Screen Junkies » e.t.

8 ‘Live Reads’ Jason Reitman Should Stage

Wookie Johnson — Thu, 03 May 2012 15:17:52 +0000

Over the last six months Juno and Up in the Air director Jason Reitman has staged live readings of classic films at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. The screenplays he has featured so far have featured pretty eclectic performers. Reservoir Dogs was performed by an all-black cast. The Big Lebowski starring Seth Rogen, Christina Hendricks, and Rainn Wilson. The Apartment featured Steve Carell and Natalie Portman (LA) and Paul Rudd and Emma Stone (NY). The Princess Bride with Rudd, Mindy Kaling, Cary Elwes, Nick Kroll, Goran Visjnic, and Bill Fagerbakke. The Breakfast Club featured Jennifer Garner, Aaron Paul, Patton Oswalt, Kaling, James Van Der Beek, and Michael Chiklis. While Shampoo cast Bradley Cooper, Olivia Wilde, and Kate Hudson. A pretty cool series to say the least.

And I don’t see any reason to stop. In fact, I’d like to butt in and offer up my recommendations for future readings. You’re welcome.

E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial

Elliott: Elijah Wood
E.T.: The Rock
Michael: Andy Samberg
Gertie: Drew Barrymore
Elliott’s Mom: Julianne Moore
Keys: Dustin Hoffman

If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Drew Barrymore nailed it as Gertie in the original film. There’s no reason she shouldn’t be allowed to take another crack at her best performance. Well, there is and it’s that the Fanning Sisters got too f***ing old. Why The Rock you’re probably wondering. Two reasons. A) It would be hilarious to see he and Elijah Wood getting drunk together via a psychic link. B) The E.T. puppet probably reeks really bad after all these years.

Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love The Bomb

Dr. Strangelove: Martin Short
Everyone Else: The entire cast of Mad Men.

It has sent spasms of dread up my final column every time I hear rumors of Mike Myers remaking a classic Peter Sellers character. No offense to Myers as he’s talented at what he does. But what he does and what Sellers did are very different. I’m just not ready to see a “Birdy Num-Nums” shirt in the Busted Tees store. A comedian who is always overlooked when it comes to outrageously unhinged character work is Martin Short. For my money, he’s one of the few who can sell Dr. Strangelove. As for the rest of the cast, just use everyone from Mad Men. It would be highly watchable.

7 Movies That Will Terrify Your Inner Child

Joseph Gibson — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 00:01:42 +0000

Although most therapists agree that your inner child needs to be nurtured and respected, sometimes you just want to scare the shit out of it instead. If this applies to you, maybe give some of these movies a shot. That should keep the little bastard quiet for a while, huh? Brought to you by Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark, now available on Blu-ray & DVD.

Check out these other Sony “Action Unleashed” DVDs!

Super 8

Movies with children in peril tend to be pretty scary to kids, obviously because they see themselves in the middle of the action. And the action in Super 8 is as terrifying as you can get without veering into R-rated, too-shocking-to-resonate territory (I guess you could subject your inner child to Irreversible or The Last House on the Left, but what’s the fun in that? In addition to being scared, your inner child might feel a bit empowered too, since most of the anti-alien-monster heroics in Super 8 are performed by children.

It

Nothing is scarier to children, inner or otherwise, than evil clowns. And It, based on the novel by Stephen King, features the king of the killer clowns. Pennywise, played by Tim Curry, has the power to transform himself into whatever his victims fear the most. And for much of the movie, his victims (and the protagonists of the story) are little kids. No matter how tough your inner child is, he or she won’t be feeling the urge to go to the circus any time soon.

Spielberg Regrets The Whole ‘E.T.’ Walkie-Talkie Fiasco

Geoffrey Golden — Sat, 04 Jun 2011 00:18:14 +0000

Well, perhaps “regrets” is too strong a word, but in the spirit of this news, I won’t go back and change it.

5 photosPretty Pictures from Steven Spielberg's 'Terra Nova'

In a recent interview, Steven Spielberg discussed the currently-being-worked-on Blu-ray edition of Jaws. If your favorite Spielberg movie was the 2002 20th Anniversary Edition version of E.T. with the infamous replacement of guns for walkie-talkies – first of all, really? Second of all, you’re out of luck with Jaws.

The famous director has gone back on the idea of digitally altering past films, putting Spielberg at odds with his friend George “I Change My Old Movies All The Time, Just To Piss You Off” Lucas. Hear that? It’s the collective sigh of relief from moviephiles and people who don’t fix things when they’re not broken. Direct from The Spielberg’s mouth:

“[In the future] there’s going to be no more digital enhancements or digital additions to anything based on any film I direct. I’m not going to do any corrections digitally to even wires that show…At this point right now I think letting movies exist in the era, with all the flaws and all of the flourishes, is a wonderful way to mark time and mark history.”

Yeah, why remove wires? I go out of my way to watch “The Wire,” though I will admit that’s entirely not what he’s talking about. He continues…

“When people ask me which E.T. they should look at, I always tell them to look at the original 1982 E.T. If you notice, when we did put out E.T. we put out two E.T.s. We put out the digitally enhanced version with the additional scenes and for no extra money, in the same package, we put out the original ‘82 version. I always tell people to go back to the ’82 version.”

Celebratory Reese’s Pieces, anyone? (AICN)

E.T. Not All That Adorable In New Fan Trailer For ‘E.T-X’

Penn Collins — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 20:27:57 +0000

They say hindsight is 20-20, and in hindsight, that E.T. was a real bastard. Or so posits this fan-made trailer in which the original E.T. was actually a scouting mission so that, decades later, the aliens can invade and have their way with us. Using piecemeal clips from such gems as Deep Impact and The Siege, the creators of this trailer have created a world in which millions of E.T.’s with telescoping necks feast on humans.

After about four minutes in, it’s pretty clear that this may have been a better idea on paper than in practice. The creators of this clip did a pretty good job with the effects, juxtaposing E.T., Reese’s Pieces, and even a grown-up Henry Thomas (Elliott).

However, nothing about this really reads as funny or clever, but rather simply as a project that people put a lot of time into and adequately deliver. Yup, it’s that much fun. The six-minute runtime is a little tedious, as well. I won’t spoil the one good surprise in the clip. Just kidding. Of course I will. Deep Impact Morgan Freeman gets his head bitten off by an evil E.T. at 4:45. (Movie Line)