller and Lynn Varney, that he is looking to start shooting Watchmen this summer, although the film has yet to be officially greenlighted by studio Warner Brothers. Industry scuttlebutt says that Snyder’s vision of the Watchmen world will cost the studio somewhere in the neighborhood of $150 million, while Warners would prefer to cut that budget by a third to around $100 million.

However, this weekend’s greater-than-expected grosses for 300 give Snyder a rather large bargaining chip to use against Warner Brothers when it comes to discussing the potential budget of the film. Snyder delivered the visually sumptuous 300 on a budget of just $65 million. With this weekend’s receipts at $70 million, the film is well on its way to being one of the first blockbusters of the year. Directors have been handed to the reigns to bigger projects for lesser reasons.


* 300 has done so well, that I see no point in writing up a review for the film. Still, I do want to share one thing I jotted in my notes while watching the film this weekend, just because I like how the wording came out.- “300 makes no pretense at a realistic depiction of the Battle of Thermopylae. It is a myth, a legend, a story told in the light of the modern day, 24 frames per second flickering campfire of cinema.”

Trailer Park: This Weekend's Releases

Local cineplexs are being invaded by gladiators, mutated river monsters and credit card companies this weekend. Here's some trailers to help you decide what to look at while you munch your popcorn.

300



The Host



Maxed Out

DVD’s Vanishing Variety

Recent walks through various local chain stores have led me to wonder if I wasn’t seeing quite the variety of DVD titles that I’ve been used to seeing. More and more shelf space seemed to have been taken up with multiple copies of the most popular current releases while older catalog titles, more obscure titles and anything released longer than six months previously were becoming a rapidly vanishing breed.

It turns out this trend was not just my imagination. This past Sunday, The New York Times ran a piece looking at the number of DVD releases annually on the market and how that affects how much shelf space older titles and discs from smaller distributors are affected. It’s interesting reading and gives a look at some of the business forces at work as to why you may not be able to find a copy of James Cagney in 13 Rue Madeleine (1947) at the local Blockbuster but three displays of Let’s Go To Prison (2007).

You can read the article here.

Censoring Cartoons: 1930s Edition

Over at the fantastic Cartoon Brew, animation historian Jerry Beck has posted scans of a Look magazine article from Januray 1937 which illustrates, through stills and art work provided producer Leon Schlesinger’s artists at Warner’s Termite Terrace, things that the administrators of the Production Code at the Hays Office were keen on keeping out of cartoons in the 1930s.

You can read the article here.

Trailer Park: This weekend's releases

In a quandry what to see at your local cineplex this weekend?

Take a gander at these trailers to see what your choices are-

Black Snake Moan



Wild Hogs



Zodiac