Categories
Music

I can NOT wait to hear this!!!

Harry Shearer Recording Solo Album as Spinal Tap Bassist Derek Smalls

Actor and comedian Harry Shearer is slipping back into his character of Spin̈al Tap bassist Harry Smalls for a new solo album due later this year.

News of the LP, tentatively titled Smalls Change, is tucked into the end of a lengthy (and fascinating) profile piece recently published by GQ, which largely focuses on the legal battle Shearer’s spearheaded to account for decades of allegedly unpaid back royalties. While the case is undoubtedly time-consuming, it isn’t keeping Smalls out of the studio — or from enlisting a number of high-profile friends.

Guests who’ve already recorded contributions for the set include Steely Dan‘s Donald Fagen — who sings the bridge on “a little ditty about erectile dysfunction” titled “Memo to Willie” — as well as Steve Vai and Peter Frampton. Reportedly something of a concept album about the life of an aging rock star, the record also currently includes the song “MRI” and the ode to senior-citizen touring “It Don’t Get Old.”

Although Shearer hasn’t nailed down a release date yet — and his lawsuit against Spın̈al Tap’s corporate parents at Vivendi could complicate the project in all sorts of ways — he’s pressing ahead; according to the article, he’s already mapping out plans for a Derek Smalls tour that would see him performing as an older but presumably no wiser version of the lovably clueless bassist, complete with white muttonchops. If and when Smalls Change makes its way to stores, it’ll mark the first Tap-related LP since the parody band resurfaced with Back From the Dead in 2009.

Categories
Movies

The new MUMMY isn’t the worst film of the year, but it is pretty bad. If you’re a fan of the Universal Monsters movies, don’t miss it. Otherwise just skip it.

‘The Mummy’: Why Tom Cruise Couldn’t Top Brendan Fraser

The 1999 film harkened back to ‘Indiana Jones,’ while the new installment is more interested in setting up a shared universe.

“Where’s your sense of adventure?” is a question that Tom Cruise poses multiple times in The Mummy. The 2017 film may be a revival of the iconic horror-movie character from Universal Pictures, but that question suggests something more in line with the Indiana Jones films, as does the fact that Cruise’s character is a treasure-hunter at his core. Tom Cruise may not be the first choice to play an Indiana Jones-esque explorer, but it’s hard not to make the connection, especially considering that this isn’t the first stab at a Mummy remake from Universal; a 1999 version, starring Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz, owed a great debt to the Indiana Jones series. Unfortunately, the 1999 film did a much better job of paying homage to Harrison Ford’s adventurer.

Director Stephen Sommers’ take on The Mummy arguably made more sense in placing its hero, Rick O’Connell, as an Indiana Jones type; the film takes place in 1926, roughly a decade before the first three Indiana Jones films. The new version of The Mummy, directed by Alex Kurtzman, takes place primarily in the present day, excluding a couple of exposition-heavy flashbacks. But it’s hard for the kind of spirit evinced by the Indiana Jones films to be replicated in the present. (It’s no coincidence that last week’s exciting Wonder Woman movie, a welcome throwback to the upbeat comic-book adventures of old, takes place a hundred years in the past outside of brief bookends.) So perhaps another complete Indiana Jones-like version of The Mummy would have been impossible.

However, the new movie does try to echo the Steven Spielberg-directed films in fits and starts. Cruise plays Nick Morton, a military man/treasure hunter, an inverted version of Harrison Ford’s hero. He has a push-pull relationship with archeologist Jenny Halsey (Annabelle Wallis) that’s sometimes reminiscent of the failed romance in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (at one point, as in the 1989 film, Nick and Jenny wind up in an overturned tomb, with only a few inches of breathable air below a vast ocean of water). Nick’s friendship with his fellow soldier of fortune Chris (Jake Johnson) feels similar not only to Indy and his trusty sidekick Sallah (John Rhys-Davies), but to the ‘99 Mummy, with Rick O’Connell’s contentious relationship with the shifty Beni (Kevin J. O’Connor).

Thus, there are elements of the Indiana Jones films in this new Mummy, which means that there are also more than a few elements of the ‘99 Mummy here. (One image that’s hard to forget, and is repeated here: the mummy’s roaring face appearing at the front of a massive sandstorm.) Largely, this new Mummy exists less to weave a rousing adventure yarn or to embrace the old-school horror of the 1932 original. No, this Mummy is all about building out the shared universe of characters known as the Dark Universe. After the Universal Pictures logo, the Dark Universe logo makes its first appearance on the big screen, leading into a narration from Russell Crowe as Dr. Henry Jekyll; this functions as a statement of purpose much more than any of Cruise’s derring-do ever could.

The continuing success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been arguably one of the most important points of mainstream cinema in the 21st century, for better or worse. It’s only because of the MCU that we have a DC Extended Universe, or a would-be six-film franchise about King Arthur, or an ever-expanding series with Jekyll, The Mummy, the Bride of Frankenstein, the Invisible Man and more. Putting the cart before the horse didn’t work for King Arthur: Legend of the Sword, and the jury’s out on whether it’ll work for The Mummy, though the early reports (and the film itself) aren’t encouraging. With the summer movie season approaching its halfway point, what would be nice is if studios like Universal take a lesson from the two biggest creative successes so far: Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2 and Wonder Woman. The lesson should not be “Build out shared universes instead of telling interesting stories.” The lesson should be “Make movies that are fun.”

The Mummy (1999) was not made in a vacuum: Universal was hoping to revive its 1930s-era horror-movie characters into a big franchise. (Sommers, after his two Mummy movies, directed Van Helsing, which would have further expanded the series.) But it manages to both be heavily indebted to the Indiana Jones films while also being a fun, rip-roaring thrill ride of its own. The new Mummy wants to be too many things: a shared-universe kickstarter, an exciting adventure, a swooning romance, etc. So it’s unable to be good at any of those, especially its attempt to mirror Marvel’s success.

There’s nothing inherently wrong with remaking The Mummy; the 1999 film (itself a remake) is a lot of dumb fun, but just that. There’s nothing inherently wrong with a studio wanting to create a franchise for itself to rake in cash a la Marvel. But The Mummy (2017) falls into every possible trap by focusing too much on the long con of getting audiences to buy into a decade of movies, instead of focusing on the story it’s supposed to be telling, even if that story is mildly derivative, as the ’99 film was of the Indiana Jones films. By aiming too high, the new Mummy falls very far.

Categories
Television

I loved Northern Exposure…but do I want new episodes? That’s a tough question.

‘Northern Exposure’ Team Talks Possible Revival: “We Would Love to See It”

Stars Rob Morrow, Janine Turner and Cynthia Geary joined Joshua Brand and producers Mitchell Burgess, Robin Green and Cheryl Bloch to discuss the beloved CBS series.

The cast and creative behind cult favorite Northern Exposure reunited Friday at the ATX Television Festival to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the CBS series.

“I think it was five years ago,” star Rob Morrow joked.

Like most reunions in the Peak TV era, the question turned to potential revival of the quirky drama, which ran for five seasons and 110 episodes. Set in a sleepy town in Alaska, the series centered on New York City physician, Dr. Joel Fleischman (Morrow), who is sent to practice in the fictional town of Cicely, Alaska to fulfill his obligation after Alaska paid for his medical education.

“Rob has been working trying to get them to do it,” co-creator Joshua Brand said. “We would love to see it because I think it is of a time but it’s also not of a time.”

In addition to Morrow’s efforts, actor Darren E. Burrows, who played Ed on the series, has been working to raise money for the project. “It sounds like we all want it to happen,” said Cynthia Geary, who played Shelly.

Janine Turner, who played Maggie, encouraged those in the crowd to write to Universal Television, which produced the series. “Write Universal. At least we got to get it streamed,” she said of the series, which is not currently available to stream on any platform.

The push for a potential revival harkened back to the early efforts to simply get the show on the air. Brand recalled the show’s unassuming start when it quietly launched on CBS in the summer of 1990 with an eight-episode order.

“They didn’t think anyone would watch but they had to, they had to burn off an eight-episode series,” Brand recalled of the deal between Universal Television and CBS. “The network didn’t understand the show.”

Case in point? Brand recalled one of the original names pitched for the series was Dr. Snow. “Of course, they thought it was a medical show,” Brand said with a laugh. “Rob would get on his sled and carry the serum to the sick people.”

Because of that, CBS initially refused to air the season one episode, “Aurora Borealis: A Fairy Tale for Grown-Ups,” which has since become a fan-favorite and screened for fans Friday at the start of the panel. “When the network saw it, they thought it was too weird and odd and they didn’t want to air it,” Brand said. Producers convinced them to air it as the eighth and final episode of season one and it was quickly embraced by viewers.

“Once we knew that people did like this episode we actually, my partner and I, we turned to each other and we said we can do anything we want on this show and it was incredibly liberating,” Brand said. “We understood that the audience was willing to go on any ride we wanted to take them. … It opened up the whole show for us.”

While the show was off beaten the path, Morrow said it continues to resonate because it appealed to a broad spectrum of viewers. “It was highbrow and lowbrow,” he said. “You could an intellectual and like it and be an idiot and like it and that was really rare. It certainly on the page read like nothing I had ever read.”

Because the series was hard to understand, at least by network standards, the creative team was largely left alone according to Brand. “We were fortunate in that we were flying under the radar,” Brand said. “At the time, we were fortunate to sort of have to fly by the seat of our pants.”

However, that all changed once the show became a runaway hit. Brand recalled a particularly big fight over the season two episode titled “War and Peace,” in which Morrow’s character broke the fourth wall – a creative move that “horrified” the studio, he said.

“I got into a huge fight with them because they wanted me to change it,” he said. “I said no, ‘This is it.'”

Brand then recalled bring flown to New York for a tough meeting with executives. “They sort of told me I was a really bad boy and I either had to kiss the ring or the threat was obviously to get rid of me,” he said. “It was an explicit threat. … I loved the show and I didn’t want to leave the show so I kissed the ring.”

However, Brand went back to Los Angeles and soon found he was “miserable” and “unhappy.” So he called his agent and told him he was done with the show. Two hours later, Brand recalled, the studio called him. “They said, ‘Here’s the deal: You can do whatever you want, but you can’t ask us for any more money,'” he said with a laugh. “And I never got another note from them again.”

Categories
People

She was the personification of the word “lovely”. May she rest in peace.

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels star Glenne Headly dies at 62

Following a five-decade career as a prolific performer on stage and screen, Emmy-nominated actress Glenne Headly died Thursday night, EW has confirmed. She was 62.

“It is with deep sorrow that we confirm the passing of Glenne Headly. We ask that her family’s privacy be respected in this difficult time,” representatives for the actress told EW in a statement. A cause of death has yet to be announced.

Before going on to star in major movie productions like Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (1988), Dick Tracy (1990), and Mr. Holland’s Opus (1995), Headly got her start on the stage as an originating member of Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre Company. She’d later replace Ellen Barkin in the off Broadway production of Extremities opposite Susan Sarandon, and alongside Kevin Kline in 1985’s Arms and the Man; the latter was directed by her ex-husband, John Malkovich, whom she married in 1982.

Her first film role came in Arthur Penn’s 1981 comedy Four Friends, which received a Golden Globe nomination at the 1982 ceremony. In addition to the aforementioned pictures, Headley consistently appeared on major television shows throughout her professional life, including Frasier in 1995, ER from 1996-1997, Monk from 2003-2006, Parks and Recreation in 2012, on three installments of last year’s critically lauded HBO miniseries The Night Of, and even voiced a character on a 2002 episode of Rugrats.

Both of her Emmy nods were received in the Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or a Special category; the first was for 1989’s Lonesome Dove, and the second for the TV movie Bastard Out of Carolina (1996).

Headly was in production on Hulu’s Seth Rogen/Josh Hutcherson project Future Man at the time of her death. Both actors shared remembrances of their late costar Friday on social media, with Rogen tweeting: “Devastated to hear about Glenne Headly’s passing. She was an amazing person. Incredibly talented. Incredibly kind. I will miss her.”

Hutcherson paid tribute on Instagram, sharing a lengthy post in which he said Headley “made [him] feel like her son before, between, and after they called action and cut.”

And Deadpool star Ryan Reynolds posted a tribute to the “charming, talented, and kind” actress on Twitter, recalling her as his “first movie mom” in the 1993 film Ordinary Magic.

Categories
Sports

Hopefully the historic Stanley Cup rings can be put on display in the Hockey Hall of Fame one day.

Here’s Why ‘Rocket’ Richard, Gordie Howe Will Be Taken Off Stanley Cup

By June 14th, either the Pittsburgh Penguins or the Nashville Predators will be crowned the 2017 Stanley Cup champions.

In doing so, the winning team will have an impact on one of the most legendary trophies in sports. This year’s Stanley Cup-winning roster will be the last team to have their names engraved on the bottom ring of the trophy, meaning more space will need to be created at the top, according to The Hockey News.

That said, some legendary teams and players from the 1950s and 1960s will be removed from the Cup in the coming year, including two household names that particularly stick out: Maurice “Rocket” Richard and Gordie Howe.

Richard won eight championships with the Montreal Canadiens. He also was the first player in NHL history to score 50 goals in a single season. Each year, the Rocket Richard trophy is awarded to the NHL player with the most goals in a season, in honor of the Canadiens legend.

The late Gordie Howe, better known as “Mr. Hockey,” also will be wiped from the trophy. Howe played a remarkable 26 seasons in the NHL, and was a part of four Cup-winning teams.

While these legendary names will soon be erased from the trophy, they never will be erased from the deep history of the game.

Categories
Movies

I’ll probably have to sit through the stinky THE MUMMY this weekend and so I hope to fit in another viewing of WONDER WOMAN, just for fun.

Box-Office Preview: ‘Wonder Woman’ to Bury ‘The Mummy’

The monster movie reboot has taken a drubbing by critics; psychological horror film ‘It Comes at Night’ and drama ‘Megan Leavey’ also launch this weekend.
One of Hollywood’s most classic monsters looks like it will be no match for an Amazonian princess-turned-superhero at the North American box office this weekend.

If prerelease tracking is correct, Universal’s The Mummy reboot, starring Tom Cruise, might have trouble scaring up more than $35 million from 4,000 theaters, putting intense pressure on the movie’s foreign performance.

In the U.S., Warner Bros.’ Wonder Woman will easily stay at No. 1 in its second weekend with as much as $50 million after opening to a historic $103.3 million — the top domestic launch of all time for a female director — and whipping up strong midweek business for a $138.7 million domestic total through Wednesday.

On Thursday morning, at least one major tracking service further downgraded its forecast for The Mummy from $35 million to $33 million, whereas the same service predicted $40 million several weeks ago. One likely culprit for the latest tweak are poor reviews, which hit Wednesday. The summer event film currently sports a 22 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes, tying with Losin’ It (1983) to mark the worst aggregated score of Cruise’s acting career behind 1988’s Cocktail (5 percent).

The Mummy, which is launching Universal’s new Dark Universe franchise, is instead counting on a huge international showing, where the pic bows in almost every major market. Already, it has scored the biggest opening day of all time in South Korea with nearly $7 million. Directed by Alex Kurtzman, the modern-day action film cost $125 million to make after tax rebates and also stars Sofia Boutella, Russell Crowe, Annabelle Wallis, Jake Johnson and Courtney B. Vance.

Two other movies open nationwide this weekend: the psychological horror film It Comes at Night and the drama Megan Leavey, starring Kate Mara as a young Marine fighting in Iraq and a bomb-sniiffing combat dog named Rex.

It Comes at Night, from indie distributor A24, is projected to gross $6 million to $7 million from an estimated 2,500 theaters. The critically acclaimed film was directed by Trey Edward Shults (Krisha) and cost less than $5 million to produce. Joel Edgerton, Riley Keough, Christopher Abbott, Carmen Ejogo and Kelvin Harrison Jr. also star.

Bleecker Street’s Megan Leavey is based on a real-life story, with Gabriela Cowperthwaite directing. Edie Falco and Common also star.