The Film Frontier Blog

John Berkey; Elvis; Twilight Zone (News from the frontier, 5/14/2008) [The Film Frontier blog]

/ TY

Artist John Berkey, 1932-2008
Berkey's Elvis Stamp BStarWars.com reported yesterday that artist John Berkey passed away on April 29. He was 75. Berkey painted the cover of the 1976 novelization of Star Wars, an image that continued to appear on early editions of the book. Berkey also painted a poster depicting a dogfight over the Death Star, used as an insert in the original Star Wars soundtrack LP.

The StarWars.com article includes a link to a gallery of ten Berkey Star Wars images. You can also find pictures of Berkey’s work in 2005’s The Star Wars Poster Book by Stephen J. Sansweet and Peter Vilmur. Though known for his science fiction and Star Wars art, Berkey was reportedly not a science fiction fan and never saw Star Wars.

Elvis Presley, 1973For a 1992 US Postal Servicing stamp voting campaign, Berkey also painted “Elvis Stamp B” (above), which depicted Elvis Presley as he appeared in his historic 1973 Aloha From Hawaii TV special (right). Berkey’s image lost to Mark Stutzman’s “Elvis Stamp A,” which depicted Elvis in 1956, his first year of national fame. Stutzman’s 1950s Elvis image became an official US stamp the following year, while Berkey’s 1970s Elvis image was never issued.

I voted for Berkey’s Elvis stamp back in 1992 and never knew about his Star Wars connection until reading The Star Wars Poster Book a couple of years ago. Though, again, I had no idea who the artist was back then, I actually had several posters of Berkey’s science fiction and fantasy imagery hanging in my bedroom when I was growing up. He was a real talent and will be missed.

Elvis: That’s The Way It Is (FTD Classic Album Series) available this week
Follow That Dream (FTD) records, BMG’s Elvis Presley collectors label, is scheduled to release a 2-CD set of Elvis: That’s The Way It Is this week to the US as part of its “Classic Album Series.”

This 2008 edition of the 1970 album includes all of the original tracks, plus numerous alternate takes, a 20-page booklet, and other extras. The new Elvis: That’s The Way It Is CD set was first released in Europe last month.

Check out Thomas’ review, over at his Elvis Today blog, and Lex’s review, over at ElvisNews.com. To obtain FTD CDs, visit ShopElvis.com. Most FTD CDs are much more interesting than the mainstream “greatest hits”-style Elvis CDs you’ll find at your local store.

Twilight Zone graphic novels on the way for 50th anniversary
It is hard to believe that 2009 will mark the 50th anniversary of the television debut of Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone. Next to the original Star Trek, The Twilight Zone is my favorite TV series. I grew up watching both of them, and still watch them now (yet another indication that, in fact, I never did grow up).

Publishers Weekly announced earlier this month that Walker & Co. will release a series of graphic novels based on Twilight Zone‘s original scripts, in conjunction with Rod Serling’s estate. There will be at least eight graphic novels in all. Look for the first to hit US stores in October.

How To Spend An Extra Day [The Film Frontier blog]

/ TY

“The only thing worse than watching a bad movie is being in one.”
–Elvis Presley

Finally, February is over and spring is almost here.

Though I’m no fan of February, it does have one redeeming factor: Leap Day. I spent part of 2008’s extra day watching Superman Returns. February 29 is Superman’s kinda-sorta birthday, after all. It has been nearly a year since I last watched this movie, and I continue to be impressed by it. I hope that both Bryan Singer and Brandon Routh will return for a sequel within the next two or three years. I have seen rumors on both sides, but no confirmation either way.

I also watched some Star Trek episodes on Leap Day. No real connection there, I just felt like watching. I watched the original versions of “The Apple,” “Mirror, Mirror,” and “The Deadly Years.” Turns out that “The Apple” is also this weekend’s episode of Star Trek: Remastered. This is not an episode I could watch twice in the same weekend, though.

No Star Wars on Friday, but I did sneak in an Elvis movie – Harum Scarum. Definitely not one of his best, but interesting to me as an Elvis fan since I  had not watched it in a long time.

When I was a kid, the local UHF syndicated station seemed to show Elvis movie marathons nearly every Saturday afternoon. Coming from a family of Elvis fans, I spent a lot of time watching them. I will not lie to you and tell you that Elvis made the best movies, but most of them do have a quirky fun about them. He had a real gift for comedy that a lot of the mainstream really does not know about. Check out Viva Las Vegas, for instance.

Elvis made 31 scripted movies, but some of them seemed to turn up on those Saturday afternoons more often than others. Harum Scarum and Easy Come, Easy Go, for instance received a lot more airplay back then than, say, Jailhouse Rock or Change of Habit.

When the UHF station was not playing Elvis movies, it filled Saturday afternoons with Godzilla and other monster movies instead. I watched a lot of those, too. My favorite of these was Godzilla vs. King Kong-mostly because of the epic nature of such a bout. Elvis never made any monster movies, but it sure would have been cool to see him take down Godzilla with a karate chop and then nurse the beast’s wounds with a song in Elvis vs. Godzilla. You know, maybe I watched too much TV as a kid.

Hey, I wonder if Quantum Leap fans use Leap Day to celebrate their franchise? There’s even an Elvis connection to Quantum Leap. The last episode before the series finale featured Sam leaping into the body of none other than Elvis Presley, on the brink of being discovered. Though filled with inaccuracies regarding Elvis, it is still a fun episode.

One neat bit of trivia is that when Sam looks in the mirror to see the face of the body into which he has leaped, Elvis is portrayed by Michael St. Gerard – who had also played him on the short-lived ABC television series Elvis. He also appeared as Elvis in the Jerry Lee Lewis biopic Great Balls of Fire. St. Gerard actually looks enough like Elvis that my local paper once accidentally put a small picture of him next to an article about the real Elvis, with the caption: “Presley.”

Due to an unforeseen circumstance, I had the day off on Leap Day this year, though I probably would have requested it off anyway. It only seems fair that Leap Day should be a worldwide holiday for everyone.

Does your employer or school really deserve an extra day of your life? It is the perfect day to catch up on time, life, and movies.

We will start the Leap Day Holiday movement right here on The Film Frontier. We will all work really hard on it – every four years or so.

Get Smart trailer; Star Trek and Twilight Zone episodes online; Elvis & Star Wars (News from the frontier, 3/2/2008) [The Film Frontier blog]

/ TY

Good morning, folks. It’s catch-up time, so I have a lot of news for you today.

Get Smart movie news roundup
Now that Paramount has moved Star Trek to 2009, the movie I’m most excited about this year is the revitalization of Get Smart, starring Steve Carell and Anne Hathaway. I have been watching the original Get Smart on DVD to get ready. The new preview trailer released last week by Warner Brothers looks fantastic. Check it out on the official Get Smart movie site. Get Smart hits theaters on June 20.

SCI FI Wire has a number of interesting articles on Get Smart. Carell wisely decided not to imitate the legendary Don Adams while portraying the character. “There’s no way to improve upon what he did,” said Carell, who says he instead tried to evoke the spirit of the character.

“Honestly, for me the catch phrases were the toughest part, because it’s hard to say them or think of them in any other way than the way that Don Adams did them. So, again, I tried not to do an impersonation of him, but I tried to sort of let them come out of the situation and not feel like they should stick out in any way,” he said.

This is actually not the first time Carell has tackled a character from a legendary 1960s television series. In 2005’s Bewitched, he appeared as Uncle Arthur to counsel Will Ferrell. Uncle Arthur was made famous by Paul Lynde on the television version of Bewitched. Carell’s Bewitched cameo was a slightly different situation than his Get Smart role, though. In Bewitched, he really is supposed to be the exact same fictional incarnation of Uncle Arthur portrayed by Lynde. Even stock footage of Lynde is shown earlier in the movie. The Get Smart movie, on the other hand, is a total restart of the franchise.

Within a couple weeks of the release of Get Smart to theaters, Warner Brothers will also release a direct-to-DVD movie, Get Smart’s Bruce and Lloyd Out of Control. The spinoff film stars Masi Oka (Heroes) and Nate Torrence (Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip), who also have supporting roles in Get Smart.

CBS releases Star Trek and The Twilight Zone for free online viewing in the US
Every episode of all three seasons of the original Star Trek is now available over at CBS.com for free viewing by those in the United States. These are unaltered versions of the shows, not the versions shown in syndication for Star Trek: Remastered. The first two seasons of the original The Twilight Zone, which lasted five seasons, are also available online.

· CBS.com: Star Trek video episodes
· CBS.com: The Twilight Zone video episodes

Elvis & Star Wars
Don’t worry, I’m not going to start covering “Elvis Trooper” here. However, there are some legitimate connections between Elvis Presley and Star Wars. As a member of both fanbases, I’ve observed a lot of this stuff first-hand over the years. Thomas over at the Elvis Today blog compiles some of them in his article “Elvis, Star Wars style.”

When I visited Graceland in 1990, one of the things mentioned on the tour was that on the last night of his life, Elvis tried to obtain a copy of Star Wars to show his daughter, Lisa Marie, but none were available. Elvis and Star Wars will always share 1977, which really had two huge entertainment headlines–one was the launch of the legendary Star Wars in May and the other was the loss of the legendary Elvis Presley in August. Both stories have had rippling effects all the way to the present.

In 1968, Steve Binder directed ELVIS, a Christmas special that became the most-watched show of the year and revitalized Elvis’ career. Today, it is known as ELVIS: ’68 Comeback Special. When I watch this special, sometimes I think about how only a decade later, Elvis would be gone and Binder would be directing another Christmas special – 1978’s infamous Star Wars Holiday Special. In a unique way, Binder was there for the best of Elvis and the worst of Star Wars.

In June 1977, just six weeks before his death, Elvis was filmed for another television special, Elvis In Concert. The director of that special, which did not air until about six weeks after Elvis’ death, was Dwight Hemion. Hemion, who passed away just over a month ago, teamed up with Binder the next year for that very same Star Wars Holiday Special, for which he served as Executive Producer. Like the Star Wars Holiday Special, the complete version of Elvis In Concert is not officially available for purchase.

I stumbled across the top-notch Elvis Today blog while looking up info about another Elvis project, This Is Elvis. I watched the 1981 theatrical cut of this rockumentary for the first time in years the other day. Elvis Today is an extremely well-written blog. I was so thrilled to find it that I actually went back and read all 90 or so of its entries. I’ve not done this for any other blog out there, including the myriad of ones available for Star Trek (there are some Elvis connections there, too; I’ll also save them for another day).

In one posting, Thomas sums up what it feels like to be an Elvis fan better than anything else I’ve ever read:

“On the highway I put the fourth CD from the Today, Tomorrow & Forever box set in the car stereo and there was ‘See See Rider’ from February 1970 blasting through the speakers. It’s hard to explain what I felt, but I remember thinking ‘Man, I’m gonna listen to Elvis and his music until the very day I die.'”

That makes two of us.

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And that’s about all the time we have for this installment of News From The Frontier. Have a great day, everyone.

USPS announces 15 Star Wars stamps & a vote [The Film Frontier blog]

/ TY

Not being the most popular site on the Web (yet), I have to celebrate small victories here at The Film Frontier, so . . . with all due humility . . . what can I say, but . . . I called it!

But first, the big news of the day. The United States Postal Service unveiled 15 Star Wars stamps that will be sold as a pane starting May 25 — the 30th anniversary of the release of Star Wars. For more details and to see the new stamps, check out http://www.uspsjedimaster.com.

Also announced today, the postal service is holding an online vote to determine which of the 15 stamps will be available on its own, separate sheet in addition to the group pane. The vote is only the second time in history that the public will help to determine the fate of a postage stamp.

Here was my speculation (pulled out of thin air, mind you; I had no “sources”) back on March 17:

Associated Press reports yesterday also seemed to confirm the obvious, that the big announcement on March 28 is indeed for Star Wars stamp(s).

Will the announcement be as simple as that, though? Or will the post office deliver up another Elvis-style contest? Rather than 50s Elvis vs. 70s Elvis, it could be Vader vs. Yoda, for instance.

While the same person cannot be honored on more than one US stamp within the same decade, there is no such restriction on fictional characters. Any such contest would be only a marketing ploy. And they would never do that, would they?

Unlike Elvis fans, who were only able to purchase the winning stamp, Star Wars fans will have the opportunity to buy all 15 stamps no matter which one prevails. The postal service will be turning most of these sales into pure profit, since many of the stamps will never actually be mailed. I’d have to call that a win-win scenario.

The 15 stamps (and contenders for the solo sheet) are as follows:

  • Darth Vader (The Empire Strikes Back)
  • The Millennium Falcon (Star Wars)
  • The Emperor (Return of the Jedi)
  • Vader vs. Obi-Wan (Revenge of the Sith)
  • Luke Skywalker (Star Wars)
  • Leia & Artoo (Star Wars)
  • Threepio (Star Wars)
  • Queen Amidala (The Phantom Menace)
  • Obi-Wan (Star Wars)
  • Boba Fett (The Empire Strikes Back)
  • Darth Maul (The Phantom Menace)
  • Yoda (The Empire Strikes Back)
  • Chewie & Han (Star Wars)
  • X-Wing (Star Wars)
  • Stormtroopers (Star Wars)

I was surprised by a number of things. First, I didn’t expect to see depictions of the human characters. I suppose the regulation that a person must be dead for ten years to appear on a US stamp does not apply if recognizing a character played by an actor.

Given the number of items their images have been used on over the years, I imagine the Star Wars actors won’t feel as weird about seeing themselves on a stamp as most others would. Once you’ve been an action figure, it’s pretty much all downhill from there.

And, honestly, I didn’t expect to see any prequel trilogy stamps. I don’t mind it, but it is surprising.  If you’re going to include the prequels, though, why leave out Attack of the Clones?

It would have been nice if Han and Leia had rated individual stamps. They are two of the most important Star Wars characters, after all.

Be sure to vote, early and often.

Reporters begin sniffing at Artoo mailboxes [The Film Frontier blog]

/ TY

It didn’t take long. Yesterday, I told you about Artoo Detoo mailboxes appearing around the country as part of a joint marketing effort between Lucasfilm and the US Postal Service.

Meredith Heagney of The Columbus Dispatch in Ohio has already mentioned the mailboxes in two articles, and we see an attempt to start a controversy.

On Thursday, Heagney reported:

Once the Postal Service does talk, it will have to explain who paid for the custom mailboxes, in light of a proposed increase in first-class postage to 41 cents. Mark Haberman wasn’t impressed with the special mailbox[…]. “I think it’s a waste of money,” said Haberman, the assistant director of the Ohio Building Authority.

Yesterday, she continued the angle:

The Postal Service says it was a “Jedi mind trick.” Here on Earth it’s called a “publicity stunt.” […] [Melissa] Dodge [a spokeswoman for the U.S. Postal Service] refused to say how much the graphics cost the Postal Service, calling it “proprietary information.” She said the cost was “very minimal.” Star Wars’ parent company, Lucasfilm, did not provide funds for the mailboxes, and the Postal Service didn’t pay to use R2-D2’s image, Dodge said.

Associated Press reports yesterday also seemed to confirm the obvious, that the big announcement on March 28 is indeed for Star Wars stamp(s).

* * *

Will the announcement be as simple as that, though? Or will the post office deliver up another Elvis-style contest? Rather than 50s Elvis vs. 70s Elvis, it could be Vader vs. Yoda, for instance.

While the same person cannot be honored on more than one US stamp within the same decade, there is no such restriction on fictional characters. Any such contest would be only a marketing ploy. And they would never do that, would they?

Primary Information Sources
The Columbus Dispatch: Mysterious it is, this R2-D2 mailbox that left in a flash
The Columbus Dispatch: ‘Star Wars’ mailbox sequels debut today
The Associated Press: `Star Wars’ droid R2-D2 to collect mail

Artoo Detoo now a mail carrier [The Film Frontier blog]

/ TY

Starting today, if you live in the US, you will be able to deposit your mail in officially sanctioned Artoo Detoo mailboxes around the country. No, this is not an early April Fool’s joke.

In an unprecedented marketing scheme, Lucasfilm has teamed up with the US Postal Service to promote a new web site. Official US Postal Service mailboxes in many areas have been transformed to look like the popular astromech droid.

The mailboxes promote http://www.uspsjedimaster.com, which promises a major announcement on March 28 about a collaborative project between the postal service and Lucasfilm.

I don’t think I’m going very far out on a limb here by saying to expect the announcement to include a Star Wars stamp or set of stamps. After all, entertainment stamps tend to be huge profit-makers for the postal service since collectors often save rather than use them.

A 1993 stamp featuring Elvis Presley remains the most popular US stamp of all time. Other popular entertainment stamps include last year’s DC Comics Superheroes set and various Walt Disney stamps.

Primary Information Sources
StarWars.com: R2-D2 mailboxes coming to your galaxy
WashingtonPost.com: Elvis remains the King of postage stamps