The Kingdom's Come


Though I'm all for homage, duly credited, it sounds like more than that is going on in what ABC is calling Stephen King's Kingdom Hospital, but which, as anybody who pays attention to stuff like this knows, is actually Danish filmmaker Lars Von Trier's The Kingdom, as revised by Mr. King. Nobody's going to dispute the obviously healing powers of a good story, and it appears that King, after his horrible accident several years ago, viewed Von Trier's The Kingdom (Riget in Danish) and was inspired to re-fashion it in his own image, including throwing himself into the cast of characters in the persona of an critically-injured artist who finds himself admitted to the creepy house of healing.

While it would no doubt be better for art and humanity, perhaps, if anybody interested in an eerie hospital-set tale of hauntings and the haunted sought out Von Trier's original, we all know that this is the U.S., after all, and most viewers don't cotton to subtitles (except for a couple of weird exceptions, those being Native American -- Dances With Wolves-- and now, evidently, Aramaic to English in Mel Gibson's latest). So in the hope that seeing Stephen King's take -- and from what I've read he really was taken with the story, having written fifteen hours so far, and more to come if ABC just asks -- might lure some folks to the real thing, so let's raise a bedpan to the success of Stephen King's Kingdom Hospital.


In case your tastes run more to the musical than the maniacal, you'll probably like PBS' Great Performance presentation of the 2003 film of the 2002 event Concert for George, tonight at 9pm (check your local listings). Designed as a tribute on the first anniversary of his death, and featuring footage of George Harrison, along with music and tributes from celebrities and fellow musicians who cared about him, this is a nice try by PBS to young up its demographic and there's no fuddy-duddy arguing that it doesn't fit comfortably under the Great Performances aegis. It does.

In addition to fellow Beatles Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, musical guests include Eric Clapton, Tom Petty, various Shankars, and for comic relief several members of Monty Python also show up. After recently reading the huge new coffee table book The Pythons -- and it's so big it could BE the coffee table -- I was reminded of the huge role that Harrison played in helping the Pythons get their movies made, so their inclusion here is charming and gracious. I'm not a music person, but I'll be checking in to see my favorite comedy troupe, at least.



Stephen King's Kingdom Hospital premieres tonight at 9pm on ABC, and continues weekly at this same time. Check out the ABC website for more information on the series.

Start out at IMBD for information on the Lars Von Trier original.


Great Performances Concert for George premieres tonight on PBS at 9pm, but check your local listings! Here's the Concert for George site on PBS.

For more information, check out the official website for the film.

And if you're a big Monty Python like I am, I highly recommend reading the new book The Pythons. It's exhaustive, not a funny book (if that's what you're looking for), but rather an incredibly detailed look at what it was like for this diverse group of chaps to come together in the world of 1960s British television comedy, and then to break out of it, creating something completely new, brilliant, and everlastingly hilarious. I checked it out from the library, but you might feel like dropping $60 bucks on it; it's worth it. Check out the information on Amazon, but I'm sure there are places to get it cheaper, if you surf around.

 
Ladies’ Night on Broadcast and Cable


ABC delves into celebrity biography tonight with the three-hour TV movie The Mystery of Natalie Wood at 8pm. Coming on the heels of writer Gavin Lambert’s new Wood bio Natalie Wood: A Life, ABC’s entry stars the not-exactly-lookalike Justine Waddell and is directed by Hollywood veteran Peter Bogdanovich, who certainly knows his way around Silver Screen mysteries; if you need proof, check out his excellent motion picture The Cat’s Meow sometime. The Mystery Of Natalie Wood weaves interviews with friends and co-workers into the traditional biopic format, a creative move that could end up serving neither well, but with Bogdanovich at the helm this should be stylish and intelligent, and let’s hope for even more.

Coincidentally, both this TV movie and The Cat’s Meow’s pivotal scenes take place on a boat, in TMoNW’s case Splendor, the yacht of Natalie Wood and husband Robert Wagner, where, in late November 1981, after an evening of onboard partying with RJ and guest Christopher Walken (her co-star in the movie Brainstorm, which was in production at the time), sometime later that night Natalie evidently fell out of a dinghy and drowned. There was the official conclusion of drinking and arguments leading up to a simple misstep accident, and some other more sordid rumors involving assorted liaisons between the trio (that I certainly recall hearing from my friends in the biz). We’ll see what this movie postulates, but at the very least there’s no doubt that, at age 43, Natalie Wood died far too young.

With a career beginning as an adorable and talented child actress, to a luscious young womanhood with friendships and romances with the likes of James Dean, Warren Beatty and twice-husband Robert Wagner, Natalie Wood certainly deserves to be remembered well, and let’s hope that this foray doesn’t sully her reputation or her body of work. It’s hard finding a Natalie Wood movie to watch when you want one, but some of my particular less-known favorites include the film made from Wood biographer Gavin Lambert’s novel Inside Daisy Clover (1965), her vulnerable and naked (in emotions only) performance in Splendor in the Grass with one-time beau Beatty, and I even like her, miscast though she certainly was, in the title role as Jewish beauty Marjorie Morningstar, opposite an even more miscast Gene Kelly as Noel Airman. TV buffs may remember her in the 1979 multi-part adaptation of From Here to Eternity, where she played the straying wife (the Deborah Kerr role) opposite William Devane in the part made famous by Burt Lancaster.


The other recommended viewing tonight is the very early-to-TV premiere of the Oscar-nominated Whale Rider on Oxygen tonight at 8pm. Though the 13-year-old Ms. Keisha Castle-Hughes didn’t win the Best Actress award last night, her performance is nonetheless charming, heartbreaking and lustrous. The movie is fascinating, frequently humorous (with some wonderful characterizations of modern Maoris), and one of those films that people always claim nobody makes anymore, that is, suitable for the whole family. (Which is not to say that it’s childish, or boring, or for just kids; I’d have avoided it like the plague in the theatre if that were the case.) Guaranteed you’ll enjoy it, too, no matter what your age.



The Mystery of Natalie Wood airs tonight at 8pm on ABC. Check out the network website for more (though not a lot more) information.

You can read about Gavin Lambert’s biography of Ms. Wood here, and see what Barnes & Noble has to say about it here.


London writer Glenys Roberts has vivid and poignant memories of hearing about Natalie Wood’s death….

For all manner of Natalie Wood information, check out this excellent fansite, Natalie Wood Online.

And here’s another nice website from a fan.


For a slightly hipper and flipper look at Ms. Wood’s life and career, check out her page on Swingin’ Chicks.com.



Whale Rider premieres on Oxygen cable network tonight at 8pm, with encores this week on Saturday at 8pm and Sunday at 7pm.

Here’s the official Whale Rider movie site, because you won’t find anything about the movie on Oxygen except the schedule.