The Hollywood News will be ten years old next year and I still have to pinch myself everyday to appreciate just how far we’ve come since this. Over the years we’ve had the chance to meet some absolute legends of the screen but none, in my my mind, come any bigger than Mr. Burt Reynolds. I had the opportunity to spend a few minutes with the legend a few years ago at one of our first press events (a comic convention no less) and I can tell you that he’s one of the most genuine, most appreciative human beings, not to mention Hollywood stars, that i’ve ever had the chance to spend time with.
Among my favourite Burt films, along with CANNONBALL RUN and the bloody brilliant SMOKEY AND THE BANDIT is DELIEVERANCE, and I still can’t get over how bloody handsome Burt is in it, and without a moustache! Well, that film is coming up for its 40th anniversary (yes, it’s 40 years since Burt took a arrow to the chest – oops, spoiler!) and Ned Beatty was bent over a forest log and asked to squeal like a pinky brown farmyard animal.
The folks at Collider caught up with the principal cast consisting of Reynolds, Jon Voight, Ned Beatty and Ronny Cox at an anniversary junket in Hollywood recently and have posted a lovely video of just that! The film is getting a big re-release on the Blu-Ray format, and the boys discuss the transfer, working with directing legend John Boorman and memories of shooting the film in the superb piece below. Pan down and you may see that pic of me and Burt. I post it again, because I bloody love him.
More at Collider.
