- Title: USA: JOE PESCI STARS IN 'EIGHT HEADS IN A DUFFEL BAG'
- Date: 4th April 1997
- Summary: KRISTY SWANSON ARRIVING SWANSON TALKING TO REPORTERS JOE PESCI TALKING TO REPORTERS PESCI (SOUNDBITE ENGLISH) SAYING NO, I DON'T RUN. ME? NO. I DON'T EVEN HAVE TO STAND AND RUN IN THIS MOVIE. I WALK, I SHOOT THE GUN AND EVERYBODY STOPS. I STOPPED THEM WITH THE GUN. I SMACKED A LOT OF PEOPLE, YOU KNOW, ALL THE KIDS (ENGLISH) DYAN CANNON ARRIVING AT PREMIERE CANNON (SOUNDBITE ENGLISH ) SAYING SO I JUST LOOK AT ONE OF THOSE HEADS WHICH IS ENOUGH TO MAKE YOU GO INTO SHOCK AND THEN FANTASISE ABOUT THE FURTHEST THING I CAN TAKE THAT AND STILL MAKE IT BELIEVABLE FOR PEOPLE. BECAUSE PEOPLE DON'T LAUGH REAL LOUD UNLESS IT'S REAL (ENGLISH) CO-STAR DAVID SPADE ARRIVING AT PREMIERE FILM NEWCOMER AND STAR OF MOVIE ANDY COMEAU ARRIVING AT PREMIERE
- Embargoed: 19th April 1997 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES AND FILM LOCATIONS
- Country: USA
- Topics: Entertainment
- Reuters ID: LVA1FIEZ7QKOQD2U8Y1ZRB6DGUWH
- Story Text: Joe Pesci's latest role is a mobster charged with the unusual task of transporting "Eight Heads in a Duffel Bag" across America in the new dark comedy of the same name.
Pesci stars as mobster hitman Tommy Spinelli. His job is to transport the heads across the United States by airplane to present his mob boss with evidence that "hits" have in fact been made on eight marked men.
Comedy ensues when Pesci's attempts at keeping the duffel as his carry-on luggage are rebuffed by a stewardess who adheres to the regulations concerning luggage.
Pesci must check the bag, setting up the opportunity for an affable yet blithely unaware young man to scoops it up as his at the carousel after the flight.
Andy Comeau makes his feature film debut as the hapless, indecisive medical resident Charlie, whose life is severely altered when he grabs the wrong bag.
Charlie has flown to San Diego to meet his girlfriend Laurie, played by Kristie Swanson. Laurie is planning on meeting her parents, played by veteran screen farceurs Dyan Cannon and George Hamilton, in Mexico and had not planned on Charlie's presence.
Laurie's alcoholic and hysterical mother and snobbish and humourless father are not impressed by Charlie's dithering approach to their daughter. Laurie finds herself in an uncomfortable dilemma when Charlie insists on joining them the family vacation.
Following classic rules of comedy, Tommy discovers he has Charlie's bag and must get it back if he wants to prevent himself being the ninth head.
The course of the movie will find him initially flying to Charlie's college on the east coast where he "tortures" Charlie's roommates (David Spade and Todd Louiso) into revealing his whereabouts.
Given the subversive nature of his search, he is forced to take them with him on his journey to Mexico to find Charlie and the heads. By this time Charlie knows whose luggage he has and what danger he is in because of what he knows and what he has.
While searching for Charlie in Mexico, Tommy is also running from the mob, which is intent on finding him and the heads.
Meanwhile, Charlie has inadvertently involved Laurie and her family in his flight from Tommy.
The heads themselves become the centrepiece of the film, as they are lost, stolen, dropped, or carried off by coyotes. Much of the farce involves the various actors coming into contact with the heads and playing off their static condition.
To create "dead" heads that were lifelike, the director used horror film mainstays Camom Studios and their head make-up man Keith Vanderlaan, who has worked on such films as "Bram Stoker's Dracula" and "Mrs. Doubtfire." Moulds were taken of the heads of eight real actors, using expressions the director had worked out with them beforehand. Each of the actors underwent a torturous moulding process in which their faces were covered with fast-setting silicone, with their eyes open and straws up their noses.
Each head took about two and a half days to make. Human hair was used on the heads and the eyebrows and had to be hand-stitched into place. The eyes, however, are acrylic, as are the teeth.
"Eight Heads In A Duffel Bag" was written and directed by Tom Schulman who won an Academy Award for the screenplay to "Dead Poet's Society." He also wrote "What About Bob?" starring Richard Dreyfuss and Bill Murray.
Schulman has decided to make his directorial debut on this picture.
Joe Pesci's performance as Tommy De Vito in Martin Scorsese's "GoodFellas" won him the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. He received his first Academy Award nomination in 1980 for his intense portrayal, opposite Robert DeNiro, as boxer Jake LaMotta's brother in Scorsese's "Raging Bull." Pesci completed his contribution to Scorsese's Italian-American trilogy, playing Nicky Santoro, the mob enforcer who takes Las Vegas for all it's worth in "Casino." Additionally, Pesci starred in the hit comedies "Home Alone" and "My Cousin Vinnie" as well as the action-comedy "Lethal Weapon 2".
"Eight Heads In A Duffel Bag" was made by Orion Pictures. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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