Hey folks, Harry here... It's inappropriate for me to write a review of SKY CAPTAIN & THE WORLD OF TOMORROW, as fate would have it, I find myself in the position of producing the director of this film's next movie, PRINCESS OF MARS. That being said, I will report upon how I feel the AICN Screening of SKY CAPTAIN & THE WORLD OF TOMORROW went, and I'll share some of my musings about the film along the way.
First off - In regards to the contest I had for tickets to this, I wound up with over 1100 entries from places like Wales, Lansing - Michigan, Florida, New Mexico and throughout Texas. Military personel, Air Force Pilots from San Antonio, Computer gaming programmers, Grandfather's with grandsons, Sons writing to take fathers, and whether male or female, folks wanting to fantasize outloud regarding our world and Tomorrow. Sometimes these fantasies had Angelina Jolie, Gweneth Paltrow and Jude Law in them, sometimes a radical political shift in the way our world is run. But no matter what, all the entries shared a great desire to see the movie. In particular there were lots of family types that wanted in, which I was happy to see, as my personal hope for this film was that somehow... It would reach people of all ages and backgrounds with the simple message of giving us a world to dream in.
Picking through that many hopes, I couldn't help but feel like Mikey at a bottom of a wishing well lecturing his Goonies about what these paragraphs mean. The Air Force Lt. pilot from San Antonio wanted the film to rekindle the dreams of the little boy in him who stayed awake at night shining his flashlight like a searchlight over his dangling model planes upon his ceiling. Others wanted to dream about UNDERSEA KINGDOMS and PHANTOM EMPIRES. It was hard to pick and choose.
This was an event I was actually quite nervous about. You see, I was going to meet Kerry and Kevin Conran for the very first time at this event. Oh sure, I've had innumerable conversations with them dreamfasting about Barsoom, but this was different. We were going to meet for the very first time in front of 200+ fellow geeks all standing in the scorching Texas sun, awaiting... my surprise.
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As usual, my partners in crime, the Alamo Drafthouse (in particular this time out Tim League and the Drafthouse CEO and Bag of Smiles, Terrell Braley) had helped in conjuring more than a simple screening. The crowd was gathered along the front of The Alamo LakeCreek!
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Then Kerry and Kevin Conran arrived. I could read Kerry's mind as he approached me, "25... 3 tons of him," but soon we were chatting guardedly for those intrepid pesky internet spies hanging to hear us spill details of Barsoom. I was killing time. Why? I had the microphone, doing my best Bob Hope, but why?
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Well, unknown to Paramount Pictures or the Conran Brothers... Unknown to the gathering crowd... We had a surprise. During my obsessive-compulsive issues I've had with all things Sky Captain, I'd done some searching regarding P-40 Warhawks and discovered that the only flying P-40 in the world right now happens to reside in the Central Texas Branch of the Texas Confederate Air Force in San Marcus, Texas. As soon as I realized the only flying P-40 in the world was 30 minutes from Austin, I was determined to get it to make a special appearance at the Drafthouse. Alerting Tim League, who then in turn let loose the wild hounds of the Drafthouse to find and secure this P-40 for our viewing pleasure this beautiful day... Now, as is typical with these Drafthouse folks, I just asked for the P-40 Warhawk. So guess what? They not only got the P-40 Warhawk, but 3 other WWII era planes. Now, this is the great part. I'm aimlessly babbling about... and suddenly there's this rumble from the sky, that unmistakable sound of old vintage props chopping through the Texas Sky. Kevin Conran begins bobbing his head about looking up at the sky, Kerry joins him, and they see the planes (which were a bit early, dagnabbit) but they instantly recognized the P-40 a mere 500ft above us soaring like in days of old...
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Now, unlike Ronald Reagan in that old WWII training film where he couldn't remember what the shape of the plane he saw was (in regards to whether he shot at friend or foe) Kerry and Kevin did know what they were looking at. And Kerry was quite excited...
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The planes flew by in a group of different formations and elevations, and truly the sky was beginning to capture our imaginations...
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Kerry began to spontaneously dance...
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Just kidding, he didn't really dance, but apparently in Film School he did do a Busby Berkeley Musical Number for a short film. Which I'd love to see! In addition to getting the planes in, they got the entire Drafthouse staff wearing vintage WW2 flight gear! Not only that, but they had 3 Sky Captains, 2 Mysterious Ladies, 1 Polly Perkins and drool... 1 Capt Frankie!!! The below femme-Sky Captain was played by Megan McAtee - who headed up the entire crew from the Drafthouse to decorate and plot out the step by steps and execute them. She did a fantastic job!
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In addition to the contest winners, some of Austin's film community came out in support of the film. Robert Rodriguez's son Rocket's birthday was Saturday, and instead of having his birthday party then, Rocket got treated to SKY CAPTAIN, and his B-day party was today! What a lucky kid! Also Tim McCanlies showed up, very anxious to see giant iron robots smashing through New York City of 1939ish. MAY's Angela Bettis showed up, along with a whole host of other eclectic Austin personalities. It was a nice fun austintatious Drafthouse affair
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