I suppose after the success of The Who’s Tommy:The Musical on Broadway however long ago, this was inevitable: Fulfilling Roger Waters desire to put another brick in “The Wall,” Miramax Films’ Harvey and Bob Weinstein are teaming with music mogul Tommy Mottola to develop, produce and back a Broadway musical based on the Pink Floyd opus. I’m so damn ambivalent about this. I used to listen to the album all the time in my heavy classic-rock days. In my teen years, probably like everyone else who was a teen in the mid-80s, I spent many a night reclining in one of those high-back chairs watching The Wall Laserium — in varying states of mental well-being. The Alan Parker-directed movie is still a classic. Can a stage version live up to it? Will it simply be a musical spectacle? Parker used such a variety of imagery, can a stage version realize the story of the album in the same way? Or will it have to become too linear? Ken Russell’s film of Tommy was similar, but the album’s story always seemed to tell a more linear narrative to me. And I never even saw the stage version, so I can’t judge whether it was any good. I’m also not sure whether Roger Waters being in charge of the adaptation is such a good thing or not. The man has basically been surviving on the success of the wall for over a 1/4 century. Does he have it in him to make the potential necessary changes to his story and music to make it a successful stage show? Or will his ego to keep proving that he was the only necessary member of Pink Floyd (or rather, his belief that he actually is Pink) just mess up the whole thing? I’ll try toi withhold judgment. More importantly though, I’m troubled by this continued dearth of utter unoriginality afflicting the Broadway stage. Not that shows like The Producers and The Full Monty are bad or shouldn’t be made: quite the contrary as I loved them both. But Broadway needs more of Avenue Q, Urinetown and Caroline, Or Change, and even the first two of those can easily be described not completely original since they are satires of other forms themselves.
Meanwhile, a much worse idea suffering from the disease of unoriginality which once again helping overflow my file drawer of “completely unnecessary ideas,” there’s this: “New ‘Toy’ in Col’s chest”. Toy as in The Toy. To be a little fair, the new version is apparently a combination of the Richard Pryor–Jackie Gleason comedy (which itself was a remake of a 1976 French film Le Jouet) and some new script called “Jack and Jay.” And, “The new film will take out the racial element of the Pryor pic — comic played a hired plaything for Jackie Gleason son — which drew criticism.” Well that’s smart. I think the idea of a rich white guy hiring a poor black guy to be his snotty pre-teen son’s “toy” wouldn’t be such a hit today, regardless of what life-lessons the spoiled little brat learned. On the other hand, this film could be another chance for some young kid to learn how to become some young buck — just as original child star Scott Schwartz did in adult-films like The Wrong Snatch, New Wave Hookers and Dirty Bob’s Xcellent Adventures Parts 35 and 36 (uhm … a bit NSFW, obvs!).
Does anyone besides me remember when Matt Dillon was kind of cool? I mean, I’ve always liked him as an actor, and hell, he even bummed a cigarette off me many years ago at an airport. There were The Outsiders and Rumble Fish, both very underrated films (especially the latter) that you should revisit if you haven’t recently. He was the perfect school bully in My Bodyguard, and then he punched everything up a notch with Drugstore Cowboy. The quality of his films been very up and down through the years — for every Singles and To Die For, there has been a Golden Gate or Wild Things — but he showed a great affinity for comedy in There’s Something About Mary, and it was nice to see him lighten up. That doesn’t mean he needs to be jumping on the bandwagon of another “completely unnecessary” entry, the remake of The Love Bug. I know I may be a bit harsh here: the cast isn’t awful — Michael Keaton, Lindsay Lohan, Justin Long and Breckin Meyer — and it’s got a hot-in-Hollywood young female director named Angela Robinson, fresh off film festival hit D.E.B.S., and it’s written by two former members of The State currently also responsible for Reno 911 – Ben Garant and Thomas Lennon …. Why?!? Dillon will play, as he did in Mary the comic villain in the film currently titled Herbie: Fully Loaded. I don’t know. It all seems like a waste of a bunch of good talent to me. But hell, they’re working and I’m not, so maybe it’s not so crazy. Except for the part where … it is.
Nowhere near as crazy though as the news that American Idol reject William Hung’s fifteen minutes of fame just won’t fucking end. “Filming has begun on action comedy Where Is Mama’s Boy?, co-starring Hong Kong vet Nancy Sit, who persuaded producers My Way Film Co. to cast Hung after learning of him on a trip to the U.S.” That’s right — not only has someone actually let him record and release an album and a DVD, but now somebody is putting him in a movie. Even more disturbing: “My Way is lining up a second pic for Hung, an as-yet-unnamed project in the vein of Spy Kids.” Now come on! I don’t care if it is the Hong Kong film industry rather than our own. Hung is going to have a longer film career than the Spice Girls. It’s just so very, very, VERY wrong.
Out of Focus 
I’m not pointing at you but I’m making a
generalised statement here:
As one gets older, one should hopefully
become even wiser than before as well as
kinder, more tolerant, more understanding
but less selfish and less prejudice.
But it’s always not the case and we human
beings without improvement in their
attitude have no way to make the world a
better place with no hatred, no envy, no
crime and no terrorism for our children.
If William does not impact your life, why
not live and let live? It wouldn’t hurt
to give him a chance to make a go at
acting and proving himself. He’s one decent
guy without vices like so many celebs we
know.
LikeLike
Melanie — I’m sorry. That’s a very nice sentiment of yours but it’s utter bullshit and completely misguided. And while you claim not to be making a statement at me, it is obviously directed at my comments, so please don’t lecture me about “as one gets older.”
You know why I say it’s bullshit and has nothing to do with selfishness or prejudice? Because there are thousands of talented musicians and thousands of talented actors — all of varying degrees — who work incredibly hard to try to even eke out a living at careers that they have dedicated their time and energy to. They actually sacrifice things in order to try to make it, not even as a big star, but just as a working actor or working musician.
William Hung is someone who to this point has specifically shown that he has no discernable talent when it comes to performing arts. He has not experienced any success because of any talent; he has so far experienced success specifically because people like to laugh at the fact that he does not have talent. He would not be getting these shots at all if there were not people with money who saw that there were enough consumers out there willing to spend their paychecks to laugh at “a decent guy without vices,” which is what is happening. Instead of money being put towards an important and interesting project that maybe could help create the better world you speak of, or rather than a good an interesting band or singer being able to record and release a record to share their artistry with the world, a guy who people don’t tolerate but rather think is a joke is basically being exploited for some cheap bucks and some cheap laughs. Of course, you’re right. That’s much better.
It’s all about perspective. I assume you are not involved in any artistic endeavors. I do not mean that as a criticism; but it does affect your perspective. I wish no ill will to William Hung. I did not claim to want to see him dead. But there’s enough bad entertainment out there, and that’s all he is. His 15 minutes will eventually end because just as I am not a good actor nor a good dancer, he’s not either. And you know what? I can actually carry a tune, but I wouldn’t expect people to see me sing. His career is a fluke; he was so bad, that some people thought it was “good.”
It has nothing to do with being kinder or tolerant. It certainly has nothing to do with being selfish. And I’m actually offended at even your insinuation that any sort of prejudice might be involved, since in that case you are most likely talking about race. I did not look at William Hung and decide he couldn’t sing. I have seen and heard him sing and dance (and now even act in a couple commercials), so I have a postjudice against him — I have proof that he is incapable of doing any of those things.
If you really care about his well-being, you might suggest he take the money he’s made and go live the life he intended, as a very intelligent and capable electrical engineer, because he still doesn’t seem to have caught on to the fact that he is a novelty, and in the end, he may be the only one getting hurt because of how intolerant his own fans actually are.
LikeLike