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The Rocky Horror Picture Show: Let's Do the Time Warp Again

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The Rocky Horror Picture Show: Let's Do the Time Warp Again
One of pre-release posters
Based onThe Rocky Horror Picture Show
by Jim Sharman
Richard O'Brien

The Rocky Horror Show
and The Rocky Horror Show Live
by Richard O'Brien
Directed byKenny Ortega
Starring
Narrated byTim Curry
Music by
Country of originUnited States
Original languageEnglish
Production
Executive producers
ProducerJohn Ryan
CinematographyLuc Montpellier
EditorDon Brochu
Running time88 minutes (TV cut)
95 minutes (Extended cut)[1]
Production companies
Budget$20 million[2]
Original release
NetworkFox
ReleaseOctober 20, 2016 (2016-10-20)

The Rocky Horror Picture Show: Let's Do the Time Warp Again (also known as The Rocky Horror Picture Show Event and The Rocky Horror Picture Show) is a 2016 American musical comedy television film. It is a tribute[3] to and remake of the cult classic 1975 film of the same name and directed by Kenny Ortega, using the original script written by Richard O'Brien and Jim Sharman.

Starring an ensemble cast led by Laverne Cox, the film premiered on the Fox network on October 20, 2016.

Plot

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Main article: The Rocky Horror Picture Show § Plot

The plot of the tribute is fundamentally identical to the original film, with some additional scenes wrapped around the film. These scenes show several people attending a theatrical showing of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and subsequently are used to introduce some of the audience participation elements from the original film (such as throwing toilet paper on the line "Great Scott!").[4]

Cast

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Musical numbers

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Main article: The Rocky Horror Picture Show: Let's Do the Time Warp Again (soundtrack)
  1. "Science Fiction/Double Feature" - Trixie
  2. "Dammit Janet" - Brad, Janet, and Chorus
  3. "There's a Light (Over at the Frankenstein Place)" - Janet, Brad, Phantoms, and Riff Raff
  4. "The Time Warp" - Riff Raff, Magenta, The Criminologist, Columbia, and Transylvanians
  5. "Sweet Transvestite" - Frank
  6. "The Sword of Damocles" - Rocky
  7. "I Can Make You a Man" - Frank
  8. "Hot Patootie – Bless My Soul" - Eddie
  9. "I Can Make You a Man" (reprise) - Frank, Janet, and Transylvanians
  10. "Touch-a, Touch-a, Touch-a, Touch Me" - Janet with Magenta, Columbia, and Rocky
  11. "Once in a While"† - Brad
  12. "Eddie" - Dr. Scott, The Criminologist, Janet, Frank, and Columbia
  13. "Planet Schmanet Janet (Wise Up Janet Weiss)" - Frank, Janet, Brad, and Dr. Scott
  14. "Rose Tint My World" - Columbia, Rocky, Janet, and Brad
  15. "Fanfare/Don't Dream It, Be It" - Frank
  16. "Wild and Untamed Thing" - Frank and Riff Raff
  17. "I'm Going Home" - Frank
  18. "The Time Warp" (reprise) - Riff Raff and Magenta
  19. "Super Heroes" - Brad, Janet, and Chorus
  20. "Science Fiction/Double Feature" (reprise) - Trixie and Eddie

† denotes songs only present in the extended cut.

Production

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Laverne Cox portrayed Dr. Frank-N-Furter

Plans for a remake at Fox date back to 2002, when a 2003 release date was under consideration to mark the 30-year anniversary of the play which spawned the film, a remake for which former Broadway producer Gail Berman would have been involved as co-producer. MTV had also planned a remake, set for 2008 and for which Berman was again tapped to produce, but those plans also fell through.[3]

On April 10, 2015, it was announced that Kenny Ortega, best known for directing the film Hocus Pocus, the High School Musical trilogy, and Michael Jackson's This Is It, would direct the remake.[3] On October 21, 2015, Emmy Award nominee Laverne Cox, best known for her role as prisoner Sophia Burset on Netflix's prison comedy-drama Orange Is the New Black, joined the cast to play Dr. Frank-N-Furter, the mad-scientist role originated by Tim Curry in the 1970s.[6][8] Curry, in turn, was cast as the Criminologist, which had been played by Charles Gray in the original. Lou Adler, who produced the original film, also co-produced the remake, along with Gail Berman and Kenny Ortega; Ortega choreographed the film in addition to directing and producing.[8] The creative team planned "to stick faithfully to the text and the score of the original but greatly re-imagine the story visually".[3]

Much of the film was shot at Toronto's Casa Loma, being used for both Frank N. Furter's castle and the "Castle" movie theatre where the audience participation scenes and Ivy Levan's performance of "Science Fiction/Double Feature" were filmed. A theatre marquee was temporarily erected at the front entrance for these scenes.[9]

An unreleased virtual reality experience was in development at the time. A 360-degree video camera rig can be seen in a behind-the-scenes video released by Fox during a marketing promotion.[10] However, the project was stopped for unknown reasons.

Release

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The world premiere of the film was on October 18, 2016 at MIPCOM.[11] The film premiered on Fox on October 20, 2016.[12] The first 25 minutes of the film were screened at San Diego Comic-Con,[12] as well as RKO Con 2, a Rocky Horror convention in Providence, Rhode Island.

The Rocky Horror Picture Show: Let's Do the Time Warp Again was released on DVD on December 6, 2016. An extended cut of the film was included featuring deleted scenes and the frequently excised song "Once in a While", as sung by Brad.[13]

Reception

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Viewership

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The movie drew 4.95 million viewers, with a 1.7 rating and a 6 share in the 18-49 demographic.[14]

Critical reception

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The special received mixed to negative reviews, although Cox's performance was mostly praised.[citation needed] Many critics agreed that the production would have been better if it were live, raising questions why Fox decided not to do it live, given the success the network had with Grease: Live. On Rotten Tomatoes, it has a 29% score based on 42 reviews; the critical consensus states, "Laverne Cox's fabulous portrayal of Frank N. Furter leads a strong ensemble effort, but the stars can't infuse this reimagining with enough energy, creativity, and quirk to make TRHPS: Let's Do the Time Warp Again a worthwhile endeavor."[15] On Metacritic, the film has a 55 out of 100 rating, based on 23 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[16]

Esther Zuckerman of The A.V. Club felt that the remake focused too much on the weirdness in the original film without acknowledging the campiness it had been filmed with. Viewers who had never seen the original film would be confused by the movie-within-a-movie approach used in the remake.[4] Matt Tamanini of Broadwayworld.com said that the remake "was a strikingly disappointing missed opportunity" that "felt far more like a production on Glee than the actual production of Rocky Horror on Glee did", although he did praise the casting of Cox, saying "In the long history of The Rocky Horror Show, the musical has broken down doors and helped pave the way for an era of LGBT acceptance. So for Cox to step into Tim Curry's iconic fishnets is a victory in its own right."[17]

Awards

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The program was nominated for the GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding TV Movie or Limited Series.[18]

International broadcasts

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The film was scheduled to be broadcast in New Zealand on TV3 on October 24, 2016, three days after its original broadcast.[19] In UK, the film was first broadcast on October 28, 2016 on Sky Cinema Premiere.[20]

References

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  1. ^ "The Rocky Horror Picture Show: Let's Do the Time Warp Again on Amazon". Amazon.com. 2016.
  2. ^ Thompson, Simon (July 25, 2016). "'Rocky Horror' Remake Cast Talk Giving The $1.2 Million Cult Classic A $20 Million Update". Forbes.
  3. ^ a b c d Andreeva, Nellie (April 10, 2015). "Rocky Horror TV Remake In Works At Fox With Gail Berman & Kenny Ortega". Deadline Hollywood. Penske Media Corporation. Retrieved November 4, 2015.
  4. ^ a b Zuckerman, Esther (October 21, 2016). "Fox's Rocky Horror remake isn't a time warp worth doing". The A.V. Club. Retrieved October 20, 2016.
  5. ^ Harp, Justin (October 22, 2015). "Orange Is the New Black's Laverne Cox is replacing Tim Curry as Dr Frank-N-Furter in Fox's Rocky Horror Show". Digital Spy. Retrieved November 4, 2015.
  6. ^ a b Jayson, Jay (October 21, 2015). "Orange Is The New Black's Laverne Cox To Star In Rocky Horror Picture Show Remake". ComicBook.com. Retrieved November 4, 2015.
  7. ^ Fowler, Matt (January 15, 2016). "TIM CURRY TO HAVE A ROLE IN FOX'S ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW TV-MOVIE". IGN. Retrieved January 15, 2016.
  8. ^ a b Hibberd, James (October 21, 2015). "Laverne Cox to star in Fox's Rocky Horror reboot". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved November 4, 2015.
  9. ^ "Rocky Horror Picture Show filming at Casa Loma".
  10. ^ Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: "A Backstage Look At The Craziest Musical Ever Made | THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW". YouTube. September 26, 2016.
  11. ^ "MIPCOM set to do The Time Wrap Again". Retrieved October 11, 2016.
  12. ^ a b "Fox's Rocky Horror Picture Show set for pre-Halloween premiere". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved July 31, 2016.
  13. ^ "Fox's Rocky Horror Picture Show: Let's Do the Time Warp Again Arrives On DVD 12/6". Broadway World. Retrieved October 21, 2016.
  14. ^ "TV Ratings 10/20/16: Dammit, Janet! That's a Big Improvement over Rosewood (UPDATED!)". The TV Ratings Guide. October 21, 2016. Retrieved October 13, 2017.
  15. ^ "The Rocky Horror Picture Show: Let's Do the Time Warp Again (2016)". Rotten Tomatoes. Flixster. Retrieved April 11, 2019.
  16. ^ "The Rocky Horror Picture Show: Let's Do the Time Warp Again reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved October 25, 2016.
  17. ^ Tamanini, Matt. "BWW Review: FOX's THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW is an Underwhelming, Sanitized Disappointment".
  18. ^ "GLAAD Media Award Nominees Revealed". The Hollywood Reporter. January 31, 2017. Retrieved April 3, 2017.
  19. ^ "HD Heads-Up: October 13". October 12, 2016. Retrieved October 17, 2016.
  20. ^ "Exclusive premiere - The Rocky Horror Picture Show: Let's Do The Time Warp Again". Retrieved October 18, 2016.
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