Burn Hollywood Burn: Universal Studios BackLot Goes Up In Flames

As you've likely heard by now, there's ash and soot around the Universal Studios backlot as shit went up in flames yesterday. A fire erupted on Sunday morning burning tons of archived films, sets and even musical archives from the Universal music label. At this point it's probably too early to quantify the damage, but for fans of cinema, there's probably many a classic film that is now lost and will never be remastered.

Despite many reports to the contrary, the beloved clock tower from "Back To the Future" was apparently saved, but the "New York City" set was apparently destroyed. The blaze however didn't stop the MTV Movie awards, which barely acknowledged the fire in their show.

The backlot is extremely historical and the L.A. Times has an interesting article noting the many classic films that were shot there including seminal scenes from "To Kill A Mockingbird," and "Dirty Harry," among many others. All the burned lots are scheduled to be rebuilt.

Official cause of the conflagration has not been determined as of yet and damages are expected to be in the millions of dollars. "It looked like a disaster film," Los Angeles City Councilor Tom LaBonge told the L.A. Times. Update: They're blaming the low water pressure in the area for the extent of the damage.

At one point, the fire was two city blocks wide, and low water pressure forced firefighters to get reserves from lakes and ponds on the property. The blaze was contained to the lot, but burned for more than 12 hours before the final flames were extinguished.

Update: Actually it looks like the music section of Universal turned out to be ok. Nikki Finke fucked that one up for the record.
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Back To The Gondry: The Films That Michel Didn't Kindly Swede

For a film we kind of disliked, we're sure blogging about this a lot! [ed. nice preemptive strike].

So "Be Kind Rewind," the Michel Gondry movie that opens up this weekend and isn't very good, but it marginally charming, right?

In the film Mos Def and Jack Black "swede" (cheaply remake) a bunch of pre-existing "classic" films because they accidentally erase them. They remake "Ghostbusters," "Robocop," "Boyz N' The Hood," "Driving Miss Daisy" and many more (all the sweded trailers for them are here).

But Gondry really wanted to swede "Back To The Future" but couldn't secure the rights to do so.

"We really wanted to do 'Back to the Future'," Gondry told Vulture in a recent interview. "In fact it’s secretly one of my favorite movies ever. It’s a really good example of a broad comedy with a smart franchise. But I always got really offended when they had a little white guy explaining to a black dude how to play rock and roll. I wanted to reverse that. I wanted to have Mos Def explaining it to Jack Black!" [ed. smart franchise? BTTF II and III are dreadful. Yes, the original is a stone-cold classic]

Gondry also wanted to send up/celebrate Jean-Luc Godard and the French New Wave, but ran out of time. "I also thought about Sweding a French New Wave movie in black and white, and having Mos Def and Jack Black pretend to speak French, you know— [mumbling] huhbuhdubudieu — with the subtitles painted on a piece of glass in front of them. I had many ideas, but we didn’t have time to use them all."

Some will remember that a pseudo-"Superman" swede was shot, but we can attest that it was cut out of the film having seen it. " We did ‘Superman.’ I probably shouldn’t say that … we had to change the name of it to something else — ‘Incredible Flying Man,’ I think," Jack Black told MTV in the fall of 2006.

Maybe we'll see it on the DVD? Very likely, not to mention the tons and tons of fan sweded films that have been made in the film's wake.

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Seth Rogen Apparently Wants Some Huey Lewis Magic For 'Pineapple Express'

So Seth Rogen is apparently courting Huey Lewis (of the News) to coax him into writing a new "Power of Love"-like power anthem for his upcoming 2008 summer film "Pineapple Express."

To recap: "Pineapple Express" is a stoner comedy from the Judd Apatow family players that's been directed by normally more lyrical and atmospheric filmmaker David Gordon Green. "Express' also features Rogen's "Freak & Geeks" co-star James Franco, plus Rosie Perez and Danny R. McBride ("Bust Ass" from Green's "All The Real Girls").

Huey Lewis of course wrote "The Power of Love" monster jam for "Back To The Future" and Rogen evidently wants some of that '80s sax-fueled sex panther hotness. According to the EW blog, Rogen wants Lewis to pen the theme song for the film. Apparently the two were spotted having lunch last week in Los Angeles and people either got wind of what the meeting was about or folks are just doing 2+2 must equal 5 math. We'll see.

Probably not a bad idea either way. Lewis is due for a comeback we're sure.

Friends who have worked around the film have told us that 'Pineapple' has tested extremely well and is expected to be a big hit next summer. A teaser of the film is expected in the Decemeber release of the "Superbad" DVD. Apparently the guy who scored "Tomb Raider" is doing the music for this one.

Watch: Huey Lewis & The News - "The Power Of Love" Read more...