Posted on 09/19/2008 2:23:13 PM PDT by La Enchiladita
Los Angeles
For anyone who has ever been on a movie set, the commotion inside Warner Brothers Studio 15 will be familiar: serious-faced actors and actresses quietly rehearsing their lines; the director of photography huddled with his assistants around two high-definition screens inside a small black tent reviewing the last scenes; extras lounging around the set trying both to stay out of the way and to get noticed; carpenters busily working to construct the set for the next scene; a frazzled first assistant director guzzling Red Bull and yelling instructions to anyone who will listen.
"Rolling," he shouts.
Others throughout the cavernous studio echo his call.
"Rolling! Quiet please!"
David Zucker is sitting in a high-backed director's chair with his name on it. (I'd always assumed they were just used for effect in movies, but here one was.) Zucker is looking at a monitor showing the inside of an empty New York City subway station. It's actually just a set--a stunning replica of a subway station--and it sits 15 feet to Zucker's right.
The first assistant director breaks the silence.
"Action!"
The set jumps to life. Two young men--both terrorists--enter the station. They are surprised to see a security checkpoint manned by two NYPD officers. "I'll need to see your bag, please," says one of the officers. The lead terrorist glances nervously at his friend and swings his backpack down from his shoulder to present it to the cops. Just as the officer pulls on the zipper, however, a small army of ACLU lawyers marches up to the policemen with a stop-search order. The cops look at each other and shrug their shoulders. "This says we can't search their bags."
The young men are relieved. They smile fiendishly as they walk toward the crowded platform. As the lead terrorist once again slips the backpack over his shoulder, he mutters his appreciation.
"Thank Allah for the ACLU."
David Zucker believes we are in a "new McCarthy era." Time magazine film writer Richard Corliss recently joked that conservative films are "almost illegal in Hollywood." Tom O'Malley, president of Vivendi Entertainment, though, dismisses claims that Hollywood is hostile to conservative ideas and suggests that conservatives simply haven't been as interested in making movies. "How come there aren't more socialists on Wall Street?"
But Zucker's film, together with a spike in attendance at events put on by "The Friends of Abe" (Lincoln, not Vigoda)--a group of right-leaning Hollywood types that has been meeting regularly for the past four years--is once again reviving hope that conservatives will have a battalion in this exceedingly influential battleground of the broader culture war.
Should be a great. Liberals give us so much to lampoon about.
I have this on my list as a must see.
Or in Michael Moore's case, harpoon.
I hope it’s good but David Zucker hasn’t made a funny movie in a long time.
This one looks legitimately funny though. I've marked the date.
The problem with that, as he says in the article, was trying to be too original. In this case, basing the movie on the premise of “A Christmas Carol,” not so original. Some of the lines quoted in the article seem pretty funny to me, we’ll see.
On one of the days I was on set, McEveety had invited Vivendi Entertainment president Tom O'Malley to meet Zucker. Vivendi had just agreed to distribute the film and had promised wide release--news that had the cast and crew of An American Carol in particularly good spirits.
Man, if you ever got a harpoon in that one, he'd sink your boat. Just pull it right down.
I don't know: Airplane, Top Secret!, Naked Gun, Ruthless People, ... I can give him a few passes if he made an occasional lemon or two (and I admit to my lowbrowedness - I even got laughs from the Scary Movie and High School High movies).
Grammer, who is friends with Ann Coulter, says he quoted her once to some of the young people who work for him.
"'Ann Coulter,'" he says, recalling their horror and assuming their voice. "'She's the antichrist.' And I said: 'What the f-- do you know about the antichrist? You don't even believe in Christ.'"
Awesome link, thank you.
Remember these names, everyone, and support their work:
Kelsey Grammer
Gary Sinise
Kevin Farley
David Zucker
Pat Boone
Jon Voight
Robert Davi
:-)
Thinkin’ on his feet, that Kelsey! Glad he survived his little heart attack earlier this year.
All those were over 20 years ago.
So he's been on a wee bit of a cold streak...
When did you produce your latest masterpiece, hmm?
You don’t even have a profile page...
Just sayin’...:-)
Not only line up, I hope the RNC sets up voter registration desks outside theaters in the purple states :>
Our own Hometown Boy, Kevin Farley, plays the Michael Moore character.
It’s highly unlikely that this will be released in ‘The People’s Republik of Madistan,’ though. All of the theaters are full up with bus loads of kids on forced field trips to view Algore’s film. ;)
Just kiddin’. I’ll go out of town to see it if necessary.
Criticism is an Artform all by itself!
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