Hey folks, Harry here... I get to do something at this year's SXSW that's been a dream of mine for a very long time. John Milius is one of those names that my father & his movie geek friends constantly spoke of with awe. The first film that I ever recorded on my own with a VCR was JEREMIAH JOHNSON, I remember it was in 1977, it was playing on TV and my parents had something they had to do and trusted me home alone. Dad had been bitching about how he was going to miss JEREMIAH JOHNSON - and all on my own, I sat on the couch with the wired remote to the VCR doing my best to edit commercials out, but about half way through, I was so caught up that I forgot about the remote entirely. That's the power of John Milius' storytelling. When Dad came home, he was so proud - and we sat down as a family and watched.
John Milius' writing was simply manlier than every body elses. He isn't afraid to make a film mythic, instead of merely realistic. Watch THE WIND AND THE LION and for the running time you may feel like you're watching the greatest film ever. His script for APOCALYPSE NOW and DIRTY HARRY - they're legendary. But if you sit down to watch his DILLINGER starring Warren Oates... you may find yourself wishing that we had anything like Milius today. But he hasn't stopped. Apparently he's written a GENGHIS KHAN script that RZA is going to direct.
When it was announced that Milius was making CONAN THE BARBARIAN - my father went nuts. There were endless conversations about why Milius was perfect and Schwarzenegger was wrong. Hey, Dad ain't quite perfect, hehehe.
BUT - THIS SATURDAY.... at 9:45pm at the VIMEO THEATER at the Austin Convention Center, I'll be introducing a new Documentary about the legend of John Milius entitled MILIUS. I'll also be handling the Q&A afterwards with the directors of the doc... and yes, John Milius will be there. Here in Austin. John Milius. If you're a lover of John Milius' work - I can't imagine you'd miss this, but if you need more motivation, check this out:
MILIUS Preview Clip 3/5/13 from Matthew Perniciaro on Vimeo.
And here's the one sheet:
