FrankOz Tagged Articles at Cinematical

As any hardcore Little Shop of Horrors fan can tell you -- and there are tons of us -- the 1986 cinematic version once had a much darker ending ... one that was much more in line with the dual source material of this musical and this Corman flick. But since this was 1986 and Frank Oz's movie had a lot of funny people in it ... a few test audiences deemed the finale too dark, and so we got a so-so ending tacked on to an otherwise excellent musical comedy.

When Warner Bros. first released Little Shop of Horrors on DVD, the original ending was included as part of the special features -- but that release was recalled right quick, which means that most of us actually own this particular DVD. But now, through the magic of YouTube + Cinematical, we can finally sit down and pick through the original ending of Little Shop. Obviously it's not "final print" material in any way, but you can definitely get enough to make you wish, oh I dunno, that someone would toss some money at the flick and let Frank Oz re-create a director's cut.

So if you own the "original" WB DVD, well goody for you. The rest of us can watch the fascinating footage right after the jump...

It's not just because he provided the voices souls for such wonderful characters as Fozzie Bear, Grover, Cookie Monster, Miss Piggy and (of course) Yoda that my generation adores Frank Oz. And it's not just because of his strangely amusing cameos in movies like The Blues Brothers, Trading Places and Spies Like Us, either. Nope, it's mainly because Frank Oz is such a consistent comedy director that we keep cheering for the man's efforts. Well, he was really consistent for a while there anyway.

After honing his directorial skills on The Dark Crystal and The Muppets Take Manhattan, Mr. Oz probably got the Little Shop of Horrors gig just because of his vast experience with complicated puppetry. Who knew the guy would deliver one of the slickest, silliest and most entertaining musical comedies ... maybe ever? Three more very solid comedies would follow -- Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, What About Bob? and Housesitter -- before Frank tackled family fare once more with The Indian in the Cupboard. Then he delivered Bowfinger, The Score and The Stepford Wives. After that last effort the man was primed for some redemption.

In a move that serves to remind us that MGM is now primarily a distributor, the company has acquired the rights to Death at a Funeral, a dark comedy from independent production company Sidney Kimmel Entertainment, one of the indie groups that signed an early, non-exclusive distribution deal with MGM. Though MGM owns domestic rights, international sales remain with SKE, which will try to sell the film at Cannes.

The movie will be direct by Frank Oz, and "revolves around a dysfunctional Brit family as they gather to mourn the passing of their patriarch." Needless to say, what with the film being a comedy and all, things don't go as smoothly as planned at the funeral. Oz will have a pretty good cast on his hands when production begins, including Matthew Macfadyen, Peter Dinklage and Ewen Bremner, who you may remember as the homelier of the two Trainspotting Ewans (he was Spud).