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The Wing Commander movie club been to see the Wizard and are eagerly awaiting to accept delivery of the promised brain! This week, we have another birthday selection–happy birthday, Juniper!--and it's an interesting one. We will be watching The Birdcage (1996) with Robin Williams and Nathan Lane. You can join us this Friday via Discord to watch along.
And if that seems like a different kind of movie for the movie club then it's because we have a different kind of connection to Wing Commander this time around! It turns out that The Birdcage was shot at Ren-Mar Studios in Hollywood in the summer of 1995… with a soundstage right next door to where Wing Commander IV: The Price of Freedom was being filmed! One day during Wing Commander IV's shoot, Birdcage star and self-professed Wing Commander fan Robin Williams went over to meet Chris Roberts and see what they were working on. That's why Chris Roberts would go on to consider Williams for Merlin in the Wing Commander movie three years later.
Oh yes, and Robin Williams didn't visit the Wing Commander set alone! He was accompanied by famed director James Cameron and actor/future governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. And that's because in addition to having sound stages for Wing Commander IV and The Birdcage, Ren-Mar was also where interior scenes for the Terminator 2 ride film were being shot! You can watch a recent reconstruction of that below… we'll sneak it into a Saturday marathon someday, too!
Where can I find a copy of the movie for the watch party?
The Birdcage is available for rent or purchase on all of the standard streaming services. It is currently streaming for free on YouTube. If you would like a physical copy, it was released on BluRay in the US in 2014 and remains in print around the world. A VHS copy is available for download from the Internet Archive. If you are not able to locate a copy please stop by the Discord and ping a CIC staff member before Friday's showing.
How do we watch the movie together?
It's pretty low tech! Simply join the Wing Commander CIC Discord on Friday and we will be chatting (in text) along with the film in the main channel. Everyone who wants to join in should bring their own copy and we will count down to play them together at 10 PM EST. Everyone is welcome and we encourage you to join in the conversation; sharing your thoughts helps make the experience better for everyone!
How can I help pick future movie club movies?
The movie club movies are voted on each week by the Wing Commander Discord. The poll is typically posted 24 hours before each week's screening and the next movie is announced at the end. The choices for the poll come from a master pool of Wing Commander-related movies. If you would like to suggest a film for inclusion in that pool you can post it to this thread.
