12:01 PM (1990 film)
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| 12:01 PM | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Jonathan Heap |
| Produced by | Teresa E. Kounin |
| Written by | Richard A. Lupoff Stephen Tolkin Jonathan Heap |
| Starring | Jane Alden Kurtwood Smith Don Amendolia John Bachelder |
| Music by | Stephen Melillo |
| Cinematography | Charlie Lieberman |
| Editing by | Hubert de la Bouillerie |
| Running time | 25 min. |
| Country |  United States |
| Language | English |
| IMDb profile | |
12:01 PM is a 1990 Academy Award nominated [1] short film starring Kurtwood Smith in 1990. Directed by Jonathan Heap, it originally aired on cable television in 1990 as part of the Showtime 30-Minute Movie anthology series.
It is the first film adaptation of the short story 12:01 PM by Richard A. Lupoff, which was published in the December 1973 edition of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. The major plot device is a time loop or time bounce.
In this version, Kurtwood Smith plays Myron Castleman, an everyman who keeps repeating the same hour of his life, from 12:01 PM to 1:00 PM. The character is fully aware that the time loop is occurring, although no one else appears to be aware of the repeating hour. Each time the hour resets, Myron retains his memory (or as the film puts it, his consciousness), and despite his best attempts to understand what is happening, he ultimately realizes that he is entirely helpless to prevent the time bounce. Myron cannot even break the loop by killing himself, as he reappears, alive, at the next iteration; he is trapped in the loop for eternity. This version has not been released on DVD or VHS in the United States, but 12:01 PM is available on DVD in the UK, collected on a DVD with other short films.
An urban legend (spread via the internet) suggests that the makers of 12:01 PM won a lawsuit against the producers of Groundhog Day (a film with a similar main plot device).
According to Lupoff, "Jonathan Heap and I were outraged and tried very hard to go after the rascals who had robbed us, but alas, the Hollywood establishment closed ranks. We were no Art Buchwald. After half a year of lawyers' conferences and emotional stress, we agreed to put the matter behind us and get on with our lives." [2]
[edit] References
- ^ 12:01 PM (1990) - Awards. IMDb. Retrieved on 2008-02-21.
- ^ SF Recollections by Richard Lupoff. Timebinders. Retrieved on 2007-12-03.
