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Movie Minutiae: The Highlander (1986)

News out this week is the writers of the blockbuster flick Iron Man are to pen a remake of The Highlander.

Spawning four sequels and a TV series, the original Highlander film in 1986 was actually a flop at the box office.

The original film told the story of 16th Century Scottish Highlands warrior Connor MacLeod, who became one of many Immortal beings living among the human race through time.

Christopher Lambert scored the lead role as MacLeod, alongside Sean Connery as MacLeod's Immortal mentor, Juan Sanchez Vila Lobos Ramirez, and the terrifying, murderous character of The Kurgan played by Clancy Brown.

Australia's Russell Mulcahy directed both the original fim and the sequel Highlander II: The Quickening  (1991).

French actor Lambert had just learned English when he took the role and he had a dialogue coach help develop an accent that was supposed to sound "non-specifically foreign" for the film.

George Miller blasts 'ridiculous' culture wars

At last night's AFI awards, Happy Feet producer George Miller had a few things to say about the 'culture wars' of the past decade:

We're a very small country and we have very little culture distinct enough to call it our own. So why should we have a war about it? It's as ridiculous as bald men fighting over a comb, when we should be out there trying to grow hair.

What do you think? Join in the discussion.

'Neighbours' dropped by the BBC

Just as the Nine Network chose to ditch American daytime soap The Young and the Restless from Australian screens earlier this year, the BBC has announced it will stop showing Neighbours.

The British broadcaster apparently blamed an "unrealistic price demand" from the show's owner, Fremantle Media.

But Guardian blogger Kate Bevan is philosophical about the Beeb's decision - going so far as too say Fremantle Media shouldn't have been so "greedy".

"But I think it's time to move on, to kiss Ramsay Street goodbye and reclaim that half-hour before teatime."

British fans will still be able to catch the Aussie soap on channel Five, which already shows Home and Away.

The BBC says Neighbours reached its peak in 1990, drawing up to 19 million viewers every day. But fortunes have sagged in recent years, with viewer numbers down to about six million.

Nora moves

Anne Tismer as Nora

The Australian debut of the Schaubuhne's Nora at the Adelaide Festival of Arts
appears to be a success with reviews positive all round.

Ibsen's story has been brought into the 20th Century by director Thomas
Ostermeier and the move has been met with approval.

"In this new translation into German, he also has delivered a jaw-droppingly
spectacular production with a superlative cast," says The Adelaide Advertiser.

The SMH warns that some might not warm to the use of ear-splitting rock and rap
music (the play actually comes with a warning of loud noises), but goes onto say
"there's no denying this production seethes with intensity" while the Australian
says "there is so much to relish in this production."

Nora continues at Her Majesty's Theatre until March 18.

Shhhhhhhh......

Movie Minutiae: Fight Club (1999)

Then I had the strangest feeling I was talking to myself... (Photo: 20th Century Fox)

WARNING: This Movie Minutiae contains spoilers!

Last year I asked Movie Minutiae readers what films did they consider better than their book versions. There were a few responses, but the only consensus was for Fight Club.

Indeed, the word is that author Chuck Palahniuk considered the ending of Fight Club to be better than that of his debut novel.

In an interview with website DVD Talk, Palahniuk even said he was "embarrassed" by how well the film was able to streamline the plot.

"Now that I see the movie, especially when I sat down with Jim Uhls [the screenwriter] and record a commentary track for the DVD, I was sort of embarrassed of the book, because the movie had streamlined the plot and made it so much more effective and made connections that I had never thought to make. There is a line about "fathers setting up franchises with other families," and I never thought about connecting that with the fact that Fight Club was being franchised and the movie made that connection. I was just beating myself in the head for not having made that connection myself."

In all honesty, there are so many bits of trivia floating around about this film, it's hard to know what to include here. And the beauty is in a way you have to really 'consume' this film for you to notice all this stuff - exactly what film/book is preaching against...

So in the spirit of Tyler's (Brad Pitt) part-time occupation as a projectionist, next time you watch Fight Club, there are a number of times Tyler appears on screen before he is introduced as a character.

It's the "splicing frames into a film" idea and the "nobody knows that they saw it, but they did." There are four instances where Tyler appears as instantaneous flashes on screen.

(The ability to slow DVDs down to a frame-by-frame speed can help you spot these.)

According to the film's Wikipedia entry, director David Fincher regarded these flashes as: "Our hero is creating Tyler Durden in his own mind, so at his point he exists only on the periphery of the narrator's consciousness."

The "narrator" (Edward Norton) sees flashes of Tyler standing at the photocopier at work, at the doctor's office being told about the testicular cancer support group, at the testicular cancer support group meeting (Tyler has an arm around the group leader's shoulders) and as he sees Marla (Helena Bonham-Carter) leaving a support group meeting.

Of course, the narrator also passes Tyler on an airport's moving walkway as he says the line, "if you wake up in a different place, at a different time, do you wake up a different person?"

Finally, he can also be spotted among service staff in the 'welcome' video of a hotel the narrator is staying at.

Got a film you'd like investigated, or some trivia you'd like to share? Email Articulate.

Want more movie trivia madness? Check out the Movie Minutiae compendium.

Globe Theatre tours after 400 years

For the first time in 400 years, the Globe Theatre in London is sending a company on tour.

Globe director Dominic Dromgoole says they're following in the footsteps of thespians in Shakespeare's day, who used to act out their plays on village greens, at private homes, inns and guildhalls.

"Touring was in their blood," he said. "They did it for the money and they did it for the fun. It was where they learned their skills and refreshed their work. They lived to tour.

"They toured with a horse and cart, packing all their costumes and props into barrels, tumbling them out when they arrived and then building their stage on the barrels."

To keep it authentic, these actors have all their props, costumes and instruments for Romeo and Juliet stashed away in a few hampers.

But they've forgone the horse and cart for a minibus and a campervan – "an excellent modern equivalent".

Spoiling the story

Railing at "sad individuals": JK Rowling.

Last month you told us you hate it when people spoil the twists in movies… but what about book spoilers?



Harry Potter author JK Rowling has asked people not to spoil the ending of the next and final book in her series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

"There will always be sad individuals who get their kicks from ruining other people's fun," she said. "I want the readers who have, in many instances, grown up with Harry, to embark on the last adventure they will share with him without knowing where they are they going. … Spoilers won't stop people buying the book, they never have - all it will do is diminish their pleasure in the book."

Harry Potter fan site The Leaky Cauldron says readers "have been waiting almost 10 years for these final revelations and can never get back the moment you rob by spoiling them".



What do you think? Have you had book endings spoiled for you?

Or are you one of those people who flick to the last page of a book before even starting, like fellow blogger Sean, who always reads the last sentence?

Von Trier 'struggling with depression'

Danish film director Lars Von Trier says he's unable to work at the moment because he's struggling to recover from serious depression.

Von Trier has told a Danish newspaper he "can't make a film and be depressed at the same time". He's also admitted he's "afraid of everything in life, except film-making".

However Guardian blogger Peter Bradshaw thinks Von Trier might be making "just another raid on the publicity world".

Film-making in a CCTV world

Forget reality TV, how about reality film?

The BBC reports that a London-based Austrian film-maker has made a film entirely from CCTV footage.

Manu Luksch both 'acts' in and 'directs' Faceless, which is described as a "science fiction fairy tale". (The best kind!)

Luksch told the BBC she discovered that the Data Protection Act in the UK allows you to request data which is held about you.

She says it excludes things like doctors and financial records, but includes CCTV. She then went about getting herself onto as much CCTV as she could and then requested the footage.

To make the film she then blotted out all the other faces appearing on the footage.

"By taking CCTV of herself and blocking out the faces of anyone else captured on it, she created a story set in the future, in the "faceless world" - with herself as the only woman with a face."