Newsgroup: it.arti.cinema
Titolo: [LANDIS] Un'intervista sulla musica (in inglese)

Segnalo a chi fosse interessato una bella intervista centrata
soprattutto sulle colonne sonore dei suoi film e corredata da numerosi
MP3 da ascoltare durante la lettura. In coda si annuncia la nuova
riedizione DVD di "The Blues Brothers" con la possibilita' di vedere sia
il cut originale *sia* quello esteso (nell'ultima edizione era presente
solo il secondo, tanto che molti se la sono sborbottata che c'erano
pezzi in inglese che non si potevano saltare).
http://www.soundtrack.net/features/article/?id=156
Ecco l'intervista qui sotto.
Interview
TRADING MEMORIES
by Dan Goldwasser
Release Date: 07/12/2005
Film director John Landis dropped out of high-school, and started a
career in film that would take him from a low-budget movie called
Schlock, to one of the most successful comedies of all time, Animal
House.  He established himself as a master of the genre, with Trading
Places, Three Amigos, and Spies Like Us. 
Music has always been an important part of his movies, and his biggest
musical collaborator was the late, great Elmer Bernstein, who re-defined
the comedy score with his work on Animal House.  He directed The Blues
Brothers, which helped make the blues more accessible to the general
public.  Michael Jackson's "Thriller" was the most expensive music video
of its day, and changed how music videos would be made forever.
SoundtrackNet was honored to sit down with John at his home in Los
Angeles, and talk about his works.
Your first film was Schlock.  Who did the music on that?
The score was by a college student named David Gibson, and I have no
idea what happened to him, but he did the score for like $3.
After that came Kentucky Fried Movie, which was filled with a lot of
short sketches...
The music in Kentucky Fried Movie was coordinated by a schlock music
producer, Igo Kantor.  He's one of those guys where you give them a
flat-fee, and they do the music for the movie.  Most of it was library
cues, but the one piece that was scored was for "A Fistful of Yen" -
where he was copying Enter the Dragon.
How did The Blues Brothers come about?
I was working on Animal House, and the writers (Doug Kenney, Harold
Ramis and Chris Miller) all came from Second City and National Lampoon,
so they already knew Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi, and Chevy Chase.  When
they wrote the script, Bluto was written for Belushi, D-Day for Aykroyd,
and Otter for Chevy.  This was during the first year of "Saturday Night
Live", and the studio wanted me to go get those guys.  I wasn't
interested in Chevy, because he was the break-out star, and the only
cast member who identified himself on screen.  I felt he was Chevy, and
not Otter.  I flew out to New York City, and the bottom line was, Lorne
Michaels wouldn't let Danny out for the same reason he wouldn't let Paul
Schafer out for The Blues Brothers - he was unhappy to lose them on
"Saturday Night Live".
But I got to meet Danny then, and at that time he was talking about The
Blues Brothers - you'll notice that NBC and Saturday Night Live don't
own the Blues Brothers - Aykroyd and Judy Belushi do.  They had created
it while up at Second City in Toronto.  John was never really into the
blues - he was into heavy metal, and Danny was deeply into rhythm and
blues, and remains very passionate and an expert - a real authority on
the subject.
To make a long story short, we made a development deal for The Blues
Brothers.  Belushi became interested in the blues while we were in
Eugene, Oregon, shooting Animal House.  There was a local blues guy
named Curtis Salgado - and they connected and he got interested in
blues.
As an aside, I just found this out three years ago. When you see Animal
House, there's a musical act by Otis Day and the Knights.  Otis is an
actor named DeWayne Jesse, and the "Knights" were students at the
University of Oregon at Eugene.  And the bass player of the Knights is
Robert Cray, who was a student at UO at the time!  So I take entire
credit for his career - I made Robert Cray what he is today! <laughs>
John became passionate about the blues, and they started performing as
Jake and Elwood at the Lone Star Cafe in NYC, mostly with Delbert
McClinton's band.  But they worked a lot - for fun!  Howard Shore is the
one who named them the Blues Brothers - he's the one who said "Brothers
in blue, ladies and gentlemen, the Blues Brothers!"  Paul Shaffer was
their musical director, and they performed on the show.  By that time,
we had a development deal to make a comedy about these guys, Jake and
Elwood - The Blues Brothers.
It all came together insanely quick.  Steve Martin invited them to be
the opening act for him at the Universal Amphitheatre.  So Paul and John
and Danny put together this extraordinary band, the Blues Brothers Band,
which is an amazing group of musicians.  Atlantic Records did a live
album, "A Briefcase Full of Blues", and that album went double platinum,
to everyone's surprise.  On top of that, Danny and John were the stars
of "Saturday Night Live", the hottest show on television!  So they had
the hottest record, the hottest show, and John was the star of Animal
House, the biggest movie!  With those three things, the studio suddenly
wanted The Blues Brothers - so we rushed into production.
Danny and John were shooting 1941 with Spielberg, and I was waiting for
the script from Danny, which wouldn't come.  And when it did, it was
like 800 pages!  It was insane, and had a lot of brilliant ideas in it,
but I said, "Danny, this is unproducable!"  He replied, "So fix it!" 
And that's how I became a co-writer, because I had to rewrite it! 
There's a lot of stuff in the movie that's mine, but really it's
Danny's.  We were in such a rush that we started shooting before there
was a completed screenplay.
You have artists like James Brown, John Lee Hooker, Ray Charles, Aretha
Franklin, and so many more - how did you get them all involved?
It was 1979 when we made that movie.  Disco was king, and the hottest
acts were the Bee Gees and ABBA.  It's hard to accept now, but the
people you mentioned were kinda "over", except Ray Charles.  Aretha,
James Brown, and certainly John Lee Hooker weren't working!  To give you
an idea of how different a time this was, when we made the movie,
Universal/MCA Records felt the movie was too wacky, and no one would buy
the music - blues didn't sell - so they didn't take the record!  So the
soundtrack was put out on Atlantic Records, which was a so-called
"black" label.  And even Atlantic refused to put John Lee Hooker on the
album, because he was "too old and too black".  It's too bad, because
that's a live recording.  John Lee Hooker and James Brown were recorded
live on set - everything else was playback. [Play "The Old Landmark"
MP3]
Was there any real original music in the film aside from Elmer's brief
cue? 
A lot of the music in the movie is traditional rhythm and blues that has
been re-orchestrated, which Ira Newborn was in charge of.   There was
very little original music, except for Elmer's "God" theme.  I mean, the
guy did The Ten Commandments!
How did you meet Elmer?
I'm a high school dropout.  I would have gone to University High School,
but for a year and a half I went to a school called Oakwood - it's now a
very prestigious prep secondary school in the valley, but in 1965 it was
a complete hippy school.  There were only 50 students, and I was there
on a scholarship which was ultimately revoked, and I never finished
school because I was a goof off.  But my fellow Oakwood classmates
included Alex North's daughter Elissa, Jerry Goldsmith's daughter Ellen,
Ernest Gold's son Andy, and Elmer Bernstein's son, Peter. All their kids
went to this little school, and I had exposure to them then.  In fact,
Elmer took Peter and me to see the Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl in
1965!  So I knew Elmer as Peter's dad, and years later when I was doing
Animal House, I had an idea that I wanted to score the film
dramatically, instead of comedically.  There are comic cues, but most of
them are meant to be serious - the music is a counterpoint to things
going on.
So that was my idea, and when the music department at Universal asked
who I wanted to score it, I said "Elmer Bernstein", and they literally
laughed in my face, saying he wouldn't return the call.  But they didn't
know I knew him.  I showed him the movie, and he thought it was funny,
and asked me what I wanted.  So I told him, and he was intrigued by the
idea.  Elmer's score for Animal House is a hugely influential one.  One
of the great ironies of Elmer's career is that he got typed.  So after
doing scores like To Kill a Mockingbird, Sweet Smell of Success, Man
with the Golden Arm, The Magnificent Seven - all of these extraordinary
scores, he suddenly became Mr. Comedy.  After Animal House he did
Airplane!, Stripes, Meatballs, Trading Places, Spies Like Us and many
more - to the point where he got so fed up that he didn't want to do
comedies and stopped working.  He had an auspicious return when he
scored My Left Foot, and then he became Scorsese's anointed one for a
little while - so Elmer had quite a career.  [Play "Faber College Theme"
MP3]
He also did a lot of my movies.  My favorite Elmer score for me was The
Three Amigos, because it was a big score - a 108-piece orchestra, and
that movie has music by Randy Newman and Elmer Bernstein.  For me, it's
an entirely successful score, because it's not only a spectacular,
rousing western score, but he's also satirizing his own stuff from The
Magnificent Seven!
Tell me about American Werewolf...
I wrote An American Werewolf in London in 1969, and I met Rick Baker in
1971 when we made Schlock.  He was so obviously gifted, and I told him
that I was going to make this werewolf movie, and he should figure it
out.  It was all there on the page - and very difficult.  I wanted to do
it practically, and CGI didn't exist.  Rick had thought about it for
years, and kept asking when we were going to make that movie.  It was
only because f the success of Kentucky Fried Movie, Animal House, and
The Blues Brothers that I was able to get the $10 million negative
pick-up to make American Werewolf.
So I finally get the money, and I call Rick and I say, "Hey Rick, I'm
doing that movie!"  And he says, "I'm already doing a werewolf movie!" 
I said, "You're WHAT?"  Apparently Joe Dante was doing The Howling, and
after a bit of wrangling, Rick's assistant Rob Bottin ended up doing
Howling, and I got Rick on mine.  It was totally insane that I spent all
that time trying to get a werewolf movie, and then the year I finally
make it, there were like three of them!
But the music for American Werewolf is unusual.  All those songs were
written in the script in 1969.  There were a number of songs I wanted to
get, but I couldn't.  I wanted to use "Moon Shadow" by Cat Stevens for
the main title song, because it's a lovely song about dismemberment, and
obviously dealt with the moon.  But he wouldn't let me have the music -
and what's unfair is now I see "Peace Train" being used to sell cars! 
Elvis Presley recorded an early version of "Blue Moon" that was mostly
yodeling, and quite strange, and I loved it - it was really eerie and I
wanted to use it.  But at that time, Colonel Parker and the Presley
Estate were suing one another and RCA - it was a nightmare!  So that
didn't happen.  Of course, years later Jim Jarmusch made Mystery Train
and was able to use that song - I was so aggravated!
Because of George Lucas and me, needle-dropping has become prohibitively
expensive.  Marty Scorsese really used a needle-drop score in Mean
Streets, but it was American Graffiti and Animal House that both had big
hit records that were compilations of this old music that we bought for
$500-600 per song, a lot of those songs are now anywhere between
$30,000-100,000 per song now - it's insane!
American Werewolf is mostly needle-drops, but Elmer wrote about
7-minutes of score, and we recorded in a church in London for a
particular sound of an organ that he wanted.  The score is really quite
lovely and wistful and sad, and when the DVD came out, I made sure that
if you watch the photograph still gallery, you can hear the score. [Play
"An American Werewolf in London" MP3]
And American Werewolf led to "Thriller"...
Elmer's credit is "Scary Music".  "Thiller" is 15 minutes long, the
music plays throughout, and 90% of the music is the original tracks of
"Thriller" remixed and re-cut to go that length - we did a lot of
messing with that.  Then I needed music in two places: the movie they're
watching at the beginning and "scary" music at the end as they're being
surrounded by zombies.  I really wanted traditional movie music there,
and as a favor he did that. It's brief, but very effective.  And years
later they called me to do "Black or White", that was for Michael,
again.
Trading Places
I love Elmer's score for Trading Places, which was ironically nominated
for an Academy Award, because most of it is variations on Mozart's
"Marriage of Figaro"!  When I did Oscar a few years later, he adapted
"The Barber of Seville" for that.  A critic wrote that we'd done that
before, obviously not knowing the difference between Rossini and Mozart!
[Play "Grifting" MP3]
You didn't use Elmer on Coming to America...
For Coming to America, I had a great wonderful score by Nile Rodgers,
who produced albums for Madonna and David Bowie.  He's a black guy who
went to Julliard, is classically trained, and an amazing musician.  He
did Beverly Hills Cop III and Coming to America for me, and did a great
job.  For Coming to America I wanted to use as many African-Americans as
I could on the show, and someone recommended Nile to me.  The deal was,
he would produce a number of songs within the movie - they wanted to get
a hit album.  Unfortunately, none of the songs became hits, even though
"Coming to America" was a good song!  But his score is sampled all the
time, in news programs, and it's even used in Drumline during a big
sequence!  It's a terrific score, with unusual stuff.  The main title
was Ladysmith Black Mambazo, and they're singing the original version of
"Lion Sleeps Tonight" in Swahili. [Play "The King's Motorcade" MP3]
You worked with Ira Newborn on Into the Night / Amazon Women on the Moon
/ Innocent Blood
Into the Night is a score that's been sampled a lot - they used to use
some of that music for ABC News here in Los Angeles!  For Amazon Women
on the Moon, it was mostly library music again, but Ira did one cue for
the segment I did with Arsenio Hall.  I wanted "wallpaper music".  The
Laurel and Hardy Films, and a lot of the Hal Roach stuff fascinated me,
because there would be this music that has almost nothing to do with
what was going on - so I wanted to do that. [Play "Enter Shaheen" MP3]
Innocent Blood was a big score - I love Elmer's score for Sweet Smell of
Success, and I wanted a big brassy, urban jazzy big-band sound.  We used
Frank Sinatra songs, so I wanted that Nelson Riddle "feel", and Ira did
a great job.  The film is an urban gothic gangster vampire melodrama -
it has a strange tone, and I think the music helped it. [Play "Hideaway"
MP3]
What is your favorite score?
Three Amigos for me was the most fun, because we were really having fun
with the conventions of a western score, and a big score.  It was fun
working with Elmer making fun of Elmer.  There's a difference between
satire and parody, which a lot of people don't understand.  Parody is
"making fun of".  Satire has to succeed at that which it is satirizing,
as well as be funny and comment on it.  For example, Dr. Strangelove is
not only a brilliant comedy about atomic warfare, but it's also the best
film about atomic warfare.  So Three Amigos had to work as a real
western score, and help the film dramatically, but also be funny and
comment on it - and it's a great score. [Play "Let's Ride" MP3]
What was Randy Newman's involvement?
The screenplay was written by Randy Newman, Steve Martin, and Lorne
Michaels!  Not only that, but Randy wrote the songs, and is the Singing
Bush.  Steve Martin gave me the script, and asked me to do it.  I loved
doing that picture.  Walter Hill once said, "If they knew how much fun
it was to make a western, they wouldn't let us."
Will there be a Special Edition DVD?
Not that I know of.  In fact, the only DVD out there is just an old
transfer from some print.  I don't know who owns the film now, since
that was an Orion picture - Sony probably owns it now.  I love that
picture; it's a real guilty pleasure of mine. 
You also have been directing commercials?
Oh yeah, for years just to make a little money. Years ago, I was on the
board of the American Lung Association, at the behest of John Houston. 
I was offered an amazing job to do these Marlboro commercials, with
Elmer's Magnificent Seven music, all around the world - it was going to
be an incredible job, but I had to turn it down - it was all about
cigarettes.  Elmer is one of the few people who's murdered people with
music!  The Marlboro commercials were all scored with The Magnificent
Seven - he sold a lot of cigarettes!
You directed the "Disneyland 35th Anniversary Celebration"...
I did that with Jim Henson and the Muppets - it was fun!  And that's
where I met Christopher Stone. I enjoyed working with him, and he did a
wonderful score for a movie I did called The Stupids, which is one of my
"lost movies", because I made it for a company called Savoy, and when I
finished the movie, they went bankrupt.  So The Stupids, along with a
number of other pictures, just sat on the shelf for a few years.  It
starred Tom Arnold and Christopher Lee, and a small role was played by
Jenny McCarthy.  In the time between the movie being made and the movie
being released, she was Playmate of the Year, and on an MTV show called
"Singled Out", so she was very hot.   New Line Cinema bought the movie
thinking, "Tom Arnold, Jenny McCarthy, John Landis - it must be a
tits-and-ass teenage comedy!"  Well, The Stupids is my only children's
film!  It's made for children under 10 years old!  I'm quite proud of
the movie, and it had a fantastic score by Christopher Stone performed
by the Royal Philharmonic in London - it's just a great score! [Play
"Main Title" MP3]
But the film was dumped.  I had the experience of sitting next to Mitch
Goldman, the head of distribution for New Line, watching it in a theater
at the DGA, and about 10 minutes in, he said, "This is a children's
film!  What the fuck am I going to do with that?"  So they just dumped
it - it has a life on DVD though.
Last year you directed a documentary, Slasher...   
That was a documentary about a used car salesman - I scored it entirely
with needle-drops, with music from Stax recording artists.  It was a lot
of fun, and a good learning experience - I'm very proud of it!  They
show it on IFC all the time.
You've also been using Peter Bernstein recently...
I've known Peter since I was 15, as I mentioned earlier.  He did Susan's
Plan, which is a very tiny independent film that I made several years
ago.  It was shot in ten days, and starred Nastassja Kinski, Lara Flynn
Boyle, Michael Biehn, Billy Zane, Rob Schneider, Dan Aykroyd, and Bill
Duke - it had a great cast!  The schlockmeisters who gave me the money
to make the film sold it to Cinemax, so you see it on cable at like 3am!
Peter scored "Weird Science" and "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids" for my
television company.  He also just scored "Deer Woman" for me, for
Masters of Horror.
What is Masters of Horror?
I just finished it.  Masters of Horror is an Anchor Bay DVD project, and
will run 13-hours long.  Each hour is directed by a filmmaker who
directed a classic horror film.  So I did one, as well as Joe Dante,
Roger Corman, Tobe Hooper, George Romero, John Carpenter, Dario Argento,
Stuart Gordon, Larry Cohen, Don Coscarelli, and a few more!  It's made
for DVD, but it will be on Showtime starting in October, and in truth,
Showtime is the marketing for the DVD.
I used Peter to score my episode "Deer Woman", which is a script written
by my son, Max.  It's wacky - it's about a Deer Woman, which is a Native
American myth, and it's basically a monster movie.  Unfortunately,
economics were such that the score is mostly synthesizer, but there's
also a bit of source music.
You're listed as directing Bat Boy... what is that one?
Bat Boy was an off-Broadway musical that was very successful.  They're
writing the script right now - it's pretty out there!  It's based on the
Weekly World News creature. It's quite a good show - it's very
traditional horror show, but with music singing and dancing - it's very
clever!  I'm attached to direct, but it's still being written, so it's a
bit early.
Master of Horror will be out this fall on Showtime.  The Blues Brothers
is being re-issued as a 25th Anniversary DVD on August 30th, including
both the theatrical and extended cuts of the film, as well as some new
extras. 
Special thanks to John Landis for being generous with his time, and Ira
Newborn, John Mullin and Taylor White for the audio clips.
-- 
UFV:Crazy People(DVD)/Vacanze romane/Un'ora sola ti vorrei
Da zero a dieci(DVD)/Uzumaki(DVD)/La guerra dei mondi
http://www.albertofarina.tk

buy tickets by clicking here)
I got to have a more intimate moment with Mr. Landis - we did a phone
interview this afternoon. I only had 10 minutes, but I could have easily
gone on for 10 times that. I barely even scratched the surface of this
guy's great career - hell, I didn't get a single American Werewolf
question in, and that's one of my all-time favorite films!
Q: The new edition of The Blues Brothers DVD that is coming out ˆ what
can fans expect on this new edition that's different from what we've
seen in the past?
Landis: Not much! Five years ago for the 20th anniversary we did this
expanded version which included footage we found in a preview print. On
this DVD they're releasing on the same DVD the expanded version and the
original theatrical version, plus the documentary which was done five
years ago on the making of the movie, which is excellent. It has footage
from the location, the shooting of the film, as well as interviews that
were done in 79 and 1999.
What's interesting is that for the new DVD they also have additional
things ˆ they have a documentary on John Belushi and a piece on the
impact of the Blues Brothers on the world. And I think they have a piece
of Danny and Jimmy Belushi performing at the House of Blues. It's
interesting because I was looking at some of this stuff and it's weird
for me because I see myself in 79, and then in 80, then in 95 and then
in 2000 and then in 2005, being interviewed. It's very odd for me ˆ it's
like I'm fat! Thin! Long hair! Short hair! Black hair! Grey hair!
Q: It's like the DVD of Dorian Grey for you.
Landis: On speed!
Q: The Blues Brothers is well known for its incredible car chases, but
it's really mostly a musical. What was tougher for you ˆ the insane car
stuff or wrangling the stars and the dancers and the audiences?
Landis: Logistically the big car chase scenes are more complicated to
shoot. This was way before CGI, so it was all real. We were doing
ridiculously elaborate, 35 cars going over 100mph in downtown Chicago.
So to set stuff like that up was like a military operation. For a couple
of those shots we had to literally make sure there was no entrance to
the street for a mile. So it was very, very elaborate and complicated
shooting the car stuff.
The musical stuff was more fun for me, just because it was so
entertaining, especially with these incredible performers.
Q: For people of my generation ˆ I'm 31 years old ˆ The Blues Brothers
introduced us to a lot of these acts, and the film is their defining
moment for us.
Landis: The intention of the movie ˆ Danny and John did something
unique, which was that they deliberately exploited their celebrity of
the moment, since they were big stars then, to focus a spotlight on
these amazing acts. At that time in 79 it was all disco. The big acts
were Abba and the BeeGees. The movie was very successful in that
respect, it really brought back rhythm and blues.
Q: One of the big stories this summer has been the return of the R-rated
comedy. You're sort of the king of the R-rated comedy. Why do you think
they fell out of favor, and why do you think they're coming back now?
Landis: It never fell out of favor. You have to understand that this
stuff has to do with what the studios will make. The studios are like
sheep and they just follow where the money is. If you made a film, no
matter how despicable, and it made money it's a good film.
I haven't seen The Wedding Crashers or The 40 Year Old Virgin, but I'm
pleased that they're doing well because the studios have shied away from
the R-rating stupidly, I believe. An R-rating just means that adults can
see it. I've made a number of movies that grossed well over a hundred
million dollars ˆ The Blues Brothers is R-rated, but there's no sex in
it, there's no violence in it. It's all slapstick. There's nothing in it
I wouldn't let an 8 year old or a 9 year old see. There's a lot of
profanity it, that's why it's R-rated. But I've made Trading Places,
Coming to America ˆ I mean, Animal House! I've made a lot of R-rated
comedies that were hugely successful.
Q: And they're great films. I saw them at a young age and I don't think
they screwed up my life anymore than it would have been.
Landis: I hope not!
Q: You have a lot of projects that have been announced. What's next for
you?
Landis: I don't know. That's an excellent question. I just finished a
show, this thing called The Masters of Horror. That was actually kind of
fun. Mine was called Deer Woman, and it was written by my son Max.
That's complete. It's part of this DVD and Showtime series that's
exciting because it's director driven. And nothing these days is
director driven ˆ it's all about actors and franchises. What's wonderful
about this is that all 13 of us directors were basically given a million
eight and seven to ten days to do whatever we want.
Dario Argento's finished, I did mine. Tobe Hooper finished his. Joe
Dante is shooting now. John Carpenter finished his. Stuart Gordon
finished his. Don Coscarelli finished his. Takashi Miike is doing one.
It's pretty exciting. It's a lot of really interesting filmmakers, and I
think it's going to be fun.
Q: And this is Showtime, so you can do whatever you want. There's no
MPAA breathing down your neck.
Landis: Oh yeah, we can do whatever we want. Some of them I have seen
and they're pretty gruesome!
Q: My DVD collection has a big hole in it because I haven't bought Three
Amigos because there's just that barebones version available. Any plans
for a new edition?
Landis: I would love for them to do a fancy edition of Three Amigos, but
I don't even know who owns Three Amigos now. That was made for Orion,
who went out of business. Maybe MGM, who was just bought by Sony? I
don't even know who owns it! That's up to the DVD companies.
Certain titles of mine, like Coming to America, Three Amigos and Spies
Like Us, Innocent Blood, they sell consistently. They just keep selling.
Because they're selling they figure, fuck it, we don't have to do
anything! They do all the bells and whistles to resell stuff.
Q: I heard that if you went back to Coming to America you would actually
make it shorter. Is that true?
Landis: If I could. They wouldn't let me.
Q: Why would you cut it? It's such a great film now.
Landis: That was the fastest movie ever made. I don't know if you know
this, but we were in release in 3000 theaters about three weeks after
principal photography. It was insane. We agreed to a release date before
we went into production so I had two editors going and I was cutting at
night. We had cut, mixed and scored nine reels before we finished
shooting. And we had to give Technicolor two weeks to make the prints!
It was never even previewed ˆ it was finished, out the door, done and
gone.
I'm pleased with the movie, and it was a giant success, but I think it's
too long. It's a little fat. I think it would be a better picture with
twelve or fifteen minutes trimmed out.
Q: Is there going to be a Batboy: The Musical film?
Landis: I hope so. I have a meeting Thursday about it. I'm overseeing
the development of the script by the writers of the show. Have you seen
the show?
Q: I've never seen the show, but I am a big fan of the Weekly World
News!
Landis: Well, the show is quite wonderful. It's extremely dark, very
funny and ultimately kind of a Greek tragedy. The music's wonderful.
We're fighting about that right now, because to be true to the musical ˆ
talk about R-rated, it would have to be. It deals with bestiality and
other things that don't work PG. It's very, very dark and very smart. I
don't know if they'll let us.
Q: Is there a soundtrack out there now?
Landis: You can buy the Broadway album and the London album. I actually
thought the London production was better than the Broadway show.
Q: Mr. Landis, thank you very much for taking time to talk today. I'm
dying for a good edition of Three Amigos, so if I find out who owns it,
I'm dropping you an email!
Landis: Email them! I would love that. That's a beautifully photographed
film, and I think that the DVD that exists is just from the laser disc.
It's an old print.
 Also that movie has my favorite score. It has Elmer Bernstein and Randy
Newman, and Elmer literally making fun of Elmer Bernstein. It's a
brilliant score And Randy's songs ˆ Randy's the singing bush, you know.
I like that movie too.
-- 
UFV:Madagascar/Melinda e Melinda/Tu chiamami Peter/Ensayo de un
crimen(DVD)/El(DVD)/Cani arrabbiati.avi/Ehrengard(VHS)/L'invenzione 
di Morel(VHS)/36 Quai des Orfévres - 
http://www.albertofarina.tk