RiffTrax Live: August 2013 - We have a title!

[Thrashalla]

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/rifftrax/rifftrax-wants-to-riff-twilight-live-in-theaters-n/posts/488630

Greetings loyal Kickstarter backers and/or confused spouses who share email addresses with our loyal Kickstarter backers!

Let's cut to the chase: we have bad news and we have great news. The bad news? We were unable to secure the rights to Twilight for our live show. (Remember, we have great news in just a paragraph or two, so don't break out the pitchforks just yet.) We had long talks with the folks at Summit, who turned out to be very nice people and not Volturi-like in the slightest. They understood what we wanted to do and didn't object to the idea. They just felt that the Twilight series is still very much a going concern for them, i.e. something that's still going to earn them millions and millions more dollars, and it didn't make sense to let a few guys crack jokes on top of it - at least not this summer. They're probably right, dag nabbit, and they did leave the door open for us riffing Twilight in the future.

We knew this was a risk going in, which is why we were simultaneously talking with other studios about backup plans. Which brings us to the great news. We have acquired the rights to another movie for the August live show and it's a darn good Plan B. Heck, it's not even really a Plan B, we consider it more of a Plan A-1.5, Subsection C. For our August live show we will be riffing...

STARSHIP TROOPERS.




We're excited about this for a number of reasons: It's big. It's goofy. It's got giant bug aliens. Folks have been asking us to do this movie ever since we riffed excerpts of it on the 1998 MST3K Blockbuster Special. And IT'S FREAKING STARSHIP TROOPERS! It's basically a cheesy 50s sci-fi flick, the kind we know and "love", but made in 1997 with a massive Hollywood budget! NEIL PATRICK HARRIS as a psychic who talks to giant bugs! DENISE RICHARDS as a brilliant starship pilot, before she was a brilliant nuclear scientist in that Bond movie! MICHAEL IRONSIDE, because it's a war movie, so of course Michael Ironside! JAKE BUSEY, hanging out and making it weird! This movie's got it all!

Getting Starship Troopers is especially exciting because it's owned by Sony. Thanks to you guys, we now have a relationship with a great big studio, which we're incredibly excited about going forward, because of the fantastic potential. They've got shelves and shelves of fun, famous movies we'd love to sink our teeth into, and we can't wait to see what doors this opens in the future. And we couldn't have done it without you.

Now that we've established the title, here's some more info about the live show:

It is going to take place on Thursday, August 15th. Once again we'll be performing at the Belcourt Theater in Nashville. Tickets are not on sale yet, but we've worked out an arrangement with the Belcourt to make sure that you guys, our Kickstarter backers, get the first opportunity to buy live show tickets. We will be sending out more information as the on sale date approaches.

In the interest of full disclosure, we want to let you know that while we are thrilled to be doing Starship Troopers, working with a big studio is more complicated than how we usually do things on our own. For instance, negotiating the rights to riff a movie live in a theater is not the same as negotiating for the digital distribution rights of said live show. They are two different departments and what works for one may not work for another. We know that the digital download of the live show was one of our most popular rewards choices and are going to do everything in our power to be able to deliver the reward. But we have not secured these rights as of yet, and there's a chance that Sony may not let us do this. Hopefully it won't be an issue. If for any reason we're unable to deliver the digital download, we will of course offer up what we hope is a reward that is more than a fair substitute. You will be kept in the loop as this develops, and we may even run ideas by you if we're forced to choose a new reward.

So like we said, we feel like this is great news, and we hope you do too. We're excited about taking on this modern alien war epic of infinite cheese, splattering the Arachnids all over the screen alongside a crew of impossibly attractive young Hollywood stars. If you have any questions, please let us know in the comments or send an email to support@rifftrax.com

And as a final note, we'd just like to thank you again for taking this journey with us. We think we've made something special happen here, and are excited about what opportunities it might open in the future. And we couldn't have done it without your support.

So strap on your stompiest bug-stompin' spaceboots, Roughnecks, it's going to be a hell of a show!

[Sugar Ray Dodge]

That's awesome. This is a perfect movie for RiffTrax. Plus, we get to boobs that DON'T belong to Lisa from The Room. So, I'm calling it a win.

[TheUnabeefer]

Saw this movie in the theatre (opening day, I think...)  I am thrilled at the thought of this riffed. If they end up unable to allow a VOD (even if just to kickstarter supporters but not for "sale"), then I hope they'd eventually do an MP3 for it.

Happy!

[MartyS (Gromit)]

If they end up unable to allow a VOD (even if just to kickstarter supporters but not for "sale"), then I hope they'd eventually do an MP3 for it.

If no VOD it would be nice just to release an MP3 of the feeds from the guys mics during the show, but I guess it would be hard to suppress the audio from the movie, and if they don't get VOD rights they certainly would be able to sell anything with audio from the film.  So I guess they would have to do a studio version. 

They could do the studio mp3 while rehearsing for the live show.  The VOD rights issue should be known by then.

[Dr. Opossum]

While a bit disappointed, I always knew Twilight was a long-shot.  But this choice is pretty darn good, so I consider my money to have been well-spent.  This should make for interesting riffing - the movie is made with a satirical bent, but it is also extremely goofy. 

[Pak-Man]

Starship Troopers is one of those movies I always meant to see, but never quite got around to. Depending on who I talk to, it's either a bad (But fun!) B-Movie, a brilliant and misunderstood satire, or a bad satire.

[Edward J Grug III]

Starship Troopers is one of those movies I always meant to see, but never quite got around to. Depending on who I talk to, it's either a bad (But fun!) B-Movie, a brilliant and misunderstood satire, or a bad satire.

If you talk to me, it's the latter.

[Thrifty]

If they end up unable to allow a VOD (even if just to kickstarter supporters but not for "sale"), then I hope they'd eventually do an MP3 for it.

If no VOD it would be nice just to release an MP3 of the feeds from the guys mics during the show, but I guess it would be hard to suppress the audio from the movie, and if they don't get VOD rights they certainly would be able to sell anything with audio from the film.  So I guess they would have to do a studio version. 

They could do the studio mp3 while rehearsing for the live show.  The VOD rights issue should be known by then.

Second this.  If you can't get past the legal issues and do a VOD of the live show, do the next best thing.  Take the script and do a studio version to be released as a sync-able MP3 file.

[Thrifty]

This movie came out when I was in high school.  My best friend at the time was a guy whom I can best describe as "a teenage Rush Limbaugh".  He was infatuated with this movie, and especially loved the idea of citizenship only extending to people who served in the military.

[KidFlash]

I saw it opening weekend, and my friends were most definitely in on the joke. Still quote it to this day whenever Michael Ironside shows up in a movie.

"EVERYONE FIGHTS. NO ONE QUITS."

[TheUnabeefer]

I've been describing the movie to people as "a 50's B-movie as a 90's A-movie"

[RoninFox]

I've been describing the movie to people as "a 50's B-movie as a 90's A-movie"

That's pretty dead on, I think.  I'm excited as hell for this, its not anything I would have expected really, but when I read it as the intended target I just had to smile. 

[gbeenie]

I've always thought of it as a clever movie disguised (extremely well) as a stupid one.

[Compound]

Good news! We have a celeb who wants to join the riffing!



Yes, he is listed in that role on IMDB.

[Raistlan]

Trey "The Amazing" Stokes would be nice to have on hand. He's on the What Are You Doing, Movie? podcast at http://friendsinyourhead.com/.