1984 "is dated".
It has been bandied around the
new Pinewood studios in Beak Street for a few
months now that a new version of 1984 is
being bandied around the Pinewood studios.
The new film, made on celluloid,
is supposedly a 1984 for the 21st Century.
Producer/Director and film critic Alex Cocks,
who brought us the TV super-series Meats,
was rumoured to have been whispering to a close
friend about it in his sleep. It will be the first
version of 1984 since the last one, directed
by God-knows-who.
Says Alex: "The old version
is just so eighties! It really needs jazzing up,
and as for the Eurythmics soundtrack, that is
just shit. I really don't think that Orville thought
it through when he wrote the book back in 1945.
He was lacking foresight. I mean, to write a book
about the future is one thing, but not to realise
that it would be made into a film is just narrow-minded."
This
news follows hot on the heels of the release of
Animal Farm from Alex's corporation Cox
International. Starring Glenda Jackson as Napoleon
it was a back-to-basics film for film-maker Alex.
"We wanted to do away with special effects
and even costumes in this version," he says.
"So we got some T-shirts printed up with
different animal names on them. For the blokes
playing the pigs we had "PIG"
printed on their tops, and likewise for the person
who played the horse. Except we had "HORSE"
printed and not "PIG"
like the one I mentioned before. I got the idea
from Stanislavsky actually."
Other T-shirts used in the
production included "MONKEY",
"CHICKEN", "DUCK",
and "FISH".
Surprisingly - at least for
his US pals - John Hurt was cast in the role of
the farmer. Hurt, who came out of his shell of
anonymity in films like 1984 and The
Elephant Brief, surprised his friends in the
Americas by agreeing to play the farmer. "I
felt like playing the farmer, and I knew it would
surprise my American friends," he said. "It
was on the strong strength of the script that
I made my decision, plus the fact it is based
in the future and Gary Oldman plays the baddie.
He always does a good baddie. Alec's Cocks is
a visionary. He gets all these different actors
together, then he gets all the cameras and stuff."
Nineteen-eighty-FACTS
LA shakedown
The new version of 1984 is set to rock
the Hollywood studios up a storm down to its tea-cup
in LA where Alex has been banned from working.
"Hollywood doesn't like me and I don't like
her. I'm a maverick experimentalist. I do things
the Ironside way. People in LA got in my way so
I trod on a few toes and got eggs in my faeces."
UK Cox Office
Barry Norman (real name Harold Bormington) said
of Alex that he will be the first most youngest
film director to produce the double-coupling of
two Orville films in one year. "The releasals
of Animal Farm and 1984 go hand in hand together,"
said wrinkly chestnut Barry, who looks like a
walnut. Jonathan Ross has decided to ignore Mr
Cox's films this season, and not see them either.
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