Star Trek’s Brent Spiner is back with more attitude and more musical numbers in short film “Brentwood”
Brent Spiner as himself in the short film “Brentwood”
NOVEMBER 11, 2020 - Brent Spiner is back with a new musical number. It’s got swearing, it’s got drama, and it’s got a big fat feud with LeVar Burton. It’s wonderful!
Earlier this year, Spiner posted a video on Twitter, a musical number where he sang and danced around his house, proclaiming, “They want me back!” At the time, it was edited into a fake Zoom interview, and captioned, “I need to learn how to use Zoom!” but now it’s part of a short film with a similar theme, called “Brentwood”.
Spiner posted a link to the short film on Monday. On Twitter, he said, “Here’s a little thing we did. You’ve seen the first number, there’s another at the end. Enjoy!”
Here’s a little thing we did. You’ve seen the first number, there’s another at the end. Enjoy! https://t.co/MM2FzGYmAf
— Brent Spiner (@BrentSpiner) November 9, 2020
Originally filmed in 2018, in “Brentwood”, Spiner plays himself, or rather, a parody of himself. All bad attitude and arrogance, in the beginning, he’s all but retreated from public life and committed to teaching instead. But when he’s asked to appear at an awards show with his old Star Trek co-stars, and he finds out his old “nemesis” LeVar Burton is doing it, he accepts, reluctantly.
The rest of the 12-minute film (after the opening musical number, the “They Want Me Back” song from earlier this year), we follow Spiner as he attends the awards show and tries to fit in with a crowd that’s moved on since the last time he was “in” Hollywood. As his rivalry with Burton flares up, there’s great comedic action, a bit of slapstick comedy and even a hallucination/dream sequence after Burton stabs him with an Epi-Pen (you have to see it to believe it). The short film ends with another charming musical number as Spiner attempts to sell all the free “crap” he’s accumulated as gifts over the years.
Along with Spiner, “Brentwood” stars Frasier actor Peri Gilpin as Spiner’s wife and LeVar Burton as himself, along with a cameo from comedian Doug Benson, also playing himself. The cast combines well with direction by Sharon Everitt and a script by Karen Anderson, Jeff Cosgrove and Everitt. The short film was originally published in 2018 as what IMDb calls a “TV comedy pilot”, and was awarded the Best Short Film award at the Independent Filmmakers Showcase in 2019.
If you’d like to watch “Brentwood” for yourself, it’s now being shown on YouTube on the Omeleto channel, “The Home of Award-Winning Short Films”. You can also head to youtube.com/dailystartreknews, where you’ll find it on our “Newsworthy Videos” playlist.
