Posted on 08/07/2002 10:31:43 AM PDT by Paul Atreides
Susan Sarandon, one of the original stars of the cult 1975 SF movie The Rocky Horror Picture Show, told SCI FI Wire that she wants nothing to do with a proposed remakenot even a cameo. "I'm boycotting the Rocky Horror Picture Show organization," she said in an interview. "They should have shared some of the wealth from Rocky Horror. For me, it's the principle of the thing. There are other people involved with that movie who need some money, and they should spread it out a little bit. It's been a golden egg for the longest time, and it's the least they could do."
The last straw for Sarandon was when the producers asked her to participate in the DVD special edition. "I'll let you in on a secret," she said. "When they did the DVD, and they asked me to do the voice-over [commentary], I said, 'How about giving people some money? You could throw a little money our way.' And they wouldn't, and I didn't, so they took an interview from VH1 that I had done for their anniversary show. I've done a lot of press for The Rocky Horror Picture Show, because I love the movie and I love the people, but they took that and put it on the DVD [instead]."
The Fox network will celebrate the 30th anniversary of Rocky Horror with The Rocky Horror Birthday Show, a two-hour movie to be produced by Fox TV Studios, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Birthday will air in February 2003, 30 years after Richard O'Brien first penned Rocky Horror as a play that ran in London, the trade paper reported.
Rocky Horror was more than dumb.
Rocky's over-the-top dopeyness -- Dr. Frank N. Furter, a vampire drag queen from outer space, is the protagonist -- masks its thorough depravity. Only God knows how many children were lured into who-knows what kind of different "scenes" through the wacky fun of the live Rocky shows, and their message of sexual liberation and promiscuity ("Give yourself over to absolute pleasure. "Swim the warm waters of sins of the flesh. "Erotic nightmares beyond any measure.... "Don't dream it. Be it. Don't dream it. Be it....").
Still, Sarandon manages to be dumber. Were the actors not paid according to their contracts? Did the cameramen get stiffed?
Sarandon said:
Truth be told, Rocky Horror's weekend midnight cult status during the '80s and '90s only translated into a profit for the studio some twenty years later (to the best of my memory), as the phenomenon was finally winding down.
They [the studio] should have shared some of the wealth from Rocky Horror. For me, it's the principle of the thing. There are other people involved with that movie who need some money, and they should spread it out a little bit. It's been a golden egg for the longest time, and it's the least they could do.
This is similar to what happened with Harold & Maude, another weirdo cult flick that played weekend midnight shows for years until the studio's investment bore fruit. From a story on Harold star Bud Cort:
Cort spent all of his savings on medical bills [resulting from a nearly deadly auto accident] and went on to lose a $10 million suit he had brought against the driver of the other car. He found himself broke and without work. While he receives annual residual checks from Paramount for "Harold and Maude," (the last one was for $28.77 ), he doesn't get any profit from video distribution. "I get no participation from video sales -- I'd be a millionaire if I did," Cort has said. "I made next to nothing from that movie."
Studios are notorious for lying about the profits they make from hit movies. Sarandon may have a point, but that's a big "may."
I have never seen "Joe," but I've heard about it, and if it is on video, I hope I can find it. It seems to have been marketed as the patriotic, commie-bashing antidote to the counterculture flicks being pumped out of Hollyweird in the late sixties.
Boyle is a fabulous character actor. If you think you know what he's about because you watch Everybody Loves Raymond, you're wrong.
The opening scene of "Joe", released in 1970, launched Sarandon's career. In "Joe", Sarandon bares all with a full frontal nudity shot. This preceded "Rocky Horror" by about 5 years.
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