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Ask FlickChick: Movies Delayed by the Writers' Strike and More!
Ask FlickChick: Movies affected by the writer's strike, dubbed performances, what's that movie and more movie questions answered!
Question: I was wondering what major films slated for this year were cancelled or delayed because of the writers strike? -- John Wao
FlickChick: Although TV shows were hit most badly because their schedules are so tight, movies didn't escape unscathed..
The biggest films delayed by the strike include:
Angels & Demons – Ron Howard's Da Vinci Code follow up, with Tom Hanks reprising the role of symbologist Robert Langdon, was the first film to fold. It's now due to star shooting this summer and has a May 2009 release date.
Justice League of America – George Miller's superhero picture looks as though it's dead in the water – cast members D.J. Cotrona (Superman), Armie Hammer (Batman), Anton Yelchin (Wally West/The Flash), Santiago Cabrera (Aquaman), Zoe Kazan (Iris), Megan Gale (Wonder Woman), Teresa Palmer (Talia al Ghul) and Common (Green Lantern) were all released from their contracts and it doesn't have a shooting date -- but it's officially on hold and does have a tentative 2009 release date.
Pinkville -- Oliver Stone's My Lai film, whose cast was supposed to include Bruce Willis, Woody Harrelson and Channing Tatum, is officially "on hold," but Stone is currently casting the Bush film W, which he co-wrote with Wall Street's Stanley Weiser and is scheduled to start shooting at the end of April 2008 in Louisiana.
Star Trek – J.J. Abrams' prequel about the early days of James Kirk and Mr. Spock, from their meeting at Starfleet Academy to their first space mission began shooting during the strike because it had a completed screenplay. But word is that it was moved from its original December 2008 release date to May 2009 because Abrams was unable to make script changes during production -- a common practice -- and wanted additional post-production time to polish what will undoubtedly be one of the most closely scrutinized films of the decade.
I saw an old horror movie – I think it was B&W, but I could be wrong – about some doctor who finds a fossil finger bone. When it gets water on it, it starts to grow skin. That's really all I can remember, but it really bugs me that I have no idea what the name was. Can you help? -- Sulie
I'm thinking The Creeping Flesh (1972), which featured one of the last pairings of UK horror legends Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee. It's a pretty peculiar, Victorian-era tale that casts them as rival scientists and features a fossil skeleton that Cushing's character believes contains the essence of pure evil. It's in color, though; I saw it as a very young teenager on a double bill with [i]The Horror of Snape Island/Beyond the Fog (1972).
Question: In general, are all sequels always named and/or tied to the original? More specifically, are there movies that are unofficial sequels to other movies? A friend of mine said that Made with Jon Favreau and Vince Vaughn was the unofficial sequel to Swingers. -- Mike
FlickChick: You're asking two different questions: Made (2001) isn't a sequel to Swingers (1996). It is a follow up that reunites Swingers stars Jon Favreau and Vince Vaughn, and they play similar characters. But Swingers' Mike Peters (Favreau) and Trent Walker (Vince Vaughn) just aren't Made's Bobby Ricigliano and Ricky Slade; I'd call Made a variation on a theme.
The second question, about titles, is less ambiguous. No, sequels aren't always named in a way that connects them directly to the original film, either via number (Friday the 13th Part IX...) or a character -- the Boston Blackie, Charlie Chan or Thin Man films, for example.
The first sequel to The Pink Panther (1964) was A Shot in the Dark (1964), the reasoning being that the "Pink Panther" wasn't a recurring character -- it was a fabulous jewel in danger of being stolen. But the producers learned their lesson, and all subsequent Inspector Clouseau films had the words "Pink Panther" in the title.
The sequel to Saturday Night Fever (1977) was Staying Alive (1985) -- Fever was heavy on the BeeGees' music and Staying Alive is a BeeGees song, but that's but a less than blindingly obvious connection.
Although the sequel to 1942 hospital drama Dr. Gillespie's New Assistant, starring Van Johnson as Dr. Randall "Red" Ames was Dr. Gillespie's Criminal Case (1943), the next two sequels were Three Men in White (1944) and Between Two Women (1945).
The original Cheaper by the Dozen (1950) was followed by Belles on Their Toes (1952), in stark contrast to the remake Cheaper by the Dozen (2003) and its sequel, Cheaper by the Dozen 2 (2005).
Frank Sinatra's too-cool-for-school detective picture Tony Rome (1967) -- he played the lead character -- was followed by Lady in Cement (1968).
Fellow rat-packer Dean Martin's rival detective series, built around the character Matt Helm, were called Murderer's Row (1966), The Ambushers (1967) and The Wrecking Crew (1968).
The follow up to Sitting Pretty (1948) was Mr. Belvedere Goes to College (1949), though for the third film the public's affection for know-it-all bachelor Lynne Belvedere (Clifton Webb) dictated the title Mr. Belvedere Rings the Bell (1951).
Even the relatively recent Star Wars (1977) was followed by The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Return of the Jedi (1983); Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace (1999) really codified the numbers.
The Indiana Jones films are a similiar case: Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), didn't get its "Indiana Jones and the" Raiders of the Lost Ark title until after Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) firmly established the Indy brand.
I just saw Barbarella and have a real trivia question: Is it true that Anita Pallenberg's voice was dubbed and, if so, why? -- Sue
FlickChick: It is true that Anita Pallenberg -- whose career as an actress is greatly overshadowed by her career as a Rolling Stones girlfriend (she dated Brian Jones, lived with Keith Richard and may have had an affair with Mick Jagger during the filming of Performance -- was dubbed in Barbarella. The reason: Director Roger Vadim apparently felt that her Black Queen didn't sound as super-sexy as she looked. The undercover voice was RADA-trained Joan Greenwood, whose husky, sultry tones belie the fact that she was nearly 50 at the time.
Some of the most famous -- famous being a highly relative term in this context -- cases in which the voices and the faces were supplied by two different individuals:
Glenn Close dubbed all of then-model Andie McDowell's dialogue in Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes
Nikki Van Der Zyl voicing bikinied bombshell Ursula Andress in Dr. No (Van Der Zyl did the same for several other foreign-born voiced many Bond Girls -- see her web site for details
Charles Grey (The Rocky Horror Picture Show's wheelchair-bound Dr. Scott) voicing veteran UK character actor Jack Hawkins in more than a dozen film and TV projects made between roughly 1965 and 1973, the year he died; Hawkins lost his voice to throat cancer somewhere between 1959 and 1962. When Grey didn't supply Hawkins' voice, actor Robert Rietty stepped in.
Send your movie questions to FlickChick.
See Maitland McDonagh and Ken Fox review this week's new flicks on the Movie Talk vodcast.
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Apr 17, 2008 10:15 PM
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Aha! I knew Ursula Andress was dubbed! I had this argument a number of times in my youth when me and a couple of buddies sat down to watch Dr. No.
Me: That's clearly not her voice! I mean, it soooo obvious!
My friends: Dude, you crazy! Of course that's her!
Well, who's crazy now! Ha! If we want to talk about famous people being dubbed, I believe both Gerard Depardieu and Robert De Niro was dubbed for 1900. It's glaringly obvious, and honestly it takes a little away from the movie. It's still an excellent film (although I'm not as enthusiastic about it as most people), but it is very annoying.
And by the way, that's a HUGE tragedy about Angels & Demons being delayed by the writers strike. Being forced to wait for that masterpiece, oh, the humanity!
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Apr 18, 2008 11:37 AM
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and speaking of Bond films, loads of sequels, nothing in the names to suggest a connection
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Apr 18, 2008 7:37 PM
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It bothers me when people call the Steve Martin Cheaper by the Dozen a "remake" of the Clifton Webb-Myrna Loy version. The title's the same, I'll give you that, and both movies are about a couple with 12 children. But that's all they have in common. I don't think that qualifies the newer movie as a "remake." The same could be said for Dr. Doolittle which has a doctor who can talk to the animals but no semblance of similarity in plot.
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Apr 20, 2008 3:03 AM
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Wasn't Ahnuld's voice replaced by someone else's in one of his early movies? Hercules in New York, maybe?
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Apr 20, 2008 10:59 AM
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There's The Hustler and The Color of Money...
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Apr 20, 2008 4:37 PM
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Those James Bond films that followed Dr. No were not sequels:
sequels are continuations of storylines
from one film to the next, as in the
Star Wars saga.
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Apr 20, 2008 8:46 PM
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The undercover voice was RADA-trained Joan Greenwood, whose husky, sultry tones belie the fact that she was nearly 50 at the time.
Shame on you FlickChick. If fifty is cutoff point for being (or sounding)sexy somebody'd better tell Sophia Loren, Michelle Pfeiffer and my wife that they've stepped over the line.
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Apr 21, 2008 2:33 AM
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Taesma: The Hustler and The Color of Money aren't really sequels, more like two movies with a character (and theme) in common.
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Apr 21, 2008 3:32 AM
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How about Batman Begins and The Dark Knight...
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Apr 21, 2008 3:17 PM
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DaMess: You are so adorably sweet!
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Apr 22, 2008 5:28 PM
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Thousands would disagree Lucinda...but thanks!
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Apr 23, 2008 2:48 AM
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As for voice dubbing, my favorite is Singing in the Rain, which is partly a movie about dubbing. Supposedly Debbie Reynolds is dubbing for Jean Hagen in the character's new talkie, but, in actuallity, Jean Hagen is speaking for herself and Betty Noyes does the singing.
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Apr 24, 2008 11:37 AM
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What about Terms of Endearment and The Evening Star? Those are beyond variation on character and theme.
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Apr 25, 2008 9:34 PM
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