I got wind of the news that GHOSTBUSTERS III is in production. The Ghostbusters franchise is great. I'm afraid I can't say the same for this poster though. Now that really is kind of scary. I just saw Ernie Hudson in a Broadway production of August Wilson's Joe Turner's Come and Gone. And he co-starred with Chad L. Coleman, who played one of my favorite characters on The Wire, Cutty (the ex-con turned boxing coach). Back to Ghostbusters, you can't really go wrong with Bill Murray. I just saw him in Limits of Control. I actually like Jim Jarmusch, but his last bunch of films have been lost in pretension and this script is no exception. I will say that he made excellent choices in production: cinematographer Christoper Doyle captures the beauty of Seville Spain and renders a fascinatingly modern universe - the envornments are more interesting than the script itself, like the industrial landscape they pass by on the train ride or all those ultra-modern airports. Plus he gets to shoot a great cast: Tilda Swinton, Gael Garcia Bernal, John Hurt, Kudo Yuki, an incredibly interesting face in Isaach De Bankolé, and an incredible ass (whole package actually) in Paz de la Huerta. Jarmusch is very much about homage and his use of de la Huerta reminded me a little bit of Bardot in Contempt. Anyway, it's been 20 years since the last Ghostbusters film. A lot of the audience for the new film were barely alive when the first two films were released. The nature of media is different now. I'm just imagining what it would have been like if they had released an Easy Rider part 2 in 1988. And the "I ain't afraid of no ghost" refrain reminds me of that comic genius Mantan Moreland.
He was almost one of the Three Stooges! amazing for a black comedian in the 50's. He was in those Charlie Chan movies and East Side Kid pictures and he ended his career in the incredible Spider Baby:One of my favorite Moreland performances is how I menatlly connected him to Ghostbuster - his show stealing turn in King of the Zombies:
4 comments:
Zombies is dead folks what walk around!
I never heard that Mantan was considered for The Stooges. Where's you hear that?
This is from Wikipedia:
"Moreland was offered fewer roles in the 1950s, when filmmakers began to reassess roles given to black actors. He was briefly considered as a possible addition to the Three Stooges when Shemp Howard died in 1955. This prospect was disclosed by Moe Howard in a 1971 interview with film historian Michael H. Price, cited in Price's 2007 biography of Moreland, Mantan the Funnyman, from Midnight Marquee Press of Baltimore. Moreland returned to the stage and appeared in two all-black variety films in 1955, with Nipsey Russell standing in for Ben Carter as his straight man."
Dave, this Michael Price character beat you to the punch and done wrote a biography of Mantan!
Sq. Dave: I loved the moment in King of the Zombies when Moreland has been transformed into one of the walking dead, and he says to the pack of Zombies, "Make room, boys. I'm one of you now!" He had such a touch with comedy.Great Post. -- Mykal
Welcome Radiation C. and thanks for the kind words. Mantan makes that movie worth watching. All the scenes with him and the household staff and the zombies - his one liners, delivery, timing - are fantastic. He really stands out in anything he's in.
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