Saturday, January 07, 2006
Of Omens And Other Oddness...
Today's "curse study" was to be baseball-related again; The Curse of Donnie Baseball aka Don Mattingly... who is simply one of the unluckiest guys ever in his professional career. Although I loathe the Yanks, I can sympathize with Donnie here; for I feel his pain. I often feel as he must be feeling in the face of such frustrating never-ending lethargy... The fact that his mere presence on the club is a bad omen foreboding almost certain defeat cannot be good for the ego nor the heart. The numbers don't lie though - every single year that Mattingly is associated with the Yankees, they lose. When he is not on the payroll, they become again the execrable dominant arrogant winners that take it all. Under these circumstances, Donnie has it much worse than the Babe or Rocky ever did - and that Billy Goat never suffered any anguish in comparison.
But enough about baseball's curses - we are in the middle of winter here! We need more seasonal curses - I suppose...
Nothing colder than HELL - I am sure. And this year, the pivotal date of 6/6/6 will hit us, once June rolls around... Not surprisingly, Hollywood will release another carefully chosen remake at this time - a remake of The Omen!
"The Omen 666 is a 2006 remake of the 1976 horror film The Omen. Directed by John Moore, with writing credits by Dan McDermott, it is set for release on June 6, 2006 (i.e., the sixth day of the sixth month of the sixth year of the new millennium). It was scheduled to begin filming on October 3, 2005 in Barrandov Studios" (What? Why not on October 6TH...? Or 31st for that matter!)
In a bit of "dark sense of humor display in the casting of the parts" for the film, they chose to cast Mia Farrow - Rosemary herself - as the antichrist's devilish nanny! This ties up neatly the Rosemary's Baby and Omen mythos together, with a bow... and a pitchfork? Mia certainly had never seen that coming - she got a gig for life with spawns of satan when she took the role of Rosemary way back then... Woody wasn't enough...
It is very fitting of course that both come together - mayhaps now, in some odd way, the characters of Adrian and Damien will merge and become one and the same - for they are supposed to be the same fiend after all. It is high time to amalgamate them, I think... Adrian had somehow a chance at redemption (think of it as the reversal of the alleged last temptation of Christ - but with some heavy Godspell influences... almost!) No such chance for Damien (with the exception of a few minutes of screen time self-torture, anguish and resentment of being "stuck with being the antichrist" during Damien - Omen II which was directed by Don Taylor, husband to memorable Hammer Horror films actress Hazel Court.) All these films are close cousins - so it shouldn't surprise anyone to see Rosemary babysit Damien now...! Anyone who hankers for more Hammer-type of classic horror, craves for that refined style... should be well served in June!
As with more recent films The Craft and Poltergeist (which we will see again on TLB Prime - count on it) - The Omen was plagued with bizarre incidents during its filming back in 1976... The most shocking of all (as also very Omen-like) was when Gregory Peck "canceled a flight to Israel, only for the plane he'd chartered to crash, killing all on board."
Things like that make you wonder if certain films made on certain subjects are not displeasing somebody somewhere - and no, I do not mean God either...
With taglines such as this one: Good morning. You are one day closer to the end of the world. You have been warned. - one has to expect something a tad more out of the ordinary with this sort of movies... not to be found with such run-of-the-mill fare as Ben Stiller flicks... or Jim Carrey vehicles.
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I am of the opinion that The Omen is one of the greatest suspense films ever made... and even I didn't know about the doomed cancelled flight anecdote until I researched it for this write up!
I knew of another anecdote, far less tragic and far more charming - upon learning that they would be co-starring, Gregory Peck had sent Lee Remick a flower bouquet with a card that read "Very pleased that we are finally going to be working together". Miss Remick remarked in an interview years later that Peck was a gentleman - for him, this movie was special ; each movie was - whereas, for herself, this was but another movie role she was happy to get, being a struggling working actress. She was very pleased still to be greeted so well by her co-star, whom she had always admired from afar.
The Omen was to be their only collaborative effort.
Tragically, Lee Remick died of cancer years ago.
Gregory Peck died most recently.
Both were never replaced.
And never will be.
I knew of another anecdote, far less tragic and far more charming - upon learning that they would be co-starring, Gregory Peck had sent Lee Remick a flower bouquet with a card that read "Very pleased that we are finally going to be working together". Miss Remick remarked in an interview years later that Peck was a gentleman - for him, this movie was special ; each movie was - whereas, for herself, this was but another movie role she was happy to get, being a struggling working actress. She was very pleased still to be greeted so well by her co-star, whom she had always admired from afar.
The Omen was to be their only collaborative effort.
Tragically, Lee Remick died of cancer years ago.
Gregory Peck died most recently.
Both were never replaced.
And never will be.
The Omen - both the movie as the book that preceded it, of course - stand light years above that horrific drivel concocted by Terry Pratchett with his apprentice (Neil, is it?) years later...
What's that crap called again...?
Well - it's got OMEN in the title, too.
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What's that crap called again...?
Well - it's got OMEN in the title, too.
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