First off my rotten skull cap filler was acting irrationally last night, and I made the HORRENDOUS error of saying Danny Elfman directed FORBIDDEN ZONE. D'oh!!! Wrongo brain boy, it was his brother Richard. (does that sound vaguely soap opera-ish to you?) A heaping load of corrections flooded my E-boingo-box this morning, along with cool news about Elfman and Little Demons, along with some of the other projects he's working up.
I can say from the music, and what I know of the story, LITTLE DEMONS, would be so incredibly cool, and the perfect Halloween fun film for 1998. *Hint Hint* I hear the closest studio to doing it is Hollywood Pictures. Ummmm hey guys, DO IT. DO IT NOW, as Ahnuldt would say!
Meanwhile, Cool News spy, Bernard Herrmann, had the following sound off about his keeper, Danny Elfman. You see, according to this spy, he has been living in Elfman's basement since Christmas Eve of 1975 when Elfman and him met in a park, both playing portable pipe organs.
"Danny just signed a contract to direct for Disney. These films-to-come will be co-produced by Richard Kraft, Danny's agent/buddy. The first film that they will do... has not been decided upon -at least not from what I've heard down here in the basement. Little Demons is certainly a possibility. The World of Jimmy Callicut *could* be a possibility, but this film almost went into production several years ago. The rights were sold, but the project croaked. Danny and friends would probably have to shell out mucho dinero to get the rights back, and without a proven track record, I doubt Disney would finance this for him. Jimmy Callicut is another musical in the vein on Nightmare Before Christmas. In fact, it sounds even more like Nightmare than Little Demons does. Some of the songs in this show are:
1) Jimmy's Lament - A sad song for Jimmy as a little boy. He sings of how he hates growing older and seeing the world change.
2) School Song - Sung on the demo by Danny Elfman himself as the schoolmaster without a heart. Calls the students "spineless little jellyfish".
3) Executive Song - A riff on the cutthroat business world.
4) Judy's Ballad - Yet another sad song (a la Sally from Nightmare) for a female.
5) Loyalty - Again sung by Danny. Teasing Jimmy, and tempting him with the seemingly false solace of loyalty.
The plot seems to revolve around Jimmy's unsatisfying life from childhood to adulthood. Typically for Danny, it's mostly minor mode songs and downer lyrics. It's not as strong a project as Little Demons.
Incidentally, the plot for Little Demons concerns three children who are murderers. There was a point in time, I believe, where this was considered as an animated project. Danny was particularly inspired by the work of Edward Gorey. (Look him up, you probably know his work even if you don't realize you do.)
A third potential Elfman project is Julian. Julian is a non-musical ghost story which Elfman has scripted and been looking to direct for a long time. However, his first project may be something that we've never even heard of before. Danny dedicated most of last year to writing scripts. That's why he only scored two films this year (Men in Black and Flubber). So he's got a whole bunch o' stuff that we've never even heard of yet.
Look for announcement soon from Danny and/or Richard Kraft - or, if I stand under the right heating duct, I'll let you know first. Meanwhile, I'm heading back to the basement. Danny wants me to play the theme from Psycho every time a trick-or-treater drops by, so I only got a couple of weeks to get into practice.
OK FOLKS, wouldn't that just about be the coolest thing. Trick or Treating at Danny Elfman's place? I guarantee you would need to run whatever goodies he gave you to the hospital to be checked every which way. Man, he has a working knowledge of chopping up cats, flavoring them with strychnine and little pieces of apple. Uh huh, here's a candied apple my ghoulish friend. BEWARE :)
