The leap between stage and screen isn’t especially easy, and with more and more “crossover” acts having musical careers while also starring in films, it is easy to dismiss the musician turned actor. Anyone who knows the pain of watching Crossroads, Glitter, or Swept Away will know why. But alas! There are some examples where musicians and singers have appeared on screen, and genuinely given great performances.

As usual, we have a few rules. First of all, they have to have been a musician or singer first and foremost, with an established career as such. There has to have been some element of risk to their careers. Minnie Driver was an unknown singer, who became a well known actress, who went back to being a singer. That doesn’t count. The same applies to Will Smith, Jennifer Lopez and anyone else who dabbled in both acting and music.

Secondly, they have to actually be playing a role- as good as Bruce Springsteen’s cameo in High Fidelity is, it is just a cameo, and he doesn’t do any acting.

Finally, they can’t just be playing themselves. Eminem was great in 8 Mile, but it wasn’t a massive stretch for him to play a white rapper from Detroit. Keith Richards was cool as Jack Sparrow Snr, but it wasn’t really a flexing of his acting muscles. This also rules out a lot of people who play extensions of themselves in musicals- your Streisand and Minelli. It has to involve acting.

Chris Isaak - Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (1992)

Chris Isaak

When Kyle MacLachlan’s disagreement with David Lynch limited the appearance of Twin Peaks hero, Dale Cooper, Lynch needed an able replacement. As the film was about the days leading up to the murder of Laura Palmer, he was able to tell the story of another Special Agent, investigating the strange goings on of the town. Chris Isaak had already worked with Lynch by this time, soundtracking the vastly under-rated Wild At Heart, but it was his first lead acting role (he had a small part in Silence of the Lambs prior to this). Isaak’s Special Agent Chester Desmond was less quirky than Dale Cooper had been (as the film was in general), but it gave another level of disturbance to the series when Desmond investigates the murder of Teresa Banks- a case which mirrors that of Laura Palmer. Reaction to this film was mixed, it was famously booed at Cannes, while Mark Kermode claims it is “Lynch’s masterpiece”. Part of the problem was that it was viewed as a prequel to the TV series, when it was simply intended to enrich and deepen our understanding of the events of the series. Isaak’s character was a welcome addition.

Madonna - Evita (1996)

Madonna

It could be argued that Madonna should fall foul of our Rule 3 here, as she didn’t so much play Eva Peron, as Madonna playing Eva Peron. Certainly, there were critics who suggested it was a “role she was born to play”, but that should not take away from her performance. Madonna led the line in a film full of good performances (especially Jonathan Pryce’s Juan Peron). It is far too easy to mock Madonna’s career in films, so we will get it over with quickly- Swept Away, Body of Evidence, Dick Tracy, The Next Best Thing, Dangerous Game, and one of the worst cameos ever, ever, ever in Die Another Day. But now that we have that out of our system, we need to remember that she was in A League of their Own and Desperately Seeking Susan. Taken on their own merits (ie- don’t expect high art), these are fine performances.

Frank Sinatra - The Man With The Golden Arm (1955)

Sinatra at his best

Equally, From Here To Eternity could be in this list, as it was almost single handedly responsible for giving Sinatra a career in the 1950’s. The Man With The Golden Arm required a little bit more acting, and was a considerably more brave role for Sinatra. The film itself was a watershed, as it was the first time that a mainstream American film had depicted narcotic addiction. To give the best possible performance, Sinatra had spent time at a rehab clinic for Heroin addicts. The result is a dark and edgy film, that features contributions from some of the all times greats of cinema - a Saul Bass opening credit, an Elmer Bernstein soundtrack, Kim Novak in full flight. It is a huge credit to Sinatra that he is the best thing about the film.

Meat Loaf - Fight Club (1999)

Meat Loaf

Meat Loaf had flirted with film on several occasions- notably as Eddie in the Rocky Horror Picture Show, and less notably in Spice World. As “The Martyr” Robert Paulson, we forgot that he was Meat Loaf. No longer was he bringing his personality to the screen with him, he was acting. To prove this point, how many of you started this paragraph by saying “oh yeah, I forgot Meat Loaf was in Fight Club”? All together now, his name was Robert Paulson. His name was Robert Paulson. His name was…

David Bowie - The Last Temptation of Christ (1988)

Bowie

Few musicians have had the acting success that Bowie has managed, and in truth he could be in this list more than once- roles in Labyrinth, Absolute Beginners, Basquiat, Twin Peaks, The Man Who Fell To Earth and The Prestige are all worth noting. His role as Pontius Pilate in The Last Temptation of Christ is arguably his finest, as he almost flirts with Willem Defoe’s Jesus. Any of the mentioned films could have been on this list, but how many musicians get the Martin Scorsese seal of approval?

Courtney Love - The People vs Larry Flynt (1997)

The People Versus Larry Flynt

Like her or loathe her, Courtney Love has survived in the entertainment industry for almost 20 years. Personally, I am quite a fan of her work with Hole, and her work as an actress. With Hole, she was always a Pop Star with real Rock attitude. And it always reeked of sexist to me, that she was so vilified, when people like Sid Vicious are seen as Rock Martyrs. In this film, she played Althea Flynt, the lifelong love of Woody Harrelson’s eponymous hero. Harrelson was nominated for an Oscar for his role in this, and it is all credit to Love that her performance is just as strong as his. If her acting work was taken on its’ own, she would have an impressive CV. As well as this film, she has put in impressive turns in Man on the Moon, 200 Cigarettes and Julie Johnson. If we didn’t know about her career in music, or her famous marriage, then she might well be lauded as one of the great female character actors.

Elvis Pressley - Wild In the Country (1961)

Elvis

This might be a hugely controvertial statement, but the majority of Elvis films are very bad. The music in them was great, but they are almost all elongated music videos (before the term was coined). Wild In the Country is different, as Elvis plays Glenn Tyler, a depressed, violent and troubled man who discovers he has a gift for writing. The difference between this film and some of the other Pressley vehicles, is that the songs are not the star. Elvis gives a genuinely edgy performance. The songs in this film are far from Elvis favourites (I Slipped, I Stumbled, I Fell and In My Way being the most recognisable), and only serve to enhance the story, rather than carry it. Elvis was never this edgy in a film again.

Nick Cave - Ghosts… of the Civil Dead (1988)

Nick Cave (may be a bit disturbing)

John Hillcoat’s feature debut was written and soundtracked by Nick Cave, and so it was of little surprise that Cave would play a significant part in the film. What is surprising is just how convincing (and disturbing) Cave is as Maynard, the psychotic new inmate of a maximum security prison. Maynard could well be a character from his Murder Ballads album, but it was in this film we discovered that Cave could actually push himself over the edge and become one of his creations.

Tom Waits - Down By Law (1986)

Tom Waits

Jim Jarmusch has never been worried about casting musicians as actors, having used Iggy Pop and GZA in his films. Arguably the most impressive perfomance of all was by Tom Waits in Down By Law. I only saw this film the other day, and I couldn’t believe that it was the same Tom Waits, he is that impressive as an actor. The film centres around three men who are incarcerated despite their innocence. They have to quickly learn to trust each other, so they can escape, despite obviously aggrivating each other. Waits’ performance makes me wonder why he hasn’t had more starring roles.

Kris Kristofferson - Lone Star (1996)

Lone Star

While Chris Cooper is the lead actor in this Western Thriller, Kris Kristofferson plays the murdered Sheriff Charlie Wade. The film was to rejuvinate Kristofferson’s career, and would lead to his roles in the Blade Trilogy, as well as films such as Planet of the Apes and Payback.

RZA - American Gangster (2007)

American Gangster

Initially I wanted to put Method Man in this list, because he is fantastic as “Cheese” Wagstaff in The Wire. But I decided that TV was cheating, and even though I loved the character, the list must be right! Of all the Wu-Tang acting roles, RZA has featured in the best films- Ghost Dog, Derailed and as himself in Coffee and Cigarettes. His best acting role was definitely in American Gangster, where he played Moses Jones, a detective working with Detective Roberts (Russel Crowe). RZA initially auditioned for the role of Jimmy Zee, but impressed Ridley Scott sufficiently to get the part of Jones.

Have we missed anyone? Let us know.

The book is always better than the film, isn’t it? We have come up with examples where the opposite is true. When does the adaptation outclass the original?

As ever, there are a few provisos. 1. We didn’t include autobiographies, because there are a good few boring biographies that have made decent films (so no Raging Bull). 2. We didn’t include short stories- so no Shawshank Redemption or Total Recall/We Can Remember It For You Wholesale- because they weren’t full books. 3. Finally, there are a lot of really bad books, that made slightly better films (a lot of Stephen King/Michael Crichton in there), and really great books that were really great on screen (LA Confidential, Blade Runner, Fight Club, Apocalypse Now, Rum Punch). They were out as well. Simple rule is… film = good, book = not good.

The Godfather (Francis Ford Coppola - 1972) based on the book by Mario Puzo (1969)

Puzo’s Godfather was the bones on which Coppola fleshed out his masterpiece. Puzo’s book covers the same themes as the film - family, destiny and the American Way - but only scratches the surface. Coppola’s version added colour, and made each individual character standout. This may be one occasion when the relative shallowness of the book was beneficial to the film.

The Godfather

Psycho (Alfred Hitchcock - 1960) based on the book by Robert Bloch (1959)

Robert Bloch’s pulp thriller was loosely based on the account of Ed Gein’s murders in Wisconsin, two years before the book was published. Hitchcock bought the rights to the book for just $9,000 and intended to use it to reclaim his title as the King of Suspense. As amazing as it seems now, his previous work, Vertigo, had been critically panned and failed at the box office, while other film makers - Roger Corman, Robert Siodmak, William Castle - had success with films in the same genre. Bloch’s book was entertaining but trashy, while Hitchcock’s film redefined at least three different genres, and took the technical capabilities of films to new levels (even the soundtrack and the credits are revolutionary). At the time of the films’ release, Hitchcock was so keen to keep the film’s ending secret that he was alleged to have bought all copies of Bloch’s book he could find.

Psycho titles

Jurassic Park (Steven Speilberg - 1993) based on the book by Michael Crichton (1990)

As with Carrie, Crichton’s Jurassic Park wasn’t “bad”, it just wasn’t very good. Speilberg condensed it, and improved the characterisation and pacing considerably.

That Scene, in Jurassic Park

The French Connection (William Friedkin - 1971) based on the book by Robin Moore (1969)

Moore’s factual account of the French Connection drug trafficing features some interesting anecdotes, but is ultimately a fairly dry account by standards of other crime writers. Friedkin’s star was in the ascendency, and his dramaticised version of events were far more entertaining. The film also includes one of the most exciting car chases in cinema. The book doesn’t.

The Chase in The French Connection

Shoot the Pianist (Francois Truffaut - 1960) based on the book “Down There” by David Goodis (1956)

Truffaut’s Shoot the Pianist is just one of his many masterpieces, and as good an example of French New Wave as you are likely to find. It is surprising to learn that the film is actually based on an American Noir (rather than French Noir!) book by David Goodis. Several of Goodis’ works are well worth reading- especially Dark Passage- but this isn’t one of them.

Classic French Noir

Carrie (Brian De Palma - 1976) based on the book by Stephen King (1974)

It might be a little harsh to put Stephen King’s fourth novel on this list, as it isn’t a bad book. It isn’t an especially good book either, and King has certainly written better. Brian De Palma took quite a few liberties with characters and storyline when he remade the book for the screen, most notably in his far improved ending, which would not have been possible to achieve in print. The end result is a much more tense, and far more slick result.

Carrie

Jaws (Steven Speilberg - 1975) based on the book by Peter Benchley (1974)

Speilberg invented the summer blockbuster with Jaws, although it was based on a considerably less famous book. Benchley’s book had to be re-written by publishers on submission, and even Speilberg would claim that the characters were so dislikeable that he wanted the shark to win. Speilberg’s version was frought with problems- not least the mechanical shark that he wanted to use. Eventually he hit upon the solution that would make the film such a success- it’s not what you see that scares you, it’s what you can’t see… The film made almost half a billion dollars worldwide, and was the blueprint for every summer release from then on.

Jaws

Dr Strangelove (Stanley Kubrick - 1964) based on “Red Alert” by Peter George (1958)

Red Alert was a paranoid thriller which warned of the ease of nuclear holocaust with a stony coldness. When Kubrick remade the book for the screen, he decided to make it as an absurd black comedy. The real genius of this was that he actually succeeded in making the Anti-Nuclear message even more powerful than it had been on the page.

Dr Strangelove

Goldfinger (Guy Hamilton - 1964) based on the book by Ian Fleming (1959)

This might seem like sacrilege, but the Ian Fleming book of Goldfinger isn’t very good. Casino Royale, now that is a good Bond book, but Goldfinger seems to be responsible for all the “Austin Powers” bits in Flemings’ work. Lesbian gangs? Check. Lesbian circus performers? Check. Amazonian lesbian acrobats? Check. The film leaves out all of the parts that would push it into parody, and it is still the Best Bond. Bond’s scenes with Pussy Galore are still ridiculous, but they are fun.

Goldfinger

Big Fish (Tim Burton - 2003) based on the book by Daniel Wallace (1999)

Again, this might be unfair, as Daniel Wallace’s book isn’t bad. It isn’t anywhere near as good as the film version by Tim Burton. Burton managed to mix his trademark love of the strange with a genuinely affectionate story about family. While the book was about detective work, and finding out who Edward Bloom’s father really was through the tall tales he told, the film took far more joy in each of the stories it told.

Big Fish

Starship Troopers (Paul Verhoeven - 1997) based on the book by Robert Heinlein (1959)

Heinlein’s book was heavily criticised for its glamourisation of war, its pro-military stance and even the possibility that it was sympathetic to fascism. Paul Verhoeven used all of these criticisms as the basis of his version when he created it in 1997 as an attack on human “Manifest Destiny”. Verhoeven’s version of Earth is obviously fascist, and the film makes a point of overtly “glamouring” the military, but with the same form of self mocking, tongue in cheek that he managed in Total Recall and Robocop. Rather than being a book about how war was necessary, it became a critique of any form of sabre rattling.

Starship Troopers

So, what have we learned from this? The lesson is that if you want to make a great film out of a bad book, you will need to hire the services of one of the finest directors ever. Or Paul Verhoeven.

Anything we have missed? Let us know…

There have been plenty of lists on the scariest characters in cinema history. The Alien is scary, the cave dwelling things in The Descent are nasty, and Pennywise (in IT) was really scary until the weird (spoiler) spider ending. But what if we only include actual people? Which actors turn in the most chilling performances? Who are the people of cinemaland that really scare us? The ones that you feel uncomfortable as soon as they are on screen…

We decided to put a list of the characters that really darken the screen. There were a few rules- 1. They had to be fictional characters, 2. They had to be 100% human people, and 3. You had to actually be scared of them - no characters you secretly like (so that rules out scary heroes and Hannibal Lecter).

Some spoiler warnings ahead. So don’t read them if you haven’t seen the film (and definitely don’t open the videos!). And don’t watch them if you are squeamish or don’t want any bad language.

Dennis Hopper (as Frank Booth) - Blue Velvet (1986)

Few people do scary quite like David Lynch, and although Bob (Twin Peaks) and The Mystery Man (Lost Highway) might have made this list, it is Dennis Hopper’s Frank that is arguably the nastiest of them all. Frank is a gangster, who’s interests include murder, torture, rape, drug dealing, sadomasochism and Roy Orbison. Hopper has played some dark characters in his time, but none are quite as evil as Frank.

Frank Booth

Javier Bardem (as Anton Chigurh) - No Country for Old Men (2007)

Bardem won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of the relentless hitman, Anton Chigurh, in the Coen Brothers most recent thriller. Chigurh has an (almost?) unflinching lack of emotion, and every time he is on screen bad things happen. The Coen’s have had their “Devil” characters before, notably in Barton Fink, Fargo and The Hudsucker Proxy. It is an incredible performance from Bardem, but one which you don’t necessarily want to see any more of - the highest kind of accolade.

Anton Chigurh

Christopher Walken (as The Man With The Plan)/ Steve Buscemi (as Mr Shhhh)  - Things To Do In Denver When You’re Dead (1995)

This might count as cheating, as it is a 2 for 1, but they are essentially the same villain. This might not be the best film on the list, but Walken is absolutely terrifying in it. He has played plenty of bad  guys in his time, but most of them fall foul of our Rule 3 (especially his turn in True Romance). The Man With the Plan is concise, sinister and completely cold hearted. Buscemi’s Mr Shhh is the actions to Walken’s words.

The Man With The Plan

Robert Helpmann (as The Childcatcher) - Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968)

How many nightmares was this responsible for?

Childcatcher

Eihi Shiina (as Asami Yamazaki) - Audition (1999)

Glenn Close pretty much rewrote the script when it came to The Femme Fatale, with her part in Fatal Attraction. Shiina took the woman (not so) scorned in a far, far darker direction. There are scenes in this film that are literally and metaphorically torture. And some of it made Rob Zombie sick. A seriously disturbing piece of acting, in a seriously disturbing film.

Asami

Robert Michum (as Harry Powell) - The Night of the Hunter (1955)

Michum could easily be in this list twice, as his performance in the 1962 version of Cape Fear is almost as disturbing. It was as “Preacher”, Harry Powell that Michum was his most sinister. It was this performance that brought the iconic “LOVE” and “HATE” tattoos into popular culture.

Powell

Morgan Woodward (as Boss Godfrey) - Cool Hand Luke (1967)

Boss Godfrey was the sinister Chain Gang guard, that always wore glasses and didn’t seem entirely human. It’s all in the sunglasses. They don’t cover his eyes, they are his eyes. He was seen as being so much like The Devil himself, that he would be an obvious influence on the Coen Brothers’ Sheriff Cooley, in O Brother, Where Art Thou. Not entirely human.

Boss Godfrey

Peter Lorre (Hans Beckhert) - M (1931)

Lorre’s depiction of Child Murderer Beckhert is frightening now, and it is 77 years since the film was made. Fritz Lang’s decision to cast a comic actor (Lorre), coupled with his pioneering mastery of leitmotif and the tracking shot made this film as uncomfortable now as it was then. The role was a defining one for Lorre, who would go on to repeat his creepy performance in films like The Man Who Knew Too Much and The Maltese Falcon.

Beckhert in M

Sergi Lopez (Captain Vidal) - Pan’s Labyrinth (2006)

As with M, Guillermo Del Toro made a brave decision in casting a comedic actor for as Captain Vidal. Vidal is a psychopathic Captain of Franco’s fascist army. He hunts down guerrillas, and is not adverse to torture or brutal murder. He shows a complete lack of compassion for his wife and a hatred for her daughter. There is one scene in particular… the one with the rabbit hunters…

Captain Vidal

Gary Oldman (Norman Stanfield) - Leon (1994)

Not many people can play a psycho quite like Gary Oldman. And he has certainly had plenty of practice. Stansfield is a classical music enthusiast, and deranged police officer, who was responsible for the deaths of Mathilda’s (Natalie Portman) family. There are several scenes in the film that underline just how unhinged Stanfield is, not least when he starts sniffing people. Oldman managed to create a character that is both entertaining to watch, and downright frightening.

Norman Stanfield

Louise Fletcher (Nurse Ratched) - One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest (1975)

Ratched rules the Oregon State mental hospital with an iron fist. She is happy to lobotomize patients for disruptive behavior, humiliate them whenever possible and deprive them of food. Fletcher won an Academy Award for her role as Ratched, completing a Grand Slam of Oscars for the film. A frightening version of corrupted power.

Nurse Ratched

Anyone we have missed out? Let us know.

When Robert Zemeckis was on pre-production of his motion-captured, computer animated film Beowulf, he thought long and hard about which actors could provide the right kind of otherworldly performance that was necessary for Grendel, the legendary monster of the tale. He eventually came to the conclusion that there was only one actor in the world who could do it, and that actor’s name is Crispin Glover. It must have been a hard decision to come to, and an even harder phone call to make, because nearly twenty years ago, Glover sued him!

Crispin Glover appeared in Zemeckis’s 1985 sci-fi adventure Back to the Future as George McFly, the father of the lead character, Marty. When it came to start work on the two sequels, the producers claim that Glover made various demands that were far in excess of his standing as an actor at the time, so they chose not to use him in the next two films. Instead, they came up with a plot that contrived to work around this problem.

Back to the Future Part II has four distinct sections:

The Present (1985): Actress Claudia Wells who played Marty’s girlfriend, Jennifer, in the first film was not available and so she was re-cast with Elisabeth Shue. This necessitated filming a recreation of the end of the first film which features actor Jeffrey Weissman, as George McFly. He wears sunglasses and is generally filmed creatively;

The Future (2015): in which George McFly is in his late seventies and played by Weissman in heavy make-up;

Alternate Timeline 1985: in which George is dead, and finally;

1955: In which Weissman is seen in a few distance shots, and - as it replays events from the original film - archive footage of Crispin Glover from Back to the Future was worked in.

Guess which bit caused the problem!

Glover brought a lawsuit against the production, including Zemeckis and Steven Spielberg as he had not given permission for his image to be used, was not paid and was concerned that the “trick” might make people think he was in the film. As a result of the lawsuit, Glover got a credit at the end of Part II for the archive footage and, positively, the Screen Actors’ Guild altered their guidelines to make sure footage could no longer be used in this way without obtaining permission.

In an interview with The Guardian, Glover said that before he went in to meet with Zemeckis to discuss Beowulf, he had read the book How to Be a Gentleman, and took one of its bits of advice - “don’t bring up sore subjects” - to heart, thanked Zemeckis for thinking of him, and accepted the role.

That’s nice and neat, then, but a nice wrap up like that is rare in the film world. If you’re a fiend for muck-raking gossip magazines, then you’ll love the work of Kenneth Wilbur Anglemyer. As Kenneth Anger, he is the man responsible for the two Hollywood Babylon books, detailing the scandals of the golden age. They contain much that is inaccurate, or downright untrue, but for lurid detail they are unsurpassed - truth be damned!

For old school movie trash talk, you certainly can’t beat the titanic bitching missiles that Bette Davis and Joan Crawford aimed at each other. This relationship is often called a “feud”, a term refuted by Davis in her book “This ‘N That” - presumably meaning they had no real face-to-face bust up. However, they were clearly rivals - and comments they made about each other in interviews bears this out, with Davis claiming that Crawford had “slept with every male star at MGM except Lassie” (yes, I know - but they’ve always used male dogs to play the role), and Crawford offering up “poor Bette, It appears she’s never had a happy day, or night, in her life”. Davis may take the pennant though by giving the world the incredibly ferocious barb which is “you should never say bad things about the dead, you should only say good . . . Joan Crawford is dead. Good.”

Okay, so we’re well out of the golden age and the exclusive studio system that created such rivalries no longer exists in that form, so predictably you don’t get such epic tales as this, but what we DO have is new technology, and the Internet and - increasingly - DVD commentaries are proving to be ripe picking grounds for some prime dirt.

On the forum of director Kevin Smith’s website, viewaskew.com, the man himself responded to a forum post about Paul Thomas Anderson’s film “Magnolia” saying he didn’t really like it much. In fact he said that he would keep his screener copy on his desk as “a constant reminder that a bloated sense of self-importance is the most unattractive quality in a person or their work”. Web forums and fandom being what they are, it all blew up into a whirlwind and as a result of what Smith calls a “slow news day” his comments apparently made it into the New York Post and Entertainment Weekly. On his fantastically entertaining (and somewhat dirt dishing) DVD, An Evening with Kevin Smith, he recalls meeting Paul Thomas Anderson at a later date and being somewhat humbled at how polite this man who he “bitchslapped on the internet” was to him (and suggested that his response in the inverse situation would have involved a chair to the head).

On DVD commentaries, people are generally on their best behaviour, but there are a few offenders. Paul Verhoeven can be a little indiscreet, but for the complete unprofessional back-talking package, you really need to do two very difficult things. One of them is watch an entire film directed by Uwe Boll while he comments on it, and the other is to import the rare Japanese DVD of Vincent Gallo’s controversial film The Brown Bunny - the only edition to feature a commentary (parts of which are audible in this episode of The Hollywood Saloon podcast.).

Uwe Boll is noted for making films based on video games, something for which he appears to be almost universally criticised, and yet still seems to able to secure funding to make more. His commentary for Alone in the Dark savages actress Tara Reid, particularly her refusal to bare her breasts during a sex scene (suggesting she wears less when going clubbing than she does in that scene - and, erm, to various parties) and as such he starts it by apologising to the audience for not being able to edit her out of the film entirely.

Vincent Gallo’s film, The Brown Bunny, is the one that became notorious for its final scene in which Chloe Sevigny performs fellatio on him (I’m not going to link to that!). For a while it was rumoured that a prosthetic stand-in for Gallo (well, part of him anyway) had been used in the scene - however, Sevigny (Gallo’s former girlfriend) later explained that the scene had, in fact, been done for real. In his commentary for the film, he has some choice words to say about both Kirsten Dunst and Winona Ryder, calling them “jerks”. Both were dropped from the project before even making it to the set (internet speculation tends to err towards the seemingly obvious conclusion of that particular scene being the contentious issue involved).

Hollywood dirt is always amusing for the normals, and yet it’s not all about bitching or people complaining that things don’t go their way. Sometimes, in the case of the Back to the Future Part II issue, it can actually lead to a positive outcome, and even a reduction in hard feelings if everyone’s prepared to just be reasonable.

So thank God that they aren’t!

People, I don’t mind admitting that I had no idea what to write in this update. That is, until my eyes flitted over a bit of the internet containing the title WarGames: The Dead Code, MGM’s direct-to-DVD sequel (I still say DTV for “direct to video”, because I’m old) to John Badham’s 1983 inaccurate-computer-hacking-depicting Matthew Broderick fest WarGames. While the movie-going public is still squawking about the seemingly endless succession of filmic remakes, they have taken their eyes off of the occasionally madcap world of sequels, and it’s about time that we stand up and take notice.

There’s not much info about WarGames: The Dead Code beyond its spectral IMDB profile and its Wikipedia entry, which actually seems to be full of information that has come from nowhere in particular, but which appears suspiciously genuine. This is my first link to Wikipedia writing this blog, and I really don’t intend to make a habit of it.

The new WarGames title is one of a number of DTV titles being brought to you by MGM and like many sequels it appears to share little with the original beyond a name and a basic concept -something which comes up again and again when you read the list of titles MGM is unleashing on an unsuspecting world:

Legally Blondes - the adventures of Elle Woods‘ British twin cousins
Species: The Awakening - the fourth in the series in which a clone of Natasha Henstridge’s character is played by someone who looks a bit like Natasha Henstridge
Cutting Edge 3: Chasing the Dream - the second sequel to the 1992 ice skating/hockey rom-com

So more and more it looks like this might be the year I try to start enjoying going out to see films at the cinema again - something I’ve not enjoyed much for many years now, only really alleviated when seeing something incredibly good, like Son of Rambow, which I won’t waffle on about here other than to say it was marvellous, and manages to be relevant to this blog by being about the making of an unofficial sequel. Huzzah.

As for the MGM sequels above, at least they are official. It’s not so common now but there was a time, particularly in low budget European (mainly Italian) film circles, to find unrelated projects given cheeky titles in an attempt to sell them. One of my favourite examples of this is an Spanish alien sort-of-horror called Los Nuevos Extraterrestres (”The New Extraterrestrials”, also known to fans of Mystery Science Theater 3000 as Pod People) which, not content with having a big E and a big T on the poster also found itself occasionally saddled with (among others) the legally dubious title “The Return of E.T.”

For one more example, see also the irrepressible (and heavily pseudonymed) Joe D’Amato’s (as “David Hills”) Caligola: La storia mai raccontata which often finds itself titled Caligula II: The Untold Story in order to capitalise on the well known Tinto Brass epic Caligula, (especially in its alternate version, compiled by Playboy magazine’s Bob Guccione and featuring lots of hardcore sex scenes pasted into the finished product). D’Amato’s film, at least in certain prints, also contains much in the way of very, very naughty material. As a result, you’ll note a distinct reduction in links in this last couple of sentences!

All being said and done, though, it turns out that I actually quite like sequels, particularly of non-highbrow fare. I think people suspect that I’m being deliberately obtuse when extolling the virtues of Short Circuit 2, Shaft in Africa or Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers, but I do genuinely enjoy them as much as, and in some cases more so, than the more highly regarded originals.

That Halloween film is the sixth in the series and is a real sticking point even for fans of the series (in its original and certainly its bootlegged “Producer’s Cut” form). And yet it’s probably the most interesting sequel outside of Halloween III: Season of the Witch (another fanbase divider with its own individual storyline unrelated to the other films).

If nothing else, it would seem to prove that the sequel audience doesn’t like surprises. The Saw movies (four films in as many years, the fifth in production, having been greenlit at the same time as the sixth) have learnt this and parts 2-4 (while nowhere near as good as the first) have so far retained a great consistency of tone and an incredibly coherent story arc. When these films finally finish you could probably watch them beginning to end and have it feel like a somewhat gory thriller whodunnit TV series with an amazing pilot episode.

If a sequel gets too interesting, as stated above, people walk away. Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey is one of the weirdest mainstream films ever made, and its box office returns reflect this fact. This is a film that arguably could have done better business if the writers (Chris Matheson and Ed Solomon, respectively the son of Richard Matheson and the son-in-law of John Cleese) had just concocted a more-of-the-same time travel romp instead of the heaven/hell, afterlife, robot doubles and robot doubles of the robot doubles, Martian scientist bothering, Grim Reaper toting fun bundle that the finished film is - but I for one am glad they didn’t.

What’s that? Rumoured DTV remake of Bill & Ted?

Well, hey - at least it isn’t a sequel!