Kino Lorber Brings Back

Heinlein’s The Puppet Masters

“Everybody,

take off your clothes!”

by Brad Linaweaver

When is a press release not a press release? The answer is when writing in the first person is the best way to express gratitude. This is an announcement with bells and whistles, right in time for Christmas.

For me, it usually begins with Jessie Lilley. Long before we worked on media and pop culture publications, we never forgot our childhood lessons from Ray Bradbury and Forry Ackerman. The passport to many worlds of science fiction, fantasy and horror requires literacy and cine-literacy.

We don’t want book people with a polite disdain for movies. We don’t want film people who only buy media magazines for the pictures. Robert A. Heinlein said specialization is for insects. The human race should never stop learning. If one day we run across the bugs of Starship Troopers or the slugs from The Puppet Masters, we better be prepared for anything.

The Mondo Cult sites are where book people are Children of the Lens—with a reference to one of Heinlein’s favorite authors, E. E. “Doc” Smith. It’s a special place. Jessie and I did a paper magazine at the start, way back in 2006. J. Kent Hastings has been handling the TV (and audio site) for a year.

Brad Linaweaver being interviewed for The Grand Puppet Master documentary,
with L.J. Dopp's Heinlein portrait next to him.

So when did the connection to Kino Lorber begin?

...what an honor it is to have one’s
science fiction honored by the master..

Jessie Lilley met Heather Buckley through her association with the Etheria Film Festival in Hollywood. Watch out for falling dominoes!!!

Heather had been working with Kino Lorber but also wanted to launch some of her own shows. Jessie could tell that Heather was yet another visionary. Authentic enthusiasm is a dead give-away.

Not everything I wanted to include made it into the final cut of Robert A. Heinlein: The Puppet Grand Master, a long documentary in the Special Features. I’m not complaining. A lot of solid material from all of the participants was used effectively. It was an honor to be on camera with everyone else.

There is no denying the pleasure of seeing Jessie as Associate Producer in Special Features, where appropriate.

It’s satisfying to see L. J. Dopp’s Heinlein paintings treated with the respect they deserve. They make quite an impression in The Puppet Grand Master documentary. Another victory for Mondo Cult.

The subject came up in the documentary of what an honor it is to have one’s science fiction honored by the master. Although the item in the following sidebar wasn’t mentioned, this seems an appropriate occasion to do so.

Finally, Eleanor Wood and I pointed out that despite the Hollywood Pictures screenplay following the classic novel from 1951 in many satisfying ways, the producers in 1994 weren’t about to tackle the problem that in the course of fighting the monsters (who can attach themselves to human hosts anywhere, if they must) the human race goes full frontal. It’s a matter of military necessity.

1951.

There was only one Robert Anson Heinlein.

L.J. Dopp's portrait of Robert Anson Heinlein.