Skip to content

Supernova

Midnite weekend screenings happen on Friday & Saturday nights (meaning arrive on Friday and/or Saturday night by 11:45pm for seating, the movie starts after midnite)!

Director: Thomas Lee Run Time: 90 min. Format: 35mm Rating: PG 13 Release Year: 2000

Starring: James Spader, Angela Bassett, Robert Forster, Lou Diamond Phillips

Sponsored by MUBI; co-hosted by filmmaker and writer Steve Macfarlane

Supernova has found meme-era infamy thanks to its vintage theatrical trailer, which laid a classic Don “In A World” LaFontaine voiceover over “Fly” by Sugar Ray. The movie itself was unceremoniously dumped into theaters, credited to somebody named “Thomas Lee” – in reality, an amalgamation of directors who had suffered Supernova’s turbulent production saga. A now-legendary series of re-shoots and re-edits began with the firing of Australian filmmaker Geoffrey Wright (pre-production), the quitting of his replacement Walter Hill (who shot and edited a near-complete cut), who was then followed by horror director Jack Sholder, who was later fired. In the end, MGM called in board member Francis Ford Coppola to salvage the wreckage in post-production… yet somehow, Thomas Lee’s feature debut is even weirder than the trailer suggests.

While the original concept was a creepy, cerebral thriller in the tradition of Alien, only the gift/curse of hindsight makes it possible to see Supernova for what it really is: an Event Horizon ripoff that doubles as a sex comedy/erotic thriller in deep space, an insane distress signal blasted out by the pre-collapse studio system. Like Don said: “If you can’t stand the heat… Get out of the universe.”

Keep track of the erotic thriller tropes with your Nitehawk Diaries Bingo card!

Nitehawk audience gets a special offer of a custom trial with MUBI. Learn more at mubi.com/nitehawk.

Trailer

UPCOMING SPECIAL SCREENINGS

SEE ALL
Poster for Gosford Park
Apr 12

Gosford Park

Tea At Four. Dinner At Eight. Murder At Midnight.

details
Poster for Hyenas
Apr 13

Hyenas

Madness, power and the vanity of vengeance

details
Poster for Bacurau
Apr 26 - Apr 27

Bacurau

If you go, go in peace

details
Poster for The Rules of the Game
Apr 29

The Rules of the Game

The awful thing about life is this: Everybody has their reasons

details