Daily Archives: October 26, 2024

The greatest movies never made: how John Cleese sunk John McTiernan and Arnold Schwarzenegger’s ‘Sgt Rock’

(Credits: Far Out / Michael Arthur Worden Evans / Romain Dubois) Sat 26 October 2024 11:00, UK Between the mid-1980s and mid-1990s, there wasn’t a hotter director in the action genre than John McTiernan. In front of the camera, there was no bigger star than Arnold Schwarzenegger. Behind the keyboard, there was no writer more precocious than Shane Black. And yet, those three heavyweights saw their plans to take on a blockbuster comic book movie torpedoed by John Cleese, of all people.The trio had already collaborated on Predator, but Black’s involvement was restricted to a quip-happy supporting role as Hawkins, although he did perform some uncredited script polishing. Still, the list of credits the three amassed in that aforementioned golden period is the stuff genre junkie’s dreams are made of.McTiernan followed his breakout feature with Die Hard and The Hunt for Red October. Black’s first published screenplay was Lethal Weapon, and he quickly became the highest-paid scribe in Hollywood through The Last Boy Scout and The Long Kiss Goodnight. Schwarzenegger’s status as the musclebound face of the Reagan-era action flick had made him one of the most famous people on the planet.For their next port of all, the ‘Holy Trinity’ of late-1980s action was eying a big-budget adaptation of the DC Comics character, Sgt Rock, which appealed to all of their shared interests. Black was a master at scripting one-liners, and Schwarzenegger was fonder than most of deploying them onscreen, with McTiernan established as one of action’s most proficient auteurs.The plan was for Black to write the script with Schwarzenegger headlining the cast and McTiernan wielding the megaphone, albeit with an unusual twist. Their Sgt Rock was going to be inspired by the 1958 war comedy Imitation General, which would have made it both a comic book adaptation indebted to the titular soldier’s antics on the page and a thinly veiled remake of an established film.Imitation General revolved around an officer posing as a general during World War II and using his newfound – and unearned – status to lead his troops to victory. Still, McTiernan’s Sgt Rock was aiming to cast John Cleese as a cook who’d fibbed his way to lofty military status. He required the protection of Schwarzenegger’s title character when he realised he was way out of his depth and an epic battle loomed just over the horizon.The filmmaker set up a meeting with Cleese to discuss the project, but as he explained to Nick de Semlyen, “As far as he was concerned, we were just a couple of thug American action movie makers.” McTiernan’s magnum opus was yet to be released, which he believed may have swayed the Monty Python veteran’s decision.“If he’d seen Die Hard, I think he probably would have signed up, but he judged us on our reputation,” he mused. “It would have been delightful. John Cleese would have had so much fun making fun of Arnold and vice versa. That was the whole essence of the movie.” Unfortunately, when Cleese refused to commit, McTiernan’s intuition proved to be right on the money, and Sgt Rock evaporated.When he eventually reunited with Schwarzenegger and Black, it was under the less exciting circumstances of Last Action Hero, an underrated gem that did itself no favours opening in direct competition to Steven Spielberg’s all-conquering Jurassic Park.Sgt Rock was never going to win any Academy Awards, but that wasn’t its intention. On paper, the prospect of a World War II buddy caper partnering Schwarzenegger and Cleese that had been written by the brains behind Lethal Weapon and directed by the guy responsible for Die Hard could have comfortably taken its place among the key creatives’ pantheon of high points, but 50% of the central double act failing to commit ended up cutting it off at the knees.[embedded content]Related TopicsSubscribe To The Far Out Newsletter

The only movie Roger Corman made that he didn’t understand: “Makes no sense whatsoever”

(Credits: Far Out / Marianna Diamos / Los Angeles Times) Sat 26 October 2024 12:30, UK Even great filmmakers make terrible films, but it’s usually for noble reasons. They might have run out of money and been forced to limp to the finish line or do a rush job at the end that turns an otherwise excellent movie into an incomprehensible mess. Terry Gilliam and Francis Ford Coppola are well-known victims (or repeat offenders, depending on your perspective) of this pitfall. Then there are the head-scratchers. How, for example, did Brian De Palma’s starry adaptation of the bestselling novel Bonfire of the Vanities turn out to be such a catastrophic misfire? Everyone might have started out with the best intentions, but somewhere along the line, all that ambition turned to utter garbage.Sometimes, however, even the filmmaker knows the project is a fool’s errand from the beginning. Such was the case with Roger Corman, the visionary behind the New American Cinema movement of the 1970s and mentor to such luminaries as Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, Jonathan Demme, and John Carpenter. Although he famously referred to himself as the “Orson Welles of the Z movie,” he was a cinephile whose movies, however campy and lurid, were full of panache. He was also, as his self-deprecating description of himself suggests, extremely self-aware and unafraid to call out his cinematic stumbles. Speaking with Empire Magazine in 2020, the filmmaker behind such gems as Attack of the Crab Monsters, Bloody Mama, and The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre said that there was only one movie he ever made that he didn’t quite understand, a 1963 Jack Nicholson vehicle called The Terror, which its star said is “the only film that I know of that has no storyline that you can follow”. “The picture actually makes no sense whatsoever,” Corman agreed. “It was only shot because it rained on a Sunday while I was making The Raven, and I got the idea that I could take advantage of this rather impressive set we had. We wrote it in a week. My ace assistant, Francis Coppola, shot a couple of days, then we shut down until we got some more money, then Jack Hill shot a few days, Monte Hellman shot a few days, and on the last day of shooting, Jack Nicholson came to me and said, ‘Roger, every idiot in town has directed part of this film. Let me direct the last day.’ I said, ‘Why not, Jack? You can direct.’”The Terror is, indeed, a bit of a trainwreck. It’s a period horror film in which Nicholson plays a soldier in Napoleon’s army who falls in love with a shape-shifting devil, played by Sandra Knight. The great Boris Karloff plays an evil, murderous baron who wears colourful silk suits and lives in a chilly castle made mostly of cardboard. It’s worth watching simply to see Jack Nicholson looking confused and a little lost with the whole thing. He is endearingly and probably inadvertently vulnerable in this film in a way that he has definitely never been before or since. That said, the plot is utterly nonsensical, and even at an hour and 19 minutes, it feels interminable.[embedded content]Related TopicsSubscribe To The Far Out Newsletter

Top Kenyan filmmaker battles auctioneers over Netflix series debt

Top Kenyan filmmaker David ‘Tosh’ Gitonga could lose more than Sh1 million after auctioneers attached assets in his office to recover a court-ordered award to German picture editor Christian Kramer.

Interfiled Auctioneers stormed Tosh’s Primary Pictures Ltd office in Nairobi and proclaimed assorted assets totaling to Sh985,884 in a bid to recover Kramer’s debts.

In July, Mr Kramer got permission from the Magistrate’s court to recover Sh678,403 that the Kenyan filmmaker owed him following a one-year protracted dispute over a Netflix Kenyan project titled ‘Volume’.

The amount had risen to Sh778,084 by last week when the auctioneers paid Primary Pictures a visit having been granted warrants by the magistrate court after Tosh failed to honour its judgment.

On Thursday October 24 , Interfiled Auctioneers served Tosh as he is popularly known, with the Warrants of Attachment and Sale that provided for a 7-day proclamation notice.

The assets attached by the auctioneers from Primary Pictures Ltd office include a four-burner cooker valued at Sh10,000, a microwave valued at Sh2,500, a two-door fridge estimated at Sh20,000, a photocopy machine at Sh50,000, TV set worth h20,000, three seater L-shaped sofa estimated at Sh10,000 and six desktop computers each valued at Sh5,000.

Others are water dispenser (Sh2,500), two executive chairs (each at Sh3,000), two metallic boxes (each at Sh5,000), two wooden cabinets (each estimated at Sh10,000) and 17 office chairs each valued at Sh2,500 among other assets. Interfiled Auctioneers also slapped Tosh with an invoice charge of Sh207,800 for their services.

The filmmaker has, however, been given a lifeline after he moved to the High Court and filed a miscellaneous application seeking stay orders of the judgment by Magistrate Court.

Earlier, on August 5 Justice Christine Meoli sitting at Milimani High Court granted Tosh conditional stay orders which required him to deposit Sh400,000 in court pending determination.

The matter came up for hearing this week on October 24, where Tosh argued that he was unable to deposit the Sh400,000 as earlier directed. Justice Meoli issued fresh orders lowering the amount to Sh200,000.

“Upon hearing the counsel, the court will extend interim orders of stay on condition that the applicant shall deposit into court the sum of Ksh200,000 by close of business on 31st October, 2024,” Justice Meoli gave fresh orders.

Kramer moved to court mid last year suing Tosh for refusing to pay him for his work in developing ‘Volume’ Series which premiered on Netflix on December 2023.

The German accused Tosh of using his expertise to obtain funding for the Volume project from Netflix before the production of the series began.

Tosh had argued his case before the court stating that there was no contract between him and Kramer.

Kramer told the court Tosh contacted him through a phone call and needed him to edit the Volume trailer so that he could use the same to pitch to Netflix for funding of the production.

The two had an agreement with Kramer taking up the job which he worked on, editing it for eight full working days before sending it to South Africa for colour correction to make it fit for purpose and thereafter delivered it to Tosh.

An elated Tosh would then share the good news with Kramer once the project had been approved by Netflix for funding, according to court filings.

But it’s at this point that the Disconnect Director is said to have started being elusive when Kramer demanded for his pay.

Tosh would instead send him on a wild good chase with promises of retaining him on another of his project Disconnect 2. Kramer would tell the court he had suffered losses of time and resources as he pursued Tosh for his dues for several weeks.

In his response, dated July 24, 2023, Tosh told the court he was a stranger to the claims made by the film editor that he had suffered losses.

Tosh maintained that the two did not have a written binding contract between them.

“During the hearing the parties gave their testimonies and subsequently file submissions which I have duly considered. The only issue for determination is whether there was a valid contract between the claimant and the respondent,” Magistrate Barbara Akinyi stated in her judgment.

The magistrate went on to state that she had considered email correspondences, text messages and WhatsApp chats as part of the evidence brought before the court, between Tosh and Kramer, provided by the German in his  sworn affidavit.

“It’s clear from the claimant’s attached screenshots of their conversations on WhatsApp that there was negotiation and an offer from the respondent to the claimant. The respondent approved the final version of the edited trailer and all this complies with the requirements of the contract,” the magistrate noted.

It’s on this basis that she found Tosh at fault.

“Judgment is therefore entered against the respondent in favour of the claimant (Kramer). The respondent to pay the claimant Ksh678,403 and shall have costs and interest from the date of judgment until payment in full,” the magistrate ordered. 

The court also granted Tosh Gitonga 30 days to appeal. Tosh did not appeal the judgement and defaulted on the payment as ordered paving way for auctioneers to jump on to the matter. 

Tosh came into the limelight as a budding filmmaker in 2012 having directed Nairobi Half Life a Kenyan film drama that made history as the first Kenyan film to be selected for the Oscars at the 85th Academy Awards. The film did not, however, make the final shortlist. It was also the first time Kenya  had submitted a film at the prestigious Oscars.

Over the years, Tosh has built himself an incredible  film career portfolio  producing many notable films, including The Wedding Planner, Disconnect, The First Grader among others.

His latest film ‘Volume’  on Netflix that dragged him to court was recently nominated nominated for three awards at the Zanzibar Film Festival in the Best Actor in a series, Best Actress in a series and Best TV series categories.