Everyone within the B-Movie Film Vault Empire has been hard at work lately, bringing you new content as often as possible. Here are all the latest articles, reviews, and musings from our small (but mighty) collective of blogs:
According to Bad Ass Digest in a recent article, Platinum Dunes (though they've been given the greenlight for sequels to their remakes of "Friday the 13th" and "A Nightmare on Elm St.") is apparently going to distance themselves from the Horror genre. As announced in this really cool video, which features Platinum Dunes' very own Brad Fuller, saying it like it is, the bomb is dropped at the 9:44 mark in the video, after Fuller finishes discussing how disappointed he was with the remake of "A Nightmare on Elm St." For many Horror fans, this is fantastic news, but I'm kind of disappointed as I was actually hoping for another chapter in the rebooted "Friday the 13th" series. Still.... its really satisfying to know that PLATINUM DUNES IS NO LONGER DOING HORROR REMAKES!
In other news, TUCKER & DALE VS. EVIL got a distributor! Magnolia Picture's very own Magnet Releasing label has snatched up the rights and we will all FINALLY get to see this movie that has been praised, hyped, and begged for since the middle of last year! Magnet is releasing "Tucker & Dale" in select theaters (probably only in LA and NY, which is utter bullsh*t!) on September 30th, and will also be releasing it via various Video on Demand services on August 26th! I'm guessing that they'll put it out on DVD and Blu-ray sometime in October, and you best believe that I'll be buying it once its available!
Finally, I'd like to share with you a teaser photo of a new t-shirt design from those awesome guys and gals at FRIGHT-RAGS! This is only one of five new tees they will be releasing, and I can't wait to see the rest of them! (The rest will be unveiled next week!) Behold fellow Horror and Sci-Fi nerds..... ZOMBIE WARS: THE LIVING DEAD STRIKE BACK!
Well that's all I've got for you today b-movie fans! Check back soon for more cool stuff at the Vault as I continue to celebrate its 11th year online, and enjoy this gorgeous Thursday!
I'll be speaking on the subject of Hollywood and Aliens at the UFO Academy's fourth Into the Unknown conference on the 20th August, 2011, at High Elms Manor in Watford (UK).
For full details of the conference, head on over to the UFO Academy's website.
As of June 6th this year, The B-Movie Film Vault has been online for ELEVEN YEARS! To celebrate this milestone, I present to you a refurbished review for the 1982 creature feature, THE BEAST WITHIN. This movie features a veteran cast of character actors, some cool old school practical f/x, and a rather intriguing storyline that puts a grotesquely different spin on rape & revenge cinema! (Also, I finally got my groove back a bit and put up a new GENRE WATCH article. CLICK HERE to see what's new in stores and theaters this week!)
Also, I wanted to share the latest episode of Underbelly. The writers and cast of this web series have teamed with VSauce, and in their first co-op episode, Underbelly's very own Newt shares his comic book knowledge with VSauce's Michael (and viewers). Newt delivers a list of the SIX WORST COMIC VILLAINS EVER, which is made up of some of the goofiest baddies I've ever (or rather, never) heard of. Check out the video and don't forget to subscribe!
Well I'm off to do more writing. I'll be posting a new article soon over at the Casual Gaming Blog soon (be sure to head over now to read Derek Miller's continuing Top Ten List of classic NES Wrestling games), will be maintaining my weekly vigil at the Genre Watch blog, and I plan on getting some more reviews, articles, and maybe even a podcast or two added to the Vault archives before this month is through! Stay tuned for more awesome stuff b-movie fans! Blog ya later!
In an interview with Ain't It Cool News writer Eric Vespe (better known online as 'Quint') published June 6th, Steven Spielberg confirms that, following a White House screening of E.T: The Extraterrestrial in 1982, President Ronald Reagan did indeed make remarks to the effect that the premise of Spielberg's movie - extraterrestrial visitation - was fact, not fiction.
This is something of a bombshell. Rumours have persisted for years about just what - if anything - Reagan told Spielberg during the 1982 White House E.T. screening, but not until now has the director spoken about it on the record. Spielberg's version of events, however, differs slightly from the version that has entered UFO-lore.
According to Spielberg, Reagan did not address his remarks to him personally, but rather - and more remarkably - to all guests in the room collectively (some of whom were astronauts). Here is what happened in Spielberg's own words:
"It was in the White House screening room and Reagan got up to thank me for bringing the film to show the President, the First Lady and all of their guests, which included Sandra Day O’Connor in her first week of as a Justice of the Supreme Court, and it included some astronauts… I think Neil Armstrong was there, I’m not 100% certain, but it was an amazing, amazing evening.
He just stood up and he looked around the room, almost like he was doing a headcount, and he said, 'I wanted to thank you for bringing E.T. to the White House. We really enjoyed your movie,' and then he looked around the room and said, 'And there are a number of people in this room who know that everything on that screen is absolutely true.'
And he said it without smiling! But he said that and everybody laughed, by the way. The whole room laughed because he presented it like a joke, but he wasn’t smiling as he said it."
The Reagans with Spielberg before the 1982 White House screening of E.T: The Extraterrestrial.
Asked by his interviewer if he thought Reagan "let something slip" that evening, Spielberg replied:
"I don’t think he let something slip there, no. I think he delivered a joke without smiling, without a little bit of a twinkle behind the joke. I think the joke landed because everybody laughed, but because I’m a little bit of a Ufologist I was hoping that there was something more to the joke than met my eye. I’m sorry to say I think he was simply trying to tell a joke."
Sorry, Steven, I'm not buying it. Anyone who is even vaguely familiar with the subject of UFOs and the Presidency will know as a well documented fact that Ronald Reagan was extremely interested - obsessed, even - with the idea of alien visitation and that this interest extended to a 'belief' (if that is right word) in UFOs (Reagan even had two UFO sightings of his own whilst Governor of California). The notion of alien visitation so preoccupied the President that it entered his policy speeches on a number of occasions, most famously at the 42nd General Assembly of the United Nations on 21 September, 1987:
Even if Spielberg had not been aware of Reagan's interest in UFOs back in 1982, the self-proclaimed "ufologist" would most certainly be aware of it today and could be confident in hindsight that Reagan's comments were not meant in jest.
Of course Reagan's guests laughed at his remark - how else would they have reacted? With a collective gasp of shock followed by a flurry of pressing questions? And surely Reagan knew they'd laugh, which is probably why he felt comfortable saying it in the first place. But Steven - Mr. Spielberg - when a President who believes in aliens tells you that aliens are real, when he says it "without smiling, without a little bit of a twinkle," and when it seems in no way at all like a joke but for the obligatory laughter that follows, it's safe to assume he's not kidding around.
President Obama with Spielberg and Tom Hanks in the White House screening room in 2010.
I don't doubt that Spielberg is telling it as it happened, but I am indeed suggesting that he is being less than truthful in regard to his own personal interpretation of Reagan's comments. But if Spielberg believes - or even knows - that Reagan wasn't joking, why not just say so? Well, because Spielberg is quite a friend to the White House, and has been for decades. He routinely rubs shoulders with the Washington power elite. He's a former Bilderberg attendee. He's a billionaire. He's hugely influential. What he says matters; it rings out. He's smart, and, most importantly in the eyes of his friends in Washington, he's discreet. If Spielberg were not discreet, those regular invites from the White House would long ago have ceased to grace his mailbox.
When you're in Spielberg's privileged position, you don't ruffle Presidential feathers, no matter how old those feathers may be.
Bill Clinton presents Spielberg with The Liberty Medal, Oct. 2009.
For further information on the Reagan/Spielberg story, as well as on Spielberg and UFOs more generally, see:
