Sunday, March 29, 2009

Auteur Watch - Stuart Gordon

Oh, poor Don Calfa. Why must you always wait for Peter Hyams to cast you as Spota?
Oops, I made a mistake. Hyams actually isn't on my docket this year. No, up next is ... Stuart Gordon? Oh, please. Well, I will give him props. He is respectable now since he did Edmond for David Mamet. How he got that gig I'll never know. As for Gordon's favorite decade, I'd be tempted to say it was the 80s when he played both sides of the Hollywood fence, from writing and directing things like Re-Animator to writing Honey, I Shrunk the Kids. I'm sure even The Onion would agree that no two movies could be more opposite than that. You remember Re-Animator, right? That's the movie Lester Burnham talked about in American Beauty. Speaking of which, Gordon worked with Mena Suvari in something called Stuck! Small world! I know, I know, but I'll leave it to the real experts to figure out where Kevin Bacon fits into all of this.
Anyway, one might think his favorite decade was the 80s, but I'm betting on the 90s. Ah, the 1990s, a time when a guy like Gordon was king of cable! Fortress showing every Friday night at 10 on Cinemax! The '90s, man, if you weren't there, you'll never know. That's when movies got made. That's when all a director needed was a warehouse in Budapest, one camera, and 3 days, and he could get a damn movie MADE! Some of his catchiest titles were 90s efforts: Robot Jox. Castle Freak. Joseph and the Technicolor Ice Cream Coat. Space Truckers. Buddy Hackett was in that, right? No, it was Space Rangers. Never mind.
Anyway, what does the future hold for Stuart Gordon? Looks like he's heading back into H.P. Lovecraft territory that put him on the map in the first place: House of Re-Animator 2010, baby! Looks like the 2010s will be Gordon's favorite decade after all! And with William H. Macy and George Wendt on board, this just might end up in post production! Try to get Selma Blair if you can, huh?

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