Gregory wrote: Sat Jul 11, 2026 3:36 pmDon Iwerks, 96. I was more familiar with his father, Ub, but it was interesting to learn of Don's technological innovations
I’ve met quite a few people who worked for Iwerks Entertainment and have looked up multiple articles about them. It was a direct competitor to Showscan, Douglas Trumbull’s company doing 70mm/60fps projections that he attempted to patent as a concept.
I’ve had the concept of “expanded cinema” on my mind a lot the last few years and it’s interesting to see the two biggest applications for this are gallery spaces (think of a Bill Viola installation for an early version of this) and theme parks. Iwerks Entertainment built and designed multiple film projection systems including the Soarin’ ride at Disney California Adventures, done originally with two 70mm projectors placed together and ran at an extra high frame rate to create a wide and immersive projection. Unfortunately, pictures are hard to source, but here’s a good blog post with information about them. Not sure who owns the drawings and films they help produced. Would be a great subject for a book one day.
Gregory wrote: Sat Jul 11, 2026 3:36 pmDon Iwerks, 96. I was more familiar with his father, Ub, but it was interesting to learn of Don's technological innovations
I’ve met quite a few people who worked for Iwerks Entertainment and have looked up multiple articles about them. It was a direct competitor to Showscan, Douglas Trumbull’s company doing 70mm/60fps projections that he attempted to patent as a concept.
I’ve had the concept of “expanded cinema” on my mind a lot the last few years and it’s interesting to see the two biggest applications for this are gallery spaces (think of a Bill Viola installation for an early version of this) and theme parks. Iwerks Entertainment built and designed multiple film projection systems including the Soarin’ ride at Disney California Adventures, done originally with two 70mm projectors placed together and ran at an extra high frame rate to create a wide and immersive projection. Unfortunately, pictures are hard to source, but here’s a good blog post with information about them. Not sure who owns the drawings and films they help produced. Would be a great subject for a book one day.
It’s a shame that those Iwerks Entertainment and Trumbull films are basically unusable now and sitting in storage (the Academy has ShowScan materials). If VistaVision projectors can come back to life, why not this stuff?
Lot of reasons why, unfortunately! Because of the high frame rate and scale of the 70mm frames, it required special cabinets where the film would essentially zip through barely touching the rollers. As a result, you were limited to specific lengths due to the scale of these cabinets. A lot of them used heavily modified projectors as well that used servo motors and replaced parts in order to both synchronize and run in unusual configurations. I experienced immersive projections like this the way I absolutely experienced IMAX documentaries back in the 90s, but had no appreciation for design, concept, or film as a medium as a kid. I remember the experience, but I was not looking at frame rates or image scales the way I do now.
One of the Iwerks technicians said the only place still operating one of their old systems was a theme park in Texas and that they still order 70mm prints from Fotokem when they need to change prints.
The Elegant Dandy Fop wrote: Sat Jul 11, 2026 4:20 pm
Lot of reasons why, unfortunately! Because of the high frame rate and scale of the 70mm frames, it required special cabinets where the film would essentially zip through barely touching the rollers. As a result, you were limited to specific lengths due to the scale of these cabinets. A lot of them used heavily modified projectors as well that used servo motors and replaced parts in order to both synchronize and run in unusual configurations. I experienced immersive projections like this the way I absolutely experienced IMAX documentaries back in the 90s, but had no appreciation for design, concept, or film as a medium as a kid. I remember the experience, but I was not looking at frame rates or image scales the way I do now.
One of the Iwerks technicians said the only place still operating one of their old systems was a theme park in Texas and that they still order 70mm prints from Fotokem when they need to change prints.
I wish I’d been able to experience more of those IMAX documentaries that were produced prior to the formatting being co-opted by Hollywood. I’ll never forget catching Beavers around 1995, and I almost had a panic attack because of how overwhelming the sound was
hearthesilence wrote: Sat Jul 11, 2026 7:23 pm
Actor Randolph Mantooth. I don't think I've ever seen him in anything - he was mainly a TV actor, and a highly prolific one at that - but what a name!
I always remember him from Talk Soup in the Skunk Boy years when they’d have him come on to do random things where he’d always say his own name several times. Couldn’t find any examples on YouTube though
I don't know. They need to have a special primary election because Graham had already secured the nomination for November so whoever wins still needs to beat Annie Andrews who has got to have better chances now.
hearthesilence wrote: Sat Jul 11, 2026 7:23 pm
Actor Randolph Mantooth. I don't think I've ever seen him in anything - he was mainly a TV actor, and a highly prolific one at that - but what a name!
I always remember him from Talk Soup in the Skunk Boy years when they’d have him come on to do random things where he’d always say his own name several times. Couldn’t find any examples on YouTube though
Those who are my age will have likely seen him on one or more episodes of Emergency! which ran for seven seasons throughout the 70s. Both of the lead paramedic characters were largely colorless as they went through the machinations of attempting to save lives. The truly extraordinary twist is that Mantooth’s scene partner throughout the run of the show, Kevin Tighe, became a memorable character actor with excellent performances in Road House, Freaks and Geeks, and even Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest.
In many ways he was one of the absolute lowest of the low, because he knew what he was doing. I'm not sure I buy the argument of that piece that he somehow convinced himself of the contrary. He started as a man of incredible integrity and ended as a more ruthless and relentless fascist who was worse than most of those he had fought against. A breathtaking transformation. If McCain had lived longer, I suspect it would have been a lot harder for him to go this route.
I don't think he was ever a man of "incredible integrity" (or any integrity whatsoever). He was always a follower; his palatability to people like us(?) just depended on who he was following. (Also, I feel like McCain's legacy has been whitewashed after his death. He did some good things as a politician; a lot of what he did, and said, was remarkably bad. The latter far outweighing the former. In fact, the one McCain habit that Graham remained steadfast in apeing, and one point where he occasionally diverged from the MAGA party line, was his unwavering support for any and every conceivable U.S. "military intervention.")
Imagine leaving a legacy as worthless and mockable as Lindsey Graham's. It's chastening. Unfortunately he will likely be replaced in the Senate with a different species of cretin.
Ok, I overstated it, though I do think he was a LOT more reasonable than most Republicans, especially during the Obama years. And it impressed me how hard he came out against Trump at first--though in hindsight, yes, he was really only concerned because he thought he would definitely lose.
Sad and even shocking - I remember when he happily posted that he was cancer-free (and apparently still was when he passed).
Probably like most Americans growing up in the '90s, I never knew him until Jurassic Park. I enjoyed the work he did around Australasia even more, from My Brilliant Career to The Piano, but his social media presence was a welcome surprise in what's often a toxic wasteland, coming off as such a genuinely warm and charismatic personality.
Australia is at a loss over this news. I can’t imagine how the Kiwis are feeling. He certainly broke big globally but I loved that he continued making local productions alongside the big stuff. He wrote, co-directed and presented the NZ episode of the BFI’s centenary of cinema series and his laconic humour mixed with the darkness of much Kiwi film made for an entertaining mix. Worth a watch.
Very sad to hear that news. His grief-stricken role in Event Horizon is really good as well, perhaps too committed for a rather silly B-movie (as is Kathleen Quinlan's), but that really grounds that film and makes it so re-watchable. I would really second bdsweeney's recommendation of the New Zealand-focused BFI Century of Cinema episode, which shows that in comparison to Australian cinema, New Zealand films had a more blackly comic and dark edge with films like Vincent Ward's Vigil, Geoff Murphy's Utu and Peter Jackson's Heavenly Creatures/Braindead.
In terms of his Australian films, the early roles in Sleeping Dogs and Death In Brunswick are excellent, but I also like his role in that gentle comic drama about astronomy, 2000's The Dish.
colinr0380 wrote: Mon Jul 13, 2026 8:51 am
In terms of his Australian films, the early roles in Sleeping Dogs and Death In Brunswick are excellent, but I also like his role in that gentle comic drama about astronomy, 2000's The Dish.
Sleeping Dogs is New Zealander - at the start of that country's film revival, over half a decade after Australia's started. It was the first NZ film in both 35mm and colour. Before then local feature film production pretty much comprised two directors from the late silent era to the early 1970s.
Among his Australian roles, there's also My Brilliant Career, in which he holds his own against Judy Davis. He's basically the eye candy in this film about a woman, written and directed by women and based on a novel by another woman.
He is doing much the same in his facilitating role in Wim Wenders' Until The End of the World as well, content aid his object of desire from afar, and pay for her globe-trotting adventures, in a way to get material for his writing career from his observations of her journey.
That hovering on the margins of the action contrasts interestingly against his 'Christopher Lee in The Wicker Man'-esque Painter with a surrounding harem of supermodels, tempting the local vicar in 1994's Sirens! (The same year that he starred in that really good adaptation of Uncle Vanya, Country Life).
And of course he's great in Dead Calm as well, especially in the later section where he gets stranded apart from Nicole Kidman and Billy Zane's characters, and has to try and find a way to sail back into the action. That's one film that needs badly needs deluxe UHD edition.
Plus, as with Even Horizon, really luxuriating in going over the top in John Carpenter's In The Mouth of Madness! Ending up watching himself back on the screen of a movie theatre.
