|
The following feature is courtesy of James (Jim) Burns who wrote began writing features for magazines, when he was in his teens. In 1980, Jim's first cover story for Jim Steranko's PREVUE was a look at that summer's explosion of rock movies.
"If there's an irony, here, it's that the next planned film of XANADU's executive producer, Lee Kramer (Olivia Netwon John's manager, at the time, and former boyfriend), was Jack Kirby's and Stan Lee's THE SILVER SURFER. Twenty-seven years later, from other producers, XANADU has opened on Broadway, and Marvel Comics' Surfer finally made his celluloid debut in this summer's FANTASTIC FOUR sequel...."We hope you enjoy Jim's feature."XANADU started off as a roller-disco picture," reveals Lee Kramer (the film's executive producer and Olivia Newton John's personal manager). "Larry Gordon, its producer, and Joel Silver, the involved Universal executive, never had it in mind to even TRY to attract stars of Olivia's or Gene Kelly's stature. The script came to us through our AGENTS."Once we showed some interest in XANADU, the project began to go through a complete metamorphosis. We eliminated disco ALTOGETHER. WE really wanted to make an old fashoioned Hollywood musical. Without going into much detail, the plot concerns a young man (Michael Beck), who has the dream of building an incredible 'fun palace'. Olivia plays one of the nine muses from Greek mythology--a kind of angel--who comes down to earth and helps these dreams come true. Gene Kelly plays an old man type character. All of these movies have made the movie something SPECIAL. XANADU now has a pristine elegance."Videos