Hook

[Uhfgood]

I just signed up so I could post in this thread, although I have checked the forum before several times.

When we first heard of it (namely me and my Dad) we thought it was a bad idea to have Peter Pan all grown up. That sort of contradicts Peter Pan's whole being as he is the boy who never grows up. However after watching it we all loved it.

I think the reason Julia Roberts was in it was because originally it was going to be a Disney film, and Roberts was hot off of Pretty Woman. The story goes that the budget ballooned out of proportion and Disney bowed out.

Personally I think it was because Spielberg wanted into Disney ever since he was young. In fact you can see in nearly every Spielberg movie up until about let's say maybe Jurassic Park was at least one Disney reference. (There may have been others, but some his movies I didn't see -- and actually AI had a reference in it). The ones I can name off the top of my head are Close Encounters in the theme music that plays over the credits you can hear a few bars of When you wish upon a star. I can't remember E.T.'s reference (I'd have to watch it again to see, and it may not have one), in the movie "1941" there's Pinocchio playing on a theatre in one scene (as that's when Pinoc was made), I think Mickey Mouse was mentioned in one of the Indy Movies (but don't quote me on that), Jurassic Park had a comment about the Pirates of the Caribbean ride (something about not eating the riders), Back to the Future (which Spielberg produced), had Davy Crockett song playing on a jukebox in the diner (just the first one), Innerspace also produced by him, has a thing at the end of the movie where the computer screen has two options 1. eat me, 2. drink me which is a reference to Alice in Wonderland (and one could argue it's merely a reference to the books, but knowing Spielberg that was his Disney reference, as the movie was actually released by Warner Bros.), There were some others that I can't remember offhand except AI has that bit in the end about Pinocchio. To come back to my point, I believe at several times Spielberg has wanted to come in and/or take over Disney and he almost could have if Hook had been released by them, but that's just my personal take. I apologize for the length though as this is my first post here.

I think Hook would be perfect if they used computer to replace Julia Roberts with Heather Locklear (just use computer to make her look younger) and to edit Ruffio out entirely, man I couldn't stand that guy when I first saw the movie.

Other than those I think the movie would be Excellent on Blu. There's one thing though about Spielberg, and that's he either doesn't like to revisit his movies, or is plain anti-technology. He doesn't do ANY audio commentaries, and rarely any interviews about movies in particular. (He does interviews, but on the whole he doesn't tend to go back over his old stuff. This was also a Walt Disney quality -- He would never have made sequels, because once it was done it was done to him). And the reason I also think he's a bit anti-technology was that he generally tells the effects guys to do their stuff, whereas someone like George Lucas has to have his hands in everything. (And yes I know about the replacing shotguns with walkie-talkies in ET -- this is not really about technology though). Close Encounters was done because it is owned by Columbia Pictures, which is owned by Sony. And Hook is/was Tristar which is also owned by Sony which means there's a good chance it will be released on Blu.

Sorry for such a long first post, I hope it didn't annoy anyone too much.

Keith Weatherby II