The Aisle Seat by Andy Dursin

Special CHRISTMAS & NEW YEARS Edition

Aisle SEAT Special:
The JOHN LANDIS Interview

Andy Chats With The Director of countless cult classics about his films, modern movies & more!

John Landis has directed a handful of comedy classics including THE BLUES BROTHERS, ANIMAL HOUSE and KENTUCKY FRIED MOVIE. He commandeered no less than three Eddie Murphy vehicles (TRADING PLACES, COMING TO AMERICA and BEVERLY HILLS COP III), a smattering of ‘80s hits including AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON, SPIES LIKE US, THREE AMIGOS! and AMAZON WOMEN ON THE MOON, and recently turned his attention to the hilarious, under-rated documentary SLASHER, which was issued on DVD last summer.

Landis’ gargantuan comedy-action-musical THE BLUES BROTHERS returned to DVD last August in a brand-new 25th Anniversary Edition. The Aisle Seat was fortunate enough to speak with Mr. Landis about the BLUES, what’s wrong with modern cinema, his new work on the DVD-cable series “Masters of Horror” and more...

Andy Dursin: What can fans expect from the new, “improved” 25th Anniversary edition of THE BLUES BROTHERS?

John Landis: Well Universal is doing a couple of strange things that I thought were odd (laughs). They found a preview print of THE BLUES BROTHERS, one of the third preview prints that was 13 or 17 minutes longer than the released version, and that was the restored version that was on the original DVD from five, six years ago. We restored [the footage] to that version, but it still wasn’t the original cut that they threw away.

On this release, they’re including the theatrical release, and the one with all the added footage [we previously restored].

AD: So now you have the choice of which version you want to watch...

JL: Exactly. I don’t know why (laughs).

Also, on the last DVD release -- and it will be on this one, too -- is a superb documentary, The Making Of, that I thought was great. I told them, “don’t do another one! That one was great!” That documentary was done right after BLUES BROTHERS 2000, so it had a lot of the same people being interviewed with a very good perspective. That had some footage in it that I had never seen from some local Chicago TV station.

They’ve also made some new documentaries, little things, that I was interviewed for but I honestly haven’t seen so I can’t tell you what they are (laughs). One is about John Belushi, and the other is “the legacy” of THE BLUES BROTHERS or something like that (laughs)...it’s so funny, now it’s all about “added material.”

AD: Yes, it seems as if any opportunity they have to rework something that’s already been available, they go ahead and do it...

JL: Sure! The good news is that, as a result, you get pictures that often look better than they did in theaters.

AD: Going back through your resume, one of your earliest credits was as a crew member on the immortal Clint Eastwood-Don Rickles-Donald Sutherland epic KELLY’S HEROES. Tell us a little bit about that whole experience...

JL: I was a flunky, what’s now called a PA and was then called a “gopher.” It was a great experience...I turned 19 on that movie. And to be behind the Iron Curtain in 1969, that really meant something then. I went to Europe and was there altogether for about two years, and nine months of it was on that picture.

It was wild, because first of all you had this strange cast: Don Rickles, Don Sutherland, Telly Savalas, Harry Dean Stanton, Carroll O’Connor, Clint Eastwood...and all of them are there, behind the Iron Curtain, with nothing to do! Harry was growing fields of marijuana...it was [definitely] 1969!

Really, it was like going from black-and-white to color. There were guys with big machine guns and hammer and sickles everywhere. We were using the Yugoslav army, the director Brian Hutton was very nice and a completely insane guy, and it was an international crew: mostly British, French, Austrian, German, Italian...you know, and obviously Yugoslavs...and there was a Mexican cameraman, the great Gabriel Figueroa. It was a wild group, and I had the time of my life!

AD: It’s a fascinating movie as well..

JL: It’s an interesting movie, a real period piece! You know, I didn’t know where were hippies in World War II! (laughs). Did you see the movie THREE KINGS?

AD: Yes, I did...

JL: That’s a movie I liked very much, but it’s the same plot! (Laughs).

AD: And I’d also be remiss if I didn’t mention your performance in BATTLE FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES...

JL: Yes I was a human in that one.

AD: What was it like being one of the few non-simians in that movie?

JL: Well there were quite a few humans in that one, actually! The best experience I had in that movie was when we were at the Malibu Ranch, the Fox ranch which is now a public park. It’s where they made “M*A*S*H,” with the spectacular Malibu canyons.

Anyway, we’re at the Ranch and it’s hot, and these guys would get in their Ape make-up and be in it all day. So you’d never really know them as anything but apes!

I was sitting there having lunch with this guy who I’ll never forget was reading this book -- it was “Catch 22" in a paperback. He was an orangutan and he didn’t speak much. So we had lunch, and when lunch was finished, the assistant director comes over to this orangutan and says, “Mr. Huston, we’re ready for you now”!

And I was like, “WAS THAT JOHN HUSTON??” (laughs). And I remember thinking, “Holy Shit!!” I actually got to know him well quite a bit later, but then it was then it quite something. I’d say “I just had lunch with John Huston and I didn’t know it!” (laughs)

AD: After SHLOCK and KENTUCKY FRIED MOVIE, you really hit it big with NATIONAL LAMPOON’S ANIMAL HOUSE. One of the key elements in the movie was Elmer Bernstein’s score, which really created a resurgence in his career -- in the comedy genre, no less -- that would last for years...

JL: I went to school with Peter Bernstein, Elmer’s son, so I knew Elmer when I was 14 or 15 years old. In fact, Elmer took Peter, his brother Greg and I to see the Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl when I was 15!

So I knew Elmer as Peter’s dad, and also as a great composer, so when it came time for my first studio picture, ANIMAL HOUSE, they asked me who I wanted to do the music. When I said “Elmer Bernstein,” they literally laughed in my face. They said, “he won’t even return the call,” but I was like, “sure he will!”

So I called Elmer and I showed him the movie, and he said, “John, I don’t do comedies.” I told him, “but Elmer, I want essentially a dramatic score.” He was intrigued by that idea, and what was interesting is that the score for ANIMAL HOUSE became hugely influential. It is essentially how comedies are scored now, because after ANIMAL HOUSE, Elmer did GHOSTBUSTERS, AIRPLANE, TRADING PLACES...he did so many comedies that ironically he became “typed.”

He went from Mr. Jazz to Mr. Western to Mr. Comedy, and after doing 10 years of some of the most successful comedies of all-time, he finally said, “I quit! I’m not doing another comedy goddammit!” (Laughs). This was the guy who did SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS and TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, so what did happen was that he came back with MY LEFT FOOT [that returned him to “serious” films].

One of my two favorite scores Elmer did for me -- and we worked together a lot-- was THREE AMIGOS! That’s a brilliant score, and first of all the movie has fantastic music, songs by Randy Newman, and the score -- the orchestra was huge, it was the biggest I ever had, it was something like 129 pieces or something. Elmer essentially satirized Elmer on that movie, and it’s truly a brilliant score. I love the music for that movie, it’s wonderful music and it’s very funny.

The other one that he did that people don’t really notice, I guess, is AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON. There’s about eight or nine minutes of “real” score. Most if it is needle-drop, but Elmer’s music is just beautiful, very sad and wonderful.

As far as other favorite scores for my movies go, Nile Rodgers wrote a terrific score for COMING TO AMERICA. They released the songs on the soundtrack album, not so much of the score, but did you see that movie DRUMLINE? One of the big numbers in that movie was the Chief’s arrival [cue]!

AD: Speaking of COMING TO AMERICA, I remember it not being screened for critics on the day it opened in 1988. That’s usually a sign of trouble, but obviously the movie turned out great and was a huge hit. I recall Siskel & Ebert even asking why it wasn’t screened for critics after they gave it “Two Thumbs Up,” so what was the story with that?

JL: I actually know nothing about that, but remember that COMING TO AMERICA was the fastest movie ever made. From the day we finished principal photography, to the day it opened in 2900 theaters, it was less than three weeks!

By the way, it wasn’t anyone’s fault: we agreed to that release schedule. I was cutting negative and mixing and scoring DURING principal photography, and the picture was locked two days after filming ended. By that point, we had already finished seven reels of it, so that could possibly be the reason...they just didn’t have it [available for review].

AD: Going back to soundtracks, when you came up with the concept for AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON, was your original idea to work in all those great Oldies on the soundtrack?

JL: They were all written into the script in 1969. I wrote that film in Yugoslavia, and they were all written into my screenplay.

I couldn’t get a couple of songs at that time. There’s a version of “Blue Moon” that Bob Dylan did, but he wouldn’t give me the rights to it because the film was R-rated.. The other one was a Cat Stevens song, “Moonshadow,” which if you listen to the lyrics is about dismemberment and I thought, “wow, that’s a great song!” But he wouldn’t let me have it because he was a devout Muslim....although I know it’s now being used to sell Hondas or something!

The other one I really wanted was Elvis’ early version of “Blue Moon”where he does that beautiful yodeling, but unfortunately at that time in 1981, the Colonel was being sued by the president of the estate and RCA. I dealt with the Colonel and it was a nightmare [to work it out], so it didn’t happen.

AD: I was curious why there weren’t immediate sequels made to some of your big hits, like ANIMAL HOUSE, BLUES BROTHERS and AMERICAN WEREWOLF, all of which were commercially huge even at the time of their original release.

JL: For ANIMAL HOUSE, the result quite honestly was because all three networks immediately made knock-offs of the movie. There was an ANIMAL HOUSE TV series, DELTA HOUSE, which the [film’s] writers and producers were involved with, but I refused to do it. A lot of the cast went also, so they did DELTA HOUSE for two years. It’s only interesting [now] because it was Michelle Pfeiffer’s first job.

AD: I don’t think it’s ever been re-run since..

JL: It was terrible! (Laughs).

On AMERICAN WEREWOLF, Polygram screwed me. I wrote that picture, I owned that picture -- it was a negative pick-up with Polygram -- and [then] Polygram sold half of their rights, and all of their remake rights, to a German producer. So I got a call one day saying this German producer was making a sequel, and I said “he can’t.” It turned out that he couldn’t unless he paid me, but because I couldn’t stop him, he paid me and then made that unfortunate movie.

AD: I loved AMERICAN WEREWOLF. I have many fond memories of watching it at my grade-school friends’ birthday parties back in the ‘80s!

JL: It always drove me crazy how bad that video tape was! It was awful. But thankfully the DVD looks good.

AD: Speaking of DVD, are we ever going to see Special Editions of TRADING PLACES, THREE AMIGOS!, SPIES LIKE US, etc.?

JL: That’s entirely up to the studios. A movie like THREE AMIGOS! was made by Orion, who then went out of business several years later, and later was sold to something and then sold to something. I think it’s owned now by MGM, which is now of course owned by Sony. So you never know who the f--k owns this stuff!

On the other hand, THREE AMIGOS! is still selling [in its original DVD version]...so is SPIES LIKE US. So when they keep making money on what’s out there, they see no need, no upside to refurbishing it. The refurbishing is, happily for us, a ploy to get you, the viewers, to buy it again. But if you’re already buying it, they’re not going to bother.

So, THREE AMIGOS! and SPIES LIKE US are consistently high sellers...even though they’re kind of low-end movie prints.

AD: They’ve both been out basically since the beginning of the medium. I think SPIES LIKE US is still full-screen...

JL: Oh yeah, they’re shitty. They finally did a widescreen edition of TRADING PLACES, but it didn’t have anything extra on it.

AD: Have there been many movies over the years that you’ve been approached to make, turned down, then regretted that decision?

JL: Oh sure, of course! Off the top of my head, MEN IN BLACK is one of those. They sent me the comic, and after I read it, I said, “what a minute, this guy owns Dan Aykroyd money! This is the GHOSTBUSTERS dressed as THE BLUES BROTHERS!” (Laughs)

It really was obvious. I quite enjoyed the movies that they made, and they were giant hits, but they even took that dead-pan kind of Jack Webb, film-noir comedy we [established] in THE BLUES BROTHERS. They took that exactly [from our film].

AD: I checked out your used-car salesman documentary, SLASHER, the other night on DVD and really enjoyed it. Very funny, honest, and compelling – I couldn’t turn it off! How did that project come about?

JL: What I learned about documentaries, particularly that kind of verite documentary, is I had to re-conceptualize and re-think everything I did as a director.

When you’re making a narrative film, everyone’s attention is focused on giving the director the moment he needs in front of the camera. Then you only specifically prepare and shoot those moments.

Here, it’s “shoot everything!” because it’s digital and the camera runs an hour. There’s no lighting in SLASHER, it’s all available light, and you just shoot! I mean, we had 110 hours of material...I’ve never exposed that kind of film, even on THE BLUES BROTHERS I didn’t shoot that amount of film! So it was quite something.

The way I got into it, I was at the birthday party of Chris Kobin, the producer, and he started telling stories about his days as a slasher. I was fascinated by it, so I told Chris “I’ve gotta see this.” He took me to a slasher sale in Sacramento, and it really was a slice of Americana. It was kind of like THE MUSIC MAN meets DEATH OF A SALESMAN, and I was just fascinated by it.

I said I wanted to shoot one of these sales, and what was happening two years ago was that it was exactly the same time that Bush and company were selling us the Iraq war. And it was so clearly a bogus war, it had nothing to do with alqaeda, or 9/11...it was so clearly to me bullshit, and they were selling it like a used car. They were lying. So I thought, I ought to inter-cut, and show how the Bush administration was selling us this war, like a slasher sells a used car.

Several things happened next. One, I interviewed a bunch of slashers...there are about 40 guys who do it. And this one guy [Michael Bennett] literally lives in Huntington Beach, which is literally about an hour away from me, and he was going to Memphis to do a sale in three weeks. And I thought, “Memphis!” I could use the Stax records, I immediately thought about the soundtrack, and so we went there.

I had no idea that [Bennett] himself would be so incredibly complex and fascinating, and also that Memphis itself was the bankruptcy capital of the country! (laughs) Plus, the dealership itself was in a bad neighborhood, and at the end of a runway!

Everything was such a surprise, and I became so fascinated by the dynamics of the people there, that other than the little prologue, the film sort of drifted away from its original intent.

I ended up learning a lot of stuff, like value...that nothing has value. The value is what you’re willing to pay. So you have to generate the value...that was fascinating to me.

AD: Would you ever consider doing another documentary?

JL: Sure. I really enjoyed doing it. It was a tremendous experience. If the subject comes up, absolutely.

AD: I hadn’t heard anything about SLASHER, but once I saw that you were involved I checked it out on DVD.

JL: It was produced and shown on the Independent Film Channel, and unfortunately I didn’t realize at the time that IFC’s interest was in viewers and not in theatrical at all. I thought I was making a documentary for theaters, and it turned out that it went straight to their channel. But it did very well there.

AD: I grew up in the ‘80s, where it seemed every few months there was a comedy released that’s still being shown today. You and Ivan Reitman made so many great movies that it’s disheartening to see the current state of comedies being made today...what are your thoughts on comedies in general today?

JL: Nowadays the best comedies are being done on television. Shows like FAMILY GUY, THE SIMPSONS, SOUTH PARK, Jon Stewart’s show...those are the funniest shows being consistently done on TV.

However, having said that, it’s a whole new scary world of entertainment in general, and not just movies. And it has everything to do with the Republicans! (laughs). Now that sounds like a joke but it does, because of de-regulation and [the rise of] conglomerates.

This is going to sound corny because it wasn’t that long ago, but when I started in the ‘70s as a director in the Hollywood “system,” the companies [were assembled this way]: Universal was Lew Wasserman...Warner Bros. was Steve Roth...United Artists was Arthur Crimm...ITC was Lew Grade. These were the guys, and those were their companies! And even though the corporatization had started then, there was still an individual in charge and they were in the movie business.

There is not one motion picture company today, out of any of the so-called “majors,” that are actually in the film business! Even Universal is a tiny subdivision of General Electric! (laughs). Columbia is Sony, Disney is Disney...these are giant multi-national corporations and it’s changed the bottom line in that everything is corporate. You don’t have anyone taking risks, you don’t have anyone pursuing anything other than this bizarre bottom-line because it has to do with their parent companies’ quarterly stock reports. Every decision is based on fear, and they’re making conservative [films as a result].

It’s interesting what’s happened to the term “independent film.”

Independent film used to mean KENTUCKY FRIED MOVIE -- a film actually made independently [outside the studio system]. Now, independent film has become Alexander Payne’s SIDEWAYS. That was a perfectly good movie, but that was a $20 million movie made by Fox, and yet it was called “independent.” And I realized, it’s called an “independent” film because it was adult! And exploitation [is now films like] FANTASTIC FOUR, WAR OF THE WORLDS, SPIDER-MAN...that’s the Spielberg-Lucas legacy, where now you’ve got B-pictures being made with A-budgets.

As far as sequels and remakes go, we’ve always had sequels and remakes. Always, always, always. Even THE MALTESE FALCON was a remake.

What’s NEW is the lack of adult product, and when I say adult, I don’t mean “for adults” so much as I mean subject matter. For instance, in my career, I made over eight films that grossed huge money, and they were all R-rated. ANIMAL HOUSE, TRADING PLACES, COMING TO AMERICA...those were $800 million pictures, all R rated. They don’t even make R-rated films anymore. I haven’t seen WEDDING CRASHERS but I want to, because for a company to put out an R-rated comedy is extremely unusual. They just don’t make those [now].

You look at a movie like THE BLUES BROTHERS, which is R-rated, and there’s nothing in that film but language. When we did the sequel so many years later, BLUES BROTHERS 2000, it was a very strange experience, because the studio didn’t want to make it, and Danny Aykroyd REALLY wanted to make it. Did you see it?

AD: I did, when it first came out...

JL: Well you were one of the few (laughs). That movie actually ended up making a lot of money, too, because it did huge foreign and the album sold very well.

But they insisted it was PG-13. They insisted that we put a child in it. The studio put so many impositions on the screenplay that, by the time we acquiesced to everything, I said to Danny “there’s nothing [left]!!” (laughs) But I love Danny, he’s a wonderful guy, and he said, “John, this is about the music!”

I don’t know if you’ve realized it, but the original has six musical numbers, and the sequel has 18. The first one has Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, John Lee Hooker, and James Brown, and the second one has EVERYONE else.

And Danny’s funny, because he said “we’ve got to put these people on film,” and he turned out to be right. Since we made BLUES BROTHERS 2000, we’ve lost Grover Washington, Junior Wells has passed away...all these guys who were in the movie have died.

AD: So it exists as a document of their artistry and talent...

JL: Exactly, that was Danny’s big deal, and it was worth it for me just to get that group together again.

AD: I remember there was even a Nintendo BLUES BROTHERS 2000 video game released at the time. I figured, “they’re definitely skewing this sequel to a younger audience”...

JL: No kidding, I didn’t know that! (laughs).

What’s interesting is that when the original BLUES BROTHERS came out, we had these exhibitor screenings. And the exhibitors no longer have this power anymore because of a function of the anti-trust, but then the exhibitors had tremendous power. If they didn’t like your movie they wouldn’t book it, and you were f-----d. With the exhibitors screenings on THE BLUES BROTHERS, they said it was a black movie and no white people would see it.

Then it got worse than that. At that time in Los Angeles, Westwood Village was a premier place for movies and big grosses, and Ted Mann had a lock on Westwood Village. I was called in Lew Wasserman’s office and Ted Mann said to me that he didn't want black people in Westwood Village. So we got second-string theaters, we really got f-----d. It was supposed to be a roadshow with an intermission, but we chopped it down. Ironically, it went on to make a lot of money!

AD: Did you ever find the complete, “roadshow” version of THE BLUES BROTHERS?

JL: No, we have no idea where it is. There was a whole number at Bob’s Country Bunker, “Sink the Bismarck!”, and basically ALL the numbers were longer. There were follow-up scenes with Aretha Franklin, and more with Ray Charles and John Candy.

It was meant to be a roadshow with intermission, so it had a very strong rhythm. But then we had to chop, and I chopped some 30 minutes out of the movie in chunks, which was all very last-minute. The movie has a very strange rhythm now [as a result].

AD: But, I don’t know, isn’t that also part of its charm? (laughs)

JL: Yes, I think so, too! (laughs). Sam Goldwyn said the same...“an audience never misses what it hasn’t seen.”

AD: What projects are you working on now?

JL: I just finished a show, THE DEER WOMAN, for the “Masters of Horror.” Have you heard about that?

AD: Yes, that’s the new horror-cable TV series, right?

JL: Well, yes and no! That’s the new paradigm, I guess. This is being financed by a DVD company [Anchor Bay] and they’re really for DVD. However, they will also be starting in October on Showtime. And it’s fascinating, because the cable sale [is geared towards] basically marketing the DVD!

They’re 13 one-hours, and they’re full-length, cable hours. They’re unrated, and some of them are really NC-17 if they were to be put on film. It’s a bunch of friends who have made interesting horror films -- Dario Argento, Tobe Hooper, John Carpenter, Stuart Gordon, Don Coscarelli, Larry Cohen -- and we’re each doing an hour.

I finished mine, and it’s quite outrageous! It stars Brian Benben, who was on my HBO show “Dream On,” and he’s wonderful in it. I’m very happy with it, and the music is by Peter Bernstein.

AD: Does it have some comedic elements mixed in with the macabre?

JL: It’s pretty funny! It’s certainly horrific, and it’s certainly a horror movie. It’ll be the first one to air in October, and it was shot in 10 days, but I’m happy with it! I saw Stuart Gordon’s Lovecraft one, and it’s insane.

This is unique in that it’s director-driven. Every director got to do what they wanted, and the coolest thing is that we didn’t have to use stars. We could use any actors we wanted to, so that was wonderful.

The “Masters of Horror” [tag] came about because we had a really fun dinner party, with people like Sam Raimi, Guillermo Del Toro, Mick Garris, and the people I mentioned. There was this woman next to us having a birthday, and so the waiters brought her a cake, and our whole table, led by Guillermo, sang “Happy Birthday.” After it was over, Guillermo said, “Happy Birthday...from the MASTERS OF HORROR!” That was very funny. (laughs)

So there are 13 of them, and I’d say half of them will be spectacular and half of them will be pretty weird!

AD: Any feature projects lined up beyond the MASTERS OF HORROR?

JL: There are lots I’m trying to get money for! (laughs). They’re really not making that many interesting movies. You know, Deborah, my wife, and I watched CHINATOWN the other night, which is a great film. And at the end of it, she turned to me and “no studio would make this film today.”

AD: I thought it was just me growing up and hitting 30, but I feel the same way a lot of fans do, and that’s just apathetic towards modern day cinema...I just look at a lot of movies out there and don’t feel any pressing need to shell out $10.

JL: One of the scary things about DVD is that, very often, if you don’t have a real interest in going to the movies, you’ll just say, “oh well I’ll wait for the DVD.” And so that has hurt the box-office tremendously.

The reality is that I still don’t believe anything replaces the theatrical experience. We saw WAR OF THE WORLDS the other day in a beautiful theater, and even though I wasn’t crazy about the movie, I loved the experience of seeing and hearing it like that.

AD: I love the experience as well, but I hated the sound of a grandmother’s cell phone that rang out loud during the film when I saw it. It kept on repeating “Grandma! Pick up!” over and over, during the scene where Tom Cruise takes care of Tim Robbins. After the movie was over, everyone sitting around this woman started carping “Grandma! PICK UP!” as the credits rolled!

JL: I think that might have helped the movie, though! (laughs). It had some spectacular stuff in it, but it was a dumb movie. And especially the ending, when [Cruise’s son] shows up, it was like “What?!? Wait a minute!!”

It had three great sequences. The first, when the aliens arrived, was spectacular. The second sequence, with the ferry, was excellent, and the third was what I thought was the best sequence in the movie, where [the tripod] picked up Dakota Fanning. That really tapped into the Wells element, and it was a great scene.
[Otherwise,] I really thought the movie was terrible.

AD: I thought it went downhill as soon as Tim Robbins showed up...

JL: How about that scene with the probe that was EXACTLY like the thing from THE ABYSS?

AD: That’s exactly what I wrote in my review!

JL: I was pleased to see that parts of it were taken from George Pal’s [adaptation]. They did follow it quite a bit, but that special effect was an exact rip-off!

It’s just difficult to make good movies [now], and studios don’t really hire good directors. It’s a miracle Sam Raimi got the SPIDER-MAN movies, because they’d much rather hire someone they can control. If they hire me I actually have an opinion.

I actually had an amazingly bizarre experience last year. A studio executive said to me, when we were meeting about a script I was interested in, “but Mr. Landis, if I hire you, you have to make the movie!” (Laughs).

Special Thanks to MPRM Public Relations. John Landis photo by Gregg DeGuire/Wireimage.com Poster Photos by The Internet Movie Poster Awards.

NEXT TIME: The First DVDs of 2006! Don't forget to drop in on the official Aisle Seat Message Boards, direct any emails to the link above and we'll catch you then. Cheers and have a happy, safe, wonderful Christmas & New Years everyone!