Christopher Walken – Weapon of Choice

The video was directed by Spike Jonze, who, among others, has worked with R.E.M., Weezer, and Soundgarden. He directed Fatboy Slim’s “Praise You” video in 1999.

• The video features Christopher Walken dancing. Walken is famous for playing an evil psycho in movies like True Romance, The Deer Hunter, Sleepy Hollow, and Pulp Fiction, which made for a very interesting video because it turns out Walken is a great dancer. He danced in musicals at the beginning of his career.

• Mickey Rooney’s son Michael was the choreographer.

• The video was shot over 2 days in the lobby of a Marriott Hotel in Los Angeles shortly before Christmas in 2000.

• The video won 6 MTV Video Music awards: Breakthrough Video, Best Direction, Best Choreography, Best Art Direction, Best Editing, and Best Cinematography.

• This won a Grammy for Best Short Form Music Video. Collins accepted the award with Slim.

• Slim was supposed to do a cameo in the video, but his wife Zoe was about to give birth to their child, so he figured his priority was to be with her.

• Funk legend Bootsy Collins helped write this song and played on it. Collins played bass for George Clinton’s Parliament/Funkadelic, and has worked on many side projects, including The Bootzilla Orchestra and Deee-Lite.

• In David Lynch’s film adaptation of Dune, Paul Atreides says to his mother (82 minutes into the movie): “If we walk without rhythm, we won’t attract the worm.” This is the likely source of the lyrics, “Walk without rhythm, it won’t attract the worm.” (thanks, Jason – Sydney, Australia)

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