Category: Sly Fan

Randy Rousseau is a long-time SZoner and big time Stallone fan and collector.  Randy recently attended the Comic-Con Taco Bell / Warner Bros. 25th Anniversary of Demolition Man celebration.  Randy actually loaned some of his Demolition Man props to the event!  He was also kind enough to send us in this report with photos…

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Hi Craig,
I provided props from my personal collection for this live Taco Bell / Warner Bros 25th anniversary Demolition Man event.

We have attended pop up events during San Diego’s Comic Cons for many years.

But I had an idea this was going to be something really special… even more than years-past with other studio tie-ins, because they usually build something “free standing” temporarily. But for this live event they rented out an entire current operating steak restaurant.

I worked with the marketing gentlemen from corp Taco Bell,  it was he that had the vision for a few years and wanted to embrace Taco Bell from Demolition Man.  He reached out to Warner Bros who actually allowed them the rights to use elements from the film & agreed to provide wardrobe from the cast from the archives.

Than he hired  http://www.cyranorox.com/
The owner are a husband and wife team (great passionate people) with fantastic co-workers that specialize in design experiences.

They were tasked to bring together the dream of the Taco Bell marketing gentlemen with just a nine month timeline.

They chose SDCC annual event as the perfect place. And chose a location that made sense following Demolition Man‘s story line. (Since after eating, John Spartan & Lenina Huxley drove past the San Diego convention center.)

They picked Graystone steak house on 5th street just a few blocks down from the Comic Con convention center.

I sent pictures of my props & wardrobe from the film for the to choose from.

We delivered them on Wednesday morning just one day before they would open to the public. They had just taken the  establishment over on the prior Tuesday. They had a crew of approximately 90 people working on so many details… from the reworking of the entire front  facade, a rework of the entire interior, a special lighting company to create the  unique atmosphere.  As we delivered the props their staff were so  extremely appreciative and very passionate about seeing the props from the film.  This gave the entire project a sense of reality, they were really excited to share with me all the planning and ideas that were coming together. Just watching this materialize was very impressive.  I have been to large scale Hollywood events but this was different because you had, a real business, a real brand in Taco Bell, and a major film that has a serious fan following, that had to come all together in a live event. In about 24 hours.

Warner brothers was due out in a few hours I was looking forward to meeting their  Archive group.

The wardrobe was delivered in special shipping containers, outfits were in heavy black plastic to keep light off and persevere the material, they look as if they were just taken off the set. Really nice to know after 25 years these items have been treated so.well.

I thought, “Wow! They have so much to do in less than 24 hours.  The next day I returned to meet the Taco Bell marketing gentlemen and to my surprise I walked literally onto the set of Demolition Man.  It felt futuristic.

Everywhere you looked there were details from the movie. He then wanted to share a  sneak peek with me to all of the attention to details: like he hired and shot new footage of Dan Cortez to welcome the customers to taco bell 2032 (you remember him from playing & singing at the piano) than the GM intro of the Ultralight police car, and a description of what’s on the menu, to actual footage of Arnold Schwarzenegger at the podium marked up like he was the President after the great earthquake, than a  digital cartoon image of him in a serious pose as president… to the swag that would be offered for sell ( tshirts, sweatshirts & pins)

Where my props were predominantly on display and safe, from the window front that everyone walks by to the custom made Violation machine the gives out verbal tickets as you enter.