The lineup for next season’s Brinker International Forum series at the Dallas Center for the Performing Arts has been announced. Most of it is not especially out of the ordinary: Condoleeza Rice, Hillary Swank, Lisa Ling (formerly of The View). But the final event, on March 16, 2010, raises the old eyebrows a bit: “Frank Langella and Sir David Frost: A Conversation.” If that meeting is filmed or taped, footage from it will make a nifty extra for the 2013 commemorative re-release of the Frost/Nixon DVD.
Which reminds me that the first-run (so to speak) DVD of that film is now in the stores. It features a number of extras, plus a commentary track from director Ron Howard. Among the notable revelations in the disc’s making-of mini-documentary: the scenes in which Michael Sheen (as Sir David) pitches the Nixon interviews to Weed Eater, and in which Oliver Platt does his RN impression, were improvised on the set. Another 6-minute extra is devoted to the Nixon Library in Yorba Linda. There are also 22 minutes of deleted scenes; I wonder if these include one of Swifty Lazar grabbing the check (a highlight of Peter Morgan’s play which was omitted from the film).