2001: A Space Travesty: aka “2000.1: A Space Travesty” (2000)
A bumbling U.S. Marshall tries to rescue the U.S. president from imprisonment on another planet.
Genre – Comedy
Director(s) – Allan A. Goldstein
Writer(s) – Alan Shearman
Blue Rider’s Role – Arranged bridge financing
Distributor(s) – New City Releasing, Columbia TriStar Home Video and many territorial distributors
Release Date – 2000
Synopsis – Leslie Nielsen once again plays a bumbling detective in the vein of the ‘Naked Gun’ movies, but this time as Marshall Richard ‘Dick’ Dix. When odd reports are received through official channels stating that the President of the United States is being held captive on a secret international moon base called Vegan and that he has been replaced on Earth by a clone, the US Marshall Service immediately sends their ‘best’ man, Dix, on the mission. Dix travels to Vegan to rescue the president, but is quickly duped and ends up returning to Earth where he installs the clone-president and removes the real one. The bumbling Dix must then find a way to restore the real president before aliens take over the Earth and restore in himself a belief in truth, justice and the American way.
Festival Screenings and Release Dates:
The space comedy 2001: A Space Travesty screened at the 2000 Tokyo International Fantastic Film Festival and at the 2001 Brussels International Festival of Fantasy Films. In 2000 it screened in Portugal, Japan and Greece. In 2001 it bowed on screens in The Czech Republic, South Korea, Poland, Spain, Canada, Lithuania, Russia and the Philippines. It screened in Germany, Austria and France in 2002. It made its video premieres in the US in 2002 and in Norway in 2003. It was released on DVD in Norway on Coct. 29, 2003.
User Ratings: According to evaluations by 5054 users of the Internet Movie Database, as of April 15, 2009, the group that liked this film best was people aged 17 and younger.
Critics’ Kudos:
Needcoffee.com DVD Reviews: “While Leslie Nielsen’s brand of slapstick goofiness might not be to everyone’s taste, those who do appreciate this kind of humor…as well as sexual jokes, will also enjoy this new offering. You have to appreciate any actor who doesn’t think he’s too good to make fun of himself, and that’s what Nielsen does here. He isn’t afraid to look silly in order to get a laugh, and he still gets the girl. How can you not love such innocence in a jaded world?”
Jeremy Frost, UpcomingDiscs.com: “In the same mold as Space Balls, Leslie Nielson has brought his far-out comedic style to DVD in 2001: A Space Travesty. The planet Vegan is a strange place run by an evil doctor and inhabited by aliens who, having learned to speak English from watching television, all talk like different Hollywood movie stars.
“The story is funny and good for a comedic kick. The surround channels were used much more than I would expect with a film such as this, and this helped to create a solid soundstage.”
The San Francisco Horror and Fantasy Film Review: “A baggy pants comedia dell’arte farce. One scene contains a surprisingly scientifically accurate demonstration of how to drink beer in zero g.”
Kim Linekin, Eye Weekly: “The credits are amazing! In between the standard job titles, the credits give shout-outs to Poli-Grip, drug runners, Leonardo da Vinci and the number 666.”
Major Cast and Crew Credits and Awards:
Director is Allan A. Goldstein (won Vancouver and Toronto Film Festival awards for The Outside Chance of Maximilian Glick; also helmed Jungle Boy, Freedom Strike, Death Wish V: The Face of Death, The Snake King, Dorian, Dog’s Best Friend, Chaindance, Black Out, Cold Front, Memory Run and 17 other movies and TV projects).
Writers are Alan Shearman (Shrimp on the Barbie, The Seventh Scroll, Mog, Bullshot and Lapitch the Little Shoemaker) and Francesco Lucente (Badland, Frontline and The Virgin Queen of St. Francis High).
Stars Leslie Nielsen (four major awards and six nominations for works including Police Squad, Men With Brooms, The Naked Gun 2: The Smell of Fear, Robson Arms and Due South; also appeared in Airplane, The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad, Scary Movie 3 and 4, Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult, Forbidden Planet, Superhero Movie, The Poseidon Adventure, Spy Hard, Dracula: Dead and Loving It, Creepshow, Wrongfully Accused, Kentucky Fried Movie, Mr. Magoo, Backstairs at the White House, 34 episodes of The New Breed, 22 episodes of The Explorers, 18 episodes of Peyton Place, 13 episodes of Doctor*ology, 12 epsodes of Studio One, nine episodes of Dr. Kildare, nine episodes of National Geographic Specials, nine episodes of Disneyland, seven episodes of Armstrong Circle Theatre, six episodes of The Bold Ones: The Protectors, six episodes of Police Squad, six episodes of Tales of Tomorrow, six epiodes of Suspense, six episodes of Kraft Television Theatre, five episodes of The Virginian, five episodes of The Web, four episodes of Gameshow Marathon, four episodes of Kung Fu, four episodes of Chrysler Theatre, four episodes of Lights Out, four episodes of Robert Montgomery Presents, three episodes of Fantasy Island, three episodes of The Love Boat, three episodes of Robson Arms, three episodes of S.W.A.T., three episodes of Cannon, three episodes of The Streets of San Francisco and 188 other films and TV works); Ophélie Winter (My Wife is an Actress, She, Mauvais Esprit, What I Did for Love, Bouge, Pretty Things, Tout Doit Disparaître and Men, Women: A User’s Manual) and Alexandra Kamp-Groenveld (Half Past Dead, Dracula 3000, Deep Freeze, Sumuru, A Crime of Passion, Shadow Fury, Ein Himmlisches Weihnachtsgeschenk and five episodes of Tierärztin Dr. Mertens).
Cast also includes Ezio Greggio (Dracula: Dead and Loving It, Drive In, Yuppies 2 and 24 Italian films or TV works); Peter Egan (won BAFTA for The Hireling and was nominated for a Daytime Emmy for Arthur; appeared in Death at a Funeral, Bean, Chariots of Fire, The Wedding Date, Elizabeth R, A Woman of Substance, A Perfect Spy, Callan, Hennessy, six episodes of Home Again, 26 episodes of Ever Decreasing Circles, 16 episodes of Joint Account, 10 episodes of Paradise Postponed, nine episodes of Lillie, eight episodes of Prince Regent, eight episodes of Big Breadwinner Hog, four episodes of Ruth Rendell Mysteries, four episodes of Reilly: Ace of Spies, four episodes of The Inheritors, three episodes of Empires: Egypt’s Golden Empire and 37 other movies and TV projects); Damian Mason (debut); Pierre Edwards (The Wash, B.A.P.S., How to Be a Player, For Love of Da Money and The Breaks); David Fox (nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Genie Award for When Night is Falling and for a Best Actor Gemini Award in Across the River to Motor City; also appeared in The Saddest Music in the World, Mrs. Soffel, Les Aventures de Tintin, Conquest, Snow Cake, Population 436, Anne of Green Gables: The Sequel, Grey Owl, 17 episodes of Road to Avonlea, six episodes of Across the River to Motor City, five episodes of X-Men, three episodes of Being Erica and 77 other movies and TV projects); Sam Stone (Lucky Number Slevin, Eye of the Beholder, Scanners, Police Academy 3: Back in Training, In Love and War, Mrs. Parker and the Vicicous Circle, Nuremberg, Joshua Then and Now, Bonanno: A Godfather’s Story, Le Matou, Ford: The Man and the Machine and 60 other movies and TV projects) and Verona Feldbusch (German mega-celebrity, politician and underwear designer; she has appeared in Driven, S.O.S. Barracuda 2, Meine Polnische Jungfrau, Die Blaue Kanone, On the Wings of Love, 21 epiodes of Extreme Activity).
Executive Producers: Chuck Smiley (C’est pas Moi, C’est L’autre) and Leslie Nielsen (Spy Hard, The Naked Truth and Leslie Nielsen’s Stupid Little Golf Video).
Producers: Martin Heldmann (No Strings Attached, 14 Days to Life, After the Truth) and Werner Koenig (Legionnaire, History is Made at Night, Nichts als die Wahrheit, Heavy Metal, The Body, Tmavomodry Svet, Suck My Dick, Endurance ).
Original Music by Claude Foisy (won BMI Film Music Award for The 4400 and was nominated for a Best Music Score Gemini Award for First Wave; also scored White Noise, Touch Me, Pontypool, Kiss Me Deadly, The Cradle Will Fall, Jailbait, The Snake King, Termination Shock, 66 episodes of First Wave, 44 episodes of Ghost Stories, 22 episodes of The 4400, three episodes of Hart to Hart and 17 other movies and TV projects).
Cinematography by Sylvain Brault (Emmy nom for Nouvelle Experience and Genie noms for Rowing Through and Mon Amie Max; also shot Hidden Agenda, Les Boys, Federal Protection, One Way Out, The Call of the Wild: Dog of the Yukon, Saltimbanco, Clandestins, Les Noces de Papier and Jack Paradise [Les nuits de Montreal]).
Film Editing by Ga�tan Huot (won two major awards and four nominations for works including The Red Violin, Karmina and Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould; also cut Lost and Delirious, Fish Out of Water, Human Trafficking, Airspeed, Monica la Mitraille, Race to Mars, Diamond Dogs, Hysteria and 25 other movies and TV projects).
Production Design by Csaba András Kertész (Dorian, Decoys, Stranger in the House, The Snake King, Framed for Murder, Death Wish V: The Face of Death, A Diva’s Christmas Carol, Stranger in the House, Nowhere in Sight, Nowhere to Hide, Joy, Natural Enemy, Marked Man and 15 other movies and TV projects).
Art Direction by Violette Daneau (won Polish Film Festival Best Production Design Award for Cudowne Dziecko and was nominated for a Genie Award for The Great Land of Small; also art directed Home Team, Caboose, Dancing on the Moon, La Guerre des Tuques, Vincent et Moi and Bach et Bottine).
Costume Design by Nicole Pelletier (five Genie Award Best Costume Design nominations, winning for Les Plouffe; also costumed The Lost World, Federal Protection, To Walk With Lions, Dead Innocent, The Intruder, Dorian, When Justice Fails, Le Dernier Souffle, Hawk’s Vengeance, 13 episodes of Urban Angel, 10 episodes of The Hitchhiker, five episodes of The Hunger and 50 other movies and TV projects) and Heike H�tt (The High Crusade, Der Pirat, Der Schönste Busen der Welt, Seven Moves to Checkmate, The Millionaire and the Stripper, Satan’s Children and five episodes of Jungle Hospital).
Special Effects Coordinator: Jacques Godbout (Once Upon a Time in America, Scanners, Timeline, The Hotel New Hampshire, Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle, War and Remembrance, Napoleon, Enemies: A Love Story, Brainscan, The House on Turk Street, Jacknife, Snowboard Academy, Mrs. Soffel, War and Remembrance, Big Wolf on Campus, La Petite Vie, Pure and 120 other movies and TV projects).
Visual Effects Supervisor: Frank Wegerhoff (The Patriot, Enemy at the Gates, The Frighteners, FearDotCom, Out of Season, Dot.Kill, Musketeer, Blood and Chocolate, Wake of Death, House of 9, Modigliani, Comedian Harmonists, Forgotten Silver, Das Blut der Temler and 12 other movies and TV projects).
Trivia:
In the Philippines, this film has the amusing title: “Marshall Dick: Son of Naked Gun.”
Links:
Internet Movie Database entry for 2001: A Space Travesty
