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May 07, 2009
Michael Aushenker , Staff Writer
Call Neil Innes the missing link of the legendary six-man British comedy troupe Monty Python. Or perhaps Shemp to their Three Stooges. You'll also call him funny, outrageous, even musically inclined. The enigmatic Innes is the subject of a documentary, 'The Seventh Python,' which opens the Sixth Annual Pacific Palisades Film Festival on May 14.
'Neil's a great songwriter, a great comedian, and a great philosopher,' says 'Seventh''s director/co-producer, Burt Kearns. 'And all this while rejecting the star-making machinery, which is quite relevant today.'
With the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band in 1968, Innes recorded 'I'm The Urban Spaceman,' the group's only hit, which was produced by Paul McCartney.
'Neil appeared in The Beatles film 'Magical Mystery Tour,'' Kearns continues. 'He appeared in the last season of Monty Python's 'Flying Circus.' They did a parody of the Beatles called The Rutles. It was brought to 'Saturday Night Live' by Eric Idle in the late 1970s. The Rutles took on a life of its own.' Indeed, when 'Spamalot' arrives in L.A. in July, the Python musical will contain Innes' ditties ('Brave Sir Robin').
'Our film is a crowd-pleaser, with lots of laughs and songs,' Kearns says.
'How it came together, that's a movie unto itself,' says 'Seventh' co-producer Brett Hudson.
Kearns has lived in Pacific Palisades since 2000. And, in addition to 'Seventh Python''s director, the documentary has other local ties. Supervising producer Alison Holloway lives here (conveniently, Kearns' wife) and associate producer Joachim 'J.B.' Blunck''an Emmy-winning producer/director and former Palisadian''now resides in Malibu, where producer/musician Hudson (one of the original Hudson Brothers and an uncle of actress Kate Hudson) also lives. And, Kearns notes, 'My son Sam is a production assistant on the film.'
Blunck co-created the syndicated television show, 'A Current Affair,' which Kearns worked on in 1989, when syndication was awash in tabloid news magazines. Kearns joined 'A Current Affair' after three years as a producer/writer on 'Hard Copy.' ('I was kidnapped by a group of Australians,' Kearns facetiously describes his kangaroo jump to 'Affair'). Previous to 'Hard Copy,' Kearns worked for CBS News.
Since the tabloid news genre faded, with its aesthetics since appropriated by mainstream news programs ('48 Hours,' 'Dateline'), Kearns launched Tabloid Baby (www.tabloidbaby.blogspot.com), a Web site commenting on celebrities and media.
Kearns met Hudson in the late '90s while working on Miramax's 'The Best Money Can Buy.' They plugged away on the TV pilot for Harvey Weinstein, who was consumed with 'Shakespeare in Love''s Oscar campaign.
'We were afraid to interrupt him and give him the tape,' Kearns recalls. By the time Weinstein finally saw it, he was battling ABC over the short-lived 'Clerks' cartoon. 'Nothing came of our pilot,' Kearns says. 'But it was great, we had Bruce Vilanch writing on it.'
Kearns and Hudson formed Frozen Pictures, producing documentary-style programming, including 'All the President's Movies' for Bravo, Showtime's 'My First Time,' and 'Adults Only: The Secret History of the Other Hollywood,' which, after Court TV tried to bury it with a Sunday-night airing, pulled in the highest ratings for original programming in the channel's history.
'What Burt and I like to do,' Hudson says, 'is not give our point of view. We lay the truth out and let viewers decide.'
In 2006, Frozen released the Burt Reynolds comedy 'Cloud Nine.'
Originally from Connecticut, where he wrote for community newspapers in Richfield and Wilton, Kearns relocated to the Palisades from the Hollywood Hills.
'We moved here because we had a son,' says the Marquez Knolls resident. Today, Sam is 12 and a Paul Revere Middle School student, while daughter Sally Jade, 8, attends Marquez Elementary.
'Living near the beach is terrific,' Kearns says. 'We filmed 'Cloud Nine' on Will Rogers Beach near Temescal.'
Kearns got the idea for 'Seventh Python' while working on a doc called 'Death of a Beatle.'
'I went to London and traced John Lennon's life,' he says. 'The person I wanted to interview was the guy who played John Lennon in The Rutles.'
'As a musician, I listen to his melodies, his harmonics,' Hudson says. 'He's very clever. The guy had fame in front of him on a silver platter and he rejected it. Given my background, I find that unique.'
Kearns credits associate Bonnie Rose for playing a key role: 'Bonnie had brought him to Hollywood in 2002. We thought he'd be a good documentary subject.
'I don't like what tabloid television gave birth to, this whole culture of stalking celebrities. The film with Neil is an antidote to that, the way he could influence culture and not be a part of it.'
Some footage comes from Innes' 2002 Hollywood performances at 1600 and Lava Lounge, and a Melbourne, Australia appearance.
'Everything went into a box for a few years as we tried to raise money to finish it,' Kearns says. 'In 2007, we interviewed John Cleese. We finished the film in 2008.' In addition to Cleese, Kearns interviewed Pythons Idle and Michael Palin.
'We couldn't get Terry Gilliam [former Python/movie director],' Kearns adds, 'because he was out raising money for the movie Heath Ledger was supposed to do when he died.'
Musician Aimee Mann and cartoonist Matt Groening ('The Simpsons') also appear in 'Seventh.'
'It's not archival-looking black-and-white footage,' Kearns says. 'You're seeing the Pythons today.'
Last summer, 'Seventh Python' debuted at American Cinematheque's Mods and Rockers festival, and has since screened in Chicago, New Jersey, and at the Las Vegas Film Festival, where it won a Golden Ace Award.
Up next for Frozen: documentaries on Latin rocker Chris Montez, and on John Lennon's seven-month 'lost weekend,' with mistress May Pang. Last year, Hudson conquered throat cancer, and this inspired 'The Clinic,' about his journey to Germany to get cured. This is also in development, as is the pair's scripted comedy, 'Live From The Gaza Strip.'
For now, all eyes are on 'Seventh''s Palisades premiere.
'This is literally a homecoming,' Kearns says. 'To be invited to the festival is in itself a great honor. And then to be opening it!'
'The Seventh Python' screens with Jennifer Clary's short, 'The Christmas Conspiracy,' at 7 p.m., Pierson Playhouse, 941 Temescal Canyon Rd. Tickets: www.FriendsOfFilm.com. Visit www.TheSeventhPython.com
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