Monday, June 02, 2008

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

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