Here's what happened:
I had a dream that I was waiting outside the historic Egyptian Theater in beautiful DeKalb, Illinois, in a sleet storm, pacing around in muddy slush, waiting to see a film called Chunnel. I was the only person there and it was almost showtime but for some reason they weren't opening the theater which was getting on my nerves because I was really eager to see the film. When I woke up, I honestly couldn't remember if there really was an action/adventure film called Chunnel (perhaps something in the Peter Hyams oeuvre) or if it was a fake film I'd seen referenced somewhere. My first thought was actually that Andy Dick had gone to see it at some point in News Radio.
Looking over the article, of the fictional films mentioned in Seinfeld, Checkmate is actually probably the one I would most like to see filmed, though Rochelle, Rochelle is, of course, the most famous.
Peter Hyams, by the way, should have his own film festival, as he is the embodiment of Gore Vidal's quip about the key to making bad but profitable films, "Shit has its own integrity." Peter Hyams is the man who made Timecop, Running Scared*, Capricorn One, The Relic, and 2010. He's worked with Crystal, Lithgow, Gould, OJ Simpson, and Telly Savalas. He wrote, produced, and directed 2010 and, by his own account, as his Wikipedia page recounts, when he went to Kubrick to see if he could get the Master's blessing to make the film:
He's one of my idols; simply one of the greatest talents that's ever walked the earth. He more or less said, 'Sure. Go do it. I don't care.'
Apparently, Hyams found these words encouraging, and God bless him for it. Here is a man who could consider "Whatever's Cool With Me" one of the 20th century's great love ballads.
Anyway, Stay Tuned is a seriously entertaining flick, and if anybody could make Chunnel, Pete Hyams could make Chunnel.
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* Running Scared, in part because I saw it at such a tender age, when I was 10 (and a huge Billy Crystal fan), has always defined the cop buddy movie genre for me. It also has the distinction of being one of the ugliest movies ever shot in the city of Chicago. More than any other film, it really captured the "holy fuck, what are we even still doing here?" gestalt that marked the latter parts of the Harold Washington era.
2 comments:
Wait what about Sack Lunch?
Good point. It depends on the casting, I suppose. I'd be willing to stand in line to see either movie, though.
It seems likely that Rainn Wilson could score his standard 2 minute long cameo as "aggressively supercilious jackass" in Sack Lunch, which might put it over the top.
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