Stone, who grew up in the Maryvale neighborhood in Phoenix, presents his latest piece of work — Shatner: The Motion Picture — as part of his ongoing series, the Worldwide Freakout, at Majestic Neighborhood Cinema Grill in Tempe on Saturday, October 1. Series installments will follow, starting in December. The 8 p.m. show is sold out, but the venue added an earlier screening at 5:10 p.m. to provide maximum Shatner satisfaction.
Shatner is Stone’s cinematic cut-up, a beyond thoughtful collage of work the actor did during the 1970s and '80s, richly emphasizing his acting style that blends a signature measured vocal cadence with an equally plodding physicality. And while Stone, the president and CEO of Worldwide Freakout, has shown versions of this movie previously, this is its beefiest iteration.
“Shatner: The Lost Years was actually the first one that was me taking a bunch of Shatner movies and compiling them into one big movie,” Stone says in a recent Zoom interview with Phoenix New Times. His original has been reworked to include 40 minutes of new material. Its current runtime is 90 minutes.
“It looks so much different than the original,” he points out. “The editing has gotten much tighter, and I keep finding more rare and new-to-me stuff. I focus on Shatner’s '70s work — what I like to call his ‘Lost Years.’ He disowned that era because it was the decade between when the Star Trek TV series ended, and the first Star Trek movie happened. It was the nadir of his career. He was living in a fifth wheel, going through a messy divorce, and taking a lot of guest appearance gigs on shows like Columbo and Hawaii Five-O.”
The Canadian actor, now 91 years old, also starred in movies like 1977's Kingdom of the Spiders (filmed in and around Sedona) and 1974's Pray for the Wildcats (with Andy Griffith), which Stone considers primo Shatner roles. You may see a clip from them at the screening, but Stone likes to keep what's included as much of a surprise as possible.
The Shatner army has a legion of stans, and Stone explains the attraction, saying, “He’s got a unique form of acting, and it really comes through in this stuff in the movie — the non-Star Trek work that many people haven’t seen. He just over-emotes in every scene. Even his outfits are outlandish. He is just kind of walking ridiculousness. He takes every role seriously but, at some point, developed a sense of humor about it, realizing there’s a kitsch factor to his actions. He just has his very own kitschy way of acting.”
Whether it’s Shatner or another celeb as his spotlight subject, Stone emphasizes that he is laughing with, not at, Shatner, and that’s what he wants audiences to do, too.
“With every actor, actress, or topic we focus on, we laugh with them, not at them," he maintains. "We don’t want to celebrate their low points. If it was a clip of Shatner caught doing something scandalous on TMZ, that’s not something I want to show. I wouldn’t do these shows if I didn’t legitimately like watching these movies. It’s always something I want to see and want people to see.”
It takes Stone about three months, on average, to put one of these creations together. Shatner, of course, took even longer, as it has changed to become the mammoth Shatner showcase it is now. In addition to poring over content to find what he deems the best material and weaving it into a devilishly entertaining flick, Stone threads it with special touches and effects.
“I add some gags in," Stone offers. "Some are pretty obvious, but as an editor, my philosophy is to make those things invisible. The highest compliment I can get is when somebody comes up to me after a show and asks, ‘Hey, when that one thing happened, was that actually in the movie, or did you do that?’ I try to make it hard to tell — for it to be as seamless as possible."
The Worldwide Freakout started nearly a decade ago. Stone contacted Andrea Canales, Majestic’s programming director, who was previously doing those same duties at FilmBar. The unfortunately defunct downtown Phoenix theater closed earlier this year.
“I just wanted to rent the film for a night and show one of my favorite movies, Stunt Rock, to my friends. She interpreted it as me wanting to start a regular night and invited me to come down and talk about it," Stone says.
He knew Canales from her many local film events and had made posters and graphics, as well as cut trailers, for some of her shows. “That’s how the Freakout started,” Stone says. “Just by showing weird, under-the-radar movies that are great for watching with a crowd."
In addition to presenting a fun or freaky movie people can enjoy as a group, Stone is down with audience participation — “It just makes the movies a bit more fun.” After a couple of years of that, he started creating collages of clips to play before the main attraction, featuring slices from some of his favorite genres, including concert flicks and movies with dare-devilish action.
One of his pre-Freakout shorts was Some Kind of Hulkster, mashing up scenes from the 2004 Metallica documentary Some Kind of Monster with footage of legendary wrestler Hulk Hogan. Those efforts were so well-liked that his event evolved into his cut-ups being the feature.
“The clips became more popular than the show itself, and they were designed for a live audience," Stone proclaims. "All the shows are built around a live audience — a larger group of people who are interacting with the screen.”
COVID-19 may have put the Worldwide Freakout on hold for a couple of years, but now that Stone has moved the event to the Majestic to once again work with Canales, he has a few things up his sleeve. He continues to get help in promotional efforts from his friend — and sometimes co-host — Danny Duoshade.
At one point during the pre-pandemic years of his event, Stone added a performance component that continued to help elevate the magic and fun of the Freakout. One such happening involved building a jetpack to fly over Roosevelt Avenue.
With the event back in greenlight mode, expect to see more Stone shenanigans accompany his screenings. December will be the next opportunity to catch a Worldwide Freakout showing, and January is the Freakout’s 10th anniversary; expect surprises — but Stone is keeping those close to the vest for the time being.
Right now, he’s just happy to be back. “I think we’re going to have a combination of people coming who were FilmBar regulars and a lot of new faces. I’m excited to grow and see where it goes.”
Shatner: The Motion Picture
Where: Majestic Cinema Grill, 1140 East Baseline Road, TempeWhen: Saturday, October 1
Phone: 480-795-6622
Tickets: $10.81 for 5:10 p.m. screening; 8 p.m. show is sold out.