February 12

Tombstone, 1993

Welcome back to another exciting edition of Saturday Night Movie Sleepovers! This week’s podcast is a true epic, with the boys breaking new ground and covering their first Western. The choice for their first in the genre is a film near and dear to both Dion Baia and J. Blake‘s hearts, a momentous pick that has become a modern classic, George P. CosmatosTombstone, from 1993.

Tombstone Poster

After Blake relates a recent story about attempting to see the obscure Michael Mann film The Keep at BAM (Brooklyn Academy of Music), the boys lay out their history with Tombstone, and setup the history of the western genre, laying out the evolution of the complexities and sophistication of themes and presentation of these stories within the film industry, through the second half of the 20th Century. Then the boys get onto the winding road that is the back story of this film, laying out the actual history of the Earps and the Cowboy Gang in the 1880’s in the city of Tombstone, and the lead up to this 1993 film being made and the extensive cast this movie boasts. How accurate was this story to the real historical events? Why was the first director Kevin Jarre (who actually penned the script) fired mere days into production? Did new director George Cosmatos actually oversee the production as credited or did one of the lead actors actually secretly direct the picture? Who was originally cast as Doc Holliday, only to be denied by the film’s distributor because of past controversy? How did the film’s rival production, Kevin Costner‘s Wyatt Earp actually help and hurt Tombstone‘s fate? Well grab your dusters, Winchester Repeaters and Colt Peacemakers, because all these convoluted stories will be explained and put into context in this all new, massive and epic installment of Saturday Night Movie Sleepovers!

EXTRAS:

Have a look at the making-of featurette!

Check out the original 1993 theatrical teaser trailer for the film.

Take a look at some of the deleted scenes that were restored in the 2002 Director’s Cut, found here, here, here and here!

Who really killed Johnny Ringo? Take a look a some historians giving their theories.

Discussed in the podcast, here is J. Blake’s blog entry celebrating the boy’s favorite in Sergio Leone and Clint Eastwood‘s Spaghetti Western Trilogy, For a Few Dollar’s More!

 

April 10

The Monster Squad, 1987

This time around for an all new installment of Saturday Night Movie Sleepovers, Dion Baia and J. Blake are going back to the basics. They’re covering a film which is a forgotten cult-classic and true Saturday Night Sleepover material if their ever was one because for their age group, they were the targeted demographic upon the movie’s release. This week the boys tackle Fred Dekker‘s 1987 film The Monster Squad.

monster squad

Why did this movie very quietly (and very quickly) fall through the cracks and be all but forgotten? Has it finally received the immortal status it rightly deserves? Would today’s children and (for that matter) today’s adults, enjoy the film as it was intended in 1987 or is it too –politically incorrect? Is this Fred Dekker, debut screenwriter Shane Black, and Stan Winston‘s love letter to the Universal Monsters, Abbott & Costello‘s hilarious monster-teamup series and to the 1950’s monster-era on a whole? Will Fred Dekker ever get the due he undoubtably deserves? Well grab your junk food, your sugary beverages, take-out food and curl up on the sofa for another brilliant, hilarious, and informative edition of Saturday Night Movie Sleepovers!

(Check out the Monster Squad Reunion at the 2007 Comic Con!)

(Have a look at the The Monster Squad Panel Discussion at the Monsterpalooza Horror Convention in Burbank on April 14th 2013)

(Here’s a great little Monsterama interview with SFX legend Stan Winston)