Friday, January 20, 2006
Save The Hooters!
The hype is really getting started now over the new film Hoot, based upon the youth novel by my all-time favorite humor/suspense novelist, Carl Hiaasen. What's this got to do with Parrotheads? Well, a lot, when you consider Hiaasen and Bubba are good buddies, and Bubba both produced and has a minor role in the movie. You'll see him there as "Mr. Ryan," a marine science teacher. He even has a prominent spot at the very beginning of the trailer, which also closes with the line "Featuring new music from Jimmy Buffett." I guess The Big Man really sells in the new millenium, eh?
Of course, if Carl and Bubba are involved in a film together, you gotta know it has something to do with saving the fauna or hugging the flora. In this case, it's about endangered owls in Florida, the setting for virtually all of Hiaasen's stories. This isn't the first time these two have conspired together or been inspired by one another. Jimmy's "Ballad of Skip Wiley," from the Barometer Soup album, is based upon Hiaasen's novel Tourist Season, perhaps his best. Skip Wiley was a bat-shit crazy newspaper columnist trying to scare humanity right out of south Florida, in part by feeding folks to a huge North American crocodile named "Pavlov."
I always thought Tourist Season would make a fun movie, as would pretty much any of Hiaasen's novels - especially Sick Puppy, Lucky You, and Basket Case, all high on The Crime Dog's Recommended Reading List. Prior to the release of Hoot, however, the only other of Carl's novels to reach the silver screen is the jaw-dropping-post-silicone Demi Moore boob flasher epic Striptease.
Hmmmm......is this a trend? Two movies about hooters? Just food for thought.....
I have to mention here that Hoot includes in its cast one of my favorite character actors, Tim Blake Nelson. I have to mention this because it gives me the opportunity to throw in a truly funny movie sound bite: Tim Blake Nelson as Delmar in O Brother, Where Art Thou? I just cannot get enough of that movie.
Hoot is set for release April 7th, and promises to be a great family flick. I'll be there for the cheapskate matinee with my large popcorn and Diet Coke (Hey, I gotta cut back somewhere, don't I?). Anybody want to come with?
