Alan Rickman Guestbook

Hoping we don't have another flame war,

And while we're on the subject of A&C again, I thought you might like to see a letter Helen Mirren wrote to the Editor of The Telegraph in response to the No Love Lost article published on December 6th:

Copyright 1998 The Telegraph Group Limited
SUNDAY TELEGRAPH(LONDON)
December 13, 1998, Sunday
SECTION: Pg. 32
LENGTH: 131 words
HEADLINE: Letter to the Editor: Alan's my sort of guy

BODY: What a sad, malicious and completely untrue little piece was to be found in the Mandrake column on Sunday ("No love lost between Antony and Cleopatra", December 6). Thespian dissension and hatred is always more attractive to gossips than "Luvvie Luv", but, sorry to disappoint you Mandrake, how wrong can you be?

Alan Rickman and I enjoy a mutually supportive, and very convivial relationship on stage and off, as every cast member of Antony and Cleopatra and every staff member of the National will affirm, not to mention the wait-staff at certain late night restaurants.

I am honoured to have become a member of a very large group of wise people that have a generous, loyal, brave and cool guy called Alan Rickman as a friend.

Being an admirer of Ciaran Hinds, I'm looking forwards to listening to this version of LLD, but... can't help wishing Alan would have done it. At least a little consolation for missing him in it on stage. Ah, well...

While I was at the Internet Talking Book Shop looking up LLD, I was browsing for a couple of other books I've been looking for. And to my great surprise, came across THIS in the Comedy category:

• Victoria Wood - Victoria Wood Encore with Julie Walters, Alan Rickman & Celia Imrie - Published by BBC Abridged 2 CD's . Running time 210 minutes. (Reference #0563381752) Price: £11.99

"Shakespeare's Globe summer season this year will feature an all-male Julius Caesar (opening 20th May) and an all-male Antony and Cleopatra (opening 30th July), in which Globe director Mark Rylance will play Cleopatra"

Do you have any idea what might be on the t-shirt that AR is wearing in the "hotel" photo?

In LA, audiences are "recruited" in a pseudo-scientific manner: innocuous-looking men and women armed with clipboards accost you while you're in line to purchase a ticket for a film.

Now, this isn't as random as it seems--they have a target demo--female 24-30, male 16-24, male and female 18-24.

Those test screenings may seem like fun, but they're overbooked by approximately 100% (so that they manage to have a full theatre). There's a good chance that even if you call the info line and RSVP and arrive an hour early to the screening that you STILL won't actually get in. Which means the waste of quite a bit of your valuable time.

"GREAT RESULTS" means everything from a 90 or better on the viewer response cards (those little thingies the audience fills out after a test screening--what they liked/didn't like, who they want to see more/less, what made sense/made no sense--usually they give you three lines to answer and nasty little pencils that are impossible to hold comfortably, so the comments are usually rather brief--unless the respondent is a film student at NYU, in which case expect several sheets of notebook paper attached).

"Great results" can also be entirely subjective--meaning "They laughed at the parts I (the director/writer) think are funny."

The studio marketing people frequently disagree with the director as to what constitutes the aforementioned results and the studio then intervenes to "save" the film. It isn't pretty...hence the popularity of the "director's cut".

With a tip of the hat to the real thing, of course. This "roasted Manningtree ox"; this "old white-bearded Satan," etc. 8-) Dear old sharp-tongued Shax!

For example: 1)artless 2)base-court 3)apple-john

or: 1) bawdy 2)bat-fouling 3)baggage

I can forward the rest to anyone that wants it. Make your own and use them liberally! (Sort of reminds me of the French knight in Monty Python's "Holy Grail" ("empty-headed, animal food-trough wiper of other people's behinds!")

Dogma, Mallrats DVD, and Kevin Smith stuff: 'Pete' over at Pete's Movie Page had the one and only writer/director Kevin Smith visit his college, where he apparently revealed heaps of cool stuff on various past and future projects of his. Here's the entire scoop below, the main highlights being a description of the 'working trailer' for "Dogma", and news of extended footage for the DVD's of "Mallrats" and "Clerks":

"Kevin Smith spoke at my college (Northern Illinois University) today and he mentioned a few things that may be of interest. He said he has about an hour of extra footage he's putting on the Mallrats DVD and he's putting the cut ending of Clerks on its DVD. He would have had the extra stuff on the Mallrats video and LD but since as he says, "it tanked" Universal put it out so fast there wasn't any time to do it. He also talked a bit on Dogma saying it cost Miramax about $8.5M. As far as test screening goes, he says he's getting great results. His original cut was 3:15, he tested it, cut it to 2:30, tested it in Pittsburgh to about 440 people and got even better results. It currently runs at 2:15. Jay and Silent Bob also have the biggest parts they've ever had as they are in the film for about 75-80% of the time. They are about 2nd or 3rd leads. The film also starts in McHenry, IL (filmed near Pittsburgh) and works its way to New Jersey.

He said he hopes to take it to Cannes in May and Miramax has it slated for a Fall '99 release which he says could possibly mean sometime in 2000. Or not, Who knows. He then showed us a working trailer of Dogma. (No word on when it will we out yet though) Some images we saw from it were: Salma Hayek stripping. Silent Bob kissing Linda Fiorentino. Matt Damon, Ben Affleck and Jason Mewes ("Jay") sporting some very heavy weaponery, one shot had Jay firing an automatic weapon in slow motion like Rambo which got a huge laugh, another scene had Chris Rock giving the line, "Do I know Jesus? Hell the nigger owes me $12!" (which got the biggest laugh of the night), we see Affleck and Alan Rickman sprout their wings, and finally we saw George Carlin covered in blood freaking out inside a telephone booth."

Another fan of the Cedric the Great,

All this talk of LOTR is bringing back all the magic I felt when I first read it (I don't even remember how old I was -- maybe 16 or 17? I still felt that same magic when I re-read it in my late 20's). I think I will pull my books out again and read them once more!

Magda--grew quite nostalgic over your post concerning the "discovery" of Tolkien. One of my happiest Christmases on record was when I was fifteen and, as I had read The Hobbit, my parents gave me the Rings as a Christmas gift. I spent a blissful two-week holiday from school devouring the books. When people ask that question about a book they'd like to have that "first reading" experience with again, if they could, I always think of those two weeks. And when I see someone reading LOTR for the first time, I envy that person.

Another book I have these feelings for is Maia by Richard Adams (well, just about anything by Richard Adams). Maia is epic fantasy of an entirely different sort. I have been in the habit of thinking that it's "unfilmable" but have refrained from saying so, lest someone do it and prove me wrong. *grin* Sometimes I amuse myself, though, by wondering who I would cast if I were filming this novel. There are several roles in which AR would shine . . . 8-)

From: RING LEADERS (Movieline)

Since Heavenly Creatures director Peter Jackson got the go-ahead from New Line Cinema to direct back-to-back all three films of J.R.R. Tolkien's fantastical The Lord of the Rings trilogy for $130 million, some of the biggest names in the biz have been touted front-runners to play the various wizards and scary monsters. Sean Connery's name keeps coming up for the role of Gandalf, but rumor is that the sexy Scot has so abused his icon status with the ludicrous Dragonheart, the silly First Knight and--this apparently was the final straw--the bombastic The Avengers, that he's no longer a consideration. Other actors who are said to be waiting in the wings include Sam Niell (who won points as TV's Merlin), Patrick Stewart, and Kenneth Branagh. As far as the pint-sized, aging ringbearer Bilbo Baggins, Murg hears Danny DeVito may snag the role.

Cl-ou-dee-ah

A possible cure for the doldrums: curl up with a cup of tea and the a newspaper-in-progress.

I agree with Stephanie about The Governess and in the so-what trivia department would have had him working again onscreen with Harriet Walter and Jonathan Rhys-Meyers.

I hope everyone got the New Year off to a good start. Listen, I know that we have discussed this before, but where do you get the ROTN tapes? I have a bit of holiday money left over, and I wanted to buy them.

Oh, yes, Definitely. Absolutely. Either of the "AR does every voice" variety such as ROTN, or even a recording in which he reads with other excellent voices . . . mmmmm. Since it's practically a running gag around here that he was born to play Rochester in Jane Eyre, that would do nicely for a start! *Swoon, THUD!* 8-)

Suddenly I'm no longer in a hurry. I'm hoping the light will turn RED before I get there, instead of green. I TRY to get stuck in backlogs of traffic (not so easy in Iowa, I assure you), and instead of zipping along at ten mph over, I'm the idiot in front of you going 5 mph UNDER when you're in a hurry....

Subject: RSC Announce Stratford UK Schedule Up to Oct 99

From: Albemarle of London

The Royal Shakespeare Company have announced details of their performances at the three Stratford-Upon-Avon, UK theatres between March and October 1999. There will be a total of ten productions in repertory during this time. Booking for these opens on 30 January 1999:

A Midsummer Night's Dream by Shakespeare opens 25 March

Othello by Shakespeare opens 21 April

Antony and Cleopatra by Shakespeare opens 23 June. (Cast includes Alan Bates as Antony and Frances de la Tour as Cleopatra)

Timon of Athens by Shakespeare opens 11 August. (Cast includes Alan Bates as Timon)

(snip)

;-)

MELISSA: Forgive me, forgive me, forgive me. Any comparisons to certain whiny Alaskan pop singers is inadvertent and DEEPLY regretted.

I know that the Ambrose video isn't the Zefarelli version, I guess that was my unfunny attempt at sarcasm! : ) I teach freshman literature and could probably recite the Zefarelli version by heart...If you weren't in Australia, I'd offer to send you a copy, but I don't think it would work in your VCR.