Hola, Sneakers! Welcome to Episode 558 of Sneaky Dragon – the podcast with the luminous nose!
This week: throwing voices; monogamy, not monotony; imaginary histories; three days of peace and money; savoury British flavours; big nonsense; the keys to our hearts; back to the garden; take a Bowser; can’t be too obvious; identical films; terrible people doing awful things; the times they are a danger; notes for Jesus; dualing heroes; Hamill communication; gang with the wind; full moon fever; science needs nerds; time travel nostalgia; third act dog problems; a heck of an almost great movie; you have to earn your ending; weird stance; Avatar amnesia; outsold by Boxcar Willie; Uma gonna miss a disaster; revisionist Westerns; pig tales; ex-stinks; Crystal careers; mind fuckery; Mars needs money; popular penguins; one note parties; tenuous streaming; American activities; and, finally, attention deficit.
Question of the Week: Did we miss one? Do you have a favourite near identical film to one that was released in the same year? Do you prefer the lesser known twin?
Sub-question of the Week (from Ed): Which comic book or newspaper strip character – thus far unrecognized – deserves its own movie or TV adaptation?
Thanks for listening.
Department of Corections:
So embarrassing to listen to one’s blatherings in the cold light of day, but Buddy Miles played drums and Billy Cox played bass in Hendrix’s post-Experience group The Band of Gypsies.
Ferg has suggested an addition to a previous Top 5 list – another song for Louise!
During the show, Dave mentioned Ben Affleck’s notoriously snotty commentary tracks. Here’s a little taste of his Armaggedon comments:
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Released a just over a year apart (so almost twins) were The Adventures of Priscilla Queen of the Desert (1994) and To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar (1995). Both are about two older drag queens and a younger one who go on a road trip where their vehicles break down in a small town and they win the locals over. The stars of the Aussie movie were Terence Stamp, Hugo Weaving and Guy Pearce. The American movie starred Patrick Swayze, Wesley Snipes and John Leguizamo. I enjoyed Priscilla but the reviews weren’t as good for Wong Foo so I never went to see it.
I would love it if Bill Watterson wrote and directed a Calvin and Hobbes animated movie. He won’t, of course, but in my fantasy, he embraces the current capabilities of the medium to set his comic strip worlds in motion. It would have a 2-D look like Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. It would appeal to adults and kids at different levels like Pixar’s Inside Out and The Lego Movie. Or…although I’m not a fan of biopics, it could be a live-action movie showing Watterson’s rise to fame and his efforts to get control over the rights to his comic back from syndication. Inside the movie, there’d be a parallel animated story of Calvin and Hobbes taking on some monstrous foe that only they can see, perhaps with one of them getting captured by a surreal seductress who represents the lure of merchandising revenue. Do you have any voice casting ideas?
Patton Oswald as Hobbs? Okay, I’ve been watching too much of “The Sandman.”
Gentlemen! let’s broaden our minds!
Just to throw my memory in turmoil over so many “Twin” films, I thought for sure there was another film that ran parallel to 2004’s “The Day After Tomorrow”. The planet Earth being submerged into a sub-zero polar vortex? There has to be more than one, right? I can’t even remember what caused the damn ice age in that movie without conflating it with “Deep Impact” which already has a twin that you discussed last week…and yes, the Affleck commentary is priceless.
Dr Pepper (take a drink) ran a promotion with “Mission to Mars” and had product placement in the film. Do you want to know how dopey it is when you’re watching a DePalma film with a room filled with fellow Dr Pepper employees and the fucking Dr Pepper can gets a round of applause? It’s as embarrassing as you think. I remember going to a pre-release screening and I invited my Dad to come with me, he doesn’t go to movies all that much so it was a blast for him, no pun intended.
So I’m going to predict a future “Twin” film, or series, for my answer so hear me out. It’s already happening too, since it’s almost upon us. The hugely awaited billion dollar “The Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power” is going head-to-head with HBO’s hugely awaited prequel series to “Game of Thrones”, “House Of The Dragon”. Both are about a medieval world inspired series of novels, both have dragons and both are highly anticipated. Mark my words, ten to twenty years from now, audiences will get them confused looking back. All that money and Amazon couldn’t pick another date going up against HBO. I may be wrong too, both could prove to be massively successful or maybe only one will and eclipse the other. I haven’t a horse in that race, but they’re really close in tone and texture and I’m sure many of the casual viewers are already confused by these two series starting at the same time.
Ian, did you see that director Kenya Barris is taking a whack at his version of “The Wizard of OZ” for Warner Brothers? Any guesses on whether he’s adapting the Baum books as a faithful version? It’s definitely an uphill climb since he’s going against the 1939 MGM Musical which is most everyone’s most beloved vision of the story, so God Bless him in whatever adaptation he decides on.
I picked Alan Moore’s “Miracleman” for my comic adaptation last week but I haven’t a clue who would take on the role or direct such a story. I always thought Mike Moran had kind of a Steve McQueen look to him in the Moore comics only to appear almost godlike when he was Miracleman. Film or series, I think it would be widely accepted now that so many comics are being brought onto the screen like “The Boys” and “Invincible.”
Remember “Animal Man” from DC back in the 80’s? That might be interesting as a one-off series like “Doom Patrol” or “Peacemaker” with it’s offbeat Grant Morrison stories.
I’ll pick one more and it’s a personal favorite because I think if they pulled it off, DC & Warner Brothers could do anything, “The Metal Men.” Maybe even animated but I’ve always loved those guys.
To all my Sneakers, be well and mindful to all!
…and if you need anything else, I posted some stuff on Facebook. BYE-EEEEEE!!!
Hey chaps,
Not so much a same-film, same-year type example, but I do always love when a successful film spawns an endless cycle of lesser imitators across other mediums. The one I love to trace the most is Raiders of the Lost Ark – itself an homage to 1950’s adventure serials – which begat everything from the TV series ‘Tales Of the Gold Monkey’ the following year (a single season rip-off which I loved as a kid), to films like Ice Pirates, Romancing The Stone, Quigley Down Under (starring Tom Selleck – the original choice for Indy) and even through to the Brendan Fraser “Mummy” films. I think you could even connect Crocodile Dundee to Raiders with it’s devil-may-care hero in a leather jacket.
You can probably also attribute the existence of the infinite Star Trek franchises to the success of the original Star Wars which inspired studios to dust off all their sci-fi IP and ultimately gave us Star Trek The Motion Picture. Would we have ever seen Star Trek again if Star Wars hadn’t been a hit? Worth discussing!
Mick