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Weekend Newsreel: June 9, 2006 Compiled By The FilmBuffOnLine Staff
Overlord Finally Sees US Screens: Director Stuart Cooper’s 1975 film Overlord, which seamlessly mixed archival military film footage with original material to tell a soldier’s-eye-view of the D-Day Invasion, is finally making its way to theater screens in the United States, thanks in part to the recent documentary Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession (2004). Originally intending to make a documentary, Cooper combed through more than 3,000 hours of actual combat footage held by the Imperial War Museum in London to combine with his own footage to tell the story of a young British Armey recruit (Brian Stirner) as he trains for the Normandy Invasion. Although Overlord won the Silver Bear jury prize at the 1975 Berlin Film Festival and played across Europe to rave reviews, it never was picked up for American theatrical distribution, probably due to country’s involvement in the closing days of the Vietnam war. The film was championed by Jerry Harvey, the programmer for the legendary Los Angeles cable outlet Z Channel, where it swiftly gained the attention of film makers and aficionados around Hollywood. Director Cooper credits the appearance of clips of the film in Z Channel, which told the story of Harvey and the cable outlet, with reviving interest in the film. Overlord will be released on DVD in 2007 from Criterion Collection.
Popeye on DVD: Earlier this week, Warner Home Video announced that they will be releasing the complete run of Popeye theatrical cartoons originally produced by the Fleischer Studios and later Famous Studios between 1933 and 1957. The cartoons will be remastered and restored and will be released in chronological order in sets similar to the studio’s Looney Tunes collections.
Deja View: The 1986 psychological horror film The Hitcher will be getting a remake courtesy of screenwriters Eric Bernt and Jake Wade Wall and director Dave Myers. Sean Bean will take over the title role and will terrorize Sophia Bush. . . It has been reported that director Kinji Fukasaku’s controversial 2001 Japanese film Battle Royale - in which a government program randomly dumps a class of ninth graders onto a remote island with instructions to kill each other as part of a warped reality television program – is set to be remade at New Line Pictures with Neal Moritz (The Fast And The Furious) and Roy Lee (the Americanized versions of The Ring and The Grudge) producing. No director or screenwriters have been attached to the project yet. Ironically, the film’s original producers, Toie Studios, were unable to secure American distribution for the film due to its violent content. . . Japanese director Takashi Miike has announced that he will be helming a remake of the classic Japanese film Dai Majin (1966) for Kadokawa Pictures. . . The Weinstein Company is currently developing a remake of Akira Kurosawa’s classic Seven Samurai (1954) with John Fusco working on the screenplay. Asian actress Ziyi Zhang is currently in negotiations with the Weinstein Company for a role in the film as part of a three-picture deal. Seven Samurai has already been remade as The Magnificent Seven (1960) and the science-fiction film Battle Beyond The Stars (1980).
Opening This Week June 9
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