Pop Culture from an Alternate Dimension

  Panic Room is another movie that could have been quite different looking than what we know today. Before Jodie Foster was cast in the led Nicole Kidman had already filmed for three weeks but had to leave because of an aggravated knee injury. Before she became from the tv series "Heroes", Hayden Panetierre was set to play the daughter but was replaced by Kristen Stewart before she made it big with Twilight . One other surprising bit of original casting is that Dwight Yoakam's role was originally offered to Tool's lead singer Maynard James Keenan. Director David Fincher had wanted him after directing Keenan in a music video.

  In the late '60s The Mamas and the Papas were a top folk/rock group with hits like "California Dreamin'" and "Monday, Monday". In 1968 they released what was to be their last album "The Papas and the Mamas". However they contractually still owed their label one more record so they put out People Like Us  in 1971. My imaginary album would be a year before the contractual obligation album. I culled songs from Denny Doherty's Whatcha Gonna Do , Mama Cass Elliot's Make Your Own Kind of Music and John Phillips' John, the Wolf King of L.A. . I figure Michelle Phillips was pulling herself away to get into acting and only came back to fulfill the contract the next year.  https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCHnLE0OxajGvUzxySLpHt1-LBfk7jqjD&si=_ha25PzeWVElGlJw

  Production started on Something's Got to Give  on April 23, 1962. Due to bronchitis and other issues Marilyn Monroe missed many days of shooting. June 1 was Monroe's birthday and the crew planned on celebrating it when she arrived on set but George Cukor, the director, wanted to get a full day's shooting first so celebrations were suspended until 6:00. On June 4 Monroe called to say she couldn't make it to set due to sickness with a temperature of 100 degrees F. She was fired on June 10 and the studio replaced her with Lee Remick. However, Dean Martin had final approval on the leading lady and wanted Monroe and filming was set to resume in October. Sadly, Monroe died of an overdose of barbiturates on August 4 leaving the film uncompleted. A reconstruction of the first half of the film was made for the documentary "Marilyn Monroe: the Final Days". https://youtu.be/zVfKpx-aSRk?si=LxOuWdn3zuoJPxyl

  In the 1990's the group that would become Destiny's Child went through a lot of name changes and member evolution. Under Mathew Knowles management it was pared down to the best known incarnation of Beyonce (Mathew's daughter), Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams. By 2006 they had disbanded but the three continued putting out dance hits separately. Beyonce became a superstar and according to my research Michelle Williams starred in the movie Blue Valentine with Ryan Gosling and played Marilyn Monroe in My Week with Marilyn . For this imaginary album I used Beyonce's I Am ...Sasha Fierce , Kelly Rowland's Ms. Kelly  and Michelle Williams' Unexpected.  They each had a song written by Solange Knowles and both Beyonce and Michelle Wiliams had Rico Love supplying background vocals and producing songs. https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCHnLE0OxajEjmX_i5as2OTi7PrpcnjQA&si=Yjgkfd72GubKsm-T

  There has been talk of The Rock, Dwayne Johnson, doing a new version of the 1986 John Carpenter movie Big Trouble in Little China. I thought about what the movie would be like 40 years earlier instead of 40 year later. I would like it as a classic cliffhanger. When truck driver Jack Burton (Charles Quigley) comes into San Francico he runs into Wang Chi (Keye Luke) a friend of his that he knew when he was in the Flying Tigers. They witness the kidnapping of Gracie Law (Louise Currie). Trying to rescue her the two of them become embroiled in the fantastic underworld of David Lo Pan (Henry Brandon) and his mystical henchmen, Thunder and Lightning (Philip and Philson Ahn). Chapter two ends with Jack tied to a wheelchair and he is seen falling down a well. Chapter three starts with him getting loose of his bonds just in time and shows the wheelchair falling empty in the well.

  In the '70s the J. Geils Band were considered a great R&B bar band. In 1980 they had huge hit with "Love Stinks" from the album of the same name. Their 1981 album, Freeze Frame, made them hugely popular. The videos for "Centerfold" and "Freeze Frame" were in constant rotation on MTV and front man Peter Wolf became a celebrity. Their next album was a live album. In 1984 J. Geils Band released You're Gettin' Even While I'm Gettin' Odd without Peter Wolf and he released a solo album called Lights Out.  To rejoin them I used "Concealed Weapons", 'Wasted Youth", "Eenie Meenie Minie Moe", You're Gettin'...", "The Bite from Inside" and "Californicatin'" from YGEWIGO and from Wolf's Lights Out I grabbed "Lights Out", "I Need You Tonight", "Baby Please Don't Let Me Go", "Crazy" and "Billy Bigtime". https://youtube.com...

  Last month I was going to do a blog about the Fantastic Four , a comic book movie where everyone working on it was excited about it but after they finished it they found the movie wasn't going to be released. This month is the DC comic version of that issue. In November of 2021 filming started in Glasgow with Leslie Grace starring as Barbara Gordon/Batgirl. J. K. Simmons reprising his role of Commissioner James (Jonah) Gordon that he played in  Justice League . Brendan Fraser was cast as the villain, Firefly and Michael Keaton was back as Batman. It was set to be released on the HBO Max streaming service but it was decided to cancel it all together. There is a good chance it will never be released because all the money that was put into it was used as a tax write-off so since Warner Bros. was paid for it they now can't profit from releasing it.