1. "Plan 9.1" May Be Worth a Look
The “Plan 9” remake trailer wasn’t anything like anyone expected. While the radio playing Criswell’s legenday “future” speech was a throwback to the 1959 anti-classic, this week’s clip looked more like Zack Snyder than anything Ed Wood did.
2. "Plan 9.0" Still Going Strong After 50 Years
Meanwhile, the original is still packing them in at cinemas across the country, albeit with live comic commentary from the Mystery Science wags at RiffTrax. An encore performance has been scheduled for October 8. Info here.
3. Variety Likes to Kill the “Dead”
The first review for George A. Romero’s “Survival of the Dead” -- premiering this weekend at Toronto -- came from Variety. They didn’t like it at all. (Full disclosure: I’m friendly with Mr. Romero and did a cameo as one of his zombies, so I’m somewhat biased and hope it’s good.) I thought it’d be interesting to see what the trade paper had to say about the original, “Night of the Living Dead," now recognized as a classic, on its initial release just over 40 years ago. “Although pic's basic premise is repellent -- recently dead bodies are resurrected and begin killing human beings in order to eat their flesh -- it is in execution that the film distastefully excels,” the review read, before reciting a litany of gore and noting “a climax of unparalleled nausea." The review continued: “The rest of the pic is amateurism of the first order. Pittsburgh-based director George A. Romero appears incapable of contriving a single graceful set-up, and his cast is uniformly poor.”
4. Eli Roth Kisses the Snake
Last week I told you Eli Roth was doing a PETA commercial. Here are the results, and they’re more romantic than anyone might expect.
5. Josh Olson Will Not Read Your F---ing Script
In the Village Voice, screenwriter John Olson, Oscar-nominated for his adaptation of “A History of Violence”, told everyone that under no circumstances would he read their f---ing script. (Damn, I wish I could recall that DHL courier!) Olson made many reasonable points, but I have a question: Did he ever himself make such a “dick move” in the decades he spent working below-the-line in Hollywood? How would you not, working with Dolph Lundgren on 1987’s “Masters of the Universe”?
6. Antichrist Superstar
Now here’s a poster you can’t help but notice. Australia’s key-art wizard Jeremy Saunders tells me that his appropriately controversial design for Lars Von Trier’s controversial horror film has already had some of his fellow Aussies apologizing to the world on his behalf. As for how he came up with it, Saunders says: “Well, it's taking the one thing that everyone knows about ‘Antichrist’ and using that as a sell.
