Tag: Movies

  • Alumination: Documentary illuminates the story of an American icon

    Icons of the American roadways are subject to debate: Corvette or Model T? Route 66 or the modern interstates? Waffle House or Stuckey’s? Standard Oil or Shell? Paper maps or GPS?

    But there may be one road-going icon that stand alone, above debate. It’s the Airstream trailer, and “Alumination,” a documentary film about the aluminum-riveted icon is scheduled to premiere in October (though read on to discover how you can view the movie before its official debut).

    Actually, the film was scheduled to premiere months ago, but that was before the coronavirus pandemic put such debuts, and people such as actor-turned-filmmaker Eric Bricker, on hold.

    Alumination poster

    Alumination poster

    Actually, Bricker isn’t on hold, he and his team have been working on their next film project. Bricker is a native of St. Louis, where his grandmother took him to a lot of movies and where he was part of a high school choir. He was encouraged to try out for the school’s production of “Guys and Dolls” and landed the leading role of Sky Masterson.

    He enrolled at Indiana University to study business, only to end up majoring in English literature with minors in theater and art history and acting in a production of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.” Movies seen with his grandmother sparked his interest in Hollywood, and he moved there after college, only to discover he would rather make movies than appear in them. After 15 years, he also discovered he’d rather make those movies from a base in Austin, Texas, where he’s lived since 2007.

    Bricker and his co-producer, Lisa Hughes, premiered their first joint project, “Visual Acoustics: The Modernism of Julius Schulman,” with Dustin Hoffman narrating the story of architectural photographer Julius Shulman. It was Hughes who called Bricker in 2013 and suggested the Airstream trailer as their next film project.

    “That’s where the adventure began,” Bricker recalled, admitting that he and Hughes not only discovered the story of the popular aluminum trailers, but also that of their creator, Wally Byam, and the community of Airstream owners.

    “We were fascinated by these iconic travel trailers, the iconic design piece and the iconic brand, that was our point of departure,” Bricker said. “But once we jumped in, the thing that really stood out was the people that use these trailers. We didn’t know about the community. We didn’t know what we were in for, the cult of Airstream. It’s the most welcoming world, a combination of enthusiasm and an openness and willingness to share.”

    If that sounds like the collector car community, it makes sense. Airstream trailers are cherished by their owners much like collector cars by their owners. In some cases, Airstream owners have sought out vintage cars or trucks to pull their vintage trailers.

    “Everyone, even Generation Z, has emblazoned in their memories Airstream travel trailers,” Bricker added.

    But the Airstream community wasn’t the only surprise the filmmakers encountered.

    Alumination movie poster

    Alumination movie poster

    “The story and the spirit of Wally Byam,” Bricker said of perhaps his biggest surprise in the long process. “He’s an unsung American entrepreneurial hero. There aren’t too many individuals who have had his sense of vision, the rigor he would apply, continually striving to make things better, weathering the hard times, doing these caravans for marketing. I’m very happy we had the opportunity to tell the Airstream story, his story.”

    However, figuring out how to braid together the various strings was one reason it took so long for the film to go from inspiration to final cut. What finally brought everything together, Bricker said, was a photograph of Byam touching an Airstream, “almost like he’s installing his spirit into the trailer, and I do think the travel trailers carry the spirit of Wally Byam.” A spirit, he added, activated as well by the people who use those trailers.

    “Alumination,” which runs 77 minutes and is narrated by Kate Pierson of The B-52s, was scheduled to debut in the spring of 2020 at the Newport Beach Film Festival, which now will be held in October 2021.

    However, you don’t have to wait until then to see the movie. Silverstream Filmworks offers private screenings for groups of 50 or more, and if you want will offer question-and-answer sessions with the producers as well.

    “Independent film is tough,” Bricker noted. “If you want to achieve financial freedom, I would not recommend going down the documentary path. But for the majority of documentary filmmakers, it’s passion, following their curiosity.”

    Curious about Airstream? Gather a group of 49 or more friends now, or wait until this fall when the movie makes its official debut at the Newport Beach festival. And then? The producers, of course, hope for a theatrical release, followed by a run on one of the digital platforms such as Netflix or Amazon, and by fans buying copies for their film libraries, perhaps even to view yet again in some wilderness location while camping in their Airstream trailers.

    This article, written by Larry Edsall, was originally published on ClassicCars.com, an editorial partner of Motor Authority.

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  • Here’s a behind the scenes look at “Fast & Furious 9” vehicular carnage

    After over a year of coronavirus-induced delays, “F9,” the ninth “Fast and Furious” movie, is finally scheduled to hit theaters June 25. In the meantime, this video previews the vehicular carnage you can expect in the latest film in the franchise.

    The short video includes some footage we’ve seen in previous trailers, cut together with behind-the-scenes shots to give an idea of how different stunts were performed.

    Earlier trailers also revealed that the plot will center around the appearance of Jacob Toretto, played by John Cena, the previously unmentioned brother of Vin Diesel’s Dominic Toretto. The siblings seem to have some issues that can only be worked out by destroying a lot of cars.

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    The vehicular casualties shown here include a Chevrolet Nova, Jeep Gladiator, numerous police cars and military vehicles, and both classic and modern Dodge Chargers. We also get some glimpses of a crash during an oval-track stock-car race, indicating “Fast and Furious 9” will revisit the death of the Torettos’ father, which hasn’t been mentioned since the first movie.

    The video also offers a better look at the A90 Toyota Supra driven by Sung Kang’s character, Han, who appears to be alive despite his apparent onscreen death in “Tokyo Drift” (and shown again in “Furious 7”). The Supra wears a shade of orange similar to the iconic A80 Supra from the first movie, with a black stripe reminiscent of the Veilside wide-body Mazda RX-7 Han drove in “Tokyo Drift.”

    Other trailers also showed a Ford Mustang Shelby GT350R and a rocket-powered Pontiac Fiero, so there should be plenty to see when the latest “Fast and Furious” movie finally premieres next month.

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  • “Fast Five” 1963 Corvette Grand Sport replica for sale

    The “Fast and the Furious” franchise may have started out with tuner cars, but by the time “Fast Five” premiered in 2011, the series had expanded to include cars like this 1963 Chevrolet Corvette Grand Sport replica, which will be auctioned off online by Volo Auto Sales starting April 14.

    First spotted by Motor1, the Grand Sport replica only appeared briefly in “Fast Five.” It was one of several cars stolen off a moving train by the heroes, only to plummet off a cliff to its doom shortly after. Still, the Grand Sport is a bona fide movie car—and a cool one at that.

    The original Grand Sport was a heavily-modified version of the C2 Corvette designed for racing—hence the numerous cooling ducts, bulging fender flares, and fixed headlights. Only five original cars were built—two convertibles and three coupes—establishing enough of a reputation that Chevy brought back the Grand Sport name for variants of recent Corvettes.

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    The replica was built by Mongoose Motorsports, which is licensed by General Motors to build these cars. It has a custom tubular chassis with C4 Corvette suspension and a GM Performance 5.7-liter V-8 crate engine that makes 380 hp, according to the listing. It’s also an automatic, which isn’t uncommon for movie cars as it makes them easier to move around on set.

    This is one of three surviving Grand Sport replicas from the film, and was used as a “hero car” for close-up shots, according to the listing. That means it likely got the most screen time, and is closest in appearance to what you see on screen. Movie productions generally use multiple cars, which are only made to look or function as good as they need to for a particular scene. For example, a car used for stunts might not have a full interior, because that wouldn’t be shown in a given shot.

    The auction house expects this movie car to sell for between $95,000 and $100,000, while Mongoose advertises new cars (without the movie pedigree) at “under $100,000.” Either way, the “Fast Five” car should be a lot less than one of the five original Grand Sports, which have seven-figure valuations.

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