Ahoy, squirts! Quint here with the weirdest, out of left field report from FLARB, who attended the Egyptian Theater's double feature of WIZARDS and COONSKIN with animator Ralph Bakshi in person. The American Cinematheque has the coolest shit, I swear...
Anyway, COONSKIN is an amazing film, but one that definitely pushes buttons... It plays with stereotypes of all sorts, but it's probably most offense towards blacks, hence the title. I don't say this as a condemnation. Far from it. There is no negativity to the film, no prejudice. Bakshi just delighted in playing with stereotypes.
This is a very obscure animated flick, one I thought would be difficult to get on DVD, let alone see any mention of a sequel to. Now the below isn't any confirmation of a sequel in the works, just that Bakshi and Wu Tang Clan want to team up to do one. That doesn't mean they'll get the budget, but damn how I'd like to see Bakshi animation on the big screen once more.
Below you'll also hear about Bakshi pitching Fox on a WIZARDS sequel... but they dismissed that notion without much thought, it seems. It's cool that Bakshi is still out there trying to get more of his unique vision out to the masses. What do you folks think?
What's up Harry? Long time fan from day 1.
Anyway, I was at the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood tonight to see a double feature of Wizards and one of my absolute favorite movies of all time, Coonskin. Bakshi did a Q&A session in between films. Very informative, and he seems like a genuinely cool dude. So--he said that he recently had a meeting with the Wu Tang Clan, and that they loved Coonskin and want to do a sequel with him. They apparently were reciting every line in the movie from memory to him during the meeting. Anyway, I wasn't sure if it was going to be an actual sequel, or a similar style of movie with the Wu Tang Clan as characters. Ghostface may not be the Barry White of 2005, but I think it's a very cool idea!
Oh, he also said he pitched Wizards 2 to 20th Century Fox and they won't go for it. Which he can't understand since Wizards did so well (until they yanked it out of theaters for Star Wars). He said the DVD sales have been very good too. So who knows, maybe 20th Century Fox will come around?
Umm.....if you use this....call me FLARB. Thanks!
