SAN DIEGO – Francis Ford Coppola is turning big-screen movies into a live experience.
The filmmaker showed an audience at the Comic-Con fan convention Saturday portions of his upcoming creepy tale “Twixt,” a film whose theatrical release he hopes to precede by a national tour in which Coppola will oversee a different version each night.
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Coppola says digital technology allows him to add scenes, lengthen or shorten sequences, shuffle the action around, alter music and make other tweaks depending on how that night’s audience is responding to the film.
“If the audience is the mood to go off on a little bit of a tangent, then you’d be able to go off on a tangent, but if the audience seems to want to cut to the chase, you could cut to the chase,” Coppola said in an interview after his presentation.
Filmmakers often have the experience in test screenings where they sense viewers’ interest lagging and the “audience is not so into it, so you go, ‘Oh, I wish the good part would come sooner, I wish the good part would come sooner,’ ” Coppola said. “With this, you can do that.”
“Twixt” stars Val Kilmer as a writer on a book tour in a strange town where he’s caught up in the mystery of savage killings and has ghostly encounters with a young girl (Elle Fanning) and the specter of Edgar Allan Poe (Ben Chaplin). The film also will include a blend of 2-D and 3-D.
Quaid considers return but fears persecution
LOS ANGELES – Randy Quaid said he would like to return to the U.S. one day, but he and his wife, Evi, still fear they are being persecuted by California prosecutors and tabloid media.
Although U.S. officials recently refused to seek extradition of the actor and his wife from Canada to face felony vandalism charges in Santa Barbara, Calif., authorities in the coastal town say they’ll still have the couple arrested if they return to the states.
“I feel like we’ve been driven out of the country and that the door’s been slammed behind us,” Quaid said in a phone interview on Friday. “And for what, these phony little trespassing, vandalism charges? Santa Barbara can sleep better tonight knowing the Quaids are out of their hair.”
The couple’s current trouble began in September 2010, when they were arrested for causing more than $5,000 damage at a hillside home they were renting.
Months earlier the pair resolved a case related to charges they defrauded an innkeeper.
On Oct. 16, the Quaids traveled to Vancouver, British Columbia.
Days later, they were arrested by Canadian police because of the California case. Quaid sought asylum, claiming he was being hunted by “Hollywood star-whackers” who had killed his friends David Carradine and Heath Ledger.
Ms. Alabama Nursing Home pageant winds down
HOOVER, Ala. – When Alabama’s newest beauty queen is crowned this week, she might have more silver hair than your average beauty pageant contestant.
The Ms. Alabama Nursing Home pageant comes to a close today at the Wynfrey Hotel in Hoover. The top 10 finalists from nursing homes across the state will compete for the crown.
Contestants will have 15-minute interviews with a panel of judges and then answer a question on stage. The event will be co-hosted by Courtney Porter, who is Miss Alabama.
There were 75 contestants vying for the crown. The finalists were named in April.
The judges include the commissioner of the state’s Medicaid agency and Ms. Senior Alabama Frankie Cashion.
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