RICHARD ELFMAN: NEWS AND EVENTS

Forbidden Zone 2: The Forbidden Galaxy

Ma and Pa Kettle leave the depressed Dust Bowl with their kids, Stinky and Petunia, and drive their old jalopy down to Crenshaw in South-Central Los Angeles. Stinky is a hyper-active 12-year-old, played by a hyper-active 50-year-old; Petunia is a lumbering 13-year-old slut, played by an actress over 18 (hopefully); Ma is a corn-cob pipe-smoking inbred, and Pa is a craven, drunken carnival geek…with a bad disposition…even before his carnival job folded after the last dust storm. Together, they hope to find a better life in California. Unfortunately, the little shack they rent has a basement connected to the Sixth Dimension--a bizarre underworld, ruled by a megalomaniac midget King, his jealous Queen, and an array of fantastical creatures, the most outrageous being The Princess Polly, a man-hungry gal with a to-die-for sexy, voluptuous body and an over-sized, grotesque, cartoon-like head.  Her wild get ups and show-stopping musical numbers will give Gaga a run for the money!

Daughter-in-law Jenna Elfman will do a surrealistic aerial dance routine (did you know Jenna’s a professional dancer?);  I’ll get brother Danny to reprise his Devil role, singing a knockout version of “St. James Infirmary Blues,” and we’ll shoot the “Crenshaw” scenes in Ghana. Crenshaw will look like a cartoon version of 1910 Harlem, but everyone will be INCREDIBLE dancers and acrobats – from the Ghana National Dance Company. Of course that brilliant rascal, writer/director/actor Matthew Bright (aka "Toshiro Boloney" in the original Forbidden Zone) will reprise his role as Rene Henderson, as well as co-write the script. 

Forbidden Zone 2 will have all the ABSURDITY and balls-out zaniness of Forbidden Zone 1 but with more technical tools and a greater budget to play with. I can guarantee that Forbidden Zone 2 will have unforgettable musical numbers. It will employ the MUSIC FORMULA that we used for the songs in Forbidden Zone 1.  I’m going to share a secret with you…

Richard Elfman’s secret formula for unforgettable musical numbers:  Use memorable music rather than serviceable music!

“SERVICEABLE MUSIC” isn’t particularly original on its own, but it works well serving the vehicle it is written for. Example: Chicago, with musical numbers by Kander and Ebb. I remember really loving the stage show, but by the time I got to my car afterwards, I could barely remember the melodies. Other than the catchy lyrics of “All That Jazz,” most of the music kind of got mish-mashed together in my head. Why? Because it wasn’t really original music. Instead, it was an expertly crafted concoction of existing musical cliches…but it still worked well in terms of driving the show. It just wasn’t memorable music, which would stand on its own, independent of the show. Same with the film version of Chicago - and I LOVED the film. Great performances, great staging – but while the musical numbers worked so well on the screen, they didn’t make you run out and buy the album afterwards. Ironically, my brother Danny did the background score to the film (between the musical numbers), which, in my – perhaps biased – opinion, his incidental music was more original than the actual singing/dancing parts. (Please note that composers Kander and Ebb did do very original and memorable music for the show Cabaret, the song “New York, New York,” and others).

“MEMORABLE MUSIC” is music you hear once and are marked for life. Like an itch in your head you need to scratch, you must go buy it…or at least you crave hearing it again. And after the show, you REMEMBER it – that is the key – you remember it. I’m talking Three Penny Opera, West Side Story, Fiddler on the Roof… Edward Scissorhands, Nightmare Before Christmas…or Cab Calloway’s “Minnie the Moocher” and Josephine Baker’s “La Petite Tonkinoise” (Frenchy’s classroom song). At the risk (no, probability) of sounding pretentious, may I add “”Pico and Sepulveda” and “Bim Bam Boom”… and almost anything Danny Elfman writes.

I first saw the 1931 film version of Three Penny Opera when I was 18. I remember walking out of the theater and stopping in my tracks - Kurt Weill’s music had marked me for life. I turned around, walked back into the theater, and saw the film again. By the way, I believe that composer Kurt Weill had a key influence on Danny as well, along with film composer Bernard Hermann - who often worked with director Alfred Hitchcock - and Nino Rota, who composed so masterfully for director Federico Fellini.

There’s an infinite amount of memorable music that has never been tapped.  As opposed to serviceable music, memorable music doesn’t age.  It’s good forever.  All those terrific songs from O Brother, Where Art Thou? had been gathering dust for over half a century before the gifted musical supervisor/composer T-Bone Burnett found them for the film. However, finding someone to write new memorable songs can be a bit trickier. It helps when you find that your younger brother, who had no musical training – or even much musical interest as a kid – turns out to be Mozart (yeah…I’m biased).

FORBIDDEN ZONE IN COLOR!  Yes, per my wishes (and original vision), the original black & white Forbidden Zone was colorized!  Check it out:  ALPHABET SONG   BIM BAM BOOM   DANNY ELFMAN DEVIL SONG  

SOME OF THESE DAYS  SQUEEZIT MEETS HIS DAD

MORE UPCOMING RICHARD ELFMAN FILM PROJECTS:

Brave New Rosenberg

Picture the shabby storefront offices of the Rosenberg Detective Agency of East Los Angeles. Harold Rosenberg is a younger Woody Allen-type: neurotic and insecure - particularly in the detective business he inherited from his uncle. Pancho, (Jaime Aymerich) his pint-sized partner, is an expert with the ladies but rather incompetent with anything else. Business is on the rocks, and Lavonda, the hefty, ebony office manager, spends most of her days doing her nails and honing her sharp-tongued comic wit. At last, a lucrative job comes their way: to find a beautiful girl who seems to appear and disappear in their vicinity. Things are looking up! Harold and Pancho locate the girl, give chase, and then…the stunning red-haired beauty literally disappears through a brick wall!

Harold and Pancho are now offered a ridiculous price for apprehending the girl. As if it isn’t complicated enough tailing a girl who goes in and out of another dimension, she somehow falls for poor Harold. In her surrealistic universe, filled with nothing but gorgeous super-models, things are based on opposites, and Harold is the hottest guy imaginable.

Pancho warns Harold that a bi-coastal relationship may be hard enough – but multi-dimensional? Forget about it! So do Harold and Pancho save their skins…or save the girl…or save the world? Good questions – and all settled in a thrilling, slam-bang climax!

Trio

Imagine you’re a guy approaching the last act of your life and none of your dreams have come true. No money. No girl. No family. Nothing to fall back upon, you’re still struggling, barely making it – and even then on silly little scams. Then, BAM! Fate gives you that proverbial Golden Ring. The possibility of unlimited power – and even some of your youth back to enjoy it! The only thing is fate gave the Ring to two other scammers that same day. And in order for the power to work, the three of you must work the power together. Trio is a new take on one of the oldest stories ever told – mortals getting that divine chance of having everything; human nature taking too much and then having hell to pay. Trio is a darkly comic horror fantasy – in the Stephen King vein – based on an original story by Clare Elfman, and screenplay by Clare and myself.

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 Links:

Richardelfman.com

Modern Vampires

Shrunken Heads

Bodhi Elfman
Jenna Elfman
Clare Elfman
Digital Chisel (Louis Elfman and Emberly Modine web-building site)
Forbidden Zone