Ask 411 Movies for 8.25.08: It Looks Like We’ve Made It!

Posted by Leonard Hayhurst on 08.25.2008

Fletch Won, Twilight Zone accident, Christa Miller, Constatine, Stars Wars deleted scene and live action cartoon adaptations

To continue from last week, we have all of the opening sequences from "Kids Incorporated." You'll notice a few familiar faces and it wasn't the last time Fergie was found laying on a pinball machine.



Thanks to Marisa and Lynn for a correction from last week that Jane Seymour and James Keach are still married. It was one of those instances where I was working on the column late and didn't pay close attention in research. At least I wasn't drunk at the time. Ok, maybe a little.

A few people also mentioned my assumption that The Dark Knight would surpass Titanic for highest grossing film all time. According to boxofficemojo.com The Dark Knight is closing in on $500 million domestically and is over $800 million world wide, while Titanic is a smidge over $600 million domestically and $1.8 billion worldwide. I think if Warner Brothers does a TDK re-release to help Oscar buzz after the first of the year they can clip Titanic stateside.

On the adjusted for all time list, TDK is 36 and rising fast with Titanic at number six behind The Ten Commandments, E.T., The Sound of Music, Star Wars and Gone With the Wind. I don't much care for the adjusted list, because that's like saying Nolan Ryan's pitching records don't count because he played for 27 years and if you project some pitcher's stats who played only seven seasons out over 27 years then he beats him. Or how people argued at the time that Hank Aaron's home run record shouldn't beat Babe Ruth's because Aaron played in more games per season. I'm not even going to Barry Bonds.

Ben Piper of here on 411 mentioned that Bill Murray wasn't credited in Tootsie. The reason was because producers didn't want audiences to expect a "Bill Murray movie."

Paul in Canada mentioned that Whoopi Goldberg was not credited in Star Trek: Generations. This is true, but I couldn't find reason as to why. Her part is brief and she probably showed as a favor and I'm guessing her not being credited was due to contracts and union rules.

Q: You're next G-WALLA! *wields pizza cutter menacingly*

Leonard.. since you insist on making my life hell by inserting my name into every column, so the Pizza fanatics can take my photo while I'm outside in my robe picking up my newspaper, then the least you can do is answer this question:

What happened to the news of the new Fletch movie and why is Chevy Chase such a hunk?
-Kenneth Noid

A: I think it says that people love you Kenny. Embrace the love. Although I'm hating you right now for making me pull out the old shirtless Chevy Chase pic.



The planned prequel Fletch Won was originally in the hands of Kevin Smith and Jason Lee. Then Bill Lawrence and Zach Braff. And now it's with Steve Pink and Joshua Jackson. However, there hasn't been any new info on the film in about year and it's considered to be stuck in development hell.

Q: I watched "Titanic" for the first time when it was playing on HBO sometime last year. I liked it, but I also feel it's one of those "classic" movies that you only need to watch once and never again. Are there any films that you think fit this "once just to experince it and never see it again?" mold.

Night Court is one of my favorite sitcoms of all time (I wish they would release more than the first season on DVD). But I would actually pinpoint the exact moment where the show became less funny is when they brought on that Tony character that married/divorced/had a kid with Christine. Granted, he didn't last long, but I feel at that point thy just didn't know what to do with any of the characters.

I also used to love "The Drew Carey Show." but it became unwatchable when that actress who played Kate left to join Scrubs. They then did things like change the workplace from a department store to some sort of Internet company.

"Ellen" seemed to go down the tubes rather quickly after the famous episode where she revealed she was gay. After that highpoint, it just seemed to get preachy to me. I'm pretty sure that it was also canceled that year.

The last two seasons of "Tales From the Crypt." suck. Especially the London season.

I love the original "Twilight Zone," but I will admit that the hour long episodes they did in the last season are kinda a chore to get through. Some things are just better in a shorter timeframe.

Speaking of the Twilight Zone, it's common knowledge that Vic Morrow died in an accident during the making of the TZ film. I just caught his tale when HBO recently replayed the film because I find his tale to be the most forgettable one. What I want to know is ending of his tale in the movie supposed to be the real ending all along, or did they get stuck with the ending because of his death? His tale just seemed incomplete to me.
-JLAJRC

A: There are a few films I think you need to see once just to say you've seen them if you're any kind of film buff. For me those would be Gone with the Wind, Birth of a Nation, The Bridge on the River Kwai, The Best Years of Our Lives, All Quiet on the Western Front and Wuthering Heights. My general reasoning would be most of those are a bit long for what they are and a bit dry. You're very much aware that you're watching a movie and you can appreciate them on an esthetic level, but the entertainment value is a bit lacking.

I think the idea with Tony was to derail the Harry and Christine relationship, because they were getting to the point where they either had to crap or get off the pot with it. A similar thing happened in season two with the relationship between Harry and Billie. They reached this epiphany and then had no idea what to do. It was this idea that Harry had to have a romantic interest, but I don't think the strength of the creative staff leaned toward that kind of writing.

Kate on "The Drew Carey Show" and Jordan on "Scrubs" is played by Christa Miller. On "Carey" it was said that her character married a sailor and moved to Guam at the start of season eight. The reason for her moving to "Scrubs" is that she is married to creator Bill Lawrence. She is also the niece of Susan St. James and got her break with a part on James' series "Kate & Allie." Miller is the daughter of model Bonnie Trompeter and was a child model before taking time off due to a benign bone tumor. She was also the first "Maxim" cover girl.



Ellen DeGeneres came out as gay in February 1997 and her television character did so in April that year. The series was canceled after the next season due to ratings bottoming out. The perceived reason for this was because episodes began revolving around the fact that Ellen was gay and little else with other storylines and characters taking a severe back seat.

For those not knowing, the final season of "Tales from the Crypt" in 1996 was filmed in the United Kingdom to cut costs and mostly featured British actors.

On July 23, 1982, Vic Morrow and two child actors were killed by a crashing helicopter that was knocked down due to pyrotechnics while filming a stunt on the set of Twilight Zone: The Movie. The accident resulted in changing rules about children working on movies at night and around special effects along with putting a crimp on helicopter related stunts. It also ended the relationship between director John Landis and producer Stephen Spielberg, who felt that Landis took some risky shortcuts on set. The original ending was that Morrow would save the children and repent, but be sent back to Nazi Germany anyway with the kids being taken away from him and the ending would be as we saw. John Landis reports that just about everything was shot, but the helicopter sequence and the scenes with the kids in Germany were edited out. It's also been rumored that Spielberg wanted a happier ending where Morrow would return to the present a changed man. Below is a quick bit on the accident with footage.



Q: I enjoyed the Lone Ranger film, I even remember going to see it as an early teen with my parents. Great..now I'm gonna have to rent this at Blockbuster.

So isn't there supposed to be a new Lone Ranger film coming out? I thought there was some sort of news on this site about it.

So here's a few questions:

Are there any movies outthere now that have fallen into the public domain that people are releasing and still making money off of?

How is it that studios/owners/companies can allow something to fall into the public domain...especially films? It just doesn't make sense why even a truly bad film, could still be a money maker at some point, right?

What is the most Oscars that anyone has won on the same telecast?

When Bill Murray was passed over for his Oscar nom...don't you think that the Academy should have given it to him, since it's doubtful he'll ever be nominated again? Same question for Eddie Murphy?

Why doesn't the Oscars have an award for comedies? I don't think I've seen a comedy win. After all, it's got to be much harder to make someone laugh than cry, right?

If you could put a book/movie/tv franchise back on the air, what would they be?

Any word on if they're going to let Mr. T cameo in the A-Team film? I mean c'mon...Mr. T needs the money!

Am I the only person on the internet who actually likes The Lake House? Tell me you at least think it's pretty decent... right?
-Dirk

A: In March of this year the Hollywood Reporter published that Disney has a new Lone Ranger film in the works from the writers of Pirates of the Caribbean Ted Elliot and Tony Rossio and producer Jerry Bruckheimer. It's still in the very early stages of pre-production.

Several DVD companies release public domain films, usually in the cult sci-fi or horror realm, to make a quick buck. Notable films in the public domain include Africa Screams, The Amazing Transparent Man, Angel and the Badman, The Ape, At the Circus, Babes in Toyland, The Beast of Yucca Flats, Beat the Devil, A Bucket of Blood, Bride of the Monster, The Cabinet of the Dr. Caligari, Charade, The Corpse Vanishes, Dementia 13, Father's Little Dividend, The General, The Giant Gila Monster, The Gold Rush, His Girl Friday, House on Haunted Hill, The Killer Shrews, Last Man on Earth, The Little Shop of Horrors, M, The Man with the Golden Arm, McLintock!, My Man Godfrey, One-Eyed Jacks, The Outlaw, Plan 9 from Outer Space, Reefer Madness, Royal Wedding, Santa Claus Conquers the Martians, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, The Stranger, Suddenly, The Terror, To Kill a Mockingbird, Topper and White Zombie.

Occasionally a film falls into the public domain by accident. The case with Charade was that it was released without copyright indication on prints. A similar issue happened with Night of the Living Dead. It's a Wonderful Life fell into public domain because the rights changed hands so much that a clerical error at National Telefilm Associates in 1978 resulted in the copyright not being renewed. However, copyrights to the music score, script and original story the film is based on was still held and this allowed Republic Pictures to exercise some copyright control.

Sometimes several companies claim rights issues or various parties try to get money. John Wayne's estate through his Batjac Productions allowed McLintock! to slip due to several law suits and rights issues with United Artists. It was cheaper for them to let it go. You can't sue someone for an asset they don't have.

Another interesting case to note is the Marlon Brando film One-Eyed Jacks. A copyright exists according to a copyright database, but nobody knows who holds it, so therefore many DVD companies and television stations treat it as public domain.

Often the company that made the film went bankrupt or plain out of business and no one retained any of the film rights. Or a company just didn't want to keep the rights. That might sound crazy, but Warner Brothers has allowed several of their more controversial cartoons, like the heavily racist "All This and Rabbit Stew" to go.

Public domain refers to intellectual properties that are not owned or controlled by anyone. In general, copyrights must be renewed every 20 years. Refining of copyright laws since the 1980's has made it easier for companies to renew and retain copyrights, so you don't see many current films going into the public domain.

Awhile back I mentioned that Walt Disney had the most overall Oscars and he also has the most won by one person in the same year. In 1954 he took home four statues for producing the best feature film documentary The Living Desert, best short subject documentary "The Alaskan Eskimo," best short subject cartoon "Toot Whistle Plunk and Boom" and best short subject two reeler "Bear Country."

I don't think an Oscar should ever be given with the idea that this is the only chance we'll be able to give this person one. More with Eddie Murphy, I think it's that the Academy didn't want him to have one. How does it look for the star of Norbit to be an Academy Award winner? If there is one person in this realm that chafes me the wrong way it is Burt Reynolds who should have won for Boogie Nights. Seriously, when is he going to get another shot? Or what about Peter O'Toole this past year for Venus? I know it sometimes feels like the Oscars is a popularity contest, but it shouldn't be.

Comedies that have won the best picture Oscar are It Happened One Night, The Apartment, Annie Hall and Shakespeare in Love. A few of those split genres and there are a few musical comedies you could throw in there too. The Academy is known for not recognizing many genre pictures or foreign films. I don't believe the Academy has ever come out with an official stance on genre, but my guest would be that they would not want to dilute the awards.

If I could return a TV series back to the air, it would be "Quantum Leap." The ending was very open ended and it's a series that can remain fresh thanks to the episodic format of Sam leaping into a new person every week. After "St. Elsewhere" it was the best written show on television in my opinion.

I can't really think of a film franchise I would want to resurrect, because most overstay their welcome. They keep making them until the last dime is squeezed out. As for a book series, I'm watching too many movies to read.

At this time there is no word on Mr. T appearing in The A-Team movie. The film is slated for release in June 2009. John Singleton is slated to direct, but a cast has not been announced. Rumored to star are Woody Harrelson as Murdoch, Bruce Willis as Hannibal and Ice T as B.A.

I have not seen The Lake House, because it looked really stupid to me. Let's time travel a whole two years through a mailbox. I'll have to get back to you on it. Although I dare say you probably are the only person on the internet who liked it. Well, there are girlie websites I guess.

Q: I've always wanted to know who would be casted in live adaptations for cartoons. so who do you think would be casted as certain characters in family guy and king of the hill?

Family Guy

Peter-Chris Farely (come on that's easily explained, although I'm afraid he'd come on too strong) although in today's world, id like to see maybe jack black or john goodman do it

Louis-this one is hard for me because we would need someone really hot with some kind of talent, I think I would go with diane lane or selma hayek

Chris-Jonah Hill from super bad, he even looks like him and already has "spaced-out teenager" under his belt

Meg-America Ferrera, she already pulled off ugly betty, why not ugly meg?

Brian-(does the dog even fucking matter) id go with snoopy

Stewie-the reason it would never never ever work as a live movie, how do you bring life to a baby, even though they did a decent job in little man

Joe-John Cena in a fucking wheelchair? awesome

Cleveland-keenan thompson, although he might be a little to young looking

Quagmire-Paul Ruben

King Of The Hill

Hank-John Goodman, try and tell me they don't look alike

Peggy-Meryl Streep (another awesome look-a-like in my book)

Bobby-i dont know the industry is lacking teenage boy actors

Boomhauer-Eminem (another good look-a-like)

Bill-Larry The Cable Guy

Dale-Robert Patrick (actually inspiration for Dale)

Joseph-I'll leave you to find an indian teenage actor
-Pete

A: I don't think they would ever do live adaptations of either one of those, but I'll play along.

Brian and Stewie from "Family Guy" would probably be rendered by CGI. Or they might just go stupid and have Stewie played by a midget, say Verne Troyer. I don't see why Mila Kunis and Seth Green can't play Meg and Chris with a lot of prosthetics. Patrick Warburton could play Joe too. For Quagmire I like Dave Thomas of "SCTV" doing a take on his old Bob Hope impression. Cleveland would probably be played by Anthony Anderson as default fat black guy. Remember that episode where the Griffins had a reality show and Lois and Peter were replaced by Fran Drescher and Tom Arnold? That's probably who you would get. If you wanted to go a bit younger with them how about Ethan Suplee and Kristin Wiig. I bet she could do Lois' voice.

I'm not keen on casting John Goodman in every cartoon adaptation ever (he's already done Speed Racer and The Flintstones), but he might be good as Hank Hill. At first glance you might not think he's right, but Ron White is a Texan and I think he could capture Hank's dry sarcasm and exasperation at the crazies around him. Meryl Streep has proven she can do anything and probably would have fun with a character like Peggy. For Bobby let's go with Spencer Breslin. Anna Faris is playing a character close to Louanne now in The House Bunny as a clueless hot blonde. Brittany Murphy does her voice. For Boomhauer I like Matthew McCaughney. You can't tell what he's saying half the time either. I do like Robert Patrick for Dale. Bill I think looks like Mark Addy. They'd probably hire Jason Alexander, default short bald guy. I don't know about Joseph, but his dad can be Adam Beach who is about the only prominent Native American actor going right now.

Q: good article Leonard. I have a couple of questions for your next issue:

1> I've been reading conflicting information on whether there will be a sequel to Constantine. At one point, the director or producer said it was on and Keanu was aboard, then I read something where Keanu said he wasn't wasting his talents on rehashing previous character. Can you look into your magical crystal ball and figure this one out?

2> I think the measure of a movie comes from how it changes aspects of our lives
after seeing it. For me, Constantine was instrumental in helping me become a born again Christian (let the flamers commence) and am wondering if you have ever had an epiphany from a movie you watched (porn doesn't count)

Thanx and have a good day

-Mikel



A: A proposed Constantine sequel was originally planned for the summer of 2007, but Keanu Reeves kept hemming and hawing on whether he wanted to do it or not. Director Francis Lawrence hemmed and hawed on whether he would director or just serve as a producer. Producer Lauren Shuler Donner stated in a November 2006 interview that the sequel would be shot in South America and that a script was in development. Imdb has it slated for 2010 and vague rumors have Constantine being recast, possibly with Daniel Craig.

Often times a film might inspire me or open my mind up to a new idea That's when you know a movie is really working. As far as a major epiphany, not really. I really related to Bill Murray's character in Lost in Translation and that's probably the first time I could really see myself in a film character and relate on that level.

Q: Leonard,

Someone asked about movies that had scenes removed while they were still in theaters, and I would daresay that the Star Wars movies are the most infamous for this. When I saw the movies for the first time each (wow, dating myself here, I was 5 and my Granddad took me to Star Wars in 1977) I saw these scenes and remember them clearly:

Star Wars (1977) Luke Skywalker and Biggs Darlighter talking on some kind of stone ledge or wall, and Biggs telling Luke he was joining a freighter crew, then jumping ship to join the Rebellion. I have seen Luke's friends talking to him in Toshley Station, and some woman calling him the nickname "Wormie" but that was years later on VHS. Luke & Biggs was theater, and haven't seen it again until the new DVDs, and they were black and white stills, the footage "lost."

Return of the Jedi (1983) When Jabba captures Leia, there was a scene where the motley aliens closed around him and Leia, then bits of her Boussh costume are flung over the crowd. I can see why this scene got chopped, but it isn't even in the deleted scenes anywhere.

The Phantom Menace (1999) Annakin Skywalker tells Padme "one day I'm going to marry you" in the space ship. I think it when the two of them talk about being hot or cold. Not a necessary scene, since it was obvious, but I think it was meant to show how powerful Annakin's Jedi foresight was. Again, not on the DVDs.

I am fairly certain I've seen other chopped footage between going to see the same movies in the same theaters, and I am equally certain I am forgetting some Star Wars stuff, but that's all I have for now. For the record, I saw the movies only a few days, or even a week or two apart, so it wasn't the re-releases I saw changed. These were the original prints in the original runs. I say that because almost everybody knows about Lucas' alterations for re-releases.

BTW, Empire Strikes Back (1980) doesn't make me recall any such shenanigans, but I have seen the odd still here and there from the Hoth sequence, and recall dialogue mentioning that "those creatures" (the Wampas) attacked the Rebel base or some outpost. I don't think the scene was ever finished, which is why there is no footage. The pictures I found in the old Bantha Tracks Official Star Wars Fan Club newsletter. If put in the movie, I would think it was after the rescue of Luke, but I can see why it was cut, since it would mess up the flow of the movie, and is largely pointless.

Han shoots first, I don't care what Georgie thinks!

Paul in Canada

A: According to what I could find the Star Wars scenes you mentioned were filmed, but never in original prints. They have been included on later DVD releases and can be found on the Internet.

I couldn't find online mention of the Return of the Jedi scene with Leia or The Phantom Menace scene you mention either. However, the entire Star Wars franchise does include numerous alterations and tweaks in the many released versions.

I did find mention on imdb of the Empire Strikes Back scenes involving the Wampas that were apparently shot and later cut. One scene had R2D2 encountering a wampa that troopers kill. Another scene has a creature lured into a prison cell. Another scene had Han, Leia and C-3PO running through a corridor. Han goes to take a short cut, but Leia points out a sign that says wampas are in there. C-3PO takes the sign down and following Storm Troopers run into the room and are attacked.

Maybe someone out there might know more. Be sure to credit a source though and just don't make it "I remember that too."

I've got a question on Andy Warhol flicks in the cue, I have to pick some up.

Don't die.

"You can all go to hell. I'm going to Texas."