Street Fighter 6 has a huge roster of martial artists, each with different fighting styles and training methods. Each comes from a different discipline, which means they all have different body types, from Zangief’s hulking bodybuilder frame to E. Honda’s heavier sumo build. As such, developer Capcom decided to…
Plot: The mystery surrounding the enigmatic void on the west pasture of the Abbott family ranch deepens as Royal and his wife Cecelia struggle to keep their family together in the aftermath of their granddaughter’s sudden disappearance. The stakes have never been higher for the Abbotts, who now face threats on multiple fronts with profound and unforeseen circumstances that could shake the very foundations of time itself.
REVIEW: With so many shows on television and streaming platforms, it can be nearly impossible to distinguish yourself from the pack. While Outer Range may be a complex blend of genres, the first season was unlike anything else. Blending elements of everything from Yellowstone to Arrival and The Twilight Zone, Outer Range ended its first season with some substantial cliffhangers, while the second season wastes no time diving right into the murky complexity of this story of multiverses, parallel timelines and so much more. Where the first season tried its best to deliver a mysterious narrative through a main sequence of events, Outer Range goes completely bonkers for the sophomore run of episodes, which will likely require viewers to have a pen and lots of paper handy to keep track of what is happening. While that may sound like homework to some, to myself and others, it makes for an immersive viewing experience that requires active participation rather than casual enjoyment.
The first season of Outer Range introduced the Royal family. Led by Royal Abbott (Josh Brolin) and Cecilia (Lili Taylor), the owners of an expansive ranch in Wyoming. When Royal stumbles upon a mysterious and massive hole in his western pasture, it opens up a complex web of converging elements involving his neighbor and rival rancher Wayne Tillerson (Will Patton), a mysterious stranger named Autumn (Imogen Poots), and more. As the first season came to a close, it was distinctly hinted that Autumn may be an older version of Royal’s granddaughter Amy (Olive Abercrombie) and that Royal himself was born in 1873 and traveled through time via the massive hole. All of this came through rodeo conflicts, car crashes, and musical numbers sung by Billy Tillerson (Noah Reid) that made the first season bizarre viewing. Having seen the entire seven-episode run of Outer Range’s second season, you have no idea how weird this show can get.
It is virtually impossible to say much about this season without spoiling plot details, but I can say that the narrative splits the characters across multiple timelines and universes. In one timeline, characters are thrust into the 19th century, as hinted at by visions of indigenous people through the first season and the destructive herd of bison that ran through the prior season finale. Another timeline takes the action back just a few decades, revealing past details about the Abbott and Tillerson families that have major consequences for the present day. Each of these timelines is intercut into each episode, making for a challenging narrative to follow. Complex connections involving a degree of what may or may not be time travel that will hurt your brain if you think about them too hard. I am still not sure I exactly follow how everything comes together at the end of the second season, but I have not enjoyed being this confused since Lost was in its heyday.
Outer Range is chock full of fantastic performances, this season led by increased screen time for Shaun Sipos as Luke Tillerson and Tamara Podemski as Deputy Sheriff Joy Hawk. Tom Pelphrey also gets a solid focus as Perry Abbott gets more direct interaction related to the time-warping black hole on his family’s land. Lili Taylor and Will Patton are as great as they always are and, thankfully, get more to do this season than before. Imogen Poots cuts a mysterious figure as Autumn’s true motivations deepen her relationship with Royal at the risk of everything he has built as the patriarch of the Abbott clan. While Noah Reid’s role is somewhat reduced this season, I was glad to see Lewis Pullman get more time as Rhett alongside his new love interest, Maria, played by Isabel Arraiza.
Created by Brian Watkins, Outer Range boasts an almost entirely new roster of writers and directors for its second season. Led by Gwyneth Horder-Payton with the first two episodes, subsequent chapters are helmed by Blackhorse Lowe, Catriona McKenzie, and Josh Brolin in his directorial debut. Watkins leads the writing staff including Dagny Looper, Jenna Westover, Douglas Petrie, Cameron Litvack, Glenise Mullins, and more. The fact that the behind-the-scenes crew is almost entirely different is not visible on screen as Outer Range manages to have an ethereal quality that is at once deeply entrenched in the balance of westerns and art-house indie films while still delivering a melodramatic serial quality that reminds me of Yellowstone. There is a family drama, backstabbing, twists, and turns that all feel right at home in a Taylor Sheridan series but enhanced by the curious and confusing lilt of the genre elements of this story.
Condensing the complex elements of Outer Range was challenging when I reviewed the first season and damn near impossible this time around. I watched all seven episodes in a binge session, which kept the plot threads easier to track, and I still needed to go back to prior episodes to ensure I was on the right track as to where things were going. The fact that this series is as complex as it is will be an instant turn-off for viewers unwilling or unable to invest their full attention, especially since Prime Video premiered each episode across weeks rather than in a season dump. I applaud the maturity of this series and that Outer Range does not dumb itself down to be accessible to the widest audience possible. This is a complex series for fans of complex stories, and the more you put into it, the deeper it pulls you in. The hole in the Abbott family’s western pasture may have a gravitational field that reaches through television screens because I am just as hooked this year as I was when the first season debuted. Be warned that some questions are answered this season, but far more mysteries are presented for the inevitable third season.
Outer Range season two premieres on May 16th on Prime Video.
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Sony Pictures Classics has announced in a press release that the company has acquired the distribution for an official documentary of the iconic 70s rock band Led Zeppelin. The documentary, titled Becoming Led Zeppelin, will finally see its release after sitting on the shelf since 2021. The film is powered by awe-inspiring, psychedelic, never-before-seen footage, performances and music. The director, Bernard MacMahon’s experiential cinematic odyssey explores Led Zeppelin’s creative, musical, and personal origin story. The film is told in Led Zeppelin’s own words and is the first officially sanctioned film on the group.
The hybrid docu-concert film also unveils a huge amount of unseen Led Zeppelin performance footage, including The Fillmore West (January 1969), The Atlanta Pop Festival (July 1969), and The Texas Pop Festival (August 1969). The result is a visceral musical experience that will transport audiences into the concert halls of Led Zeppelin’s earliest tours, accompanied by intimate commentary from the famously private band.
Highly anticipated since its announcement and subsequent work-in-progress screening at the 2021 Venice Film Festival, where it received a 10-minute standing ovation, the now completed film features a brand-new sound mix, newly unearthed material from the archives of all four band members (including home movies and family photos), and exclusive interviews with Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, and John Paul Jones, as well as never-before-heard interviews with the late John Bonham.
Jimmy Page shared his sentiments, saying, “When I saw the early cut of the film premiered, at the Venice Film Festival, it was amazing. The energy of the story, and the power of the music, is phenomenal.” MacMahon commented, “We have spent years designing this film to be experienced on the big screen with the best possible sound.” Producer Allison McGourty added, “Sony Pictures Classics are the perfect partners because they are true believers in the theatrical experience and are passionate about giving the millions of Led Zeppelin fans a chance to see and hear them on the greatest screens and sound systems in the world.”
Becoming Led Zeppelin is directed by the award-winning, Emmy and BAFTA nominated Bernard MacMahon (American Epic), and written by MacMahon and BAFTA nominated producer Allison McGourty. It is produced by Paradise Pictures in association with Big Beach alongside executive producers Michael Clark, Alex Turtletaub, Duke Erikson, Cynthia Heusing, David Kistenbroker, Simon Moran, and Ged Doherty. Editing is by Dan Gitlin, re-recording mix is by Nick Bergh, and sound restoration is by Grammy Award winner Peter Henderson.
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It’s prom night 2008 and Donna Keppel is planning to wear a champagne-colored dress. Corseted, with pink and gold beads. Unfortunately, it might also get splattered with blood and tears, because the teacher who’s obsessed with her has broken out of the mental hospital, tracked her down to the prom venue, and is ready to make sure she’ll be his forever. Even if that means having to slaughter her friends first. That’s the story of the 2008 version of Prom Night (watch it HERE) – and if you haven’t seen this one, it might be the Best Horror Movie You Never Saw.
The Prom Night franchise began with the release of a 1980 slasher movie which starred scream queen Jamie Lee Curtis as a young woman who has to deal with a ski mask-wearing maniac crashing her prom. People are stabbed and hacked, knocked off a cliff, decapitated, throats are slit, and there’s a show-stopping disco dance to a song that tells us everything is alright on prom night. Just like Halloween, this was a Jamie Lee Curtis slasher that became popular enough to launch a franchise. But Prom Night told a contained story – so the filmmakers took an anthology approach to the three sequels that followed. Each has connections to Hamilton High School, but their stories have nothing to do with what Curtis’s character went through. The most popular of the sequels was Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night 2… which was developed as an original story called The Haunting of Hamilton High before getting the Prom Night 2 title dropped on it. Its story of the vengeful spirit of a long-dead prom queen, Mary Lou Maloney, went over so well, Prom Night 3: The Last Kiss was a direct follow-up. Then the Mary Lou story was ditched for Prom Night 4: Deliver Us from Evil, which was about an insane Catholic priest wiping out sinful teenagers.
The franchise sat dormant for over a decade… Until October of 2004, when Screen Gems announced they were moving forward with a new Prom Night. This was just two months after they announced their remake of When a Stranger Calls, which we covered in a previous episode. At that time, the Prom Night reboot had Stephen Susco attached to write, fresh off writing The Grudge, the English-language remake of the Japanese film Ju-on. But Susco was quickly replaced on the project by J.S. Cardone, who might not have been the most obvious choice to write a story about teenagers, since he was about sixty years old. But he did have genre experience, having written and directed the 1982 slasher The Slayer. He also contributed to some Full Moon productions, including Puppet Master, wrote and directed the vampire film The Forsaken, and was collaborating with Screen Gems on the supernatural Renny Harlin movie The Covenant. So he knew how this stuff worked.
Although Cardone was also a director, he didn’t take the directing gig on this one. Instead, the job went to prolific TV director Nelson McCormick. And the studio gave the writer and director a hurdle to clear: it was a mandate from the start that the finished film had to get a PG-13 rating. How do you reboot an R-rated slasher as a PG-13 movie? For Cardone, the answer was to approach it like it wasn’t a slasher. As he told Fangoria magazine, “What we’re trying to do with this is to go back to the thrillers from the ‘70s that were youth-oriented but more character-driven. My influences in writing this were films like Klute, the original When a Stranger Calls, and Wait Until Dark. The killings in this movie really jump out at you, like in Wait Until Dark, and we wanted an antagonist who was not a slasher or a monster.”
That antagonist is high school biology teacher Richard Fenton, who becomes obsessed with one his students, Donna Keppel. At the start of the film, Donna comes home to find that Richard is in her house. He has already killed her dad and her little brother. Then he kills her mom right in front of her. He’s caught by the police and sent to a mental institution… but three years later, he escapes. And goes after Donna again, on prom night. This movie distances itself from the other films in the franchise by the fact that its characters aren’t Hamilton High students. Instead, they attend Bridgeport High. But the prom isn’t being held at the school anyway. The venue is a large hotel – and the filmmakers wanted to go way over-the-top with how big this party is. They wanted it to be a dream prom that could only exist in a Hollywood production. So they include a line where it’s said that a rich girl on the prom committee went one hundred thousand dollars over budget and her dad had to pay for it out of his own pocket.
During the prom, Richard keeps an eye on Donna, building up to the moment when he plans to sweep her off her feet and carry her off to their happily ever after. In the meantime, he murders any of her friends that might stand in his way and also kills off some of the hotel staff when they have something he needs, like a master key card, or if they get suspicious of him. While Donna parties and Richard stalks and slashes, detectives named Winn and Nash lead the search for the escaped murderer.
Cardone and McCormick saw Richard as a Ted Bundy type. Someone who could be outwardly charming, but that’s just a facade hiding the fact that they’re a homicidal madman. So when Johnathon Schaech was cast as Richard Fenton, he did his research by reading books about Bundy and also watching a bunch of thrillers. The role of Donna Keppel went to Brittany Snow – who had a lead role on the TV show American Dreams, but this was her first chance to be the lead in a feature film. Snow was enthusiastic about the project because she was a fan of horror movies and thrillers and because she was given the opportunity to have a more hands-on role in the filmmaking process. Her opinion was taken into account in several areas, from script ideas to casting and music choices. The soundtrack she had a say in features songs by Silversun Pickups, Plain White T’s, Tokio Hotel, This Will Destroy You, and Rock Kills Kid, among others. Starting with a cover of “Time of the Season” by Ben Taylor, who was on several episodes of American Dreams.
Snow’s co-stars include Scott Porter as Donna’s boyfriend Bobby, Jessica Stroup and Dana Davis as her friends Claire and Lisa, Collins Pennie and Kelly Blatz as their boyfriends Ronnie and Michael, Brianne Davis as rich girl Crissy, who is obsessed with becoming prom queen, Kellan Lutz as her boyfriend Rick, Mary Mara as teacher Mrs. Waters, and Jessalyn Gilsig and Linden Ashby as Donna’s aunt and uncle, who take her in after the murder of her parents. James Ransone, who would go on to appear in It Chapter Two, The Black Phone, and the Sinister movies, got his horror career started by playing Detective Nash. Joshua Leonard of The Blair Witch Project shows up briefly as an ill-fated bellhop. Ming-Na Wen has a scene as Donna’s therapist. And playing Detective Winn, this movie’s version of Donald Pleasence’s Loomis character from the Halloween movies, is Idris Elba. He got a song on the soundtrack, too. Elba is also known as Mr. Me Innit and contributed the hip-hop track called “All That We Know.”
The movie starts with a sequence that was shot in Newport, Oregon, but most of the filming took place in Los Angeles. The majority of the running time is set within the Pacific Grand Hotel, and two different hotels were used to bring this fictional location to the screen. Fittingly, McCormick drew some inspiration from The Shining when it came to the set design. And when it was time for Paul Haslinger of Tangerine Dream to compose the score, McCormick wanted him to follow the example of High Tension. He didn’t want there to be too much music. Just enough to foreshadow or telegraph what was going to happen. Sudden, effective sounds.
This Prom Night was produced on a budget of twenty million. And it made that back on opening weekend, when it opened at number one with a haul of twenty-point-eight million. It would go on to pull in a worldwide total of around fifty-seven million. A pretty good number. It wasn’t enough to get Screen Gems to greenlight a sequel… but this appears to be a rare case where the filmmakers weren’t thinking franchise. This was seen as a one-and-done deal with a definitive ending. Screen Gems was happy enough with the result that they sent the team of Cardone and McCormick right back to work on another update of an ‘80s classic. Their remake of The Stepfather reached theatres the following year.
Given that this was the fifth Prom Night movie, it’s a shame that the series hasn’t continued in some way. We should have gotten one or two more of these, at least, in the years since this movie was released. But it’s understandable that no one else has wanted to touch the franchise since then. To say that Prom Night 2008 was not warmly received would be an understatement. According to Rotten Tomatoes, only nine percent of the critic reviews were positive. The audience score wasn’t much better, coming in at just thirty-eight percent positive.
A lot of horror fans were put off by that studio-mandated rating. When MovieWeb asked Brittany Snow if she thought horror fans might be let down by a PG-13 version of Prom Night, she said, “The misconception is that everyone thinks it’s a remake. It’s not, so I hope people don’t get disappointed going in thinking they’re going to see the same sort of storyline as the original. It’s just the same name. This is a totally different take on what the whole Prom Night story is. It has veered off into being more of a psychological cat and mouse game, diving into the anticipation factor. Feeling for the characters and being scared for them.” Still, it was marketed as a remake, causing it to be directly compared to the original film. And fans just weren’t on board with seeing Prom Night get watered down for a PG-13 rating.
The movie does pale in comparison to the original… but when you take into account the three sequels that came in between the films, it starts to look a lot better. If this had simply been sold as another sequel, it probably would have been met with more positivity. Because even though the filmmakers distanced themselves from the idea of it being a slasher, describing it as a psychological thriller… it’s actually a pretty good slasher movie. Sure, we don’t see as much of the kills as we should have. The movie would have benefited from an R rating that would have allowed us to see some gore. Richard Fenton does a whole lot of stabbing people and slitting throats, but we only see some blood and plunging blades. If they had Tom Savini level FX work in here, it would have a lot more fans. But even though the kills aren’t as satisfying as they could have been, there’s a respectable body count. There could have been more kills – there are characters who slip through unscathed here but would have been knocked off in most other movies, but it has a good amount of murder and mayhem nonetheless. By the time we reach the end credits, Richard’s victim count is in the double digits. So there are plenty of death scenes to keep things interesting.
The most elaborate chase sequences are often reserved for the final girl, but in this case, the honor goes to Lisa. Richard chases her to a floor of the hotel that’s undergoing renovations. And for a few minutes, he stalks her through the empty rooms, searching for her among the exposed beams and hanging plastic. At one point, Ronnie arrives on the elevator and calls out for Lisa… but she can’t respond, because Richard is standing right beside her with his knife. It’s a great suspense sequence.
Between the kills, there’s some decent character work. Donna has a strong support system around her. Claire and Lisa are given their own side plots to deal with, but it’s also clear that they care about Donna and what she’s going through. The characters have deeper friendships and tighter bonds than we usually see in movies like this. Bobby is also one of the best and most supportive boyfriends ever seen in a horror movie, which makes the viewer more concerned for him. He’s so nice, he’s probably going to die. Brittany Snow was a great choice for the heroine role. And Johnathon Schaech delivers a creepy performance as the homicidal man who’s after her heart.
The Prom Night remake or reboot or just another Prom Night movie… whatever you want to call it… isn’t an overlooked classic, but if you set aside any expectations based on previous entries in the franchise, it does make for an entertaining viewing experience. It’s a fun thriller with some nice character work and several slashings. Then it all wraps up in just eighty-nine minutes. So, no more feeling uptight. This prom night, follow Donna Keppel and Richard Fenton to the Pacific Grand Hotel. You won’t see any disco dancing, but everything is still alright.
A couple previous episodes of the Best Horror Movie You Never Saw series can be seen below. To see more, and to check out some of our other shows, head over to the JoBlo Horror Originals YouTube channel – and subscribe while you’re there!
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Sean Brosnan, son of Pierce Brosnan and the late Cassandra Harris, didn’t cast his father in his 2016 feature directorial debut My Father Die (although Pierce was a producer on that film), but he did just cast the former James Bond in a prominent role in his second feature, the werewolf thriller Wolfland. Thanks to Sean, it sounds like we’re going to get see Pierce Brosnan battle a werewolf!
Scripted by Sean Brosnan and Matt D’Elia, Wolfland is described as being an “epic odyssey.” When a young teenager’s sister is viciously attacked and shows signs of a transformation, he leaves his small village in search of a legendary werewolf hunter who can reverse the gruesome curse. When he finds the “legend”, Devlin, slumped against a bar and in no mood for ghost stories, Devlin takes the kid’s money and agrees to hunt down this phantom monster, only to find themselves in a deadly whirlwind of carnage.
The press release that was sent out doesn’t say who Pierce will be playing in the film, but it’s probably safe to assume that he’ll be the one bringing the Devlin character to life, and that sounds like it would be a great role for him.
Sean Brosnan provided the following statement: “I’m excited to be working with Pierce on a film that aims to redefine the werewolf sub-genre. With the amazing special effects talents at Imaginarium, we’ll craft a werewolf transformation set to rival the iconic scenes from An American Werewolf in London. We’re thrilled about the potential impact of an expanding Wolfland universe.“
Wolfland is being produced by Marcus Warren for Light Sound Frequency and Christian Moore for The Consortium. Imaginarium Studios, which is headed up by Andy Serkis, will be “providing groundbreaking creature design and effects.” The Exchange is executive producing the film, and the company will also be handling worldwide sales at the Cannes Film Market. Filming is expected to take place in the UK later this year.
I was sold on Wolfland as soon as I saw “Pierce Brosnan” and “werewolf” together, so I look forward to seeing how it’s going to turn out. It’s sounding promising already.
Are you interested in Wolfland? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
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If it walks like a duck, sounds like a duck, and has previously developed extremely popular duck-based video games, then it’s fairly safe to say it’s a duck. NieR series producer Yosuke Saito, NieR series director and writer Yoko Taro, and NieR series composer Keiichi Okabe are all working on a new game together, but…
If it walks like a duck, sounds like a duck, and has previously developed extremely popular duck-based video games, then it’s fairly safe to say it’s a duck. NieR series producer Yosuke Saito, NieR series director and writer Yoko Taro, and NieR series composer Keiichi Okabe are all working on a new game together, but…
Ruben Östlund took a satirical look at the super-rich and super-elite in the comedy Triangle of Sadness. Now, he is aiming to put a mirror up to the average person’s idle mind. Östlund’s next anticipated film will be The Entertainment System is Down and it was recently reported that Keanu Reeves was in talks to star in the movie. Deadline now confirms that Reeves has officially signed on to do the film, and Kirsten Dunst and Daniel Bruhl have now joined him on that fateful flight.
Östlund says The Entertainment System Is Down is a social satire set on a long-haul flight with a faulty entertainment system. As boredom spreads throughout the cabin, rage starts to overwhelm the passengers. Chaos ensues. The idea for Östlund’s next feature is something he’s been building for years. The filmmaker says he’s been collecting anecdotes to use as inspiration for The Entertainment System Is Down, with several years of material at his disposal. Though it likely involves dark comedy and sharp humor, Reeves’s role remains a mystery.
Discussing the film with Variety last year, Östlund said The Entertainment System Is Down is “a study of how human beings interact in this little laboratory that is a plane” and “will look at how modern human beings are wrecked under these circumstances.” Additionally, Östlund has the hilarious audacity to hope that his new film inspires the biggest walkout in Cannes Film Festival history.
Östlund had taken his inspiration for this concept from a social psychological study at Virginia University that was called “The Challenge Of The Disengaged Mind.” According to Deadline, it was in this experiment where it was observed that “participants did not enjoy spending 6 to 15 minutes in a room by themselves with nothing to do but think. To take the experiment one step further, the researchers added a twist: With the touch of a button, the test subjects could, if desired, give themselves a harmless but very painful electric shock. It turned out that a quarter of all women and two-thirds of all men chose to press the button. One man even found being alone with his thoughts so unbearable that, during the 15 minutes, he gave himself 190 electric shocks.”
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The Simpsons has come under repeated scrutiny for its voice cast, particularly the various races and cultures they are representing. The most damning attacks have been at Hank Azaria, who voiced Kwik-E-Mart owner Apu Nahasapeemapetilon up until 2020. But Harry Shearer had to step away from one of the show’s most beloved supporting characters – Dr. Julius Hibbert – as well once showrunners decided that no white people would be voicing people of color. And he doesn’t seem too happy with how that has turned out.
Speaking with The Times, Harry Shearer said that people are adamant that The Simpsons is too PC anymore considering all of the casting changes. “Folk say the show has become woke in recent years and one of my characters has been affected. I voiced the black physician, Dr Hibbert, who I based on Bill Cosby. Back then he was known as the ‘whitest black man on television.’”
Harry Shearer would be replaced by Kevin Michael Richardson in 2021 after having voiced Hibbert since season two’s “Bart the Daredevil” (making a hilarious debut) and played him more than 300 times. On this, Shearer said, “Then, a couple of years ago, I received an email saying they’d employed a black actor, who then copied my voice. The result is a black man imitating a white man imitating the whitest black man on TV.”
The Simpsons has undergone some major changes over the past few years. And although some may say it’s just one of many properties that has succumbed to “woke culture”, others have taken the stance that the show’s shift to progressive values has been beneficial to the causes. While some of the original voice cast has been forced away from certain characters, but James L. Brooks previously maintained that Homer would indeed continue strangling Bart. So it’s really a give and take over in Springfield…
Harry Shearer clearly enjoyed voicing Hibbert, but his favorite character to play is Mr. Burns, whose voice he modeled after Ronald Regan.
The Simpsons is currently in its 35th season.
What do you make of Harry Shearer’s comments about The Simpsons turning “woke”? Do you agree or disagree? Let us know below.
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In the 1980s, you would have been hard-pressed to find anybody who had access to cocaine not on cocaine. And that especially went for those in the world of entertainment. As such, it was only a matter of time before a movie would give it the spotlight…and that movie was 1983’s Scarface. Appropriately enough, Oliver Stone — then a serious lover of booger sugar — was tasked to write Scarface. All he needed to do was kick his habit…
In an excerpt from the new book “The World Is Yours: The Story of Scarface”, Oliver Stone remembered being in serious need of a hit, having just helmed flop The Hand. At the time, he admitted, “I was on cocaine. I was doing cocaine, and I was really an addict, without knowing it.” He added, “I did all the research for Scarface on cocaine, in and out of the country. It was quite interesting because I understood that world better than if I had not done it. Al [Pacino] , on the contrary, had never done anything like that. He’d never even done cocaine. So, he didn’t know.” Nice flex, Oliver!
But to truly focus, he had to get rid of his habit, even going so far as to move to Paris to zero in on the writing. Why the City of Light? “Getting out of the country to a country where there was not much of it, there—in France, in the winter—it was perfect.” The tactic worked, with Stone able to successfully pull off the challenge of removing himself from addiction — at least the best an addict can.
What resulted was a nearly 170-page script that would lead to one of the wildest rises to cult fandom in the history of movies, lending to a culture in and of itself, inspiring filmmakers, rappers and even pro wrestlers, as Scott Hall modeled his Razor Ramon persona partly off of Tony Montana. As over the top as it can be, Scarface has marked itself as one of the essential gangster movies, especially for those who love cinematic violence and a once-recording-setting number of f bombs.
After Scarface, Oliver Stone turned it around in a huge way. OK, so Year of the Dragon was a tough sell as a post-Heaven’s Gate Michael Cimino film, but Salvador is stellar, Platoon took home Best Picture, Wall Street capitalized on the ethos of the ‘80s, Talk Radio is brilliant, and Born on the Fourth of July might be Stone’s masterpiece. See what happens when you ditch that nose candy, kids?
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