Cast, Crowe Revisit ‘Jerry Maguire’

Cameron Crowe is very apologetic that the initial DVD of his 2000 Oscar-winning “Almost Famous” was released in the spring of 2001 without his commentary. He wanted to do it but found that his hectic schedule got in the way.

“The one time in my life I actually try to be prolific,” he says, “it keeps me from working on the thing that I really wanted to--work on the DVDs. But we did two movies [“Almost Famous” and “Vanilla Sky”] back to back. I couldn’t finish the DVD until we finished the last movie.”

With “Vanilla Sky” completed, Crowe was able to work on the digital versions of his films. Last fall, DreamWorks released a two-disc edition of “Almost Famous” that includes Crowe and his mother providing funny commentary on the semiautobiographical comedy-drama. Earlier this year, Fox released an equally impressive DVD of Crowe’s 1989 movie “Say Anything.” This time, Crowe and the film’s stars, John Cusack and Ione Skye, supplied the informative commentary. (In a DVD first, the three discuss “Say Anything,” Crowe’s directorial debut, for 25 minutes before the film begins.)

On May 21, Paramount will release the DVD of “Vanilla Sky,” in which Crowe offers commentary with his wife, composer Nancy Wilson, accompanying on the guitar. But this week, Columbia TriStar is releasing a two-disc special edition of Crowe’s 1996 blockbuster, “Jerry Maguire” ($28). It features a documentary, rehearsal footage, deleted scenes and audio and video commentary with Crowe and stars Tom Cruise, Renee Zellweger and Cuba Gooding Jr. Gooding won a supporting actor Oscar for his performance.

Crowe says that none of the studios has ever suggested what he should include on the DVDs. “We sort of come to them,” he says. “There is a guy in our office called Scott Martin. We are both real music heads, and we both are fans of liner notes. I will rush out and buy a box set that I have all the music of just to read the liner notes. So we kind of approach all the DVDs as liner notes--a personal conversation with somebody who would hopefully be a fan of the movie.”

He decided it would be great if a camera could film the commentary for “Jerry Maguire.” “Everybody was so close to those characters in real life,” Crowe says. “So the feeling was, ‘Let’s have a reunion.’ Then it was, ‘I would love to see what that looked like.’ I had never seen anybody do a video audio commentary. What you see is kind of like a sweet reunion.”

The DVD marks the first time Cruise has participated in a commentary. Crowe says the actor agreed to do it because of his love of the film, for which he received an Oscar nomination.

“I think the movie sort of inspired a lot of changes in all of our lives,” Crowe says. “It was a great time, and we really did get along. But you know what the sparkplug was? Renee. We always missed Renee because Renee went right into another movie after ‘Jerry Maguire.’ She was never a part of any of our field trips to go to the Oscars or junkets. I knew that Renee actually being with us would give us some kind of booster rocket, and it did.”

Crowe, who wrote “Conversations With Wilder,” a book of interviews with Billy Wilder, says that “Jerry Maguire” was a tribute to the late director. “It began wanting to inspire that kind of portrait of modern man with hilarity and melancholy, and there is no greater movie at that than ‘The Apartment.’”

He had wanted Wilder to play the part of the old sports agent in “Jerry Maguire.” Initially, Wilder told him he might be interested. But when rehearsals began and Crowe contacted him again, “he said he didn’t remember me and ‘leave an old man alone.’”

But “Maguire” co-star Bonnie Hunt told Crowe not to take “no” for an answer. “She said, ‘You should get in your car and go right over to his office.’ Tom Cruise said, ‘I’ll go with you.’ So we sped over to his office and he spent 45 minutes telling us ‘no’ with glee and loving it. It was an amazing afternoon. When the movie came out, Billy Wilder called me up and said, ‘I enjoyed the picture and I like the guy who played my part, so if you’d like to come over and talk about something for your column sometime.’ ... I said, ‘I don’t have a column but I’m coming over,’ and that was the beginning of the book.”

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The press release for the DVD of “Not Another Teen Movie” (Columbia TriStar, $28) states that the 2001 flick is “a riotously risque comedy.” What it really is, is a gross-out, unfunny spoof of teen movies from “The Breakfast Club” to “She’s All That.” Directed by Joel Gallen, who produces the always entertaining MTV Movie Awards, “Not Another Teen Movie” is strictly for undiscerning teenage boys.

The “special edition” DVD goes overboard with the extras, including several behind-the-scenes featurettes, 18 deleted scenes, auditions, trailers, an unrated version of Marilyn Manson’s “Tainted Love” music video, Gallen’s first short film and commentaries from the filmmakers and cast.

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Written and directed by Thomas Bezucha, “Big Eden” (Wolfe Video, $25) is a sweet, old-fashioned romantic fable starring Arye Gross as a gay New York painter who returns to his hometown of Big Eden, Mont., when his grandfather (George Coe) suffers a stroke. A real loner, he still is passionately and secretly in love with his boyhood friend (Tim DeKay), a straight man and father of two.

Initially afraid to tell his friends and family he’s gay, he quickly learns that not only are they accepting of his homosexuality, they want him to be happy. So the town tries to set him up with Pike (Eric Schweig), a shy, gay Native American who operates the general store. Louise Fletcher and Nan Martin also star.

The two-disc set includes a wide-screen version of the film, generous commentary from the director, several behind-the-scenes documentaries, deleted footage with commentary from the director and even a list of the recipes for the meals Pike cooks in the film.

Thirty-four years after its release, George Romero’s cannibalistic zombie thriller “Night of the Living Dead” still packs a wallop of terror. Elite Entertainment recently released a special two-disc DVD edition of the 1968 indie hit ($25). Fans of the film will no doubt gobble it up. Included is a beautiful new transfer of the black-and-white film, trailers and TV spots, a not-so-funny film parody called “Night of the Living Bread,” a photo gallery, a history of Romero’s company, Latent Image, scenes from Romero’s lost film “There’s Always Vanilla,” an interview with star Judy Ridley, the late star Duane Jones’ final interview, posters, commentary with Romero and members of the production crew and another commentary track with the stars. One interesting note: The cemetery used in the film’s opening was later struck by a tornado and more than 200 bodies were unearthed.

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For five years, Resfest has been a leading international digital film festival. It travels to 14 cities on five continents, including New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seoul and Cape Town. Palm Pictures is releasing “The Best of the Resfest Volume I,” a digital collection of 16 of the festival’s most acclaimed films. Each short film includes director’s commentary and information about the film. Among the best films are “Pasta for War,” a spoof of wartime propaganda films featuring marching rigatoni, and “A Portrait of Harry,” a sweet snapshot of an 88-year-old ukulele player.