[Mb-civic] The Shining is the new "feel good" comedy hit of the fall?

[Jef Bek]

Check out the trailer in the middle of this article!

NEW YORK TIMES

September 30, 2005

His 'Secret' Movie Trailer Is No Secret Anymore
 
By DAVID M. HALBFINGER

 LOS ANGELES, Sept. 29 ‹ Robert Ryang, 25, a film editor¹s assistant in
Manhattan, graduated from Columbia three years ago with a double major in
film studies and psychology. This week, he got an eye-opening lesson in
both.

Since 2002, Mr. Ryang has worked for one of the owners of P.S. 260, a
commercial postproduction house, cutting commercials for the likes of
Citizens Bank, Cingular and the TriBeCa Film Festival.

A few weeks back, he said, he entered a contest for editors¹ assistants
sponsored by the New York chapter of the Association of Independent Creative
Editors. The challenge? Take any movie and cut a new trailer for it ‹ but in
an entirely different genre. Only the sound and dialogue could be modified,
not the visuals, he said.

Mr. Ryang chose ³The Shining,² Stanley Kubrick¹s 1980 horror film starring
Jack Nicholson and Shelley Duvall. In his hands, it became a saccharine
comedy ‹ about a writer struggling to find his muse and a boy lonely for a
father. Gilding the lily, he even set it against ³Solsbury Hill,² the
way-too-overused Peter Gabriel song heard in comedies billed as
life-changing experiences, like last year¹s ³In Good Company.²

Mr. Ryang won the contest, and about 10 days ago, he said, he sent three
friends a link to a ³secret site² on his company¹s Web site where they could
watch his entry (www.ps260.com/molly/SHINING%20FINAL.mov).

One of them, Mr. Ryang said, posted it on his little-watched blog. And that
was that. Until this week, when he was hit by a tsunami of Internet
interest.

On Wednesday, Mr. Ryang said, his secret site got 12,000 hits. By Thursday
the numbers were even higher, his film was being downloaded and linked to on
countless other sites, it had cracked the top 10 most popular spoofs on
www.ifilm.com, and a vice president at a major Hollywood studio had called
up his office, scouting for new talent.

³He said it¹s being circulated everywhere in the film community,² Mr. Ryang
said of the executive, not wanting to name the man for fear of alienating
him. ³He wanted to know who I was, and if I had any creative ideas. I told
him I¹d put together a reel.²

Mr. Ryang said that he was blown away by the experience, and that his boss
wasn¹t exactly angry, despite the computer system¹s nearly having crashed,
because of all the attention he had won for P.S. 260.

Though, it seems, the attention was directed more specifically at Mr. Ryang
‹ who is suddenly being forced to rethink his future as an assistant.

³People have been calling producers here, asking about who made it,² he
said. ³I really didn¹t realize how fast the world moves.²