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Peter Weller Unbound! We've Got Video Of Last Monday's Incredible BUCKAROO BANZAI Q&A At The New Beverly!
Beaks here...
When Phil Blankenship of The New Beverly asked last week if I'd like to moderate a Q&A with Peter Weller before a screening of THE ADVENTURES OF BUCKAROO BANZAI ACROSS THE 8TH DIMENSION, I a) accepted immediately, b) started humming this, and c) began worrying that the veteran movie star wouldn't have much to say about a bizarro box-office bomb he shot twenty-seven years ago.
I worry too much.
Joined by co-stars Billy Vera and Jerry Peterson (of the still-quite-active Billy Vera and the Beaters), Weller came to the New Beverly last Monday night ready and rarin' to discuss everything: W.D. Richter, Earl Mac Rauch, John Lithgow, Christopher Lloyd, Jeff Goldblum, Jeff Goldblum's virginity... if there was a verboten subject, over the course of a half-hour (which could've easily extended to an hour had there not been a second feature on the bill), we certainly didn't find it. This all resulted in one of the most entertaining Q&As I've ever moderated or witnessed ("witnessed" because, after a while, I just let Weller take over).
And now, thanks to my pal Cathie Horlick, it's online for all you Blue Blaze Irregulars to enjoy!
Before you watch the video, I want to stress that this was shot from the front row of the New Beverly as a means of casually documenting the evening. This is not a professional recording of the Q&A, so please don't hold it against Cathie if parts of answers are drowned out by laughter or applause. She wasn't planning to broadcast this to the world; it's just that the whole thing went so well that she couldn't bear to keep it to herself. (Cathie also wrote a terrific blog about the event that you should absolutely read.)
Also, to help some of you better appreciate Billy Vera's amazing anecdote in the second video, this is Marianna Hill:
There are other pictures of her out there. She was quite memorable in Haskell Wexler's MEDIUM COOL.
When the first video begins, Weller is answering my question "What shape was the script in when you first received it?" - a legit query given that the screenplay was patched together from a number of (sadly unpublished) Buckaroo Banzai adventures written by Rauch. The rest is hopefully self-explanatory.
Any stories about Jeff Goldblum, Mr. Weller?
In case it wasn't clear enough, Weller did indeed compare Syracuse, New York to a "Russian prison". I've only been to Syracuse once, but it's an intriguing analogy.
Thanks so much to the mighty Brian McQuery for organizing the event (this would never have happened without him), Cathie for sharing her video, Phil for allowing me to "moderate" this madness, and, of course, eternal gratitude to Weller, Vera and Paterson for giving us BUCKAROO BANZAI devotees an evening to remember.
To see Weller do his thing live, get your ass to the American Cinematheque May 14th and 15th for ROBOCOP and NAKED LUNCH. I won't be moderating this Q&A, but I will most assuredly see you there. Also, the Cinefamily on Fairfax will be showing all three ROBOCOPs this Friday, April 2nd!
And make sure to check out ">Billy Vera and the Beaters if they're ever gigging in your area. Pinky Carruthers and Rug Sucker need your support! (Here's a video of Vera and the boys performing their number one hit "At This Moment"!)
When the first video begins, Weller is answering my question "What shape was the script in when you first received it?" - a legit query given that the screenplay was patched together from a number of (sadly unpublished) Buckaroo Banzai adventures written by Rauch. The rest is hopefully self-explanatory.
Any stories about Jeff Goldblum, Mr. Weller?
In case it wasn't clear enough, Weller did indeed compare Syracuse, New York to a "Russian prison". I've only been to Syracuse once, but it's an intriguing analogy.
Thanks so much to the mighty Brian McQuery for organizing the event (this would never have happened without him), Cathie for sharing her video, Phil for allowing me to "moderate" this madness, and, of course, eternal gratitude to Weller, Vera and Paterson for giving us BUCKAROO BANZAI devotees an evening to remember.
To see Weller do his thing live, get your ass to the American Cinematheque May 14th and 15th for ROBOCOP and NAKED LUNCH. I won't be moderating this Q&A, but I will most assuredly see you there. Also, the Cinefamily on Fairfax will be showing all three ROBOCOPs this Friday, April 2nd!
And make sure to check out ">Billy Vera and the Beaters if they're ever gigging in your area. Pinky Carruthers and Rug Sucker need your support! (Here's a video of Vera and the boys performing their number one hit "At This Moment"!)
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Stupid work. At least this site's not blocked.
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thanks for posting this. i knew i wouldn't be able to go this but i didnt expect the Q&A to be posted. this totally made my day! one of my old bands used to cover the Banzai March as an intro to our set. it usually pissed off most of the audience (anything we played did) but there was usually one person who'd recognize the song.
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I guess EVERYBODY can't be in Expendables. Pity.
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i visited my cousin in 2003 at Syracuse. I made a similar observation that is resembled the Eastern Bloc-style housing (see movies like "Goodbye Lenin")
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This was an unbelievably clever, entertaining movie. I always suspected that most people were just too darned dumb to appreciate it!
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Great to see an actor actually passionate about his past work and the Chris Lloyd stories are gold!
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...give him the Ronny Cox role at OCP in the Darren Aronofsky Robocop remake/reboot/reshoot etc.
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seeing movies from my childhood being show in special screenings and retrospectives and shit. thats usually reserved for old movies..i'm not old dammit!!! :P
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Mar 31, 2010 3:13:23 PM CDT
So when is "Buckaroo Banzai vs. The World Crime Syndicate" comin
by fiester
I believe we were promised that was "Coming Soon!" at the end of the first movie. Must be almost finished by now, yes?
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BOO-TAYYY, not big bootee.
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The President's on line one calling about 'Is everything ok with the alien spacecraft from Planet 10 or should he go ahead and destroy Russia?'." "Tell him yes on One and no on Two." From memory, bitches!
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Remebering that just makes you an asshole
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Has been publishing awesome Buckaroo comics for a while now, written by the gents who wrote the feature film...
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That's just, like, your opinion, man.
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A few episodes of 24 a few years ago? Jack's mentor or something like that?
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Mar 31, 2010 3:54:06 PM CDT
any of you old enough to have seen the first run in theaters?
by brabon300
i was there....basically alone at the coronet in sf loved every second of the movie and couldnt for the life of me figure out why there werent lines around the block
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My friends and I were there in complete Team Banzai gear (I had read about it in Starlog or something, and saw a pic). We had no idea what to expect, and we loved every moment.
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...longtime member of the Banzai Institute. :)
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More assholery from yours truly, it seems.
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Weller has been in grad school studying Art History at UCLA so that's probably why he hasn't done more acting stuff lately.
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used to see full page adverts for it in Marvel comics, and wonder what the hell it was.
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I missed it by a year or two in theaters, and as a result did not get into this awesome movie until last year. Now I can quote it with the best (asshole, it seems) of them.
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and he's entirely correct. We averaged about 90 days of actual sunshine per year.
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Somebody video Weller's Robocop Q&A. That I gotta hear.
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way back in '84.... always been a huge sci-fi fan. here's a tag line from the one sheet, "Beings from another dimension have invaded your world... You can't see them, but they can see you.".... love this movie, long live the Hong Kong Cavaliers
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I was working at a doorman in '84 and saw it when it was released (I was 19).
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The one thing I remember about BB was that poster going up. It is my first memory of knowing about the movie and it stood out because it really felt like they were offering you something different. A friend of mine recently tweeted how much he missed the Nightmare On Elm Street original poster when he saw the new ones, and I agree. The 70s and 80s were a great time for beautifully drawn, color art scifi and horror posters that captured the feeling or the essence of a movie. Now, everything is so incredibly glossy and slick and printing technology is so great (I'm not knocking it, btw) for full color photography that there tends to be something lost in the posters than don't convey the movies at all. However, that said, a lot of that also has to do with the fact that we can view movie trailers pretty much whenever we want so posters have taken a back seat as a primary marketing tool in communicating what a movie is about.
The BB poster, though, damn fine piece of work. Would love to have one. -
...which I still have, somewhere. Rockville, Maryland, some multiplex in a mall as I recall. I guess they were giving them away as a promotion, I don't really remember (I was baked like a Christmas ham that night!)
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Wes Anderson gets a guaranteed ticket purchase from me for his next 10 films for that scene alone.
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At the Puente Hills mall little twin theaters where they shot Back To The Future '84/'85(in front of Robinson's at that time)where the Lybians kill Doc Brown. I ordered the one sheet through Rick's movie graphics or the equivalent back then. Great poster art and still have it. Indeed, they don't make them like that anymore. BBI for life, baby.
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The first time a real, live girl got me off was during the closing credits of "Buckaroo Banzai" when we were watching it on VHS in a seedy motel circa 1986. This movie and its theme song will always be dear to me.
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Too funny, he was ACTING!
http://tinyurl.com/5v4sqd -
I can't even begin to tell you how happy this made me. I was so, so, so sad I couldn't be there, but this was the next best thing. Thank you so much for posting this, and thanks to Ms. Horlick for filming it for posterity. Tonight I shall dream of Marianna Hill...
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does that mean you missed the closing credits the first time? hope you rewound
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i'm about three seats to the right of whoever is taping the Q&A
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Nice to see all those guys. Fun stories, pleasant event, and Peter Weller is absolutely right about grad school.
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There You Are.My Dad took me to see this the week it came out! One of my favorite movies ever since. And TedKordLives, anyone who can quote lines from Buckaroo Banzai is OK in my book.
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How cool is that?! Kind of makes other actors look pathetic by comparison. Wish I could sit in on one of his classes.
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"...that Chris Lloyd is the STRANGEST PERSON ON THE PLANET. Does that give you a clue?!" WOW, hilarious stuff!
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Someone PLEASE video Peter Weller's RoboCop Q&A when it happens in May. Please, please, please.
PLEEEEEAAASSSSEEE! -
I missed that. I loved that movie. I missed Buckaroo in the theater but I remember it being a very popular rental. And that was when VHS rentals were first truly booming and you could rent movies in grocery stores, gas stations and one of five video rental stores within a mile of your house. It was one of those movies a lot of people hadn't heard of, but it looked cool on the video store poster.
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Yeah, that was cool
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I'm glad that everyone is enjoying the video! I'm glad I was able to share and pass it on, all in the name of BUCKAROO BANZAI!!
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James Franco, Adrien Brody, Alexander Skarsgard, Jon Seda, Mos Def, Jason Segal, etc. Fun to dream, isn't it?
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...Rachel McAdams and David Krumholz, too.
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On a few educational/Discovery-type programs, like "Engineering an Empire;" I especially liked the episode about the amazing architecture of the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan.
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Apr 01, 2010 8:55:22 AM CDT
FYI: I converted to mp3 and tried to clean up this Q&A.
by royston lodge
I was finding it really hard to understand what the guys were saying, especially over the roar of the crowd.
So I converted the audio from these clips to mp3 files, ran them through a compressor to kill the crowd a bit, ran it through an expander to boost the guys on stage, and then ran it through noise reduction to get rid of some of the hiss.
God, I love Goldwave!
Anyhoo, if you want to listen to the Q&A with better odds of understanding what everybody's saying, here's a link. The link is temporary (it'll expire in 48 hours or so) down download it now!
http://tinyurl.com/yekhve6 -
Man, Peter Weller is just beyond cool. I've always enjoyed his work and seeing him be himself in these clips just goes to show what a good guy he really is. Too bad so many in Hollywood are too damn ego-driven to do anything near as cool as this, let alone get their Ph.D. Thanks for posting these clips and I second the need for someone to do the same in May for RoboCop and The Naked Lunch. "What's that watermelon for?" "Tell ya later." CLASSIC FILM!
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I saw BB first run at the now non-existent Horizon Park 4 in Tampa. I was a teenager, still have great memories
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Apr 01, 2010 11:47:35 AM CDT
Very cool indeed. Thanks to everyone who organised this.
by mr nicholas
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Because this Talkback needs more Robocop references.
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I would pay money to see him lecture or do a one-person show. Damn brilliant guy. Plus, he looks like the priest who officiated at my wedding.
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This one is somewhat ironic, considering the references to narcotics in that Q&A. Heh heh heh ...
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Hosting some of the Engineering and Empire programs, as well as a similar one about Rome.
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If my TB handle doesn't clue you in, let me tell you that I love this film. So bummed that this happened on the wrong coast from me.
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in case you didn't know, Peter Weller is one of the best trumpet players in Hollywood. Caught him doing a double billing with Doc Severenson a few decades back and both of them were on fire.
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It wasn't Weller's fault, but the show itself was a "regional" remake .. They take an existing ( BBC usually ) documentary and add a few fluff scenes between the commercial breaks with an American host.
No knock on Weller, but it was so corny that they set up his scenes like he was actually there. -
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