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It’s a sad day for Mel Brooks fans. With us still mourning yesterday’s passing of Harvey Korman, who appears in a number of Brooks’ films, today Page Six reports that the Spaceballs director is “quietly shuttering” his film production company, Brooksfilms. In addition to Brooks’ directorial works from A History of the World: Part 1 through Dracula: Dead and Loving It, the company also made such films as The Elephant Man, 84 Charing Cross Road, My Favorite Year and one of my childhood favorites, the underrated guilty pleasure Solarbabies.
I first caught wind of the news from Stu over at Defamer, and seeing as how his post features a montage of Brooksfilm clips that excludes Solarbabies (for which he apologizes), I present you with a clip from the film here. Isn’t it great to know that breakdance and beatboxing is still cool in the waterless post-apocalyptic future? Another thing that would be cool in the future: a Broadway adaptation of Solarbabies. Hopefully Brooks will forget about that Blazing Saddles musical that’s rumored to be in the works and concentrate on bringing one of his non-classics to the stage. It’d be kinda like Starlight Express meets Urinetown. If Xanadu can be a hit and Young Frankenstein can’t, I say this idea should at least be explored.
UPDATE (6/2/08): Mel Brooks says he is not shutting down Brooksfilms.
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We’ve had a bit of trouble getting this episode to go through the iTunes feed, so we hope this re-post will fix the problem. The original post, with episode description and embedded player, is here.
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Didn’t realise they made Elephant Man. Cool film.
Mel Brooks cannot go without his promise to us before he leaves this world. Mel Brooks MUST make “History of the World Part 2.”
As an adolescent, the “History of the World Part 1″ was one of the films that first introduced me to Jewish Comedy. Although I am not a M.O.T., or as the Jewish Religion says… “Goy” ( I prefer “Catholic”), I know that the time is now!
With the invasion of 3 countries, an economic meltdown, and the comparisons between Germany in WW2, the world today is in the midst of World War 3, and we are in dire need of some good comedy.
And Mel Brooks is the Man to do it!
In fact, lets take it a step over the line to get the funny and prove the point that it’s time to stop this fighting by having Mel Brooks cast Mel Gibson as the main character! Wow, now that would REALLY be funny!
If you like this post, please post the word in other places that the time is now for Mel Brooks to make the “History of the World Part Two.” The more we do that, the better his chances of making our laughter return.