Does Anyone Remember The Wizard Of Speed And Time?
It was a short film made by Mike Jittlov, who also did a cool stop-motion short about a collector whose house is packed with Disney memorabilia. Here's his demo reel - it's still neat, but it doesn't get much more 1978 than this.Thanks to the Condemned by the Space Pope blog for unearthing this!
16 Comments:
Oh, lord...it is definitely a litmus test for "born before 1975", isn't it? Yeeowch!
In other words, yes, I do. Remember this. And this guy. It's but a short hop from this to "does anyone remember Filmex?" Or the Z Channel! ; )
I think I saw this guy's seminal short there(at Filmex)...I think. Whatever happened to him?
He made his Wizard of Speed and Time feature, and did some pixillation work on Ghost. I think by the time his feature came out (the imdb says 1989), his work was already dating poorly, a la Clash of the Titans. Beyond that, I'm not sure, but his website is all too eager to tell you.
I've heard stories that he's a bit of an odd duck - that he still wears those green windbreakers, and refuses to shake hands with people (though he did in the demo reel). I've also heard that he's very difficult to work with, but those were rumors and very old ones at that.
It seems like he'd be at home on any of the new stop-motion features, but he's nowhere to be seen.
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Jeff,
I've have actually seen this. I seem to remember some scene where he was filming him self running across a wall - very strange.
Sean
Hey Jeff,
I've seen it too.
From what I got out of the interviews in the demo reel, he'd jump up and against the wall to get the inbetweens. How he did it without breaking his neck is beyond me! A camoflaged mat below, maybe?
wizard of speed and time is fantastic!
we dig it out every few months to watch, we got a giant signed wizard poster on our office wall.
mans a legend!!
Oh boy, do I remember this! I forget how long it's been since I saw the "Wizard" film, but every time I see mention of it, it sends lovely reminiscent little chills through me. I gotta track that film down somewhere. Is it on DVD? Gotta search...gotta search...
I don't think it's out on DVD - even VHS copies are rare and pricey. I think amazon.ca has one for sale, and I'm sure you can find one on eBay eventually.
I don't think I've ever seen the finished film, or the short, for that matter.
Unfortunately, The Wizard of Speed and Time isn't available on DVD, and probably won't be anytime soon, due to the fact that Jittlov had the film stolen out from under him, and the legal situation is far beyond his financial means to work out...
I recently did an anamorphic DVD transfer myself (cropping from the open-matte laserdisc) to teach myself how to use DVD Studio Pro - I think it turned out pretty good. There's also supposed to be a DVD image floating around out there from the "Bearded Swordsman" DVD, done by one of the cast members. Jittlov has essentially given an okay for people to share the film, since he's never been paid for it in the first place.
I haven't spoken to him in more than a year, but last I heard he's been doing nothing but take care of his mother, who's suffered from several strokes in recent years.
I've heard stories about his "odd duck" status as well, but he's never been anything but kind and helpful to me over the years. He graciously helped me out with a short project of my own back in 2002, providing the voice of Han Solo for a short I did from Lucasfilm's Star Wars film contest.
Jittlov's work was one hell of an inspiration for me back when I was younger - I wish he'd get over the loss of the Wizard film and get back into the business somehow. I'd love to see what he could do with what's available now...
Thanks for the info, John! Do you know who owns the feature now?
Litmus test for born before 1975?
I could have sworn I was born in 1982.
;)
No, I don't know who could claim to own it anymore... it was released on video by SGE Home Video, and they licensed it to Image for the laserdisc... later on, the Starmaker people put out a horrible EP VHS... about ten years ago when I was working for Fox, I found it listed in a television syndication package, but I don't recall now who that was with - it certainly wasn't any of the major studios, although Sky TV ran the film several times in the UK and New Zealand in the early 90s...
From what I've heard, about 10-12 years ago, SAG went after anyone associated with the film's release (mainly SGE at the time, but they also tried to hit up Jittlov) for years of unpaid residuals... seems the people responsible for stealing the film out from under Jittlov also didn't feel the need to pay anyone else either... Mike had never seen a dime from it, so even if SAG did forclose on the film and sell it off (which I don't know ever happened), he wouldn't have had the money to buy it back...
I heard at one point Universal had bought the SGE catalog, but I don't know if TWOSAT was included with that or not...
Unfortunately, it's one of those things which is so convoluted, it may never get straigtened out... it's a shame, because it's a fun movie...
BTW, if you want to see it, drop me an email (listed on my webpage) - I'll send you a DVD...
Apparently Blogger ate my reply from a few days ago, so I'll try again... :)
Unfortunately, I don't know who owns the rights to the film anymore. The original VHS was put out by SGE Home Video, and they licensed it to Image for the laserdisc - but according to Jittlov, that was part of a deal the "evil business partner" did without Mike's authorization, so he's never seen cent from it.
About ten years ago, when I was working for Fox, I came across TWOSAT listed in a television syndication package, but I don't recall the distributor - while I've never heard of the film running on TV in the states, I know Sky TV has run it in the UK and New Zealand.
Also about 12 years ago, I heard that SAG went after anyone connected with the film for years of non-payment of residuals. There was talk of forclosing on the film and selling it off to pay those debts, but I don't know what became of that. Jittlov was eventually spared from being targeted by SAG because of the records and documents he'd kept showing how he'd been defrauded as well.
So you can see, the rights situation regarding TWOSAT is majorly kerfluffled... :) but if you want to see the film, email me at the address on my website, and I'll get a DVD out to you...
Thanks, john, for e-mailing me and alerting me to the 'Moderate Comments" button! I turned it on in an attempt to fix something (which of course, it didn't fix), but Blogger has since been hoarding all the comments. I've since shut off M.C. and published all the comments, only deleting the duplicates.
For a while there, I thought nobody loved me! :)
Hi Jeff, I found your blog last month thanks to my ISP's bandwidth warning emails. Apparently Mike Jittlov still has plenty of fans because they've been downloading that demo reel quite a lot.
During January it was downloaded at 14 times the normal monthly rate, thanks to your blog and the blogs that picked up from it.
I heard some time back that Mike Jittlov managed to secure the rights to the movie somehow. Now I guess we wait for the Director's cut special edition with outtakes and authoritative close-ups on the subliminals too small to be viewed in NTSC.
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