Craig Skinner On Film

The Criterion Collection have posted a short (but sweet) interview with John Lurie at ‘Criterion Current’ discussing his series, Fishing With John, and his art.

Below are two highlights but I can recommend checking it all out.

If you’ve never seen the series I can definitely recommend that too. Fishing With John easily makes it into my top ten list of TV Series and it has perhaps the most infectious but laconic opening theme ever recorded.

How did Fishing With John come about?

I kept threatening to do it. I didn’t really think I would actually ever make the show. I would go fishing with Willem [Dafoe] from time to time, and we would videotape it, like home movies, really. [Producer] Deborah Brown saw the tapes and introduced me to a Japanese company that wanted to do the pilot. We shot the one with Jim [Jarmusch], and then I had all this footage that seemed like it was going to make for the most boring mess of a program ever.

And on the tantalising prospect of a Fishing With John sequel,

Any plans for a Fishing sequel?

Yes, I hope to do a thirteen-episode version with Tad Friend and David Remnick of the New Yorker magazine as guests. I think the three of us alone in a boat somewhere will be scintillating. I have a lot of questions I would like to ask them, and apparently they must be cornered in order to answer.

At the time of writing Fishing with John is available to stream on Netflix in both the UK and America.

The series is also available to buy on DVD from The Criterion Collection. The disc is not one of Criterion’s best but it’s pretty solid and well worth picking up if you’re a fan of the series.

(The image at the head of this post is a painting by Lurie himself. You can find more here)