Help! Comes to DVD - Widescreen At Last!

Yes, you can finally get Richard Lester's Help! without having to watch it cropped, or needing to own a laserdisc player. The title came out yesterday as a two-disc set, garnished with interviews and documentaries. Sadly, there's no commentary, but it's widescreen, and I'll bet the transfer is a big improvement from the last release! That's exciting, because I think it's a really sharp-looking movie.

I agree with most folks that A Hard Day's Night is a lot better, but Help! is still a lot of fun, even if the Beatles were starting to lose interest in the whole movie-making thing at the time. Directing four guys frequently stoned on pot can't be fun (not to mention having to come up with another story), but I think it turned out pretty well! You can pick it up at Amazon.com for $16.95 + shipping.

PS - After seeing it for the first time, I always wanted to live in the four-house-wide flat that the guys live in at the beginning. Sunken floors are super-cool!

UPDATE: There's a great breakdown of the differences between this DVD release and the previous one at whatgoeson.com. Thanks to Bob Scott for the tip!

Synergy OTD: Xanadu Goes To Off-Broadway

PLAYBILL: Christopher Ashley to Direct Xanadu Musical Off-Broadway
By Andrew Gans - 27 Mar 2006

All Shook Up's Christopher Ashley is set to direct a new musical production of Xanadu — based on the 1980 film of the same name — Off-Broadway in spring 2007.

Douglas Carter Beane will pen the book for the production, which will be produced by Robert Ahrens. The musical will utilize songs from the movie's soundtrack. The film featured tunes by John Farrar and Jeff Lynne, including "Xanadu," "All Over the World," "I'm Alive," "Magic" and "Suddenly."

Playwright Douglas Carter Beane is the author of The Little Dog Laughed, As Bees in Honey Drown, The Country Club, Music From a Sparkling Planet, Advice From a Caterpillar, White Lies and Devil May Care and Old Money. Director Christopher Ashley has directed All Shook Up, The Smell of the Kill, Voices in the Dark, Princesses, As Thousands Cheers, The Country Club, Rude Entertainment, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told, Jeffrey, Blown Sideways Through Life, Fires in the Mirror, Bunny Bunny and Das Barbecu.

The 1980 film "Xanadu" was written by Richard Christian Danus and Marc Reid Rubel and was directed by Robert Greenwald. Described as "a fantasy, a musical, a place where dreams come true," the film starred Olivia Newton-John, Gene Kelly, Michael Beck, James Sloyan, Dimitra Arliss, Katie Hanley, Fred McCarren and Ren Woods.

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I was never a fan of "Xanadu"'s big band/disco blend. Are there really enough fans of it out there for this to work?

Synergy OTD

BBC NEWS: U2 write for Spider-Man musical

Bono and The Edge from U2 are to write music and lyrics for a Broadway musical based on comic book hero Spider-Man, according to film trade paper Variety.

The show will be directed by Julie Taymor, who won two Tony awards for Disney's Lion King musical in 1998.

Auditions are taking place for key characters, including Peter Parker and love interest Mary Jane Watson, but no date has been set for the show's debut.

The third chapter in the blockbuster Spider-Man film series opens in May.

This will be the first time a Marvel comic book hero has officially made the transition to the Broadway stage.

Previous stage credits

"We've been analysing and looking at the Broadway market for some time, given the success of the big musicals lately," chairman of Marvel Studios, David Maisel, told Variety.

Bono and The Edge have written for the stage before, composing songs for a Royal Shakespeare Company production of A Clockwork Orange in the 1990s.

With U2, they also wrote the theme song for 1995's Batman Forever film - Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me.

Spider-Man has been one of the most successful superhero films of recent years.

Starring Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst, the first two instalments took more than $1.6bn (£800m) at the global box office.

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I'd joke about an "X-men" musical (Hugh Jackman's on Broadway already), but someone might be listening. I can't image that there's much overlap between comic fans and musical theatergoers, but I guess we'll find out.