Legend of the Roller Blade Seven

The Legend of the Roller Blade Seven

By Scott Shaw

I wanted to take a moment and discuss the movie, The Legend of the Roller Blade Seven as I still receive a number of questions about this film. Many wonder what is the history of Legend of the Roller Blade Seven and what is the difference between The Roller Blade Seven and Legend of the Roller Blade Seven.

To tell the story, Donald G. Jackson and I completed The Roller Blade Seven and Return of the Roller Blade Seven in early 1992. These two films premiered and were released at the 1992 American Film Market, where they were sold to a number of countries. The Executive Producer made a lot of money on those two films, but I was never paid a dime for my substantial contribution to these movies, though payment was contractually promised.

Soon after the 1992 American Film Market, as is so often the case in Hollywood, we the filmmakers: Donald G. Jackson and myself got backstabbed. The Executive Producer decided the two features would market better as a single film. So, without telling us, she broke all of our contracts and had the films reedited, titling the new version, Legend of the Roller Blade Seven. A title which, incidentally, I came up with and suggested as the release title during the latter days of filming.

When one views Legend of the Roller Blade Seven, in comparison to The Roller Blade Seven and Return of the Roller Blade Seven, one can truly see the ineptitude of the Re-Editors. They simply took scenes I had edited from the original features and combined them into one film. Oftentimes, they misaligned the music hits, which we had added to the original films. So, several visual situations occur, and the hit goes off either too soon or too late. They also added some bad narration. The Executive Producer also deleted many of our cast and crew credits, most notably my Producer credit. Basically, our vision was destroyed. As such, in no way did Donald G. Jackson or I ever endorse the version of the film, Legend of the Roller Blade Seven, sometimes titled Legend of the Rollerblade 7—though this was the version which was widely released in the U.S. on VHS, was shown on late night TV, and, for a time, was much easier to find.

Some people have mistakenly assumed that Legend of the Roller Blade Seven was the third installment of the planned Roller Blade Seven Trilogy. This is incorrect. The third film was to be titled, The Wheelzone Ranger. Though Donald G. Jackson and I intended to make this film, and a few times actually attempted to bring it up, this never occurred.

The fact that our cinematic vision was taken away from us, the creators of the film, truly bother Donald G. Jackson throughout the remaining years of his life. In fact, he was far more upset about it than I.

As a Side Note: The Executive Producer also had another cut of Return of the Roller Blade Seven created. This version of the film was not retitled in any manner. The title remained, Return of the Roller Blade Seven. This edition of the film was only released in Australia as far as I can tell. Of the two reedited versions of the Roller Blade Seven films, I believe this one to be the best reinterpretation. In addition, the Executive Producer did not change the credits, as she had done in Legend of the Roller Blade Seven. Thus, my Producer and other filmmaking credits remain intact.

I uploaded a screener copy of this film to YouTube with the title, Re-Return of the Roller Blade Seven. Check it out if you feel like it.

In you wish to, you can read an essay I wrote about the creation of these movies, titled: Roller Blade Seven: The Story of the Production. In this essay you can learn a lot about the essential facts of these films and the filmmaking process. You will also learn that I never released any of the rights to the music I created for these films, nor the dialogue for these two movies which was substantially based upon two books I composed: Zen O’clock: Time to Be and Essence: The Zen of Everything. Thus, the Executive Producer never, in fact, had the right to release these films or to copyright any of the material I created in these films. But, this is just a factual side note for your information.

As time went on, and I was able to acquire the rights to these films, it became clear that I needed to take control of the Zen Filmmaking legacy and re-release Legend of the Roller Blade Seven, which I initially did on DVD. I did this in order to countermand all of the damage: creative, financial, emotional, and otherwise that was instigated by the actions of the Executive Producer. The version I released was and is the intended version of the film. Thus, except for the title, the DVD release of the film, Legend of the Roller Blade Seven is the same movie as The Roller Blade Seven. Take your choice. The old VHS version of Legend of the Roller Blade Seven is not the creator authorized version of the film and is not endorsed in any way.

That’s the story. I trust it will help you in understanding the evolution of Legend of the Roller Blade Seven.

VIEWING:
You can pick up an authorized DVD of Legend of the Roller Blade Seven or you can view it on YouTube.