I wasn’t born until the late 80s, so August 6th, 2009 was definitely a before-my-time kind of day. Being the date of both John Hughes’ death, and the midnight release of G.I. Joe, I was beholden to a great deal of 80s nostalgia that was interesting to witness, but I could take no part in. While I wasn’t as unfamiliar with Hughes’ as I was with Joe (never seen the cartoon, read the comic, or played with the toys*), his films were little more than 80s curiosities to my goddamn hardcore late-90s/early-00s Atlanta-suburb white-boy adolescence**.
So, in the same way that I lack the nostalgic reference to make Fanboys something more than “fat virgins in a van,” I’m not sure Don’t You Forget About Me is really for me. That said, I’m happy for the filmmakers who have found themselves in exactly the right place at exactly the right time, as Variety reports.
Don’t You Forget About Me is the product of Canadian filmmaker Matt Austin-Sadowski (a former Power Ranger!), and revolves around a road trip (in a van) to Illinois with the goal of finding Hughes. Austin-Sadwoski is joined by his three producers on the trip. Interviews with Hughes enthusiasts like Kevin Smith, Jason Reitman, and Roger Ebert are intertwined with the central quest. The news of Hughes death brought new attention to the production, and “…by noon, world rights to the low-budget doc had been snapped up by Alliance Films of Montreal with a U.S. deal in the offing.”
The filmmaker, while saddened by the death of his idol, hopes that Hughes’ films will be rediscovered. “That’s what important for us. It’s not the deal. It’s not more exposure for us.” The production blog betrays a genuine appreciation of the filmmaker, but I doubt anyone is unhappy about the fortuitous bump in their stock.
The Variety article also mentions nothing about the success or failure of the road trip, but does note that Molly Ringwald “refused to take part in the project.”
Since there is some sort of U.S. part of the deal, you can expect to see something made of this in the near future, even if it’s a DTV sort of thing. I’ve embedded the trailer below, so you can get an idea of what this low-budget Doc is all about.
Source | Variety, The Documentary Blog, Don’t You Forget About Me: The Blog
*The original American port of Power Rangers was my shit, if you’re curious.
**Throw KoRn or some shit in there and I might have gotten it.