Now on it’s way to me via Canada is a book I should have bought last year while I was in New York City. “The Stanley Kubrick Archives” is a beautifully put together retrospective of the filmmakers work. I can’t wait for it to arrive!
P.S. I heart Canada and cute Canadians too.
Coming October 23rd is the “Director’s Series: Stanley Kubrick” DVD set from Warner Home Video. It looks totally hot!
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2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) – 2 Disc Special Edition
· Commentary by Keir Dullea and Gary Lockwood
· Theatrical trailer
· Channel 4 documentary: 2001: The Making of a Myth
· Standing on the Shoulders of Kubrick: The Legacy of 2001
· Vision of a Future Passed: The Prophecy of 2001
· 2001: A Space Odyssey – A Look Behind the Future
· 2001: FX and Early Conceptual Artwork
· Look: Stanley Kubrick!
· Audio-only interview with Stanley Kubrick
A Clockwork Orange (1971) – 2 Disc Special Edition
· Commentary by Malcolm McDowell and historian Nick Redman
· Theatrical trailer
· Channel 4 documentary: Still Tickin’: The Return of Clockwork Orange
· New featurette: Great Bolshy Yarblockos! Making A Clockwork Orange
· Career profile: O Lucky Malcolm!
The Shining (1980) – 2 Disc Special Edition
· Commentary by Garrett Brown and John Baxter
· Theatrical trailer
· Documentary The Making of the Shining, with optional commentary by Vivian Kubrick
· Three new featurettes: View from The Overlook: Crafting the Shining, The Visions of Stanley Kubrick, and Wendy Carlos, Composer
Full Metal Jacket (1987) – Deluxe Edition
· Commentary by Adam Baldwin, Vincent D’Onofrio, R. Lee Ermey and Jay Cocks
· New Featurette: Full Metal Jacket: Between Good and Evil
· Theatrical trailer
Eyes Wide Shut (1999) – 2 Disc Special Edition
· Rated and Unrated Versions of the Movie
· Scene specific commentary by Sydney Pollack and historian Peter Loewenberg
· Theatrical trailer and TV spots
· Channel 4 documentary: The Last Movie: Stanley Kubrick and Eyes Wide Shut
· Lost Kubrick: The Unfinished Films of Stanley Kubrick
· Kubrick’s 1998 DGA D.W Griffith Award acceptance speech
· Interview gallery featuring Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman, and Steven Spielberg
Stanley Kubrick – A Life in Pictures
Now (after seven months) you can see pictures from “Art” … the show that Steve, Jeff and I did this past winter in the Studio.
I watched a few movies over the weekend.
Team America: World Police (2004)
After the total brilliance of “South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut,” Matt Stone and Trey Parker released this dud of a movie on us. Some parts of it are funny, but for the most of the film the jokes just fall flat on their face, the musical “bits” are pretty lame and it last about 30 minutes longer than it should have. Zzzzzzzzz.
Into the Blue (2005)
This is a pretty decent psuedo-remake of “The Deep” (which is a pretty terrible film). It gets lots of bonus points for tons and tons of Paul Walker eye candy (please see below).
London (2005)
Not a really good movie. It’s a little too talkie and philosophical. But the Chris Evans eye candy factor (see below) is very high … so I liked it!
I think Facebook is way cooler than MySpace.
Gah. What a week it’s been.
We started the “Cabaret” roller coaster on Monday with a read through and two music rehearsals (Tuesday and Thursday). Seems to be going pretty well so far. Chuck has been smacking their musical asses and next week Beth get to smack their dancing legs. We finally (last night!) got the role of Cliff cast. I never would have thought that it would be that difficult to find someone to play a major role in a musical. Every guy that auditioned wanted the Emcee and that was all they would take.
This past weekend I was a VERY bad boy at Best Buy (bane of my existence) and purchased “Rome” Seasons One and Two on dvd. They were on sale at a really great price and I had a coupon … though that doesn’t mean I really should have bought them. I need to find some time this weekend to start watching it (plus drool over Kevin McKidd).
“INLAND EMPIRE” arrived this week as well. ‘Nuff said.
Oh, and … the 2-Disc Special Edition of “Taxi Driver” came out too. Good thing that new dvd rack is all finished and hanging on the wall.
What’s on the horizon (besides dvd’s) you ask?
Tonight: Some Resting and Relaxing.
Tomorrow: A Nap and then a Nice Dinner with Friends.
Sunday: Some Freelance Work and a Nap.
Yeah. I have become a lazy bastard of a hermit on the weekends.
Next week we run full on into “Cabaret” rehearsals that will take us up to the September 28th opening. I am hoping this one goes smooooother than “The Full Monty” did last year. That one stressed me out a little.
It. Is. Finished … Finally! Casting, that is.
Whoo-hoo!
Dr. Phibes has returned from his hootch in the Iraqi desert.
Welcome home, man!!!
I finally (thanks, Netflix) got around to seeing the 2005 version of “House of Wax” … which is a remake of 1953’s “House of Wax” which is a remake of 1933’s “Mystery of the Wax Museum.”
Now, I am not going say it was good but it was better than I expected it to be. I was expecting a really, really, really bad movie.
The plot is like 2,000 other horror films you have seen. Party-hardy teens stumble their way into a seemingly deserted only to be sliced, diced and covered in wax to be put on display in the titular House of Wax. What really amazed me was the total and utter dumbness of our leads as they encounter one sinister event after another in the lead up to murder and mayhem. Would you ignore a) creepy truck b) a dead animal dumping ground c) unpaved backwoods roads d) towns not listed on any map and the fact that the town looks like it belongs in the 1950’s.
The production design is really about all that “House of Wax” has going for it. The town of Ambrose is the coolest thing in the movie … especially the fact that the House of Wax is indeed entirely made of wax. This set piece could have offered us some really cool scary moments ala “Tourist Trap.” I mean, c’mon, who isn’t scared of mannequins and wax figures? Instead the screenwriter goes the easy route and offers us the standard stalk/chase scenarios that we’ve been seeing since “Black Christmas” gave birth to the modern slasher film.
Zzzzzzzzz.
One a good note though … I will say that Paris Hilton does get one spectacular death scene. At least (at that moment) the filmmakers knew what we wanted to see.
It’s one week after auditions and some of the parts in the show have still not been cast. Grrrrrr.
“Doctor Who: The Complete Third Series” will romp into your part of the universe on November 6th at the heafty suggested retail price of $99.98.
Series Three Episosdes:
“The Runaway Bride”
“Smith and Jones”
“The Shakespeare Code”
“Gridlock”
“Daleks in Manhattan”
“Evolution of the Daleks”
“The Lazarus Experiment”
“42”
“Human Nature”
“Blink”
“Utopia”
“The Sound of Drums”
“Last of the Time Lords”
And that is not the good kind of suckage either.
All I can really say right now is that casting “Cabaret” is proving to be more difficult than it should. There will be more details on that later.
Plus, some other things are conspiring to bring me down too.
Work. Life. Etc.
But, in Good News …
Dr. Phibes leaves Iraq for good in mere days. Whoo-hoo!
Yeah. I hadn’t really mentioned this yet … but tonight and tomorrow night starting at 6:30 p.m. are auditions for the fall musical here in town. I will be in charge of (you guessed it) “Cabaret,” that light and fluffy pre-war Berlin/Rise of the Nazis musical. Chuck and Beth are on board to do music and choreography (respectively). People have been bugging me for weeks about what parts they want, etc. It will be interesting to see which of them actually shows up. I imagine we are going to have a zillion Emcee and Sally Bowles wanna-be’s there. I am gonna try and do a much better job this year of “documenting” how rehearsals, etc. are going. I have been way lazy about that the past two years.
