Grease
is the word at Paramount these days. Producer Alan Carr, the
most popular caftan wearer ever, aside from our own Andy Jones,
is back on the lot, prepping the Grease 20th Anniversary Star
Wars-like re-launch, in which more than 1,500 screens will play
the remastered version on the smash hit. Unlike Star Wars, there's
no extra footage highlighting new advances, like Olivia Newton-John
being able to act. This could be Paramount's one shot at cashing in
on its status as The Studio of The '70s after making little noise with
re-masters of The Godfather and Chinatown. Remember, Paramount
is now owned by MTV parent Viacom, so any film that requires an attention
span may be out of their range.
Meanwhile, Carr, also in re-release, has finally recovered from the
1989 Academy Awards he produced. (Remember Rob Lowe and Snow
White? Disney did. They sued the Academy for copyright infringement,
eventually settling.) You've got to respect the guy. Carr was a Hollywood
Queen when Queens weren't cool and has since survived years of dialysis,
multiple hip surgeries and back injuries, not to mention the '70s themselves.
And as Sondheim says, he's still here.
Speaking of large men, has Willard Scott finally found the right
movie vehicle? I hope not. Twentieth Century Fox has paid low-to-mid-six
figures for Five Day Forecast, a movie pitch about an experiment
that brings evil weather systems normally found only on other planets
to earth. I guess they ran out of earthbound weather disasters. "Hail
Storm: The Movie," "Smog Alert" and "Seasonal Showers of Death" were
all rejected by the studio. Al Roker will pull on the tights
and cape to fight the interplanetary storms. Just kidding. But now that
image is in your head. Mmwwwahhh-ha-ha-ha!
What, you think I'm a natural disaster? Email's
the word...
