DIRECTING DUO AVOID INTERVIEWS TO PROMOTE NEW FILM, BUT AFTER THE ROLLING STONE HIT PIECE, WHO CAN BLAME THEM?

SPEED RACER - the Wachowski Brothers’ feature film adaptation of the old anime TV series - is now in theatres. Cinematical has a bunch of interviews posted, including one with producer Joel Silver, who explains the absence of the directors from the press junket:

Producer Joel Silver explained how his ownership of the property led to him being contacted by the Wachowskis. While extolling their virtues, he even addressed their absence from the press day: “They never believe in engaging in this part of the process. I remember my friend Tom Cruise told me when he went to start working on Eyes Wide Shut, he went ‘There’s Kubrick sitting in the director’s chair!’ And I’m not trying to make a parallel between Stanley and the boys, but he didn’t want to engage in this stuff, either. And that creates a mystique. He was just a regular guy working, he didn’t want to leave his house, he was just making movies with his crew. … They’re not above it, but what happened is on the first Matrix, they did everything. They did the junkets, they did the tours, they did the articles, they did the one-on-ones … and they said, ‘Look, we don’t like … we’re uncomfortable. If you insist on us doing this, we’re not making any more movies. But if you will let us not do it, we’ll make all the movies you want. … ‘ So I said ‘Fine.’ “* 

There is another, more recent reason that the Wachowskis might want to avoid the press, and I cannot blame Silver for avoiding it. I am referring to the Rolling Stones article that posted on  January 12, 2006, when we were all eagerly anticipating the release of V IS FOR VENDETTA (which the Brothers wrote and produced). Steeped in innuendo and speculation, Peter Wilkinson’s bizarre article attempted to pull back the cloak of secrecy surrounding the directing duo. Continue Reading »

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As noted by Steve, below, it’s quite apparent that Jack Pierce should have a star on the walk of fame, and it should be as close to Boris Karloff’s star as possible. I’m also sure Universal will be happy to spend the $5,000 or so that is needed to make this happen, once they realize that Jack Pierce created the make-up for both Henry Hull in THE WEREWOLF OF LONDON, as well as Lon Chaney’s make-up for THE WOLF MAN. The sad fact is, probably nobody at Universal even knows who Jack Pierce is these days… but I’m sure once someone like Rick Baker says to them, “You know, when THE WOLF MAN opens, why don’t we give the man who created the first THE WOLF MAN make-up for Universal, Jack Pierce, a star on Hollywood Blvd” then it may actually happen! Especially, if it can be tied in with the opening of Universal’s new WOLF MAN movie!

Meanwhile, there’s no doubt that if Boris Karloff, one of the original founders of the Screen Actors Guild, were still around, he would certainly be asking Universal to put up the small amount of money needed to honor his good friend Jack Pierce, and asking them to give Mr. Pierce a star on the Hollywood walk of fame.

Here are some of Boris Karloff’s own comments about the masterful make-ups Jack Pierce created for him, from the long interview Karloff did for Canadian radio:

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Over at the Classic Horror Film Message Board, it’s “Robert Quarry Appreciation Week.” Quarry is the fine actor who appeared in a handful of entertaining cult films in the early ’70s: COUNT YORGA - VAMPIRE, THE RETURN OF COUNT YORGA, DR. PHIBES RISES AGAIN, and MADHOUSE. Quarry seemed poised on the verge of cult stardom when the bottom dropped out of the low-budget horror film market and companies like American International Pictures turned to making blaxploitation pictures. (Quarry was in one of those, too, the zombie-gangster flick, SUGAR HILL.) The post at the Classic Horror Board contains information for fans who want to express their appreciation, including an address where you can purchase autographed photos from the actor. Continue Reading »

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Count Yorga is a minor but amusing cult character, the subject of two low-budget exploitation films in the early 1970s entitled COUNT YORGA - VAMPIRE and THE RETURN OF COUNT YORGA. Although obviously patterned after Count Dracula, Yorga is very much his own bloodsucker, a rather sarcastic and condescending vampire. The two Yorga titles are notable for being among the best early attempts at transferring the vampire theme into a (then-contemporary) 20th Century setting. This they achieve (while avoiding the potential for audience derision) by adopting a certain tongue-in-cheek attitude, which at times (especially in the second film) approaches camp. Much of the success of the films belongs to actor Robert Quarry, who brought the modern day vampire to life with utterly condescending conviction, coupled with a ruthless sarcasm. Continue Reading »

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This sequel to COUNTY YORGA, VAMPIRE benefits from a slightly bigger budget and a considerably glossier look to the cinematography. Other than that, it recreates the formula of the first film, transplanted to the San Francisco Bay area, while emphasizing the campy humor and adding a love story.

Despite its title, the script does not’ bother to explain the return of the Count (or of his henchman Brudha either, both of whom were dispatched at the end of the previous film). Yorga simply shows up, taking residence in an old house near an orphanage on the isolated outskirts of San Francisco. At a costume party (where Yorga loses the “most convincing costume” award to someone in a goofy vampire outfit), Continue Reading »

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COUNT YORGA - VAMPIRE (originally conceived as a soft-core porn film entitled THE LOVES OF COUNT IORGA) is a nifty little low-budget exploitation effort that uses its resources to good effect. The shocks are crude but effective. Although relatively tame by later standards, the gore has a nasty edge to it, underlining the film’s cynical sensibility and downbeat ending.

After a brief prologue showing a coffin being transferred from ship to shore and arriving in Los Angeles (with a voice-over narration informing us about the nature of vampires), the story begins with a seance presided over by recent immigrant Count Yorga (Quarry), who is trying to contact the dead mother of one of the participants. Afterwards, Yorga gets a ride home from one couple, who get stuck in the mud after leaving him off. Yorga knocks out the man and attacks the girl, who later begins to show vampire proclivities (which include eating her pet cat). Continue Reading »

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[REC] is a little foreign-language film from last year that has built up a buzz among the few lucky enough to have seen it. Unfortunately, as is too often the case, instead of being released into U.S. theatres, the film has been remade in English as QUARANTINE, which is due out later this year. In a post detailing his attempt to track down a screener copy of [REC], Arbogast on Film quotes a strange letter:

I am afraid for you to see it — mainly because if you blog about it, it then starts to diffuse the near perfect experience of watching it. The less you know about this film the better. […]

But I fear for the film once it gets into your hands. I would beg — BEG you not to give frame grabs or synopsis or criticism. BEG you. Endorsement? Yes. Anything else, I fear would flatten the impact this puppy delivers into genre formula comparisons. Please don’t. […]

So let me get this straight. We have a film that almost no one has heard of. It is not getting released in the U.S., but in a few months everyone will know the entire plot from watching the remake. But we should not write anything about the original because that will gave away too much and ruin the experience of the film.

To me, this sounds like an almost perfect formula for ruining any chance [REC] has of finding any audience at all in America. People who have seen it should be writing voluminously about it - and not just “It’s great but you have to take my word for it.”

The movie’s gimmick is that it is shot from the point-of-view of a new crew that happens to be on location when an emergency crew answers a 911 call from a woman trapped in an inner city high rise. Obviously, it sounds a bit like BLAIR WITCH, CLOVERFIELD, and DIARY OF THE DEAD. Since we’ve already seen those movies, why should we see this one? Well, apparently there’s a lot more going on that the tiny plot description reveals, but if the film’s supporters insist on keeping everything under wraps, nobody is going to care enough to check the film out.

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Jack Pierce created the makeup for Universal Studios’ rogue’s gallery of classic movies monsters in the 1930s and 1940s: Frankenstein’s Monster, the Mummy, the Wolf Man, etc. These images are firmly embedded in our minds: even if you haven’t seen the movies, you know what the monsters look like. Some of them have even been immortalized on U.S. postage stamps. In spite of all this, Pierce does not have a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Why this is, I don’t know. Presumably, the difficulty is getting someone to pick up the $5,000 tab for planting a new star in the sidewalk.

Now you have a chance to do something about that: here is a petition asking Universal Studios to fund a star for Jack Pierce. Add your name, and help bestow a little recognition on a man who gave so much to monster fans everywhere.

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The Vault of Horror points us to this pic, which allegedly reveals what actor Aaron Eckhart will look like when courageous prosecutor Harvey Dent is disfigured and becomes the super-villain known as Two-Face in THE DARK NIGHT. Brian Solomon acknowledges there is some suspicion that the photo is a fake but takes Warner Bros’ attempt to suppress the image as evidence that it is genuine. I sitll have my doubts. To me, the image looks like a preliminary Photoshop test. It is possible that it could be genuine and still not represent the final look, which would certainly explain why WB would not want it released.

In any case, I’m sure the new BATMAN film will give Eckhart a chance to do a better job with the character than Tommy Lee Jones did in BATMAN FOREVER (in which Two-Face was reduced to playing a clownish second fiddle to Jim Carrey’s camped up Riddler). The trailer for THE DARK KNIGHT makes the film look excellent, possibly better than BATMAN BEGINS, and Heath Ledger seems so spot-on perfect as the Joker it makes you want to cry all over again for his untimely death.

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The Creature may finally be taking another swim in the Black Lagoon. First seen in Universal’s 1954 3-D classic,  THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON, the Gill-Man appeared in two sequels, RETURN OF THE CREATURE (1955) and THE CREATURE WALKS AMONG US (1956) before disappearing from the screen for over five decades. The remake was in development, with a script by Gary Ross, when the writers’ strike put it on hold. Now that the strike is over, director Breck Eisner hopes to put finishing touches on the script and get the movie before the camera as soon as he finishes another remake, of George Romero’s 1973 film THE CRAZIES.

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Horror Movie a Day got a glimpse of MIDNIGHT MEAT TRAIN, and liked what they saw:

Ryuhei Kitamura makes his American debut (and his first legit horror film – his others are more fantasy/action based, including a Godzilla film), and fares far better than many of his peers. The film has a very unique look – it’s very grainy, but also has a lot of soft focus (it’s rare that anything but the main characters or object in the scene are in sharp focus, backgrounds are sometimes a total blur).

…what surprised me most about the film was how it managed to be equally as suspenseful as it was splatter-y. There are a couple stalk/chase sequences between Jones and Cooper that rival any modern horror films’ attempts at suspense (the fact that these sequences have zero dialogue is another bonus), giving the film a “classy” edge that many others lack (come on, are you really biting your nails when watching a Saw film?). At the same time, the kill sequences are impressively gory, to the point where it’s almost a surprise this got an R rating. They also carry a bit of an Argento feel; there’s a fantastic gag where a guy, hanging upside down on a meat hook, sees his reflection in a growing pool of his own blood.

Read the entire review here.

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Esplatter.com alerts us to the sad news that Hammer horror heroine Julie Ege died from breast cancer on April 29. Ege starred in two of the British company’s less well received films, CREATURES THE WORLD FORGOT and LEGEND OF THE SEVEN GOLDEN VAMPIRES. CREATURES was an attempt to do another prehistoric movie in the vein of ONE MILLION B.C. and WHEN DINOSAURS RULES THE EARTH - but without the dinosaurs. Ege of course played the ravishing cave girl. LEGEND was an attempt to revitalize the Dracula franchise by pitting vampire-hunter Van Helsing (Peter Cushing) against kung fu vampires in China. Ege played a woman who joins the expedition. Although a fairly typical role, there was some attempt to fashion a more independent female character, and she has a wonderful tragic scene near the end. She also appeared in THE FREAKMAKER, CRAZE (with Jack Palance), and and the Bond film ON HER MAJESTY’S SECRET SERVICE.

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As part of their tribute to producer Rober Evans, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will presents a 40th anniversary screening of ROSEMARY’S BABY.

The film was actually produced by William Castle, with Roman Polanski writing and directing, but according to the AMPAS website, Evans brought the property to Paramount and “oversaw” its production.

There will be a discussion panel featuring a rather odd assortment of guests. Besides Robert Evans, there will also be Peter Bart (former Paramount producer and editor of Variety), Brett Ratner (director of summer popcorn movies), and Slash (of Guns and Roses fame). What they could have to say to each other is hard to imagine.

Get more information here.

If you are not so fortunate as to live in Los Angeles, the film will also screen on June 6 and 7 in San Francisco, as part of the Landmark After Dark festival. More info here.

NOTE: The film got a mention in our list of the Top 20 Chick Flick Horror Movies.

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