Sunset Strip

[joe17]

Came across a copy of a book called 'What Just Happened?' by Art Linson, the other day. It is a sort of memoire of his life as a Hollywood producer. Aha, I thought , wonder if this has anything on 'Sunset Strip'. Sure enough, chapter 13 is entitled 'Sunset Stripped Naked' and gives a brief and world-weary account of the film's fate. It is a pretty sorry tale of infighting amongst the suits. Linson had fallen out with FOX and other execs weren't too keen on releasing his film. 'Just exactly who is this film for, Art?' and 'The Test Scores are bad, man!' seemed to be all they had to say.
Anna is mentioned and not in negative terms; indeed she probably got this role as a result of her audition for 'Fight Club'. As the history of 'Sunset Strip' proves, and the current WGA strike is proving, sometimes an actor's career is just so out of their own hands

When I watched 'Sunset Strip' for the first time the thing that most struck me was how it was really not that bad a movie. I was expecting a total dog.

(As a side point, Linson states that 'Sunset Strip' probably ended up losing FOX less money than the similarly themed and much more acclaimed 'Almost Famous' lost Columbia/Dreamworks at the box office. Subsequent DVD sales may be a different story. )

[davec]

Yeah, that's an interesting insight.

I well remember picking up a VHS copy of Sunset Strip at a rental store in Seattle in 2001, well before it ever saw the light of day in the UK.

I sat and watched it with a bottle of wine and my favourite companion and we really enjoyed it. Although set in the States the themes of guitar rock, bands and smoky gigs, young egos trying to make their way in life and pre-AIDs sexual freedom were very familiar and nostalgic to us And the sweet guy got the cute girl, so a happy ending too

Besides that Anna looked great (I liked her short hair phase) and was in the film a lot and had a character that held its own within the cast - unlike my fears for her latest outing as Will Ferrell's 'love interest'....yuk!

Yes, I've always thought Sunset Strip deserved a better fate.

[joe17]

davec said:

Yeah, that's an interesting insight.

I well remember picking up a VHS copy of Sunset Strip at a rental store in Seattle in 2001, well before it ever saw the light of day in the UK.

Besides that Anna looked great (I liked her short hair phase) and was in the film a lot and had a character that held its own within the cast - unlike my fears for her latest outing as Will Ferrell's 'love interest'....yuk!

Yes, I've always thought Sunset Strip deserved a better fate.

Can't claim to have watched the film in Seattle. (You've gotta love a name-dropper! ;D Bet it was raining though, davec.)

Agree with you completely about Anna in this. Totally cute. And also about the 'love interest' role in the Ferrell film. 'Yuk', indeed!

[Bernardo]

Finally got a hold of a copy. Not only reminded me of "Almost Famous", but of "Singles", in the case of the nerdy rocker (Matt Dillon in that one, Leto in this), the plots interconecting people that don't necessarily know each other in a city or neighbourhood. The film aesthetics are similar to Cameron Crowe's but I guess he's a better writer. Thought "Sunset" was made to be a nice entertaining movie, and not a deep study into the lives of those troubled people (and let's not forget the screenplay is from the same guy who wrote "The Doors" for Oliver Stone). It's a pitty.

Anna is absolutely adorable. I think that's the finest she's ever looked, and sometimes her eyes were so intense that she struck me as an actress from the roaring twenties. Perfect. As for the DVD release, I can't imagine what might have gone wrong. As far as I know, this is one of the most difficult movies of Anna to find.