Early on when WWE or World Wrestling Entertainment said they would be getting into the movie business a lot of people probably looked at the move with a very cynical eye. The feeling that all they were going to do was make bad action movies starring their WWE Superstars was surely proved correct early on. So it seems that as it goes on WWE Studios is trying to stretch a bit outside of their usual subject matter with the movie Barricade, a horror put out right in time for the Halloween season. Pretty surprising to see them produce a movie that has no action or have a professional wrestler in it at all. Instead we get a fairly quiet horror movie.
If you think my coverage of X-Men: First Class has been excessive then just keep this in mind: I don't care nearly as much about that flick as I do Free Enterprise 2. Expect constant updates. Such as this news that Alicia Witt(Cecil B. Demented) has been added to the cast of the long awaited sequel, confirmed to be filming later this month.
The actress began tweeting about the 1998 original recently, tweets which mirror those of Eliza Dushku...
“So has anyone seen the movie Free Enterprise? Just, y’know, totally random question”,
This has led some to believe that Dushku is also up for a role, but as of now only Witt is confirmed via her official site.
Do I even need to say anything about how hot Alicia Witt is? She's so hot I can forget how awful she was in 88 Minutes.
Seriously, if you've never heard of the 1998 comedy Free Enterprise, you need to go rent it right now. It was a cool Star Trek geek film years before being a geek was considered cool. The plot basically revolved around two wannabe filmmakers and Star Trek nerds, who finally meet their idol: William Shatner. Shatner turns out to not be the strong, confident leader they were expecting. In fact he's the total opposite. It might be a little bit dated, I mean they're still talking about laser discs basically, but anybody who obsesses over sci-fi the way some of us do is going to see a little bit of themselves in the characters. And if there's a nerd anywhere who says they didn't obsess over Claire(played by Audie England) after watching it then they're liars.
Both of the film's major stars went on to success in other projects afterwards. Eric McCormack went on to stardom in Will & Grace, while Rafer Weigel dropped acting and is currently the sports anchor for CNN's Morning Express. Rumors of a Free Enterprise sequel have dogged the two for years, but now it looks like it's finally happening.
At last week's TrekExpo, Shatner revealed that the film is definitely coming together, with plans to shoot later this month..
Shatner: Free Enterprise…remember the film? Well we are doing a sequel, Free Enterprise 2. So they have got me involved in some fun stuff. And I will be shooting that in the next month or so.
It's like a Trekker's dream come true. >sniff< Rumor has it that Leonard Nimoy and Patrick Stewart are involved as well, but that has yet to be confirmed. One casting note that doesn't appear to be shrouded in mystery is whether or not the Old Spice Guy would be a part of the film as well. Huh? Why should that even be a topic for discussion? Maybe because Isaiah Mustafa, who plays the Old Spice Guy in those ridiculous commericals(they just put his face on my body, in case you couldn't tell) revealed that he would be part of the sequel as well. I'm betting he's just a security guard or something, but you never know.
I'm curious to see what direction they take the sequel after so many years away. The guys were already experiencing something of an early mid-life crisis, so what could their big issue be this time around? Will we get another Shatner rap? Last time it was about Julius Caesar, maybe this time it'll be Hamlet? Want a chance to see some of Free Enterprise's greatness? Check out Shatner's "Julius Caesar" rap below!
Remaking old sci-fi films has become kinda common place. More often than not, these films lack the heart of the original work, mainly because there's no real love for the material and the director/writer rarely can match the sensibilities of the time period. A way around this is simply spoof some of those old classics, like in the 1996 film, Mars Attacks. While it was fun, I always thought the attempt to transfer the 1950's style cheesiness into a more modern setting didn't quite work out. Better to just set the film during a time when it makes sense for people to be so....simple. Alien Trespass, which draws it's inspiration from those old 50's classics, decides neither to spoof or modernize. It's spaceboots are firmly planted in the days of poodle skirts and Ford Fairlanes(not the Andrew Dice Clay movie!), and it's all the better for it.
