The wild story of the film, Zyzzyx Road - written & directed by my buddy, John Penney.
For as long as I've done this blog, once in a while I know somebody involved in one of these wacky public episodes. This time, my friend John Penny, who's been my good friend for over 15 years, introduced to me by my Mom. My Mom is a nurse who worked with John's wife. Anyway - details you're not interested in aside, John is a great writer/director. He used to write films like RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD 3 - the one where Mindee Clark from THE OC dug piercings into her decaying zombie corpse, IN PURSUIT, a low budget action film with a lot of brains, THE CONTAMINATED MAN, with William Hurt - which is a low budget masterpiece - and a bunch of others I'm sure he'll remind me of once reading this blog.
A few years ago, he started getting into directing his own scripts and has done very well for himself. About a year ago, me and my ex, Heidi, had gone to his house screening room to watch ZYZZYX ROAD - which was a low budget thriller set around Las Vegas that started Kathryn Heigl and Tom Sizemore. ROAD was a fine thriller with a low budget and a great claustrophobic tone and great performances from all the leads. I suspected my friend would do very well with his movie. I thought "this is the one you're going to be hearing about." And I turned out to be right, though not for the reasons John nor I ever thought.
As it turns out, to make the deal with SAG to do a low budget film, there is a financial incentive to having your film play in a theater. So the way to deal with this, as the producers of Zyzzyx ROAD did, was to have the film play in Texas at one theater, unannounced for a five day run in a once a day showing that ran at 11: AM. Now, this sounds ludicrous to me - I can't believe anyway saw the film. But under scrutiny, it was determined that 20 of the 30 dollars was from cast and crew who happened to live near the theater and got to see the movie they worked on. (The producer actually sent them their money back when he heard about it.)
In any case, the movie was really good - the producer ran the film in Texas once a day at 11:AM to qualify it for the DGA for 5 days and it made (somehow) 30 bux. Now, my suspicion is that if you ran THE GODFATHER with no fanfare or promotion once a day in Texas while nobody knew it was there - and without curious former crew members, it would probably make about 10 dollars or so. If that.
So the film runs, it makes 30 bux, gets recorded somewhere officially, and a website called www.Chud.com decides that it's a slow movie day - and that this 30 dollar recorded take is pretty funny. Soon, stories are all over the place about this movie that took in thirty dollars. My friend John had a a great sense of humor about it, but also worries that people will get the wrong idea. It's a fine film. The apex of this must've been the other day, talking to a friend who is NOT in the business at all. When I mentioned ZyZZyx Road, they said - "Oh Yeah, the film that only made 30 dollars."
This is my friend, John's worst nightmare. That this has become such a big Internet story is a double edged sword. On one hand, I'm sure he's tickled by the publicity and the interviews he's done (I think 3 or 4 magazine cover stories and endless Internet accounts - he's been interviewed on the radio over this a number of times in the last few weeks.)
Anyway - the only difference between my report and the rest of the blog reports on Zyzzyx Road is this: I've actually seen the movie. It's great.
I think what he's afraid of most is that people will somehow think that the 30 dollar box office haul was more to do with the movie than with the weird SAG laws that dictate these strange occurrences. I also thought I'd give John an unedited forum to say a few words, which I'm going to end this article with - but first, as someone who's seen it - Zyzzyx Road is a crackerjack thriller and with any luck, will end up with a nice distribution deal based on this strange and funny publicity.
I was going to interview John for this, but realized that I'm sure all my questions would be covered by the links to the articles - on the other hand, here is John's chance to speak about the strange journey of his movie:
Finally, in John Penney's own words, I asked him to say a few things about his much discussed feature:
JOHN PENNEY:
Who could've planned it?... We put the film in a matinee slot for six days in Dallas to satisfy a Screen Actors Guild requirement and the 30 dollars it makes shows up on the national box office reports. The funny headlines that followed on the net, Variety and the New York Times were much better than the boring truth... The movie was never really released. In fact, we wanted the screenings to be on the Q.T. so we could save our American release until we had sold foreign rights. Usually these SAG screenings are done in L.A. with one showing, but because our foreign distributor Regent owned theaters in Dallas, and the rate was 1000.00 for a week, we did it that way.
Needless to say, this is not how I envisioned my directing career to begin, but hey... The story took on a life of its own and you just gotta role with it.
Two things I can guarantee: First, the movie didn't only make 30.00 because it's a bad movie. In fact, test screenings were very positive. And second, my next movie will definitely out gross my first...JP
To visit John's MYSPACE site online and to drop him a kind word, please go here:
www.johnpenneyfilm.com
In the meantime, here was last weeks Entertainment Weekly cover story:
http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20011268,00.html
For the TIME MAGAZINE ONLINE article, go here:
http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1593130,00.html
THE SARAH SILVERMAN PROGRAM (COM)
Had the best ep yet with Sarah delving into lesbianism. This is the funniest show on the air right now.
I LOVE NEW YORK (VH1)
Is still fun, but not as fun as it started out to be. And I couldn't figure out what offended New York more - that 12 pack was dancing in gay clubs, or that he had a girlfriend, or that he was there solely for publicity? He turned out to be one pretty strange dude.
LOST (ABC)
Has gotten WAY too goofy for it's own good. LOST is now truly lost. A bunch of plot points and devices in service of nothing - a bigger story that got weighed down with trying to do everything. Some of the characters are now borderline laughable - and this show just about sucks. The never ending "comedy" with Hurley, the ridiculously conspicuous "new" survivors - The Others - it's just all so bad now. If they had a heart, they'd find a way to end it next season and go out a winner - however, ABC plans to keep it on the air for another 5 years, so this will probably be the end of my reviews - I just don't think this show can ever work again.
Grade: D
FAME (DVD)
What a great movie. I re-watched this recently and really got into it. The dvd of it has director commentary which is quite good, a number of cool featurettes, and an update on all the cast members. Though I must admit, I'm much less patient now with the story of the comic who LOVED Freddie Prinz (I know - that's a great actor playing him, but it's really hokey now) - The Doris storyline and her tortured comic lover - was a real bore. Much better is the realism of the Irene Cara character (thought they imply she's sleeping with Leroy for a beat, and there was no other scenes to support it) - the Bruno character, the songs, the original stuff written and sung by America's favorite character actor - Paul McCrane (who's had about 23 lives in movies and television) and the Leroy storyline - culminating in SING THE BODY ELECTRIC. This was an ambitious movie that moved in 5 acts, the auditions and every year at the school - and somehow it really works.
Grade: A
CAN'T STOP THE MUSIC (DVD)
Ridiculously bad and for that reason, ridiculously great. A real disaster at the time of release, this VILLAGE PEOPLE movie was directed by Bounty paper towels pitch woman Nancy Walker, who said while they were making this film that movies were "little pieces of shit cobbled together by fancy editors." The spectacular failure was probably due to the film getting hung up on the stupid storyline of Valerie Perrine, Bruce Jenner and Steve Guttenberg - yes, the cast from hell. Worse than that - the film uses only one actual hit, YMCA, and instead decides they're going to sell albums, and decide to use all new untested songs - which leads to a truly mind blowingly bad video for a Village People song called MILKSHAKE - must be seen to be believed. Bad - and not nearly fun enough to be unintentionally great.
Grade: F
NEIL HAMBURGER: AMERICA'S FUNNY MAN (DVD)
For those in the know about Mr. Hamburger, he's an intentionally unfunny comic who is so unfunny he's funny. His old discs are odd and uncomfortable and mini-masterpieces. However, he's built up a bit of a fan base - so this disc is a mixed bag. On one hand, he's out of the studio and actually showing himself - but his added throat clearing to the mix simply isn't funny and it's been done to death by the likes of Martin Short 20 years ago on SNL. Yet some of his material now is actually funny - which breaks the idea of what he was doing initially. (Sample joke: "Why did Darth Vader cross the road? To fuck a Star Wars fan." So - I don't know - I'm entertained but I'm not sure what the joke is anymore.
PINK FLOYD: PULSE (DVD)
They keep running this show on PBS, but I just bought the Roger Waters-less dvd and the concert is actually twice as long and the sound on the dvd is 10 times as good. However - if you're only going to watch once or twice, I recommend Tivo-ing from PBS, who runs this concert about 4 times a week for the last 5 months.
RULES OF ENGAGEMENT (CBS)
At first seemed like a shockingly direct copy of HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER, then ended up being reasonably funny. Although the idea that all these characters become best friends overnight is TV's idea of...I don't know. It's dumb. But the episodes are funny. The biggest problem are the newly engaged couple - everybody else in the cast is funny.
HOGAN KNOWS BEST (VH1)
I caught a pretty funny rerun where Hogan's buddy from the WWF comes to visit. For once, the show did not seem completely scripted - only about half.
Is still fun, but not as fun as it started out to be. And I couldn't figure out what offended New York more - that 12 pack was dancing in gay clubs, or that he had a girlfriend, or that he was there solely for publicity? He turned out to be one pretty strange dude.
LOST (ABC)
Has gotten WAY too goofy for it's own good. LOST is now truly lost. A bunch of plot points and devices in service of nothing - a bigger story that got weighed down with trying to do everything. Some of the characters are now borderline laughable - and this show just about sucks. The never ending "comedy" with Hurley, the ridiculously conspicuous "new" survivors - The Others - it's just all so bad now. If they had a heart, they'd find a way to end it next season and go out a winner - however, ABC plans to keep it on the air for another 5 years, so this will probably be the end of my reviews - I just don't think this show can ever work again.
Grade: D
FAME (DVD)
What a great movie. I re-watched this recently and really got into it. The dvd of it has director commentary which is quite good, a number of cool featurettes, and an update on all the cast members. Though I must admit, I'm much less patient now with the story of the comic who LOVED Freddie Prinz (I know - that's a great actor playing him, but it's really hokey now) - The Doris storyline and her tortured comic lover - was a real bore. Much better is the realism of the Irene Cara character (thought they imply she's sleeping with Leroy for a beat, and there was no other scenes to support it) - the Bruno character, the songs, the original stuff written and sung by America's favorite character actor - Paul McCrane (who's had about 23 lives in movies and television) and the Leroy storyline - culminating in SING THE BODY ELECTRIC. This was an ambitious movie that moved in 5 acts, the auditions and every year at the school - and somehow it really works.
Grade: A
CAN'T STOP THE MUSIC (DVD)
Ridiculously bad and for that reason, ridiculously great. A real disaster at the time of release, this VILLAGE PEOPLE movie was directed by Bounty paper towels pitch woman Nancy Walker, who said while they were making this film that movies were "little pieces of shit cobbled together by fancy editors." The spectacular failure was probably due to the film getting hung up on the stupid storyline of Valerie Perrine, Bruce Jenner and Steve Guttenberg - yes, the cast from hell. Worse than that - the film uses only one actual hit, YMCA, and instead decides they're going to sell albums, and decide to use all new untested songs - which leads to a truly mind blowingly bad video for a Village People song called MILKSHAKE - must be seen to be believed. Bad - and not nearly fun enough to be unintentionally great.
Grade: F
NEIL HAMBURGER: AMERICA'S FUNNY MAN (DVD)
For those in the know about Mr. Hamburger, he's an intentionally unfunny comic who is so unfunny he's funny. His old discs are odd and uncomfortable and mini-masterpieces. However, he's built up a bit of a fan base - so this disc is a mixed bag. On one hand, he's out of the studio and actually showing himself - but his added throat clearing to the mix simply isn't funny and it's been done to death by the likes of Martin Short 20 years ago on SNL. Yet some of his material now is actually funny - which breaks the idea of what he was doing initially. (Sample joke: "Why did Darth Vader cross the road? To fuck a Star Wars fan." So - I don't know - I'm entertained but I'm not sure what the joke is anymore.
PINK FLOYD: PULSE (DVD)
They keep running this show on PBS, but I just bought the Roger Waters-less dvd and the concert is actually twice as long and the sound on the dvd is 10 times as good. However - if you're only going to watch once or twice, I recommend Tivo-ing from PBS, who runs this concert about 4 times a week for the last 5 months.
RULES OF ENGAGEMENT (CBS)
At first seemed like a shockingly direct copy of HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER, then ended up being reasonably funny. Although the idea that all these characters become best friends overnight is TV's idea of...I don't know. It's dumb. But the episodes are funny. The biggest problem are the newly engaged couple - everybody else in the cast is funny.
HOGAN KNOWS BEST (VH1)
I caught a pretty funny rerun where Hogan's buddy from the WWF comes to visit. For once, the show did not seem completely scripted - only about half.
PRISON BREAK (FOX)
The most exciting (and insane) drama on network right now. The last 2 episodes were superb.
Grade: A +
The most exciting (and insane) drama on network right now. The last 2 episodes were superb.
Grade: A +
I take back what I said about Britney Spears being sexy with the bald head. I've taken a few more looks at women who actually look GREAT with a shaved head - Sinead back in the day, my sexy ex, Jess Zaino, but the problem with Britney is that her face is just too big and full - I don't think you can lose weight in your head, so she may want to grow it back and not give it drugs this time so she could hold on to both her hair and a symmetrical look.
If you read this blog, you've seen the Joe "I'm a shitty comic but I'll kick your fucking ass" Rogan - Versus - Carlos "I'll steal all your material and then some" Mencia. Someone has posted the following, which is sort of (I guess) the Mencia side of the story - still, while entertaining, I don't think this quick film gives Mencia the sort of validation he's looking for. It basically posits that everybody steals. I have to say - I know a few comics personally and they'd rather die then do someone else's material on stage. That said - creative people do sometimes get a similar thought. Still, I think I'd rather be Joe Rogan in this argument - for part of this (I hope) never ending story, go here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnr67Giq-LE
CRANK YANKERS (mtv2)
Is back with a bunch of great phony phone calls. I missed this show as it took a 2 year hiatus - but I'm glad it's back and more profanely funny then ever. The plastic surgery phone call was priceless.
DAUGHTRY (CD)
This is Chris Daughtry's CD, the bald angry guy from AMERICAN IDOL. I know it's insanely huge and has sold almost 2 million copies - but I thought it kind of sucked. Reminded me of a bad version of Stone Temple Pilots, who were a bad copy of Pearl Jam. Very ordinary.
Grade: C -
DICE UNDISPUTED (VH1)
Wasn't Dice "Banned" from MTV for life? Then how does he get a show with sister station VH1? Nonetheless - back in the day I used to be a HUGE fan. In the last decade, Dice has gone decidedly downhill. This series follows his daily ups and downs regarding his bid to play Giant Stadium (which sounds ludicrous.) The problem is I don't know what a funny comic he is anymore - at the same time - Dice in his everyday element is a fucking riot. And I love this show.
If you read this blog, you've seen the Joe "I'm a shitty comic but I'll kick your fucking ass" Rogan - Versus - Carlos "I'll steal all your material and then some" Mencia. Someone has posted the following, which is sort of (I guess) the Mencia side of the story - still, while entertaining, I don't think this quick film gives Mencia the sort of validation he's looking for. It basically posits that everybody steals. I have to say - I know a few comics personally and they'd rather die then do someone else's material on stage. That said - creative people do sometimes get a similar thought. Still, I think I'd rather be Joe Rogan in this argument - for part of this (I hope) never ending story, go here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnr67Giq-LE
CRANK YANKERS (mtv2)
Is back with a bunch of great phony phone calls. I missed this show as it took a 2 year hiatus - but I'm glad it's back and more profanely funny then ever. The plastic surgery phone call was priceless.
DAUGHTRY (CD)
This is Chris Daughtry's CD, the bald angry guy from AMERICAN IDOL. I know it's insanely huge and has sold almost 2 million copies - but I thought it kind of sucked. Reminded me of a bad version of Stone Temple Pilots, who were a bad copy of Pearl Jam. Very ordinary.
Grade: C -
DICE UNDISPUTED (VH1)
Wasn't Dice "Banned" from MTV for life? Then how does he get a show with sister station VH1? Nonetheless - back in the day I used to be a HUGE fan. In the last decade, Dice has gone decidedly downhill. This series follows his daily ups and downs regarding his bid to play Giant Stadium (which sounds ludicrous.) The problem is I don't know what a funny comic he is anymore - at the same time - Dice in his everyday element is a fucking riot. And I love this show.
Grade: A
THE OFFICE (NBC)
Where have you gone, David Brent? You should come save your American counterpart.
ROCKY BALBOA the DVD is coming out - it includes an alternate ending (no spoilers - but very curious about it) and full commentary from Stallone. Hoping they give ROCKY II the special dvd treatment.
SEX, DRUGS & COCOA PUFFS - (IN SOFTCOVER)
http://www.amazon.com/Sex-Drugs-Cocoa-Puffs-Manifesto/dp/0743236017/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/002-0208208-0155266?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1172858407&sr=8-1
Highly recommended book about pop culture that actually makes a case for Billy Joel's GLASS HOUSES as a great rock album of the 80s (it is) and posits that BAT OUT OF HELL is as strong an album from the 70s as BORN TO RUN (agreed - fine, I said it.) It goes much further than that, and this is truly a great, funny and deeply involving book.
THE REAL WORLD: COLORADO
These insane retards have been highly entertaining lately. Collie in the Jacuzzi with Alex was probably this year's all time most humiliating moments. (She goes in for a kiss and he literally recoils.) This is turning into a very humiliating season for almost everybody on this show.
These insane retards have been highly entertaining lately. Collie in the Jacuzzi with Alex was probably this year's all time most humiliating moments. (She goes in for a kiss and he literally recoils.) This is turning into a very humiliating season for almost everybody on this show.
THE DEVIL'S REJECTS (DVD)
Is a GREAT horror/action/suspence thriller in the best sense of the genre. Even though it was not really billed this way, DEVIL'S is a direct sequel to HOUSE OF 10,000 CORPSES - also written & directed by Rob Zombie. While HOUSE had potential it never quite reached, DEVIL'S REJECTS is a true small masterpiece of the genre. It's just such an odd, out there tone that while it's never exactly SCARY, it's kind of more than that - just kind of filling the viewer with morbid fascination and dread. This is a film where not all the good people get away. It's this everything's up for grabs approach, mixed with classic horror elements that really rocket this film - and the directorial touches of Zombie might seem elementary on some level - but yet, things like his unique blend of action, cutting and music have not just been invented - but he reinvents some of that like a true new trailblazer just on the scene. Anyway - it's a low-key film, so I don't want over sell something this somber, but do check out all the plentiful extras - the audio commentary by Zombie is as entertaining as the film, and thoughtful insights into the story provide the film with much more depth and also is just willing to give away all his secrets - watch HOUSE OF 10,000 CORPSES first, because it really is part one - but then jump right to the sequel and really get into something weird. It's really some epic movie making.
Grade: A +
Extras: A +
Is a GREAT horror/action/suspence thriller in the best sense of the genre. Even though it was not really billed this way, DEVIL'S is a direct sequel to HOUSE OF 10,000 CORPSES - also written & directed by Rob Zombie. While HOUSE had potential it never quite reached, DEVIL'S REJECTS is a true small masterpiece of the genre. It's just such an odd, out there tone that while it's never exactly SCARY, it's kind of more than that - just kind of filling the viewer with morbid fascination and dread. This is a film where not all the good people get away. It's this everything's up for grabs approach, mixed with classic horror elements that really rocket this film - and the directorial touches of Zombie might seem elementary on some level - but yet, things like his unique blend of action, cutting and music have not just been invented - but he reinvents some of that like a true new trailblazer just on the scene. Anyway - it's a low-key film, so I don't want over sell something this somber, but do check out all the plentiful extras - the audio commentary by Zombie is as entertaining as the film, and thoughtful insights into the story provide the film with much more depth and also is just willing to give away all his secrets - watch HOUSE OF 10,000 CORPSES first, because it really is part one - but then jump right to the sequel and really get into something weird. It's really some epic movie making.
Grade: A +
Extras: A +
Very interesting to hear the full story about Zzyyx.
ReplyDeleteI am loving the Sarah Silverman show. Sad it will be over this week. That TAB b-story was cracking me up. When they go for things, they really go for things.
Fame is one of my all time favorite movies.