Hey you! Yeah, you. I’m talking to you. Come a little close ’cause I’ve got something to tell you that you absolutely must hear.
How was that 3:15 Sunday afternoon showing of Rio 2? Made ya want to slit your wrists and pour Tabasco on the wounds, am I right? Damn kids don’t want to see that though. I hardly blame you.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but you’re thirsting for something radically different than the animated entertainment to which you’ve become accustomed. On second thought, don’t correct me because it’s the truth and you know it, and I’ve got the perfect movie for you to watch. You might love it, but the odds are greater that you will despise it and everything it stands for.
That Guy Dick Miller Director: Elijah Drenner
Cast: Dick Miller, Joe Dante, Roger Corman, William Sadler, Corey Feldman, John Sayles, Mary Woronov, Robert Picardo, Zach Galligan
World Premiere | End Films
Not Rated | 91 Minutes
Release Date: March 7, 2014 (SXSW)
Dick Miller is the last of the great American character actors. Whether sharing the screen with Nicholson, Hanks, Schwarzenegger, or The Ramones, Dick has been stealing scenes since his screen debut in 1955.
Miller has worked with some of the great directors: Scorsese, Corman, Dante, Cameron, Demme, and more. If you’re an avid moviegoer, you definitely know his face, but few know his name and even fewer know his story: an aspiring writer turned accidental actor.
Directed by Elijah Drenner, That Guy Dick Miller documents Miller’s funny and unexpected story, featuring interviews from the directors, producers, co-stars, and friends who have helped make him Hollywood’s leading “that guy.”
The first trailer for the Indiegogo-funded documentary DOOMED! The Untold Story of Roger Corman’s “The Fantastic Four” has made its debut. You can check it out here below.
Marty Langford‘s documentary purports to tell the candid and comprehensive story of the making of the low-budget Fantastic Four adaptation that was filmed in 1992 and scheduled for a nationwide theatrical release two years later until it was revealed that producer Bernd Eichinger had only made it in order to hold onto the rights to Marvel Comics’ first family of superheroes and had the finished film shelved forever. It has since been seen by many through bootlegs sold online and at comic book conventions. You can even watch it in full on YouTube!
I was born a poor white child in the waning winter days of 1979. Never was I able to step foot inside a grindhouse theater, and the only time I ever went to a drive-in theater that wasn’t doubling as a flea market was to see Fletch when I was barely old enough to remember going in the first place. VHS, DVD, Blu-ray, and spending a lot of time at the houses of friends and relatives with access to pay cable movie channels helped fill me in on the deranged cinematic greatness I was too young to catch first run in its proper theatrical venue. Being born in the wrong place at the seriously wrong time was no excuse for me to not become a fervent admirer of the finest exploitation movies ever made.
B-movies, C-movies, Z-movies, I’ve seen a lot. If I lived a few extra lifetimes after my first ran out I could never be able to see all of the movies I ever wanted to see. My DVD and Blu-ray collection isn’t massive (getting there though) and yet there are still a few titles I have yet to sit down and watch. Sue me, I stay pretty busy most of the time. Once upon a time there were theaters from the largest metropolises to the smallest one-horse burgs that specialized in playing the kinds of offbeat, occasionally undefinable, made-for-a-quick-buck flicks that were too gonzo to show its grimy celluloid visage in mainstream cinemas that primarily attracted bored suburbanites and their spoiled, hateful children. You could see a lot of these schlocky gems in double or triple feature bills or “dusk ’till dawn” marathons that cost substantially less for a ticket than a IMAX 3D screening, even with inflation taken into account. You definitely got your money’s worth, that could not be denied.
A month ago, we reported that legendary producer Roger “King of the B’s” Corman was starting a subscriber-only YouTube channel this summer called Corman’s Drive-In that would bring an extensive catalog of over 400 films he either produced, directed, or both to the Internet.
Corman’s Drive-In is now officially open for business and we have some other crucial details for you. The channel will feature a rotating selection of 30 titles that will be refreshed every month and it will all be made available to viewers for the low monthly price of $3.99. It will premiere with a double feature of the first two films Corman made with future Oscar-winning Hollywood icon Jack Nicholson: the 1958 exploitation drama The Cry Baby Killer and 1960’s man-eating plant comedy Little Shop of Horrors, the latter the inspiration for the 1986 musical remake and the off-Broadway show it was based on.
Students of the Unusual™ comic cover used with permission of 3BoysProductions
The Mercuri Bros.™ comic cover used with permission of Prodigal Son Press