Freddy and Jason...Ok, what crossover would you like to see?
08-22-03, 07:37 PM
#26
DVD Talk Limited Edition
Ash ("Evil Dead") vs the Tall Man ("Phantasm")
Read this article from the LA Times (http://www.bubbahotep.com/reviews/LATimes.htm) to see how this almost happened (but "Bubba Ho-Tep" happened instead).
February 26, 2003
MOVIES
'Bubba' unites cult heroes
A spry old Elvis Presley meets an Egyptian mummy when Don Coscarelli and Bruce Campbell join cinematic forces.
By David Chute, Special to The Times
In the somewhat rarified world of fan-geek worship, writer-director Don Coscarelli and actor Bruce Campbell are superstars. They became cult heroes more than 20 years ago, when Coscarelli wrote and directed "Phantasm" (1979) and Campbell starred in Sam "Spider-Man" Raimi's shoestring debut "The Evil Dead" (1982).
Now in their mid-40s, they still enjoy untarnished credibility with a hard-core fan base that seems to get younger every year.
One reason, Coscarelli says, is that "we both still have a genuine enthusiasm for the kind of weird genre material that teenagers like." But the oddness of the situation has struck them both, as Campbell notes in his cheerfully self-deprecating memoir "If Chins Could Kill: Confessions of a B Movie Actor." The book, a hot seller on the cult film circuit, both confirmed and extended his popularity in certain circles.
Coscarelli's first film starring Campbell involves, among others, Elvis Presley and Egyptian mummies; "Bubba Ho-Tep," arrives at the American Cinematheque on Thursday already festooned with raves from bellwether fan sites like Dark Horizons and Ain't It Cool News. As well it might. "I just loved the idea of Elvis' fighting a mummy," Coscarelli says of the short story by mystery novelist Joe R. Lansdale that inspired the film. But the story had more to offer than a gonzo premise: It was a project in which both actor and director could act their age (and then some) without betraying their B movie roots.
The film they've made is a surprisingly touching genre send-up in which the King (Campbell), now a cranky elderly patient in a Texas nursing home, teams up with his neighbor down the hall (Ossie Davis), a blissfully goofy 83-year-old convinced that he is JFK. Shoulder to shoulder they battle supernatural evil (and a very dangerous scarab beetle the size of a fat pigeon), armed only with their walkers and the fastest bedpan in the West.
At this point, there is no American distributor for the movie.
The gonzo premise generates more thrills than one might expect, even though the action is mostly confined to the rest home and the movie's only "high-speed chase" involves a battery-powered wheelchair. "But what kept me coming back to the story," Coscarelli says, "was that Joe Lansdale also gave it a deeper level, about what happens to people as they get older, the loss of dignity. People of my generation are getting to the age now where the rest home is staring them in the face, and it is not a pretty picture. What I like best about the movie is that the sensitive stuff really seems to work."
Campbell and Coscarelli admit that they may have been spoiled by their early experiences making shoestring low-budget genre movies like "Phantasm" and "The Evil Dead" with groups of close friends. Physically those wing-and-a-prayer shoots were often grueling, Campbell recalls, "but there was also a zone of mental comfort there. Those were totally hand-made movies, and they were exactly what we wanted them to be. I've been trying to crawl back into that womb ever since."
Both films became instant cult favorites because fans recognized them as the work of kindred spirits. "One of the things I have aspired to ever since," Coscarelli says, "is make another movie that resonates with an audience that way. And we're beginning to get the feeling that 'Bubba Ho-Tep' might be it."
Iconic horror villain
None of Coscarelli's other films, which include "The Beastmaster" (1982) and "Survival Quest" (1989), has had the impact of "Phantasm" and its sequels. The film delivered such memorable shock images as a brain-sucking flying silver sphere and created one of the great iconic horror villains in Angus Scrimm's saturnine Tall Man, a killer mortician from the fourth dimension.
In three sequels shot over 20 years, Coscarelli has allowed the "Phantasm" series to darken, embracing the passage of time as a story point. In "Phantasm IV: Oblivion," footage of the performers as fresh-faced youths is deftly intercut with new scenes in which the same actors play their characters as haggard and alienated adults, pursued by the Tall Man across a post-apocalyptic landscape.
By contrast, Campbell is loved not so much for his seriousness as for his energetic playfulness, a quality abundantly evident in his performance as a gallant and chivalrous geezer-Elvis. In the "Evil Dead" pictures, he wields a snarling chainsaw with the athletic abandon of a zombie-hunting Errol Flynn.
The persona translates well to less sanguinary genres. Campbell made perfect sense as the dashing rogue Autolycus on the syndicated TV series Hercules (co-produced by Raimi), as a post-Indiana Jones cowpoke on the tongue-in-cheek Fox Western "The Adventures of Brisco County Jr." (1993) and as a swashbuckling matinee idol in the film-within-the-film in "The Majestic" (2001).
Campbell and Coscarelli began plotting a collaboration three years ago, when the director co-wrote (with "Pulp Fiction" Oscar-winner Roger Avary) the screenplay for "Phantasm V," which had a juicy role in it for Campbell. "The idea was to sort of combine the 'Evil Dead' and 'Phantasm' franchises by bringing him in to fight the Tall Man. The fans of both series would go crazy for that," Coscarelli says. "But then you pitch it to executives and their eyes glaze over. Success in the genre is both a blessing and a curse. I'm always able to get funding for further 'Phantasm' movies at a certain budget level, but it also marks you as a little too cultish in the eyes of the Hollywood big shots."
Campbell is fed up with the big shots altogether and with the endless anxiety of aspiring to become one. He came closest as a runner-up for the title role in "The Phantom" (1996) but, he says: "The more I chased that brass ring the less it had to do with making movies."
"Bruce has blazed his own trail," Coscarelli says. "He has made a franchise out of himself. The direct connection he has developed with his fans is amazing."
Campbell and Coscarelli enjoy trading ideas for possible "Bubba Ho-Tep" prequels, retro period films in which a younger Elvis could play hooky from the set of "Clambake" to battle slinky vampire babes.
"And the longer we go on making them," Campbell suggests, "the cheaper they'll be to do. Eventually I won't even need make-up."
Read this article from the LA Times (http://www.bubbahotep.com/reviews/LATimes.htm) to see how this almost happened (but "Bubba Ho-Tep" happened instead).
February 26, 2003
MOVIES
'Bubba' unites cult heroes
A spry old Elvis Presley meets an Egyptian mummy when Don Coscarelli and Bruce Campbell join cinematic forces.
By David Chute, Special to The Times
In the somewhat rarified world of fan-geek worship, writer-director Don Coscarelli and actor Bruce Campbell are superstars. They became cult heroes more than 20 years ago, when Coscarelli wrote and directed "Phantasm" (1979) and Campbell starred in Sam "Spider-Man" Raimi's shoestring debut "The Evil Dead" (1982).
Now in their mid-40s, they still enjoy untarnished credibility with a hard-core fan base that seems to get younger every year.
One reason, Coscarelli says, is that "we both still have a genuine enthusiasm for the kind of weird genre material that teenagers like." But the oddness of the situation has struck them both, as Campbell notes in his cheerfully self-deprecating memoir "If Chins Could Kill: Confessions of a B Movie Actor." The book, a hot seller on the cult film circuit, both confirmed and extended his popularity in certain circles.
Coscarelli's first film starring Campbell involves, among others, Elvis Presley and Egyptian mummies; "Bubba Ho-Tep," arrives at the American Cinematheque on Thursday already festooned with raves from bellwether fan sites like Dark Horizons and Ain't It Cool News. As well it might. "I just loved the idea of Elvis' fighting a mummy," Coscarelli says of the short story by mystery novelist Joe R. Lansdale that inspired the film. But the story had more to offer than a gonzo premise: It was a project in which both actor and director could act their age (and then some) without betraying their B movie roots.
The film they've made is a surprisingly touching genre send-up in which the King (Campbell), now a cranky elderly patient in a Texas nursing home, teams up with his neighbor down the hall (Ossie Davis), a blissfully goofy 83-year-old convinced that he is JFK. Shoulder to shoulder they battle supernatural evil (and a very dangerous scarab beetle the size of a fat pigeon), armed only with their walkers and the fastest bedpan in the West.
At this point, there is no American distributor for the movie.
The gonzo premise generates more thrills than one might expect, even though the action is mostly confined to the rest home and the movie's only "high-speed chase" involves a battery-powered wheelchair. "But what kept me coming back to the story," Coscarelli says, "was that Joe Lansdale also gave it a deeper level, about what happens to people as they get older, the loss of dignity. People of my generation are getting to the age now where the rest home is staring them in the face, and it is not a pretty picture. What I like best about the movie is that the sensitive stuff really seems to work."
Campbell and Coscarelli admit that they may have been spoiled by their early experiences making shoestring low-budget genre movies like "Phantasm" and "The Evil Dead" with groups of close friends. Physically those wing-and-a-prayer shoots were often grueling, Campbell recalls, "but there was also a zone of mental comfort there. Those were totally hand-made movies, and they were exactly what we wanted them to be. I've been trying to crawl back into that womb ever since."
Both films became instant cult favorites because fans recognized them as the work of kindred spirits. "One of the things I have aspired to ever since," Coscarelli says, "is make another movie that resonates with an audience that way. And we're beginning to get the feeling that 'Bubba Ho-Tep' might be it."
Iconic horror villain
None of Coscarelli's other films, which include "The Beastmaster" (1982) and "Survival Quest" (1989), has had the impact of "Phantasm" and its sequels. The film delivered such memorable shock images as a brain-sucking flying silver sphere and created one of the great iconic horror villains in Angus Scrimm's saturnine Tall Man, a killer mortician from the fourth dimension.
In three sequels shot over 20 years, Coscarelli has allowed the "Phantasm" series to darken, embracing the passage of time as a story point. In "Phantasm IV: Oblivion," footage of the performers as fresh-faced youths is deftly intercut with new scenes in which the same actors play their characters as haggard and alienated adults, pursued by the Tall Man across a post-apocalyptic landscape.
By contrast, Campbell is loved not so much for his seriousness as for his energetic playfulness, a quality abundantly evident in his performance as a gallant and chivalrous geezer-Elvis. In the "Evil Dead" pictures, he wields a snarling chainsaw with the athletic abandon of a zombie-hunting Errol Flynn.
The persona translates well to less sanguinary genres. Campbell made perfect sense as the dashing rogue Autolycus on the syndicated TV series Hercules (co-produced by Raimi), as a post-Indiana Jones cowpoke on the tongue-in-cheek Fox Western "The Adventures of Brisco County Jr." (1993) and as a swashbuckling matinee idol in the film-within-the-film in "The Majestic" (2001).
Campbell and Coscarelli began plotting a collaboration three years ago, when the director co-wrote (with "Pulp Fiction" Oscar-winner Roger Avary) the screenplay for "Phantasm V," which had a juicy role in it for Campbell. "The idea was to sort of combine the 'Evil Dead' and 'Phantasm' franchises by bringing him in to fight the Tall Man. The fans of both series would go crazy for that," Coscarelli says. "But then you pitch it to executives and their eyes glaze over. Success in the genre is both a blessing and a curse. I'm always able to get funding for further 'Phantasm' movies at a certain budget level, but it also marks you as a little too cultish in the eyes of the Hollywood big shots."
Campbell is fed up with the big shots altogether and with the endless anxiety of aspiring to become one. He came closest as a runner-up for the title role in "The Phantom" (1996) but, he says: "The more I chased that brass ring the less it had to do with making movies."
"Bruce has blazed his own trail," Coscarelli says. "He has made a franchise out of himself. The direct connection he has developed with his fans is amazing."
Campbell and Coscarelli enjoy trading ideas for possible "Bubba Ho-Tep" prequels, retro period films in which a younger Elvis could play hooky from the set of "Clambake" to battle slinky vampire babes.
"And the longer we go on making them," Campbell suggests, "the cheaper they'll be to do. Eventually I won't even need make-up."
08-22-03, 09:13 PM
#27
DVD Talk Hall of Fame
Dumb and Dumber vs. Cheech and Chong
08-23-03, 04:24 AM
#29
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Originally posted by LolaRennt
I could care less for cross-overs. I must admit that I haven't seen Freddy versus Jason, but I just don't find a reason why the movie has been made in the first place.
I do not want my "favourite heroes" playing in a movie where they are teamed up or put against one another. The protagonists exist in their own movie, and that is where they should stay.
Example: in a way "the leage of extraordinairy men" was a cross-over, and failed completely in all ways. I am afraid that other cross-overs will go along that same path, and I want to keep the good memories from so many memorable characters in their own movies.
I have no idea whether this makes any sense, but these were my 2 cents.
LolaRennt.
I could care less for cross-overs. I must admit that I haven't seen Freddy versus Jason, but I just don't find a reason why the movie has been made in the first place.
I do not want my "favourite heroes" playing in a movie where they are teamed up or put against one another. The protagonists exist in their own movie, and that is where they should stay.
Example: in a way "the leage of extraordinairy men" was a cross-over, and failed completely in all ways. I am afraid that other cross-overs will go along that same path, and I want to keep the good memories from so many memorable characters in their own movies.
I have no idea whether this makes any sense, but these were my 2 cents.
LolaRennt.
Why did you even bother to post....
08-23-03, 10:43 AM
#31
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Originally posted by yecul
It begins and ends with Aliens vs Predator which is hopefully going to be made.
It begins and ends with Aliens vs Predator which is hopefully going to be made.
Release Date: August 6, 2004
08-23-03, 12:33 PM
#33
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Originally posted by DonnachaOne
Superman Vs. Mighty Mouse.
Oh wait. Mighty Mouse is a cartoon, SUperman's a real guy...
... it'd be a good fight though.
Superman Vs. Mighty Mouse.
Oh wait. Mighty Mouse is a cartoon, SUperman's a real guy...
... it'd be a good fight though.
08-23-03, 08:19 PM
#36
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Originally posted by Spooky
Forrest Gump Vs. Rain Man
Forrest Gump Vs. Rain Man
I like Snake Plissken but I can't seem to think of anyone to piar him up with.
08-24-03, 09:18 PM
#37
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Originally posted by TopHatCat64
Haha, good going getting the Stand By Me reference in there
Haha, good going getting the Stand By Me reference in there
They should have the four guys from Stand By Me beating up the young versions of the five guys from Dreamcatcher.
08-24-03, 10:40 PM
#41
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Frank Booth vs. Travis Bickle
The Munchkins vs. The Oompa Loompas
Monster's Inc. vs. Monster's Ball
12 Monkeys vs. Reservoir Dogs (the dogs may have a better bite, but my money's on the monkeys)
The Munchkins vs. The Oompa Loompas
Monster's Inc. vs. Monster's Ball
12 Monkeys vs. Reservoir Dogs (the dogs may have a better bite, but my money's on the monkeys)
08-24-03, 10:40 PM
#42
DVD Talk Hero
Léon vs. Il Duce.
Anyone who has seen both Léon: The Professional and The Boondock Saints knows how awesome this fight would be.
Anyone who has seen both Léon: The Professional and The Boondock Saints knows how awesome this fight would be.
08-24-03, 11:59 PM
#43
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Originally posted by Samuel
Forrest vs Rain Man would be awesome!
I like Snake Plissken but I can't seem to think of anyone to piar him up with.
Forrest vs Rain Man would be awesome!
I like Snake Plissken but I can't seem to think of anyone to piar him up with.
08-25-03, 01:13 AM
#45
DVD Talk Hall of Fame
Originally posted by RocShemp
Léon vs. Il Duce.
Anyone who has seen both Léon: The Professional and The Boondock Saints knows how awesome this fight would be.
Léon vs. Il Duce.
Anyone who has seen both Léon: The Professional and The Boondock Saints knows how awesome this fight would be.
08-25-03, 01:19 AM
#46
DVD Talk Hero
Originally posted by RyoHazuki7
Never.........ever............put those two in the same sentence again. Bad things will happen. People will die.
Never.........ever............put those two in the same sentence again. Bad things will happen. People will die.
No, seriously, why?
I mean, I undertand it would obviously have to stay in the past or out of normal continuity. Other than that, I see no problem with all the bodies that'd drop in the midst of this battle royale.
08-25-03, 06:24 PM
#47
DVD Talk Hall of Fame
Leon is, imo, the greatest movie ever.
Boondock Saints is, imo, one of the worst things ever. The fact that it has a huge cult following is even worse. I hate that movie more than I hate satan.
All a matter of opinion but I cant accept that someone honestly believes those movies are on the same plane.
My problem is not with the matching of those characters but pretty much from the movies they come from. One is a masterpiece, one is crap.
Boondock Saints is, imo, one of the worst things ever. The fact that it has a huge cult following is even worse. I hate that movie more than I hate satan.
All a matter of opinion but I cant accept that someone honestly believes those movies are on the same plane.
My problem is not with the matching of those characters but pretty much from the movies they come from. One is a masterpiece, one is crap.
08-25-03, 06:52 PM
#48
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Originally posted by RyoHazuki7
Boondock Saints is, imo, one of the worst things ever. The fact that it has a huge cult following is even worse. I hate that movie more than I hate satan.
Boondock Saints is, imo, one of the worst things ever. The fact that it has a huge cult following is even worse. I hate that movie more than I hate satan.
08-25-03, 07:36 PM
#49
DVD Talk Hero
Originally posted by RyoHazuki7
I cant accept that someone honestly believes those movies are on the same plane.
I cant accept that someone honestly believes those movies are on the same plane.
08-25-03, 08:13 PM
#50
DVD Talk Legend
Originally posted by RyoHazuki7
Boondock Saints is, imo, one of the worst things ever. The fact that it has a huge cult following is even worse. I hate that movie more than I hate satan.
Boondock Saints is, imo, one of the worst things ever. The fact that it has a huge cult following is even worse. I hate that movie more than I hate satan.
Worst Things Ever
10 Joseph Stalin
9 AIDS
8 Osama Bin Laden
7 The Black Plague
6 Paper cuts
5 Losing your penis
4 Racism
3 Adolf Hitler/The Holocaust
2 Satan
1 Boondock Saints