Our summer is now complete as we’ve circled the week of August 12-18 on our calendars for the Boston (actually Cambridge’s Kendall Square Cinema) re-issue of The Man Who Fell To Earth…we think you should do too even if it’s just for the the man who was Ziggy Stardust.
The Man Who Fell To Earth: 35th Anniversary Re-Issue (1976 [original premiere]) Starring David Bowie (Labyrinth), Rip Torn (Men in Black I and II), Candy Clark (The Blob [1998]), Buck Henry (TV’s 30 Rock) and Bernie Casey (Vegas Vampires). Written by Paul Mayersberg (Croupier). Produced by Michael Deeley (Blade Runner), Si Litvinoff (A Clockwork Orange), John Peverall (The Land That Time Forgot) and Barry Spikings (Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey). Directed by Nicolas Roeg (The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles).
Thirty-five years ago, Nicolas Roeg directed singer David Bowie in his first starring film role in The Man Who Fell To Earth, and it’s now being re-issued and released by Rialto Pictures. The British science fiction film is based on Walter Tevis’s 1963 novel of the same name and was adapted into an unsuccessful television version in 1987 (“a motion picture for television”). Bowie, although known as a singer, was strictly an actor on the set as contracts forced him to withdraw from producing music for the film. Over the past three and a half decades, The Man Who Fell To Earth has become a cult film and influenced popular culture from science fiction writer Philip K. Dick to Guns N’ Roses’s “Welcome to the Jungle“ to graphic novel-turned-movie Watchmen [2009] to season 2′ s episode 10 (“Grey Matters”) of FOX’s Fringe to the just released Warner Bros./DC Comics Green Lantern. The movie has clearly inspired and is therefore, deserving of a re-issue; it is in very limited release in select cities across the US until October (see schedule).
Synopsis: Thomas Jerome Newton (Bowie) is a humanoid alien who comes to Earth to get water for his dying planet. He starts a high technology company to get the billions of dollars he needs to build a return spacecraft, and meets Mary-Lou (Clark), a girl who falls in love with him. He does not count on the greed and ruthlessness of business here on Earth, however. courtesy of IMDB
*Fun Factoid: After filming The Man Who Fell To Earth, several members of the cast and crew have worked together over the years. 1) David Bowie and Rip Torn starred in 2008’s August 2) Buck Henry and Rip Torn guest starred in NBC’s 30 Rock. 3) Michael Deeley, John Peverall and Barry Spikings produced 1978’s The Deer Hunter*
Feed me at sharon@horrorhaven.com
