Sascha Gervasi wrote The Terminal for Steven Spielberg; Rebecca Yeldham has helped produce high-class adaptations like The Motorcycle Diaries and The Kite Runner -- so what are the two of them doing making a movie about a Canadian metal band that's been rocking since Ronald Regan was in office? Anvil! The Story of Anvil has been playing to standing ovations here at Sundance, depicting the lifelong friendship -- and lifelong struggle -- of friends and bandmates Steve "Lips" Ludlow and Robb Reiner, members of the obscure-yet-influential (and vice-versa) rock band, Anvil. Gervasi and Yeldham spoke with Cinematical about the long and odd genesis of their film, the terrifying Eastern European post-Soviet heavy metal fan base and how while Anvil! The Story of Anvil may rock hard, it's not just shredding to the converted. Gervasi knows the film's about a metal band, but " ... there's so much more, and that's what's been really exciting for us; people know it's going to be a fun experience, but I don't think they understand the real level of emotion."


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Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven. -- John Milton, Paradise Lost

I'd rather be a king below than a servant above. -- Anvil, '666'

... Which is all well and good, but what about serving in hell? Anvil! The Story of Anvil is not just better than you'd think that a documentary about a 30-year-old Canadian metal band led by two lifelong friends in their 50's would be. It's better than most music documentaries. It's better than most documentaries, period. I am about as metal as your aunt, and I was spellbound by Anvil! The Story of Anvil -- laughing, yes, but also inspired to think and feel, literally moved to the edge of tears by the complicated-simple, stupid-smart, goofy-serious story that it tells thanks to Sascha Gervasi's inspired and impressive direction. Anvil! The Story of Anvil is a documentary about a metal band, sure. And The Catcher in the Rye's about baseball.

Robb Reiner (drums) and Steve "Lips" Ludlow (guitar, vocals) met at 14 near Toronto; they formed a band. Anvil played heavy metal -- loud, fast -- and were both ahead of their time and behind the curve. They paved the way for bands like Slayer, Megadeth, Anthrax and Metallica (Scott Ian of Anthrax, Lars Ulrich of Metallica and Lemmy from Motorhead appear briefly to either endorse Anvil's music or character), but they watched as the bands they inspired went on to sell millions of records as Ulrich points out, "I don't know if it was an isolationist thing, because of the Canadian element. ..." Singing about being " ... from the land of the ice and snow ..." worked out remarkably well for Led Zeppelin; actually being from a land of ice and snow may have hurt Anvil's chances.

Whatever it was, it held them back. Anvil! The Story of Anvil begins with footage from a Japanese 1984 supertour, with a packed stadium being rocked by The Scorpions, Bon Jovi, Whitesnake ... and Anvil. Jump to the present, and Anvil are playing a sports bar in the Toronto suburbs for Lips's 50th birthday. It has been a long way from rocking the globe to playing in a sports bar with an acoustic tile drop ceiling. And, as Gervasi's film makes abundantly clear, there have been more than a few bumps on the way down. Anvil haven't stopped -- still playing, still writing, still trying. And the questions hover in the air: What keeps Anvil going? If their long-awaited time of glory didn't happen then, what makes the band think it's going to happen now? What's crueler -- dashed hopes or undashed ones?

Odds and ends from Monday:

• For those of you who often wonder whatever happened to Elisabeth Shue and brother Andrew Shue, well -- wait -- who?  Oh yeah, she was in The Karate Kid and he was in, um, Melrose Place. Now I remember. Cool. Variety announced that both siblings will play roles in the film Gracie, to be directed by Elisabeth's husband, Davis Guggenheim. Supposedly, the pic is based on events that occurred when the Shue's were young and will center on a young girl who fights to play on the boy's varsity soccer team after her champion brother dies. Eh, I'd rather another Adventure in Babysitting.
• Okay, I need to ask this question: Why is it that every single horror script I report on has to do with someone wandering into a strange and mysterious place? Why can't we have any scary films that take place in, say, JC Penny? Anyway, Gold Circle Films has pre-emptively picked up the spec script, Anvil, written by Adam Sussman. While, unfortunately, pic doesn't take place in JC Penny, it does revolve around a girl who stumbles into a remote Kansas town and learns that everyone there is really weird. Blah blah blah -- stuff happens.
• Contrary to earlier reports that had Oliver Stone directing a film about the 2002 coup in Venezuela, the director said today that he is most certainly not involved in any way, shape or form. During his weekly television show on Sunday, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez claimed a movie was in the works, that Stone was involved and took pleasure in the fact that the United States would probably be against it. After all, Chavez feels the US created the coup in order to force the trouble-making leader out of office. Even if Stone is planning to make this picture, with his ode to 9/11 about to make a splash on the big screen, now wouldn't be the best time to announce a movie that may or may not turn out to be anti-American.