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PRESS RELEASE: "The Seventh Python draws cheers, standing ovation at Beatles fan festival in Chicago"

Entertainment

1000+ fans line up for morning screening of Neil Innes biopic

The Seventh Python
draws cheers,
standing ovation
at Beatles fan festival
in Chicago

HOLLYWOOD (JONAS PR) -- The Seventh Python, the acclaimed musical biopic of satirist, Monty Python collaborator and Rutle Neil Innes, received a standing ovation from more than a thousand fans in Chicago this weekend as producers previewed the film at the year's largest Beatles fan convention as part of its screening tour for distributors and tastemakers.

The Frozen Pictures film, which also stars Monty Python veterans John Cleese, Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin, along with British comedian Phill Jupitus and Academy Award-nominated singer-songwriter Aimee Mann.

'This was the screening that was most nervous-making,' director Burt Kearns said this morning. 'This is largest Beatles fans convention of the year, and because Neil's fans and story are so closely connected with the Beatles, we knew a thumbs-down or even a shrug could do us in. But they loved it! More than a thousand a people showed up at 11 in the morning after a wild Friday night. And a standing ovation? Thank you, Fest for Beatles fans.'

'One thing these screenings are proving is that The Seventh Python deserves a theatrical run,' added producer Brett Hudson, himself an attraction at the fest as a member of the re-formed Hudson Brothers. 'The comedy from the Pythons and newcomers like Phill Jupitus has the audience rolling with laughter; the music has them singing and clapping along; the story of Neil's friendship with George Harrison actually has them crying. And in the end, they're on their feet.'

The film had its world premiere June 26th as the opening selection of the American Cinematheque's Mods & Rockers Film Festival in Hollywood. This Chicago 'Heartland premiere' was the next step on the way across the country to a distributors' screening in New York City, and across the Atlantic to a showing for Innes friends, fans and colleagues in London.

'This is a film that comes with the fans' seal of approval," Kearns said. "But it's for the mainstream audience who loves rock ‘n' roll, comedy, the Beatles, Monty Python- and are ready to be introduced to an awesomely talented songwriter and performer who's only managed to avoid fame for 40 years because he's insisted on it!"

Added Hudson: "The acclaim for Neil is well-deserved."

Additional film festival dates are due to be announced. Plans are also underway for The Seventh Python soundtrack and companion book.

Neil Innes-Hudson Brothers power combo helps turn The Seventh Python into greatest hit at Chicago Fest for Beatles Fans

The following post is adapted from a post on TabloidBaby.com:

With its star, supporting cast, director, producer and music supervisor in prominent attendance and a special, surprise late-night screening that followed up the packed, enthusiastic showing on Saturday morning, the unreleased Neil Innes biopic The Seventh Python is surely the hottest news to come out of The Fest for Beatles Fans that continues with overflow crowds today in Chicago.

Our latest film had its world premiere in June at Martin Lewis' Mods & Rocker Film Festival in Hollywood and is on the march to a New York City screening soon to be announced, as we look for theatrical distribution for what's proving to be a crowd pleaser that has audiences cheering, laughing, crying and singing along!

Neil Innes with superfan, Barbara Poudrier, who’s developed and runs several Innes fansites.

Key to The Seventh Python mania among the thousands of fans who’ve lined up this weekend with Python memorabilia and posters, is the approachable charisma of the movie’s star, Neil Innes, who's become a key figure at these Beatles Fests-- and an unexpected comeback of Seventies pop stars and John Lennon compadres The Hudson Brothers (one-third of which is our own Brett Hudson), who teamed up with Neil onstage and at signing sessions.

Mark and Brett Hudson eat in public.

Mark Hudson, familiar to Beatle Fest fans for writing with and producing Ringo Starr (and in a remarkable coup, filling for a lost friend by recording a tracks with George, Paul and Ringo ) was joined by brother Brett, who returns to performing after 28 years. A noted television and film writer and producer, Brett is producer and writer of The Seventh Python (Mark is music supervisor).

The trio was a triple-threat of promotion and star quality, joined occasionally by non-celeb Seventh director Burt Kearns.



Brett Hudson and Kearns entertained a large crowd last night with their stories of the making of The Seventh Python, a forum in which Brett revealed publicly that there will indeed be a Hudson brothers reunion (probably in New York City) and a documentary film produced by himself and Kearns.


Their talk was dwarfed by the no-standing-room-left Mark and Brett discussion moderated by Martin Lewis ("A Brit a A Brett & A Brat"). The fest continues today, and will be capped by another huge concert featuring the Hudsons (two out of three, so far) and Neil Innes.

Brett Hudson surrounded by the Mark Hudson power sales and promotion team, borrowed for The Seventh Python promotion: Still Nancy, Killer Heels, Soft Focus and Cheryl.

The Seventh Python is a hit at Chicago Beatles fest!

This exclusive video shows the audience response to the closing moments of The Seventh Python, our new Neil Innes musical biopic, at its special 11 a.m. showing Saturday morning at the fest for Beatles Fans in Chicago. More than a thousand fans crowded into the Rosemont Ballroom for the exclusive screening, and the response was overwhelming.

So was the standing ovation!

Exclusive photo! Neil Innes (right) watches the movie
with The Fest for Beatles Fans director Mark Lapidus.

Martin Lewis, Beatles Fest emcee and
curator of the American Cinematheque's
Mods & Rockers Film Festival that had
The Seventh Python's world premiere
as its opening selection, has another look.

Musician, songwriter and producer Mark Hudson
is caught watching The Seventh Python at its
Chicago fest for Beatles Fans screening

Chicago Sun-Times heralds The Seventh Python

The Chicago Sun-Times features Neil Innes in today's issue, in anticipation of Saturday's Heartland premiere of our Innes biopic, The Seventh Python.

The film will screen at 11 a.m. Saturday for early-bird fans at The Fest For Beatle Fans at the Hyatt-Regency O'Hare Hotel.

Jeff Elbel interviews Neil from his home in England:

Chicago Sun-Times
August 7, 2008

A satisfied Rutle spends lost weekend with Beatles fans in Chicago

BY JEFF ELBEL

According to Neil Innes, he stumbled innocently into show business with the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band during the 1960s and has been falling through open doors ever since. He’s happier as a respected peer of timeless entertainers like the Beatles and Monty Python troupe than being considered a star himself.

This year marks the 30th anniversary of the Rutles film “All You Need Is Cash,” a wickedly funny Beatles spoof. Monty Python’s Eric Idle wrote the screenplay about the “Prefab Four,” and Innes starred as John Lennon figure Ron Nasty. Innes’ compositions for the soundtrack (and 1996’s “Archaeology”) rival the wit and craft of the Beatles’ works they affectionately skewer.

This weekend in Chicago, Innes will speak at The Fest for Beatles Fans and perform Rutles favorites with the band Liverpool. Attendees also can see a new documentary called “The Seventh Python,” dedicated to Innes’ “accidental career.”

Innes spoke with the Sun-Times from his home in England.

Q. The Rutles song “Joe Public” could make a fitting theme song for the pro-anonymity stance of “The Seventh Python,” if you weren’t such an inspiring skeptic. Would the lyric “I put my faith in the powers that be” ever suit you?

A. No, but that’s what Joe Public does. If you go right back to Socrates, intelligence has not been a commodity held in high esteem. Most Joe Publics are happy to support a football team or form some sort of tribe, which plays into the hands of anyone wanting to take away their hard-earned dollar. [The general public] are not stupid, but we are unaware of how things work.

Q. Does “The Seventh Python” stoke your ego, or provoke your contempt for fame?

A. It’s a wriggly, awkward place to be, I’ll tell you [laughs]. I quite like that they went ’round with a photograph and nobody recognized me. My favorite bit was on Hollywood Boulevard, where the guy says, “So, you’re making a documentary about somebody nobody knows?” Fame and money have become the twin pillars of modern culture. I love the idea of a D-list celebrity, which is someone who’s been hit on the head by Tiger Woods’ golf ball.

Q. Would people at The Fest for Beatles Fans have the same trouble with the photo?

A. No, no. I just don’t cross into the mainstream. I’ve [witnessed] very big fame through people I know. It’s a lot more fun being a Rutle than a Beatle!

Q. Will you find the type of fans who made life challenging for the Beatles at the Fest?

A. No; it’s people on a voluntary Lost Weekend with family, playing songs to each other that they love. What unites everybody is a preferable reality to the one that comes down the pipe every other day of the year. It’s a little oasis of friendliness and hope. I’m incredibly flattered that they should find the Rutles songs not that wide of the mark.

Our Spinal Tap moment!

Hey! Maybe The Seventh Python is our Spinal Tap!

Two days until we follow up the June 26th Hollywood premiere of our Neil Innes docofilm with Saturday morning shwoing at the Fest for Beatles Fans in Chicago.


The gigantic Beatles fan convention is taking place tomorrow through Sunday at the Hyatt Regency-O'Hare Hotel (and taking over the hotel).

The film will be screened in the hotels' Rosemont Ballroom at 11 a.m. Saturday as an "early bird special" for the thousands of Beatlemaniacs who'll be descending for the memorabilia swap, sell and songfest.

The Spinal Tap connection? Well, just as in the movie This is Spinal Tap, The Seventh Python is sharing billing, in this case, the "early bird" slot, with a puppet show!

On Sunday at 11:15 a.m., early birds are treated to Bob Abdou's Puppet Show (and a rockin' good Beatles puppet show it is)!

See you all in Chicago!

Updated poster for The Seventh Python

special showing
Saturday
August 9th, 2008
11 a.m.
The Fest for Beatles Fans
Grand Ballroom
Regency O'Hare Hotel
Chicago

The Seventh Python introduces the world to Tokyo's top Rutles tribute, The Mountbattens

When we were producing The Seventh Python, were sure to include a section about the role of the Internet in spreading Neil Innes' music and uniting his fans around the world, and it was through the Internet that we discovered what could be the only Rutles tribute group in Japan!

The Mountbattens, named for the Rutles manager who tragically accepted a taching post in Australia), do dead-on, English language versions of The Rutles' greatest hits, and their inclusion in The Seventh Python (they perform I Must Be In Love) proved to be one of the film's most crowd-pleasing, applause-inducing moments.

The Mountbattens were excited to be included in our little film. And they sent along their group bio:


This is our bio.

The Mountbattens are
Yuji Furuhata : Vo, G
Hitoshi Takahashi : G, Vo
Tatsuto Yasaka : B, Vo
Yasushi Suzuki : D

BBC(B) "Tell me about THE MOUNTBATTENS."

MOUNTBATTENS(M) "We love THE BEATLES."

B "Oh! I love them too. Do you cover their songs?"

M "Ahhh.......No."

B "You play just like THE BEATLES, don't you?"

M "You're not far off."

B "Oh I see! You're closely related to Mersey beat, I guess."

M "Absolutely not."

B "Then what kind of music you play?"

M "We dig THE RUTLES."

B "Rat? What?"

M "We play a lot of songs of THE RUTLES. We love them than THE BEATLES."

B "THE BEATLES are the best, you know."

M "Yes, we know. But we love THE RUTLES for ever and ever."

B "No way. You villain!"

M "Yes, we know too."

Roman Shebalin, Russian bard and artist, gets a worldwide audience with The Seventh Python

We've found that one of the surprises in our Neil Innes biopic, The Seventh Python, is the inclusion of two international acts who are influenced by Neil and help spread his music in far-flung corners of the globe.

One of them is the Japanese Rutles tribute, the Mountbattens. The other is Roman Shebalin, an artist we've featured here before, and who's made an impact on YouTube with his Russian-language renditions of English.

In The Seventh Python, Roman performs his version of Neil's signature tune, How Sweet To Be An Idiot-- in Russian!

Roman-- who wears a pig on his head instead of a duck!-- tells us he doesn't speak English, but with the help of a translator friend sent us a bio.

We hope his inclusion in The Seventh Python only spreads his music as well!

Roman Shebalin (born on 25th of October, 1970 in Moscow, USSR) – Russian musician, writer, artist and registrar.

From 1994 to 1999 studied at the College of Literature. Works as a registrar since he has finished College, specializing at documentaries.

During 2003-2005 founded first Russian sites and fan-clubs of Fabrizio de Andre, “Teenage Opera” project, Bee Gees and Russian bands “Tambourine” and “Dialog”. Also he is one of the organizers and an active member of British rock lovers club and the creator and maintainer of Greyclan Studios.

Since childhood he writes poems; later he published his novels in magazines and also wrote a book called “Haunted City”.

Roman is the creator of the band named “Nav’” (1995) which plays art’n’folk, post-punk, minimalism and avant-guard. Main instruments are acoustic guitar, synthesizer and bagpipe. Also plays solo as a bard.

He is an artist, a designer and a participant of “Love Street” exhibitions (1989-1997). His favorite styles are abstractionism and surrealism, favorite techniques – watercolor, oil, collage.

PRESS RELEASE: "Innes-influenced indie acts get international exposure in 'The Seventh Python'"

Neil Innes biopic plays August 9th at Chicago Fest for Beatles Fans/
Russian folk artist and Japanese Rutles tribute are featured in acclaimed film

Innes-influenced indie acts
get international exposure
in "The Seventh Python"

HOLLYWOOD (JONAS PR) -- A folk-rock musician from Moscow and an offbeat tribute band from Tokyo are getting their first international exposure through their surprise inclusion in The Seventh Python, the acclaimed musical biopic of satirist, Monty Python collaborator and Rutle Neil Innes, that heads to an exclusive showing at the Chicago Fest for Beatles Fans on August 9th.

Roman Shebalin is featured in the Frozen Pictures film, singing a Russian-language version of Innes' signature song, How Sweet To Be An Idiot.

From the rock ‘n' roll nightclubs of Tokyo, Rutles tribute band The Mountbattens are shown performing I Must Be In Love, a classic song from the Rutles album and mockumentary, All You Need is Cash.

'We first heard and saw Roman's work on YouTube while we were in post-production,' says Seventh Python director Burt Kearns. 'He's a passionate performer and he's made it a crusade to spread Neil Innes' work in a part of the world that knows him even less than here! He's a great example of how Neil's work has spread across the globe, and how fans in distant places are united, thanks to the Internet.'

'The Mountbattens make pure, perfect pop music," says producer Brett Hudson, 'The fact that they're playing Rutles music and not the Beatles, capturing every nuance and in sound and performance, is totally bent! And truly a tribute to Neil's talent!'

Both performers have atttracted strong word-of-mouth since The Seventh Python premiered June 26th as the opening selection in the Mods & Rockers Film Festival in Hollywood. They managed to grab attention amid the brilliant starpower of Innes, John Cleese, Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin, Terry Jones, and, in his introduction to the US and world stage, the hilarious comic and Innes compadre Phill Jupitus.

Shebalin, 37, who founded the first Russian fansites for bands including the BeeGees, is also an artist, published poet and author, and a founder of the post-punk, minimalist, avant-garde band, Nav. His main instruments are acoustic guitar, synthesizer and bagpipes.

The Mountbattens are Yuji Furuhata on vocals and guitar, Hitoshi Takahashi : guitar, vocals; Tatsuto Yasaka, bass & vocals; and
Yasushi Suzuki on drums.

The Seventh Python, hailed by the Los Angeles Times as 'charming and illuminating,' will be presented August 9th in a special 11:30 a.m. screening in the main ballroom of the Hyatt Regency O'Hare Hotel amid the Fest for Beatles Fans. Neil Innes will be there for the showing.

Our next music bio film is about Chris Montez

We're still working on the aftermath of the world premiere of our Neil Innes biopic, The Seventh Python, but why waste time when we've got something great? We've already begun pre-production on our next nonfiction, musical feature film: the story of Sixties rocker Chris Montez.

Chris is a Mexican American rock legend who grew up in Hawthorne, California, went to school with the Beach Boys, met his hero Ritchie Valens as a teen, carried on as his successor, toured England with the Beatles as his opening act, and pioneered the lounge movement with hits like Call Me and The More I See You. You'll recognize his hit, Let's Dance. It played during the food fight scene in Animal House, and the Ramones covered it on their first album.

Here's the press release:

FROZEN PICTURES TO FOLLOW
ACCLAIMED NEIL INNES BIOPIC
WITH NONFICTION FILM
ON THE LIFE AND MUSIC
OF CHRIS MONTEZ

HOLLYWOOD, July 2 (JONAS PR) - Hot on the heels of the world premiere of its Neil Innes biopic, The Seventh Python, Frozen Pictures announced today that its next nonfiction musical feature film will focus on the life and career of rock and pop star Chris Montez.

Montez, best known for 1962 rocker, Let's Dance and Swingin' Sixties hits like Call Me and The More I See You, has seen international success whose versatility has moved him beyond the Oldies circuit.

“Chris Montez is an incredibly influential musician whose life and music have touched on every major thread in rock ‘n' roll, from Latino rock to R&B, Sixties pop to lounge, surf to punk,” says Burt Kearns, who writes, produces or directs all of Frozen's projects with Brett Hudson.

"His story is epic. He grew up in Hawthorne, California and went to school and jammed with Brian Wilson and his brothers. He met his hero Ritchie Valens, months before his death. He toured the Deep South at with Sam Cooke and Smokey Robinson. The Beatles were his opening act on their breakthrough British tour. He was washed up at 19. And then he met Herb Alpert and began a very unlikely second act.”

“This film will rewrite rock ‘n' roll history,” adds Hudson, who wrote part of that history with The Hudson Brothers in the Sixties and Seventies. “There's a legendary story about Chris getting into a barroom brawl with John Lennon. There are questions about where those Beatle suits came from. And there's lots more."

International Production

Plans call for filming in Los Angeles, Branson, Europe and Mexico, including an all-star jam session that will feature Montez' greatest hits in a casual setting. “What Bono did for Roy Orbison, what Rick Rubin did for Johnny Cash and Neil Diamond, we'll do for Chris Montez,” says Hudson. “He's a very special talent who really communicates with his music."


The greenlighting of the Montez project comes less than a week after Frozen Pictures' latest film, The Seventh Python, had its world premiere at the American Cinematheque's Mods & Rockers Film Festival in Hollywood.

Reviews have been uniformly impressive, with The Los Angeles Times calling the film “charming and illuminating,” and LAist praising it as “inspired and hilarious.'”

Hudson says the Montez story, besides "reflecting the journey and assimilation of the Mexican American from the 1950s to the first years of the 21st Century," fits in well with the Frozen Pictures' other entertaining, innovative and surprising nonfiction projects that that include the Bravo miniseries, All The Presidents' Movies with Martin Sheen and the television special, The Secret History of Rock ‘n' Roll with Gene Simmons.

“I want to be an example”

Montez, who recently starred at the Dick Clark ‘s American Bandstand Theatre in Branson, Missouri, is eager to bring his story to a new generation “and influence as many people as I can.

"For me, it's always been about overcoming obstacles,” he says. “I'd like to say I grew up in a bilingual home, but my parents never spoke English. I grew up with four brothers and four sisters, and none of them finished school. I've seen discrimination against them and I've experienced it myself. But though I know the struggles of being a Mexican American, I also had tremendous opportunities. I ended up working with the Beatles-- and having the Beatles open for me!

"A lot of Mexican Americans know about me, and I have a lot of older fans, but I want to be an example to young people. An example that everything's possible. I've had lot of Mexican people say to me, 'You're a legend'-- I don't know what that means. I've always been an underdog. And whether you're worth ten million dollars or ten bucks, you're the same person as long as you keep that focus.”

Lensing is set for late summer.

"One big happy singalong!": LAist reviews Neil Innes' concert at The Seventh Python's Mods & Rockers Film Festival premiere

Yes, we've been busy this past week! We've told you that we'll be screening The Seventh Python, August 9th at the 32nd Chicago Fest for Beatles Fans-- Neil Innes will be appearing that event, as well.-- and meanwhile, Elise Thompson at LAist has a review of Neil's performance at the Egyptian Theatre Friday night (see some great fan reviews at Neil Innes fansite:

LAist
JUNE 30, 2008

Neil Innes at the Egyptian 6/27/08

(Written with Bob Thompson)

It was an intimate night of music and comedy as Neil Innes entertained an enthralled crowd in The Egyptian Theater on Friday night, the second of a two-night Innes-Fest at the Mods and Rockers Film Festival.

It was more like hanging out in the local pub than attending a rock concert. Switching from guitar to keyboard to ukelele to something resembling a zither, Innes kept stressing it was an "interactive" night, inviting friends like animator and webmaster Bonnie Rose and Emo Philips up on stage to accompany him. Ken Simpson and “Rutling Ken” Thornton, a pair of guitarists from the Midwest, made especially strong contributions, Thornton adding Harrison-esque leads to several of the most moving songs. Innes often relied upon the audience to provide background vocals, and the theater turned into one big, happy sing-along. Imagine being part of a huge theater crowd hollering along to songs like “Jollity Farm” and “The Bruces’ Philosophers Song”.


The show opened with a “medley of hit”, the Bonzo Dog Band’s "Urban Spaceman", a big single in 1968 England, and heard by Yanks in Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl fourteen years later. Innes then ran through a number of Monty Python, Bonzo Dog Band, Rutles and solo songs with a good mix of the popular and the obscure.

While Innes famously employs the dreaded mix of music and comedy, his schtick is quite different from the numerous guitar-wielding comics we’ve been seeing lately. Innes’ tunes are finely crafted, never just set-ups to a punch line. Even at his most pointedly parodic – jabbing Dylan with “Protest Song”, sampling the Beach Boys doo-wopping on his new keyboard or lampooning the Beatles in the Rutles segment – his songs are good enough to pass as those of his subjects. As insightful and subtle as Spinal Tap, Innes realizes that in satire, it’s worth sacrificing a couple of easy laughs in order to set up the really big one.


His ultimate Lennon jab, "Cheese and Onions", loudly requested by a pre-teen in attendance, brought the house down. “I’ve got grandchildren now… and I ate them both,” snarled Innes in response to the request, prowling the crowded stage, wondering what instrument to pick up next.

As could be expected, a lot of the folks in attendance were musicians, among them Joe Walsh and Jeff Lynne. Another successful evening ended at The Clubhouse where Seventh Python producer Brett Hudson and director Burt Kearns took over hosting duties.

Brett sings with brother Mark Hudson at Fest for Beatles Fans in Las Vegas-- and announces The Seventh Python Chicago premiere

On the heels of a blockbuster two-night premiere for The Seventh Python at the Mods & Rockers Film Festival at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood, star and subject Neil Innes, producer Brett Hudson, music supervisor Mark Hudson, director Burt Kearns and festival impresario Martin Lewis landed in Las Vegas for the opening of the est for Beatles Fans at the Mirage Hotel (home of the Love show). After catching a performance of Spamalot at the Wynn across Las Vegas Boulevard, Neil Innes made a surprise appearance onstage at the Fest and brought the house down with Rutles favorites.

But first, two-thirds of the Hudson Brothers appeared onstage with Lewis to talk about the new DVD collection of their Seventies TV series, and to announce that The Seventh Python will be shown at the Chicago Fest for Beatles Fans, beginning August 9th.

The film be screened in the grand ballroom of the Hyatt Regency OHare Hotel at 11 am as an "early bird special" for the fans queueing up for the noon opening of the fest.

It will be screened later in smaller fest venues.

Some photos from the two-night premiere party for The Seventh Python in Hollywood

A tip of the Tabloid Baby hat to Luke Ford & LAist...

Review of The Seventh Python: "A marvelous, thought-provoking, important meditation on the problem of art and fame, asking deep questions"

The latest review of The Seventh Python comes from David Isaak, author of the new novel, Shock and Awe, on his Tomorrowville website:

THE SEVENTH PYTHON
reviewed by David Isaak

The Seventh Python was a marvelous, thought-provoking film. Rather than a rehash of the career of Neil Innes, it was an important meditation on the problem of art and fame.

The first human problem is physical survival--how to find food and shelter. Once those needs are satisfied, then we are faced with the deeper question of what we want to do with our lives.

The artist faces a similar progression of questions. The first problem facing creative people is how to support themselves while doing their work. For most of them, this means either doing creative work as a "hobby" while earning a living through other means, or putting considerable effort into promoting themselves and their projects.

But promotion is a marketplace activity, and if you're not a natural self-promoter, success puts strange and conflicting pressures on you. Neil Innes lives permanently on the edge between fame and anonymity, and it's clear that particular edge is an uncomfortable place to reside. He obviously doesn't want to be a celebrity--but he also needs to maintain a certain degree of public prominence to have the means to do his art.

Anyone who works in the creative arts, from the very public world of performance to the more private world of writing, ought to see this film. Beneath a light, fluffy surface, it is asking some very deep questions.

"Proves that the exhibition of emotional scars is not needed to provide insight into the heart of a person": LAist reviews The Seventh Python

When The Seventh Python, our film about Neil Innes, premiered at the Mods and Rockers Film Festival in Hollywood last night, Elise Thompson of the LAist website was there.

Today she posted the film's first major review. And what can we say, but... "thanks":


JUNE 27, 2008
LAist Movie Review: The Seventh Python

There are a number of inherent contradictions in making a film like The Seventh Python. First of all, how do you spend two hours focusing on a person who notoriously shuns the spotlight?

Innes expounds upon his distaste for fame in a film that by its very existence could make him famous. It is a little ironic when his face is exponentially duplicated to fill the screen like a Herbal Essences commercial (..and they told two friends, and so on, and so on, and so on...), while Innes sings "Joe Public", his ode to the mundane everyman.

Secondly, there is the challenge of making a documentary comprised of talking head interviews and concert footage when your subject is perhaps best known for making The Rutles, a film that mocks that very formula.

Somehow The Seventh Python manages to pull it all together using visual effects, editing techniques and witty commentary, all the while keeping focused exclusively on Innes' professional life.

The film is subtly enhanced with a sprinkling of animation. Bonnie Rose, who founded www.neilinnes.org adds a style that is clearly in tribute to Terry Gilliam, even down to the crushing foot of fate. Other visual effects such the previously mentioned duplication and split screens are used to keep the eye entertained while the ears do the heavy lifting.

In a particularly inspired moment, Innes' attention to an airplane flying by cuts to a shot of an airplane, then to a shot of Terry Jones, whom we have already mentally established is in some distant location, as he pretends to hear the same plane pass overhead. It is an inspired moment that harkens back to the overlapping skits that made Monty Python great (Come back, Harold!).

Rockumentaries often have trouble finding the right balance between music and narrative. Most rock docs have no patience and start narrating over songs just as you are finding the groove. The Seventh Python strikes a nice balance, knowing to back off and allow "The Philosopher's Song" and "Let's be Natural" to play uninterrupted, while cutting into some of the longer, less iconic tunes.

The Bonzo Dog rehearsals follow Innes through a medley-like arrangement, another technique to avoid monotony. I almost wish they would exploit the similarity to a late-night K-Tel commercial and go for the gag, running song titles up the screen.
This film traces Innes' career from his earliest days with The Bonzo Dog Band and the childrens' show Don't adjust your Set, around the bend to Monty Python and just over the river to The Rutles until it gently slopes back to today. It covers his influences, from Magritte paintings to dusty 78s, and offers lots of fun, insider tidbits to chuckle over on fan sites.

Naturally, the commentary is hilarious; we would expect nothing less with friends like John Cleese and Michael Palin. Phil Jupitus is particularly funny, driving the audience into hysterics simply talking about Innes wearing a hat.

What you won't see up on the big screen is Innes' personal life. The closest you get is a short commentary from his wife, and some nostalgia regarding the death of George Harrison that Innes quickly nips in the bud. Such respect for the boundary between Neil Innes the man and Neil Innes the performer can only come from Burt Kearns, a director who penned the expose on tabloid journalism.

Kearns proves here that the exhibition and evaluation of emotional scars large and small is not needed to provide insight into the heart of a subject. This movie makes you admire Innes. It makes you like him as a person. It makes you want to be his friend. He comes off as quick-witted, approachable and clever. Even at his most mischievous he remains guileless. Who else but a self-aware pedant would dare rhyme "pedant" and "dead ant"?

This movie succeeds by coaxing its subject to open up just enough so that we do feel like his friend. The Seventh Python allows the audience to walk out of the theater with more than a taste of Neil Innes, but without having swallowed him whole.

The Seventh Python is a hit at Hollywood premiere! Reviewer: "Made me want to stand up and cheer!"

The premiere of The Seventh Python last night at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood was a rousing success for movie subject Neil Innes, Mods & Rockers Film Festival impresario Martin Lewis. And leave it to legendary blogger and Internet journalist Luke Ford to be first out of the gate with a review of the picture:

"A sweet and funny documentary!
The Seventh Python made me
want to stand up and cheer
for a good and funny man!
A must-see for any Monty Python fan!"
--Luke Ford

Chelsea Handler, Mark Hudson and music legend Chris Montez were seen in the crowd, which roared with laughter, applauded with approval and joined in a standing ovation!

Luke did the interviews above. See more here.

Los Angeles Times: "Neil Innes salute at Mods & Rockers fest"

June 26, 2008
Los Angeles Times

Neil Innes salute at Mods & Rockers fest

“Charming & illuminating documentary”

You can tell a lot about a person from their heroes. There are those who cite great statesmen or politicians; others look up to athletes, scientists, philosophers or artists.

For British musician and humorist Neil Innes, it’s Brian Dunkleman, who quit his job co-hosting “American Idol” with Ryan Seacrest because he didn’t like the way contestants were being treated.

“Dunkleman turned his back on a fortune, and people ridicule him for it — I think he’s a hero,” says Innes, one-time member of the inner circle of the Monty Python comedy troupe who's often referred to as “The Seventh Python.” That happens to be the title of a new film documentary on Innes' career, which also has included membership in the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band and Eric Idle’s Beatles satire project The Rutles, for which Innes wrote all the delightful Fab Four-esque songs.

“I say we should start a 'Dunkleman for President’ campaign,” he said.

His admiration for a pop culture footnote goes to the heart of the charming and illuminating documentary by director Burt Kearns who, like many of those he interviewed for his film, laments that Innes never has received wider recognition for his creative wit and musical acumen.

Innes, however, isn’t one of those bemoaning any absence of grand-scale fame and fortune.

“Don’t get me wrong,” Innes, 63, said earlier this week after arriving in Los Angeles for tonight's world premiere screening of “The Seventh Python,” which kicks off this year's Mods & Rockers Film Festival at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood.

“George Harrison had the best take on it: There’s nothing wrong with wanting to be rich and famous,” said Innes, who will follow the screening with a solo concert performance Friday, also at the Egyptian. “But if you’re lucky enough to become rich and famous, you still have to find out who you are inside.”

Innes, apparently, has a sprite inside, one with a wicked sense of humor. That’s one quality that doesn’t easily lend itself to rock hero status. If you’re funny, it seems, don’t expect to be taken seriously. Just ask Loudon Wainwright III. Or "Weird Al" Yankovic.

“That’s the problem I’ve had all my life,” Innes said, an ever-present lilt in his voice. “The truth is there is a lot of music out there that isn’t trying to be funny, but it still is. The Bonzos used to point this out in the '60s. There’s that thing that you can’t ignore what you see, and the human condition is funny.”

So is much of “The Seventh Python” — even to its subject. “There’s a wonderful moment when they’re on the street showing a photo of me and no one can identify it. Then one person looks into the camera and says, ‘I know what you’re doing — you’re making a documentary about someone nobody’s ever heard of.’ I just adored that.”

It’s been an unusually reflective period recently for Innes. Earlier this year, Innes and Idle revisited the Rutles with “Rutlemania,” a theatrical production blending footage from the 1978 satirical film with live performances of the music. Innes has also done a string of shows in Europe with Fatso, a band frequently featured on Idle’s “Rutland Weekend Television” British TV series in the '70s, and he’s taken part in periodic get-togethers by the Bonzo Dog Band.

“We have a Bonzos reunion every year, but I think we should probably call it a day now,” he said. “It’s much better to carry on doing things that light you up the most. In the end, I’ve always felt that if you’re enthusiastic about something, people will be enthusiastic about watching it.”

The man who wrote such incisive pop ditties as “Cheese and Onions,” “I’m the Urban Spaceman” and the Bob Dylan send-up “Protest Song” is most interested lately in “fooling around with a book I'm working on about human consciousness. I’m more interested in what the scientist boys and the subatomic particle people are working on these days…. It’s an antidote to the sort of numbing rubbish that seems to be everywhere.

“The media seem to be biased against the understanding of everything. But you can have your own explorations into trying to understand why does this happen. I think you can say that God does exist, but perhaps only in one person at a time. And maybe that’s why people move in such mysterious ways.”

-- Randy Lewis

Photo of Neil Innes performing "The Protest Song" on a London street in 1976 by Yvonne Innes/Mods & Rockers Film Festival

LAist.com interviews Neil Innes on the morning of The Seventh Python's world premiere in Hollywood

JUNE 26, 2008
LAist Interview:

Neil Innes

Neil Innes is nothing if not a gentlemen, a distinctly British one at that.

Innes was - literally - the John Lennon of the Rutles, recently memorialized here with a thirtieth anniversary showing of the great Beatles-taunting mockumentary All You Need Is Cash that put the four principal actors on stage together for the first time. The anniversary of the film was also marked with the premiere of a multi-media stage show, Rutlemania, that featured an unbelievably accurate Beatles cover band playing slavish covers of Rutles tunes and re-enacting their faux history as if it were the Civil War.

Innes was also one of the two principal writers for the beloved Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, purveyors of psychedelic music-hall comedy that a times felt like an English Mothers of Invention indulging latent oom-pah fixations. But Innes remains best known in this country for his musical contributions to Monty Python, for whom he served as “music guy” and occasional sketch writer through the Holy Grail period, one of only two people to receive writing credit for Python besides the six core members. So despite a long and varied career, it’s perhaps inevitable that the documentary dedicated to his life, which premieres tonight at the Egyptian Theater, would be titled The Seventh Python.

Director Burt Kearns’ previous work will probably be familiar to many in the audience, though they may not know and might not admit it: much of his resume is in tabloid TV, including stints directing A Current Affair, Hard Copy and When Good Pets Go Bad II. His experiences on the front lines of exploitation led him to write the book Tabloid Baby, which he calls “part mea culpa, part expose”, in 1999. To say the least, its publication earned him no love from his former employers. With this film, he hopes, if not to make Neil Innes into an actual celebrity, at least to level the market share a little.

Innes himself hasn’t seen the final cut of the film yet. “I’m not sure if I’ll have to walk round the theater until it’s over,” he says from his room in Hollywood. Despite any last-minute jitters, he sounds more than pleased to be here, and talks most excitedly about his latest work, including a 2007 Bonzos album, the first full-length since 1971.

Being the subject of a documentary, which I presume you’ve now seen, was there anything surprising that you learned about yourself while watching it?


No question, it’s one of the oddest things I’ve ever found myself doing in my life. Because it’s not my film. And it shouldn’t be my film. But it’s funny to see my friends saying nice things because they’re normally very rude to me. So it’s a little bit hard to take (laughter.) I am still naturally quite shy. But a lot of it I quite like. I think John Cleese is very funny, Phill Jupitus is very funny.

But I haven't seen the final cut, I saw it when it had everything and I did say, cut it down so that someone who never knew anything about me would get something, but don't dwell on things too much.

What can you tell us about the live show on Friday? Is this a band show?


I’d love to have had a band… the daft thing is, basically, I’m doing a benefit for Cinematheque. Most people come out to Hollywood to get in a movie and make a lot of money; I come to Hollywood and do a benefit for a cinema. But that’s true to form. (Laughter.) You see, Cinematheque and I have a lot in common, both of us are non-profit.

No, it’ll be a one-man show. There just wasn’t time to do that sort of thing. Actually a couple of guys, Ken Simpson and Ken Thornton, are coming from Illinois…and they’ll pop up and play a bit.

Listening to the Bonzo Dog Band albums this week, it struck me that they have a very soundtrack-like quality to them. I know you did some short pieces for British television but did the Bonzos ever consider doing a full-length video?


We have had a reunion recently, you know, in 2006, there was one show for the fortieth anniversary and that turned to be so popular, we did a tour of, I think twelve cities. And then this last year, we made a new album called Pour L'Amour Des Chiens, which is, I think, really… good! In this day and age, people trying to put out CD’s, you know… You can get it on the website, or go to Amazon, they’ve got it. I think it’s great listening for a Bonzos fan. Of course no one can replace Vivian (Stanshall, the other head writer and lead vocalist who passed away in 1995.) But we’ve got some great people, Phill Jupitus, Ade Edmondson…and the deluxe edition’s GOT a free DVD in it!

But as far as Bonzos, you know, none of us are getting any younger. We had our little reunion, and I think that should be it, really. We should move on to pastures green.

I’ve read the stories about Keith Moon joining the Bonzos for a handful of shows, how did that work out?

That’s not a guy known for excessive preparation. With the kind of arrangements you guys worked with…
Oh no, no, no. Bonzos live did not involve excessive preparation! (Laughs hysterically.) So it was a mutual approach.

What was it like watching Ron Nasty portrayed by a stage actor in Rutlemania?


I thought the Fab Four (the Beatles cover band that portrayed the Rutles on stage) were brilliant. They play the music so well. My only criticism was, you can’t tell they’re playing live. I thought, “Well cut loose!” you know. They had to do everything with earpieces, to synch up with the films, which I gather is how Beatlemania was done as well. That was also a multi-media show. But I thought it turned out pretty well, the new songs from Archaeology, that moment where Leggy had gone to Australia, I don’t know why, but it’s quite moving. And John (Halsey, who played Moptop drummer Barry Wom) and Rikki (Fataar, guitar, the quiet, swarthy one) liked it, too, that was the first time we’d all been together since we’d done it.

It was also the first time you’d performed together.


Oh that’s right! We did have to get up and do something with that kind of Keith Moon-ish “excessive preparation.”


The Seventh Python has its world premiere tonight, Thursday, June 26, 2008 at 7:30 PM, as part of the Mods And Rockers film festival, presented by American Cinematheque at the Egyptian Theater, 6712 Hollywood Blvd, Hollywood. Also on the bill is the US theatrical premiere of a film of the Bonzo Dog Band’s 40th Anniversary Concert in London.

Neil Innes performs a rare solo concert on Friday June 27, 2008, also at the Egyptian Theater as part of the Mods & Rockers Film Festival.

--Bob Thompson

Eve of The Seventh Python: Neil Innes premiere concert is LA Weekly music critics' top pick

Only slightly overshadowed by tomorrow's world premiere of The Seventh Python at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood, is the solo concert that Neil Innes is performing at the Egyptian the following night.

Overshadowed perhaps, but not overlooked by the LA Weekly, which lists Neil's show as the top critic's pick for Friday:

ROCK PICKS
BY L.A. WEEKLY MUSIC CRITICS

Friday, June 27, 2008

Neil Innes at the Egyptian Theatre

You might remember Neil Innes from the daft ’60s British group the Bonzo Dog Band, whose rendition of “Death Cab for Cutie” in the Beatles’ film Magical Mystery Tour inspired the name of a much-less-clever modern indie-rock band. Or perhaps you recall Innes as Ron Nasty in the wickedly brilliant Beatles parody the Rutles, or the songs that he wrote for Monty Python, such as “How Sweet to Be an Idiot,” whose endearingly heartbreaking melody transcended mere novelty status. Maybe you’ve never heard of Innes at all, which is where the new film The Seventh Python comes in. The documentary (which screens on Thursday, July 26, at this theater) celebrates the merry life and mad career of this songwriter, who’s often underrated because of his “joke” songs, but also writes gorgeous melodies along with those sarcastic lyrics. Tonight he’ll play a set encompassing his many phases and incarnations, which should make up for the keen disappointment when he appeared — but didn’t sing — during the festivities surrounding Rutlemania, Eric Idle’s slapdash theatrical revue of Innes’ music that played in Hollywood earlier this year. (Falling James)

Both tomorrow's film and Friday's concert begin at 7:30 pm. Tickets available at ModsandRockers.com.

"Still Wacky After all These Years": Los Angeles Times feature on The Seventh Python appears online the night before its premiere

Los Angeles Times Calendar
June 26, 2008

Still wacky after all these years
'Seventh Python' Neil Innes at Mods & Rockers festival

By Susan King
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

NEIL INNES says he's reached that certain age at which "it's almost impossible not to have done quite a lot."

That's certainly an understatement in Innes' case. Over the last four decades, the 63-year-old singer-songwriter has fronted the beloved British group the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band; performed and written songs for the comedy troupe Monty Python’s Flying Circus; and played the John Lennon-esque Ron Nasty in the 1979 Beatles' spoof “The Rutles,” which was created by Innes and Python Eric Idle.

So it's fitting that Innes is front and center at the ninth edition of the American Cinematheque's Mods & Rockers Film Festival at the Egyptian Theatre.

The festival's opening tonight features the world premiere of the 2008 documentary "The Seventh Python," as well as the 2007 documentary "The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band 40th Anniversary Concert." And on Friday, Innes will perform in concert.

"It's really nice," Innes says from England about the Mods & Rockers' honors. "A lot of people can't get around the fact that I have met all of these people and worked with all of these people and still kept out of the limelight. I don't like that side of it."

Martin Lewis, who co-created and programs the festival, says Mods & Rockers has evolved over the years. "It is no longer purely about the '60s," he says. "It has become a very expansive, broad view of pop culture. It is about the essence . . . of the 1960s."

Last year, Lewis says, the festival was very music-oriented. "I felt some of the humor was missing," he says, adding that it was "an essence of the balanced aspect of the festival."

Enter Innes.


Lewis, who earlier this year presented a Mods & Rockers 30th-anniversary Rutles concert at the Ricardo Montalban Theater, says he had been a huge fan of Innes since he was a kid.

"I loved the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band," he says. "They were the wacky side of rock 'n' roll. They made their first record in 1966, and in 1967 they were picked to be in the Beatles' film 'The Magical Mystery Tour.' "

They were also the house band on the children's program called "Do Not Adjust Your Set," which featured Idle, Michael Palin, Terry Jones and Terry Gilliam, before they became Pythons.

Innes recalls that one journalist referred to the group as "the clown princes of rock." "We were not easy to label," he says.

And when the Bonzos broke up in the early 1970s, Innes joined the Python gang as an unofficial member, writing a lot of their music and performing with them in concert.

"I have to say I am the man who wrote the whistling for 'Always Look on the Bright Side,' " he quips.

As for the concert Friday evening, Innes says that "mercifully" he won't be playing all of his tunes. "There's quite a lot. I will be cherry-picking ones."

MODS & ROCKERS FILM FESTIVAL
WHERE: Egyptian Theatre, 6712 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood
WHEN: 7:30 p.m. today and Friday for Innes programming; the festival continues through July 9
PRICE: $7 to $10
INFO:modsandrockers.com

LA CityBeat runs Neil Innes interview on the eve of The Seventh Python premiere

LA CityBeat
published 06.25.08

NEIL INNES

By Ron Garmon

In a town full of fame junkies and discarded icons, the affection held for the unglamorous likes of Neil Innes is heartening. A nimble musical satirist in the jolly company of W.S. Gilbert and Spike Jones, Innes spent the latter half of the ’60s as the musical mainspring behind the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, a raucous meld of English music hall, psychedelic rock and Goon Show buffoonery. The seven-man gallumfry (which housed such eminent lunatics as “Legs” Larry Smith and the late Vivian Stanshall) released five albums, toured relentlessly, and appeared with Michael Palin, Eric Idle and Terry Jones on the pre-Monty Python TV series Do Not Adjust Your Set. Innes pressed on with Python, his writing chores including the songs in Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975). The low-key and eccentric Innes is the subject of the documentary The Seventh Python, premiering Thursday at the venerable “Mods & Rockers” festival at the Egyptian Theater, and performs a solo concert there on Friday. Here, the puckish rocker trades wheezes with our resident rock critic, and answers a musical question first posed on the 1970 Bonzos album Keynsham.
–Ron Garmon

CityBeat: Hello and how do you find yourself this morning?

Neil Innes: Well, I just rolled back the sheets and there I was!

Does ex-Bonzos saxophonist Rodney Slater still have his bird?
No, I don’t think he does. It was an African Grey and we always would pick Rodney up last before a gig so we could spend a half-hour to 45 minutes marveling at the parrot. I’d like to get it down on record that it never belonged to Hitler. That was a bit of whimsy.

Tell us about The Seventh Python. It sounds a bit like Harry Reems meets Ray Harryhausen.
Bonnie Rose and Laurie Stevens started this Web site a couple of years ago in L.A. and they decided to get in contact with me and asked if I’d come play there. I was coming through in 2003 on my way to a comedy festival in Melbourne, and said if they can find a couple of rooms, we’d play. A little band was put together and, in typical fashion, the Iraq war and the Oscars happened that weekend, so L.A. was pretty much gridlocked. But nevertheless, the filming took place and the movie began to take shape, and it soon turned out they were making a movie about someone who didn’t really want to become rich and famous! [wheeze] So they had to work hard to make it interesting, and they have the rest of the Pythons on there talking through their trousers. I haven’t seen the finished thing, but it’s quite sweet and fun for me to hear people go on about my songwriting in a grown up way, since I muck about so. It’s not a career move, but hopefully an interesting thing, as it was born out of love.

Have you written any good parodies lately or is Amy Winehouse too easy?
No, but I will share this. We have this game in England called cricket and people sometimes go to matches dressed up. I was watching this local match and there were seven or eight Amy Winehouses in the crowd.

Oh, my God ...
No, no! It looked quite good. Some of them even had beards! At one point, one of the Winehouses was deep in conversation with some straight-looking serious old man, and I thought that was a great moment. I wish the very best of cricket upon America!

Your first two trips to these shores were when the Bonzos toured America in the late ’60s.

It was 1969, it must’ve been. Every English band going was in America at that time, and managers were slashing each other’s tires to get them gigs, and we would be in hotels waiting to do them and Bill Graham, bless him, booked us for first the Fillmore East and then West. He said he couldn’t pay us, but did pay our fares and expenses and we had a wonderful time, playing with Joe Cocker, Jefferson Airplane and Pacific Gas & Electric. We were so daft! We were doing “we are normal and we want our freedom,” and there were all these people on the floor, and by the end it was “Bring ’em back, Bill!”

It was a wonderful time to be alive. America at this time was in its infantility...

As opposed to today’s senility...

[Quickly] I won’t go there.

[Laughs] I will. You’re an atypical rock ’n’ roller, but compare la vie rock now to ages past...
It was like children in a village who’d never heard music and, all of a sudden, a brass band comes through, going pom-pa-pom-pa-pom-rumpity-pom-pa-pa. I think my generation heard rock ’n’ roll that way – we’d never heard anything like it and we took to it as the message of the future. I think as time’s gone by, people have gotten bored with beats and tempos and gotten all Noël Coward dry-around-the-edges in sentiment. We have too much music; we have too much sound. I don’t know the way out of it, but Duke Ellington said there’s two types of music – good and bad.

How did you become involved with Monty Python?

It was while the Bonzos were still going. We had a show called Do Not Adjust Your Set with most of the Pythons, apart from Graham [Chapman] and John [Cleese]. We did 26 programs and after those were up, we left for America. By the time we came back, they’d formed Monty Python with John and Graham. After the second tour of America, we came back, paid off three managers and said enough was enough. It’s been five years straight with no holiday and it was time to take a step back. During that step back, Eric Idle rang me up and I became involved with them.

You were something of their de facto music director at times.

Well, that’s a bit pompous, since there was no musical direction! [laughs] Confidant and fellow drunk are more like it.

From internal evidence of Bonzos LPs, you certainly had an ample boozing résumé...

It was absolutely the perfect thing for me to come out of the Bonzos and into the Pythons. It was another trip and absolutely the same sort of giggles. It was the same matrix, if you like, as Pythons – a kind of anarchic presence.

What is the one thing to remember about humor and music?

[Wheeze] Being able to laugh and whistle a tune. Which are two things. [giggles and makes faint whistling sounds] Sorry. Can’t do it. [cackles]

The Seventh Python comes to Hollywood

Our Neil Innes biopic has its world premiere this Thursday, June 26th at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood. It's the opening selection in Martin Lewis' ninth Mods & Rockers Film Festival (a division of American Cinematheque). Showtime is at 7:30 pm. Neil Innes himself will be there; a Bonzo Dog Dooh Dah Band concert film follows, and on Friday, June 27th, Neil is performing an unprecedented solo show at the Egyptian!

Tickets at ModsandRockers.com.

PR: "'Weird Al' raves about Seventh Python: 'WITHOUT QUESTION ONE OF THE FINEST DOCUMENTARIES I'VE SEEN! (about Neil Innes) (so far this year)!'"

Neil Innes film premieres June 26 at Hollywood's Egyptian Theatre

"Weird Al" Yankovic raves
about The Seventh Python:
"WITHOUT QUESTION,
ONE OF THE FINEST
DOCUMENTARIES
I'VE SEEN!
(about Neil Innes)
(so far this year)!"

HOLLYWOOD (JONAS PR) - Grammy-winning, million-selling, Top 10 recording artist, parodist, singer and accordionist 'Weird Al' Yancovic has stunned the show business world and brought the art of the 'movie quote' to a sublime new level of greatness in his outrageous praise of The Seventh Python, Frozen Pictures' nonfiction film about fellow satirist, Rutle and Monty Python collaborator Neil Innes, which premieres June 26th at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood, opening the ninth Mods & Rockers Film Festival.

"Weird Al" was among a select group-- including Innes, festival organizer Martin Lewis and comic Emo Philips-- to attend an early advance screening of the film on the Sunset Strip. As he prepares to embark on his Summer 2008 Straight Outta Lynwood concert tour that opens Friday June 27 in Henderson, Nevada, he took time to send producers a quote that sums up his feelings about the film:

"The Seventh Python is without question one of the finest documentaries I've seen about Neil Innes so far this year."

Blue Smoke & Mirrors Inc., the design firm that created The Seventh Python graphics and ad campaign, slapped the quote on the premiere poster that's showing up across Hollywood this weekend.

By the time the film's producers read the quote, it was too late.

"It sounded right," says BS&M's creative director Joaquin Blanco, whose native language is Portuguese.

"In my business, you don't always have time to read the fine print."


Innes, who's traveling from London to Los Angeles for the promotion leading to the premiere and his June 27th solo show at the Egyptian, said he thought 'Weird Al' captured the spirit perfectly.

Tickets for The Seventh Python on July 26th at 7:30 pm and the Neil Innes concert on July 26th at 7:30 pm are available at www.modsandrockers.com

Tickets for "Weird Al"'s Straight Outta Lynwood Summer Tour can be found at www.weirdal.com/touring.htm

PRESS RELEASE: "Exclusive: Director of The Seventh Python is tabloid television pioneer and web's leading critic of TMZ.com"

Neil Innes biopic premieres June 26th at Egyptian Theatre

Exclusive:
Director of The Seventh Python
is tabloid television pioneer and
web's leading critic of TMZ.com

HOLLYWOOD (JONAS PR) -- The director of The Seventh Python, the new musical film about Monty Python collaborator and Rutle songwriter Neil Innes- says the picture that premieres June 26th is a direct slap at the celebrity tabloid culture that he helped create in the Nineties and has spun out of control today.

Burt Kearns, a tabloid television pioneer with A

Current Affair and Hard Copy, is the author of the controversial 1999 memoir-exposé Tabloid Baby, and is known in media circles as the leading online critic of the celebrity website, TMZ.com.

'Neil Innes represents everything that's good about show business, rock ‘n'roll, and pop culture,' says Kearns. 'TMZ is everything bad, stuffed into one noxious box. They celebrate the vapid; they mock true talent; they taunt noted artists. And they ooze in the notion of fame for fame's sake.

'Consider that to be a subtext of The Seventh Python,' Kearns says. 'Neil has spent a career avoiding what he calls ‘The Fame Game.' He loves to create. He loves to work in a number of media with talented people, but he's managed to remain under the radar without the distractions and often fatal consequences of celebrity.

'This film opens and ends on Hollywood Boulevard's Walk of Fame. What the audience will see in the hour and half in between is a portrait of an artist whose work has influenced, reflected and satirized our culture for the past forty years and who speaks to his audience one person at a time. And he's really funny. It's the antidote to all the celubutard drivel that TMZ and its offshoots have sump-pumped across pop culture culture, and I can't believe that we were the ones who spawned them."

Some might call those 'fighting words' ironic. Kearns was the first managing editor of the original tabloid television show, A Current Affair. He moved west to Hollywood in 1990 with Hard Copy, and helped transform celebrity reporting with a wicked wit and irreverence-- but not without controversy.

With a background in mainstream television and print journalism, Kearns turned his experiences into the book Tabloid Baby, a blistering exposé of the era.

'Around the time the book came out, I began working with a producer named Brett Hudson. He'd seen the tabloid world from the other side. He was a celebrity with the Hudson Brothers. His niece Kate Hudson was just beginning to feel the heat. We bonded over our love for rock ‘n' roll and Jerry Lewis. With my background in journalism and Brett's experience in entertainment, we hit on a unique formula that shows through in all our work.'

Kearns and Hudson formed Frozen Pictures and began producing a diverse and very distinct array of television and film projects, including the 2001 record-rating Court TV miniseries, Adults Only: The Secret History of The Hollywood; Showtime's My First Time docudrama series; All The Presidents' Movies with Martin Sheen for Bravo, and last year's nonfiction film, Basketball Man.

In 2006, Kearns and Hudson teamed up with Academy Award winning producer Albert S. Ruddy (The Godfather, Milion Dollar Baby) to write and produce Frozen Pictures' first feature film, Cloud 9, a beach volleyball sports comedy starring Burt Reynolds and DL Hughley.

Along the way, Kearns has also directed or produced a number of other projects, including Hollywood Animal Crusaders, on which he worked with John Travolta and Cher; the international documentary, Bin Laden's Escape; and the 2000 nonfiction film, Death of A Beatle.

'I first met Neil Innes in London, while filming the John Lennon project,' he says. 'Along with friends and colleagues, I wanted to interview the man who played Lennon in the Rutles. Neil was wary. When we asked about Lennon's legacy, he said it taught you to never trust a journalist. We put that in the doco. When we asked where he was when John was killed. Neil said he didn't like being part of a montage of remembrances. We ran Neil's objection. We also included him the montage. He liked that. And we developed a friendship that led to this film.'

Kearns denies there's any incongruity in a once-notorious tabloid producer taking on the story of an artist who's been called the most important musical satirist since the days of vaudeville.

'I came up from rock ‘n' roll, radio stations and music journalism in the Seventies' says Kearns. 'Brett was a rock ‘n' roll star. The rock ‘n' roll sensibility has informed everything we do. And it influenced tabloid television, which was a great liberator for me. We changed the way stories were told on television, and all the techniques I learned we transferred to our work with Frozen Pictures.'

Along with his film and writing work (he and Hudson are penning the book based on the film), Kearns is also editor of the Tabloid Baby news and satire site. 'It's place for media criticism, satire and good interesting stories,' he says. 'We've got people contributing from around the world, and always make room for Seventh Python stories. And we keep an eye on TMZ.'

The Seventh Python, which also features Monty Python alums John Cleese, Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin; acclaimed singer-songwriter Aimee Mann; and The Simpsons creator Matt Groening, among others, opens the Mods & Rockers Film Festival at the Egyptian Theatre on Thursday, June 26th.

Neil Innes will attend the premiere and appear in a special solo performance at the Egyptian on Friday, June 27th. Both shows begin at 7:30 pm. Tickets are available at Modsandrockers.com.

www.theseventhpythonmovie.com

Here's the premiere poster for The Seventh Python

Monty Python website features The Seventh Python

Pythonline, the official website and news source for fans of Monty Python, is featuring a major item on the premiere of The Seventh Python, June 26th. Our movie was selected to open the ninth Mods & Rockers Film Festival at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood.

THE SEVENTH PYTHON WORLD PREMIER! WITH NEIL INNES

Mods & Rockers festival number 9 opens on Thursday June 26 at Grauman’s Egyptian Theatre with the World Premiere of the full-length documentary “The Seventh Python.” The film is a portrait of Neil Innes – who since his film debut in the Beatles’ “Magical Mystery Tour” in 1967 has been a major presence as a comedic composer and performer with Monty Python, The Rutles (the spoof Beatles band he created with Eric Idle) and originally with the cult British group – the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band. The film features all five of the surviving Monty Python members – John Cleese, Eric Idle, Michael Palin, Terry Jones, Terry Gilliam – who in a nod to the expression “the Fifth Beatle” – have dubbed Neil Innes as “The Seventh Python”. Innes will be present for the World Premiere and will partake in a conversation about his career with Festival producer Martin Lewis.

(Innes and Lewis are old friends and collaborators. They worked together on Lewis’ “Secret Policeman’s Ball” shows in the 1970s and 1980s – and Lewis instigated and produced Innes’ Rutles reunion album “Archaeology” in 1996.)

SECOND NIGHT – FIRST-EVER MODS & ROCKERS CONCERT AT EGYPTIAN!
The festival’s second night – Friday June 27th - sees a first – the first-ever concert presented inside the historic Egyptian Theatre as part of the Mods & Rockers Festival. Neil Innes will return to the theatre to present a very rare solo concert – his first L.A. live appearance in several years. He will perform songs drawn from his entire 40-year canon – including Bonzo Dog Band, Monty Python and Rutles material – and from his extensive solo catalogue.

click here for more information and ticket sales

Beatles fans say "yeah!" to The Seventh Python

The premier Beatles fansite, Beatles Unlimited, has taken notice of The Seventh Python, the movie from our pals at Frozen Pictures about Bonzo, Python pal and Rutle Neil Innes.

Beatle connections? A few. Paul McCartney produced Neil's only Top 10 single (I'm The Urban Spaceman by The Bonzo Dog Band); Neil and the Bonzos appeared in Magical Mystery Tour; Neil portrayed Ron Nasty, the Lennon character in The Rutles; Neil was good friends and collaborated with George Harrison; Neil's music was ripped off by Oasis; and The Seventh Python will be screened in August at the Fest for Beatles Fans in Chicago.

The Seventh Python premieres June 26th at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood, opening the American Cinematheque's ninth Mods & Rockers Film Festival.

PRESS RELEASE: "The Seventh Python introduces moviegoers to legendary satirist and songwriter Neil Innes"

John Cleese: “I’d say he’s up there with Chaplin & Steve Martin!”

‘The Seventh Python”
introduces moviegoers
to legendary satirist
and songwriter Neil Innes

HOLLYWOOD (JONAS PR) - Frozen Pictures' new musical film The Seventh Python, will introduce the mainstream audience to a man who's considered to be the living link between the most influential music and comedy of the past forty years.



Neil Innes, associate of Monty Python, key member of The Bonzo Dog Band and Rutles singer and songwriter, has long been a pop music and comedy worlds, but despite appearances in The Beatles' Magical Mystery Tour, Monty Python's TV series and films, and Saturday Night Live-- and music in Broadway's Spamalot-- he's managed to maintain a brilliant career as he like it: under the radar.

The Seventh Python may change all that, as his work, philosophy and accomplishments are laid out, and friends like John Cleese, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Michal Palin, Simpsons creator Matt Groening, songwriter Aimee Mann and others sing his praises.

'Neil Innes writes perfect pop songs, he writes parodies like no one else and he's a charismatic, winning performer,' says director Burt Kearns. 'If nothing else, The Seventh Python will show how he does what he does, and let the audience see for themselves what they've been missing.'

'Here's an artist who's still at the vanguard of psychedelia with the Bonzo Dog Band, yet his music is featured on Broadway in Spamalot, while his parodies are beloved by Beatles fans,' producer Brett Hudson says. 'I think Neil's managed to stay under the radar because he's so specific to so many different audiences. Plus, he wears a duck on his head.'

The film about the artist has been selected to open the American Cinematheque's ninth Mods & Rockers Film Festival on June 26th at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood. The night after the world premiere screening, Innes himself will perform a special solo concert at the Egyptian-an unprecedented tribute to the tremendous talent.

"I've always thought Neil Innes is the embodiment of the two finest aspects of the culture of the last 40 years: the music and the humor," festival organizer Martin Lewis said Wednesday. "It's still astonishing to me how few people know about him. There's no point in having a film festival if you can't use it to promote the people who are truly worthy of it."

When asked about Innes' place in comedy history, John Cleese calls him 'irreplaceable.

'I'd say he's up there with Chaplin and Steve Martin,' Cleese says.

'Neil is brilliant, he writes the best songs I've ever heard,' says Terry Jones. 'He's a magnetic personality when he's performing, and yet he's only had one hit record. He's had a lot of success, but why hasn't he become a huge star? Why isn't he Paul Simon? It's an enigma.'

'He's absolutely brilliant,' agrees Rutles creator and frequent Innes collaborator Eric Idle. 'He is so natural with his audience, he loves the audience and he's very funny. But I think he could get out more and I wish he would. Because if you're really talented like he is, you should get out more. You owe it to us!'

Oscar-nominated singer-songwriter Aimee Mann adds: 'I think Neil Innes is one of our great undiscovered geniuses. Or maybe partially discovered and he should be unearthed completely!'

Showtime is 7:30 pm. Tickets for the film, and the concert are available now at modsandrocker.com ; $10 general admission; $7 for American Cinematheque members; $8 for students and seniors at $7 kids 3-17.

www.modsandrockers.com
www.americancinematheque.com
www.theseventhpythonmovie.com

Preview: LA Times on Seventh Python premiere

Tomorrow's edition of the LA Times announces the June 26th world premiere of The Seventh Python as the opening selection of the Mods & Rockers Film Festival in Hollywood. In keeping with Neil's artistic integrity and forty-year campaign to sidestep celebrity and fame, the typesetters left his name out of the lede!

We're sure they'll fix it by tomorrow... but meanwhile, it's a good collectors' item.

Here's the story:

Mods & Rockers Film Festival in Hollywood opens June 26

By Randy Lewis, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
June 12, 2008

The ninth Mods & Rockers Film Festival opens June 26 in Hollywood with the world premiere of "The Seventh Python," a look at the life and music of longtime Monty Python associate, former Bonzo Dog Band member and Rutles singer and songwriter .

The following night, Innes will play a solo concert in the American Cinematheque's Egyptian Theatre, where the festival's mix of new and classic music-centric films will be run. "The Seventh Python" references Innes' close working and personal relationship with the six members of the British comedy troupe. The opening-night program also will include the first public screening of the film of the Bonzo Dog Band's 40th anniversary concert.

"I've always thought Neil Innes is the embodiment of the two finest aspects of the culture of the last 40 years: the music and the humor," festival organizer Martin Lewis said Wednesday. "It's still astonishing to me how few people know about him. There's no point in having a film festival if you can't use it to promote the people who are truly worthy of it."

PRESS RELEASE: "NEIL INNES BIOPIC 'THE SEVENTH PYTHON' GIVES POWER TO AUDIENCE WITH INTERACTIVE ELEMENT"

NEIL INNES BIOPIC
'THE SEVENTH PYTHON'
GIVES POWER TO AUDIENCE
WITH INTERACTIVE ELEMENT

'Interactive' documentary feature is selected to open the Mods & Rockers Film Festival in a two-day Hollywood blowout that includes Innes concert at Grauman's Egyptian Theatre-- the first artist performance in American Cinematheque fest's nine-year history

HOLLYWOOD (JONAS PR) -- The Seventh Python, Frozen Pictures' nonfiction film about musical satirist, Rutle and Monty Python collaborator Neil Innes that premieres June 26th, contains a unique interactive element that gives the power to the audience.



Eschewing the standard use of archival still photos and film clips for state-of-the art animation that combines the aforementioned elements into an innovative new method of biographical time travel, The Seventh Python also contains prompts that encourage viewers to expand and extend the film's scope in any direction they wish.



“This isn't a crawl through someone's photo or video archives. This is a 21st century nonfiction film that takes advantage of the almost unlimited resources of cyberspace,” says director Burt Kearns. “Neil's entire musical and comedy history is there online. We're giving the power to the audience and encourage viewers and fans to find it and do their own directors cut.”



“To be honest, we're sick of the old ‘stills and archival footage' docos,” says Brett Hudson, who wrote and produced with Kearns, “They're 20th century. They're old. We've been there and done that too many times. The Seventh Python takes us on a journey through the past, but Neil's story is set in the present and leads the audience into the future, just like Neil Innes does.”


As the filmmakers capture Innes in and around a series of concerts in Hollywood and Melbourne, Australia, then follow him home to Suffolk, England, they also explore the role of the Internet in spreading Innes' work to a new generation, as well as consolidating his diverse fanbase around the world.

“Neil isn't interested in being a star or even being the center of a movie,” says Kearns. “He wants the fans and viewers to be a part of this, and have the ability to take this story any way they want, and go as deep as they want. 



“And there are a lot out there.'”



The Seventh Python has been selected to open the American Cinematheque's ninth annual Mods & Rockers Film Festival, June 26th at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood. The world premiere showing is part of a two-day spectacular that includes a special concert performance by Neil Innes on June 27th.



“Neil will be performing songs from the Bonzos, the Pythons, the Rutles and his solo career,' promises festival organizer Martin Lewis. “Consider this to be a living, breathing Neil Innes anthology! Or Archeology!”

The film includes interviews, appearances and performances by Innes friends, colleagues and protégés including surviving Pythons John Cleese, Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin; The Simpsons creator Matt Groening; Oscar®-nominated songwriter Aimee Mann; comedians Phill Jupitus and Emo Philips; and an assorted Rutle or two, among others.



Showtime for The Seventh Python premiere is 7:30 pm on June 26th. Tickets are available for the film and the June 27th Innes concert online at www.modsandrockers.com or at the Egyptian Theatre box office.



www.theseventhpythonmovie.com

www.modsandrockers.com

www.frozenpictures.com

www.frozenpictures.blogspot.com

www.myspace.com/theseventhpython

Media: Monsters & Critics & The Seventh Python

Monsters and Critics, one of the larger independent web-only news and review publications, reaches millions of unique visitors each month and this weekend they’re reaching them with the latest news about The Seventh Python, our Neil Innes movie that’s been selected to open the American Cinematheque’s prestigious ninth annual Mods & Rockers Film Festival in Hollywood on June 26th:

Movies Features
The Seventh Python Neil Innes fêted in Hollywood June 26, 27

by April McIntyre

A rare Neil Innes concert will follow the world premiere of “The Seventh Python,” Frozen Pictures’ nonfiction film about the life, work and unplanned career of musical satirist, Rutle and Monty Python collaborator Neil Innes, Thursday, June 26th at 7:30PM at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood.

The biopic opens the American Cinematheque’s 9th annual Mods & Rockers Film Festival.

The two-day premiere includes a special concert performance by Innes at the Egyptian on Friday, June 27th.

The film will combine concert performance footage, animation, a unique interactive element and interviews, appearances and performances by Innes' friends, colleagues and protégés, including surviving Pythons: John Cleese, Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin.

Matt Groening, Aimee Mann, comedians Phill Jupitus and an assorted Rutle or two, among others will be in attendance.

“The Egyptian Theatre on the Hollywood Walk of Fame is the perfect place to open this film,” says director Burt Kearns, who produced and wrote Python with Frozen partner Brett Hudson.
“Neil Innes has spent his entire career fighting the celebrity fame game that’s gotten so out of control here in recent years. This film celebrates a true comedy and musical genius who’s been all too happy to work beneath the radar. Until now, of course.”

“Even more important,” Hudson adds, “we explain why Neil wears a duck on his head.”

Innes’ resistance to the celebrity worship that haunted his friend George Harrison is at the heart of this film that one early reviewer has called “Touching, hilarious and inventive!”

“The Seventh Python” traces Innes’ winding path at the edge of fame with his influential work that keeps one foot each planted in the worlds of comedy and rock ‘n’ roll.

From the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band to the Beatles’ Magical Mystery Tour, from Monty Python to The Rutles, from his work with Harrison to his songs in Idle’s Broadway smash Spamalot, Neil Innes is that rare artist who is both a brilliant satirist and songwriter who happens to occasionally wear a duck on his head.

John Cleese has likened Innes to Steve Martin and Charlie Chaplin; Terry Jones draws comparisons of him to Paul Simon.

Showtime is 7:30PM for the June 26th premiere. Tickets are available for the film and the June 27th Innes concert online here or at the Egyptian Theatre box office.

UK comedy guide catches The Seventh Python

Excitement over the June 26th premiere of The Seventh Python has already reached back to the United Kingdom, where it all began in the first place. And in the country that gave us Oasis, there's reason for soccer-style chants and anticipation, for while many in the United States may be unaware of the brilliant work and widespread influence of the satirist, songwriter and performer, Neil Innes is a hero in his homeland, and word of the imminent release of a movie about his life and career is causing great ripples across Old Blighty.

The latest bulletin comes from Chortle, the UK comedy guide:

Rutle & Hum
Innes subject of new documentary movie

Musical satirist Neil Innes is to be the subject of a new documentary film, The Seventh Python.

The movie - which features John Cleese, Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin talking about Innes's contribution to Monty Python – receives its word premiere in Hollywood later this month.

Other contributers include Simpsons creator Matt Groening, singer-songwriter Aimee Mann and comedians Phill Jupitus and Emo Philips.

The film charts Innes's career from art school through The Bonzo Dog Dooh Dah Band, work with the Beatles, Monty Python and The Rutles, mixed with concert footage and animations.

Here’s a trailer for the film, which will open the American Cinematheque's ninth annual Mods & Rockers Film Festival at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood on June 26:

City Beat highlights The Seventh Python premiere

The Seventh Python, our Neil Innes musical biopic, is the hottest attraction of the Summer of 2008, according to Los Angeles City Beat.

The alt weekly paper is first out with word of the ahead of all others, as the film section of its Attack of The Summer Guide leads off with the June 26th premiere of The Seventh Python at Martin Lewis’ Mods & Rockers Film Festival-- and its selection as the film to open the program at the American Cinematheque's Egyptian Theatre.

To top it off, they describe Neil Innes as “briliantly funny.” Which he is. And which The Seventh Python proves.

Seventh Python's Phill Jupitus scores in hit play

Phill Jupitus, the UK comedian who’s about to gain a new Eddie Izzardish, Russell Brandian international following thanks to his hilarious appearance our Neil Innes film, The Seventh Python, is receiving great reviews for his West End stage debut in the play Lifecoach.

The London Telegraph calls Phill "the big revelation":

"He handles his character's bullish, not to say bullying, patter with comic confidence... There's more than a touch of David Brent about Colin, the life coach played by Phill Jupitus in Nick Reed's richly amusing new play."

UK comedy guide Chortle says: "This new comedy is a Pygmalion for the BlackBerry generation.

“Jupitus... is lively and fun... showing his range has a lot more potential than the smart-mouthed wit Never Mind The Buzzcocks viewers already know him to be.

"Not only is Jupitus’s character, Colin, surprisingly sympathetic and ambiguous, but there’s more humour, drama and story than a two-dimensional parody could ever offer."

Phill is best known to UK audiences as a stand-up comic, radio host and for his role on the TV quiz show Never Mind The Buzzcocks. He also appeared with the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band on their 40th Anniversary reunion concert and tour.

PRESS RELEASE: "MODS & ROCKERS FILM FESTIVAL OPENS WITH WORLD PREMIERE OF NEIL INNES BIOPIC, 'THE SEVENTH PYTHON'"

MODS & ROCKERS
FILM FESTIVAL
OPENS WITH
WORLD PREMIERE
OF NEIL INNES BIOPIC,
'THE SEVENTH PYTHON'

'Interactive' documentary feature
debuts in a two-day
Hollywood blowout
that includes Innes concert,
the first artist performance
in American Cinematheque
fest's nine-year history

HOLLYWOOD (JONAS PR) -- The world premiere of The Seventh Python, Frozen Pictures' nonfiction film about the unplanned career of musical satirist, Rutle and Monty Python collaborator (there were six of them, get it?) Neil Innes, will take place June 26th at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood, opening the American Cinematheque's ninth annual Mods & Rockers Film Festival in a spectacular two-night multimedia event.

Neil Innes will not only be attending the premiere and conducting a Q&A after the film, but will star in a special, unprecedented concert performance at the Egyptian, the following night, June 27th.

'Neil will be performing songs from the Bonzos, the Pythons, the Rutles and his solo career,' promises festival organizer Martin Lewis. 'Consider this to be a living, breathing Neil Innes anthology! Or Archeology!'

The innovative Seventh Python combines exclusive concert performance footage, animation, and a unique interactive element as it travels with Innes across three continents, connecting with his worldwide audience while ducking below the radar of fame- often while wearing a duck on his head.

The film includes interviews, appearances and performances by Innes friends, colleagues and protégés including surviving Pythons John Cleese, Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin; The Simpsons creator Matt Groening; Oscar®-nominated songwriter Aimee Mann; comedians Phill Jupitus and Emo Philips; and an assorted Rutle or two, among others.

'The Egyptian Theatre on the Hollywood Walk of Fame is the perfect place to open this film,' says director Burt Kearns, who produced and wrote with Frozen partner Brett Hudson. 'Neil has spent his entire career fighting the celebrity fame game that's gotten so out of control here in recent years. This film celebrates a true comedy and musical genius who's been all to happy to be the most famous star people have never heard of. Until now, of course.'

'Even more important,' Hudson adds, 'we explain why Neil wears a duck on his head.'

The Seventh Python is also notable in being billed as 'the first interactive movie documentary,' actively prompting viewers to leave theatres and head to the Internet to dig deeper into the Innes story.

'This isn't a crawl through someone's photo or video archives. We tell Neil's story in the present tense,' Kearns says. 'Neil's entire musical and comedy history is there online. We're giving the power to the audience and encourage viewers and fans to find it and do their own directors cut.'

'To be honest, we're sick of the old ‘stills and archival footage' docos,' Hudson says. 'They're 20th century. They're old. We've been there and done that too many times. The Seventh Python takes us on a journey through the past, but it's set in the present and leads the audience into the future, just like Neil Innes does.'

Described by one early reviewer as 'touching, hilarious and inventive,' The Seventh Python traces Innes' winding path of whimsy as he flirts with destiny at the edge of fame with incredibly influential and unusually lasting work that keeps one foot each planted in the worlds of comedy and rock ‘n' roll. From the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band to the Beatles' Magical Mystery Tour, Monty Python to The Rutles, his work with George Harrison to his songs in Idle's Broadway smash Spamalot.

As the filmmakers capture Innes in and around a series of concerts in Hollywood and Melbourne, Australia, then follow him home to Suffolk, England, they look at the power of the Internet in spreading Innes' work to a new generation as well as consolidating his diverse fanbase around the world.

They also find out why he wears a duck on his head.

Not for nothing does John Cleese compare Neil Innes to Steve Martin and Charlie Chaplin. It's no coincidence that Terry Jones likens him to Paul Simon. It's bizarre that Eric Idle and Michael Palin say he reminds them of Belgians- but they all say it in The Seventh Python.

The Seventh Python is a Sean Connors Films Ltd. presentation of a Frozen Pictures production.

Showtime for The Seventh Python premiere is 7:30 pm on June 26th. Tickets are available for the film and the June 27th Innes concert online at www.modsandrockers.com or at the Egyptian Theatre box office.

ADDITIONALLY:
www.theseventhpythonmovie.com
www.modsandrockers.com
www.frozenpictures.com
www.frozenpictures.blogspot.com
www.myspace.com/theseventhpython

BIO
NEIL INNES
Neil Innes is perhaps best known as the musical genius behind The Rutles and the minstrel in Monty Python & The Holy Grail. He first met fame as the musical center of the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band and writer of their sole hit single, 'I'm The Urban Spaceman,' which was produced by Paul McCartney. After appearing in The Beatles' Magical Mystery Tour, he performed with the Monty Pythons on television, on tour and in films (and, years later in The Concert for George tribute to his friend George Harrison- in which he was seen baring his arse onstage at the Royal Albert Hall). Besides starring in Eric Idle's Beatles parody, The Rutles, he wrote and performed the Grammy-nominated soundtrack, whose 20 songs have stood up well alongside the Beatles music they parodied. Innes wrote several songs that appear in Idle's boffo Broadway musical, Spamalot, and has seen his popularity spread worldwide thanks to appearances at Beatles fan conventions and a surge of comprehensive, mostly unauthorized Internet fansites. And yes, Neil Innes wears a duck on his head and refuses to be famous.

BIO
BURT KEARNS & BRETT HUDSON
FROZEN PICTURES
Brett Hudson and Burt Kearns founded Frozen Pictures in 2000, making an auspicious debit with the record-rating Court TV miniseries, Adults Only: The Secret History of The Other Hollywood. Other Frozen Pictures productions include the 2007 nonfiction film, Basketball Man; the Bravo miniseries, All The Presidents' Movies narrated by Martin Sheen; The Secret History of Rock 'n' Roll with Gene Simmons; The Michael Lohan Reality Project; and Cloud 9, the 20th Century Fox motion picture comedy starring Burt Reynolds, DL Hughley, Angie Everhart and Gary Busey. Kearns is the author of the controversial memoir Tabloid Baby; Hudson performed on stage, TV and in film with The Hudson Brothers, whose Razzle Dazzle Hour series is released on DVD June 17th.

PRESS RELEASE: "Brett Hudson's past & future collide in release of 'The Seventh Python' & 'Razzle Dazzle Show'"

Brett Hudson's
past & future collide
in release of
'The Seventh Python'
& 'Razzle Dazzle Show'

A busy month for
the Hudson Brother-
turned-indie auteur,
with his new movie
and a DVD of his
past work released
in a two-week span

HOLLYWOOD (June 2) -- Brett Hudson, writer and producer of The Seventh Python from his Frozen Pictures production company, sees his past, present and future collide this month as the film's world premiere shares headlines with the long-awaited DVD release of his legendary television shows from the Seventies.

The Seventh Python, his nonfiction feature musical about pop satirist, songwriter and Monty Python cohort Neil Innes, opens the American Cinematheque's Mods & Rockers Film Festival at Hollywood's Egyptian Theatre Hollywood on June 26th.

Nine days earlier, on June 17th, Video Service Corp unearths The Hudson Brothers Razzle Dazzle Show, the uproarious Saturday morning variety-sketch series starring Brett and his brothers Mark & Bill, in a deluxe 3-DVD package.

The set includes every Razzle Dazzle episode, a bonus episode from the original prime time version of the show-and a bonus featurette, "The Best of Chucky Margolis," starring the basement-dwelling kid character played by Brett.

When Hudson travels to Chicago to screen The Seventh Python at The Fest for Beatles Fans (August 8-10), he'll be meeting his own fans as well, as he signs DVDs and photos as one of The Hudson Brothers.

'My brothers and I stopped performing as a group in 1981,' Hudson says. 'But our original fans have stayed true. And because al three of us went on to successful careers and didn't go the Behind The Music or Oldies Show route, we've developed some kind of mystique.'

After a fruitful and lucrative post-Hudsons career in which he wrote, produced and directed films and television series including the landmark comedy series Offshore Television (in which he starred with brother Mark), and developed projects for Fox Television, Miramax and others, Hudson launched Frozen Pictures in 2000.

Hudson and Frozen came out of the gate strong with the record-rating miniseries, "Adults Only: The Secret History of The Other Hollywood" and "The Secret History of Rock ‘n' Roll with Gene Simmons" for Court TV, 2003's acclaimed "All The Presidents' Movies with Martin Sheen," which debuted on Bravo and went on to markets around the world, and two seasons of Showtime's edgy docudrama series, "My First Time."

In 2006, 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment released the Frozen Pictures feature film comedy Cloud 9, starring Burt Reynolds, DH Hughley and Angie Everhart. Hudson not only produced but wrote and performed the score for Frozen's 2007 nonfiction film, Basketball Man.

"Cloud 9 was the turning point," says Hudson. "We'd done a series for Showtime with my old friend (Academy Award®-winning producer) Al Ruddy. Al, my partner and myself wrote a great script about Malibu a conman, beach volleyball and strippers. Our company and Al's got it produced as a film starring Burt Reynolds and DL Hughley, but as more players got involved, we got farther from the spirit of the script. I vowed then I'd never let that happen again."

Spurred on by that experience, Hudson has spent the past two years working like an old-style indie producer in the mold of his hero, Roger Corman.

"It's funny, if you told me back when I was performing with the Hudson Brothers that I'd be sending my days on the phone, raising money, making deals and budgets- I'd say you were crazy!" Hudson insists. "But I'm getting back into the creative side. We've got a trio of films we're working on financing now- a horror flick, an outrageous topical comedy and a noir mystery, which I'll direct.

"A Frozen picture is immediately recognizeable. Just as the combination of my brother and my talents made the Hudson Brothers unique, my experience and sensibility, combined with my partner's, set our stuff apart. In TV documentaries and nonfiction film, we include a performance and entertainment element that enhances the storytelling. Our movies have a point of view and a twist - well, put it this way, they're a little twisted!

"The Seventh Python shows where Frozen is at," Hudson says. "I've got a real affinity for Neil Innes, his work and his integrity. When he was in his prime with The Bonzos, The Pythons The Rutles, my brothers and I were at our peak. When he was working with the BBC, we were in London, doing the ITV series 'Bonkers!' Neil played the John Lennon character in the Rutles. I was lucky enough to be friends with John during his year and a half in Los Angeles.

"Neil is a true artist. And his work and career stand out in opposition to the celebrity culture that celebrates vacuousness. I know the ‘fame game' and despise it as much as Neil does. That's what we're bringing out in The Seventh Python. Along with a lot of good music-and laughs."

www.videoservicecorp.com
www.frozenpictures.blogspot.com
www.theseventhpythonmovie.com
www.modsandrockers.com
thefestforbeatlesfans.com

PRESS RELEASE: "Tickets now on sale for the world premiere of 'The Seventh Python' starring Neil Innes"

Tickets now on sale
for the world premiere
of 'The Seventh Python'
starring Neil Innes

Tickets are now on sale for the June 26th world premiere of The Seventh Python, the nonfiction musical film about the life, work and philosophy of musical satirist and Monty Python utility player Neil Innes.

The film from the indie Frozen Pictures will open the American Cinematheque's ninth annual Mods & Rockers Film Festival at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood. Neil Innes will be on hand for the premiere, and will perform a special concert at the theatre the following evening.

The historic theatre on Hollywood's Walk of Fame is seen as a fitting venue for the premiere. The Seventh Python explores Innes' four-decade aversion to the star-making machinery, and the inevitable triumph of artistry over celebrity.

The film, which makes use of innovative animation techniques that brings the rock biopic into a new Bonzo-Pythonesque level, has also been billed as the first 'interactive documentary,' because it actively leads viewers from the theatre to the Internet for more.

Along with Innes, The Seventh Python features surviving Monty Python veterans John Cleese, Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin; Simpsons creator Matt Groening; acclaimed songwriter and Academy Award® nominee Aimee Mann; comedian Phill Jupitus; film composer John Altman; and comic Emo Philips, among others.

The film's narrative is built around a series of concerts Innes performs in Hollywood as he faces an unexpectedly wide and diverse new fanbase, thanks to the Internet. As it his winding career from art school through The Bonzo Dog Dooh Dah Band, work with the Beatles, Monty Python and The Rutles, it features performances from Hollywood, the UK, Melbourne, Australia, and a Malibu fire zone-- including some rollicking numbers with Eric Idle.

The film was directed by Burt Kearns, who wrote and produced with Brett Hudson.

Frozen Pictures' credits include the 20th Century Fox motion picture comedy 'Cloud 9' starring Burt Reynolds and DL Hughley; the 2007 doco film 'Basketball Man'; the Bravo series, 'All The Presidents' Movies with Martin Sheen'; 'The Secret History of Rock ‘n' Roll with Gene Simmons'; and the current webisode series, 'The Venice Walk.'

Executive producer is Sean Connors; Keith Walker is co-executive producer.

The film is set to run at 7:30 pm. Tickets, available now at Fandango.com, are $10 general admission; $7 for American Cinematheque members; $8 for students and seniors at $7 kids 3-17.

The same prices apply for a special Neil Innes concert at the Egyptian the following night.

www.fandango.com
www.modsandrockers.com
www.americancinematheque.com

Fan websites drive Seventh Python awareness

With tickets now on sale for the world premiere of The Seventh Python at Martin Lewis’ Mods & Rockers Film Festival next month, much of the buzz in and beyond the Innes fanbase has been generated by Innes fan sites on the Internet. And all that’s very fitting, since the worldwide Web is the very platform that’s spread Innes’ publicity around the globe for the past decade— and the movie itself is an “interactive” feature that sends viewers to their home computers for more after they leave the theatre (see the end of this post).


The Words of Innespiration website at Neil Innes.org is the original, a comprehensive guide to all things Neil, a starter course for newcomers and the meeting place for Innes fans around the world and universe. The site was created Bonnie Rose and Laurie Stevens, two fans in Los Angeles who ran the site and attracted fans from around the world for two years until Innes found out about. He approved.


This past week, Bonnie— who produced and directed animations for the film-- created a special The Seventh Python page on the Innespiration site-- and a new command center and clearinghouse for all things Seventh Python.


Neil in Us: The Neil Innes Unofficial Fan Page is a newer site begun by a diehard fan from Texas. Barb is her name and she’s got to be the #1 Neil Innes cheerleader in America right now. New friends welcome.


The Seventh Python Official MySpace page is just that—the movie’s MySpace page. In the first month of operation, it’s attracted thousands of MySpace “friends” and features new photos and exclusive Innes performance videos each week leading up to the big premiere.


A Tribute to Neil Innes is a new site run by a fan and writer based in the UK. It features great photos and videos of Innes from throughout his career.


Rokuvajes (a reference to Rock of Ages, Barb's favorite Innes song) is a companion page to the Neil in US site.


As is the recent The Innes Book of Memories.

Yvonne Innes creates a garden for George

Yvonne Innes, wife of The Seventh Python subject Neil and a star garden designer in her own right, made lots of news this past week with a tribute to their good friend George Harrison at the world's premier gardening event, The Chelsea Flower Show.

"From Life to Life: A Garden for George" was co-designed by George's widow Olivia and depicts George’s life in four stages – childhood, shown by a vegetable plot and a bike in rough grass; a Beatles and 1960s area; and representations of his older self and spiritual life. The 1960s section of the garden contains the names of his songs and a six foot-wide glass sun, reminding visitors of Here Comes the Sun, which Harrison wrote for the Beatles album Abbey Road in 1969.


The flowers – palmatum, anchusa and achillea – represent the psychedelic colours of the era.

Yvonne worked closely with George before his death in 2001. She said: "I knew what an amazing landscape gardener George was. I also realised few people knew this side of him and decided to design a narrative garden of his life and passing over to the next life."

Many high-profile figures visited the garden, including, as you see, Ringo Starr (at right, with Olivia) and Queen Elizabeth herself.

Hudson Brothers Razzle Dazzle DVD out June 3rd

Just like one of those Sixties radicals who slipped into suburban anonymity only to have their past crimes catch up with them, our own partner Brett Hudson (above, right) is being outed as a Seventies television star and pop idol as one of the old TV shows he starred in is released in all its glory on DVD.

A revival of interest in the The Hudson Brothers-- Brett and brother Mark and Bill-- has been building steadily with a new MySpace fan page and even a grassroots campaign to get them into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. But it's about to go into overdrive the Tuesday after next, with the DVD release of their freaky Saturday morning kiddie extravaganza, The Hudson Brothers Razzle Dazzle Show.

Now the details are in:

VSC (Video Service Corp.) is releasing a 3-disc DVD set on June 3rd.


The set includes every episode from the second series, along with a bonus episode from the original prime time version of the show.

Also, Brett Hudson's basement-dwelling-kid character "Chucky" gets spotlighted in a bonus featurette "The Best of Chucky Margolis."

Cost for The Hudson Brothers Razzle Dazzle Show - The Complete Series is $29.98 SRP for 355 minutes' running time.

Bill, Mark and Brett Hudson moved from rock ‘n’ roll to prime time TV comedy in the summer of 1974 with their two CBS television shows as well. The first was the brief (5-episode) prime time series The Hudson Brothers Show. Then CBS moved it from Wednesday nights to Saturday mornings, expanded the program's already family-friendly variety format to appeal even more to kids, and renamed it The Hudson Brothers Razzle Dazzle Show (their pal John Lennon renamed them The Kings of Saturday Morning”).

Look for Mark and Brett at the Fest for Beatles Fans June 29-July 1 in Las Vegas and in Chicago, August 8-10, signing the DVD and other memorabilia-- and performing. Brett and Burt will be will be screening our new film, The Seventh Python, in Chicago—along with the film’s star, Neil Innes.

The Razzle Dazzle DVD has a placeholder page on Amazon.com.

COLLECTORS' ITEM ALERT: Check out the photo of the original Razzle Dazzle box art we posted back in February-- when it was advertised as a two-DVD set!

American Cinematheque announces the world premiere of The Seventh Python in Hollywood; Neil Innes will appear & perform at two-day event

The American Cinamatheque organization has officially announced that its Mods & Rockers Film Festival will open with the world premiere of The Seventh Python, our feature film about musical satirist and unheralded superstar Neil Innes.

And not only will Neil Innes be appearing at the legendary Grauman’s Egyptian Theatre for the premiere on June 26th— he’ll also be performing in a special concert at the theatre the following night:

Here’s the announcement from the American Cinematheque:

June 26 - July 9, 2008

Mods and Rockers

An Egyptian Theatre exclusive!

Join us for our ninth Mods and Rockers Festival, straddling the months of June and July in wide-stance, rock star fashion. We’re kicking off with the World Premiere of THE SEVENTH PYTHON, a superb documentary about founding Bonzo Dog Band member (and prime Python and Rutles accomplice) Neil Innes (who’ll be appearing In-Person)! It’ll be a super fun night, followed by another evening with Neil live in concert at the Egyptian.

We’ll also be featuring the U.S. Premiere of LOVE STORY, the fascinating documentary about key L.A. ‘60s band, Arthur Lee and Love as well as the Los Angeles Premiere of THIS IS GARY MCFARLAND, an incisive look at the Mod, ascot-wearing vibraphonist who died mysteriously in 1971. Plus in July you can look forward to screenings of Pink Floyd and Syd Barrett rarities as well as the welcoming of filmmaker Tony Palmer In-Person for his multi-episode extravaganza ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE, a glorious celebration of American music over 4th of July weekend. For more details go to: www.modsandrockers.com.

Thursday, June 26 – 7:30 PM
Rare L.A. Show by Neil Innes -
Double Feature: World Premiere!
Python/Rutles/Bonzos Star
Neil Innes In-Person!

THE SEVENTH PYTHON, 2008, Frozen Pictures, 88 min. Dir. Burt Kearns. "The Most Famous Rock Star You’ve Never Heard Of…" 40 years after he made his debut in the Beatles’ MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR as a founder member of the legendary Bonzo Dog Band, the gloriously unplanned career of Neil Innes is spotlighted in this new documentary. Featuring appearances by all 5 surviving members of Monty Python. "You've got to remember that the Bonzos did 26 television shows with Eric Idle, Michael Palin, Terry Jones, and Terry Gilliam. I think Eric's acknowledged that there was an influence from the Bonzos in terms of the anarchy. There is a link…when the band first met Eric and Mike and Terry and whatnot, there was a certain mutual suspicion, 'cause we were crazy guys just coming off the road. And they'd come from Oxford and Cambridge, and they'd written stuff for David Frost, and they were young, up-and-coming writers…It was a kind of cross-fertilization that took place over a couple of years. We all became very good friends." – Neil Innes (from a Perfect Sound Forever online music magazine interview) http:///www.theseventhpythonmovie.com.

THE BONZO DOG DOO-DAH BAND 40^th ANNIVERSARY CONCERT, 2007, Classic Rock Legends, 89 min. Featuring original members: Neil Innes, Roger Ruskin Spear, Rodney Slater, Vernon Dudley Bohay-Nowell, Sam Spoons, Bob Kerr and the Irrepressible "Legs" Larry Smith. The year 2006 marked the 40th anniversary of the release of ‘My Brother Makes The Noises For the Talkies’, the first record by The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band. The part of the late great and sorely missed Vivian Stanshall is performed here in the live concert variously by Messrs Stephen Fry, Adrian Edmondson, Phill Jupitus and Paul Merton. For the first time since the group broke up in the early ‘70s, a British stage once again resounded to the inspired flights of lunacy of the Bonzos favorites performed live. Some of the songs included: "My Brother Makes The Noises For The Talkies," "Little Sir Echo," "Falling In Love Again," "We Are Normal," "The Trouser Press," "My Pink Half Of The Drainpipe," "Mr Apollo," "Look At Me, I'm Wonderful," "Rhinocratic Oaths," "Monster Mash," "Urban Spaceman," "Canyons Of Your Mind," "The Intro and Outro" and more! http://www.bonzodog.co.uk Plus Rutles and Bonzo Dog film and TV rarities. Discussion in between films with Neil Innes.

Friday, June 27 – 7:30 PM
Rare L.A. Show by Neil Innes -
Live Performance of Monty Python,
Rutles & Bonzo Dog Songs!

LIVE CONCERT WITH NEIL INNES. In celebration of the World Premiere of the new film about him, THE SEVENTH PYTHON, Neil Innes gives a very rare solo concert to celebrate the celebrations. He will perform songs from throughout his 40-year career, including material from the Bonzo Dog Band, Monty Python and Rutles canons. Entire program approximately 120 min.

The prestigious festival was founded by producer, humorist and impresario Martin Lewis (left) and Cinematheque programming director Dennis Bartok in 1999. Martin, who recently pulled off an unprecedented, historic reunion of The Rutles at the Egyptian, continues as the curator and face of what’s become the most prestigious pop culture and rock ‘n’ roll film festival in the world.

New Seventh Python photos & videos at MySpace

Head over to our The Seventh Python MySpace page.

We’ve added a new exclusive performance video, video fan art, hundreds of new friends— and great new photos from the film.


And one more thing: June 26th!

The Seventh Python premieres on June 26th!

We’ve been so busy we neglected to mention the big news: we’ve nailed down the premiere date for The Seventh Python!

The Neil Innes musical biopic premieres

Thursday, June 26th
The American Cinematheque’s
Mods & Rockers Film Festival
The Egyptian Theatre
6712 Hollywood Boulevard
Hollywood, California

Ticket will be on sale through Fandango. We’ll let you know when they’re on sale. Neil, other guests and other surprises will be at the premiere, so we expect tickets to sell out quickly.

It’s very fitting that the film will be screened at the legendary theatre on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, we'd say (and we just said), because The Seventh Python focuses on Neil’s stubborn (and as Python John Cleese calls it, "brave") resistance to the starmaking machinery and celebrity culture.

UnDucked! Exclusive Neil Innes performance footage on The Seventh Python MySpace Page

In anticipation of the high-profile world premiere of The Seventh Python, our very cool nonfiction feature film about the life and work of satirist, songwriter and performer Neil Innes, we're starting to roll out exclusive, never-seen private performance video on the The Seventh Python MySpace page.

We're spreading the word about Neil, who's been a prime mover for more than forty years, since his days in the Bonzo Dog Band (immortalized in Magical Mystery Tour, through his work with Monty Python, George Harrison and The Rutles, his recent Bonzos reunion album (without question one of the best of 2007) and is now, finally getting his due with The Seventh Python.


The Seventh Python will premiere at the American Cinematheque's Mods & Rockers Film Festival in Hollywood at the end of June, and it's already generating tremendous buzz in the industry and in fan circles after a sneak screening on the Sunset Strip and a trailer that ran at Martin Lewis' unprecedented Rutles reunion at the Egyptian Theatre.


The first MySpace clip went up over the weekend. We'll be adding new, exclusive, unseen Innes clips up to the movie's premiere, and we'll keep you posted.

A star of our Venice Walk gets a big TV break

It looks like one of the stars of The Venice Walk-- Robert Hegyes' groundbreaking Internet webisode series that we executive-produced-- is about to break out big and become the next big prime time television star.

TVGuide.com reports that "the enchanting Brea Grant — who made quite the impression as Landry's short-lived rebound girl on Friday Night Lights — is joining the cast of Heroes next season as The Speedster."

The accomplished young Brea plays Alli, a flirtatious, emanicipated minor with a thing for drummers and cocaine, in the acclaimed Venice Walk, which centers on a group of Venice Beach delinquents-- played by a right, electric ensemble-- who must report to a parole officer and former NYC cop played winningly by Seventies TV icon-- and Welcome Back Kotter sweathog-- Hegyes.

The series is Bobby's brainchild and baby. He wrote it with Craig Titley, while Brett Hudson and Burt Kearns were executive producers-- and helped shoot it. The Venice Walk is truly visionary project, and it's generating hundreds of thousands of hits on a number of Internet sites, most recently Unicorn Media.

"Why's All The Presidents' Movies not on DVD?"

In this middle of this exciting and historic campaign season, you'd be surprised how many people are asking us about our acclaimed (yup, "acclaimed"!) three-hour documentary series narrated by Martin Sheen.

Well, we're working on it!

Meanwhile, check out the trailer for All The Presidents' Movies.

Visit our new Seventh Python MySpace page!

Check out our new MySpace page for The Seventh Python, our new musical biopic of Monty Python/Rutles/Bonzo Dog Band legend (though he wouldn't like us calling him a "legend) Neil Innes.

Here's the URL:

www.myspace.com/theseventhpython

It's the latest step on the road to the film's world premiere at Martin Lewis' Mods & Rockers Film Festival in June.


The Seventh Python MySpace page features a crop of exclusive photos; we'll be posting exclusive videos and news bulletins; and there'll be lots of other treats, so we recommend you get on board and join the hundreds of like-minded fans and pals who've "friended the Python"!

Michael Palin in The Seventh Python!

Our 'Python' premiere will be a really big show!

In the LAist's comprehensive report on Monday night's reunion-- and first-time performance-- of The Rutles, there's big news about the premiere of our new movie, The Seventh Python at very same Mods and Rockers Film Festival that brought together Eric Idle, John Halsey, Ricky Fataar and our subject Neil Innes:

"...There was also a preview for the upcoming documentary on Neil Innes, titled The Seventh Python. The documentary will be premiering at this summer's Mods and Rockers Film Festival. Martin Lewis, co-founder and producer of Mods and Rockers has some serious mojo...

"This may be the first and last time all four Rutles performed together, but this is not the last you will see of The Rutles. Neil Innes told LAist that when he returns in June for the Mods and Rockers Fest to premier his documentary, The Seventh Python, he may form a trio with Ricky Fataar (Martin Lewis - seriously, the guy is magic)..."

That's more than we knew! Way to go, Martin!

The Seventh Python's executive producer Sean Connors & Martin Lewis

at the Rutles reunion bash

Someone videotaped the Hollywood premiere of our trailer for "The Seventh Python"

From TabloidBaby.com:

WORLD PREMIERE: March 17, 2008 7:30 pm. The setting: The Egyptian Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard; a sold out house for the American Cinematheque’s 30th anniversary showing of the Eric Idle’s 1978 mockumentary classic, The Rutles in All You Need Is Cash, and the first-ever reunion of all four Rutles (Eric Idle, Neil Innes, Ricky Fataar and John Halsey). Host and organizer Martin Lewis begins by introducing a special trailer.

SECOND SHOW: 10:30 pm. An enthusiastic late-show crowd. The trailer plays and once again Martin Lewis announces that The Seventh Python will premiere at this theatre in June at his Mods & Rockers Film Festival.

Visit The Seventh Python movie website here.

Our movie, The Seventh Python, will premiere in June at Mods & Rockers Film Festival in Hollywood

The world premiere of The Seventh Python, our Neil Innes biopic, will take place in June at the American Cinematheque's Mods and Rockers Film Festival at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood.

The announcement was made last night by festival founder, host and curator Martin Lewis, as he premiered The Seventh Python trailer (above) at the festival's 30th anniversary screening of The Rutles in All You Need Is Cash, at which the four stars of the film, Innes, Eric Idle, Ricky Fataar and John Halsey were united for the first time.

Meet The Rutles:
Martin Lewis (right) introduces John Halsey, Ricky Fataar, Neil Innes & Eric Idle

The trailer can also be viewed here on the new Seventh Python movie website.

Lewis said The Seventh Python will open the festival, and that Neil Innes will most likely be on hand for the much-anticipated world premiere.

"I want to see the Neil Innes movie," Eric Idle told the enthusiastic crowd. "Not only is he an untold story, he's an unsold Tory!"

"We're honored to be invited to such a prestigious and acclaimed festival," said Python director Burt Kearns, who wrote and produced the nonfiction musical with Brett Hudson. "Martin Lewis has done tremendous things and made worldwide headlines this week and we're especially grateful that he found the time to be so generous to us and our film. This is the perfect place to introduce this picture and Neil Innes' gifts to the world."

"Touching, hilarious & inventive!"

We had a screening of our new nonfiction musical film, The Seventh Python, Wednesday night at the Sunset Screening Room on the Sunset Strip so we could show it to its star, Neil Innes, folks who worked on the film and assorted friends and celebrities. Despite a few technical issues at the outset, everything went smoothly and people laughed and clapped!

And one of the media bigs who attended wrote up a very nice post about the evening and posted some cellphone photos for Fishbowl LA. Consider it our first review. We do:

"Touching, hilarious and inventive!"

Thanks, Fishbowl LA! Here's the story:

"At a discreet screening room on Sunset, a select group gathered to watch The Seventh Python, the new documentary from Frozen Pictures. The film, a portrait of rock legend Neil Innes, of Bonzo Dog Band and The Rutles fame, is the work of Burt Kearns, Brett Hudson, animator Bonnie Rose, editor Dan Brown, and producer Sean Connors. Crowd reaction was strongly approving of the film, which is touching, hilarious and inventive.

"Hanging out were Weird Al Yankovic, Emo Philips, Martin Lewis, Alison Holloway, TV producers Peter Brennan and Lisa Lew. Chelsea Lately writer Steve Rosenfield assured us that Chelsea Handler herself is really funny.

"We're so relieved.

"Innes, here with a fan, will be at the Monday screening of All You Need is Cash as part of the Mods and Rockers film fest of the American Cinematheque."

We have our own exclusive photo of the only food served at the event: cheese & onions.


(Our great friend, PR legend Jeff Abraham, came up with the cheese & onions idea).

Here's the new poster for The Seventh Python

Brett wants you to know that The Hudson Brothers Razzle Dazzle Show is finally coming to DVD

The Hudson Brothers' legendary Saturday morning kids' variety series, The Hudson Brothers Razzle Dazzle Show will soon be available in a deluxe DVD set.

Razzle Dazzle's live-action display of music and mayhem was a surreal comedic wakeup for the Brady Bunch generation (and morning-after bong material for the older kids), proving the Hudsons to be more Marx than Jonas Brothers and earning them the title of “The Kings of Saturday morning” from none other than their good pal John Lennon.

The half-hour shows were produced by Laugh In (and Elvis ’68 Comeback special ) writers Chris Bearde and Alan Blye, and ran from September 1974 to August 1975. Considering the relevant and busy careers of Bill, Mark and Brett Hudson today, it’s hard to believe that the wacked-out Razzle Dazzle was last seen thirty-three years ago, but it’s remained hardwired in a generation’s memories thanks to its rock ‘n’ roll irreverence and memorable characters like Chuckie Margolis, young network VP Fabulous Freddie and Rod Hull’s talking emu.

All of The Hudson Brothers Show episodes will be packaged in a separate box set after the Razzle Dazzle collection comes out in May.

The Hudson Brothers haven't performed together in more than twenty years, but brothers Mark and Bill have joined Brett in the production of our new documentary film musical, The Seventh Python.

Tabloid Baby says the DVD release is the latest step in a grassroots campaign to place the influential trio in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Brett denies any knowledge or involvement in that one.

Neil Innes: Five shots (and a beer)

Neil Innes
is the star and subject
of our soon-to-be-released
nonfiction feature musical film,
The Seventh Python!

'Basketball Man' rules on sale for $10 million

The Original 13 Rules of Basketball, drafted by the game’s inventor Dr. James Naismith in 1891 and the center of our nonfiction feature film, Basketball Man, are being put up for sale by Basketball Man star and Naismith grandson Ian Naismith.

Big Texan Ian (pronounced "Yon"), the Naismith family and their charitable Naismith International Basketball Foundation are looking to get $10 million, or less under the right circumstances (a bargain compared to the $20 million sought a few years back).

As Basketball Man showed, Ian's been the dedicated keeper of those precious two pages of rules, lugging them around in a golden briefcase as he knocks around the country in a rickety old RV, on his Naismith Sportsmanship Tour.

The Naismith biopic contrasts Doc Naismith’s life with his grandson’s lonely mission, using the Rules to promote sportsmanship, which was originally inherent in the game. Its release on DVD last Spring followed great acclaim in magazines from Parade to FHM.

Basketball Man also traces the history of the Original 13 Rules, which, after Naismith's death in 1939, ended up in the possession of his youngest son-- Ian's father—who kept them in a “secret drawer” in the dining room. In the late 1950s, the rules were placed in a safe deposit box until they were loaned to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass., where they were kept in a vault until about a decade ago, when Ian Naismith took back the papers, and began his tour, displaying them at events in college and NBA cities.

“I like to think that he would approve of the money from his rules going to a foundation that helps children,” Ian Naismith said told the Associated Press. “It's not my money. It's his money because it's his creation.”

Ian's still hoping a corporation comes forward with a deal, which would include sponsorship of a two-year nationwide tour to display the rules in a 40-foot motor coach (a new one, with air conditioning this time!). Ian hopes to collect signatures of basketball dignitaries and fans along the way, with an ultimate goal of giving the Rules, which experts compare to the US Constitution in its historic value, a permanent display at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.

“It's not an easy decision, but it's time. They've been pretty much unseen for 110 years. There's no reason for them to be in a vault or anything like that for another 110 years.”

And check out Basketball Man! It's available as a deluxe 2-DVD package, features appearances by some of the greatest names in the history of the sport including Michael Jordan, Steve Nash, Carmelo Anthony, Oscar Robertson, Bob Cousy, John Wooden, Rick Barry, NBA commissioner David Stern, and the late Red Auerbach.

On location: The Seventh Python Malibu shoot

Once again, Cloud 9 handicaps the Oscars®

And now for something completely different...

There's comedy of a different kind with this morning's announcement of Academy Award® Best Picture nominees and, along with it, another list of "incredible, amazing" connections to our 2006 feature film comedy Cloud 9-- the beach volleyball stripper comedy-social commentary starring screen icon Burt Reynolds and written and produced by own own Brett Hudson and Burt Kearns, along with our pal, Academy Award®-winning producer (The Godfather, Million Dollar Baby) Albert S. Ruddy.

Our pals over at Tabloidbaby.com are having a lot of fun with this.  So here goes:

In this bleak, depressing strike-ridden movie season, many in Hollywood have wiled away the time playing the parlor game Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, linking the intense actor to any other actor in the industry through six steps or less. But when it comes to the influential Cloud 9 (with a phenomenal cast also includes Paul Rodriguez, D.L. Hughley, Angie Everhart, Gabrielle Reece, Paul Garito, Gary Busey, Tony Danza and Tom Arnold) the connection to the great ones can be made in one link—or less-- and the phenomenon has brightened up a dreary list of Best Picture noms!

ATONEMENT

Atonement director Joe Wright made his debut with the short called The End. That was also the name of the classic 1978 black comedy that starred and was directed by Burt Reynolds. Atonement star Vanessa Redgrave appeared in the 1992 Merchant-Ivory classic, Howards End with Anthony Hopkins, whose name, clothing and alleged beach house play key plot points in Cloud 9.

JUNO

Star Rainn Wilson starred with Paul Rodriguez in Mario van Peebles’ 2003 documentary/homage to his father, BAADASSSSS! How to Get the Man's Foot Outta Your Ass.

MICHAEL CLAYTON

Michael Clayton star (and Best Actor nominee) George Clooney appeared with Cloud 9 costar Paul Rodriguez on the 2003 TV special, Playboy’s 50th Anniversary Celebration. He also appeared as “Joe” in the 1991 TV series Baby Talk, in which Tony Danza, who has a Hopkins-related cameo in Cloud 9, supplied the voice of a baby.

NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN

Costar Barry Corbin appeared in 1982’s The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, which starred Cloud 9’s Burt Reynolds. On March 7, 2003, Star Woody Harrelson and Cloud 9 star D.L. Hughley shared the panel in the third episode of Season 1 of HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher.

THERE WILL BE BLOOD

Ten years ago, Cloud 9 star Burt Reynolds was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor and won a Golden Globe Award for his role in Blood director Paul Thomas Anderson’s breakthrough film, Boogie Nights.

Cloud 9 stars Burt Reynolds as Billy Cole, a down-and-out conman living in Malibu who hits on the idea of starting a beach volleyball team comprised entirely of strippers! Hilarity most definitely ensues. 

(See the trailer here.)

Joaquin Blanco charms The Seventh Python

As we get a step closer to announcing release plans for our nonfiction musical film, The Seventh Python all the concert, interview and performance extras that will accompany its eventual DVD release-- and the original soundtrack CD and downloads-- we stop to mention another member of the Frozen team who's helping make this one of the best musical biopics in the history of rock 'n' roll.  And comedy.  

Joaquin Blanco, another film veteran with varied and wide experience in the industry, took control of the design content at the beginning and, in the end, followed up with color correction, exclusive graphics, the opening and closing credit sequences and finishing touches and the F& F Post Production facilities at the Los Angeles International Airport.

While his work in the film, television and forward-looking online industries continues to push past new boundaries, Blanco has also maintained a reputation among the avant garde and surrealist crowds as a prominent underground thinker and artist. 

He's perhaps best known to general public for his 2004 LAX-area holiday season installation, The Garbage Cane (above left). The giant, fifty-foot candy cane was made up of thirty garbage cans and adorned by faux-crystal lamps, lighting up the area, attracting Christmas car traffic from miles around and generating media attention from coast to coast.

Blanco had planned to top the work the following year with a Rudolph-lid rooftop installation, but retreated into obscurity when the idea was rejected by his partner and frequent collaborator in the Lennon-Ono, Nasty-Chastity (as seen at right) mode, Peggy Hippdom, AKA "The Keeper of The Silver Balls."

But that's his mysterioso side. We know Joaquin as a multi-talented moviemaking artiste, and his graphic, design and coloring work added more wonders to a project that's already full of magic. Once again, he's taken something special-- and taken it over the top!

Daniel Brown edited The Seventh Python!

When it came to editing our nonfiction musical motion picture The Seventh Python, we needed a pro with a sense of rhythm and an appreciation of music. Well, we got that an more the form of Daniel Brown, a veteran film and video editor who not only boasts Bonzo Dog Band elpees in his vinyl collection—but is an accomplished and acclaimed musician himself!

As his official biography informs us:

“Dan's musical journey began, starting with an aural exposure to his mother's Yoko Ono record collection…. Dan was able to persuade his parents, through negotiations and Sufi mystical mind tricks, that he should be allowed bring the family piano into his room so that he could play it while at the same time playing drums... Reaching the age of majority Dan found himself in New York attending an unnamed but high-priced private university to learn how to put two pieces of film together to make one piece of film. It is also at this time that his musical career starts to blossom.”

Dan is renowned in the music world as an avant garde, experimental, post-punk, indie percussionist who’s released acclaimed solo albums and worked with music groups including God Is My Co-Pilot. (the New York City band that toured in Europe and performed on the BBC 1 radio’s John Peel Sessions), “anarcho-musical terrorist group” Salmon Skin, the group Pacer (compared by Gerard Cosloy to Sonic Youth) and the trio Hall Of Fame, which have lot of albums you can find on line or on i-Tunes.

And did we mention our fellow music star is also an accomplished editor? Dan worked the board on Bluebook Films’ Bloodline, the chilling documentary that exposes the real life story behind the Da Vinci Code (written by yet another Dan Brown), the legendary The Gods of Times Square (just out on DVD), and television series as diverse as Raising The Roofs, Tourgasm and The Chelsea Handler Show.

The Seventh Python is coming soon. Dan made it rock!

The worldwide influence of Neil Innes

Our doco musical, The Seventh Python, is coming soon!

Frozen Pictures projects win Tabloid Baby honors

Get a load of this: the Tabloid Baby website has named Michael Lohan its Person of The Year for 2007... and Neil Innes as its Artist of The Year and The Hudson Brothers as Comeback of The Year! All of them involved in Frozen Pictures projects, and in the case of Brett Hudson, one of our leaders! Happy New Year, indeed!

TABLOID BABY'S
2007
PERSON OF THE YEAR
Michael Lohan

When Michael Lohan went off to prison in 2005, no one expected that Lindsay Lohan’s troubled father would emerge two years later as a new man with a new mission, setting out not only to reconcile with his daughter, but to save others from falling into the same traps that destroyed his own life. And certainly few would expect that he would remain in the tabloid headlines, day after day, week after week in 2007, with new surprises and outrages, sometimes teetering on the brink of ridiculousness, often falling over the edge, but always with an optimistic message that had us chuckling or shaking our heads.

The year of Michael Lohan was a grown-up parallel story to the chaotic chain of kiddie carwrecks, confrontations and McConaughey-perving rolled out by TMZ. Lohan’s was a story with consequence, with much more at stake than his long-awaited-- and unexpectedly successful-- reunion with his daughter Lindsay. There was his emergence as a mail order minister, his work with the Long Island Teen Challenge youth program, his bitter war with his ex-wife Dina, followed by their unlikely reprochement. His plans to open a celebrity drug rehab center in the Hamptons were matched by his blueprints for a restaurant in Los Angeles, where Lindsay could continue to party under his watchful eye.

And Lohan struggled in public, as well. When the pitch reel for the Michael Lohan Reality Project (above) was leaked to YouTube (receiving more than 100,000 hits within hours), Lohan, in fear of offending Lindsay, denied the show existed. While “working for God,” he was spotted treating his new girlfriend to a posh shoe-shopping spree. And all along, he's been on parole, walking that line uneasily, being fitted with a GPS ankle bracelet, living under curfews and the constant threat that a wrong move could send him back to prison.

Considering all those escapades-- not to mention the Writers Strike that has made unscripted programming so crucial to television networks-- every executive who passed on the idea of the Lohan reality series should be strapping him or herself to an ass-kicking machine.

Lohan's road is a bumpy one and he is the poster boy for taking life one day at a time. But we look forward new grand schemes and projects, more unexpected headlines, and possibly, his testimony in the lawsuit trial of Frozen Pictures’ Lindsay-related lawsuit against the X-17 paparazzi agency (Scoop: We hear the action is being revised next week to seek damages around the $1 million mark). And with the reality series on the back burner for now, he’s also at the center of a new film documentary on the wages of fame, now in production from our pals at Frozen Pictures.

ARTIST OF THE YEAR
Neil Innes

Neil Innes is the greatest musical satirist of the past fifty years. For most of that half century, he's made a monumental, if deliberately subtle, impact on popular culture, music and comedy. Having made his mark on rock 'n' roll, television, art, publishing, children's programming and philosophy, Innes was hard at work this year, overseeing pristine reissues of the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band and Rutles catalogue, recording and releasing the first new Bonzos album in 35 years (earning four stars in MOJO), and completing filming of the musical documentary about his life and work. Innes set the stage this year for what will surely be a time of recognition and appreciation as Frozen Pictures’ film, The Seventh Python, brings the world up to date on this brilliant artist.

COMEBACK OF THE YEAR
The Hudson Brothers

Twenty five years after they went their separate ways, the Hudson Brothers reunited for their first group photos in twenty years and their first group project, albeit behind the scenes, in producing and supervising the music for The Seventh Python. The Hudsons, an influential rock ‘n’ roll group whose career was elevated yet stymied by success as a network television musical comedy team in the Seventies, is the rare act from that decade that has not cashed in on the VH1-TVLand nostalgia market, but individually blazed new trails in music, television and film. With their classic television series about to be released on DVD and talk of an onstage reunion, we look forward to more Hudson Brothers activities in 2008—as well as a potential boycott of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and its parent, Rolling Stone magazine, if the contribution continues to be ignored.

Stay tuned for news on all our Tabloid Baby honoree projects!

Irv, we hardly knew ye: We say 'So long' to our partner in All The Presidents' Movies

We just found out that Irv Letofsky died on Sunday at age 76. Irv was a television critic for The Hollywood Reporter and former editor of the Los Angeles Times Sunday Calendar section. He was also an executive producer of the Frozen Pictures documentary series, All The Presidents’ Movies.

Irv was an important collector of film lobby and title cards and other film memorabilia, and brought to our attention the story of Paul Fischer, the White House projectionist who was at the center of the acclaimed Presidents' project.

Irv is also thanked in the acknowledgment section of Burt Kearns’ book, Tabloid Baby.

Review: All The Presidents' Movies, soon on DVD

“All the Presidents’ Movies”

a miniseries made for Bravo

by Executive Producers: 

Burt Kearns, Brett Hudson, 

Bill Knoedelseder, and Irv Letofsky.

Produced by Brett Hudson & Burt Kearns

Narrated by Martin Sheen.

Reviewed by Martha Joynt Kumas

Department of Political Science

at Towson University

for Political Communication journal

Volume 24 Issue 1 January 2007

“Do you know I can get any movie I want?” the newly inaugurated President Carter asked his communications aide, Gerald Rafshoon? And then he proceeded to do so. He began with All the Presidents’ Men and followed it up with 579 other films in his four years in office. That works out to an average of one every two and a half days.

His movie watching habits and those of other chief executives is the subject of a Bravo miniseries, All the Presidents’ Movies. For those who study presidents, the documentary provides a useful thread to pull to reveal several aspects of presidential life. Presidents spend a fair amount of time watching movies and using them to entertain others; Hollywood directors and producers try to get their products in front of chief executives; and some presidents try to shape movies, particularly ones where they believe they have some interest. All of these elements are featured in the three-part, three hour miniseries.

The documentary has some solid data behind it. During the period when movies became a regular White House feature with a formal theater to show them, the projectionist, Paul Fischer, kept a log of what movies were shown in the White House and wherever the president traveled, when they were screened, and who saw them. Fischer first projected films for President Truman on the presidential yacht, S.S. Williamsburg. He became the White House theater projectionist in March 1953 and stayed through to his retirement in March 1986. During his 33 years, he and his colleagues at Camp David and on presidential road trips screened 5,000 films. The log Fischer kept, which serves as the basis of the Bravo documentary, is a rich resource. The log is complemented for the documentary by interviews conducted with Presidents Carter and Clinton, presidential staff aides from the Kennedy through the Reagan Administrations, film directors, actors, and presidential children, including Ron Reagan, Steve Ford, and granddaughter Susan Eisenhower.

Presidents and Their Families Go to the Movies

“The best perk of the White House is not Air Force One or Camp David or anything else. It is the wonderful movie theater here because people send me all of these movies all of the time,” commented President Clinton about the presence of the theater and its treasure of movies. While his predecessors might not have gone as far as he did singing the praises of the theater, presidents and their families have thoroughly enjoyed their access to the latest movies and ones of their choosing.

Movies have been a feature of White House life since the Woodrow Wilson Administration when in 1914 the spectacle Cabiria was shown on the White House lawn. The following year, Birth of a Nation was shown inside the White House. While there were regular screenings in the Hoover and Roosevelt Administrations, there was no dedicated place to watch movies. In the Hoover years, there were two projectors on wheels used to create a continuous film when the president watched upstairs on the second floor of the White House in the family quarters. Films were shown with chairs lined up in a hallway in the Roosevelt years.

Franklin Roosevelt was the first president to create an ongoing relationship with Hollywood. He made producer Jack Warner a Colonel in recognition of his work in the war effort, especially for films such as Yankee Doodle Dandy. He screened the wartime movie and Academy Award winner, Mrs. Miniver, after Winston Churchill recommended it to him. Roosevelt liked the industry and regularly taped a statement to be used at the annual Academy Award ceremonies. Much as he liked to bring in guests for dinner and movies, there was no established place to screen films. That came with the creation of the White House theater as part of the major building renovation in the latter Truman years.

While presidents may have different viewing habits, all of the seven presidents from Eisenhower through Reagan, those who served during the period when Paul Fischer was the projectionist, watched movies. Their successors have as well. President Carter was the most frequent movie viewer. His romance with the movies has been life long. In an interview for the miniseries, Carter spoke of his pleasant association with movies. His first date with Rosalyn Smith was to a movie. Their evening must have been a pleasant one as Carter told his mother the next morning that Rosalyn was the one he wanted to marry. He retained his interest in movies even though he was not able to see them during the four years before he became president. When he came to the White House, he told Rafshoon he wanted to catch up on all of the movies he had missed while campaigning. Rafshoon made a list for him of the movies he had missed and that served as his film agenda.

With his professional life and Nancy Reagan’s too spent in the film industry, President Reagan enjoyed watching them during their eight years in the White House, particularly reminiscing with old favorites. He watched his own movies, including Bedtime for Bonzo and Knute Rockne, and viewed contemporary movies as well, such as the film recounting the Cambodian holocaust, Killing Fields; Reds the film about American communist, John Reed; and the whimsical film Local Hero. But for Reagan, “the golden oldies are the ones,” Reagan told Fischer as they took a photo marking the projectionist’s retirement.

While the documentary does not discuss it, we know from contemporary news articles and memoirs of senior staff members in the Reagan White House that the president sometimes watched movies prior to important meetings. Twice that was the case with The Sound of Music. Reagan watched the movie the night before a 1983 Williamsburg economic summit with governors and prior to a 1986 meeting with Gorbachev in Geneva.

If Reagan looked to the Trappe family for inspiration, Richard Nixon chose Patton. Presidential aide Herb Klein said President Nixon watched Patton the night he made the decision to go into Cambodia, April 25th 1970. “Mr. Nixon and Kissinger made the decision we were going to enter Cambodia and then they did watch the film that night because it was one he [Nixon] felt, again, showed leadership. He knew that going into Cambodia meant that there would be a lot of demonstrations and we needed to be tough to do what he felt was the right thing.” In an interview with David Frost, though, Nixon said watching Patton had “no effect on my decisions.”

The Fischer logs let us see what President Nixon was watching when other big events occurred, such as the break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate. The night of the burglary, Nixon was in the Bahamas watching The Skin Game, a movie about two con artists. His viewing companion was Bebe Rebozo who often watched movies with the president. In fact, they watched 153 movies together. Herb Klein explained Rebozo’s frequent presence. “It was a time to relax when he was with Bebe and Bebe never tried to bring out discussions of issues.”

While Carter viewed more movies than any of the presidents during the period Fischer kept his log, Kennedy appears to be at the low end. He only saw 48 movies and then he often did not see them in one sitting or more than a few minutes of them. The Kennedy segment is revealing for what we learn about the extent of the president’s back pain. Residence staff and his aides sought to make the theater comfortable for him to view films, but his severe back pain made it difficult. In addition to the padded rocking chair in the theater for his use, an orthopedic bed was brought in for him to watch movies comfortably, Fischer commented. “One of the beds you could raise and lower so he could watch a movie, so he could sit up.” Even so, he often watched one half of a movie in the theater and then the second half at Camp David, reported Fischer.

Some presidents view film watching as an occasion for presidential slumber with family nearby. Both Lynda Johnson Robb and Steven Ford tell stories of their fathers sleeping through movies while family members watched films. Robb commented, “Movies for Daddy were a great sleeping pill.” He would go right to sleep, wake up and ask “did y’all like it?” Jack Valenti backed up Robb. “Mostly he went to sleep during a movie; would wake up refreshed and want to go back to his office and gather up his assistants and go back to work.”

Camp David is the place for watching films with family in an informal atmosphere. It is there presidents truly relax. President and Mrs. Reagan used their weekends for movie watching. There they watched 344 movies while they only saw 12 at the White House. “At the White House, films were often used to reward people, to give them a close-up view of the president so you usually had a bigger crowd,” said Ron Reagan. Camp David was “much more intimate, it was much more of a family atmosphere.”

Eisenhower too liked watching movies over the weekend at the retreat. Art Halo, Camp David projectionist, reported Eisenhower watched at least two movies a weekend and Westerns were his favorites. He saw more than 200 of them. “The Westerns he saw really reminded him a lot of the environment in which he grew up,” his granddaughter, Susan Eisenhower, commented. But when it came to Westerns featuring Robert Mitchum, Eisenhower refused to watch any. “When he found out that Mitchum was involved with marijuana, he wouldn’t have nothin’ to do with any films Mitchum was in,” Fischer said. And he preferred deciding which films to watch. When First Lady Mamie Eisenhower chose a 1956 film about Vietnam by French director Rene Clement, This Angry Age, President Eisenhower got up after about 10 minutes and said to Mamie, “You can’t choose a movie worth a damn.” He then retreated to bed.

As different as their film habits proved to be in the 1953-1986 period, there were similarities among presidents. High Noon with Gary Cooper was a favorite of all presidents, even recent ones. It was the most watched movie during the period when Fischer kept records and later presidents have named it as well. Clinton commented, “I am 53 years old and my favorite movie is High Noon, a movie I saw when I was six years old.” Film critic Richard Schiekel theorized presidents were drawn to the film because of the hero played by Gary Cooper had to deal with a critical situation alone.

Baseball movies ranked high too. Eisenhower saw Angels in the Outfield four times. In more recent times, Field of Dreams was a favorite of both Presidents Bush and President Clinton.

Screenings in the White House Theater

While in the early days of the theater screenings were family affairs, in recent years they have become occasions for more formal entertainment. The theater has become a place to entertain supporters and administration people as well as a place to do advance screenings of films with the actors, directors and others in attendance.

As film participants and presidential guests came to the White House, Hollywood stepped forward to upgrade the theater. During the Carter years new machines and Dolby sound was installed. In the Reagan years, the theater was renovated with funds from the Motion Picture Association of America for the purchase of the latest projection and sound equipment and to develop elevated seating, purchase red carpets for the theater, and drapes to absorb ambient sound.

“Every filmmaker wants to screen his film at the White House,” observed Gerald Rafshoon. A film director explains why he wanted to get his film viewed in the White House theater in the George W. Bush Administration. Lionel Chetwynd, who directed Varian’s War, a 2001 film made for television about Varian Fry, an American working in France in 1941 who was involved in rescuing European artists and intellectuals, explained why a director wants a presidential screening. “For two hours I had the ear and the eyes and, in the end, the heart of the most powerful man in the world. And he heard what we were saying and that’s why, in the end, you really want a White House screening.”

Screenings work well for presidents too as they are an opportunity to bring together a group of people interested in the issues raised by a film. In October 1999, President Clinton brought in a standing-room only crowd to watch Three Kings, an action movie set in a turbulent Iraq by director David O. Russell starring George Clooney and Mark Wahlberg. Before the movie, a reception was held for the movie-goers on the state floor of the White House with food and drinks served there. Arab-American donors and administration foreign policy people attended as well as others, including many of those associated with the film. Director Russell brought his own hand-held video camera to film the goings-on. His film shows Clinton speaking with the group of 50 + people before the film began and then afterwards for about an hour the president held court up front near his seat with a discussion of our Iraq policy.

Clinton was not the first president to have an advance screening of a film. Carter was so taken with films that his communications adviser Gerald Rafshoon asked him if he would like an advance screening of Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now. Expecting an authentic rendering of the Vietnam War, the screening did not go well. Carter brought in as guests the Chairman of Joint Chiefs, the Secretary of Defense, and the director of the Central Intelligence Agency all of whom, Rafshoon indicated, looked mystified by the film. While Coppola was experimenting with endings at this stage, the one he was working with clearly did not work for Carter. Thinking something was wrong with the projection of the movie; Carter stood up, turned toward the projection booth and said “what’s wrong back there?” Rafshoon said that at that point, Coppola said, “No, Mr. President. That is the ending.” In a note the following day to Rafshoon, Carter wrote, “Jerry, re the movie last night, no comment.”

While filmmakers want to see their movies shown at the White House, so too do political allies of the president who want to press a particular viewpoint. Varian’s War came to the attention of the Bush White House through conservative Weekly Standard editor Fred Barnes. Chetwynd sent the film to Barnes who then sent it to Karl Rove. About two weeks later, Rove called Chetwynd and said “the president needs to see this film, can we get a print?” The director obliged. Chetwynd noted the film was useful for the White House. “There was a conference of major Jewish organizations in Washington and they wanted to invite some of them.”

Hollywood and Presidential Movies: Mutual Pressure

Among the most fascinating parts of the Bravo miniseries are the efforts of presidents and their aides to influence Hollywood and the willingness of the industry to please chief executives. The two most blatant attempts at presidential influence involve Presidents Kennedy and Nixon. Both chief executives took a direct interest in the structuring of a movie of interest to them.

In the case of President Kennedy, the movie was PT 109. President Kennedy, whose interest in movies appeared marginal, was involved in the selection of the director of the movie depicting his World War II experience and in choosing the actor to play himself as a young naval officer. Presidential friend and film director George Stevens and Press Secretary Pierre Salinger watched Marines Let’s Go, a recent movie by director Raoul Walsh who was chosen by studio chief Jack L. Warner to direct the biopic. Kennedy came in to the theater to watch it and asked after ten minutes that it be stopped. Soon thereafter, Les Martinson replaced Walsh. Projectionist Paul Fischer said he received the screen tests for the actors trying out for the Kennedy part and so too did the president and those close to him, including his brother-in-law actor Peter Lawford. Cliff Robertson was the presidential choice. Kennedy asked Robertson to come to the White House to talk to him about how to play the role. The president asked Robertson to play it “non-regionally” so that there would be no discernible accent. While the film was only a modest success, it did not do the president any damage either.

While Kennedy took a personal interest in film making when he was the subject, Richard Nixon got involved in movie-making over what he thought would be bad publicity for the conservative cause. When 1776 the play celebrating the American Revolution was made into a movie, Nixon was worried about the image of conservatives as anti-independence. Jack Warner, who was so pliant to Kennedy’s requests associated with PT 109, did the same for Nixon. Warner provided Nixon with a print of the film, which the president then went over. When Peter H. Hunt, the director of the film, returned from his vacation, he found the new cut of the film no longer contained a particular musical number, “Cool, Considerate Men.” He asked Jack Warner how he could have done it. His reply was “with scissors.” In 2002 DVD release of the movie, the nixed number was restored.

While the first two instances here demonstrate how a president gets what he wants from the industry, another incident gives us a glimpse of the way in which the industry works with the White House. Director George Stevens Jr. details in an interview how he went about making A Thousand Days, the film made for the United States Information Agency about the Kennedy Administration and the president’s death. Stevens decided shortly after Kennedy’s death that he wanted to make the film and have it distributed around the world. He went to Edward R. Murrow, head of the United States Information Agency, to discuss how it could be done. Both understood President Johnson would be involved in the decision. With that in mind, Murrow said to Stevens, “first, make a ten minute film about Lyndon Johnson.” Stevens recounted, “Ed was very sage and realized that if the word got out to the new president that we were making a feature film about the departed president, there may not be happiness on Pennsylvania Avenue.”

Murrow suggested to Stevens that his first step be making a ten minute documentary on Lyndon Johnson and his assumption of power. The theme would be the continuity of government and the film would serve as Johnson’s introduction to a world audience. Jack Valenti, his aide and later representative of Hollywood to Washington, commented that “anytime you are in a movie, you become your favorite movie star. “ Indeed Johnson was very pleased with The President, the documentary about himself. It was played in the White House theater 18 times and Johnson saw it 12. On the way back from a screening, Pierre Salinger told Stevens, “well, you just conned another president.”

All the Presidents’ Movies is persuasive when it comes to relating information contained in Fischer’s logs and in the interviews with former presidents, staff members, and people from the movie-making community. It is less convincing when claims are made that presidents have taken actions or said things based on films they have viewed. While Nixon watched Patton three times, it is hard to believe he took actions because of the film. He was inspired as other presidents have been by movie portrayals, but that is not why they watch movies. In the end, movies are a form of entertainment and presidents and their families like all of us enjoy being entertained.

Terry Jones recalls The Seventh Python

Our Lohan Reality Project shows up online...

And apparently causes a sensation...

All Things Must Lead to The Seventh Python

Our pals at Tabloid Baby think that our poster-in-progress for The Seventh Python reminds them of the cover of George Harrison's All Things Must Pass.


Not a bad coincidence, they add, considering that Neil Innes and George were close friends-- and ukulele enthusiasts. More in that in our upcoming musical biopic.

Bolly-ball Surprise! 'Cloud 9' strikes a chord in India

Here's a surprise. Cloud 9, Frozen Pictures' first feature film release, has become a big hit in India!

Bollywood giants Shemaroo Entertainment released deluxe DVD and VCD versions of the beach volleyball comedy a few weeks ago. And it's caught on partly because it's similar in tone to a Bollywood hit starring Shah Rukh Khan as a disgraced captain of the Indian hockey team who decides to coach a female hockey team:

"The story is much akin to our Bollywood ‘Chak De’. A washed out former star, who is in need of money and an ambition to be fulfilled works towards a get rich plan and starts a volleyball team whose players consist of a group of beautiful athletic strippers. Burt Reynolds efforts in forming the world’s sexiest beach volleyball team with the strippers, is seen as a rib tickling comedy. Eventually though as the girls’ popularity swells, they want to win the crowds with their abilities, and not their bodies where these girls team up and play a match against actual volley ball players."

Cloud 9, of course, was written and produced by Frozen Pictures' Brett Hudson and Burt Kearns, along with Albert S. Ruddy, Oscar®-winning producer of The Godfather and Million Dollar Baby. The India release came with great hoopla, including giveways, contests and other high-profile promotions.

"We were talking about doing a sequel in Australia called 'Cloud 9 Down Under,'" says producer-writer Kearns. "Maybe we'll take the team to India and do 'Bolly-ball'!"

Sez Shemaroo:

"Shemaroo Entertainment has had a superb experience with their first English title release. The wonderful packaging of Cloud 9 drew a lot of attention from the retail shops. Further, Cloud 9 went ahead with exciting activities that were conducted for the first time in Shemaroo. The movie was released on the Friendship Day wherein Café Coffee Day had a special Cloud 9 Combo in their menu card. Anybody on the friendship day who would order a Cloud 9 Combo would get the exclusive movie Merchandise. On that special day all the Coffee Day outlets had a Cloud 9 Table Mat which contained a SMS contest with Phoney Tunes and the winner would stand a chance a win a Gift hamper.

"The movie Cloud 9 has Burt Reynolds as the lead cast and along with other stars like Ex-Miss USA, Kenya Moore and the internationally acclaimed volleyball star–turned-supermodel Gabrielle Reece and supermodel and the former Playboy Playmate, Angie Everhart, the movie Cloud 9 is worth keeping your eyes glued onto."

The Seventh Python is coming soon

Genius at work!

World-renowned music producer and writer Mark Hudson was hard at work today at his legendary Whatinthewhatthe studios in Los Angeles, on the musical soundtrack for our Neil Innes biopic, The Seventh Python. Along with ace engineer Sami Diament, Mark produced, tweaked, mixed and added some of his famed background vocals to the landmark concert material featured in the musical film.




Within the walls of this tiny studio, Mark has written with and produced albums for Ringo Starr and Aerosmith among others, and musicians and legends like Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Brian Wilson, Ozzy Osbiourne, Tom Petty, Sarah Hudson and many others have laid down tracks there.


The colorful Mark first had legions of fans as a member of The Hudson Brothers and is now a favorite in homes across the UK for his rolw on the popular X Factor TV series. He and Neil Innes go "way back," both being intimates of various Beatles, and having performed together at various Beatlefests. "I love Neil. He's a great parodist. You can name any band, any style of music and Neil will come up with a song that's as good as any of them. And funny, too! He's also simply a great songwriter and performer. Neil is the best."


Python's director Burt Kearns had similar words for Mark Hudson's work. "Mark gave us all a lesson in the inner sanctum of rock 'n'roll. He listened to these raw tracks with a smile on his face then jumped right in and spun the raw material into gold-- and all the while he was spinning stories, talking on the phone and playing host. He's a wizard, like a Todd Rundgren with a great personality. And hey, he had some great Neil stories. Now we want him in the picture, too!"

Michael & Lindsay Lohan spend quality time

Michael Lohan, center of our Michael Lohan Reality Project, is in Utah this week at an undisclosed location with his daughter. Lindsay is taking five days off from the Cirque Rehab center in Provo to spend time, catch up with and get to know her dad again.

MICHAEL LOHAN WITH PRODUCER SEAN CONNORS

MICHAEL LOHAN'S TATTOO FEATURES THE NAMES OF HIS FOUR CHILDREN

The importance of being Innes

“For us, in Cologne in 1919, Dada was first of all a mental attitude… Our aim was total subversion. A ghastly and senseless war had cheated us out of five years of our lives. We had seen all that had been held up to us as good, beautiful and true topple into an abyss of ridicule and shame. The work I produced in those days was not meant to please but to make people scream.”

Max Ernst

“THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING ERNST.” N INNES 2003

At home with Neil & Yvonne

More shots from the shoot...

The Seventh Python's music supervisor goes solo

Cheers! The Seventh Python's UK crew

Tommy Cooper's not the only one making magic. Captured at The Hill in north London are the best crew in all of Britain-- and good guys to travel with: our DP Conall Freeley & sound recordist Ned Hards.

More pix from The Seventh Python UK shoot

First, Phill Jupitus joined the Bonzo Dog Band. Now, he's joined The Seventh Python!

Top British comedian, radio host, TV personality-- and Bonzo Dog Dooh Dah Band collaborator-- Phill Jupitus is the latest Neil Innes associate to lend his talents and unique insights to our musical biopic, The Seventh Python.

And what a coincidence! Our cameras rolled after our production team literally bumped into him in East Anglia-- hours after emailing our research staff to try and track him down. (Well, maybe it's not that much of a coincidence. We found Phill at Neil's house, where he and Neil are working on the final mixes and track rundown of the surprise and much-heralded Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band's reunion album, In Dog We Trust.)


Phill Jupitus is a household name in the UK-- an intellectual funnyman in the Eddie Izzard-Ricky Gervais league who's well-known for his comedy concert DVD like Quadrophobia, his work as a deejay on BBC radio, and his appearances on brainy, hilarious quiz shows like BBC Two's Never Mind The Buzzcocks. He's written plays, directed music videos for the likes of Billy Bragg and Kirsty MacColl-- but, most significantly in our case, made a guest appearance in the Bonzos' 40th anniversary concert at London's Astoria and DVD-- and toured with the reunited loonies around the UK.

Phill spoke to us about the importance of being a Bonzo, the significance of Rutling, and the annoying habts of his "grumpy uncle" Neil.

Seventh Python crew arrives in Suffolk, England

Pre-fab! Barry Wom in The Seventh Python

"I played the part of Ron Nasty, it’s the John Lennon character... Eric wanted to play Sir Dirk McQuickly, the Paul character. He wasn’t 'sir' then, of course, just Dirk McQuickly. Stig O’Hara, a guitarist of no fixed hairstyle, was played by Ricky Fataar and... Stig O’Hara, a guitarist of no fixed hairstyle, was played by Ricky Fataar. John Halsey, was the drummer. He’s one of the world’s funniest men. He’s got this sort of like dour face. He was Barrington Womble, whose name was shortened to Barry Wom..."

That's Neil Innes, talking about the Rutles in our nonfiction musical film, The Seventh Python.

But does this look like a dour face to you?


It's John Halsey, the legendary, influential rock drummer who's been in bands from Patto to Fatso, who beat the skins with artists from Joan Armatrading to Joe Cocker-- but is best known as the man who kept the backbeat for the Rutles. We met John today at the Castle Inn, the pub he runs in Cambridge, England.

Surprisingly there was not a single Rutles artifact on the walls. But John spoke at length about his dear fried, Rutles guitarist Ron Nasty, also known as Neil Innes, subject of The Seventh Python.

Terry Jones joins The Seventh Python

Terry Jones, Monty Python's comic genius who was most comfortable playing middle-aged women, wrapped a segment this afternoon for The Seventh Python, our nonfiction film about his good friend and colleague, Neil Innes.


The historian, director, author, political writer, screenwriter, documentary host and naked piano player welcomed us into his home in the Highgate section of London and spoke about the mystery of the man he's known for forty years-- since their days on the legendary TV show, Do Not Adjust Your Set.

"It's one of the great enigmas. Neil is brilliant! He writes some of the best songs I've ever heard. He's a magnetic personality when he's performing... He's had lots of success. but why hasn't he become a huge star? Why isn't he Paul Simon? It's an enigma! I have no idea... I think one of the things is that Neil is always trying to do something new, do something different. He has an intellectual appetite that has to be satsified... a quirky take on things that's not always mainstream. He's always stepping away from what he could do so easily."


Terry Jones is working on several projects, including preparation to direct a stage musical based on a children's book he's written. And he'll soon be wearing his historian hat on an American tour, lecturing about Richard II.

Thanks for taking the time to make The Seventh Python even more special!

Officially in development...

Pre-production: Psych House is coming soon!

Aimee Mann joins the cast of The Seventh Python

Acclaimed singer-songwriter Aimee Mann filmed a segment today for The Seventh Python, our nonfiction film about the wit, wisdom and career of musical comedy legend Neil Innes.


Academy Award-nominated Aimee has known Neil since she lived in England in the early Nineties, and featured his vocals on her album, I'm With Stupid, as well as on her classic recording of Harry Nilsson's One, which was featured in PT Anderson's film, Magnolia (along with her song, Save Me, that scored the nomination).


Aimee praises Neil as a songwriter, a satirist, and even remembers where she was-- "and what the room looked like" when she first saw The Rutles on TV. “I have to say that some of the Rutles songs are my favorite—I like them more than the Beatles songs. I think that I had more kind of hero worship and I had more of a crush on Ron Nasty than I ever had on John Lennon.”

First photo: The Hudson Brothers at work

We told you that the legendary Hudson Brothers had reunited to work on the soundtrack and music mixing for our new feature film, The Seventh Python. Here is the first photo of Mark, Bill & Brett, taken with an iPhone at Mark's Whatinthewhatthe studio in Santa Monica.

These are the first photos of all three brothers in front of one camera in twenty years.

photos © Frozen Pictures

Deaver appeared in All The Presidents' Movies

Former Reagan adviser Michael K. Deaver, who died yesterday at age 69, is featured in Frozen Pictures' documentary series, All The Presidents' Movies with Martin Sheen.

The three-part, three-hour Presidents told, for the first time, the history of the White House screening room and showed how a oresident's taste in movies could reflect-- or even influence-- his leadership style and decisions.

Michael Deaver was gracious enough to allow us into his officeat Edelman public relations in Washington, DC and regale us about stories speak to us about the Reagans and the movies. The master media manipulator also served as a conduit to Nancy Reagan, who did not agree to appear on camera, but through Deaver confirmed the accuracy of details we had gathered, provided new information to us, and led us to new contacts.

All The Pesidents' Movies is now in workldwide television release, most recently seen in Japan and Israel. Its release on DVD has been delayed but it will show up for sale one day soon.

Hudson Brothers reunite for The Seventh Python

As post-production work and additional shooting continues on the Frozen Pictures nonfiction feature film, The Seventh Python, producer and Frozen partner Brett Hudson is reuniting one of the most legendary, acclaimed and influential pop groups of the Seventies as he prepares the film's soundtrack.



Years after their official split as a performing act, The Hudson Brothers are handling the musical segments of the film about the unplanned career of Monty Python collaborator and chief Rutle Neil Innes. Mark Hudson, well-known music producer and songwriter has joined kid brother Brett as music supervisor, and brother Bill Hudson, the flash guitarist, film producer, composer and author of the upcoming book Fool's Gold (it's about his marriage to Goldie Hawn, but that's a different documentary), is at his in-demand Water Tower recording studio in Malibu, beginning to "clean up" concert tracks from Innes' now-legendary stands at the 1650 Club and Lava Lounge in Hollywood.

"We've gotten offers to reunite on stage," says Brett. "But behind the scenes, we work together all the time. We're brothers."

Neil Innes and the Hudsons share musical, comedic and Beatle connections dating back to the Sixties...

Frozen Pictures advertises

Meet Keith Walker

We’re still sorting through all the material from our East Coast shoot for the Michael Lohan project— and it’s shaping up into the one of the most inspirational, compelling and surprising series we’ve been involved with. We also worked with a lot of great people collaborated with us, You’ll be meeting them in the days to come, starting with one of our executive producers, Keith Walker.

Keith drove to Long Island from Atlanta, Georgia, and though he was one of the bigshots on the set, he worked the trenches, pitching in behind the scenes and even working one of the cameras.

Keith Walker is a well-respected producer and charismatic dealmaker who’s worked closely with many celebrities in the television, movie and music fields, including Phillip Michael Thomas, Lee Majors, P Diddy, Jeremy Jackson, Fat Joe, The Ying Yang Twins, Steve Harris and Neely and many more. Keith is one of the talents turning Atlanta an entertainment hotbed. he's A&R director for the music label Warrior Records, a consultant for the new entertainment channel BSPN-- and filming top-grade movies withut leaving town.

As a matter of fact, after producing the Atlanta-based film Fate, starring Majors, Thomas and Michael Pare (Eddie & The Cruisers) and workign as associate producer of The Unseen, starring Steve Harris (Heist, Diary of a Mad Black Woman), Keith's most recent picture, Lynch Mob ("A Mob movie with a horror twist") has the canny timing of starring Sopranos regular Tony Darrow and is set to hit theatres soon.

We expect to be doing a lot more work with Keith Walker, who along with cameraman extraordinaire Lewis Bailey, is helping turn the great state of Georgia into Frozen Pictures South!

John Cleese joins the cast of The Seventh Python

Comedy genius and legend John Cleese shared his reflections and hilarious insights with the Frozen Pictures team during filming today for the nonfiction feature film, The Seventh Python. Cleese compared the work of the film's subject, Monty Python collaborator Neil Innes, to that of Charlie Chaplin and Steve Martin.

He said Innes' contribution to modern comedy and music is "irreplaceable."


Said executive producer Sean Connors, who was at Cleese's home office in Montecito, California: "Mr. Cleese was more generous with his time and spirit than we could have asked. He made a couple of dry, hilarious comments that were so funny that we had to stop the interview because we couldn't help but laugh out loud."


Meanwhile, our work on the Michael Lohan project continues in New York. So we'd say we're working coast-to-coast.

Next stop... London... for the final round of Seventh Python shoots.

photos 2007 © Frozen Pictures all rights reserved

From Frozen's Michael Lohan shoot

Michael Lohan stars in Frozen television project

Frozen Pictures cameras were on Long Island, in the Bronx and all over Manhattan over the past week filming The Michael Lohan Nonfiction Video Project-- Hey, we're not going to call it a reality series!


From the Nassau County Courthouse, where Lindsay Lohan's father battled his wife Dina in divorce court-- to the Teen Challenge halfway house where Lohan works as a drug counselor in the ministry of the down-to-Earth, charismatic Pastor Jimmy Jack, to a neighborhood rally and revival-- to a hidden camera "game show" in which the benevolent are rewarded for doing good deeds-- Michael Lohan was always on the move-- only stopping to pray-- in his nonstop effort to clear his name, spread the Good Word, and save not only the world-- but his daughter.


Joining the Lohan team on camera were actress Alicia Arden and Annie Lobert. Annie's known in Christian circles for her group, Hookers for Jesus.





And yes, that's Michael Lohan, in disguise for his good samaritan TV show brainstorm, "Deeds," of which the "making of" is at the center of this project.



Stay tuned for updates and more information on the Lohan project.

2007 © Frozen Pictures all rights reserved

NY Times cites Frozen's My First Time series

"Steamy reenactments!"

A groundbreaking television docudrama series gets its due today as The New York Times runs a puff piece on the new off-Broadway play based on the My First Time website.

The site is filled with first-person stories-- some of them true-- about first sex experiences. The play, which features people sitting on stools reciting the stories, is notable for the gimmick of having audience members fill out questionnaires about their first bonks, which are read from the stage.

Parenthetically-- but accurately-- the Times article mentions that My First Time was already translated to cable television-- and even more creatively-- by Frozen Pictures, with our 26 episodes and two seasons of the groundbreaking adult docudrama series, My First Time, for Showtime:

(A 2003 series on Showtime was based on the Web site, though it involved steamy re-enactments.)

Far from a camp theatrical gigglefest, the series featured women speaking about their sexual initiations, and was most definitely honest in its emotional and graphic detail. Its high-quality interpretations were sparing, yet evoked eras and locales with sensitive though unsparing sexual frankness.

Frozen's silent partner in the series was the Ruddy Morgan Organization. Albert S. Ruddy is the two-time Academy Award® winning producer (The Godfather, Million Dollar Baby) who, along with Frozen partners Burt Kearns and Brett Hudson, wrote and produced the hilarious and socially insightful Burt Reynolds sports comedy, Cloud 9.

Coming soon

The Seventh Python is in post-production

Frozen Pictures is in post-production on its long-awaited musical documentary feature film, The Seventh Python.

The Seventh Python tells the story of legendary musical satirist Neil Innes-- a man who's managed to keep a low profile for about forty years, while being a prime mover in both the pop music and comedy worlds with the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band, Monty Python's Flying Circus and The Rutles. Paul McCartney produced his first hit single; he appeared in Magical Mystery Tour; he performed with the Pythons on television, on tour, in films and in The Concert for George tribute to his friend George Harrison; he plays a mean ukulele; and he's even got a songwriting credit on a tune by Oasis, who acknowledged that it appropriated his song, "How Sweet To Be An Idiot."

The film includes interviews and appearances by many pop superstars, friends and associates of Innes, including Python Michael Palin, who says, "Neil was the nearest we’ve ever come to a seventh Python," and Matt Groening, creator of The Simpsons, who tells Neil: "I based all my work on the teachings of the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band."

The documentary also features many musical performances that bring Innes genius and popular appeal into clear focus, including two star-studded shows that marked Innes' first appearances in Hollywood in close to a decade.

The Seventh Python is presented by Sean Connors Films, Ltd., executive producer of Frozen Pictures' forthcoming feature film, Psych House.

The documentary will be headed to festivals and theatrical release by the end of the year.

Venice Walk is up and running

Robert Hegyes of Welcome Back Kotter and Cagney & Lacy fame launched his new webisode serial The Venice Walk last night with a big bash at the famed Denny's Deli in Venice. LA City Councilman Bill Rosendahl gave Hegyes a special city commendation (above) for his work and for the series, which paints a not always flattering but real picture of the fabled locale as it follows the work of a probation officer and the drugged-up, sexed-up troubled kids on his Venice watch.

Check out the first episode of the project executive produced by Frozen Pictures here and look over at the right side of this page to watch a video trailer.

Jack Valenti is featured in Presidents' Movies DVD

Jack Valenti, an aide to President Lyndon B. Johnson who went o