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Features
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Hockey Pucks, Batboys and MJ
On the occasion of today’s DVD release of Masters of Horror - Family, filmmaker John Landis chats about a legendary stand-up, a legendary tabloid creation and a once legendary entertainer.
Tuesday, April 17, 2007 at 2:45 PM
By Daniel Robert Epstein
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Deborah Nadoolman Landis
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Always a great interview...
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Filmmaker John Landis has some tantalizing words of warning when asked about his upcoming documentary profile of cantankerous comedian Don Rickles. “Wait until you see Clint Eastwood being funny,” he chuckles during a recent interview with FilmStew.
Before Elton, Celine and the Cirque du Soleil, the notion of a benchmark Las Vegas Strip show experience never strayed too far from the now 80-year-old insult king, whose fondness for tormenting audience members begins with the moniker ‘Hockey Puck’ and ends well beyond the limits of most people’s imaginations. Landis’ documentary combines the first ever to-tape recording of a Rickles stand-up performance with interviews of Eastwood, Chris Rock, Bob Newhart, Jay Leno and other celebrity pals.
“It’s fun,” Landis enthuses. “I’ve known Don since I was 18 and I was a gopher on Kelly’s Heroes. Now gophers are called production assistants.”
“I was at Don’s 80th birthday party and I realized that it was like Death of a Salesman,” he adds, referring to a May, 2006 celebration. “Attention must be paid. People don’t realize his importance in American show business. His bio is essentially the history of American show business since World War II.”
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RCA Records
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Maybe coming soon to a theater near you
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The documentary is certainly an easier proposition than the prospect of adapting the stage musical Bat Boy for the big screen. This concoction centers around not a baseball fetcher but rather a half-boy, half-bat titular creature whose exploits have often landed in the pages of the UK tabloid News of the World. Amazingly enough, Landis was in the New York audience for an off-Broadway performance of Batboy held just two days after September 11th.
“There was jet fuel in the air,” Landis recalls. “I thought it was terrific and tried to get it, but DreamWorks paid a million bucks for it so I lost it. DreamWorks had it for three or four years and finally the creators were pissed off at them because they wanted to take all the perversity out and ruin it. The writers finally got it back and I was approached about two years ago.”
“They were doing a production in West End in London,” he adds. “They flew me over and I met with everybody and they hired me. We developed a screenplay with the original authors and now we have a great script. The problem is, 90% of Bat Boy is sung.”
“It’s also a very hard script for a studio executive to read,” Landis reveals. “It’s very perverted; they’re going, ‘Wait a minute; these are people having sex with animals and there’s a lot of killing.’ So it’s a very strange sell. We almost got it made, but then Rent and The Producers tanked.”
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Jessie Grant/WireImage.com
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Hired to play Norm as Norman Bates
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Meanwhile, there is today’s new DVD Masters of Horror – Family, an episode Landis directed last year for the Showtime TV anthology series. George Wendt, of Cheers and current L.A. stage revival 12 Angry Men fame, stars as the creepy neighbor.
Showtime initially wanted Landis to hire Lance Henriksen to play the part of the seemingly normal suburbanite, but the filmmaker insisted it had to be someone who really presented that demeanor. Henriksen, Landis argues, is someone most people would not open their door for.
“This is Norm as Norman Bates,” Landis chuckles. “When you play a TV character, especially for 12 years on a show like Cheers, people forget that he can act and do something other than be that guy.”
“George comes from Second City, Chicago,” he adds. “He was in Second City when we were shooting The Blues Brothers. I don’t remember him, but he was telling me that he used to come to the set and watch us. What George does that I liked was that you could see the character’s inner life very much and he could go from affable to really frightening very quickly.”
Given the religious sub-themes of episode writer Brent Hanley’s horrifying feature Frailty, one might expect the show’s gospel music to be something he lobbied for. But actually, says Landis, the explanation is much less symbolic.
“In the script, the music that George’s character listened to was classical music,” Landis recalls. “So I listened to a lot of needle-drop classical and a lot of opera. Since we have to pay for the music I said, ‘What’s in public domain gospel? Let me see what’s cheapest.’ One of the things I was brought was the very old stuff from the 30’s. I listened to some of that and went, ‘Wow,’ because it is all about cleansing, washing of the blood. I thought it fit in well.”
Speaking of old stuff, Landis is of course also indelibly attached to one of the last bursts of Michael Jackson greatness as director of the iconic late 1990's music videos for “Thriller” and "Black or White." So it seems only natural to end our interview with the inevitable question: can MJ bounce back?
| “I think that Michael could make it,” Landis insists. “He’s still such an object of fascination for people. If you’ve seen him live, you see what an amazing performer he is. I don’t think he will bounce back because he’s crazy. But we’ll see. I like Mike. I’m fond of him; he’s mad as a hatter, owes me millions of dollars and I wish him nothing but well.” |
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