It'll be interesting to see how they're going to take another 1,000 page King epic novel and compress it into less than two hours.  They initially planned to do that with The Stand back in the 90's, and realized it couldn't be done, so it became a multi-episode TV mini-series.  I know this is heresy, but the cinematic version of The Shining was, to me, a disaster (even with "Heeeeere's Johnny!").  The made-for-TV mini-series re-imaging was far better; not perfect, but better.  King's brilliant works are difficult to adapt to celluloid.  His "shorter" endeavors, like Misery, or The Mist can easier translate. 

Gerard

I'm sure that it will shortly be pulled, as the PTB call out the lawyers (even though, as has been stated here, it's not the "full" version show at past festivals).  Again, may I ask why?  Why keep it from general audiences?  For what purpose?  It's not like it's going to make any money elsewhere.  It's almost 20 years old (well, give a few).  Putting it on DVD/Blu-Ray or whatever won't create a massive selling point of millions of customers.  I certainly won't pay $59.99 for a copy as much as I want to see it.  I don't want to see it that bad.  I've got lights to keep on.  What is it with these bigwigs?  Let it go for free on youtube and elsewhere.  It expands the market for the franchise.  Those who were in it or involved in it have moved on.  Probably most don't even remember their participation.  Those who are financially involved in DS somehow forget that only a growing market will keep the franchise alive and bring in the ca-ching.  And letting fans or whomever put stuff out there without any of the pennies going to the owners (especially you-know-who) is free advert.  The PTB (and especially you-know-who, even if he isn't involved in the '04 attempted reboot) are like bridezillas who expect everyone to give them a gift of hundreds of dollars to pay for the dry chicken or fishy salmon and the centerpieces with goldfish swimming about in water-filled jars with flowers sticking out.  Sorry, we ain't impressed.  No blender, toaster-oven, place-setting, statue-with-a-clock in its stomach, or check for you.  You spent the money.

Sorry for the rant, but you know me.

Gerard

If Joan Crawford had been cast on DS in any capacity, I can just imagine how prominently Pepsi product placement would sneak its way into publicity pictures and maybe even into the program itself.

LOL, Uncle Roger!  Imagine, Roger would have to say as he held his sniffer:  "I'm having a brandy-and-Pepsi."  At the Blue Whale, customers would order a vodka-and-Pepsi. 

Gerard

It's fortunate that Hollywood now treats its senior actresses with a bit more dignity, style and appreciation.  They aren't "cast" off when they hit 50 (for the most part).  That had been an issue in Glitter City, even back in the early 1950's among writers, producers, etc., with industry self-critical anti-ageist, anti-sexist classics like Sunset Boulevard and All About Eve.  Unfortunately, Hollywood while criticizing itself did not do anything about it.  By the '60's, grande dames like Crawford and Davis had to resort to being "hatchet hags" (I love that term!) to keep their careers alive and pay the bills.  Even though most of their horror-schlock films were less than B-grade level, they took their roles seriously showing their professionalism.  Davis seemed to do better with higher-quality (if, in some cases, only slightly) films such as WHTBJ, Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte (with another "grande dame" Olivia de Havilland taking over for Crawford's part after Crawford was fired) and the Hammer classic The Nanny.  And there was also Dead Ringer.  She also, ironically, was directed by Dan Curtis in Burnt Offerings.  While taking roles in horror-schlock, she still managed to remain in mainstream movies (and TV mini-series productions) that were straight-forward drama, including The Whales of August. 

Poor Crawford never was able to achieve the same.  Virtually everything she made, whether on film or on TV, was horror-schlock until the day she died.  Not to say some weren't good - her work in Eyes in the pilot of Rod Serling's Night Gallery directed by a young, unknown guy named Steven Spielberg was truly brilliant and critically acclaimed.  But even in the worst-of-worst, she always did her best and rose above the schlocky material.  In her last film, the simply awful Trog, her performance stood out.  While the critics justifiably pounded the movie, they were kind to Crawford's performance, saying it was the only good thing about it.

By the '70's, using the "senior" actresses in roles switched from horror to disaster.  Shelly Winters received an Oscar nomination for The Poseidon Adventure.  De Havilland appeared in Airport 77 and the really dreadful The Swarm.  Gloria Swanson played herself in Airport 75.  And Jennifer Jones returned to the screen after many years of absence and was praised for her part in the uber-classic The Towering Inferno where she was teamed up the equal Hollywood legend Fred Astaire.  She's the only great classical actress, an Oscar winner, who fell to her death 1,000 feet from a glass elevator. 

Today, many senior actresses, in their 60's on up, can still find dignified work, from Faye Dunaway to Helen Mirren.  They can be in films, portraying women their age, that are huge commercial and critical successes.  People flock to theaters and Oscars are handed out.  They no longer have to play psycho-biddies running around with axes or sweet, old ladies being crushed and drowned under tsunamis.  Hollywood has come a long way from learning its lesson that it treats older women like garbage as portrayed in Sunset Boulevard.

Joe:  "Norma, there's nothing wrong with a woman who's 50."  Sunset Boulevard

Gerard

 

In a box somewhere, I have the LP45 of William's "Shadows of the Night."  I wonder what it's worth (and what's on the flip-side).

Gerard

It seems there were various reasons why Moltke left the show.  The big one, of course, was the she "spectin'."  Apparently, she was also tired of playing only little-goodie-two-shoes-Vicki and wanted to sink her teeth into the opportunity to play a different (and even darker) character like all the other performers did.  Didn't she also state later that she was willing to return (particularly if she got to play a another character here or there)?  I wonder if, let's say, DC had negotiated with her (maybe there was an attempt - who knows?) and she had been allowed to temporarily leave the show (at that time, quite necessary since she was pregnant), how it all would've turned out.  Of course, she would've been gone for months and they could've explained her departure on just going somewhere like they did with all the rest who took sabbaticals.  Maybe, because she was not yet obviously showing, they could've sped up the marry-Jeff-he-then-vanishes story and Liz sends her away for a long rest and vacation to get over her "grief."  Maggie could've still stepped in as the governess, go through the whole Quentin/Beth haunting, and then the 1897 plot with later during it Moltke returns but as another character during that time.  Maybe Lady Kitty?  Or another Gypsy?  Then back to 1969 where she returns as Vicki and they resolve the Liz/Vicki mother/daughter thing as a subplot during the whole Leviathan thing.  In PT70, she could still be Victoria Winters, but working as a maid and an evil henchwoman to evil housekeeper Hoffman.

Gerard

It's interesting how most of the other re-castings on DS worked.  The actors appeared quite capable of making the characters their own instead of trying to follow the method of the originals.  Sam Evans, Matthew Morgan, Burke Devlin, Willie Loomis.  Even when their portrayals were sometimes (and often) night-and-day, they pulled it off.  I don't know why Ms. Durkin's crashed-and-burned so horrifically.  Maybe she didn't know what to make of the character.  Most of the time she just screamed and cried.  Even Fake Carolyn, in her one-time-only appearance, did a better job.

Gerard

One can tell that he took his work in DS (both the series and the two movies) "dead" seriously.  Which ever character he portrayed, he was him.  Even when episodes and plots became, shall we say, "hokey" and he was in them, it was all acting business.  He took the "hoke" out of the hokey and would save it all.  He reminds me of Lucille Ball who played a homeless woman in the made-for-TV movie Stone Pillow.  The film was actually dreadful (I'm not comparing it to DS, but let's say it took all the "bad" stuff spread throughout and DS and mashed it into one thing).  But Ms. Ball lived her part and her acting was superb.  She saved it.

Gerard