Western Civilization Will ‘Decline’ Again

Who will fry the eggs in “The Decline of Western Civilization III”?

Film director Penelope Spheeris doesn’t know yet--she isn’t even sure what bands will be featured in the third installment of her documentaries chronicling the L.A. rock scene.

She’s certain, though, that there are personalities out there as striking as punker Darby Crash and metal-man Ozzy Osbourne. Crash’s egg-frying scene was a twist of unexpected domesticity in the original “Decline’s” 1981 look at the punk underground, while Osbourne’s breakfast-making served the same purpose in the 1988 sequel subtitled “The Metal Years.”

For the new project, which Spheeris will begin filming in August, she’s again looking into the punk world--not the multi-platinum revival of Green Day and Offspring, but a persistent, unglamorous subculture.

“I’ve been going to a lot of shows, mostly in the outlying areas,” says Spheeris, who directed such mainstream comedies as “Wayne’s World,” “The Little Rascals” and “Black Sheep.”

“I’m going to see a band in Hemet, I saw one in Pomona, one in Redlands, even Tijuana,” she says. “They’re from L.A., but they play way out there because that’s where the kids are. We used to call them the termites in the woodwork of America. The part I’m interested in now is that a lot of these kids are homeless.”

Spheeris says that she is so committed to the project she recently turned down two $3-million offers to direct major-studio comedies. Though she made very little money on the two rockumentaries, the experience is more personally rewarding.

“For me as a filmmaker, one of the most gratifying things is when someone comes up and says, ‘I moved to L.A. in 1980 and I saw ‘Decline’ and it changed my life,’ ” she says. “That’s the reason for making movies, not waking up on Monday and going, ‘Gee, we made $30 million this weekend.’ ”

Among the first film’s fans is Brett Gurewitz, co-founder of Bad Religion and now owner of Epitaph Records, L.A.’s leading punk label, which launched Offspring, Rancid and others to stardom.

“It was a big kick [back then] to see that film,” he says. “A lot of my friends are in it. It still comes up now and then whenever we’re hanging around and wonder whatever happened to so-and-so.”

Gurewitz doubts that a new film can have the “relevance” of the first, but he says the scene Spheeris is looking at is a fascinating and musically worthy one.

Whatever profit the new movie might turn, Spheeris plans to give some back to the punk community.

“I’ve been meeting all these kids and seeing how many are squatting in empty houses,” she says. “I’m going to give a major percentage to try to do a house for these kids, a shelter. And you won’t even have to have a Mohawk to get in--but it will help.”