Doomwatch (film)

Doomwatch (US title: Island of the Ghouls) is a 1972 science fiction/thriller film directed by Peter Sasdy. The film is based on the BBC series Doomwatch. The screenplay was written by Clive Exton.

Synopsis

The waters surrounding an island become contaminated by chemical dumping, and people who eat fish caught in those waters become deformed and violent.

Plot

An outsider visits a remote isolated village that has seemingly shunned the modern life. Doctor Del Shaw, an investigator from the British ecological watchdog group nicknamed Doomwatch, is sent to the island of Balfe, to file a report on the effects of a recent oil tanker spill. He becomes fascinated with the mysterious behavioural disorders of the locals who display rudeness and random aggression and a strange genetic prevalence of thick lips and sloping brows. Investigation shows that the villagers have been suffering over a prolonged period from hormonal disorders, which are being caused by leaking drums of growth stimulants that have been dumped offshore. The islanders have been eating contaminated fish and develop a disorder of excessive hormonal growth, which produces aggression and eventually madness, attributed to a form of acromegaly. Rather than seek help from the mainland they hide those who are deformed from any newcomers.

Doomwatch

Doomwatch was a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC, which ran on BBC1 between 1970 and 1972. The series was set in the then present day, and dealt with a scientific government agency led by Doctor Spencer Quist (played by John Paul), responsible for investigating and combating various ecological and technological dangers.

The series was followed by a film adaptation produced by Tigon British Film Productions and released in 1972, and a revival TV film was broadcast on Channel 5 in 1999.

Background

The programme was created by Gerry Davis and Kit Pedler, who had previously collaborated on scripts for Doctor Who, a programme on which Davis had been the story editor and Pedler the unofficial scientific adviser during the 1960s. Their interest in the problems of science changing and endangering human life had led them to create the popular alien race the Cybermen for that programme, and it was similar interests that led them to create Doomwatch, which explored all kinds of new and unusual threats to the human race, many bred out of the fear of real scientific concepts, with a "this could happen to us" fear by the public.

Film (band)

Film was a Yugoslav rock group founded in 1978 in Zagreb. Film was one of the most popular rock groups of the former Yugoslav new wave in the late 1970s to early 1980s.

History

New wave years (1979-1981)

During 1977 and 1978, bassist Marino Pelajić, guitarist Mladen Jurčić, and drummer Branko Hromatko were Azra members when Branimir "Johnny" Štulić brought Jura Stublić as the new vocalist. Stublić was to become Aerodrom member, but due to his deep vocals it never happened. The lineup functioned for a few months only and after a quarrel with Štulić, on early 1979, Pelajić, Jurčić, Hromatko and Stublić formed the band Šporko Šalaporko i Negove Žaluzine, naming the band after a story from the "Polet" youth magazine, which was soon after renamed to Film. The memories of the Azra lineup later inspired Štulić to write the song "Roll over Jura" released on Filigranski pločnici in 1982.

Saxophonist Jurij Novoselić, who at the time had worked under the pseudonym Kuzma Videosex, joined the band, inspiring others to use pseudonym instead of their original names: vocalist Stublić became Jura Jupiter, bassist Pelajić became Mario Baraccuda and guitarist Jurčić became Max Wilson. Before joining the band, Stublić did not have much experience as a vocalist, however, since his father had been an opera singer, he often visited the theatre and opera, and at the age of 13, he started playing the guitar, earning money as a street performer at seaside resorts.

Film (Iranian magazine)

Film (Persian:فیلم) is an Iranian film review magazine published for more than 30 years. The head-editor is Massoud Mehrabi.

References

External links

Film (film)

Film is a 1965 film written by Samuel Beckett, his only screenplay. It was commissioned by Barney Rosset of Grove Press. Writing began on 5 April 1963 with a first draft completed within four days. A second draft was produced by 22 May and a forty-leaf shooting script followed thereafter. It was filmed in New York in July 1964.

Beckett’s original choice for the lead – referred to only as “O” – was Charlie Chaplin, but his script never reached him. Both Beckett and the director Alan Schneider were interested in Zero Mostel and Jack MacGowran. However, the former was unavailable and the latter, who accepted at first, became unavailable due to his role in a "Hollywood epic." Beckett then suggested Buster Keaton. Schneider promptly flew to Los Angeles and persuaded Keaton to accept the role along with "a handsome fee for less than three weeks' work."James Karen, who was to have a small part in the film, also encouraged Schneider to contact Keaton.

The filmed version differs from Beckett's original script but with his approval since he was on set all the time, this being his only visit to the United States. The script printed in Collected Shorter Plays of Samuel Beckett (Faber and Faber, 1984) states: