- Don’t forget, 11:59:59 tonight, EST, is your final chance to enter our Mallrats 10th Anniversary DVD Giveaway. If you’ve yet to throw in an entry, do it NOW! Hurry!
- Auctions Askew has ended today — We’ll let everyone know what the final tally was when it’s released. Thanks to everyone who put in a bid for their support for the victims of Hurricane Katrina and the American Red Cross, and congratulations to our five lucky winners.
- Mallrats joins Clerks in Arizona Daily Star film critic’s series of the greatest films ever made. Here’s a snippet from the essay:
…Smith writes with a literate, poetic verve, closer to Shakespeare than the Farrelly brothers. His characters endlessly reference the morass of pop culture in which they were raised, touching on everything from the obscure 1970s TV show “B.J. and the Bear†to the “Street Fighter II†video game to film classics such as “Apocalypse Now,†“Star Wars†and “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.†What’s most amazing is that “Mallrats†is more rewatchable than any of the cinematic greats to which it nods. In lesser hands, all the referencing would come off as crass, but it comes naturally for his characters, who, like its author and audience, grew up with like touchstones.
- And finally today, you’re gonna love this one – Most of you by now have heard Kevin’s famous Jon Peters giant spider story, right? Well, it gets better. A recent inteview with comic legend Neil Gaiman. Here’s the fun part:
A gorgeous example of that, Ted Elliot and Terry Rossio, who wrote “Pirates of the Caribbean†and “Shrek†and some lovely movies, were brought in by Jon Peters to write the first draft of the Sandman movie. He hadn’t actually read any “Sandman†because he had people to do that kind of stuff for him, but he had figured out that what the movie needed to be successful was a giant mechanical spider. He wanted a giant mechanical spider because that would make any film a hit. Elliot and Rossio, who had read “Sandman,†who went in with their pitch and looking forward to it and going, “But there’s no room for a giant mechanical spider.â€
“I know it, I’m Jon Peters, and I want my giant mechanical spider!â€
I was thrilled on going to see “Wild Wild West†to see that he had finally put this giant mechanical spider that I’d been hearing about from Elliot and Rossio for five years into a film with no ideas of any kind. I really think a lot of it is [executives] are wedded to their giant mechanical spiders and they’re also convinced they know best, because obviously they’re Hollywood executives.
And hey, “Mirrormask†sure looks interesting, don’t it? Have a fine weekend, friends. Be safe. See you soon.
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