12A- The Michigan Daily - Thursday, April 10, 1997 NATION/WORLD
'I would have given an arm to be able to shoot ... in Grosse Pointe'
CUSACK
Continued from Page 1A
an exhaustive press junket for "Blank," surely
Cusack couldn't be a nice guy all of the time.
Surely, he must possess a superstar ego. Surely,
against journalists, he must carry a grudge
roughly the size of, well, Grosse Pointe.
Disappointingly pleasant looking, in a black
suit with a skinny black tie, like he just stepped
out of "The Grifters," Cusack, chatting in his
suite at the Ritz-Carlton, is almost apologetic for
having so little first-hand experience with
Grosse Pointe.
"I would have given an arm to be able to shoot
the film in Grosse Pointe. But it was all number-
crunching. The production only had so much to
spend, about $15 million, so we spent it on the
movie instead of the locations," Cusack said.
Stopping just short of peace offerings, Cusack,
who did triple-time as actor, co-producer and co-
screenwriter, acknowledges that the footage of
the real Grosse Pointe was shot by the second unit
alone. Posh California suburbs like Monrovia and
Duarte often doubled for Pointe's atmosphere of
"old money"
In conveying the genre-crossing black come-
dy among the inherited wealth, Cusack, both as
actor and producer, was admittedly attracted to
the absurd subject matter of "Blank's" dark
humor from the start.
"With black comedy, you can keep extending
it forever," Cusack said. "Ultimately, you just
try to take serious themes which there aren't
easy answers for and just sort of tell the truth
and run in a satiric way."
And run he did, as "Blank" is a startlingly
original and satirical amalgam of romantic,
comic and action cliches, blended together in an
ultra-violent manner. So violent, in fact, that the
film has brewed up controversy for its repeated
scenes of graphic hits and comical carnage.
"I don't think it glorifies violence. I don't think
we were politically correct either. The film sati-
rizes the (action) genre and we needed to be
excessive for it to reach levels of absurdity,"
added Cusack. "By the end of the film, it goes so
far into absurdity that we have someone propos-
ing during a massacre. So, I don't know how we
could be glorifying violence, since we were mak-
ing so damn much fun of it."
Fun, for Cusack, seems to be the appropriate
word to describe his close-knit production of
"Grosse Pointe Blank:" He recruited two of his
oldest friends, D.V. DeVincentis and Steve Pink,
to collaborate on the screenplay and gave his sis-
ter Joan - who was nominated for an Academy
Award in 1987's "Working Girl" - a plum,
showy supporting role.
Adhering to his agreeable reputation,
Cusack's experience as a first-time producer in
this familiar climate only enhanced his overall
pleasure.
"I liked (producing). It was a lot of fun;'
Cusack said. "You get to dictate the way you like
to work and hire the people you want to work
with. Otherwise, you get directors and crew
members who yell and scream all day. When
you're producer, you can tell them to go scream
on another set. Seriously, this environment made
me feel really good and people kind of shrug it
off, but you always do better work when you feel
good."
Feeling good has apparently paid off for this
film, seeing that Cusack was not only able to
oversee the general well being of the production
but also able to tailor the character of Martin to
his needs, consulting with "a guy who knew way
too much about paramilitary activity" and inject-
ing some autobiographical elements into the
confused professional killer.
"Yeah, sure, Martin is me a bit. Nothing literal-
ly autobiographical. I've never killed anyone. My
10-year reunion was hell. I wear black. That's
about it," he said.
Does Cusack, the multi-faceted actor who still
felt out of place at his reunion at the Hilton of
greater Skokie, then feel that his effort in
"Grosse Pointe Blank" turned out better than
some of his past endeavors?
"I don't know, I like some of them but I don't
like some of them," Cusack demured cryptical-
ly. "I just tried to make something here I liked
and was proud of. It's funny. It's got some pretty
good dialogue. It's pretty absurd."
Adding modesty to his seemingly endless list
of virtues, Cusack underplays the fact that
"Grosse Pointe Blank;' while quirky, absurd and
independent-feeling, is poised to relaunch him
into the superstar stratosphere of Hollywood,
unwittingly taking one southeast Michigan com-
munity along for the ride.
"We all thought this one could fly into the
radar and bring Grosse Pointe the recognition it
warrants, because it's got all the trappings of a
commercial movie. You can market it like a
Bruce Willis movie if you wanted to. Underneath
that, it's more subversive. We like to call it 'sub-
mercial' - half commercial, half subversive"
If the movie were completely commercial,
Cusack joked, it would probably bear a studio-
anointed, mass-produced title like "Dangerous
Charm."
"I wish more than anything I had some great
story that Disney tried to homogenize our little
film. But, by their standards, it didn't cost much
money. They had bigger fish to fry."
So, then, does John Cusack.
Now that he's becoming an action hero with
June's "ConAir" ("Everything there ever w4
blows up.") and Hollywood player with two
screenplays in development, will Cusack ever
return to playing the nice losers in "The Sure
Thing," "Sixteen Candles" and "Better Off
Dead" that made him who he is today?
"Well, this guy's kind of a loser. Should I be
playing teenagers with low IQs? I can't really go'
back to playing teen-agers - the headgear hurt
too much. Though I could play some really
dense adults"
Whatever his future holds, there is always tb.
possibility for Cusack of reprising the role or'
Martin in a "Blank" sequel.
"If it opens well. He'd be like a post-modern
Clueseau. 'The Further Adventures of Martin Q.
Blank.' We're ready if you are;'
We're always ready, John, for you to prove
that there definitely can be more Mr. Nice Guy
- even if you never again come within point-
blank range of Grosse Pointe.
Corpse too tall to fit into
coffin; family files lawsuit
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Clarence
Freeman Jr. was a very tall man who is
now 6 feet under in an eternal squeeze.
As the family tells it, his 6-foot-9
body was bent like a pretzel and stuffed
into a too-short casket in an everlasting
indignity to the man.
"lie can't rest in peace comfortably,"
his widovv, Josie Freeman, said yesterday.
The deceased's relatives are suing
Angelus Funeral Home, which insists it
was only trying to keep down costs for
the bereaved, and the family hopes some-
day to exhume the body from a Chicago
cemetery and place it in a larger casket.
"I just want everything done right,"
Mrs. Freeman said. "My husband took
a lQt of pride in himself. He took care of
his appearance and personal hygiene.
This just isn't him."
Freeman, 39, died of complications
of Hodgkin's lymphoma on Valentine's
Day, and his wife contacted the 74-
year-old Angelus Funeral Home, one of
the most widely respected mortuaries in
Los Angeles.
Angelus funeral director Blanche
Laws-McConnell said she told the fam-
ily Freeman's legs would be crossed and
his knees bent so he would fit in a stan-
dard casket. The average inside length
of a casket is 6 feet, 6 inches.
Ron Hast, publisher of the national
industry magazine Mortuary
Management, said he was familiar with
the case and defended Angelus. He said
Freeman's knees were raised only 5 or 6
inches, and some padding was removed
from the coffin.
Otherwise, Freeman would have
required a custom-made extra-long cas-
ket, a custom grave, a custom vault and
other custom features, and "those
things would have greatly increased
costs," Hast said.
The family paid $5,320.95 for the
funeral, which included air shipment to
Illinois for burial. He was buried in the
York Co.'s Majestic casket ($2,341.50),
the standard casket with the longest
interior space, Hast said.
But David Wood, the Freemans'
attorney, said Angelus had assured the
family a larger casket would be used
and the body would "rest comfortably."
The March 28 Superior Court suit
claimed fraud, breach of contract, neg-
ligence and intentional infliction of
emotional distress. It seeks unspecified
compensatory and punitive damages.
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MICHIGAN
RECORDS
AP PHOTO
Egyptian workers collect a limestone rock as part of the restoration works of the Giza Sphinx north of Cairo yesterday.
The workers this week began the final phase of a decade-long restoration project.
Egyptian archaeologists put
finishing touches on Sphinx
41
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LIOI1isiiIUionalon
CAIRO, Egypt (AP) - The
Egyptian workmen let out a groan as
they hoist a limestone block, suspend-
ed by rope from a pole across their
shoulders, and start shuffling up a
wooden ramp beside the Sphinx.
Slowly, carefully, the eight robed
workers haul the 440-pound stone to
the Sphinx's left flank and ease it into
place, mimicking the technique of the
beast's builders 4,500 years ago.
This week, the workers began the
final phase of a 10-year restoration
project on the Sphinx, the huge stone
lion with a pharaoh's face that guards
the Great Pyramids.
It won't be like new when they're
done in October, since no amount of
repair can undo centuries of erosion
by water, wind and sand.
Egyptian archaeologists hope they
will never again have to face the furor
that erupted in 1988 when a boulder
fell off the deteriorating Sphinx's right
shoulder, costing the country's chief
of antiquities his job.
"The Sphinx is like a chronically ill
man," said Zahi Hawass, the govern-
ment director of the Giza pyramids.
"In six months he will be better, but he
can never be fully cured. He will
always need attention."
The colossal figure derives its
English name from a Greek mytholog-
ical beast with a woman's head and
lion's body. In Arabic, it's known as
Abu el-Hol, or Father of Terror.
The body of the 242-foot reclining
lion was formed by laying quarried
limestone over a natural outcrop.
Claws were carved into its paws, and
remaining flecks of paint indicate the
Sphinx may once have been painted
bright red.
The face, rising 66 feet above the
desert floor, is that of King Chephren,
the principal builder at Giza. His near-
by pyramid is second in height only to
that of his father, King Cheops. Just
why the pharaoh built the Sphinx
remains a mystery.
Italian Egyptologist Silvio Curtod
theorizes that since pharaohs believed
themjselves deities, the Sphinx, was
designed "to represent the sovereign
as divine guardian and sun god?'
Other scholars see an astrological
connection. At the equinoxes, they,
say, the Sphinx is in alignment with
the sunset at the south edge of
Chephren's pyramid.
The Sphinx was buried by sand
from the Middle Ages until explorers
started digging it out in the 19th cen.-
tury. It was finally uncovered in the
1920s and patched with cement. In the
1980s, more cement and stones were
added, broadening the lion's body by
as much as nine feet in some places.
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Group claims UFOs are coming
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Los Angeles Times
JAMUL, Calif. - From a hillside
east of San Diego, William Proctor
points to a distant strip of ocean
between the Earth and sky. Straight
ahead is El Cajon, and beyond layers'of
ridges to the northwest is Rancho Santa
Fe, where 39 people laid down and died
in an eerie attempt to enter what they
believed was Heaven's Gate.
They were tragically misguided, says
Proctor, 43; in believing a spaceship
trailing a comet would take them to the
"next level" Their bodies were found in
nearby Rancho Santa Fe on March 26.
Proctor fears there could be more sui-
cides with the coming millennium. That
is why it is important to spread the truth.
And the truth, he says, is this: In
2001, a spacecraft will land on a raised
Atlantis, and it will be followed by oth-
ers that will land here, perhaps next to
the eucalyptus tree to his right, the pep-
per tree to his left, or somewhere on
these 67 acres owned by the Unarius
Academy of Science.
In all, there will be 33 spacecraft,
landing one on top of the other, each
carrying 1,000 "space brothers," he
says. More highly evolved than us,
operating at a higher frequency, they
will teach us the way to peace and har-
mony. They will speak from their expS
riences to end hatred and disease, and
they will invite us to become a member
of an interplanetary confederation.
Unarius, where Proctor is a student
and teacher, is a "new life science" that
has unveiled to him answers.
COMING TO NEW YORK?
r Join the University of Michigan Alumni Club of New York.
Free membership for 1997 grads.
e Over 7000 U of M grads in New York - events every month
(a great chance to network, network, network)
Read the Daily. *
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