10 Things I Learned This Week

Halloween treats: Drunken Ewoks, Rocky Horror live and Lego Batman

1. Halloween Now Creepier Than Ever

This week saw the DVD and Blu-ray release – after a long, long wait – of a neglected mid-1980s horror-comedy classic, Fred Dekker’s “Night Of The Creeps”. Dekker told me that the new disc version of his schlocker about zombie-making parasites from outer space comes complete with his original, darker ending.

An ending that calls for a sequel. Once you’re done a-trickin’ and a-treatin’, you could do worse than get some friends together and put this one on for a rollickin’ good time.

2. Be The Sheepmonster This Halloween

I also discovered “Godmonster Of Indian Flats” this week.

A true 1970s B-grade horror oddity, it’s much more bizarre than even this clip suggests. But, as a last-minute costume option, it’s pretty easy: add old car-seat covers or throw-rugs, stagger, roar, repeat.

 

3. Spider-Man and Batman Return: The Movie – Sequel!

The follow-up to the “The Lego Batman & Spider-man Movie” has dropped. Got a spare 10 minutes? You know you have. Then see if you can devise a superhero-in-Lego outfit in time for Halloween.

 

4. The Room Now A Bona Fide Hit!

Well, if the L.A. Times is putting it on the front page, it must be so.

One of Hollywood’s stranger denizens, Tommy Wiseau, has seen his 2003 flop turn into the biggest bad-movie sensation since Elizabeth Berkley pushed Gina Gershon down the stairs in “Showgirls”. Fair enough, too, because “The Room” is utterly nuts and well worth the pilgrimage to an audience participation romp. It’s perfect for Halloween. If you can’t get into a screening, grab the DVD and a bunch of friends.

Click here for screening details.

5. Midnight Madness Midwest Style

This Halloween, midwest fans of the original midnight movie with audience participation can relive their misspent youths with this stage production of “The Rocky Horror Show."

6. Drunk Ewoks On Today

If you think nothing could be funnier, furrier or weirder than Al Roker in a Han Solo wig, then stand by for drunk Ewoks on the rampage! Stick around through the boring start because the Endormania ramps up around the two-minute mark! “One of the Ewoks is drinking already” says Han-Al. (“And a happy 10235th birthday to Emperor Palpatine!” I wish Willard was on hand to say.)

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7. Miller, Miller On The Wall… Is Tom Hardy The Maddest Max Of All?

Casting rumors about George Miller’s “Mad Max 4” continue to swirl. The initial reports assumed that it’d be Sam Worthington in the lead, until Miller said no decisions had been made. That was only 7 days ago. Now it’s being reported that the Aussie director has settled on British actor Tom Hardy – best known for “Bronson” and “Star Trek” – to take the lead, with “The Road”’s Charlize Theron co-starring. I’m saying this news, if true, is setting the cat among the pigeons, given that Miller earlier this week decried how Australian film talent fled their homeland’s productions to Hollywood during production lulls. Is he really going to cast a Brit in a homegrown blockbuster and an iconic Aussie role? Let me be the first to say I’ll believe it when I hear it from Miller’s mouth. Let me also say I still think it’ll be Sam Worthington who takes the role.

8. The Road On The Road To Oscars?

I caught “The Road” this week and it’s powerful, powerful stuff. Despite the first trailer, which the Weinsteins filled with stock/news footage to sell it as a kinda “2012”, the second trailer, released this week, is a more truthful reflection of what is a faithful adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. Viggo Mortensen’s intensity is a lesson for Christian Bale in how not to overplay, while Aussie kid Kodi Smit-McPhee is a natural as the frightened little boy who knows nothing other than the post-apocalypse. Charlize Theron, meanwhile, is all sorts of heartbreaking. Australian director John Hillcoat’s vision of this world is hellish and immersive and terrifying. Fans of the book won’t be disappointed, but the book itself was so heavy it might actually put people off reliving it. Regardless, I’m saying this might just sneak in with a Best Picture nomination.

 

9. Bad Lieutenant Will Come Out To Play

For a brief distressing moment this week it looked like Nic Cage and Werner Herzog’s nutjob reboot of “Bad Lieutenant: Port Of Call New Orleans” might be going straight to the “Crazy WTF” shelf at your local Blockbuster. Happily, website The Playlist got the lowdown on the theatrical roll-out. The recent trailer’s pretty conventional

 

at least until the appearance of those drug-hallucination iguanas and dancing-soul comments.

10. Woody Allen’s “Untitled 2049 Film Project” Greenlit.

Ripped from the headlines! His muse should drop around 2032!

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