About this Event
From classic tales to modern hits, Michael Adams explores the ideas that cinema can’t resist recycling.
Stravinsky said, “Lesser artists borrow, great artists steal.” This is proven in film, where there are currently 494 film adaptations of Frankenstein, and over 100 featuring Robin Hood. Join cinephile Michael Adams as he discusses why some film ideas are too good to ever let go.
Items related to this subject can be found here.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Not that he’s a total Gen X cliché, but Michael Adams was first blown away by the power of movies when the rebel ship and its imperial pursuer blasted over his head in 1977’s Star Wars. After staging hundreds of action-figure re-enactments, Michael incorporated his love of Princess Leia, writing stories and obsessing over movies into a newfound career goal, namely, creating screenplays for Carrie Fisher that he could direct. He was, after all, seven years old at the time.
Soon after, exposed to films way beyond his pay grade, he became a keen fan of The Deer Hunter and Taxi Driver, along with the likes of The Evil Dead, Basket Case, The Thing and Pink Flamingos. After briefly absconding from the parental home for a Kerouac-ian road trip at age 16, he scored a job at a film distributor and used their facilities to publish Night Creatures, a short-lived fanzine about cult films. At which point followed a brief foray into journalism school. Other CV highlights include stints as a kitchen hand, local newspaper hack, telemarketing dude, video store clerk, nervous third world war-zone correspondent, hardware store jockey, pool boy, schlock-movie actor and ice-cream scooper.
Michael eventually glommed into magazine writing. For a decade he was reviews editor of the Australian edition of Empire, and has written extensively on film and pop culture for Men’s Style, Yen, Rolling Stone, Rottentomatoes.com and Movieline.com.
His memoir, Showgirls, Teen Wolves and Astro Zombies, is about a year-long search for the worst movie ever made. His book Shining Lights is a profile of Australian Oscar winners, based on interviews with Cate Blanchett, Nicole Kidman, Russell Crowe and Geoffrey Rush. Michael also contributed to The 100 Greatest Films of Australian Cinema, edited the AFI Yearbook, and hosted Showtime’s Movie Club and SBS’s The Movie Show.
While having a face for radio, Michael has appeared in front of the cameras, as “Stoned Hippy” in the 1991 Z-grade “classic” Bloodlust, and as co-host of TV program The Movie Show in 2007 to 2008. He will next be glimpsed as a zombie in George A. Romero’s Survival of the Dead.
Even though he was shot in the head in that film, Michael continues to live in the Blue Mountains with his family.
ABOUT THE VENUE:
MARRICKVILLE PAVILION AND LIBRARY is accessible by lift from both the street and ground levels. The venue is accessible for people using wheelchairs and other mobility aids. There is a hearing loop available.
If you have any access or support requirements in order to participate fully, please let us know when you book via the order form to ensure that we can arrange any reasonable adjustments.
We may take photos and video of the speakers and audience. See details here.
Event venue & nearby stays
Marrickville Library and Pavilion, 313 Marrickville Road, Marrickville, Australia
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