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Nicholas Meyer Fascinates Me!

Steve67

Steve67

Commander
Red Shirt
While listening to his excellent commentaries on the ST II and ST VI DVDs, I have become fascinated with Nicholas Meyer. He's talented, intelligent, articulate, and boasts a wonderfully dry wit. However, the one thing that interests me most is the fact that he comes off as a 19th Century buff, which he no doubt is. The Seven-Percent Solution and Time After Time have their 19th Century connections and Meyer's influence on the Trek franchise with the nautical uniforms, having Spock quote Sherlock Holmes, the Dickens references, Kirk's apparent love of antiques. Meyer's obvious (to me) instruction to composer James Horner to make the score of ST II sound like Bronislau Kaper's Mutiny On the Bounty. Meyer also alludes to the fact that he loves cognac, cigars, opera, Shakespeare, and the Horatio Hornblower books, to name but a few of his interests. To a raised-in-the-suburbs rube like me, Meyer comes off as a sophisticated man out of time. I'll also admit that his enthusiasm for 18th-19th Century literature and history has influenced me to seek out books, films, and music I normally wouldn't have explored, at least in any great detail. A creative and well-read individual who is one of my favorite writer/directors. I just wish he'd direct more! Thoughts?
 
I was assisant manager at a movie theater in the early 1980's and I actually had to kick Nicholas Meyer out of a showing of "Star Trek--The Wrath of Khan". Yes, it's true.

I'm in Kansas City--a LOOOoong way from Hollywood, but he showed up one day with a couyple other suited types at our box-office. He said he didn't want to buy a ticket because he wasn't going to be around for the entire film but just wanted to step into the auditorium to "see how my picture looks on your screen". He said his group wouldn't even sit down. Well, I recognized him, so I let his goup go in. So far so good.

The problem began when they started chatting in normal tone voices at the back of the theater. Now, many people may like a director's cmmentary now, but back in theday, when the rest of the audience had no idea who this guy was, it was disturbing to the theater. 5 minutes went by, then 10 and still Meyer and his group continued to chat. Closing on 15 minutes, Nicholas Meyer decides it's time to light up a great big cigar. I noticed it when a theater patron came out of the auditorium and I smelled the smoke from inside. Okay, enough was enough. I went in and found thergroup at the back, chatting and puffing away. I told Nicholas Meyer that the fire code didn't permit smoking in the auditorium and if he'd need to step out in the lobby if he wanted to smoke. He seemed amused and said they'd already seen what they wanted to look at and they were leaving. He said, "thanks" and his little group walked out.

Kind of a weird day, that one was . . .
 
Steve67 said:
While listening to his excellent commentaries on the ST II and ST VI DVDs, I have become fascinated with Nicholas Meyer. He's talented, intelligent, articulate, and boasts a wonderfully dry wit. However, the one thing that interests me most is the fact that he comes off as a 19th Century buff, which he no doubt is. The Seven-Percent Solution and Time After Time have their 19th Century connections and Meyer's influence on the Trek franchise with the nautical uniforms, having Spock quote Sherlock Holmes, the Dickens references, Kirk's apparent love of antiques. Meyer's obvious (to me) instruction to composer James Horner to make the score of ST II sound like Bronislau Kaper's Mutiny On the Bounty. Meyer also alludes to the fact that he loves cognac, cigars, opera, Shakespeare, and the Horatio Hornblower books, to name but a few of his interests. To a raised-in-the-suburbs rube like me, Meyer comes off as a sophisticated man out of time. I'll also admit that his enthusiasm for 18th-19th Century literature and history has influenced me to seek out books, films, and music I normally wouldn't have explored, at least in any great detail. A creative and well-read individual who is one of my favorite writer/directors. I just wish he'd direct more! Thoughts?
Click to expand...

I agree. I too wish he would work more. And he definitely taps into a classical style that has it's own appeal.
 
I saw him live at Grauman's Chinese Theater. He did an intro and Q&A session for a showing of Star Trek II. Chase Masterson was also there (for reasons unknown to me) and the host came off as a pompous know-nothing.

Meyer was articulate, extremely dry, and I realized that he'd make a great film teacher. Most of what he talked about can be found on the DVD interviews. Someone asked him if he knew STII would be a success. He said you never can predict that sort of thing and then asked if we had ever heard of a film titled "I Love Melvin." I thought he made it up but some people in the audience had indeed heard of it. Meyer's point was that this film, a musical made at MGM in the style of (and starring some of the actors from) Singin' in the Rain was expected to be a big hit... and wasn't. It's always a gamble.

Someone asked him what makes a good story and his answer was (I'm badly paraphrasing): "A good story is a story when, after I've told it to you, you realize why I had to tell it." Meyer also spoke fondly of the actors, especially Montalban.

I wasn't able to get my picture taken with him (I don't think I brought my camera) and I didn't get his autograph. But it was pretty cool nonetheless. Mark Altman and Robert Meyer Burnett (of Free Enterprise fame) hosted another STII screening as part of their Geek Monthly "Films of 1982" series (or something to that effect). Footage of that Q&A might be online somewhere. I had already moved back to Florida and was thus unable to attend.
 
ScottDS said:
Meyer was articulate, extremely dry, and I realized that he'd make a great film teacher.
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I get that impression of him off his interviews and commentaries, too. He and Robert Wise did a really nice commentary together on the DVD of Wise's classic The Day the Earth Stood Still.
 
Oh totally! I actually enjoy watching TWOK with the commentary on as much as I do without it. I made my mother (who isn't really a Trek fan) come and listen to some of the things he had to say as I knew she'd appreciate them.

I like that he goes off on some really interesting tangents about film-making in general, and some thought provoking philosophical thoughts.

For example, his "all films are a product of their time" spiel, the bit about how art thrives on restrictions, and how it is the willing participation of the viewer/reader/listener that completes a work of art and that only movies/TV have the "hideous capacity to do it all for you". I also love his account of what it was like to direct Shatner, and his musings at the end on how ST has affected the lives of the original cast.

Also, the gem about Directors' Cuts with new scenes reinstated for the sake of it, like when they find a missing piece of a Verdi opera and put it back in, but maybe Verdi had a very good reason for taking it out.

Count me in as another member of the Nick Meyer fan club. :)
 
I had been a big Meyer gusher after reading CONFESSIONS OF A HOMING PIGEON, when TWOK was in postproduction, and even moreso after TWOK, but I've been less impressed with him in the subsequent years, especially his releasing TWOK as a diredtor's cut even though the dvd is glaringly without his original ending (basically slicing off the Golden Gate park stuff of torp on planet.)

Some of his commentary reflects his earlier comments, but I'd commend to your attention a lengthy interview he gave in ENTERPRISE INCIDENTS magazine in 83 or so, across a couple issues. He is really on his game there, when talking about trek and other things. One thing that always stuck with me was his take on TV vs home vid. With one, you CHOOSE what you watch, rather than let the TV dictate. It is something I have often tried to keep in mind to avoid automatic channel surfing (and is easier now, since most of the things I want to watch I already have on laserdisc or dvd.)
 
trevanian said:
I had been a big Meyer gusher after reading CONFESSIONS OF A HOMING PIGEON, when TWOK was in postproduction, and even moreso after TWOK, but I've been less impressed with him in the subsequent years, especially his releasing TWOK as a diredtor's cut even though the dvd is glaringly without his original ending (basically slicing off the Golden Gate park stuff of torp on planet.)
Click to expand...

Apart from the ending, the Director's Cut is essentially his original cut of the movie, before Harve Bennett and Leonard Nimoy came up with the idea of seeding Spock's possible return.

There's a part of the commentary, which I talked about in my earlier post, where NM talks about Directors' Cuts and how he dislikes them. I guess he saw no harm in releasing one himself as it acurately reflects his original intentions. However, he does state his opinion that once you put a movie "out there", you lose all possession of it - it now belongs to the audience, and changing it can only risk alienating those who came to love the original version, something that George Lucas could've done well to bear in mind.

I would imagine that Meyer felt that he could get away with adding a few of his original cut scenes, but that he couldn't change anything to such a degree as to do away with the "remember" line or the shot of the torpedo having soft-landed on Genesis. :)
 
hutt359 said:
I don't know, I think he's very picky about what projects he associates with...
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Yeah. Seventeen or eighteen years worth of picky now.

Directing low-budget "Star Trek" features and an occasional television movie did not generate an insatiable demand for his services. "The Wrath Of Khan" was good, "The Day After" was overblown and ultimately trivial, and McDowell and Steenburgen were the reasons to see the amateurishly directed "Time After Time." Other than that...meh.
 
trevanian said:
I'd commend to your attention a lengthy interview he gave in ENTERPRISE INCIDENTS magazine in 83 or so, across a couple issues. He is really on his game there, when talking about trek and other things.
Click to expand...

I love that interview! He talks not only about Trek, but about his experiences writing his first two Sherlock Holmes novels, the process of turning The Seven Per Cent Solution into a film, and his desire to do a Sherlock Holmes musical (!). I don't know where my copies of those issues have gone, sadly - it'd be nice if those interviews were posted online somewhere, but I don't think that's the case.
 
I think bits of them probably turned up in unauthorized trek books later on, since that Van Hise guy always recycled his (and other writers) stuff endlessly. I remember that he talked briefly about CONFESSIONS OF A HOMING PIGEON, and how Burt Sugerman (now Mr. Mary Hart) had bought the rights to his novel.
 
He has an interesting commentary on Time After Time (with comments from Malcolm McDowell interspersed), as well as the ones already mentioned on Star Trek II, Star Trek VI, and The Day the Earth Stood Still (with Director Robert Wise).
 
Zachary Smith said:
I was assisant manager at a movie theater in the early 1980's and I actually had to kick Nicholas Meyer out of a showing of "Star Trek--The Wrath of Khan". Yes, it's true.

I'm in Kansas City--a LOOOoong way from Hollywood, but he showed up one day with a couyple other suited types at our box-office. He said he didn't want to buy a ticket because he wasn't going to be around for the entire film but just wanted to step into the auditorium to "see how my picture looks on your screen". He said his group wouldn't even sit down. Well, I recognized him, so I let his goup go in. So far so good.

The problem began when they started chatting in normal tone voices at the back of the theater. Now, many people may like a director's cmmentary now, but back in theday, when the rest of the audience had no idea who this guy was, it was disturbing to the theater. 5 minutes went by, then 10 and still Meyer and his group continued to chat. Closing on 15 minutes, Nicholas Meyer decides it's time to light up a great big cigar. I noticed it when a theater patron came out of the auditorium and I smelled the smoke from inside. Okay, enough was enough. I went in and found thergroup at the back, chatting and puffing away. I told Nicholas Meyer that the fire code didn't permit smoking in the auditorium and if he'd need to step out in the lobby if he wanted to smoke. He seemed amused and said they'd already seen what they wanted to look at and they were leaving. He said, "thanks" and his little group walked out.

Kind of a weird day, that one was . . .
Click to expand...

Didn't know you were in Kansas City!

May I ask what theater?
 
Trekker4747 said:
Zachary Smith said:
I was assisant manager at a movie theater in the early 1980's and I actually had to kick Nicholas Meyer out of a showing of "Star Trek--The Wrath of Khan". Yes, it's true.

I'm in Kansas City--a LOOOoong way from Hollywood, but he showed up one day with a couyple other suited types at our box-office. He said he didn't want to buy a ticket because he wasn't going to be around for the entire film but just wanted to step into the auditorium to "see how my picture looks on your screen". He said his group wouldn't even sit down. Well, I recognized him, so I let his goup go in. So far so good.

The problem began when they started chatting in normal tone voices at the back of the theater. Now, many people may like a director's cmmentary now, but back in theday, when the rest of the audience had no idea who this guy was, it was disturbing to the theater. 5 minutes went by, then 10 and still Meyer and his group continued to chat. Closing on 15 minutes, Nicholas Meyer decides it's time to light up a great big cigar. I noticed it when a theater patron came out of the auditorium and I smelled the smoke from inside. Okay, enough was enough. I went in and found thergroup at the back, chatting and puffing away. I told Nicholas Meyer that the fire code didn't permit smoking in the auditorium and if he'd need to step out in the lobby if he wanted to smoke. He seemed amused and said they'd already seen what they wanted to look at and they were leaving. He said, "thanks" and his little group walked out.

Kind of a weird day, that one was . . .
Click to expand...

Didn't know you were in Kansas City!

May I ask what theater?
Click to expand...

Seville Cinema 4 Theaters, 500 Nichols Rd on the Country Club Plaza. I was assistant manager there from 1979-1984. It closed up, oh, around 1990 maybe. I'm not sure. Same building where the Palace on the Plaza is now. Of course, back in those days the whole building was the Seville Square Shopping Center (before that, it was Sears and Roebuck!!).
 
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