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Weekend Newsreel: March 17, 2006 Compiled by The FilmBuffOnLine.com Staff
Kelly Gang Set For Restoration: The Story Of The Kelly Gang, believed to be the earliest feature-length film ever made, has been announced as being in the process of being restored by Australia’s National Film and Sound Archive. The film, which chronicles the story of an Australian bushranger whose criminal exploits earned him the nickname of “The Billy the Kid of Australia,” originally ran approximately 70 minutes, though it had been previously thought only approximately 10 to 12 minutes of footage has survived. The restored film will be screened to celebrate the centenary of its world premier on December 26, 1906.
No Replacement Oscars: For most Academy Award winners, the experience is an once-in-a-lifetime moment, and as such, they should hold on to their Oscar statue tightly because if it is lost, the Academy is not likely to replace it. Case in point- Hattie McDaniel’s Best Supporting Actress Oscar. McDaniel, who was the first African-American to win an Academy Award, willed her Oscar statue to Howard University upon her death in 1952. However, the statue disappeared from the school sometime in the mid-1960s. Recently, McDaniel biographer Jill Watts approached the Academy about securing for the school a replacement. The Academy declined in a letter from executive director Bruce Davis, stating that it is has “never replaced a statuette that has fallen out of the care of an inheriting individual or institution.” The letter did promise to use all “available legal means” to return the Oscar to Howard University, should the statue ever resurface.
Hollywood Wax Museum Wares Auctioned: The Movieland Wax Museum opened its doors one last time this past Saturday, not to visitors but to bidders who came to buy pieces of the famed museum’s exhibits. Approximately 500 pieces of the museum’s exhibits were on the auction block before 400 bidders. Sighted in the crowd were actor/writer Daniel Roebuck, screenwriter Scott Alexander and George Krikorian, owner of the Southern California Krikorian Theater chain.
Hollywood To Broadway: While during Hollywood’s Golden Age studios made a habit of plundering Broadway stage shows to adapt to film, recent years have seen a reverse of the trend with musical adaptations of films like The Producers, Monty Python And The Holy Grail, The Lion King and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels playing to packed houses. Now, studio moguls Bob and Harvey Weinstein have announced another film that will be making the transition to the Great White Way- Ang Lee’s 2001 martial arts romance Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Although concrete details were forthcoming as to who would be writing the show’s book, lyrics and music, Harvey Weinstein has promised that the show will combine showstopping, traditional Broadway-style songs with Cirque du Soleil style acrobatics.
Deja View: Remake rights to the 2004 Japanese horror film Infection – in which the staff of an isolated hospital try to find a cure for a deadly, supernatural disease – have been purchased by New line Cinema. Chaning Gibson, who wrote the 2004 remake of Walking Tall, is set to adapt the screenplay. . . Universal Pictures has announced a new version of the classic horror film The Wolf Man with Benicio Del Toro taking the title role of an Englishman who is bitten by a wolf and cursed to change into one on the night of a full moon. Andrew Kevin Walker (Se7en) is scripting with the production scheduled to begin rolling cameras in early 2007. . . Warner Brothers and Village Roadshow Pictures will join forces to produce a remake of the 1967 action classic The Dirty Dozen. The film’s story about twelve condemned soldier-prisoners offered their freedom if they survive a dangerous mission deep into enemy territory will be updated from its original World War II setting to contemporary times by writers Scott Rosenberg (Con Air) and Alias television series writer/producers Andre Nemic and Josh Appelbaum. . . The big screen adaptation of perennial 1980s nighttime soap opera Dallas is set to start filming this October. John Travolta is currently tipped to be taking over Larry Hagman’s trademark Stetson in the role of manipulative oil baron J. R. Ewing with Jennifer Lopez as his alcoholic wife Sue Ellen. Also slated for the cast are Shirley MacLaine as the Ewing family matriarch Miss Ellie and Luke Wilson as J. R.’s brother Bobby. Robert Luketic (Monster-In-Law) is set to direct. . . Ice Cube is set to produce a star in an adaptation of the 1970s sitcom Welcome Back Kotter, with Cube taking the title role of a high school teacher who returns to tough, inner-city alma mater to teach students who are as unmotivated as he used to be. The Hot Chick director Tom Brady is in final negotiations to write and direct.
In Remembrance
Maureen Stapleton- The actress who won an Academy Award for Reds (1981), has passed away at age 80.
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