People love creating mashups of Wes Anderson’s unique style with other famous films. And we love to watch them (see the Star Wars/Wes Anderson mashup). For this mashup, editor Steve Ramsden stitched together Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel with Stanley Kubrick’s masterful horror film The Shining. The end result is quite fantastic. Ramsden was able to play around with some of the aspect ratios of the two films, and apply some hue shifting to match Anderson’s pastel color palette. Utilizing similarly framed shots from both films (watch for the tracking shot of Shelley Duvall walking into a room seamlessly blended with Ralph Fiennes walking through the room), Ramsden imagines The Grand Overlook Hotel—giving The Shining a slightly comedic tone, or The Grand Budapest Hotel a darker touch, depending on how you look at it.

Wes Anderson’s The Shining

Mark Romanek (Never Let Me Go) is in negotiations with Warner Bros. to direct Overlook Hotel, a prequel to Stephen King’s novel The Shining, made famous by Stanley Kubrick’s classic horror rendition.

Walking Dead writer Glenn Mazzara has a script ready. The film is based on King’s original prologue for the book, which was cut before publication in 1977. Set in the early 20th century, the film will follow The Overlook’s founder, Bob T. Watson, as he establishes the resort in the Colorado Rockies, bringing his family to live there with him. Similar to the premise in The Shining, there’s sure to be insight into how The Overlook became the haunted hotel that eventually turns Jack Torrance into an axe-weilding maniac out for his family’s blood.

With King releasing a sequel to The Shining this past year, Doctor Sleep, and with 2012’s Room 237, the interest surrounding one of the most terrifying horror stories ever told seems never to wane. Whether or not Romanek can hold a light to Kubrick’s masterpiece isn’t as clear.

Taking a cue from Garfield Minus Garfield, special effects artist Richard Trammell’s digital removal of Tyler Durden from a classic Fight Club scene has been creeping us out since he released the clip last week. Now, Trammell’s followed it up with an eerie version of a scene from The Shining between Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) and Overlook Hotel caretaker Delbert Grady (Phillip Stone), with Grady scrubbed out á la Durden.

The effect is disturbing and kinda cool in the Fight Club clip, but the removal of Grady makes Nicholson’s already insanely nutty performance even spookier. Unlike the Durden clip, Trammell leaves Grady’s dialog audible, saying that the character’s existence is “a bit murkier” than Durden’s.

Movies on my wish list for the “Trammell Treatment”: The Sixth Sense, A Beautiful Mind, Angels in the Outfield, The Lion King, Swimming Pool, The Machinist, Play it Again Sam

Check out Trammell’s Vimeo page.

The Shining minus Delbert Grady from Richard Trammell

Fight Club minus Tyler Durden from Richard Trammell.

It has been over 30 years since Stanley Kubrick blessed cinema with his Stephen King adaptation of The Shining but many people are still debating what the hidden meanings behind the film are. That is where the documentary Room 237 by Rodney Ascher comes in to play. The documentary obsessively explores several different theories behind the film. Some seemed like far stretches but at the same time pointed out some interesting references to make their case. If you are infatuated with Stanley Kubrick or just simply love The Shining then you will no doubt find the documentary interesting.

The first thing you will probably noticed about the documentary is that it is done entirely with voice overs. None of the people talking or being interviewed are actually shown. Instead, everything that they are describing is used with source material, mostly scenes from The Shinning as well as other Kubrick films such as Eyes Wide Shut and 2001: A Space Odyssey. This makes for somewhat of an awkward experience that might be best described as unconventional.

One man (Bill Blakemore) is convinced that the film is largely about the genocide of the American Indians. He points out that there are many references to Indians in the film, from paintings on the wall to a baking powder can in the stock room that features an Indian on it. Then he later points out that The Shining mentions that the hotel was built on an Indian burial ground which could explain the famous blood from the elevator scene.

Jay Weidner explains that his background of being a historian with a focus in Germany has him to believe there was a lot of sub-text in the film that referenced the holocaust. This theory first came into his mind when he saw that Jack Nicholson’s typewriter was a German model. He mentions that it may seem arbitrary but brings up a good point saying that nothing in Kubrick’s film is arbitrary. Then seeing the number 42 appear in the film multiple times was the other big clue as it was the year the Nazi’s did a lot of terrible things.

One of my favorite topics that is examined is the little boy riding his tricycle. There are three different scenes in which the camera follows the little boy on his tricycle. The first one is a rather simple loop that is one continuous tracking shot. The second shot following riding is slightly more complex on the route that he takes before stopping to stare at Room 237. It is not a simple loop as before and he is on the second level of the hotel. The final shot of following him around is the most bizarre as it starts out on one level but then cuts to him riding upstairs that sort of links the previous shots together. The documentary explores more in depth meanings to what exactly could be happening metaphorically for the boy on those rides.

Conspiracy theories will love this film, in one theory someone links the Apollo 11 fake moon landings to the work of Kubrick. It seems a bit over the top but it was still fun to hear. The man describes how 2001: A Space Odyssey was funded by the government to ultimately stage the moon landing. He goes into some detail about how this relates to Kubrick not being able to tell his wife and linking that to The Shining. He points out that the boy had an Apollo 11 sweater on in the famous scene of the ball rolling up to him while he is playing. The theory comes to an end when he makes the argument that the real reason why Kubrick changed the room number from 217 in the book to 237 is that 237,000 miles has long thought to be the distance from earth to the moon.

What I can to realize from watching this documentary is that The Shining is so complex and ambiguous, it can really have an infinite amount of different sub-text and meanings behind it. If you look hard and close enough you could probably make a case for just about anything you want. I think that only speaks to how powerful, brilliant and complex of a film The Shining really is.

While Room 237 is a compelling documentary that searches for deep (sometimes too deep) hidden meanings behind the mastermind of Kubrick and his films, it does not offer anything but theories. These theories range from completely fascinating to borderline ridiculous. The film feels most like commentary you find on a special feature DVD. Though Room 237 definitely makes you appreciate Kubrick’s work, the documentary Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures is a lot more effective. You walk away with some possible hidden meanings of the film but ultimately with a strong desire to watch The Shining right away.

To say Beyond the Black Rainbow is trippy is an understatement, I have a feeling some LSD trips are less intense as this. It is visually stunning with plenty of color filters, distortions, and off-the wall compositions that takes you to a futuristic alternate reality which makes you feel like you are the one on drugs. The only other film I can say had this same effect on me is Enter The Void. Beyond the Black Rainbow will take you on a trip, whether it is a good or bad one is up for you to decide. It is a midnight movie that has cult classic written all over it.

Opening with an infomercial style video set in 1983, Dr. Mercurio Arboria (Scott Hylands) states the purpose of the Arboria Institute. Their goal is to find the “perfect way for people to achieve happiness, contentment, inner peace.” The Institute claims to have found a way to make that dream a reality through their unique practices. I found the whole opening similar eerily similar to the Dharma Initiative training videos from the television series Lost (one of my all-time favorite shows).

Inside the state of the art facilities of Arboria Institute is the administrator Barry Nyle (Michael Rogers) who speaks into the microphone that sounds to the other side of the glass where our film’s mute protagonist Elena (Eva Allan) sits with her head hanging down. She does not look up but rather just sits and listens to what Barry has to say. Almost always he is trying to get a response out of her by saying something like how sorry he was that she never got to meet her mother and how beautiful she was.

Barry is a breathy speaker who seems to have special powers over his patients which he may or may not get from the pills that he takes himself. He is not the only one that contains special powers but no one but he is able to look through the eyes of God, as he puts it. He sees what others cannot, beautiful things like a black rainbows.

Then the film goes off for an hour on a highly stylized head-trip that makes you wonder if the experiment is really on you. Director Pano Cosmatos takes you on a hypnotic trip into an alternate reality on a level that few can achieve through cinema. It is only the beginning and the end that there is much of a plot and subsequently when reality sets back in, which is it’s biggest downfall.

Apparently at one of the Q&A’s, someone asked Cosmatos, “Can you help me understand better” and the first time filmmaker responded in a deadpan tone, “I don’t think I can.” This makes me believe that the director intended the film to not be one that someone understands but rather experiences.

The score is easily the best I have heard this year so far and will likely remain that way. Without it the film would not be the same, it sets the ominous feeling that lingers in the film. It was a score so perfectly fitting that even the synth masters themselves, Daft Punk, would have a hard time replicating the mood.

I think it would be fair to draw some comparisons to Stanley Kubrick’s 2001 Space Odyssey after watching Beyond the Black Rainbow. There is the obvious futuristic aspect where machines with flashing red buttons have tremendous power in a bright white minimalistic environment. Then you have the eerie repetitive soundtrack that accompanies the film nearly the entire time. Even the mood was unusual, creepy, and peculiar, like often found in Kubrick films.

Beyond the Black Rainbow more feels like a dream than anything else, scratch that, a nightmare. There is little to no plot as it ditches everything that is conventional for avant garde. Films like this, ones not driven by story but rather an experience, are the ones that you walk away from not knowing exactly how you feel about them because they are tough to analysis. One thing is for sure, it will likely be the most original film you see in a few years’ time.

Award winning screenwriter Aaron Sorkin has been confirmed to write the new Steve Job biopic simply named Steve Jobs. Aaron Sorkin won an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay for The Social Network last year and will hope to continue his success with the screenplay of former Apple CEO visionary Steve Jobs. The film will be based off the biography by Walter Isaacson. [Playlist]

Which leads into the next topic, former That 70’s Show star Ashton Kutcher will be portraying the late-great Steve Jobs in a completely separate film than the one mentioned above. A few pictures have recently been leaked, check them out and see if you think he can pull it off. He has big shoes to fill. [Filmschool Rejects]

Paul Reubens confirms the new “Pee-Wee Herman” movie will start shooting soon. This new film would be the third installment of the franchise that began with the 1985 cult classic “Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure” followed by “Big Top Pee-Wee” in 1988. [Coming Soon]

In case you have been living under a rock this week, Cannes Film Festival is going on right now and reviews are starting to pour in from around the web. The staff here at Way Too Indie are working on compiling a list of our most anticipated films for this year’s festival.

The director who brought us Pineapple Express and the TV show Eastbound and Down, David Gordon Green’s latest film will be a remake of Dario Argento’s 1977 horror classic Suspiria. To lead the film will be Isabella Fuhrman who already has one horror film experience from Orphan. [IFC]

Paste Magazine reports that a Brooklyn based indie band named Here We Go Magic found and picked up John Waters hitchhiking on an Ohio highway. The infamous indie/arthouse director John Waters had been quoted to say that hitchhiking is “a great way to have sex.” It would be shocking if it was any other director, but for Waters it seems about right. [Paste Magazine]

It is no secret that Stanley Kubrick was a bit of a control freak. He was careful about doing interviews, often opting to have full editorial control over his own quotes. This type of control and attention to detail is what made his films masterpieces. Moviefone has an interesting article on how Stanley Kubrick insisted that he took his own Newsweek cover, something that was never done. It’s part of an excellent three article installment on Stanley Kubrick. [Moviefone]

Moon is an imaginative space sci-fi thriller that won’t ever have anything more than a cult following. Which is really too bad because it deserves a little more credit than that. A little more.

Moon starts off with Sam Rockwell playing an astronaut, Sam Bell, who is working on a 3 year mining contract on the moon. The company he works for is gathering resources from the moon that provides Earth with valuable power resources. Sam is there alone with only his computer named GERTY whose voice is eerily done by Kevin Spacey.

It would be impossible to not compare this film with Stanley Kubrick’s classic, 2001: A Space Odyssey. The computer GERTY is very familiar to that of the intelligent computer HAL which is found in Kubrick’s film. There is also a scene near the beginning that has a shot of the earth with classical music in the background, which was perhaps director Duncan Jones’s not so subtle way of showing respect for 2001: A Space Odyssey.

I have to give Rockwell credit in that he basically had no human supporting actor throughout the entire movie, in that sense it’s sort of similar to Tom Hank’s performance in Cast Away. However, there were a few times in Moon where I thought the acting got a little awkward which is hard to explain without spoiling the movie.

It’s a beautifully depressing independent film that you don’t need to be a regular fan of the genre to enjoy, but you will have to be in the right mood to fully appreciate it.