The internet was a roiling maw of discontent a few weeks back when actor Corey Haim was not among the late luminaries featured during the “In Memoriam” segment of the annual Oscar telecast. This was a bit of myopic decision-making by The Academy and their impotent explanation did little to quell the anger from fans:
“Whatever the length of the sequence, there will always be fans and family members of those not included who will be disappointed by their omission. The Academy extends its understanding and its apologies to those who missed seeing a favorite face in this year’s feature.”
It is their old fallback whenever a minor outcry occurs concerning a snub in this annual tradition – there were too many names, there was a limitation on their time, ect. However the standard excuse unravels when you peer over the list of those included. Despite their admitted limitations the Academy somehow managed to find room for the inclusion of a publicist – Ronni Chasen. But hurt feelings and professional snubs aside, one year to the day he passed Corey Haim may end up getting his final word out to the public.
At the time of his demise the actor had quite a number of projects either in the works, or lined up for him to take on in the ensuing months. At least two acting jobs were in place and a handful of other potential titles were in various stages of agreement with him. He also had no less than two impending projects where he was to not only be a participant but was slated to direct as well.
Some of Haim’s final work was in the low-budget thriller Deci$ion$, and the executive that completed film, Zenon Kesik, will attempt to roll it out with a slightly impressive distribution. In the film Haim plays a corrupted cop involved with a bank heist and a crime syndicate. Kesik announced he will have the film premiere on “about one thousand screens” this April. That is a rather ambitious plan for a smaller film with only a $1.5 million budget, and one that possibly was slated to be on par with the numerous direct-to-rental titles Haim has trafficked in the past few years.
Also available on DVD and Blu-Ray is another of his last completed works. American Sunset, which is actually a Canadian production, is a thriller where Haim plays a man who has his wife kidnapped and he ends up teaming up with a private investigator to track her down. The movie’s website offers a chance to acquire what had once been promised as Corey’s comeback to movies, but now becomes hailed as his last performance. However that may not be entirely accurate.
When Haim died March 10 of last year he was working on still another project, entitled The Dead Sea. Set in Brazil a fishing trawler is commissioned by a group of vacationing lawyers who turn out to be mercenaries, searching for a Navy vessel that has gone missing. Once located they discover the ship’s crew has become an army of zombies, so the mercs must battle the undead in order to control the ship and sink it, taking the zombies down with it. Haim was set to co-star with rapper/actor Sticky Fingaz, and his death happened during the shoot. The amount of work he had completed for the title is still unknown, however they are moving forward with the project. A tentative release is planned for the fall of 2012.