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New Hampshire man wants his movie to be the state's official animated film: Watch here

New Hampshire man wants his movie to be the state's official animated film: Watch here

Yahoo19-02-2025
Goffstown native Griffin Hansen has created a film he hopes can become New Hampshire's official state animated film.
Called 'Within Crystal Hills,' the movie is a love story that paints a picture of how the Old Man of the Mountain might have come to be. First observed in 1805, the natural rock structure that looked like a profile of a face has long been an iconic state symbol, featured on stamps, coins, and highway signs. However, it fell in 2003.
Rep. Joe Alexander, R-Goffstown, is the prime sponsor of HB 89, the bill that would designate the movie New Hampshire's official animated film. He said that it would teach young kids about the meaning behind the symbol of the Old Man on the Mountain.
'As somebody who grew up in New Hampshire, I was, I think, seven or eight years old when the Old Man fell,' Alexander said. 'I think this is a very creative way to depict the story around the creation, a story around the creation of the Old Man that can be marketed towards young people so that they can feel like they are part of the culture and creation of our most important symbol of the scene.'
More: Virginia opossums likely to be named NH's state marsupial, with a name change
Hansen's nine-minute film, done in shadow puppet-like animation, follows an iron worker named Sawyer as he enters into a dangerous cave in the White Mountains to find a precious diamond for the girl he loves.
The film was produced and co-written by Christina K. Caralis.
Alexander said the short film reflects Granite State values like perseverance, hard work, and the lack of greed, and Hansen said making it the state movie would inspire artists like him in New Hampshire.
However, the state Native American Commission spoke against the film, saying the film erases indigenous narratives about the White Mountains.
In an executive session after the bill hearing, legislators unanimously voted the bill 'inexpediate to legislate,' meaning that they do not support the bill's passage.
'I think this is a wonderful, beautifully done story,' said Rep. Erica Layon, R-Derry, commending Hansen for his work. 'I'm just very concerned that if we have this as a state animated film, a lot of people are going to see this as the history when it's one interpretation, and we have long standing traditions through the Abenakis, and I would not want to erase that history by promoting this to be our state animated film.'
It will go to the New Hampshire House floor under the consent calendar, meaning it is likely to be killed there.
More: Should NH change their state flag? Several lawmakers say yes: Here's one design idea
No other states have official state films, animated or not.
However, some states have tried to designate an official film before. In 2023, state legislators in Oregon unsuccessfully filed a resolution calling for 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest' to be made the state's official film because the film was shot almost entirely in Oregon.
This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: This short movie proposed to become NH's official animated film: Watch
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Column: Returning again to the Scopes ‘monkey trial,' and what I learned
Column: Returning again to the Scopes ‘monkey trial,' and what I learned

Chicago Tribune

time16-07-2025

  • Chicago Tribune

Column: Returning again to the Scopes ‘monkey trial,' and what I learned

You may have noticed that the 100th anniversary of the so-called 'monkey trial' in Dayton, Tennessee, has rolled around this month, with various offerings, notably my colleague Ron Grossman's excellent recent story, which informed me, among many things, that the town's main street 'took on a carnival atmosphere. Rival trainers brought chimpanzees to town — including a celebrated simian named Joe Mendi, who wore a plaid suit and a fedora hat. Vendors hawked toy monkeys and Bibles. Shop windows had monkey-theme displays.' Read that story and perhaps you too will be compelled to dive deeper into the past. The simplest way is to watch the 128-minute 1960 movie based on the events that took place, mostly in a sweltering courtroom, from July 10-21 in 1925. I did that, and 'Inherit the Wind' is a great movie. Adapted from a successful play written by Jerome Lawrence and Robert Edwin Lee and based on real events, it is dominated by those towering actors Spencer Tracy and Fredric March. They portray, respectively, opposing attorneys Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryan, though they're given the names Henry Drummond and Matthew Harrison Brady. See what I mean by 'based on.' Still, Amazon touts the movie as the 'thrilling recreation of the most titanic courtroom battles of the century,' hyperbolically ignoring a trial the year before, when Darrow took on the defense of killers Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb in Chicago. (There's a pretty good movie of that too, 1959's 'Compulsion'). The trial, more formally called the Scopes trial, or the State of Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes, involved a high school teacher, John Scopes, who was accused of violating the Butler Act, a Tennessee state law banning the teaching of human evolution in public schools. After watching 'Inherit,' I did some further digging and feel fortunate to have learned some encouraging things about Scopes. For instance, 'He did not capitalize at all on his celebrity,' said John Mark Hansen. 'He had offers of tens of thousands of dollars to go on vaudeville stages and talk about the trial. Instead, he came to the University of Chicago to further his education, never seeking attention.' Hansen is a longtime University of Chicago political science professor and Hyde Park resident. He is also a talented writer, and his 'Evolution on Trial' story in the university's magazine makes for enlightening and lively reading. Among the other things I learned: Darrow, the principal defense attorney, knew many University of Chicago scientists and professors, because for years, living in an apartment on 60th Street near Stony Island Avenue, 'he hosted an informal biology club … directing discussions on biology, religion and evolution,' Hansen writes. He recruited some of these folks to testify at the trial, and they stayed in 'a big Victorian house on the edge of Dayton,' which is described as 'ancient and empty … now crudely furnished with iron cots, spittoons, playing cards and the other camp equipment of scientists,' Hansen writes. 'It was called the Mansion, Defense Mansion, and, inevitably, the Monkey House.' Scopes decided to study geology at the University of Chicago. His tuition toward earning a doctorate was paid for by a grant and other donations. But when he applied for a third year to finish his studies, the president of another school that administered the fellowships refused to consider his application, saying, 'As far as I am concerned, you can take your atheistic marbles and play elsewhere.' And so he did, fading away into life as a working geologist, Hansen tells me, living in Texas and Louisiana. He did return to the University of Chicago campus for a conference in 1960. When asked about the 1925 trial, Hansen writes, 'Scopes had little to add. 'I hope that I don't ever have to go through something like that again.'' 'Some of the issues of the trial still echo,' says Hansen. 'Ever debated is the role of religion in public school classrooms, as is the question 'Who controls what gets taught in school?'' Bryan died only days after the Scopes trial and Darrow lived until 1938, the most famous lawyer in the world then, and arguably still. Reading Hansen's fine story and watching 'Inherit the Wind' put Darrow solidly in my mind and compelled me to go to see a small and pretty bridge in Jackson Park. It sits behind the Museum of Science and Industry, named in Darrow's honor and dedicated in 1957 by relatively new mayor Richard J. Daley. Closed to pedestrians since 2013, it's sadly in bad shape, recently having been listed as one of Preservation Chicago's 7 Most Endangered Buildings for 2025, noting, 'As necessary maintenance continues to be deferred, the bridge is increasingly vulnerable to further disrepair. If conditions worsen, demolition and removal are possible outcomes.' I also found the time to read Darrow's 20,000 some-word closing argument in the Leopold and Loeb sentencing, the words that saved those two men from execution. Here are some of them: 'You may hang these boys; you may hang them, by the neck until they are dead. But in doing it you will turn your face toward the past. … I am pleading for the future; I am pleading for a time when hatred and cruelty will not control the hearts of men. When we can learn by reason and judgment and understanding and faith that all life is worth saving, and that mercy is the highest attribute of man.'

Michael Douglas and Danny DeVito celebrate ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest' ahead of its 50th anniversary
Michael Douglas and Danny DeVito celebrate ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest' ahead of its 50th anniversary

New York Post

time11-07-2025

  • New York Post

Michael Douglas and Danny DeVito celebrate ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest' ahead of its 50th anniversary

Jack Nicholson did not want to go to the Oscars. It was 1976 and he was nominated for best actor in 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.' The Miloš Forman film, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary with a nationwide theatrical re-release on July 13 and July 16, had become a bit of a sensation — the second highest grossing picture of 1975, behind 'Jaws,' and had received nine Oscar nominations. But Nicholson wasn't feeling optimistic. In five years, he'd already been nominated five times. He'd also lost five times. And he told his producer, Michael Douglas, that he couldn't go through it again. 'I remember how hard I had to persuade Jack to come to the ceremony. He was so reluctant, but we got him there,' Douglas said in a recent interview with The Associated Press. 'And then of course we lost the first four awards. Jack was sitting right in front of me and sort of leaned back and said 'Oh, Mikey D, Mikey D, I told you, man.' I just said, 'Hang in there.'' 4 Saul Zaentz, Jack Nicholson, Louise Fletcher and Michael Douglas of 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest,' pose for photos at the Oscars. AP Douglas, of course, was right. 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest' would go on to sweep the 'big five' — screenplay, director, actor, actress and picture — the first film to do so in 41 years, ('It Happened One Night,' in 1934) which only 'The Silence of the Lambs' has done since. That night was one of many vindicating moments for a film that no one wanted to make or distribute that has quite literally stood the test of time. 'This is my first 50th anniversary,' Douglas said. 'It's the first movie I ever produced. To have a movie that's so lasting, that people get a lot out of, it's a wonderful feeling. It's bringing back a lot of great memories.' The film adaption of Ken Kesey's countercultural novel was a defining moment for Douglas, a son of Hollywood who was stuck in television and got a lifeline to film when his father, Kirk Douglas, gave him the rights to the book, and many of the then-unknown cast like Danny DeVito and Christopher Lloyd. DeVito was actually the first person officially cast. Douglas, who'd known him for nearly 10 years, brought Forman to see him play Martini on stage. 'Miloš said, 'Yes! Danny! Perfect! Cast!' Douglas said in his best Czech accent. 'It was a big moment for Danny. But I always knew how talented he was.' 4 Jack Nicholson, seated left, and Danny DeVito, seated right, in a scene from 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.' AP A joyful shoot Though the film's themes are challenging, unlike many of its New Hollywood contemporaries it wasn't a tortured shoot by any stretch. They had their annoyances (like Forman refusing to show the cast dailies) and more serious trials (they found out halfway through production that William Redfield was dying of leukemia), but for the most part it was fun. 'We were very serious about the work, because Miloš was very serious. And we had the material, Kesey's work, and the reverence for that. We were not frivolous about it. But we did have a ball doing it,' DeVito said, laughing. Every morning, the NY POSTcast offers a deep dive into the headlines with the Post's signature mix of politics, business, pop culture, true crime and everything in between. Subscribe here! Part of that is because they filmed on location at a real state hospital in Salem, Oregon. Everyone stayed in the same motel and would board the same bus in the morning to get to set. It would have been hard not to bond and even harder if they hadn't. 'There was full commitment,' Douglas said. 'That comes when you don't go home at night to your own lives. We stopped for lunch on the first day and I saw Jack kind of push his tray away and go outside to get some air. I said, 'Jack, you OK?' He said, 'Who are these guys? Nobody breaks character! It's lunch time and they're all acting the same way!'' Not disproving Nicholson's point, DeVito remembers he and the cast even asked if they could just sleep in the hospital. 'They wouldn't let us,' DeVito said. 'The floor above us had some seriously disturbed people who had committed murder.' A lasting legacy The film will be in theaters again on July 13 and July 16 from Fathom Entertainment. It's a new 4K restoration from the Academy Film Archive and Teatro Della Pace Films with an introduction by Leonard Maltin. 'It's a gorgeous print and reminds me how good the sound was,' Douglas said. 4 The film will return to theaters on July 13 and July 16 from Fathom Entertainment. AP DeVito thinks it, 'holds up in a really big way, because Miloš really was paying attention to all great things in the screenplay and the story originally.' Besides the shock of 'holy Toledo, am I that old?' DeVito said that it was a treasure to be part of — and he continues to see his old friends, including Douglas, Lloyd and, of course, Nicholson, who played the protagonist, R.P. McMurphy. 4 DeVito said he continues to see his old friends, including Douglas. Rich Fury/Invision/AP One person Douglas thinks hasn't gotten the proper attention for his contributions to 'Cuckoo's Nest' is producer Saul Zaentz, who died in 2014. His music company, Fantasy Records who had Creedence Clearwater Revival, funded the endeavor which started at a $1.6 million budget and ballooned to $4 million by the end. He was a gambler, Douglas said, and it paid off. And whatever sour grapes might have existed between Douglas and his father, who played R.P. McMurphy on Broadway and dreamt of doing so on film, were perhaps over-exaggerated. It was ultimately important for their relationship. 'McMurphy is as good a part as any actor is going to get, and I'm now far enough in my career to understand maybe you have four, maybe five good parts, really great parts. I'm sure for dad that was one of them,' Douglas said. 'To not be able to see it through was probably disappointing on one side. On the other, the fact that his son did it and the picture turned out so good? Thank God the picture turned out. It would have been a disaster if it hadn't.' Douglas added: 'It was a fairy tale from beginning to end. I doubt anything else really came close to it. Even my Oscar for best actor years later didn't really surpass that moment very early in my career.'

Michael Douglas and Danny DeVito revisit ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest' for its 50th anniversary

time10-07-2025

Michael Douglas and Danny DeVito revisit ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest' for its 50th anniversary

Jack Nicholson did not want to go to the Oscars. It was 1976 and he was nominated for best actor in 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.' The Miloš Forman film, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary with a nationwide theatrical re-release on July 13 and July 16, had become a bit of a sensation — the second highest grossing picture of 1975, behind 'Jaws,' and had received nine Oscar nominations. But Nicholson wasn't feeling optimistic. In five years, he'd already been nominated five times. He'd also lost five times. And he told his producer, Michael Douglas, that he couldn't go through it again. 'I remember how hard I had to persuade Jack to come to the ceremony. He was so reluctant, but we got him there,' Douglas said in a recent interview with The Associated Press. 'And then of course we lost the first four awards. Jack was sitting right in front of me and sort of leaned back and said 'Oh, Mikey D, Mikey D, I told you, man.' I just said, 'Hang in there.'' Douglas, of course, was right. 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest' would go on to sweep the 'big five' — screenplay, director, actor, actress and picture — the first film to do so in 41 years, ('It Happened One Night,' in 1934) which only 'The Silence of the Lambs' has done since. That night was one of many vindicating moments for a film that no one wanted to make or distribute that has quite literally stood the test of time. 'This is my first 50th anniversary,' Douglas said. 'It's the first movie I ever produced. To have a movie that's so lasting, that people get a lot out of, it's a wonderful feeling. It's bringing back a lot of great memories.' The film adaption of Ken Kesey's countercultural novel was a defining moment for Douglas, a son of Hollywood who was stuck in television and got a lifeline to film when his father, Kirk Douglas, gave him the rights to the book, and many of the then-unknown cast like Danny DeVito and Christopher Lloyd. DeVito was actually the first person officially cast. Douglas, who'd known him for nearly 10 years, brought Forman to see him play Martini on stage. 'Miloš said, 'Yes! Danny! Perfect! Cast!' Douglas said in his best Czech accent. 'It was a big moment for Danny. But I always knew how talented he was.' Though the film's themes are challenging, unlike many of its New Hollywood contemporaries it wasn't a tortured shoot by any stretch. They had their annoyances (like Forman refusing to show the cast dailies) and more serious trials (they found out halfway through production that William Redfield was dying of leukemia), but for the most part it was fun. 'We were very serious about the work, because Miloš was very serious. And we had the material, Kesey's work, and the reverence for that. We were not frivolous about it. But we did have a ball doing it,' DeVito said, laughing. Part of that is because they filmed on location at a real state hospital in Salem, Oregon. Everyone stayed in the same motel and would board the same bus in the morning to get to set. It would have been hard not to bond and even harder if they hadn't. 'There was full commitment,' Douglas said. 'That comes when you don't go home at night to your own lives. We stopped for lunch on the first day and I saw Jack kind of push his tray away and go outside to get some air. I said, 'Jack, you OK?' He said, 'Who are these guys? Nobody breaks character! It's lunch time and they're all acting the same way!'' Not disproving Nicholson's point, DeVito remembers he and the cast even asked if they could just sleep in the hospital. 'They wouldn't let us,' DeVito said. 'The floor above us had some seriously disturbed people who had committed murder.' The film will be in theaters again on July 13 and July 16 from Fathom Entertainment. It's a new 4K restoration from the Academy Film Archive and Teatro Della Pace Films with an introduction by Leonard Maltin. 'It's a gorgeous print and reminds me how good the sound was,' Douglas said. DeVito thinks it, 'holds up in a really big way, because Miloš really was paying attention to all great things in the screenplay and the story originally.' Besides the shock of 'holy Toledo, am I that old?' DeVito said that it was a treasure to be part of — and he continues to see his old friends, including Douglas, Lloyd and, of course, Nicholson, who played the protagonist, R.P. McMurphy. One person Douglas thinks hasn't gotten the proper attention for his contributions to 'Cuckoo's Nest' is producer Saul Zaentz, who died in 2014. His music company, Fantasy Records who had Creedence Clearwater Revival, funded the endeavor which started at a $1.6 million budget and ballooned to $4 million by the end. He was a gambler, Douglas said, and it paid off. And whatever sour grapes might have existed between Douglas and his father, who played R.P. McMurphy on Broadway and dreamt of doing so on film, were perhaps over-exaggerated. It was ultimately important for their relationship. 'McMurphy is as good a part as any actor is going to get, and I'm now far enough in my career to understand maybe you have four, maybe five good parts, really great parts. I'm sure for dad that was one of them,' Douglas said. 'To not be able to see it through was probably disappointing on one side. On the other, the fact that his son did it and the picture turned out so good? Thank God the picture turned out. It would have been a disaster if it hadn't." Douglas added: 'It was a fairy tale from beginning to end. I doubt anything else really came close to it. Even my Oscar for best actor years later didn't really surpass that moment very early in my career.'

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