What I’d really like to see is a story of 90-year-old Jerry Langford, the late-night talk show star who was kidnapped by Rupert Pupkin back in the early ’80s. Jerry is semi-retired but still plugging away, involved in real estate and other ventures, still playing golf, still on the cryptic and blunt side, still disdainful when the occasion requires and is no one’s idea of a gentle or lovable fellow. And yet he’s largely unbent and, for an old guy, still full of beans. And he’s nice with kids and dogs.
Does “mean” Mr. Langford feel badly about still being flinty and not all that considerate with each and every person he deals with? Okay, maybe, but he’s ecstatic about the fact that he’s alive and crackling and living a pretty good life for a guy born in 1926. He’s on Twitter and Facebook and owns over 300 Blurays. And he has a 79 year-old girlfriend that he “puts it to” every so often (i.e., extra-strength Cialis), and he rides a bicycle and walks two or three miles every day and lifts weights. Who needs love, kindness and forgiveness when you’ve got your health? Langford pushes on! But watch out when he’s in a bad mood.
Daniel Noah‘s Max Rose was supposed to screen for Cannes Film Festival press in 2013, but it was pulled at the last minute. Mark Urman‘s Paladin is debuting it limited before going VOD — New York on 9.2, Los Angeles on 9.8. How about a screening sometime soon, guys?
Boilerplate copy: “Jerry Lewis takes on his first leading role in nearly two decades and proves he’s still ‘got it’ in Max Rose. Lewis plays a newly widowed grandfather in this bittersweet, character-centric drama about a retired jazz pianist who searches for answers after learning that his recently departed wife was in love with another man for the duration of their 65-year marriage.”
Written and directed by Daniel Noah, pic costars Kevin Pollak, Kerry Bishe, Illeana Douglas, Claire Bloom and Dean Stockwell.
Lewis excerpt from 1995 Sundance Film Festival interview: “I sat down with Jerry Lewis to talk about Funny Bones. The interview happened at the Stein-Erickson. Right away you could feel the testy fear-factor vibe, but I enjoy that as it sharpens your game. Several people (publicists, etc.) were sitting and standing around us in a semi-circle; it was almost like we were performing.
“A year or two earlier I’d read and enjoyed Nick Tosches‘ Dino: Living High in the Dirty Business of Dreams, so I asked Lewis if he’d read it. He had, he said, and I knew right away I’d stepped into it. The book was hurtful to a friend, he said, and that was the end of it. ‘Ask me something else,’ he said, steam literally hissing out of his head like a radiator, ‘before I get pissed.’ Before?
“But I liked Lewis overall. He’s tough, shrewd, funny, been around, done it all, seen it all.”
