A Bold Enterprise From a Fan of the Space Shuttle : A monthly, 60-minute video magazine gives information on the space program in newsy featurettes.
Space shuttle junkies, unite!
That’s the battle cry of Richard Horrmann, who is producing a monthly video magazine, ShuttleVision, dedicated to information about the space program. Each 60-minute video, made up of newsy featurettes, costs subscribers $18. ShuttleVision is available only by mail order, in VHS and in PAL, the European tape format.
Are there enough space shuttle enthusiasts out there to justify a video magazine?
Horrmann is betting there are. So far his subscriber list is less than 1,000--not enough to cover his $15,000-$20,000 production costs each month--but he believes the venture is growing.
“There are people who love the space shuttle program and want to see everything about it,” he explained. “To some people, one launch is the same as another. But people who follow the space program know each launch is unique and each mission is special in some way. So the magazine focuses on events related to launches that month or in the previous couple of weeks.”
The reason his video magazine is necessary, Horrmann explained, is because of the limited media coverage of the space program. “Since the Challenger disaster, the primary media attention the program gets is when there’s bad news,” he said. “There’s so much going on--about NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration), various programs and the people and companies involved--that doesn’t get coverage.”
Horrmann said that NASA, which is cooperating in his enterprise, has scheduled seven flights this year. Two have been completed--one in January and one at the end of March. Space shuttle watchers, he added, are gearing up for Monday’s scheduled maiden voyage of the new space shuttle Endeavor, which was built to replace Challenger.
Figuring there were others out there like him starved for regular shuttle news, Horrmann, an avid follower of the program since the first launch in 1981, started work on the magazine last July, producing his first show in December. The operation is based in Los Angeles.
Other space shuttle enthusiasts have found out about ShuttleVision in space magazines and through direct-mail campaigns geared to readers of such journals, such as Final Frontier and Countdown. Most of the response, Horrmann said, has come from the mail campaigns.
Information: (818) 333-9378.
What’s New on Video: These productions have recently been released:
“Frankie and Johnny” (Paramount, no list price). While some critics liked this romantic comedy, they also griped that Al Pacino (Johnny) and Michelle Pfeiffer (Frankie) were too glamorous to play unglamorous losers--a short order cook and a waitress--reluctantly falling in love in Manhattan.
“Little Man Tate” (Orion, $92). Critics generally applauded Jodie Foster’s directorial debut in this simple, sentimental, TV-movie-style drama. It’s about a gifted 7-year-old boy grappling with an unsophisticated mother (Foster), who downplays his intellect, and a rigid psychologist whose sole concern is his brainpower.
“Shout” (MCA/Universal, no retail price). A genuinely bad movie, set in Texas in the ‘50s, starring John Travolta as a music teacher who introduces reform-school boys to the “rebellious” sound of rock ‘n’ roll.
“Frankenweenie” (Disney, $15). This is the 28-minute, 1984 black-and-white short that director Tim Burton, now famed as the director of the “Batman” movies, made during his early ‘80s tenure as a Disney animator. It’s a morbid, black-humored homage to the 1931 “Frankenstein” movie, which is ingeniously redone as a live-action, boy-and-his-dog story. Though it’s Disney, this is definitely not for young children.
“The People Under the Stairs” (MCA/Universal, no retail price). Director Wes Craven, known for his grisly humor, provides a few frightening moments in this tale--quite inferior to his “A Nightmare on Elm Street”--of a robber trapped in a spooky mansion with creepy creatures under its stairs walls.
“29th Street” (FoxVideo, $95). Likeable in places but muddled and overly-sentimental in others, this family comedy/drama, set in mid-’70s New York, shows what happens to an Italian-American family when a lazy son (Anthony LaPaglia) is a lottery finalist. Danny Aiello plays the patriarch.
“The Rapture” (New Line, $90). Praised by some critics as bold and meaningful, trashed by others as empty and pretentious, this drama, featuring some nearly X-rated sex scences, stars Mimi Rogers as a sexpot telephone operator who becomes a religious extremist. Written and directed by Michael Tolkin, who wrote the script for “The Player.”
“In the Heat of Passion” (Columbia/TriStar, $90). In this steamy, schlocky drama, an oversexed shrink (Sally Kirkland) and her boy-toy (Nick Corri) are locked in lustful embraces when they’re not scheming to kill her husband. Available unrated or in a toned-down R version, with two minutes cut out.
“My Own Private Idaho” (New Line, $93). Grim, beautifully photographed and well-acted drama--pretentious in spots--detailing the adventures of two tortured gay hustlers (River Phoenix and Keanu Reeves) who are desperate for roots and parental love.
“McBain” (MCA/Universal, no set price). A fun, violent movie for hard-core action-adventure fans. Christopher Walken stars as the head of a commando unit of Vietnam vets who attack Colombian drug lords.
“1992 Winter Olympics Highlights” (CBS-Fox, $20). A fast-moving, often stirring hour’s worth of highlights from the recent games that’s enjoyable if you turn off the banal commentary by Tim McCarver and Paula Zahn.
“City for Conquest” (MGM/UA, $20). Yes, the plot, about a noble boxer (James Cagney) who fights in order to advance the career of his concert musician brother (Arthur Kennedy), is cliched and corny, but Cagney, in one of the better performances of his career, energizes and uplifts this 1940 melodrama.
Upcoming on Video: Paramount’s “Star Trek VI: the Undiscovered Country,” supposedly the final chapter of the hit film series, will be in stores July 1. To make it more attractive to renters--especially the Trekkies--it will feature several minutes of footage not seen in the theatrical version.
The other major home-video attraction due in July is Columbia TriStar’s “Bugsy,” director Barry Levinson’s gangster movie starring Warren Beatty and Annette Bening.
Others: “At Play in the Fields of the Lord” (Wednesday), “Freejack” (Wednesday), “The Commitments” (Thursday), “The Butcher’s Wife” (May 13), “JFK” (May 20), “City of Hope” (May 20), “The Addams Family” (June 18) and “Naked Lunch” (June 11).
New on Laser: The new laserdiscs in stores include “Rambling Rose,” “Shattered,” “The Last Boy Scout,” “Point Break,” “Curly Sue” and “Child’s Play 3.” Also:
“Boys Town” (MGM/UA, $40). Spencer Tracy won his second consecutive best actor Oscar in 1937 for portraying tough Father Flanagan in this mawkish tale of the development of an institution for wayward boys and the taming of an incorrigible delinquent (Mickey Rooney).
“Love in the Afternoon” (FoxVideo/Image, $50). As the tireless playboy, Gary Cooper seems too old to be romancing the young daughter (Audrey Hepburn) of a detective (Maurice Chevalier), but the witty script by co-writer and director Billy Wilder for this 1957 romantic comedy makes that reservation seem like nit-picking.
“Presenting Lily Mars” (MGM/UA, $35). An obscure, mildly entertaining 1943 Judy Garland musical, mainly of interest to Garland buffs, in which she plays a small-town, stage-struck singer who gets involved with a Broadway producer (Van Heflin).
“Midway” (MCA/Universal-Image, $50). In wide-screen, some of the action footage in this 1976 drama about the famous World War II battle looks impressive, but the story bogs down in subplots featuring Charlton Heston, Henry Fonda and Robert Mitchum.
Upcoming on Laser: MCA/Universal is releasing last year’s remake of “Cape Fear” in mid-June and the 1962 original, featuring Gregory Peck and Robert Mitchum, in mid-May. The company is also putting out a letterboxed version of Steven Spielberg’s 1975 hit, “Jaws.”
