Six degrees of separation from Gabe Polsky
Kylie Knott
Gabe Polsky’s 2014 hit documentary Red Army is a must-see at the 39th Hong Kong International Film Festival, which starts tomorrow. The film charts the rise and fall of the Soviet Union ice-hockey team during the cold war years. It reveals how players were bred to beat the West, with young children selected by officials to enter intensive boot camps for the sport. Upcoming projects by the American film director and writer include biopics of surfing legend Dorian “Doc” Paskowitz and super-smart scientist Albert Einstein …
Born in Germany in 1879, Einstein was said to have been a ladies’ man (his first marriage ended due to the scientist’s infidelity). Part of the Nobel Prize winner’s charm was his messy, uncombed hair and idiosyncratic commitment to never wearing socks. The whacky 1988 Australian film Young Einstein portrays the physicist as the son of a Tasmanian apple farmer who discovers how to split the beer atom. The madcap movie grossed more than US$100 million and was the brainchild of its star, Yahoo Serious …
The Australian actor, film director and score composer changed his name from Greg Pead to Yahoo Serious by deed poll in 1980 – 14 years before the creation of the similarly named search engine, which Serious unsuccessfully tried to sue in 2000 for trademark infringement. The case was thrown out because Serious could not prove that he sells products or services under the name “Yahoo”, and, therefore, that he suffered a loss due to the search engine. The quirky name can be traced back to filthy creatures that appear in the 1726 novel Gulliver’s Travels, by Jonathan Swift …
Born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1667, Swift wore many hats, including those of essayist, political pamphleteer, poet and cleric. In 1729, he anonymously published A Modest Proposal, a hyperbolically satirical essay in which he politely suggests the poor sell their children as food to the rich. The essay’s style has been emulated many times since, including in a letter arguing against the Vietnam war published in Fear and Loathing in America: The Brutal Odyssey of an Outlaw Journalist, a volume of letters by Hunter S. Thompson ...
The American journalist started writing after being honorably discharged from the United States Air Force in 1958. He became a literary rock star by creating crazy, self-destructive characters in his novels (which he “autographed” by shooting). The owner of many handguns, Thompson also liked to fire – from a safe distance – oil drums loaded with explosives. Suffering poor health, the Kentucky-born wordsmith committed suicide at the age of 67. His ashes were fired out of a cannon in a ceremony paid for by a friend, Johnny Depp, who had been talked out of a career in music and into one in acting by Hollywood film star Nicolas Cage …
A nephew of director Francis Ford Coppola, Nicolas Kim Coppola changed his name early in his acting career to avoid being accused of profiting from nepotism; his choice was inspired by Marvel Comics superhero Luke Cage. In 2007, the American actor created a comic book with his son Weston, called Voodoo Child. Cage’s string of movies includes The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, a 2009 crime drama directed by Werner Herzog and produced by Gabe Polsky.