And today, we can officially announce at least one significant bit of breaking news: The Austin-based Alamo Drafthouse has added a Bottle Rocket screening to the July 9 sleepover at the Days Inn in danger of shuttering thanks to franchise fees too big a burden for the motel’s owners…
So. Look for the poster here when it’s available; by then maybe Bob Musgrave will have given me a firm yay on whether he can make the trip down with me that night.
Bob stole his car! Last evening, we reported that Texans Andy and Chris were organizing an event to “save” the Days Inn Hillsboro (TX) where parts of Wes Anderson’s first feature, Bottle Rocket, was filmed. Great news: The Dallas Observer has picked up on the story [update: so has The Onion AV Club]. Robert Wilonsky reports:
[Motel co-owener] Bina did not know about the event, which yesterday appeared on The Rushmore Academy website. And she is grateful: “I guess God is listening to me,” she says, again with a laugh. But she’s not sure June 25 is the best date: That, she says, is when the corn harvesters usually arrive — the one time of the year she can count on business. Then again, even that sure thing is far from one now.
In response, Andy and Chris have moved the event to July 9th. Check out the Facebook invite. Be sure to call the hotel directly to book your room (254/582/3493). To plan your trip itinerary, check out the Bottle Rocket tour site.
Toronto-based artist & designer Ibraheem Youssef has created some gorgeous, clever movie poster redesigns for Wes Anderson films, as well Tarantino films. Youssef produces concise illustrations that fall somewhere between elegant and raw.
The first wave of these redesigns has earned a lot of attention around the internet. We here at Rushmore Academy have also taken note, and an exclusive Rushmore//Youssef surprise is in the works. It’s a cliffhanger, so keep checking back for more details.
In the meantime, you can purchase the released-as-yet posters in 2 sizes at Ibraheem Youssef’s shop.
What’s another $4,000 after paying private school tuition? That was probably the pitch made by Wes Anderson and Owen Wilson to their fathers, a year after the two met in a playwriting class at the University of Texas at Austin and decided to pen a script together about a trio of unlikely hoodlums. Similar to the clueless would-be criminals they created — Bob (Robert Musgrave), Anthony (Luke Wilson) and Dignan (Owen Wilson) — Anderson and Wilson scored the initial amount of cash that they asked for from their parents, but only wound up shooting eight minutes of 16mm footage before running out of funds. As a result, the Wilsons’ father contacted family friend and “Paris, Texas” screenwriter L.M. Kit Carson to see if the kids’ work had promise, which led to Carson finding enough money to finance the rest of the 13-minute short, as well as producer Barbara Boyle getting in touch with then-Gracie Films vice president Polly Platt. The short got into Sundance in 1993, and though the unusually rhythmic patter of the characters didn’t make much of an impression on audiences in Park City, it got the attention of Platt’s boss, James L. Brooks, who would ultimately bankroll the feature — which ironically was rejected by Sundance, though there’s no question who got the last laugh.
So What’s Different? Beyond an expansion of the plot, not a whole lot is different except for a jazzier score and that it’s shot in black-and-white.
I recall noticing that something was off when I watched the robbery scene for the first time on the Criterion edition of Bottle Rocket but didn’t know what at the time.
The Criterion 2-disc Bottle Rocket is outstanding, but don’t toss your original disc just yet… the new edition is a slightly different edit that loses one laugh and adds another. I couldn’t find any reference to these changes in the supplementary material at all.
MISSING: Originally, during the book store robbery, Anthony grabs a random book off the shelf and opens it, revealing the title page “Job Opportunities in Government – 1995” which always gave me a little chuckle. Now for some reason the book opens to a black and white photograph of a military plane (it goes by so fast you’d have to freeze frame to make it out.)
ADDED: Originally, when Bob hands his earnings over to Future Man to cover his attorney fees, he asks if he can keep a few bucks for gas, and the scene ends. Now the scene plays a few seconds longer, and we hear Future Man’s reply: “No, you can’t.”
Perhaps the most respected male fashion bloggeur, Scott Schuman (aka The Sartorialist), has stopped Frequent [Wes] Collaborator, and dedicated turban wearer,Waris Ahluwalia for a photo in New York — Fifth Ave., to be precise. In addition to his website, Schuman also has his own page in GQ every month. That’s some fashion clout.
Waris Ahluwalia on The Sartorialist
It’s not the first time Waris has been on a fashion blog. He was on Facehunter in 2007, repping fashion designer, Benjamin Cho.
The renowned jazz label Fantasy Records released a digital soundtrack for Wes Anderson’s short film Bottle Rocket (1994) back on December 9. Read on for the press release. Click below to buy it on Amazon and support the site!
1. The Chant / Artie Shaw
2. Old Devil Moon / Sonny Rollins
3. The Route / Chet Baker
4. Skating / Vince Guaraldi Trio
5. Stevie / John Coltrane
6. Nothing But The Soul / Horace Silver
7. Happiness Is / Vince Guaraldi Trio
8. Jane-O / Zoot Sims Quartet
