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'Jurassic Park': 25 Things You Didn't Know About the Classic Dinosaur Movie

Gary Susman — 2013-06-11T10:00:00+00:00

Maybe you think of "Jurassic Park" as the movie that surpassed "E.T." to become the biggest Steven Spielberg film ever, as well as one of the biggest hits of all time. Or maybe you think of it as the film that, through its landmark CGI dinosaurs, helped usher in the age of digital filmmaking. Or maybe you just think of it as the movie that scared the pants off you when you saw it in theaters two decades ago (the film marks its 20^th anniversary on June 11) and every time you've watched it since on TV.

However you regard it, "Jurassic Park" has seemed a ubiquitous, inescapable fixture of pop culture for 20 years. And yet there are still things about it you may not know, such has how Spielberg chose his cast, how several teams of effects artists came together to build those pioneering dinosaurs, and whether or not it would really be possible to clone dinosaurs from ancient DNA as the geneticists in the movie did. Read on to unearth these and other not-quite-fossilized secrets from "Jurassic Park."

1. Spielberg, a lifelong dinosaur enthusiast who preferred the prehistoric lizards in "King Kong" to the big gorilla, learned about Michael Crichton's dinosaur-cloning tale from the author himself a year before he published his 1990 bestseller. The pair had been developing a screenplay based on Crichton's own early medical career. That project evolved into the long-running TV drama "ER."

2. That preexisting partnership with Crichton helped Spielberg to win the bidding for the movie rights to "Jurassic Park." Several other directors were in the running, including Tim Burton, Richard Donner ("Lethal Weapon"), Joe Dante ("Gremlins"), and (according to Spielberg) James Cameron.

3. Laura Dern, who played Dr. Ellie Sattler, recalled in Entertainment Weekly's recent oral history of "Jurassic Park" how Spielberg pitched her the movie: "I know that you're doing your independent films, but I need you to be chased by dinosaurs, in awe of dinosaurs, and have the adventure of a lifetime. Will you do this with me?" Her "Wild at Heart" co-star Nicolas Cage, who said he'd always dreamed of being in a dinosaur movie, urged her to say yes.

4. Richard Attenborough, who played park impresario John Hammond, was best known as a director of biopics ("Gandhi," "Chaplin"). Before that, he'd been a celebrated actor, but he'd put acting on hold after 1979, when his directing career took off. "Jurassic Park" marked his first role in 14 years, and it resuscitated his acting career at age 69, leading to prominent roles in "Miracle on 34^th Street" (as Kris Kringle) and "Elizabeth," among others.

5. To cast Hammond's granddaughter, Lex, Spielberg auditioned a number of girls and asked them to record their screams. Ariana Richards recalled that she won the role because she was the only one whose taped scream was loud enough to awaken a sleeping Kate Capshaw (a.k.a. Mrs. Spielberg) and send her scurrying down the hall to see if her children were all right.

6. Joseph Mazzello, who would play Lex's brother, Tim, had enjoyed some success as a child actor ("Presumed Innocent"), but when he screen-tested for a role in Spielberg's 1991 film "Hook," the director told him he was too young. He recalled that Spielberg told him, "Don't worry about it, Joey. I'm going to get you in a movie this summer." Looking back, Mazzello (who would go on to star in Spielberg's World War II mini-series "The Pacific" as an adult) called the "Jurassic Park" consolation prize a "pretty good trade."

7. For the animatronic dinosaurs, Spielberg hired Stan Winston on the basis of his work creating the alien queen in "Aliens." Winston built the life-size lizards, including the Tyrannosaurus rex and triceratops. Spielberg hired stop-motion puppeteer Phil Tippett to animate model dinosaurs that would be superimposed in post-production, and Dennis Muren (fresh from creating the molten-metal morphing effects in "Terminator 2: Judgment Day") to see if dinosaurs could be created using computer-generated imagery.

8. In fact, the dinosaurs Muren created on the computer were the first major flesh-and-blood CGI creatures in movie history. When he screened for the rest of the filmmakers an early test of wire-frame dinosaurs in motion, Tippett realized he was out of a job. "I think I'm extinct," he told Spielberg, who liked the quip so much that he put it in the movie. (Actually, Tippett stayed on as an adviser to the computer animators, using his knowledge of paleontology and pantomime to instruct the effects artists in how dinosaurs should move.)

9. Spielberg also showed Muren's test footage to legendary stop-motion monster animator Ray Harryhausen. "He was absolutely enthralled and very positive about the paradigm changing," Spielberg recalled. "He looked at the test and said, 'Well, that's the future.'"

10. The velociraptors, however, were done Godzilla-style, with puppeteers in lizard suits. The man-sized velociraptors were much bigger than the real species, though shortly before the movie's release, paleontologists discovered a larger related species, the Utahraptor. Winston joked, "We made it, then they discovered it."

11. Sound designer Gary Rydstrom combined a variety of animal cries to make the various dinosaur roars. The cow-like brachiosaurus' bellow was a blend of donkey and whale. Whale sounds were also used for the Tyrannosaurus rex, along with the sound of a tiger, an alligator, and a baby elephant. For the sound the T. rex made when it killed the lawyer, Rydstrom used a recording of his own Jack Russell terrier grappling with a rope toy, played at half-speed. The most complex was the velociraptor, a mix of tortoise, horse, goose, walrus, dolphin, and African crane.

12. For all the work that went into creating lifelike dinosaurs, the lizards got just 15 minutes of screen time in the 127-minute movie.

13. The iconic shot of the water rippling in a cup in the car as the stomping T. rex approaches was inspired by Spielberg watching his car interior vibrate as he listened to bass-heavy funk band Earth, Wind and Fire. To create the water effect, he placed guitar strings under the dashboard and had a crew member pluck them.

14. Sam Neill, who played Dr. Alan Grant, has a scar on his left hand from the scene where he tries to distract the T. rex with a burning flare. Some flaming phosphorus fell from the flare and got trapped under Neill's wristwatch.

15. Before the last day of shooting, Hurricane Iniki, the most powerful storm in Hawaiian history, hit the set. The cast and crew were trapped in their hotel on Kauai. Spielberg helped bide the time by telling ghost stories to the kids. Others passed the time reading the only piece of literature they could find, a Victoria's Secret catalogue.

16. When the movie went into post-production, Spielberg was already in Poland shooting "Schindler's List." He supervised the effects work on his dinosaur thrill ride while filming the horrific Holocaust drama.

17. Despite the hurricane, the shoot finished 12 days ahead of schedule and on budget. It cost $63 million to make and another $65 million to market.

18. In its initial release, "Jurassic Park" earned $357 million in North America and a total of $914 million worldwide. That was enough to surpass Spielberg's "E.T." to take the record as the biggest hit movie of all time, a record it held for nearly five years, until "Titanic."

19. The film won Oscars for Best Visual Effects (shared in part by Winston, Tippett, and Muren), Best Sound Editing, and Best Sound Mixing (Rydstrom shared both of those). At the same Academy Awards ceremony, Spielberg won Best Picture and Best Director, Michael Kahn won Best Editor, and John Williams won Best Score -- all for "Schindler's List."

20. Spielberg directed a sequel "The Lost World: Jurassic Park" in 1997. Joe Johnston filmed "Jurassic Park III" in 2001. A "Jurassic Park 4" has been on the drawing board for a decade but has yet to emerge with a cast or a workable script. It has a director, Colin Trevorrow ("Safety Not Guaranteed").

21. Even before Spielberg began filming "Jurassic Park," Universal Studios engineers were at work building "Jurassic Park: The Ride," an attraction at Universal Studios in Hollywood that opened in 1996 at a cost of $110 million (nearly twice what the film cost to make). Universal has since added an expansive "Jurassic Park" section to its Islands of Adventure theme park in Orlando, Florida.

22. To this day, Dern says she's recognized as "the girl who put her hand in the dinosaur poo." She adds that kids have refused to shake her hand, "as though I hadn't washed."

23. The CGI dinosaurs of "Jurassic Park" have had a far-reaching legacy, having convinced some of the world's most imaginative filmmakers that the technology finally existed to put whatever they saw in their mind's eye onto the screen. They led Winston and James Cameron to form the Digital Domain effects house, and it led Stanley Kubrick to collaborate with Spielberg on "A.I. Artificial Intelligence," the robot fable he'd dreamed of making for decades (Spielberg would finish the film in 2001, two years after Kubrick's death). They inspired George Lucas to make the three "Star Wars" prequels and Peter Jackson to make "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy, "King Kong," and the "Hobbit" trilogy.

24. In April, Universal released a 3D version of "Jurassic Park" in theaters. The conversion from 2D cost $10 million, and it earned the 20-year-old film another $45.4 million in domestic ticket sales.

25. Could scientists really clone dinosaurs from DNA in dinosaur blood found in mosquitoes preserved in amber? Probably not. For one thing, even petrified DNA would probably have degraded too much in the 65 million years since the last dinosaurs died out. Plus, there's no contemporary equivalent to a dinosaur egg in which to incubate the embryos. Still, Jack Horner, the paleontologist who served as a consultant on the film, said he thought it might be possible to genetically modify a chicken embryo to activate dormant genes for dinosaur-like traits. Not quite the same thing, alas.

The Best Movies About World War I

Sharon Knolle — 2012-01-06T18:00:00+00:00

Steven Spielberg already dramatized the horrors of World War Two in 'Saving Private Ryan' and 'Schindler's List,' but when he chose to bring 'War Horse' to the screen, he became one of a select few filmmakers to tackle the first "Great War." Now that the men of 'Downton Abbey' are preparing to march off to enter World War I (the much-awaited second season debuts this Sunday on PBS), we salute actors like Gary Cooper and directors like Howard Hawks who told the story of what was once thought to be the "war to end all wars."

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[Photo: DreamWorks]

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25 Things You Didn't Know About 'Three Amigos'

Gary Susman — 2011-12-12T16:00:00+00:00

In these days when silent-film homages are all the rage (see 'Hugo' and 'The Artist'), it's worth taking a look back at 'Three Amigos,' released exactly 25 years ago, on December 12, 1986. The thoroughly silly comedy centers on a trio of extravagantly-costumed silent-movie Western stars (Steve Martin, Chevy Chase, and Martin Short) who find themselves having to be heroes for real when they visit a Mexican town beset by bandits. A modest hit at the time, the movie has since become a cult favorite and surprisingly influential, with its plot echoing through such later movies as 'A Bug's Life,' 'Galaxy Quest,' and 'Rango.' Its spoofing of silent-film conventions must have seemed esoteric a quarter-century ago, but its total absurdity makes 'Three Amigos' timeless. Read on for the untold story of 'Three Amigos' - how it almost became a Steven Spielberg movie, the lost subplots involving Fran Drescher and Sam Kinison, the feud between Chase and director John Landis, and the movie's unheralded role in the genesis of the beloved novel and film versions of 'Like Water for Chocolate.'

1. The 'Saturday Night Live' talent axis was instrumental in the creation of 'Three Amigos.' Frequent guest host Martin had had the idea for the movie for many years before the film was made. Back in 1980, he mentioned the project (then called 'The Three Caballeros') in a Playboy interview, saying he intended to costar with 'SNL'-ers John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd.

2. Steven Spielberg was at one point slated to direct, but he ended up doing 'E.T.' instead. Opposite Martin, he'd wanted to cast Bill Murray and Robin Williams.

3. Ultimately, director John Landis (practically an honorary 'SNL'-er after his frequent work with Belushi, Aykroyd, and Eddie Murphy) took the helm. He cast SNL alumni Chevy Chase and Martin Short, though if Short had been unavailable, he'd have gone with Short's fellow 'SCTV' alum Rick Moranis.

4. 'SNL' producer/guru Lorne Michaels and singer/film composer Randy Newman are credited screenwriters of 'Three Amigos', along with Steve Martin. It's the only screenwriting credit to date for either Michaels or Newman.

5. Newman also wrote three songs and performed the voice of the Singing Bush.

'Three Amigos' - 'My Little Buttercup'

6. Casting fellow directors in cameos is a trademark for Landis - there were 17 of them in his 1985 movie 'Into the Night' But here he gave one a major role as the villain.

7. As bandit leader El Guapo, Landis cast Mexican actor/director Alfonso Arau, who had played a similar role in 'The Wild Bunch.' He'd also recently played Juan, the menacing Colombian smuggler who turns out to be a big fan of Kathleen Turner's romance novels in 'Romancing the Stone.'

8. Arau also starred in a Mexican movie in 1970 called 'Tres Amigos,' which means Three Amigos.

9. El Guapo means The Handsome One; it can also mean The Ladies' Man.

10. 'Three Amigos' was the first major film role for Martin Short.

11. Patrice Martinez, a 23-year-old actress from Albuquerque who had studied in London at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, won the part of Carmen, the village girl who summons the Three Amigos to her beleaguered town. Her 21-year-old lookalike sister, Benita, also landed a part in the movie.

12. Tony Plana, who played Jefe (El Guapo's second in command, though his name means Chief or Boss), was a Cuban-born performer who had emigrated to America as a child with his family in 1960, after Castro took over. He had created the role of Rudy in Luis Valdez' play 'Zoot Suit' and reprised the role on Broadway and in the movie. He had also starred as one of the cadets alongside Richard Gere in 'An Officer and a Gentleman.' And he's already co-starred with Chase via a bit part in 'Deal of the Century' (1983).

13. In walk-on parts as studio flunkies, Landis cast Jon Lovitz (then a regular on 'SNL') and Phil Hartman (who would join the 'SNL' cast in the fall of 1986).

14. Comedian Sam Kinison had a cameo as a bandit that wound up on the cutting room floor. So did a subplot involving Fran Drescher (who was still years away from sitcom fame on 'The Nanny') as a rival starlet.

15. In the opening song, the Amigos manage to hold that high note for 14 seconds.

16. In the sequence where they have to say magic words to summon the invisible swordsman, one of Steve Martin's magic words is "Hfuhruhurr," his character's name in The Man with Two Brains.

17. To promote the film's imminent release, Chase, Martin, and Short co-hosted 'SNL' on December 8, 1986. Randy Newman was the musical guest. The episode included three classic sketches: Satan (Lovitz) comes to claim the soul of spike-cowlicked Ed Grimley (Short); Martin reveals in a monologue his self-serving holiday wish; and President Reagan (Hartman) proves himself to be an take-charge logistical mastermind behind the scenes while pretending to be a guileless, doddering oldtimer before the public.

18. The movie earned $39.2 million at the domestic box office. Among 1986 films, it came in just ahead of 'Little Shop of Horrors,' the musical that featured Moranis and Martin.

'Three Amigos' - Trailer

19. During production, Landis met Arau's wife, Laura Esquivel, and wondered why she was so quiet. Over dinner one night, she explained that she was coming up with an idea for a novel. She and Arau had been married for 10 years, and shortly after their wedding, an astrologer predicted that, by their 12th anniversary, she would write one of the most popular novels in Mexican history, and soon after, Arau would direct a similarly successful movie. Sure enough, a couple years later, Esquivel published the best-selling 'Like Water for Chocolate. And in 1992, Arau directed the film version, which became an international hit and one of the most popular Spanish-language movies of all time.

20. Patrice Martinez later starred on the series 'Zorro' on the Family Channel from 1990-93.

21. Kai Wulff, who played the German, has done voice work for 20 video games, including various versions of 'Medal of Honor' and 'Call of Duty'

22. Tony Plana ultimately went on to fame as Betty's dad on 'Ugly Betty.'

23. Martin and Short worked together again on the two 'Father of the Bride' movies.

24. In a 2011 interview with Movies.com, Landis recalled having some friction on the set with Chase.

Probably the funniest moment for me when shooting was when I had the Three Amigos on horseback in the desert and I was shooting while they were wearing those ridiculous outfits and after having been shooting for three weeks, Chevy objected to a line of dialogue and he said, "I don't think I should say this." And, remember, Chevy plays a character named Dusty Bottoms. So I said, "Well, why not?" He said, "Because my character would have to be a moron to say this." All I could think was, What movie has Chevy been making? So I said, "OK, I'll give it to Marty because it's a laugh." Then Chevy said, "I'll say it!" It's one of my favorite moments with an actor.

25. For his part, Chase had this to say, to Entertainment Weekly, in 2004:

There was a time when the three of us were on a cliffside, 50 feet straight down, and there was nobody behind us with ropes tied to our belts or anything. Just kidding around, I made some hideous comment about John not taking precautions [after the accidental deaths on the set of 'Twilight Zone: The Movie,' which Landis directed]. Unfortunately we were wearing mikes and John could hear us talking. Boy, was he mad! We almost came to blows. But otherwise it was just the most fun I've ever had.

[Photos: HBO Studios]

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'A Dangerous Method' and the Most Freudian Movies Ever

Sharon Knolle — 2011-11-29T16:50:00+00:00

With the sexy-yet-cerebral 'A Dangerous Method,' starring Viggo Mortensen as a certain Viennese doctor, now in theaters, Moviefone asks: Where would movies be without pervasive sexual subtext, surreal dream sequences and daddy issues? The once-shocking ideas of Sigmund Freud -- like repression of childhood traumas, hysteria and extremely symbolic dreams -- have flourished in cinema, where pop psychology handily explains every crazed slasher. These gloriously overwrought Freudian films allowed actors and production designers to go more than a little mad. Ahead, the most Freudian films ever put to celluloid.

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[Top Photo: Sony Picture Classics]

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25 Things You Didn't Know About 'Network'

Gary Susman — 2011-11-27T11:50:00+00:00

All together now: "I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!" That's the famous catchphrase uttered by "mad prophet of the airwaves" Howard Beale in 'Network,' a movie that, in the 35 years since its release (on November 27, 1976), has come to seem less and less like satire and more like a blueprint. There's nothing too far-fetched anymore in screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky's vision of a TV industry where newscasting has become indistinguishable from entertainment, where programmers will try pretty much anything for ratings, where reality TV stars will try pretty much anything to grab their 15 minutes of fame, and where the goals of global corporatism override the best interests of the state and the individual. Of course, 'Network's critique applies to the film industry as well; it's hard to imagine today a Hollywood studio that would greenlight a comedy that so brazenly bites the bites the hand that feeds it. Then again, in the age of Occupy Wall Street, there might be some resonance in a movie where citizens across the nation start chanting Beale's bleat. Read on to learn about the horrifying on-air suicide that inspired the legendary movie, the behind-the-scenes buzz on its unprecedented Oscar victories, and its ties to contemporary stars Heath Ledger, Tim Robbins, and George Clooney.

1. The germ of the idea for 'Network' came from the real-life on-air suicide of Sarasota, Fla. TV reporter Christine Chubbuck, who killed herself during a live newscast on July 15, 1974. In a Howard Beale-worthy pronouncement, Chubbuck had said, "In keeping with Channel 40's policy of bringing you the latest in blood and guts, and in living color, you are going to see another first: attempted suicide," then shot herself behind the right ear. That same month, Paddy Chayefsky began writing 'Network.'

2. Chayefsky and director Sidney Lumet were well-poised to deliver a warts-and-all portrayal of the TV industry. Both had gotten their big career breaks during the golden age of television in the 1950s, when live dramas were common network fare. Chayefsky won the first of his three screenwriting Oscars for 1955's 'Marty,' based on his own 1953 TV drama script. Lumet's legendary directing career, which spanned nearly 60 years, also began at the dawn of TV and included one of the first news/entertainment hybrids, the CBS series 'You Are There,' in which historical events were re-enacted as Walter Cronkite pretended to report on them. Lumet broke into movies with '12 Angry Men' (1957), which, like 'Marty,' was a remake of a play written for TV.

3. Like Lumet, Chayefsky's real name was Sidney. "Paddy" was a nickname that the Jewish Chayefsky had picked up during his Army service in World War II, when he claimed to be half-Irish in order to request permission to attend Mass and get out of KP duty.

4. MGM and United Artists agreed to finance and distribute 'Network' in the wake of Chayefsky's lawsuit against the latter over royalties from his previous movie, 1971 medical satire 'The Hospital,' the source of his second screenwriting Oscar.

5. Finding an actor authoritative enough and unhinged enough to play Howard Beale was tricky. Henry Fonda had the gravitas, but he reportedly rejected the role as "too hysterical." The filmmakers finally found their Beale in the fearless Peter Finch.

'Network' - "I'm as Mad as Hell" Speech

6. As Max Schumacher, the TV exec who is the film's flawed moral center, the filmmakers had to decide between durable leading men Glenn Ford and William Holden. Holden's recent success in 'The Towering Inferno,' as the mogul behind the doomed skyscraper, tipped the scales in his favor.

7. For Diana Christensen, the ambitious, charismatic, soulless programmer, the studio wanted Jane Fonda, but Chayefsky vetoed her because he disagreed with her politics. Other actresses on the wish list included Candice Bergen, Jill Clayburgh, Diane Keaton, and Marsha Mason. Faye Dunaway finally agreed to take the role, aware of warnings from Chayefsky and Lumet that she'd be allowed to impart no vulnerability to the character. Dunaway's advisers, including her then-husband, J. Geils Band frontman Peter Wolf, feared she would get typecast as cold and heartless women if she took the role. That didn't happen, though she did get typecast a few years later after her notorious portrayal of Joan Crawford in 'Mommie Dearest,' and she joked that she wished the naysayers had been around to talk her out of that one.

8. To play Louise, the wife Max cheats on when he has an affair with Diana, the filmmakers cast Beatrice Straight. The actress came from an old-money East Coast family (she was a cousin of Gloria Vanderbilt), and she'd won a Tony in 1953 for playing Elizabeth Proctor in Arthur Miller's 'The Crucible,' a betrayed-but-defiant wife role not too different from Louise Schumacher. Before her casting in the movie, she was probably best known for lending her aristocratic bearing to the role of Lynda Carter's regal mother on TV's 'Wonder Woman.'

9. Ned Beatty agreed to take on the small but key role as corporate titan Arthur Jensen, whose lecture to Beale about the cosmic power of global corporations is one of the film's funniest and scariest sequences. Years later, Beatty would remark that actors should never turn down a job, citing his experience here. "I worked a day on 'Network' and got an Oscar nomination for it," he reportedly said.

10. For research, Dunaway met with NBC daytime programming vice president Lin Bolen to find out about being a woman in the mostly male world of the TV executive suite. In the process, she picked up many of Bolen's mannerisms and speech rhythms. Bolen said she thought the performance was accurate as far as capturing her idiosyncrasies but was appalled by the character's amorality.

11. An in-joke: Max and Diana refer to their fling as "a many-splendored thing." Holden, of course, had been the star of 1955's romantic drama 'Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing.'

12. Diana spends much of the film deciding Howard's fate, and yet she's so detached from the notion of Howard as a flesh-and-blood person that there's no scene in the film where Dunaway actually speaks to Finch.

13. Throughout all of Howard's different broadcasts, he appears to be addressing the same studio audience. Look for a man with long hair and a beard who's wearing a black vest; he appears at every taping.

14. By the time 'Network' was made, Lumet's former 'You Are There' host Walter Cronkite had become the most trusted news anchor in America. His tie to the film's satire of the news business: his daughter Kathy plays the kidnapped, Patty Hearst-like heiress.

15. Long before his appearances in 'The Terminator' and 'Aliens,' Lance Henriksen showed up in 'Network' in a small, uncredited role as a network attorney.

16. It's long been claimed that one of the assassins at the end of the movie is Tim Robbins, making his film debut. The uncredited actor certainly resembles the future 'Bull Durham' star, but Robbins, who was 17 when 'Network' was made, has asserted that he's not in the film.

17. Upon its release in November 1976, 'Network' was an instant hit with audiences as well as critics. Made for a reported $3.8 million, it grossed $23.7 million in North America.

18. TV journalists were appalled by the way 'Network' portrayed their field and worried that it would harm their image. One national news anchor insisted that there would never be "that kind of showbiz approach to the news because we will never let it happen." The person who said that? Barbara Walters.

19. A heart ailment was taking its toll on Finch during filming; it was the reason he could barely complete two takes of the "I'm mad as hell" speech. He lived long enough to see the completed film and to make the rounds promoting it. He appeared on 'The Tonight Show' the night before he died of a heart attack, in the lobby of the Beverly Hills Hotel, on January 14, 1977. He was 60 years old.

20. 'Network' was nominated for 10 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Editing, Best Cinematography, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Lead and Supporting performances for five of its actors (Holden, Dunaway, Finch, Beatty, and Straight). It lost Best Picture to 'Rocky,' but it did win four prizes, for Chayefsky, Dunaway, Finch, and Straight. It was the first film since 1951's 'A Streetcar Named Desire' to win three of the four available acting trophies, and the last movie to do so to this day.

21. Finch wasn't the first actor to be nominated for an Academy Award after his death, but he was the first to win. He was also the first Australian to win Best Actor. At the time, many Oscar pundits saw his victory as a sympathy prize, not just for having died, but for having lost the award in 1971 to Gene Hackman. Hackman had done a terrific job playing macho cop Popeye Doyle in 'The French Connection,' but Finch had done groundbreaking work as a gay doctor who participated in mainstream cinema's first man-on-man kiss in 'Sunday, Bloody Sunday.' Many felt at the time that the snub was due to Hollywood homophobia -- a charge that would echo 34 years later when fellow Aussie Heath Ledger failed to win the prize for 'Brokeback Mountain.' Ledger, too, would win a consolation prize Oscar for 'The Dark Knight' three years later -- and he would be the first performer since Finch to win it after his own death.

22. Straight was on screen for only five minutes and 40 seconds, making hers the shortest performance ever to win an Oscar. (Judi Dench came close with her victory for 'Shakespeare in Love' 22 years later, for a role that lasts about eight minutes.)

23. With his 'Network' win, Chayefsky became only screenwriter to have won three Oscars for scripts he wrote by himself; other threepeaters Francis Ford Coppola, Charles Brackett, and Billy Wilder all won theirs in collaboration with other writers.

24. After winning her Oscar at age 62, Straight continued to be active in movies and TV for another 15 years; she died in 2001. Aside from 'Network,' she's best remembered today for her role as the ghost-hunting scientist in 1982's 'Poltergeist.' Dunaway's career, of course, has never gotten over the debacle that was 'Mommie Dearest,' though some fans think the 1981 film is her best work. Beatty has enjoyed a long career as a character actor. So has Robert Duvall, the only principal cast member who didn't get an Oscar nod for 'Network,' who finally did win one for 1983's 'Tender Mercies' and has remained in demand for 40 years. Chayefsky completed one more movie, 1980 sci-fi drama 'Altered States,' before he died of cancer in 1981. Holden continued to play the leading man in such movies as 'Damien: Omen II' and 'S.O.B.' before dying of injuries sustained in a fall at his home in 1981. Lumet remained a busy director of acclaimed films ('Prince of the City,' 'The Verdict,' 'Running on Empty,' 'Q&A,' 'Before the Devil Knows You're Dead') into his 80s but never won a competitive Oscar, though he did get an honorary Academy Award in 2005. He died in April 2011.

25. In 2005, 'Network' almost came back to the very medium it so mercilessly satirized, as a made-for-TV movie that would have starred George Clooney (presumably in Holden's role). In a nod to Chayefsky and Lumet's roots, it would have been done as a live drama. The idea was the brainchild of CBS network chief Les Moonves, who was apparently not insulted by the story's scathing indictment of his own industry. After all, what had once seemed prophetic or absurd was now just business as usual.

[Photos: MGM/United Artists]

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Christmas Movies on TV Schedule 2011: Everything You Want to Watch in One Handy List

Eric Larnick — 2011-11-23T08:00:00+00:00

Face it, you're not going to be very productive between Thanksgiving and Christmas. You'll have to fight off insane customers for shopping discounts. Relatives will constantly shovel food into your mouth. It's going to get really cold, really fast. Snow will start shutting down the roads. You just need to relax. If there was ever a time to not feel guilty about just crashing in front of the television for a few hours, this is it.

In celebration of the season, Moviefone has put together a complete listing of every single holiday special airing between now and Christmas Day -- everything from the timeless classics to children's favorites. So, if you need to hide away from the in-laws for a little bit, or you just don't feel like getting out of bed, here is the complete list of Christmas movies airing this holiday season.

Launch the gallery below to see the full list.

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Favorite Movies to Watch at Thanksgiving with the Family

Sandie Angulo Chen — 2011-11-22T18:00:00+00:00

Thanksgiving usually conjures memories of turkey leftovers, football, and Black Friday shopping sprees. But the four-day weekend also provides an opportunity for reunited families to see some of their favorite movie together. Let's take a look at some readers' picks for their Thanksgiving movie traditions, starting with my own.

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What are your favorite movies to watch after the big Turkey Day meal?

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25 Things You Didn't Know About 'Beauty and the Beast'

Gary Susman — 2011-11-15T09:00:00+00:00

Be our guest, be our guest
Put your knowledge to the test
There's some trivia you may know
But you might not know the rest
It's a treat, it's a feast,
Disney's 'Beauty and the Beast'
Now the movie's turning 20
We've come up with factoids plenty
Chip 'n' Dale, Jean Cocteau,
They're connected, don't you know
As are Jackie Chan and Pixar -- you impressed?
Sure, these lyrics may be trash, man
(We're so sorry, Howard Ashman)
But be our guest, read the rest, be our guest!

1. 'Beauty and the Beast' was more than 50 years in the making. It was one of the first fairy tales Walt Disney tried to adapt after the success of his first animated feature, 1937's 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,' but his writers couldn't get a handle on the story.

2. Before the Disney cartoon, the most famous film version of 'Beauty and the Beast' was the 1946 live-action film by Jean Cocteau. From this classic French film, the Disney version would borrow the ideas of a rival suitor for Belle and household objects in the Beast's castle coming to life.

'Beauty and the Beast' - 'Be Our Guest'

3. Starting in 1987, Disney storyboard artists spent two years working on a version of the tale, only to have Disney studio chief Jeffrey Katzenberg scrap their work and start from scratch. The new directive: make a movie like Disney's recent success 'The Little Mermaid,' a Broadway-style musical with a strong heroine

4. To that end, Katzenberg enlisted the 'Mermaid' songwriting team of Alan Menken and Howard Ashman. Ashman was dying of AIDS at the time and couldn't travel far, so much of the story's development took place at a Residence Inn in Fishkill, New York, not far from where the lyricist lived.

5. Screenwriter Linda Woolverton landed the job despite having written only a few scripts for Disney cartoon series 'Chip 'n' Dale Rescue Rangers.' She made a point of making Belle an unusual Disney heroine: she wasn't a princess, she liked books, she was independent, and she had no interest in marrying the handsomest eligible male around (the vain, macho Gaston).

6. Katzenberg also hired relative neophytes Kirk Wise and Gary Trousdale to direct; their previous major credit had been a short called 'Cranium Command,' a film commissioned for an attraction at Disney's EPCOT Center.

7. Another unlikely hire: Robby Benson, the dreamy-eyed, soft-spoken actor best known for playing sensitive teen leads in movies like 'Ice Castles' and 'The Chosen.' But in his audition, he summoned up a dark, rumbling voice that was perfect for the Beast. "There's a rage and torment in this character I've never been asked to use before," he told Entertainment Weekly.

8. Benson's booming bellow was his own, but the Beast's howls were enhanced electronically, mixed with the sounds of growling panthers and lions.

9. For the other leads, Belle and Gaston, Disney went with seasoned Broadway performers Paige O'Hara and Richard White.

10. Even the well-known veteran movie and TV character actors who played the Beast's servants-turned-knickknacks were performers with a Broadway background -- Jerry Orbach (Lumiere), Angela Lansbury (Mrs. Potts), and David Ogden Stiers (Cogsworth).

11. As Chip, the teacup who is Mrs. Potts' son, Bradley Michael Pierce, initially had just one line of dialogue, but the boy so impressed the filmmakers that they expanded his part and cut out the role of a mute music box.

12. Years before 'Toy Story,' 'Beauty' marked one of Disney's first collaborations with Pixar, which lent its computer-animation software to the sequence where Belle and the Beast dance to the title ballad. The software allowed the animators to create a 360-degree ballroom set as the camera appeared to twirl around the dancing couple. Critics singled out the sequence as a highlight of the film, and its success helped convince Disney to make the leap into full-length computer-animated features.

13. Ashman was 40 when he died in March 1991, eight months before the release of the completed film, which he never got to see. He'd also been at work with Menken on lyrics for the next Disney cartoon feature, 'Aladdin.' Those songs would be completed by lyricist Tim Rice.

14. Upon its release in November 1991, the film was hailed as an instant success. Frank Rich, the New York Times' powerful theater critic, asserted that it was a better musical than anything he'd seen on Broadway that year. Audiences made it the first animated feature to earn more than $100 million at the box office. By the end of its six-month run in theaters, it had earned $146 million in the U.S. and Canada. It was the third highest-grossing movie of 1991 (after 'Terminator 2: Judgment Day' and 'Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves').

'Beauty and the Beast' - Original Trailer

15. 'Beauty' became the first animated film ever to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture. It was also the last, until Disney/Pixar's 'Up' 18 years later.

16. 'Beauty' did win two Oscars, for its musical score and for Best Original Song, for the title tune.

17. The Celine Dion-Peabo Bryson version of the song, heard over the end credits, became a top 10 hit single in the U.S. and in the U.K.

18. When the film was released in Chinese-language markets, the Beast's speaking and singing voices were dubbed by Jackie Chan.

19. Inspired by Frank Rich's comment, Disney developed 'Beauty' into the first of many Broadway musicals based on its animated features. It opened in 1994 and ran for 5,464 performances, making it the eighth longest-running show in Broadway history. After 13 years, Disney closed the show in 2007 only because it didn't want 'Beauty' stealing the thunder of its new princess-themed musical, 'The Little Mermaid.'

20. The film's spinoffs include two straight-to-video "midquels" (sequels that take place amid the sequence of events of the original film): 'Belle's Enchanted Christmas' and 'Belle's Magical World.' Other spinoffs include a live-action TV series ('Sing Me a Story with Belle') and six video games.

21. A 2002 IMAX re-release included a new sequence built around a song, 'Human Again,' that had been deleted from the original film.

22. Woolverton went on to co-write Disney's 'The Lion King' and 'Mulan,' and she wrote the studio's huge 2010 blockbuster version of 'Alice in Wonderland.'

23. Wise and Trousdale went on to work on such Disney features as 'The Lion King,' 'The Hunchback of Notre Dame,' and 'Atlantis: The Lost Empire.'

24. O'Hara turned up (along with several other actresses best known for voicing Disney cartoon heroines) in 2007's 'Enchanted.' She appeared as a soap opera actress on TV, in a scene echoing the one where Belle tends to the Beast's wounds. Her character's name was Angela, an apparent reference to 'Beauty and the Beast' co-star Angela Lansbury.

25. In the wake of the success in September of the 3D re-release of 'The Lion King,' 'Beauty and the Beast' will be re-released in 3D in theaters on January 13.

[Photo: Disney]

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Best Movie Art Ever (This Week): 'Fantasia' Anniversary Art

Eric Larnick — 2011-11-12T09:00:00+00:00

On Nov. 13, 1940, Walt Disney released 'Fantasia' at the Broadway Theatre in New York City. While the film, an innovative combination of fantastical imagery and classical music, was a modest box-office performer at the time, its impact on audiences was undeniable. With countless revivals on the big screen throughout the ensuing decades, 'Fantasia' has become a beloved classic to generations of fans. Featuring such characters as the ominous Chernabog and Mickey Mouse in his iconic Sorcerer's Apprentice garb, 'Fantasia' has remained a unique artistic display for 71 years.

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Want More? Check These Out:
'Nightmare Before Christmas' Arts & Crafts

Marvel-Disney Mash-ups
Our sister site, ComicsAlliance, makes a habit of spotlighting particular artists and/or specific bodies of work, but there's just so much great work to see that they've initiated Best Art Ever (This Week), a weekly depository for just some of the virtually countless pieces of especially compelling artwork that they come across in their travels across the digital media landscape.

Some of it's new, some of it's old, some of it's created by working professionals, some of it's created by talented fans, and some of it's endearingly stupid. And all of it's awesome.

Check out ComicsAlliance's Best Art Ever (This Week).

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The Best Movies for Veteran's Day Weekend

Gary Susman — 2011-11-11T18:30:00+00:00

War is an inherently cinematic subject, full of action, conflict, and spectacle, but what about after the fighting ends? It's a lot harder to make a movie about veterans, who are generally seen in movies trying to put drama behind them and reassimilate into mundane civilian life. Still, there are a handful of movies that do address veterans' issues with some sympathy, understanding, and, yes, compelling drama. Veteran's Day may be over, but if you're looking for a film to salute our returning servicemen and women this weekend, here are 16 of the best to consider.

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[Photo: Everett Collection]

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Mel Brooks on His Secret Second Career as a Horror Movie Godfather: Part 2

Eric Larnick — 2011-10-20T12:30:00+00:00

Continuing Wednesday's conversation with Mel Brooks, the legendary funnyman talks with Moviefone about whether he should get 'The Fly' back in theaters for its anniversary and reveals the surprisingly epic-sounding idea for a dream project that he still hopes to film.

With 'The Elephant Man' and 'The Fly' and even comedies like 'Dracula: Dead and Loving It' or 'Spaceballs,' you like to work with horror and science fiction.
I like horror and I like sci-fi and I raised a son, Max Brooks, who wrote the 'Zombie Survival Guide' and now 'World War Z' and they're making a movie of it with Brad Pitt.

I worked with the late Leslie Nielsen, when we did 'Dracula.' I did the show with Dick Cavett recently, and somebody in the audience said, "Tell us what you really think of Leslie Nielsen." I said, "He was truly, richly funny and inventive and witty and you'd never take him for a Canadian." I'm sure we got a few letters from Canada.

What were your impressions when Max handed you his zombie fiction?
I said to my wife, "Everyone's going to think because he wrote 'Saturday Night Live' for a couple of years, that this is tongue in cheek. I know that it's not." He believes that you gotta protect yourself from zombies. You gotta be diligent and the only way to stop 'em is to chop their heads off and shoot 'em in the brain. It sold over a million copies when they moved it out of humor to horror in the bookstores; the right people got a hold of it, and they understood him.

It seems like remakes have become a really big trend in Hollywood right now. When audiences and critics talk about the greatest remakes of all time, 'The Fly' is usually in the top three. What do you think is the key to handling a remake correctly?
I don't want to brag, but I believe we did a much better version than the original Fox movie. There's gotta be a deep respect for the concept, at least of the movie you're doing a remake of. 'The Fly' is a sensational idea and we had hindsight, plus science had moved forward for 30 years since the original one. So we took advantage of all that and I think our concept of metamorphosis was really the genius that made 'The Fly' so successful in terms of its art and its entertainment.

When Anne and I were doing 'To Be or Not To Be,' we treated the Lubitsch film with utmost respect, but we had history on our side. We could add things he didn't know about Hitler. And we did a pretty good movie. I could tell you that our 'Fly' was better than the first 'Fly,' but I'd never have the nerve to say that our 'To Be or Not To Be' was better than the Lubitsch one. That would be foolish 'cause his was superb.

[Anne] was incredible in 'To Be or Not To Be,' she knew all those Polish words. We sang 'Sweet Georgia Brown' in Polish. We had to translate it as close as we could to what the Polish lyrics would be and she knew every single word in Polish. She knew how to memorize it and I didn't, I was just kind of singing along. I always thought she was one of the best.

What voices in comedy are you most interested in right now?
I don't know, some comedy works and some doesn't. It's very hard. Judd Apatow is pretty good, both as a producer and as a director. He's got a pretty sharp sense of humor and there's some things that were outstandingly funny in the last few years; I thought 'The Hangover' was. The follow-up... I wasn't thrilled. But the first one was really funny. I didn't do that, I didn't write it and I didn't direct it and look how good it is. [Laughs] They got a lot raunchier since I made them -- a lot raunchier.

I'll accept bad taste in a minute, as long as there's some great comedy minds and performances. But if there isn't, it's even worse to have to suffer bad dirty jokes. Not that I'm clean, I'm pretty awful too, but at least I salvage it 'cause the comedy's good.

What goals do you still have with Brooksfilms? What other stories do you want to tell?
I have several; Spielberg did his, but I never told my World War II story. I was a soldier in WWII. The last couple of months of the war I was actually in combat. There's an army story in me, and I think there's a WWII Brooksfilm somewhere.

Sometime next summer or fall or Christmas, I'll put together a 'A History of Mel Brooks: Part One.' There's a wonderful company called the Shout Factory, who did the complete version of 'the 2000 Year-old Man,' and they said, "So much stuff you've done is pieces of the Carson show, let's do a salute to your career." One of them will be the HBO hour with me and Dick Cavett; funnily enough I'm clean as a whistle, the dirty one is Dick Cavett.

I segwayed into Broadway ten years ago and now I might do 'Blazing Saddles' 'cause it lends itself to being a Broadway Musical. It's got songs in it already and it's wacky and it's very entertaining.

Should I ask Fox to reissue 'The Fly'?

Yes, you should.

We don't want to remake 'The Fly.' This will be the best one we'll get. I should say to Fox: "This doesn't belong on a DVD. This belongs on a big screen. Don't make it in 3D. If that's what you're gonna do, forget about the release 'cause it's not a 3D film." 3D connotes something a little cheap. It's just, 'Journey To the Center of the Earth,' you know?

It's like a William Castle gimmick.
Yeah, I wouldn't want them to do 3D. 'Avatar,' OK, it's not bad. But you could play 'The Fly' for a week in almost every city in the world and make some money. Just say "Next Friday: 'The Fly.'" Boom! It's gonna be filled. I'm certainly going to go. Jim Gianopulos is running that company, he knows good stuff. I'm gonna call him and say, "Look, I was talking to Eric and Eric suggested that we'd make a lot of money if we'd just reissue 'The Fly' on the big screen."

Sure, I'll take the charge on this.
Then we can make a special anniversary DVD of it, but we gotta kick it off on the big screen. If you've never seen it on the big screen, it's the best horror film ever made. I'm bullsh-ting, but it might be. All of Canada will see it. And I'll tell them Jeff Goldblum is Canadian, they don't have to know. I really appreciate you caring that much about it 'cause you know, it's one of the greatest experiences of my life. And I like Moviefone, it's my kind of stuff.

It was like when I was doing 'Blazing Saddles' and I had hired Gig Young to play the Waco Kid. I hired Young because I knew he was a recovering alcoholic just like the character in the movie -- which you never should do. Get an actor, the real stuff is dangerous. So I got Young and he was upside down in the jailhouse in the opening scene and he started burbling and acting a little dizzy and crazy. I said to my assistant director, "Gee, this guy is incredible. Look, he knows how to do an alcoholic." And then he started throwing up and crying and I said, "That's enough for you." They carried him away and put him in an ambulance to the hospital and I was stuck.

I called Gene Wilder who was my best friend and knew everything that I was doing. He was about to do a part in 'The Little Prince,' and I said, "What am I going to do?" I started crying and he said, "I'll fly out." And he did, and that's called a bounce. A great, lucky bounce. I tried to get Richard Pryor and Fox -- no, that was Warner Brothers -- they said, "No, no, he's a drug addict." This was before he became a big star. Then I met Cleavon Little -- and there was a great bounce. He was fantastic. He was funny and handsome and knew what was going on. His awareness was so sharp and so good.

[On 'History of the World, Part 1'] Richard was doing meth or something -- he burned himself up -- and I didn't know what to do, and Madeline Kahn said, "I know a guy in New York who is so talented. Call him, his name is Gregory Hines and he's never done movies." So I called him, he flew out and I met him and woop! There's another great bounce. You take a bad bounce and he turns into the perfect guy. So all of these are great bounces.

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Max Brooks explains zombie protection

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Mel Brooks on His Secret Second Career As a Horror Movie Godfather: Part 1

Eric Larnick — 2011-10-19T12:00:00+00:00

Horror fans are a passionate and loyal fanbase. They know their movie history and they love to champion new voices who breathe life into the genre. But many fans might be surprised to know who stands among them spotlighting the nastiest and gnarliest works of terror: a fellow by the name of Mel Brooks.

Everyone regards Brooks as a legend of comedy cinema, and deservedly so, but he is also responsible for kick-starting the careers of two of the most unique (and often times creepy) voices in filmmaking: David Lynch and David Cronenberg. With his BrooksFilm production company, the jokester who gave us 'Blazing Saddles' and 'The Producers' has also exposed audiences to the Gothic freakshow 'The Elephant Man' and the gross-out classic 'The Fly,' along with a variety of sci-fi and horror-themed movies. And most remarkably, he does it without credit.

Moviefone talked with Mel Brooks to discuss the making of 'The Elephant Man' and 'The Fly' -- which just recently celebrated its 25th anniversary. But when Mel Brooks talks, you just sit back and listen; he took us on a hour-long conversation about his movies, his love of horror and the off-beat projects he still intends to make.

[Editor's note: For maximum enjoyment, make sure to read Brooks' comments in his unmistakable voice.]

Mel Brooks: Okay. So what do you wanna know?

Moviefone: We have lots to talk about. What prompted you to develop the Brooksfilm production company?
Brooksfilms started with a movie called 'Fatso,' that my late wife Anne Bancroft, wrote and directed. It was just natural for me to support it. I kept my name away from it so that we wouldn't have that Pavlovian issue of saying "Mel Brooks" and expecting a Mel Brooks wacky comedy. So that's where it started.

I got this script for 'The Elephant Man' and I loved it. It was dangerous, but we went ahead and it was very difficult to find somebody. Movie executives read it and said, "You're crazy." A lot of people thought it was tongue-in-cheek, and it would be a comedy about this hapless creature. Michael Eisner who was running Paramount at the time with Jeffrey Katzenberg, called me in for a meeting and said "You're serious?" I said "Yeah, I'm a serious person, you know."

So Eisner and Paramount came up with some money, and I got some foreign money from EMI. [Producer] Stuart Conrnfeld was wonderful in helping me organize Brooksfilms, especially 'Elephant Man' and 'The Fly.' He took me to the NuArt, a crazy movie house on Santa Monica Boulevard. I didn't wanna see it, but 'Pink Flamingos,' we had to see that 20 times. We saw David Lynch's uh...

Was it 'Eraserhead'?
Oh yeah, you know it! We saw his crazy black-and-white, brilliant student film. He really understood the concept of how a baby could destroy a human being through a mother and father. I thought it was brilliant, absolutely brilliant.

What was your first encounter with David Lynch like?
When I met him, I had to meet him at Bob's Big Boy. It was somewhere in the Valley and I walk in: "Hi Mel!" -- he looked like Lindbergh wearing a leather flying jacket. I just kept thinking "this guy is a very artistic and creative Charles Lindbergh."

He wanted to build the Elephant Man face and head, and he started to, when I said "I'm not gonna let you do that. I want you to concentrate on writing the screenplay and work on your shots." We worked a long time.

The subject matter was just ridiculous, nobody wanted to do it and secondly, they said, "Well who's this guy? David Lynch? What are you crazy?" [Laughs] "You want us to get involved in this movie and you don't even have a director we can trust or even know."

So it was very, very difficult but we did it and along came 'The Fly' further down the line.

What drew you to this new interpretation of 'The Fly'?

There was a guy called George Langelaan, I'll never forget, with two A's. He wrote a short story about a different concept of 'The Fly,' more based on metamorphosis than the really funny "Vincent Price steps into the chamber and half of him becomes a fly."

That's what excited Stuart; he loved the idea of metamorphosis. He kept talking about "instead of the normal compliment of sugar that people would put in, it would be bizarre and weird that this character puts 15 sugars in his coffee." I said, "Is that bordering on funny?" and Stuart said "No, no, no."

We really worked on a concept and got [screenwriter] Charles Edward Pogue and David Cronenberg himself. When I saw 'The Dead Zone,' I said "who the hell is this guy?" He was remarkable; that was my first exposure to him and I continued to follow his work. Cronenberg and Lynch are two of my favorite filmmakers of all time.

A lot of their fans may not realize this, but you are very instrumental in the success of both Lynch and Cronenberg's careers.
Well if their name is David I usually hired them. I like Davids. Cronenberg was very much like David Lynch in that he could be very entertaining, and superbly artistic at the same time. He was a pleasure to work with... the only thing was we had to go up to Toronto. I lived in Toronto for awhile shooting up there, and I'm not a big... they don't have a lot of crazy food up in Toronto, but they're nice.

How did you go about assembling the talent involved in 'The Fly'?
I couldn't sell Fox on Jeff Goldblum. First of all, they thought it's a leading character, and I said, "Yeah, but he's a great character actor, you don't want a leading man." I offered it to a few people when Fox said "you got to get a bit of a star" -- but nobody would do it.

When Jeff jumped at it, he understood immediately that this was great stuff. He turns out to be the very best one in the world who could play this part because of his insane, crazy nonstop telegraphic reading. Nobody could think and talk as fast as Jeff Goldblum.

Geena Davis hadn't done much. She had done 'Transylvania 65000,' by Rudy De Luca -- he was in a lot of my movies; he played the stainless steel mouth guy in 'High Anxiety.' He recommended her when we were putting 'The Fly' together as being really talented. In the dialogue, there's a line where Geena says, "No, be afraid, be very afraid" and I thought, "What a great line." We used that line in the poster and the advertising, "Be afraid, be very afraid."

Stuart and I worked without credit to make sure that it made sense and it was eerie and fascinating, but possible. David's a little like Hitchcock. He knew what he wanted to shoot, he wasn't getting lucky on the set. He had a very good beginning, middle, and end in his head of how to shoot it. I think it was Cronenberg's best movie. He has a very small bit in it actually. He's on camera, he plays a gynecologist.

Yeah, he delivers the maggot in the dream sequence.
Good for you that you knew that. Chris Walas did the creature effects. Guy doesn't just step into this transference chamber and get the head of a fly. Slowly but surely you see him, his physical stature is amazing as he moves along until it becomes truly horrible. Chris is a brilliant, brilliant make-up guy. He won an Academy Award.

And don't forget Howard Shore! We helped kick off his big, big career. David discovered Shore; he did 'Scanners' and 'Videodrome' and Shore was there just trying his wings. He was really moody and brooding and strange. Dissonant and very melodic. Now he's has gone on to be a superstar.

Howard was nominated for a Saturn award and I won a Saturn award. With the nerds and geeks and wackos and sci-fi maniacs, they're a great, great group. We had 'Young Frankenstein' touring out here and they gave me a Saturn award and I was very moved. I had won many awards, but this was good because I know how crazy and sharp you guys are, and about what you care about.

Click here for part two of our interview with Mel Brooks, and hear his thoughts on how to properly kill a zombie, getting 'The Fly' back in theaters and the surprising dream project he still wants to make.

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David Lynch recalls showing 'Eraserhead' to Mel Brooks

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25 Things You May Not Know About 'West Side Story'

Gary Susman — 2011-10-18T17:10:00+00:00

The film version of 'West Side Story' seems like it has always been part of our collective memories. The sounds and images from the street-gang update of 'Romeo and Juliet' have resonated with us down through the years, as refracted in other movies (like Francis Ford Coppola's 'The Outsiders'), music videos (Michael Jackson's 'Beat It'), Bruce Springsteen lyrics ("There's a ballet being fought out in the alley") and even television shows (this season of 'Glee') so that -- even if you've never seen 'West Side Story' -- you feel you know it. Still, there's a lot about the classic movie musical, released 50 years ago today (on Oct. 18, 1961) that you may not know. Read on to learn about the real-life gangbangers hired for the film, how star Natalie Wood almost got male lead Richard Beymer and herself fired from the film, and how the co-director who was fired in mid-shoot ended up winning an Oscar.

1. Despite the movie's New York street feel, most of it was shot on a soundstage in Hollywood. The famous prologue, however, was shot on the gritty Manhattan streets, in the West 60s (amid tenements about to be torn down to make way for Lincoln Center) and in Spanish Harlem (around East 110th Street). Dancers sustained some injuries from leaping about on the hard pavement, but those weren't the only injuries they risked. Locals harassed the performers by throwing rocks and dropping objects off roofs until the filmmakers hired an actual street gang to protect them.

'West Side Story' - Prologue

2. Some viewers who'd loved the 1957 Broadway musical were miffed that Larry Kert and Carol Lawrence weren't even considered to reprise the roles of Tony and Maria in the movie. But the producers wanted a cast that looked young enough to be teenagers, and the Broadway leads were both about 30. Nonetheless, while they ended up casting two 23-year-olds in the leads, most of the gangbangers and gals they hired were indeed close to 30.

3. Elvis Presley was approached to play Tony, but Col. Tom Parker turned the studio down, favoring the anodyne musicals his client was already making over one that would have had him wielding a switchblade. (Though he'd already played a street kid driven to violence in such movies as 'Jailhouse Rock' and 'King Creole.') If Elvis had done the movie, he'd have ended up playing opposite real-life ex-girlfriend Wood.

4. Others who almost played Tony: Marlon Brando, Tab Hunter, Anthony Perkins, Russ Tamblyn, Burt Reynolds, Troy Donahue, Bobby Darin, Richard Chamberlain, Dennis Hopper, Keir Dullea and Gary Lockwood. Hunter (age 30), Reynolds (26) and Chamberlain (26) were all considered too old. The versatile Darin was too busy. Brando wanted to do it but figured that, at 34, he was way too old. Tamblyn ended up with the role of Jets leader Riff. Beatty was co-director Robert Wise's first choice, and he even tested with then lover/'Splendor in the Grass' co-star Wood. Ultimately, the filmmakers went with the little-known Beymer.

5. Actresses considered for Maria included Audrey Hepburn, Barbara Luna, Jill St. John, Diane Baker, Valery Harper, Elizabeth Ashley, and Suzanne Pleshette. Hepburn dropped out when she became pregnant.

6. Wood really wanted to do 'West Side Story,' but she knew if she turned down Warner Bros. forthcoming melodrama 'Parrish,' studio chief Jack Warner would never loan her to the rival United Artists. So she faked a bout of tonisillitis. That trick got her out of 'Parrish,' but it backfired when she contracted a serious case of pneumonia and almost had to drop out of 'West Side Story' as well. Fortunately, she recovered in time. (Pneumonia also struck cast member Eliot Feld, who played Baby John, during the New York shoot.)

7. Feld was one of several veterans of the Broadway production who landed roles in the film. Others included Tony Mordente (Action), Tucker Smith (Ice), and Jay Norman (Pepe). George Chakiris, who played Sharks leader Bernardo, had played Riff on the London stage.

8. A few members of the Broadway cast did get to reprise their roles in the movie: Carole D'Andrea (Velma), Tommy Abbott (Gee-Tar) and William Bramley (Officer Krupke).

9. David Winters played Baby John on stage and A-rab in the movie. On stage, it's A-rab whose beating by the Sharks sparks a rumble, while in the movie, it's Baby John. Had Winters' roles been reversed, he'd have been beaten up both times.

10. Stefanie Powers, then going by the stage name Taffy Paul, was hired as a chorus dancer but had to drop out because she was underage and would have required an on-set tutor and a shorter work schedule. Years later, of course, she would co-star with Wood's husband, Robert Wagner, on TV's 'Hart to Hart.'

11. The scope of the project was so large that the studio decided to split the workload between two directors. Jerome Robbins, who directed and choreographed the Broadway show was hired despite never having directed a film before. Veteran movie director Robert Wise was hired despite never having made a musical. It was decided that Wise would handle the drama scenes and Robbins the musical numbers. But Robbins' perfectionism began to drag the movie down. His exacting demands and endless rehearsals took a toll on the dancers. ("They didn't dance out of joy, they danced out of fear," said music supervisor Saul Chaplin.") Soon the movie was behind schedule and $300,000 over budget. Wise defended Robbins, but he was soon asked to finish the movie by himself. Robbins' choreography remained, but the only completed numbers he shot that remain in the film were the prologue, 'America,' 'Cool,' and 'Something's Coming.'

12. Robbins worked Wood 16 hours a day, until she begged to be fired from the film. She also wanted Beymer fired, complaining about his lack of singing and dancing chops (even though her song-and-dance skills were just as limited). Eventually, she figured out how to get along with both Robbins and Beymer, while the directors figured out how to shoot around her dance limitations.

13. As for the stars' vocal limitations, most fans know that Wood's singing voice was dubbed by Marni Nixon (who would do the same for Audrey Hepburn three years later in 'My Fair Lady'). Wood herself didn't know, however. She had assumed her own singing voice would be used, at least for the lower-register parts, and didn't learn she'd be dubbed until the shoot was over. Beymer was dubbed by Jimmy Bryant.

14. There was other vocal doubling going on as well. Tucker Smith (Ice) also sang Tamblyn's part in 'The Jet Song,' though Tamblyn's own voice is heard during 'Gee, Officer Krupke' and 'Quintet.'

15. As Anita (Bernardo's sister and Maria's confidante), Rita Moreno sang on 'America,' but Betty Ward was hired to dub her lower notes on 'A Boy Like That.' On the day the vocals for 'Quintet' were recorded, however, both Moreno and Ward were sick, so Nixon stepped in, singing for both Anita and Maria. So on film, the song was really a quartet.

16. 'West Side Story' was the No. 2 box office hit of 1961, behind only Disney's '101 Dalmatians.' The film, which cost $6 million to make, has earned back $43 million at the box office over the course of multiple releases through the years.

17. The film was popular overseas, too. It played for four years straight at Paris's George V Theater, setting a record.

18. In 1962, the film won 10 Oscars, a record for a musical that stands to this day. Among the honors: Best Picture (a prize that went to Wise, as a producer), Best Director (shared by Robbins and Wise, who insisted that his fired collaborator remain credited as co-director), Best Supporting Actor (Chakiris) and Best Supporting Actress (Moreno). The only Oscar it was nominated for that it didn't win was Best Adapted Screenplay (Ernest Lehman). Wise and Robbins were the first pair ever to share a directing award (and the last, until Joel and Ethan Coen won for 2007's 'No Country for Old Men.') Robbins is the only director ever to win an Oscar for his sole feature directing credit; he never directed another film. Wise, however, went on to repeat his feat four years later, winning Best Picture and Best Director for 'The Sound of Music.'

19. Rita Moreno, the only actual Puerto Rican among the principal cast, became only the second Hispanic performer (after fellow Puerto Rican José Ferrer a decade earlier) to win an Oscar. But it didn't help her career the way she expected. "Ha, ha. I showed them. I didn't make another movie for seven years after winning the Oscar," she recalled in a 2008 interview. "Before 'West Side Story,' I was always offered the stereotypical Latina roles. The Conchitas and Lolitas in westerns. I was always barefoot. It was humiliating, embarrassing stuff. But I did it because there was nothing else. After 'West Side Story,' it was pretty much the same thing. A lot of gang stories." Today, Moreno is one of only 10 stars who've won the EGOT grand slam of competitive entertainment awards (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony) and is the one who did it in the shortest span of time (14 years).

20. Leonard Bernstein, who composed the songs, complained that the movie was over-orchestrated. The film used some 90 musicians, about three times as many as the Broadway production.

21. The soundtrack album was very popular and won a Grammy for Best Soundtrack. Other near-simultaneous instrumental versions of the score, by lounge pianists Ferrante & Teicher and by jazz bandleader Stan Kenton, were big sellers as well.

22. For her work dubbing Moreno's vocals, Ward went uncredited on the album. She sued the film's producers and the CBS record label for $60,000 in damages. The suit was settled out of court.

23. Nixon was denied royalties as well. She finally got some when Bernstein agreed to give her a portion of his percentage.

24. These days, Russ Tamblyn is better known as the father of Amber Tamblyn, of the 'Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants' movies and TV's 'Joan of Arcadia' and 'House.'

25. Of the 'West Side Story' cast alumni, Wood had the most celebrated career, as a leading lady in such films as 'Love With the Proper Stranger,' 'Inside Daisy CLover,' 'This Property Is Condemned,' and 'Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice.' Moreno has shown her versatility in a variety of media; today, the former 'Electric Company' star is playing Fran Drescher's mother on TV's 'Happily Divorced.' Chakiris starred in such movies as 'Diamond Head,' 'Is Paris Burning?' and 'The Young Girls of Rochefort" before turning to TV in the 1970s and '80s, retiring from acting and taking up jewelry design. Nearly 30 years after 'West Side Story's release, Richard Beymer and Tamblyn were reunited as members of the ensemble cast of David Lynch's 1990 TV drama series 'Twin Peaks.' Beymer played the sinister hotal magnate Ben Horne, while Tamblyn was the mysterious psychiatrist Lawrence Jacoby. Both still retained flashes of the old mystique and menace. 'Cause when you're a Jet, you're a Jet all the way.

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25 Things You May Not Know About 'Breakfast at Tiffany's'

Gary Susman — 2011-10-05T12:20:00+00:00

Everyone thinks they know 'Breakfast at Tiffany's,' the classic, urbane romantic comedy released 50 years ago today, on October 5, 1961. The film that cemented Audrey Hepburn's reputation as an all-time fashion icon, set the bar for every New York fantasy/romantic comedy from 'Barefoot in the Park' to 'Sex and the City,' and gave birth to a thousand Manic Pixie Dream Girls (or at least 25 others). Yet there's a lot you may not know about the movie -- who the real-life Holly Golightly was, how radically different the film might have been if 'Breakfast' author Truman Capote had gotten his way, why the Oscar-winning song 'Moon River' almost got cut from the film, which classic outfits Hepburn herself came up with, how many cartons of cigarettes the tobacco-loving characters smoked on-screen, and what Mickey Rooney has to say about his still-controversial performance.

'Breakfast at Tiffany's' - Trailer

1. Who was the real-life Holly Golightly? So many women have been named as possible inspirations to Truman Capote -- including Gloria Vanderbilt, Oona Chaplin, writer/actress Carol Grace (who became Walter Matthau's wife), writer Maeve Brennan and model Suzy Parker -- that Capote called the whole speculation "the Holly Golightly sweepstakes." He claimed there was a real Holly, a woman who lived downstairs from him when he was a writer who'd just moved to New York in the early 1940s (like the autobiographical narrator of Capote's tale), though he never identified her by name. A New Yorker named Bonnie Golightly filed an unsuccessful lawsuit against Capote claiming he'd based the character on her.

2. As George Costanza learned during a memorable 'Seinfeld' episode where he watched the film instead of reading the book for his book club, there are a lot of major differences between Capote's 1958 novella and George Axelrod's screenplay to the 1961 movie. There's the setting (the 1940s, not the contemporary 1960s), the nameless narrator (called Paul in the film), Holly's age (she's still in her late teens in the story but played by 31-year-old Hepburn on-screen), Holly's fondness for marijuana (gone in the film). Holly's bisexuality (ditto), and the wistful, ambiguous ending (replaced in the film by a conventional romantic happy ending). Most of all, there's the sense many readers get that Holly is a professional escort, for taking money from wealthy men whom she sometimes sleeps with. In interviews, Capote described Holly not as a prostitute or golddigger but called her an American geisha girl. The film downplayed any suggestion of prostitution, with Paramount publicists issuing statements like, "The star is Audrey Hepburn, not Tawdry Hepburn."

3. Capote envisioned his friend Marilyn Monroe in the part, but her acting coach, Paula Strasberg, talked her out of it, saying the role's call-girl-like nature was bad for her image. Others supposedly in line for the role included Jane Fonda, Shirley MacLaine and Kim Novak. Capote was a friend of Hepburn's but thought she was miscast. So did Hepburn herself, until director Blake Edwards persuaded her she could do it.

4. Blake Edwards pleaded on his knees with the producers not to hire George Peppard as the male lead. (Steve McQueen was considered but was unavailable.) Indeed, Peppard tried to play the role as a traditional matinee idol, not a vulnerable, flawed, naive young man. So said co-star Patricia Neal, who played Paul's sugar mama (known in the film as "2-E"). She and Peppard had been friends before the filming, but she wrote in her memoir that she was put off by his apparent desire "to be an old-time movie hunk." (Later, of course, Peppard would age into that more standard, macho kind of leading man, most memorably as the leader of TV's 'The A-Team.')

5. How did Edwards manage to shoot the memorable opening scene, in which a taxi rolls down an empty 5th Avenue at dawn, Holly gets out in front of Tiffany's and she nibbles on a Danish while gazing longingly through the jeweler's window? There are two conflicting accounts. One said the scene was hampered by challenges -- a gaggle of gawkers longing for a glimpse of Hepburn, the star's dislike of Danishes, and an accident that nearly electrocuted a crew member. Yet Edwards said the shot was relatively easy, with the busy thoroughfare suddenly clearing up as if by divine intervention. "It was as if God said, ''I'm going to give you a break now, but for the rest of your career you're going to have to live off this one,'" he recalled. At a recent screening of the movie, Edwards' widow, Julie Andrews, said the director (whom she would marry nearly a decade after 'Breakfast') claimed he got the shot in one take.

6. For a movie so associated with Manhattan, very little of it was shot there. There were only about 8 days of location shooting, including inside Tiffany's, which opened on a Sunday for the first time in decades to allow filming, though 40 armed guards and several Tiffany's sales clerks were on hand to prevent pilferage.

7. The party at Holly's apartment, like much of the film, was shot on a Paramount soundstage. A signature Edwards sequence -- he would go on to shoot memorable parties in the 'Pink Panther' movies, '10,' 'Victor/Victoria,' and of course, 'The Party' -- it took six days to film. The extras playing the guests were all friends and relations of the director, Andrews has said. According to studio notes, the revelers consumed plenty of real champagne, as well as 120 gallons of soft drinks, lots of party food (hot dogs, cold cuts, chips, dips, and sandwiches), and 60 cartons of cigarettes. Even that didn't generate enough smoke, so Edwards brought onto the set a smoker of the sort beekeepers use.

8. It's never explained why, at the party, Hepburn is wearing a gown made from a towel. A scene that was cut from the final release has her taking a bath when the party breaks out, and she's forced to improvise a gown.

9. What's the movie's connection to 'The Flintstones'? It's Alan Reed, who played gangster Sally Tomato. He was also the voice of Fred Flintstone.

10. Buddy Ebsen had all but retired when he was persuaded to play Doc Golightly, Holly's estranged husband from down South. His brief performance is said to have landed him the role of Jed Clampett on 'The Beverly Hillbillies,' which made him more famous than ever and extended his career by decades.

11. Hepburn's husband, actor Mel Ferrer, seemed to exercise a near-Svengali-like control over his wife during the production. Neal recalled dining with the couple at their home, an evening that included a very light meal and ended practically before sunset; she remarked that now she knew how Hepburn stayed so thin. Ferrer also tried to influence his wife's performance, until Edwards took her aside and insisted that she treat him as the film's sole director. After that, Ferrer behaved like wet blanket; upon seeing the finished film, his only compliment to his wife was, "I liked your hat."

12. Henry Mancini and Johnny Mercer composed 'Moon River' with Hepburn's limited vocal range in mind, having heard her sing in 'Funny Face.' There was talk of having Marni Nixon dub her vocals (as she would do a couple years later in 'My Fair Lady'), but Edwards decided that Hepburn's own plain, unvarnished rendition of the song fit the character better.

'Breakfast at Tiffany's' - 'Moon River'

13. "Over my dead body!" That was the response to a Paramount executive who wanted to cut the song from the film. It's not clear who said it, however. One account says it was Hepburn, another says it was the producers.

14. Hepburn worked with designer Hubert de Givenchy to craft her costumes for the film. One result: Holly's iconic little black dress, one of the most influential fashion choices in cinema history and a must for nearly every woman's wardrobe ever since. (Yes, it was Coco Chanel, not Givenchy, who invented the little black dress, but it was the version Hepburn wore that made the garment a fashion staple.) Christie's auctioned the original dress in 2006 and sold it for $923,000 (one of the highest prices ever paid for a piece of movie memorabilia), with the money going to support the construction of a school for the poor in Calcutta.

15. Despite her reputation for elegance, Hepburn enjoyed relaxing in a turtleneck and jeans. Which is what Holly wears while lounging on the fire escape and singing 'Moon River.'

16. You'd never know from Holly's willowy figure that Hepburn had given birth to son Sean just three months before shooting. As a hobby, the new mom took up knitting.

17. Hepburn caught a cold after spending four days in studio-made rain shooting the final sequence.

18. The one part of the film that makes audiences cringe today is Mickey Rooney's performance as Holly's neighbor, Mr. Yunioshi. Aside from the insult of having a non-Asian performer play a Japanese man by wearing yellowface makeup, Coke-bottle glasses, and buck teeth, there's also the performance's consistent sense of caricature and stereotype. In a 2008 interview, Rooney said Edwards hired him as a veteran comic actor and directed him to play the character broadly, and that if anyone had taken offense at his portrayal -- like the Asian-American activists who got a free public screening of 'Breakfast' in Sacramento yanked in favor of the more anodyne 'Ratatouille' -- it was news to him. "Never in all the more than 40 years after we made it -- not one complaint," Rooney said. "Every place I've gone in the world people say, 'God, you were so funny.' Asians and Chinese come up to me and say, 'Mickey you were out of this world.'" He added that if he'd known the performance would offend people, "I wouldn't have done it."

19. The film reportedly cost $2.5 million to make. (Some $750,000 of that reportedly went to Hepburn, making her one of the highest-paid actresses of the era.) It earned $4 million in the U.S. upon its initial release and $14 million over its lifetime.

20. Consumers responded almost immediately to the film. Besides the black cocktail dress, Holly's coat and purse became widely copied. Animal shelters reported a rise in demand for ginger tomcats like Holly's cat (whose name, of course, was "Cat"). The soundtrack album went to No. 1 and stayed on the Billboard chart for two years.

21. 'Breakfast' earned Oscar nominations for Hepburn's performance, Axelrod's adapted screenplay, and for art direction. It won two prizes, for Mancini's original score and for Original Song ('Moon River'). They were the first two Oscars of Mancini's career; he'd ultimately win four times out of 18 nominations, and he would compose music for Edwards on many more movies, notably, the 'Pink Panther' films and 'Victor/Victoria.'

22. In 1966, there was a Broadway musical version, starring Mary Tyler Moore and Richard Chamberlain. It closed after just four performances, becoming one of those legendary flops that -- if as many people who claimed to have seen it actually did -- wouldn't have been a flop at all.

23. In 1969, ABC commissioned a pilot for a TV series, a sitcom called 'Holly Golightly' that starred Stephanie Powers and Jack Kruschen (as Joe the bartender, a character from Capote's novella that didn't make it into the movie). The network ultimately declined to pick up the pilot and make it into a series.

24. The property made it to the stage once more as a straight play in 2009, on London's West End. Anna Friel (the cult TV series 'Pushing Daises') played Holly.

25. In 1995, the band Deep Blue Something had a hit with a Hepburn-inspired song called 'Breakfast at Tiffany's.' The lyrics actually had more references to 'Roman Holiday,' but songwriter Todd Pipes thought the reference to the more iconic tale of Holly Golightly would make a better song title.

[Photo: Everett Collection]

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25 Things You Might Not Know About 'The Hustler'

Gary Susman — 2011-10-01T11:51:00+00:00

Rack 'em! This week marks the 50th anniversary of 'The Hustler,' the landmark drama that cemented Paul Newman's stardom and gave him his signature rebellious antihero role, pool shark Fast Eddie Felson. It was a movie that sparked a real-life pool craze and inspired an actual pool hustler to rise to fame by renaming himself Minnesota Fats after Jackie Gleason's on-screen pool hall king. In honor of the film's golden anniversary, here are 25 things you may not have known about the grimy classic, including how Bobby Darin got hustled out of the movie, how the film helped Piper Laurie's love life while sidelining her career, and why it took a quarter-century to make the sequel, 'The Color of Money.'

1. 'The Hustler' was based on a 1959 novel by Walter Tevis. It was the first of six novels he wrote, including 'The Man Who Fell to Earth,' which would eventually become a celebrated 1976 cult sci-fi hit starring David Bowie.

2. Director/co-screenwriter Robert Rossen had been a pool hustler himself in his youth. He'd enjoyed increasing success in Hollywood, culminating with his work on the 1949 Best Picture Oscar Winner 'All the King's Men.' But then he was blacklisted for pleading the Fifth Amendment when asked about his Communist past by the House Un-American Activities Committee. After two years without work, he relented, testified again, acknowledged having been a party member, and named 57 other alleged onetime Communists. He was taken off the blacklist, but his career had failed to reach its earlier heights. Like Fast Eddie Felson, he was in need of redemption when he discovered Tevis' novel and adapted it into a screenplay with TV writer Sidney Carroll.

3. Newman had been having a hit-and-miss career, from his disastrous debut in 'The Silver Chalice' (1954) to his Oscar-nominated turn in 'Cat on a Hot Tin Roof' (1958). He felt he had yet to find that career-defining role. The 'Hustler' filmmakers had been interested in him for the role of Fast Eddie Felson, but he was supposed to re-team with 'Cat' co-star Elizabeth Taylor in 'Two for the Seesaw.' When her 'Cleopatra' shoot ran long and forced her to drop out of the project, he became available to make 'The Hustler.'

4. When the filmmakers hired Newman, they unceremoniously dumped their already-cast leading man, Bobby Darin. Darin's agent claimed no one ever bothered to tell the star he'd been replaced; he reportedly found out from a fan while attending a charity horse race.

5. Jackie Gleason was already a successful TV comic (famous for Ralph Kramden of 'The Honeymooners' and other frequent sketch characters), but his movie career had never taken off, and he hadn't proved himself as a serious dramatic actor. The role of the confident, graceful, streetwise Minnesota Fats seemed tailor-made for Gleason, who was an accomplished pool player and is seen in the film making his own pool shots.

6. George C. Scott had earned acclaim and an Oscar nomination as the prosecutor in 1959's 'Anatomy of a Murder,' but he was still better known as a stage actor. 'The Hustler,' in which he was cast as amoral gambler Bert, was only his third movie.

7. Piper Laurie was tired of the ingenue roles she'd been playing for a decade, thanks in part to ridiculous studio publicity that claimed she maintained her luminous skin by bathing in milk and eating rose petals. She was so eager for something meatier that she jumped at the chance to be in the film after having read just 40 pages of the screenplay, before her character (the emotionally and physically crippled Sarah, who becomes Eddie's wary love interest) even shows up.

Piper Laurie and Paul Newman in 'The Hustler'

You're a Winner, Eddie
The Hustler at MOVIECLIPS.com

8. Others reportedly considered for Fast Eddie were Cliff Robertson and Jack Lemmon (who once said he liked to play pool during down time on movie sets to keep his emotional level high). Kim Novak claims she turned down the role of Sarah.

9. The realism of the film came in large measure from technical adviser Willie Mosconi, an established pool champ who became Paul Newman's pool coach and who has a brief cameo as a stakeholder in an early scene. He had suggested Frank Sinatra for the lead.

10. Newman had never picked up a pool cue before taking the role in 'The Hustler,' but his Method approach paid off. From Willie Mosconi, he learned how not just to shoot pool but also how to walk, talk, and circle the table like a shark. He practiced for hours at a table at a New York girls' high school and at a table he installed in his own house. Still, for the trickiest pool shots Fast Eddie had to make, it's Mosconi's hands you see in close-up.

11. The film was shot almost entirely on location in New York City - even the scenes that take place in Louisville, Kentucky. For the sequence at the bus depot, the filmmakers used the real Greyhound bus depot but built their own dining area that was so realistic that Greyhound patrons would sit at tables and linger in vain, expecting to be waited on.

12. In the Kentucky Derby sequence, there's an announcement of a horse named Stroke of Luck. That was a nod to an alternate title for the movie that the studio had considered; apparently, even then, the word "hustler" already had a suggestion of prostitution.

13. Like his character, pool newbie Newman got cocky enough to challenge the more seasoned Gleason to a real game, betting $50 on the outcome. Newman broke, then Gleason took his turn and sank all 15 balls without allowing Newman another shot. Newman paid up the next day with 5,000 pennies.

Excerpt from 'The Hustler'

I Gotta Hunch, Fat Man
The Hustler - MOVIECLIPS.com

14. Bleeding money from the ongoing debacle of the production of 'Cleopatra,' 20th Century Fox devoted few resources to marketing 'The Hustler' and dumped the film into wide release without much publicity on Sept. 25, 1961. But the film got some advance buzz from a midnight screening in New York for Broadway actors, arranged by Richard Burton (star of Rossen's 'Alexander the Great'). Critics received the film well (though some were put off by the rank pool hall settings), and audiences made it a hit.

15. 'The Hustler' pocketed nine Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay. It would win two, for its art direction (by Harry Horner and Gene Callahan) and its black-and-white cinematography (by Eugen Schüfftan).

16. The film also earned Oscar nominations for all four of its stars. None of them won. Scott became the first actor ever to decline a nomination, saying that he found the notion of competing against fellow actors in the Academy's "meat contest" beneath his dignity. Nine years later, when he won the Best Actor Oscar for 'Patton,' he became the first actor to refuse to accept the prize.

17. While promoting the film, Laurie met and fell in love with entertainment journalist Joe Morgenstern. They married in early 1962, and when new roles failed to come her way after 'The Hustler,' she went into semi-retirement, left Hollywood, and raised a family. She wouldn't make another movie for 15 years, returning memorably to the screen with her Oscar-nominated performance as Sissy Spacek's religious-fanatic mom in 'Carrie.' She and Morgenstern divorced after two decades. She remains an in-demand character actress to this day; Morgenstern is still the long-time film critic at the Wall Street Journal.

18. Fast Eddie became the career-defining role Newman had been looking for, the prototype of the cocky, morally compromised, stubborn antihero Newman would play for the next couple of decades in such films as 'Hud,' 'Cool Hand Luke,' 'Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,' 'The Sting,' and 'Slap Shot.' It's also the only role that ever won him an Oscar (he was nominated eight times), though he didn't win it until he reprised the role in the sequel, 'The Color of Money,' 25 years later.

19. Former boxing champ Jake LaMotta has a cameo in 'The Hustler' as a bartender. LaMotta, of course, would be immortalized two decades later in Robert De Niro's performance in 'Raging Bull,' directed by future 'Color of Money' director Martin Scorsese.

20. In an interview promoting 'The Hustler,' Mosconi claimed that the character Minnesota Fats was based on real-life pool hustler Rudy Wanderone, who was known as New York Fatty. Wanderone took advantage of the shout-out, renamed himself Minnesota Fats, and became famous in his own right as an exhibition player - his relentless self-promotion and flamboyance soon made him too recognizable to hustle. Tevis always denied that he had based Fats on Wanderone. Several real-life players also claimed to be the inspiration for the character of Fast Eddie Felson, though Tevis denied their claims as well.

21. Pool took off in popularity after the release of 'The Hustler.' Mosconi and Wanderone both served as traveling ambassadors for the game, with Mosconi trying to make the game more genteel and respectable and Wanderone playing up its seamier side, as portrayed in the film. The two faced off a number of times in televised matches.

22. Wanderone starred in his own pool-themed movie, 'The Player,' in 1971. The tagline: "The Love. The Hate. The Raw Emotion... Set in the dingey [sic] grime and stench of the poolroom." It was not a hit.

23. Despite the success of 'The Hustler,' Rossen made only one more film, the psychological drama 'Lilith' (1964), starring Warren Beatty and Jean Seberg. Many critics consider it his best, even better than 'The Hustler' or 'All the King's Men.' He died in 1966.

24. Why did it take a quarter-century for a sequel to be filmed? Because that's how much time passed before Tevis wrote one. His book 'The Color of Money,' published in 1984, centered on an older-and-wiser Fast Eddie. The film version came out in 1986, directed by Scorsese (it's the only sequel he's ever made) and starring Newman and Tom Cruise.

25. Newman had won an honorary Oscar that spring after six unsuccessful Oscar nominations. When he was nominated the following spring for 'Color of Money,' he didn't show up to the ceremony, assuming he wouldn't win after having won the career-achievement prize the year before. He was wrong.

'The Hustler' - Finale

Eddie Stands Up to Bert
The Hustler at MOVIECLIPS.com

Follow Gary Susman on Twitter @garysusman.

'Airplane!' Star Robert Hays On the Blu-ray Release and the Lost 'Airplane' Sequel

Eric Larnick — 2011-09-23T16:20:00+00:00

How good is the movie 'Airplane!'? It's so good that we tried to kick off this intro with a clever reference to the best quote from the movie -- and couldn't narrow it down. The landmark parody film made by brothers David and Jerry Zucker and their pal Jim Abrahams, threw more jokes at you per minute than a Marx Brothers routine, features perhaps the greatest acting performance by an NBA star and turned liking gladiator movies into a dirty thing.

On Sunday, Paramount premieres 'Airplane!' for the first time ever on Blu-ray (and only at Best Buy retail stores), and to celebrate, Moviefone spoke with star Robert Hays, a/k/a Ted Striker, the panic-stricken fighter pilot that must commandeer the troubled flight (he's the pilot on the right side of the picture).

In our interview Hays recalls working with the late, great Leslie Nielen, reveals which actors got to make up their own lines and admits that there actually was going to be an 'Airplane 3.' Read on to find out what happened.

The first time I saw 'Airplane!' I was probably too young for it, and half the jokes when over my head.
A lot of the jokes become apparent, as you grow up.

When you were reading the script for the first time, at what page did you realize that you had to do this movie?
I read it when I was on a plane going to Minneapolis; ABC was sending a whole bunch of us for a station changeover, from NBC to ABC. There was something on every page that made me laugh out loud. It was insane, and I just loved it from the get-go. It got me.

How difficult was it playing the movie straight, even though what you're saying is absurd?
That's what the boys [Zucker and Abrams] wanted, and their sense of comedy is so incredible, it's so good. I knew that was the right thing too, we all had a sense that was the way to play it. The script is the main reason the thing is so funny; you start with the script, but then because we played it so seriously, that was the next big, important ingredient to the whole deal.

The big trend now in comedies is to ad-lib, improv and do a lot takes; did the Zucker brothers ever try that approach?
It wasn't like that at all. This was a low budget film; it was like three and half million bucks. And they had been rejected, they'd go back and work on it, and then they'd be rejected again, and go back and polish it and work on it. They did this, I think, over five years, and the script was so tight.

The only people that really ad-libbed, were Steve Stucker, who played Johnny. He did the Kentucky Fried Theater with them, he was in their troupe. So they wrote that role for him, and they'd call him and go, "Hey! What about this? Hey! Johnny, what do you make of this?" and he'd say, "Yeah, I can make it a hat or a broche" and all that. That was him ad-libbing his goofy things. "Rapunzel! Rapunzel!"

The only other ones were Al White and Norm Gibbs; they played the two guys that did the black jive. They asked if they could rewrite some of the words, and the boys said, "Please! We're just three white Jewish guys from Milwaukee. We don't know anything." Al told me he got a dictionary of black jive and they wrote up their whole routine. They did that whole thing.

Don't Call Me Shirley
Airplane! - MOVIECLIPS.com

How was it working with Leslie Nielsen, because before this movie, he was known for serious films?
I knew him as the Swamp Fox in the old Disney film when I was little, and he did the light, romantic comedies, but he had never done any insanity like this. Everyone was just wonderful, but this was the show that really turned him into an insane nutjob [Laughs]. And he then went on to be very successful doing that.

What part of the film still makes you laugh just as hard?
It's really difficult to just pick one. When I watched it everything would make me laugh, but when I watched myself I cringed like, "Oh god, I could've done that better. Why did I do that that way?" I'd just be very critical of myself, but enough time has gone by that now I watch it and enjoy it.

Were there any moments that couldn't believe actually made the final cut?
When sh-t hits the fan, wow, how did that one get in there? To me, it seemed like, "yeah, yeah get it all in there." I'm really anxious to see in the Blu-ray what deleted scenes they have. I wish they put a box set of both of them together with all the deleted scenes, because there are some very funny scenes in both films that were deleted.

S**t Hits the Fan
Airplane! at MOVIECLIPS.com

At the end of 'Airplane 2,' there's a teaser for 'Airplane 3.' How close did that ever come to happening?
It was very close. You have to understand the atmosphere, 31 years ago. Sequels were frowned upon. You were really looked down upon if you did sequels -- that was all you could do, you can't do anything else. They'd go, "Oh, Robert, 'Airplane' Hays, you ever gonna do something besides 'Airplane'?" I was doing other films, it's just that was the attitude that they took. Nowadays, sequels are called franchises. Now they look for them.

That was the joke we had in 'Airplane 2,' when Sonny Bono was buying the bomb at the store -- "I'll take the magazine, the candy bar, and the third bomb on the left" -- and behind him was a big poster in the shop with a little bald guy with boxing gloves and American flag shorts and it said 'Rocky 38.' I was in London doing a film called 'Scandalous,' at the time, and they were negotiating for doing 'Airplane 3,' and it had really gotten to me. I was being ragged on by the press a lot when I'd go to events and the paparazzi's there, and they would rag on me. I said, "Nah, don't wanna do it." Of course all that did was raise the price more and more and more. When finally I said, "I'm not going to do it," that was it, they didn't do it. Of course, I wish we had done it, looking back now, but you know, that was then and this is now.

(Banner image courtesy of Everett Collection.)

17 Things You Might Not Have Known About 'The Lion King'

Gary Susman — 2011-09-13T17:40:00+00:00

Call it the circle of life: many kids who saw 'The Lion King' in theaters when it opened in 1994 can now take their own kids to see it when the 3D version hits the cineplex on Sept. 16. (The film hits both standard and 3D Blu-ray on Oct. 4.) Of course, it's hard to believe there's a generation that has never been exposed to 'The Lion King'; since the landmark Disney cartoon debuted, it has spawned an industry that's included two direct-to-video sequels, a TV series, several video games and a long-running Broadway musical.

To celebrate the 17-year history of 'The Lion King,' Moviefone has unearthed 17 things you might not have known about the furry film fable, including which Oscar-nominated song Elton John thought would kill his career, the supposed secret "sex" scene, what that chant at the beginning of 'Circle of Life' means, and a precedent-setting blast of warthog flatulence.

1. Originally, the movie was going to be called 'King of the Jungle,' until the filmmakers realized that lions live on the savanna, not in the jungle.

2. Initially, the film was not going to be a musical, but rather, a more realistic, National Geographic-type story. It was lyricist Tim Rice -- who'd worked with Disney on 'Aladdin' -- who suggested adding songs and hiring Elton John to compose them.

3. The film's writers referred to the film in private as 'Bamblet,' noting the similarity between their movie's plot and those of 'Bambi' and 'Hamlet.'

4. Conservative activists objected to a scene where particles in the night sky supposedly spell out, for an instant, the word "SEX." The animators have said that they were actually spelling out the abbreviation "SFX" (for "special effects") as a signature of their work that would be visible only to viewers with sharp eyes (and fast thumbs on the pause button).

5. For inspiration, the animators and artists spent two weeks in Africa, visiting Hell's Gate National Park in Kenya. They also had real lions brought into the animation studio, under the supervision of Jim Fowler, of TV's 'Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom.'

6. The song 'Hakuna Matata' originated with a phrase the animators heard from a tour guide during their African trip. Tim Rice heard the phrase (which, as every fan knows, means "no worries") and noted its similarity to 'Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo' from Disney's 'Cinderella,' and he turned it into the film's comic centerpiece. Elton John, however, was afraid the tune would mark a low point in his career. "I sat there with a line of lyrics that began, 'When I was a young warthog," John said in 1995, "and I thought, 'Has it come to this?'"

Watch the trailer for 'The Lion King 3D'

7. Hans Zimmer, who eventually won an Oscar for composing the instrumental score, brought aboard Lebo M, a South African composer and singer he'd worked with on the film 'The Power of One.' (A self-imposed exile from the apartheid regime, Lebo M was parking cars in Los Angeles when Zimmer met him.) It's Lebo M who added the African choral passages to the score, including the famous 'Circle of Life' chant that opens the movie.

8. Lebo M's 'Circle of Life' chant, translated from Zulu, means, "Here comes a lion, Father/Oh yes, it's a lion/We're going to conquer/A lion and a leopard come to this open place."

9. Nathan Lane and Ernie Sabella, who were co-starring on Broadway in 'Guys and Dolls,' auditioned together, hoping to play hyenas. But the filmmakers liked their chemistry and cast them instead as Timon and Pumbaa, the meerkat/warthog comic relief duo. For the hyenas, the filmmakers initially wanted Cheech and Chong , but the stoner comedy duo had broken up by the time the movie was made. So the filmmakers stuck with Cheech Marin but used Whoopi Goldberg instead of Tommy Chong.

10. 'Can You Feel the Love Tonight' was almost a comic duet for Timon and Pumbaa, but Elton John balked. As a traditional love ballad, marking Simba and Nala's romance, the song became one of three from the film nominated for Oscars (along with 'Hakuna Matata' and 'Circle of Life,') and it won the Academy Award for Elton John and Tim Rice.

11. A musical number called "The Morning Report" didn't make it into the film (it was replaced by dialogue), but it was used in the Broadway musical and was included in the 2002 IMAX re-release and the platinum-edition DVD, accompanied by newly created footage.

12. 'The Lion King' marks the second time that James Earl Jones and Madge Sinclair played royal parents of an African prince. The first time was 'Coming to America,' where they played Eddie Murphy's dad and mom.

13. When Simba (voiced by Jonathan Taylor Thomas) tells Scar (Jeremy Irons), "You're so weird," and Scar replies, "You have no idea," the reference is to a nearly identical exchange between Ron Silver and Irons during the latter's Oscar-winning turn as Claus Von Bulow in 'Reversal of Fortune.'

14. While the characters in the movie are all hand-drawn, computers were used for assistance in some sequences, notably, the wildebeest stampede. In that sequence, a computer multiplied several hand-drawn animals into hundreds and created random paths for them. The resulting two-and-a-half-minute sequence took more than two years to create.

15. 'The Lion King' was the highest grossing movie worldwide in 1994, with a total of $772.6 million grossed around the globe. It's also the top-grossing hand-drawn cartoon of all time and the fourth-biggest animated feature of all time (behind CGI features 'Shrek 2,' 'Toy Story 3,' and 'Finding Nemo') in the U.S.

16. For a long time, 'The Lion King' held the record as the best-selling home video release, having sold 30 million copies on VHS.

Hakuna Matata
The Lion King - MOVIECLIPS.com

17. Pumbaa was the first Disney character to fart.

Follow Gary Susman on Twitter @garysusman.

'Buckaroo Banzai' Director Speaks About Film's Anniversary, Lost Footage and Still-Possible Sequel

Mike Ryan — 2011-08-15T13:45:00+00:00

It's a wonder that a film like 'The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai across the 8^th Dimension' exists in the first place. Strange, eccentric and littered with non sequiturs (including the gleefully bizarre closing credits), 'Buckaroo Banzai' -- starring Peter Weller, John Lithgow, Ellen Barkin and Jeff Goldblum -- celebrates its 27^th anniversary today.

For this anniversary, we spoke to director W.D. Richter -- who also wrote the screenplay for another cult classic, 'Big Trouble in Little China' -- about the cultural oddity of the film, a mysterious work print with extra footage that even Richter hasn't seen and why the proposed sequel, 'Buckaroo Banzai against the World Crime League' (a sequel that's even mentioned in the end credits of the original film), will never happen. Or will it?

Moviefone: To this day, the end credits of 'Buckaroo Banzai' make me very happy.
W.D. Richter: It actually works nicely, I think. It makes everybody smile at the end and onward, you know?

Where did the idea for the end credits even come from?
Well, actually, an unlikely source was [producer] David Begelman, who was really our enemy for the entire movie. He was the guy who said, "Go ahead, you can make this movie," but he never got it on any level. And so, when it ended just with a kiss, he said, "it needs something else." And we had no money, at all, at that point. And he said, "I'm going to pop for some sort of choreographed ending that we can talk about." We got a choreographer in because there was no way I would know how to movie around all of those people. So it kind of emerged from the end of the postproduction.

It holds up.
Yeah, I know. I'm always happy when I see it. And I can look at it from some distance because, like I said, I didn't create it myself out of thin air. It was a good job! Not to me, but to him.

The song you picked: At the time, were you thinking, "Yeah, this is a hip, badass song?" Or did you know it was appropriately cheesy?
Wow, what a tricky question. I like to think that we were aware of what we were doing. Actually, the sequences were recorded to Billy Joel's 'Uptown Girl.' Because nobody had composed the music ahead of time, so we needed something that has a rhythmic cadence that we could pick up on later and put our own music in. So, I always see that and I can hear that reverberating in the canyon there -- in the cement dam. That was the home stretch of cutting it, too. I don't know if we had a lot of choices. It was a strange experience making that movie.

The non sequitur aspects of 'Buckaroo Banzai' almost remind me of something like 'Scott Pilgrim.'
Earl Mac Rauch has a marvelous brain and, you know, he throws that stuff in -- that's one of those things I like about his writing. I never know what anybody is going to say next. And I just said, "I'm going to do it. If somebody stops us ... " And the studio almost did several times -- but we just kept going. Normally, Hollywood wouldn't let you make that movie. It's a fluke.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't there a never-seen work print that was screened without permission?
We certainly had a work print longer than a release print. I don't recall that we previewed something that we'd call a work print, but somebody made a copy and it got out of the edit room. At that time it was kind of hard to make a copy -- I don't know if it was done in a lab. It wasn't mixed, there were two soundtracks. I'm vague on that. That thing started circulating and then I was starting to hear rumors that that was my cut, and what was in the theaters was sort of "with a gun to my head." It's not really true.

Have you ever seen the released work print?
I've never seen this version of it. Of course, a movie is in constant flux. We'd take stuff out, put it back in. There wasn't a final work print that was signed off on, because then that would have been the same as the release print. So there's some version that's part of the editing process that somebody was showing around at the time and I don't even know where. Did they make a videotape of it and pass it around? It's a mystery to me. I would love to see someday what everybody is seeing, because it couldn't have had much music in it. It must be really crude.

Did you have final cut?
Begelman was crazy. He would sabotage the movie in any way. When he said he didn't like the home movie footage up front and he was taking it out, I didn't have final cut. That was lifted as a giant lift. But the rest of the stuff, I think maybe I regret one or two missing references to Hanoi Xan that Lizardo made -- but Begleman there would come down on us and say, "that's not going to be in the movie because you can't talk about a villain who's not even in the movie. That's ridiculous." So we lost some stuff, but it was always a battle. We certainly won more fights than we lost. And that's why the movie exists.

Why do you think there is still interest in this mysterious work print that may or may not exist today?
I have to deduce from the fact that it is kind of something that people want to see -- that they like the movie and they didn't get enough of Buckaroo and really liked it. And I know people thought that they would see a sequel that we were talking about at the time.

Well, yeah, it's mentioned in the end credits.
[Laughs] That seems like a real cheat, to put it there and not make the movie. But again, if the movie had gone out to make a fortune, we would have made it. But [Begleman] is the strangest person I've worked with. Then he committed suicide, verifying our feeling that he was insane. But it was constantly wacky stuff like, "You can put on that choreographed ending, but, you know, I don't really believe in this movie." So, I have to say that people want to see this work print because they just think that they are going to get a few more treats. You know, maybe another Jeff Goldblum moment that they are deprived of now. We couldn't put it in the DVD because we couldn't find the footage because Begleman didn't run a normal studio. We found some of the negatives but not a work print where you could say, "that's how we cut it." There's a lot of that film in a vault somewhere and it's in pristine condition -- the negative -- but you can't get at it.

Why was there never a sequel?
I believe MGM owns the theatrical rights. The other big insanity for 'Buckaroo' is that the paper trail for the rights is almost impossible to follow. Warner Bros. wants to do an adult animated version of 'Buckaroo.' PolyGram sold it to MGM as a big bundle -- all these films move around. And then, finally, you're sitting at a studio that you found out purchased part of someone's library and they are reluctant to do anything with the title because they don't know for a fact that David Begleman, who was a notorious double dealer, might not have sold the international rights in perpetuity to some guy in Bangkok. And even if they are enthusiastic about doing a sequel, they'll say, "our legal department is saying we don't have a clear chain of title here, so we're not going to stick our heads up, invest money, and then discover that some guy says, 'Oh, by the way, I have all the international rights.'"

So we will never see 'Buckaroo Banzai against the World Crime League'?
Technically, we have not violated our promise to the audience. We try to keep the franchise and the brand alive, anyway, because we never know when somebody is going to say, "Yeah, make something else."

In your best guess, what scenes do you remember shooting that aren't accounted for?
When the secretary of defense comes landing in his helicopter in the parking lot with the buses, he goes inside the bus for a kind of strange rant -- walking up and down the aisle to pump everybody up in a pathetic failed attempt and nobody takes him seriously. There's stuff like that. Maybe another scene with Buckaroo and Penny Priddy somewhere that didn't seem critical to the movie to me, either, when we finished. I don't personally miss some extraordinary thing. It's curious, now, the film, for people who care about it, has a life of its own. You could put stuff back in it and I don't think they'd take it as critically. If it's a little clunky here and there, they might just say, "It's fun to see it."

What would you need to do to be able to get to that footage?
To get access to it you probably need access from MGM, but what good would that do you? You'd be in there looking at all of the negatives and you'd need an editor with you. Maybe all of the dailies are in there -- and they may well be. But even if you got your hands on all of the dailies, you'd still need an editor. You need somebody writing a check to find the lost footage. All of these lost treasures are somewhere unless they've been smelted down. It's lost to viewers more than lost in time and space, or something. It's frustrating.

But they let you do a special edition DVD?
The very first one was on VHS. [Years later,] a guy who had worked on a mix of the feature got wind he was going to be asked to do a quick and dirty mix on 'Buckaroo Banzai' -- throw it in without any features into their general DVD slush pile release pile. He contacted me through our website and said, "I don't know if you know this is happening." And I didn't. So I cold-called the MGM DVD people and I introduced myself and I said, "Do you have any idea at all what this title is?" She said, "No, I don't. It's just on our list." So I explained the film and the fan base and she said, "Wow, that's really neat. Let me see if I can get you some money." And she did - it was like $10,000 or $15,000 in order to get a higher quality transfer and some of the extra features.

So if that guy hadn't called you...
I would have just learned that a low rent version had gone out again. And that would have been it for all time; nobody is going to do a third one.

There's a rumor floating around that the script for 'Big Trouble in Little China' originated from the script for the 'Buckaroo' sequel.
This thing about 'Big Trouble' once being a 'Buckaroo Bonzai' sequel script is absurd. The 'Big Trouble in Little China' writing credits clearly show where the script started. It was a gaslight-era western making the rewrite rounds because the studio wasn't happy with what they had from the original writers. I suggested it be made into a contemporary story and was hired to rewrite it. Elvis lives.

You can contact Mike Ryan directly on Twitter.
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'The Spielberg Curriculum': Are These The 206 Movies That the Director Thinks You Must See?

Gary Susman — 2011-08-02T18:15:00+00:00

The list making the rounds on the Internet today that's dubbed 'Steven Spielberg's Curriculum,' a list of 206 movies you supposedly must see if you're a filmmaker/screenwriter who wants to work with the Maestro, is apparently a forgery.

So says 'Scott Pilgrim vs. the World' director Edgar Wright, who worked with Spielberg on the screenplay of the upcoming 'The Adventures of Tintin.' "That list?" tweets Wright. "Fake."

Still, it's a fascinating list, a look into the mind of what someone in Hollywood (apparently not Spielberg) thinks everyone who wants to work in the film industry ought to see. Even those of us playing along at home might do well to make this our syllabus and educate ourselves in film history.

The list certainly looks plausible. It includes plenty of movies made by directors Spielberg would have studied in film school (John Ford, Orson Welles, Jean Renoir) as well as several by Spielberg's friends (Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese, Brian De Palma, and Albert Brooks). There's only one picture on the list by Spielberg himself. Curiously, it's not 'E.T. the Extraterrestrial,' 'Schindler's List,' or 'Saving Private Ryan' (or even 'Jaws' or 'Jurassic Park'); rather it's 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind.'

Still, there are some red flags as well. It's one thing to tout Coppola movies like the 'Godfather' trilogy; it's another to tout his fairly forgettable early film 'The Rain People.' And what's with 'Sayonara,' 'The Missouri Breaks,' 'The Young Lions,' 'Reflections in a Golden Eye,' 'The Teahouse of the August Moon' and 'The Fugitive Kind'? Most of those contain lesser Marlon Brando performances, and while even lesser Brando is always fascinating, they're not really must-sees.

Also, there are some strange errors that no one as steeped in film history as Spielberg would make, like misspelling Sydney Pollack's name as "Sidney" (twice), Vincente Minnelli's name as "Vincent" and Jean Luc Godard as "Goddard." The list credits Michael Grillo with directing Lawrence Kasdan's 'The Big Chill' (Grillo was the first assistant director), credits 'West Side Story' to Jerome Robbins alone when Robert Wise did most of the work, and credits Charlton Heston with a role opposite Brando in 'Julius Caesar.' (In fact, Heston appeared in two other filmed versions of the Shakespeare play, both times in the same role Brando played, Marc Antony.)

The list is also curious for what it omits. No Cecil B. DeMille (a director Spielberg has often cited as an influence). No one working today who mines similar territory (Peter Jackson, James Cameron, Guillermo del Toro). No Spielberg protegés (the people who presumably got to work with him after seeing the movies on this list) like Robert Zemeckis, Joe Dante, Chris Columbus or J.J. Abrams. No women, except for Martha Coolidge. ('Rambling Rose' -- really?)

The list seems to have begun its journey around the Web at the screenwriting blog Go Into the Story, which, after caveats about its authenticity, linked to the list as posted at Los-Angeles-Acting-School.com. (A list created by acting students or acting teachers? That would explain all the Brando movies.) There's also a link to this Google Docs version, which highlights the entries available for streaming at Netflix.

Even if the list is fake, it still contains plenty of movies that, in fact, you really should see if you want to make movies. Or, for that matter, if you want to consider yourself well-versed in film history. '2001,' 'The 400 Blows,' '8 1/2,' 'All the President's Men,' 'Battleship Potemkin,' 'Bicycle Thieves,' 'Bonnie and Clyde,' 'Breathless,' 'Bringing Up Baby' and 'Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid' are not only historically important and influential movies, they're also simply great films that are rewarding and entertaining to watch. And that's just a few selected films from the beginning of the alphabet.

I've seen 144 films on the list, just shy of 70 percent. Guess I better get cracking on the rest if I ever want to work with Spielberg, or whomever wrote this list.

Follow Gary Susman on Twitter @garysusman.

How Many Movies on 'Steven Spielberg's Curriculum' List Have You Seen?

Sigourney Weaver on the Legacy of 'Aliens' & Her Sequel That Hollywood Won't Make

Eric Larnick — 2011-07-17T21:00:00+00:00

On July 18, 1986, Sigourney Weaver returned to her most iconic character -- the sci-fi action heroine Ellen Ripley -- for James Cameron's 'Aliens.' The film, a sequel to Ridley Scott's 1979 'Alien,' amped-up the outer-space horror with fully-loaded action; the end result was a box-office smash of over 100 million dollars and unanimous critical praise, particularly for the film's leading lady.

In between her breakout performance in the first 'Alien' and the 1986 release, Weaver had grown into one of the Hollywood's biggest stars, but 'Aliens' pushed her into the pop culture stratosphere. Her portrayal of Ripley not only created a memorable big-screen hero, but it also broke down gender barriers in the film world and netted her an Oscar nomination (making her one of the few actresses to be honored for both an action-driven role and a sci-fi-based story).

Sigourney Weaver sat down for an exclusive interview with Moviefone, reflecting on the 25-year legacy of 'Aliens.' While discussing her ongoing creative relationship with James Cameron and her memories of the demanding film shoot, Weaver also revealed that she wants to continue the 'Alien' saga with one final Ripley story -- something she views as highly unlikely, given Hollywood's apparent lack of enthusiasm for building sci-fi tentpoles around women of a certain age.

Moviefone: How did you approach 'Aliens,' knowing that it would be much more of an action movie than 'Alien' and it would require you to become an "action star"?
Sigourney Weaver: I don't think I thought about it in those terms -- maybe because those terms hadn't been invented yet. What I thought was so exciting was the story: the story of this woman who survives this horrific experience in space, comes back fifty years later, tries to warn society about this evil, is dismissed, marginalized and is sent back out not being told the truth to fight this thing again. The structure of this story is so amazing.

I feel like Ripley is all of us; I don't feel like she's an action hero. She is called to reach down and find the resources to fight in every way possible. To me it's about all of us. There's a Ripley in all of us. I think that's why people love the movie and the series. She's not a special person, she's an every-person, and we are put into these circumstances where we have to protect others and not give up. That's what James Cameron to me is always like; to find the hero within.

What does James Cameron bring to movie-making that is different from other filmmakers?
I don't think for him subtlety is important. It's out there, it's big, it's bold, it's exciting. His characters are very archetypal; he writes these big primary-color characters, and as a director he gives you the action and the world around which to play out these parts in a very bold way.

You don't have a life outside the film. You're constantly in the world of the film, with him cheering you on and pushing you to the extreme as an actor. When we did the action sequences, we did them in this abandoned power station called Acton outside of London. It was the middle of winter, it was freezing, just the most unwelcoming place. And we were there for a couple of nights just shooting this thing. And there was no other world beside this world. I love to work with Jim because it's full-tilt; there's no moderate speed, you're always at turbo-charge [Laughs]. You're always doing it together and it's always going to be worth it; 'Avatar' is the same way.

What kind of discussions have you had with Cameron about continuing the 'Avatar' story?
I don't think I'm at liberty to talk about that. Obviously it would be great if Grace could continue in some form or another. But I think we're not at a point where we can talk publicly about it.

The ensemble of 'Aliens' was very different from the cast of the first movie; what was the atmosphere on set like with the Colonial Marines?

Ripley was the mother of the group. We had a lot of young actors who were really gung-ho and I was a more seasoned performer since 'Alien'; by that time I had much more experience and confidence.

There were a lot of deaths and I gave a bouquet to each character the day they were killed; it was like "oh that's your day today! You get killed today!" It was fun giving Paul Reiser his bouquet, I just gave him a bunch of dead flowers.

'Aliens' was also the only film of the young woman who played Newt (Carrie Henn). What was your relationship with Carrie like during filming?She was from a military family; she had lovely parents and her mother was always with her. We were all very close and it was a long shoot, and a movie like that really brings you together. You don't forget those moments.

I know she's a teacher now in Sacramento. I think she has good memories but ultimately wasn't interested in the motion picture business. It's not all working with Jim Cameron.

How involved are you with Ridley Scott's quasi-'Alien' prequel, 'Prometheus'?
I don't know much about it, but I certainly wish them well. I think it's great for Ridley because he started it all, and I think it's great for him to go at it from a different direction.

Watch Ripley's close-call with the facehuggers
Do you think audiences will ever see another adventure with Ripley on the big screen?
I doubt it just because the way the industry is. While I can't speak for them, I think for Fox, once you're sixty, you're not going to be starring in an action movie. I think it's too bad that that's the case. I would have liked to do one last story where we go back to the planet, where Ripley's history is resolved. But I do feel like her story is unfinished.

I love the way the story has evolved, that every few years there's another voyage into that universe with another wonderful young director. And certainly I'm blessed with lots of different wonderful jobs, so I'm not sitting at home ruminating about all of that. If I was really caught up in it, I would find a logical story and try to get them behind it, but she may just be left circling earth.

I could definitely kick that alien's ass again. [Ripley]'s a smart hero, it's the way she thinks, but just looking at the way the business is...

Outside of Angelina Jolie's movies or Uma Thurman in the 'Kill Bill' series, there doesn't appear to be too many high-profile, female-lead action movies. Why do you think that is?
I think a lot of it has gone into comic books, and to me, in comic books, it's all about the men -- and because they were written in the 50s and 60s especially. It just wasn't where it was at for those writers and there's only so many band-aids you can put on that to make it relevant for today's society. There are gorgeous, occasionally kick-ass characters like Scarlett Johansson in 'Iron Man 2,' but in general I don't think those guys were thinking about women in those ways. I think as long as Hollywood is doing that, there won't be these amazing action-women characters.

What's so exciting about women in action is that women bring a different focus to the action and it comes from a different source. I love all the performances you mention, I think they are all terrific and I wish we could see more of them. Every woman you see, in her kitchen or wherever else, has a secret action heroine in her; just wait till something happens to her children or husband, then you'll see it.

We have so many talented directors who grew up on movies like 'Aliens' and they are going to change that. And you're going to see a lot of young women directors coming up who say "I don't care if they are interested in that, this is what I'm going to do." I think everything is going to change, we're going to have a big revolution. I'm sure we're going to see, even in very real films, women being much more physical and just being the kick-ass women that they are. Then they don't have to be in outer space, it will be contemporary -- look out!

Watch the famous fight with the Queen Alien
When it comes to kick-ass performances, your fight with the Queen Alien is one of the most iconic movie moments ever. What was your perspective on filming that scene?
Pretty amazing. I had a guy in that power loader behind me; in front of me, I had the Queen Alien being controlled by all kinds of puppeteers. We had so many people running so many different parts of the set and the world. And it was just an explosion of all the great collaboration you get on a big movie, where everything has to be so in-sync in order to do it perfectly. It was a ballet with these two creatures, and we shot it in about three days. We didn't have CGI, it's all real, it's all worked out, I practiced in that power loader every lunch hour for months ahead of time. It was a culmination of a lot people's hard work.

I was really into it; we did it kind of late into the movie, so I wanted to kill the Queen Alien, and I meant every word I said. What was going through my mind was: "I hope I don't f*ck this up."

Photos from Everett Collection.

Gary Busey on 'Point Break''s 20th Anniversary, Sky-Diving with Patrick Swayze & Meatball Sandwiches

Eric Larnick — 2011-07-12T18:20:00+00:00

On July 12, 1991, action cinema changed forever with the release of 'Point Break.' In the film, Keanu Reeves stars as Johnny Utah, a rookie FBI agent who is sent undercover into the Ex-Presidents, a notorious gang of bank-robbers who love holding people up at gun point, almost as much as they love surfing. Utah's allegiances are challenged when he strikes up a bond with the gang's charismatic leader, Bodhi -- played by the late Patrick Swayze -- a criminal with a Zen-like approach to fighting the system.

'Point Break' speaks to all those viewers who know that the human spirit is alive in them and must be expressed at all costs, whether that means skydiving without a parachute, or firing your gun up in the air while shouting "argh!" In addition to Reeves and Swayze, 'Point Break' stars the eccentric, Oscar-nominated Gary Busey as Angelo Pappas, Johnny Utah's FBI mentor.

Moviefone wanted to speak with Mr. Busey about the film's 20th anniversary... but you don't really speak with Gary so much, as strap in and let him take you on a ride. Here now is Gary Busey's thoughts on 'Point Break,' possible sequels and a once-in-a-lifetime sky-diving adventure with Patrick Swayze.

Moviefone: Good afternoon, Mr. Busey --
Gary Busey: Mr. Goosey? That's pretty good, haven't thought of that yet. My name's Gary Goosey, what would you like for me to smell? That's just funny things I say when I'm not thinking.

What attracted you to 'Point Break' initially?
I had some wishes and some prayers in my mind to work with a female director. And I got called up and met ['Point Break' director] Kathryn Bigelow. And Kathryn and I hit it off great; just real simple, authentic, listened to her, she listened to me. And she had an idea for a stunt coordinator, and I said "No, don't get him, get Glenn Wilder." Glenn Wilder brought incredible action to the movie, with the neighborhood chase between Patrick and Keanu, running through doors and windows -- and I think Patrick put a pitbull in Keanu's arms. He was magical and you didn't buy popcorn or get Cokes when there was action in that movie.

That car chase in the parking lot, that was me driving. And that was so much fun because the adrenaline gets pumped up to over-the-amount of numbers you can imagine in your little brain. I'm not saying you have a little brain, but those little bitty finches and pet shop birds, they have tiny brains, and they couldn't figure it out at all, but I know you did, so let's leave the birds out of it.

How would you describe Kathryn Bigelow's directing style?
Strong. Focused. And even if she doesn't know what is going on quite yet -- in other words when how to direct a scene with a Steadicam that covers the whole FBI floor -- she sat there and thought and thought. We watched her just sitting there at the desk, thinking. Not making notes, nothing, just thinking. Wasn't even looking around the room, just thinking. And we got up and we did it and it was a one-taker. Man, it covered a lot of ground; it was John C. McGinley and Keanu, going through the FBI room and it was brilliant. She's just so simple and authentic and laid back, but so strong and powerful and focused at the same time. So you get the best of both worlds with Kathryn. And I would work with her in an instant. In fact Kathryn: this is Gary saying let's snap the current in another picture because I enjoy working with you, Kathryn.

More than anything, out of the movies I've done, 'Point Break' is a paradigm of motion picture performance and motion picture direction. Directing and editing. The music. Working with Patrick -- god bless him in the name of Jesus Christ -- and Keanu, I took him under my wing, he was only 21. I used to talk to Keanu about awareness-level-gatherings. And he chimed in on that, he liked that a lot. It's where your awareness of something gets so complete, that that gathering of information on that one awareness will put you up on another level.

How did you develop your on-screen dynamic with Keanu?
It was natural. He was hungry and I was feeding. I told Keanu every scene we did together was his scene and I was going to see to it that he shined. But I didn't tell him that, I just let him know it with my behavior and my actions, cause only actions speak when you come down to art. And art is only the search, it is not the final form. So therefore it's forever, ongoing, and it's beautiful because life is art and art is life.

And I must mention John C. McGinley because this kid is a number one, A-list bona fide actor because he can do anything. My favorite scene in the movie is when I knock the poop out of him and tell him to respect his elders. He's a great actor, everybody in that cast was there to build a foundation that supported the house called 'Point Break' and that house will never come down, not with earth quakes, winds, typhoons, hurricanes or tornadoes or earth quakes. Or earth quakes. I said "earth quakes" three times.

One especially memorable moment of yours is the "meatball sandwich" scene. I've heard that your "gimme two" line is quoted back at you more than any other bit of dialogue.
That happens everywhere in the country.

Saying "I'm so hungry, I can eat the a** end out of a dead rhino" -- how do you prepare to deliver a line like that?
You just say it; there's no approach. You just say the line of the character you're in. I got news for you -- acting is the absence of acting. It's believing in a moment that you're creating there at that time with your authenticity. N-A-R spells "No acting required" and that's me. I'm just believing in a moment that I'm celebrating at that time.

And the moment that I'm celebrating at that time -- "Utah, gimme two! Two meatball sandwiches" -- that was improv. Because it was dead-air between me sitting in the car, reading the paper, looking at 'Calvin & Hobbes,' so I just stuck my head out the window and made the motion of "gimme two. Two of 'em Utah, gimme two meatball sandwiches." And that line has stuck. It's funny how lines stick from different movies, like "Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn" or Arnold's "I'll be back" -- which at this point in time, we know he won't be. But that has nothing to do with 'Point Break' so let's move on.

20-YEAR SPOILER ALERT: Your character meets a grim end in a shoot-out with the Ex-Presidents gang. What's the key to having a memorable death scene?
Don't think. Audiences are going to see you thinking. When you're thinking of what you're doing in a scene, there ain't no scene happening, it's just you floundering. That was so fast, that death scene, getting shot, and I know what to do. I know exactly what to do. And I had fun doing it. Keanu came out to look at me and one time I put some blood capsules in my mouth and when he rolls me over I went "blech!" and blood threw out of my mouth and Kathryn said "No, I don't want to see that."

I love that movie like I just did it, and the memories of it are in my forehead all the time. Because it was so much fun, so much laughing and hooting and hollering and playing football and skydiving and surfing and chasing Presidents -- Ex-Presidents. Chasing them through the yards, having Patrick light a gas station on fire with a match and a gas nozzle. And he was Regan! Think about that!

I want to tell you this, there was rumors about this, but there was no castrations on 'Point Break.' And there was no circumcisions either, clearly it was above-the-board cop-FBI-Ex-President-surfer-skydivers. And what ingredients. All those ingredients to make an incredible cake that Kathryn Bigelow baked, and people are still eating it.

I didn't realize that was even a rumor. But why do you think young audiences keep discovering the movie?
Cause it's action packed. It's adventurous, it's unpredictable, it comes with surprises. It's always moving, and there's something funny in it, every time you look around. Except it might not seem funny to you, but when you look again, it's going to be funny. Like when Keanu is chasing Patrick down and Patrick jumps on him and shows him his face without the mask - and that's when Keanu has the chance to shoot him, but he didn't -- he shot in the air. Bam! Bam! Bam!

Watch the classic chase scene between Johnny Utah and Bodhi

'Point Break' has always been one of those movies that is connected to sequel or remake rumors. What do you think of those ideas?
It's a rumor, I have nothing to say. That's what they do these days, they make sequels and they don't enhance the first showing. And Patrick's gone. Nevermind the sequel. No sequels! You have sequels in life; you eat breakfast, you eat lunch, you eat dinner, you go to the bathroom, you go to sleep -- those are sequels. You don't need a movie sequel, your own life is filled with sequels. In fact, I'd like to know the source of where the word sequel came from; could be "sequence," could be "see squeals." You know "sequel" is "see squeally." That's another tip.

Have you ever attempted to sky-dive in real life?
Patrick Swayze would not leave me alone at the wrap party. He would come up to me and say "Buse, let me take you sky-diving. You got a chute on your back, you're okay, you're perfectly safe, and it will open, and you will have the best feelings you've ever had." And I said "okay, let me think about that and I'll go over here." And I turn around and -- whoop! -- right there in front of me: "Gary, you got to go sky-diving, you got to go with me to Paris Valley! We'll get sky-divers for you, you'll go out of the plane on your own, it will be an accelerated free-fall, you got to go!" I said, "Patrick, let me go to the bathroom." He says "okay." I come out of the bathroom, go hide in another corner of the room, hear "Gary! Sky-diving!" So finally I said, "The only way to get you shut up is to agree with you, so I give you my word of honor, I'm going sky-diving."

I showed up at his house at 4AM in Sunland, and we went to Paris Valley, and he sat by me and said "See this attorney, he's going to tell you how many ways you're going to die and how they're not responsible for that -- just dismiss that and put your initials on all these paragraphs." Okay, I did that. Then I went to ground school for six hours, where you learn how to jump out of a plane, the posture you have, what the signals are -- like if they hit their head on their helmet, it means "relax and smile." Well try to think of that when you're falling at 120 miles an hour. But as Patrick said, and it's true, you don't feel like you're falling. You feel like you're under the propeller of a huge airplane and you're just floating in air, but you're actually falling at 120 miles an hour.

When the chute opened, I fell 9,000 feet in 55 seconds, and that's when I pulled my ripcord. Wham! Whoosh! My crotch got crunched by all those little harnesses and became a new fixture of body injections and body placements. Funny little package you got when those harnesses are grabbing your below-the-waist plumbing. And I felt on top of the world -- I felt like I wanted to do it right away again -- And the video cameraman who jumped with me, had the camera on my face as we jumped. And my face looked like the fifth face on Mt. Rushmore.

I did eight sky-dives altogether and I said "well, okay this has been a good tour, I'm on my way elsewhere." It was great and god bless Patrick, he's a kindred spirit, brother of mine and we got along like get-alongers do.

What's your favorite moment of 'Point Break'?

20 Things You Might Not Know About 'Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory'

Gary Susman — 2011-07-01T16:45:00+00:00

Confession time: I saw 'Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory' in the theater when I was 4 ... and it scared the daylights out of me. All those horrible things happening to the kids -- especially Augustus Gloop nearly drowning in the chocolate river, then getting trapped in that tube -- haunted my dreams.

As an adult, however, I was able to watch the film again and pick up on its sly humor, particularly Gene Wilder's subtle, mischievous performance, as well as in the film's satire of the adult world as being just as greedy, grasping, and gluttonous as the world of candy-grabbing children. Nowadays, I thoroughly enjoy watching the movie, which wasn't the movie I thought it was at all.

As it turns out, the beloved cult favorite that we've enjoyed for four decades now (it just had its 40th anniversary) isn't the movie any of us thought it was. There are a lot of things people don't know about the familiar film, from its origins as a candy infomercial to its links to 'The Omen,' the 1972 Summer Olympics and the Boston subway system.

Are you ready for a list of 20 things you might now know about 'Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory?' As Wilder's candymaker said during Augustus Gloop's ordeal, "The suspense is terrible. I hope it'll last."

1. Watch the opening credits closely, and you'll see that the film's copyright was initially held, not by a Hollywood studio, but by the Quaker Oats company. The cereal maker behind such sweet morning treats as Life and Cap'n Crunch was launching a line of candy bars and had been talking to film and TV producer David L. Wolper about vehicles to promote it.

2. At the same time, director Mel Stuart took up his 10-year-old daughter's suggestion that he approach family friend Wolper in order to make a film of Roald Dahl's children's novel 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.' Quaker Oats had never made a movie before, but the company bought the film rights from Dahl and spent nearly $3 million making the movie (a fairly hefty film budget back in 1970).

3. Dahl himself was hired to write the screenplay. Although the finished product bears his sole credit, Stuart actually had the screenplay rewritten by a then-unknown, David Seltzer, who would go on to write 'The Omen' (about the ultimate bratty kid) and 'Lucas' (about a Charlie Bucket-ish underdog, played by the young Corey Haim).

4. Dahl was said to be so unhappy with Seltzer's rewrite (he felt it focused too much on the Wonka character and not enough on Charlie, and that it had sweetened his story's dark tone) that he refused to allow the movie to be remade again in his lifetime or to sell the film rights to the sequel, 'Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator.' (Dahl died in 1990, 15 years before his estate allowed Tim Burton to remake the 1971 film.)

5. Why was the title changed from the book's 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory' to 'Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory'? There are two competing stories. One says that the change was to play up Wonka's name because Quaker's new candy line was called Wonka Bars.

6. The other claim is that the filmmakers worried that the name "Charlie" was seen in some quarters as a derogatory racial term for black people.

The Acid-Trip Boat Ride:

7. Dahl's first choice to play Wonka was wacky British comedian Spike Milligan. His second choice: Ron Moody, who had just starred as Fagin (another dubious role model for naughty children) in the film 'Oliver!'

8. Producers nixed Milligan, and Moody turned them down, as did Jon Pertwee (then committed to TV's 'Doctor Who,' another tale of a mysterious man and a young companion who travel in a magical glass booth).

9. Producers auditioned Joel Grey to play the chocolate mogul but decided he didn't tower over the children enough.

10. Finally, Gene Wilder came along and won the part, which he accepted only on the condition that he be allowed to make his entrance with the fake old-man limping gait that turns into a somersault. "I knew that from then on the audience wouldn't know if I was lying or telling the truth," he recalled in 2005.

11. Ever wonder where the strange middle-European village is that seems to be home to a population of English adults and American kids? It's Munich, where producers filmed because it was cheap and, yes, disorienting. Peter Ostrum, who played Charlie, recalled that a highlight of the five-month shoot in Germany was watching the construction of Munich's Olympiapark, where the Olympics would be held two summers later.

12. Sammy Davis Jr. had wanted to play the candy shop owner who sings the opening song, but producers turned him down. Nonetheless, he made that song, "The Candy Man," part of his act, and in 1972, his version became the only single of his 40-year recording career to hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.

13. The famed chocolate river, created on a soundstage, was two feet deep and consisted of 150,000 gallons of water mixed with chocolate and cream. The resulting mixture quickly spoiled and filled the soundstage with a foul stench. (Guess I was right to feel bad for Augustus.)

Augustus Gloop and the Chocolate River:

14. Despite Dahl's complaints, the finished film was plenty dark and weird, maybe too much so for small children (hello!) or potential Wonka candy consumers. The movie earned just $4 million at the box office and was widely considered a flop.

15. In the late 1970s, Paramount let its distribution rights expire, and Quaker Oats sold its interest in the film to Warner Bros. for just $500,000. But then, in the 1980s, Warners' repeated licensing of 'Willy Wonka' for TV broadcasts and its release of the movie on home video turned the movie into a profit-making cult hit and allowed Warners to be the studio that ultimately released Burton's 2005 remake.

16. Of the five kids who toured Willy Wonka's factory, only Julie Dawn Cole (who played Veruca Salt) stuck with acting, primarily on British soaps.

Veruca Salt and the Golden Geese

17. Of course, her character was also the inspiration for '90s alt-rock band Veruca Salt.

18. Peter Ostrum gave up acting after 'Willy Wonka,' turning down a three-picture deal. The Cleveland native became a veterinarian and moved to the small farming village of Lowville, N.Y. Preferring to keep a low profile, he seldom discusses the movie that made him briefly famous, though he couldn't avoid the spotlight shown on the original cast members when Burton's splashy remake came out six years ago.

19. Ostrum was lured out of obscurity in 2009 by Dunkin' Donuts, which recruited him for a promotion that had him standing in a Boston subway station giving away CharlieCards (the fare cards Boston commuters use, which are named not for Charlie Bucket but for the hapless subway rider of the folk tune 'The MTA Song'). Ostrum gave out free fares and one Wonka-esque golden ticket, good for a year's worth of unlimited subway rides and free cups of Dunkin' Donuts coffee.

Peter Ostrum Gives Away CharlieCards for Dunkin' Donuts:

20. Quaker Oats sold the Wonka candy company to Nestlé in the 1980s. Nestlé relaunched the brand last year with a line of fancy, premium chocolate bars called "Wonka Exceptionals." Along with those bars and such familiar products as SweeTarts, Laffy Taffy and Pixy Stix, Wonka also sells Everlasting Gobstoppers, inspired by the movie.

Follow Gary Susman on Twitter: @garysusman.

'Superman II': The Last Great Superman Movie Turns 30

Gary Susman — 2011-06-22T15:15:00+00:00

Forget Nuclear Man and Richard Pryor's computer hacker and Kevin Spacey's Lex Luthor; for the last three decades, Superman's greatest movie threat has been irrelevance. It's been 30 years since the release of 'Superman II' (on June 19, 1981), the last Man of Steel film that pleased both fans and critics, and the last that treated the iconic character with the storytelling verve and dignity he deserves.

'Superman II' was notoriously taken away from its original director and largely re-shot by a director with a more comic sensibility, and yet the revised film worked so well that it remains a fan favorite to this day, one that's had an indelible influence on all the great comic book movies that have followed. Not even the sillier 'Superman III' (1983) and 'Superman IV: The Quest for Peace,' (1987) nor the reverent but airless 'Superman Returns' (2006), can dim the luster of Christopher Reeve's triumphant, poignant turn in the 1981 feature.

There have been countless attempts over the last 30 years to recapture the magic of 'Superman II,' with Warner Bros. spending hundreds of millions on efforts by big-name stars and directors to reboot the franchise, efforts that never came to fruition. Now that a new reboot is in the works (2012's 'Man of Steel') that will again try to erase the last 30 years of misfires, it's worth looking back at 'Superman II' to see why it worked, why the Superman saga stalled after that, and how the red-caped hero can recapture his former screen glory.

In an alternate universe...

Director Richard Donner filmed the 1978 'Superman' and most of 'Superman II' during the same long 1977 shoot. Both involved some of the same plot elements - Superman's courtship of Lois Lane (Margot Kidder), the megalomania of Lex Luthor (Gene Hackman), the guidance from beyond the grave of Superman's Kryptonian parents, and the threat from Kryptonian rebel General Zod (Terence Stamp) and his accomplices. After the first film became a smash, Donner expected to return to work to finish the sequel, but there were creative and financial differences between him and the producers (Alexander and Ilya Salkind).

One of the biggest dilemmas involved Marlon Brando, who was due to collect a whopping 12 percent of the gross for his participation in the sequel as Jor-El, Superman's father. The Salkinds wanted to scrap his already-shot scenes in order to avoid paying him his points; Donner wanted to keep the scenes. In the end, the Salkinds hired Richard Lester to direct, even having him reshoot in 1980 many of the scenes Donner had filmed three years earlier.

Lester's completed film had more of a comic tone, with a hint of the campiness that would overcome the final two Reeve 'Superman' installments. Still, the core story - Superman gives up his powers in order to be with Lois, only to be forced to don the cape and renounce earthly love when fellow Kryptonian Zod attacks - was so compelling that the revamped movie appealed to all audiences. 'Superman II' grossed $108 million and was the third biggest hit of 1981.

Watch the climactic blow-off between Superman and Zod

It wasn't until 2006 that the Richard Donner cut of of 'Superman II' was assembled (consisting mostly of Donner's original footage, including the Brando scenes, plus some of the fight scenes shot by Lester that Donner hadn't been able to shoot before he was let go from the project) and released on home video. Hardcore Superfans enjoyed its more serious tone and preferred it to the Lester version.

The decline

1983's 'Superman III,' the last of the Superman films made by the Salkinds, featured a prominent comic-relief role for Richard Pryor as a computer hacker and a Jekyll-and-Hyde plot that saw Superman battling an evil version of himself. Fans found it silly, but it still made $60 million. Even Reeve felt the film had been too farcical and disrespectful to the character and the fans.

Reeve's final turn in the blue tights was 'Superman IV: The Quest for Peace,' produced by indie house Cannon He signed on because he approved of the film's anti-nuclear message, but the film was shot on the cheap (budgeted at just $15 million) and looked it, and the plot (involving a villain named Nuclear Man) was even sillier than 'Superman III.' The film flopped with just $16 million in ticket sales, and it essentially killed the franchise for the next two decades.

The Lost Years

There were numerous stalled attempts to revive the franchise over the next 20 years. The Salkinds got the rights back after Cannon's bankruptcy and developed an idea for a fifth movie that involved Superman's death and rebirth (this before DC Comics published its own 'Death of Superman' storyline in the early '90s).

In 1993, Jon Peters, the producer who had successfully revived the Caped Crusader franchise with Tim Burton's 'Batman' and 'Batman Returns,' acquired the rights for Warner Bros. and spent the next decade developing stories that would have have taken Superman further and further away from the character fans had known and loved for more than half a century. There were scripts that had Superman seeing a shrink, or having Lois conceive his child via a virgin-birth scenario, or having Superman fight a giant spider, or having him wear a black suit, or having him not fly. One screenwriter during the Peters years said that the producers and the studio were less interested in making a movie that would appeal to ticketbuyers as they were in creating opportunities to sell toys and lunchboxes and other merchandise that would be much more lucrative than mere box office receipts.

Watch the trailer for 'Superman II'

Several top screenwriters would come and go, including Kevin Smith, Wesley Strick, Paul Attanasio, J.J. Abrams, and Akiva Goldsman. Directors attached to the project included Tim Burton (who spent some $30 million of Warner Bros. money and did a year of pre-production work on the project before the studio shelved it, blanching at the $190 million projected cost), Wolfgang Petersen, McG, and Brett Ratner. Stars who almost played Superman included Nicolas Cage (such a big fan that he named his son Kal-El, Superman's Kryptonian name; he'd have starred in the Burton version), Will Smith (who turned down the role, figuring that audiences weren't ready for a black Superman), Josh Hartnett (who ultimately turned down an offer of $100 million to make three Super-movies, apparently out of fear of being typecast or having to commit the next ten years of his life to the saga), Jude Law, Ashton Kutcher, Brendan Fraser, David Boreanaz, and James Marsden (who ultimately landed a supporting role in 'Superman Returns'). For a while, the effort to reboot Superman on his own was sidetracked by an idea for a 'Batman vs. Superman' film, before Warner Bros. returned to the idea of simply reintroducing Superman.

(Read more about the many attempts to make a new 'Superman' movie.)

In the meantime, the superhero genre had come to dominate Hollywood, thanks to the 'Batman' movies (Burton's, and later, Christopher Nolan's) and several successful Marvel franchises - notably, Sam Raimi's 'Spider-Man' films and Bryan Singer's 'X-Men' movies. Those that worked best seemed to follow 'Superman II' in formula, mixing levity with utter seriousness and using plots that called for the heroes to make great personal sacrifices. 'Spider-Man 2,' in particular -- in which Peter Parker is tormented by his thwarted romance with Mary Jane, loses his powers and gives up being Spider-Man, only to be forced back into action in order to halt the menacing Dr. Octopus -- owes a huge debt to 'Superman II.'

'Superman Returns'

In 2004, the Superman project found its way to Singer. Singer's idea was to pick up the 'Superman' story five years after the Donner/Lester storyline, as if 'Superman III' and 'Superman IV' had never happened. He also emulated Donner by casting an unknown, Brandon Routh, as Clark Kent.

Singer's 'Superman Returns' came out in 2006, 19 years after the last Super-film. At the center was a performance by Routh that seemed an uncanny echo of Christopher Reeve in speech and manner. The film made nearly $400 million worldwide. Still, its oddly muted tone puzzled and dismayed many viewers. Warner executives who'd expected the film to make $500 million expressed disappointment.

Singer had planned to make a sequel with the same cast, but there were delays in developing a script that were prolonged even further by the 2007-08 writers' strike. Routh's contract option expired, and Singer moved on to other projects.

'Man of Steel'

In 2008, the studio solicited pitches for yet another reboot. The winning idea came from 'The Dark Knight' writing team of Nolan and David S. Goyer. With both working on the next Batman movie, the search was on for a director and star. As during the Peters years, it seemed every possible actor and director were considered before Warners settled on comics-to-film vet Zack Snyder ('300,' 'Watchmen') as director and English actor Henry Cavill (who'd auditioned for the role during the Peters years) as Clark Kent.

The Snyder/Cavill movie, dubbed 'Man of Steel,' is due in 2012 and will apparently follow the 'Superman II' model closely; it even has General Zod as a villain. The cast includes such top thespians as Amy Adams (as Lois Lane), Diane Lane and Kevin Costner (as Ma and Pa Kent), Michael Shannon (as Zod) and Russell Crowe (as Jor-El).

Can 'Man of Steel' recapture the 'Superman II' magic? Having such a skilled cast will certainly help. That Cavill is relatively unknown to film audiences (and is the first non-American to play Superman) doesn't really matter; Reeve and Routh used their lack of pre-established personas to their advantage and were able to lose themselves in the character. More important, however, is to have a strong screenplay, and the track record of Nolan and Goyer is reassuring here.

One person who has high hopes for the new movie is Richard Donner. Now 81, Donner seems pleased about 'Man of Steel' and the casting of Cavill (the first non-American to play Superman). "He's got a lot to live up to," said Donner, in an interview with Movieline earlier this month. "But he's really qualified; as long as he has the belief in the character that is required of any good actor, he'll bring him to life." As for Snyder, Donner says, "I wish him all the love and luck in the world"

o.Follow Gary Susman on Twitter @garysusman.

Is 'Superman II' the Greatest Superman Movie?
Yes!	467 (69.5%)
No!	205 (30.5%)

Happy Birthday, Martin Landau! A Look at One of Hollywood's Busiest Octogenarians

Gary Susman — 2011-06-22T13:05:00+00:00

Martin Landau has about half a dozen movies in the works these days, including a reunion with Tim Burton, who directed Landau's Oscar-winning performance in 'Ed Wood.' Not a bad to-do list for an actor who turned 83 this week (June 20 to be precise).

It's apt that Landau's signature role is Rollin Hand, the master of disguise on TV's 'Mission: Impossible.' After all, as an actor, Landau has been a total chameleon. He's hard to pin down and has an intuitive grasp of character. Even his TV guest spots and his small character parts in forgettable movies feel thoroughly lived-in. He was known early in his career for playing sneering villains, but as he has aged, he's played wise, avuncular types as well, though they're also often men with a few tricks up their sleeves.

Landau has worked with many of film's greatest directors, from Alfred Hitchcock to George Stevens to Francis Ford Coppola to Woody Allen to Burton. Here's a look back at some of the best work of his six-decade career, as well as what's next for the still-busy octogenarian.

Landau started out as a TV and stage actor. His first big break in film was Hitchcock's 1959 classic 'North by Northwest.' In the spy thriller, he plays Leonard, henchman to the villain (James Mason), and he's the slyest, smartest, most sinister person in the movie. Landau boldly chose to play Leonard as gay (there's evident jealousy in his desire to get rid of Eva Marie Saint, his rival for Mason's attentions). After watching Landau's performance during the early part of the shoot, screenwriter Ernest Lehman even wrote Landau an extra line of dialogue that makes Leonard's orientation obvious to those paying attention: "Call it my woman's intuition, if you will." Landau tosses the line off so casually that it's no wonder the censors missed it, but Leonard's sexuality is evident throughout the film in his scenes with Mason. Of course, even without paying attention to Leonard's orientation, it's easy to enjoy Landau's performance for its sheer malice, for the sadistic joy he shows when he ignores the dangling Cary Grant's plea for rescue and steps on his hand instead.

Landau's colleagues were worried that he'd be typecast as gay. Instead, he was typecast as sinister heavies. He did play a heroic role in 1963's 'Cleopatra,' as a Roman officer whose loyalty to Mark Antony proves his undoing, but that legendary flop didn't really help anyone's career. He had another juicy part as Caiaphas, the Jewish priest who leads the legal charge against Jesus (Max von Sydow) in George Stevens' 'The Greatest Story Ever Told,' but that ponderous 1965 epic again failed to help any of its all-star cast of actors very much.

Landau spent much of the next couple of decades in bit parts in movies and major parts on TV. He also served as an acting coach to such future stars as Jack Nicholson and Anjelica Huston. On the small screen, he had lead roles on both 'Mission: Impossible' (from 1966-69) and 'Space: 1999' (1975-78). On both shows, he co-starred with then-wife Barbara Bain. He also showed a commanding presence and charisma that he'd seldom had the opportunity to display in movies

The actor was 60 when his big-screen comeback began with a role in Coppola's 'Tucker: The Man and His Dream' (1988). As Abe Karatz, the mentor and financial backer of maverick 1940s auto designer Preston Tucker (Jeff Bridges), Landau is the voice of wisdom and caution, a grounding presence in a film about a wild-eyed dreamer. The movie wasn't a hit, but critics loved it, and so did the Academy, which honored Landau with a Best Supporting Actor nomination.

Landau was nominated again the following year for his role in Allen's 'Crimes and Misdemeanors.' In what has become a prototypical Landau role (a seemingly decent, venerable man with a secret dark side), he plays Judah Rosenthal, a prosperous optometrist who plots the murder of his mistress (Huston) after she threatens to expose their affair to his wife. The film is one of Allen's meditations on the absence of justice in the universe, and there's a comic subplot starring Allen and Mia Farrow that makes a similar point, but the movie as a whole wouldn't work without Landau's sympathetic and ultimately tragic performance as a good man who makes some very bad moral decisions.

Watch a scene from 'Crimes and Misdemeanors'

Third time was the charm for Landau at the Oscars, when he won Best Supporting Actor for his role in Burton's 'Ed Wood' as Bela Lugosi. Landau is almost unrecognizable as the legendary monster-movie actor. He's made up to look like a scary, aged vampire who could still pass for the more dashing Dracula he played as a younger man. His Lugosi is also an addict and a man bitter over having been forgotten by Hollywood. So there's a deep pathos (and a surprising amount of humor) in his relationship with Ed Wood (Johnny Depp), a terribly untalented director who nonetheless succeeds in rescuing Lugosi from obscurity and letting him sink his fangs into a last shot at screen immortality. It's a thoroughly delightful, multifaceted performance that is justifiably seen as the crown jewel in Landau's career.

I was lucky enough to meet Landau shortly after watching a preview screening of the 1994 film, which had convinced the other critics and I that Landau was sure to win an Oscar. We told him so, and he responded to the compliment in typical actorly fashion, enjoying the praise while simultaneously too insecure to accept it at face value. "Do you really think so?" he asked, not nearly as certain as we were. Don't worry, we told him. You have it in the bag.

In recent years, Landau has largely returned to character parts in movies -- a law professor with a taste for high-stakes poker in 'Rounders,' a conspiracy-minded doctor in the first 'X-Files' movie, an ill-fated aristocrat in Burton's 'Sleepy Hollow,' the owner of a movie house that's the heart and soul of a small town in Frank Darabont's 'The Majestic.' He also had some recurring roles on popular TV series, as Anthony LaPaglia's father on 'Without a Trace' and as Bob Ryan, a Robert Evans-like producer itching to come out of retirement, on 'Entourage.'

His best recent role was in last year's 'Lovely, Still,' about a romance between two old timers (Landau and Ellen Burstyn), with an unexpected twist. Landau has said he helped writer/director Nik Fackler largely rewrite the script to streamline the plot and heighten the drama. As he was back in Hitchcock's day, Landau is still apparently full of inventive ideas for bringing out his characters and adding edge to the story.

Among the five or six movies to which Landau is attached that are going into production in the next couple of years, the most intriguing is 'Frankenweenie,' Burton's stop-motion animation feature adaptation of the 1984 cartoon short that launched his career, about a kid scientist reanimating his dead dog. Landau joins a voice cast that includes fellow Burton vets Winona Ryder, Martin Short, and Catherine O'Hara. At any rate, Landau certainly knows a lot about reviving what's dormant.

Follow Gary Susman on Twitter: @garysusman.

Edie (GRACE!) McClurg Talks 'Ferris Bueller''s 25th Anniversary, On-Set Friendships and John Hughes' Genius

Gabrielle Dunn — 2011-06-10T12:00:00+00:00

Edie McClurg may be the ultimate character actress.

Before getting into movies, she joined the renowned Los Angeles Groundlings improv troupe and did stand-up at the Comedy Store, back when David Letterman was just a no-name emcee.

Improv led to her getting cast in her first film, 'Carrie,' alongside Sissy Spacek. But McClurg is probably best known for her work with director John Hughes, particularly in 'Planes, Trains and Automobiles' where she has some choice words for Steve Martin, and as Grace, the high school secretary in 'Ferris Bueller's Day Off.'

As 'Ferris Bueller' celebrates its 25th anniversary on Saturday (wow, right?), Moviefone talked to McClurg about the movie's timeless appeal, what scenes were improvised and which jokes made John Hughes laugh the hardest.

Turns out, she's a righteous dude.

Moviefone: In the scene where you're listing all the different groups of kids who like Ferris Bueller, was it hard to keep from laughing?
Edie McClurg: Well, it was very hard to memorize that list so I had put "and" in between, you know to try and pair them up and John [Hughes] said, "No, no just say the list." I really had to concentrate when I was doing that though I was looking like it was very easy. I said "the dweebies and dickheads, sportos and bloods" because that was the way I was able to memorize it and I had to take out the "ands." He said, "No, no, just the list." I did it in one take.

Did you know what all those words meant?
Well, dweebies are nerdy guys, dickheads are guys who are always mouthing off and messing around, sportos play sports, bloods are [in gangs], and whatever's left over. I don't remember. I knew at the time, but it was a long time ago.

Edie McClurg as Grace in 'Ferris Bueller':

Do people constantly quote that back at you?
A lot of people liked it, but it was another movie John Hughes did, 'Planes Trains and Automobiles' where people want me to say "You're f*cked" when they see me out.

Regarding 'Ferris Bueller,' I was in the Czech Republic once, in Prague, making a movie at the same time as Jeffrey Jones, who played the principal, who was making a different movie. The Super Bowl was going to playing at this bar at midnight so we decided we would go watch the Super Bowl at this bar at midnight in Prague together.

We show up and there were a whole lot of American young people there. There were screens all around. We found seats right in the front, but then I had to go to the bathroom so I walked down halfway through the club to go the restroom, and then when I came back I was walking past this table and somebody said, "Grace!" I turned and I said, "Yes?" and they said, "We thought that was you!" I said, "And Mr. Rooney is right over in the corner." So they had to get up and come over. One of them was from Wisconsin and he had a cheese-head on and he talked Jeffrey into putting it on and taking pictures. That was a lot of fun.

'Ferris Bueller' is my favorite movie, but it came out before I was even born. What makes it so timeless?
I think it's the anarchy of taking the day off and how much fun you can have. He wasn't a bad kid. He wasn't a bad student. He just ... It was a beautiful day and they knew they'd be going to different schools after they graduated. It's the end of the semester. You know how you get itchy. I think that's what people really identify with.

Matthew Broderick and Alan Ruck had been in the Broadway production of 'Biloxi Blues' together. They knew each other so well. It was a long run on Broadway, so they became very close friends. Then, when the movie came up, Matthew had gotten a good reputation already, and he suggested Alan for the best friend part and it was just perfect. Then, the people who played his mom and dad, they actually met and got married. They're not married now, but they have beautiful kids. You're put together and familiarity breeds.

And you and Jeffrey obviously became close.
Yes. I had not met Jeffrey up to that point. Later, he used to come watch me do improv with the Spolin Players, which I'm still a member of.

What do you love about improv?
It's like a high-wire act. You try to keep your balance and try to stay grounded but you are up there, flying on your own.

Did Jeffrey ever improvise? [Laughs] He was petrified. He was used to a script. He was a stage, script actor and that was it. And John Hughes loved improvisers. So when we had done everything that was written, John Hughes said, "OK, now let's just do some going back and forth between the offices" and Jeffrey's eyes got really wide and he said, "What are we going to do?" and I said, "We're just going to play a game called 'Help, Hinder.' It'll look like I'm helping you, but I'm going to be hindering your progress so whatever way I'm going, you go in the opposite direction and I'll produce obstacles for you to get around." So he says, "OK."

We started out with the phone thinking it's the father of the girl but it's really Alan on the phone and I'm looking through the pieces of paper and getting in behind him and he's trying to get away from me and then he runs out and he runs back in and I run out and back and forth and then we finished the scene and everybody laughed and John said, "Check the gate," which means, "That was perfect, let's move on."

The scene in 'Ferris' in the office was improvised?
Totally improvised. The running back and forth and what we said up until "Ferris Bueller's on line two." That's when all of the hectic stuff started.

'Ferris Bueller' phone call:

Is allowing so much improvisation what made John Hughes stand out as a director?
He was totally willing to let you improvise within the framework of the scene. I worked first on 'Ferris' and then I did 'Planes, Trains and Automobiles,' 'She's Having a Baby' and 'Curly Sue.' I did four films with him and one of the editors told me after John had died, "You know, every movie you did after 'Ferris,' he'd say, "Well, where's the part for Edie? Where's the part for Edie?" And that's how I did four films with him.

Like in 'Planes, Trains and Automobiles,' I'm at the counter with Steve Martin and I'm trying to keep him steaming even more because he's so angry. On one take, I picked up the phone and was dealing with a customer on the phone just to put up a finger and make him wait, get him a little more steamed.

So I did that for a couple of takes and John leaned over from behind the camera and said, "This take, be on the phone talking about Thanksgiving" so I just let fly about, "We gotta get Mom up so we can get the sweet potatoes done." I just let fly and he said, "Check the gate." Then, he and the writer took over and he said, "How do you do that? I say, "'Talk about Thanksgiving'" and you give me a monologue. How do you do that?" And I said, "John, I'm a cannibal. Just like you, I take everything in my life and I'll use it. Everything I used in that run about Thanksgiving, all of that was just my family." He said, "Oh yeah!" He's a writer. I'm a writer. He understood.

'Planes, Trains and Automobiles' car rental scene (NSFW):

What kind of stuff could you do to make John Hughes laugh?
He liked physical and he liked quirky. Like that run in 'Ferris Bueller,' the running back and forth thing, that cracked him up. The car rental thing when I came up with that stuff about Thanksgiving, he just loved it.

Also, we did 'She's Having a Baby' and that was about his and his wife's moving to the suburbs and he worked as an ad agency writer in Chicago so he'd be on that train every day so that whole story is his and his wife's early life. The baby had the cord around his neck and they had to do a C-section. It was fraught with peril but he wanted to do a story about his early life and how he got into advertising just by lying. His boss knew he was lying but he was really good at it so he thought he could write advertising copy because it's mostly lying. The truth made him laugh.

You know, every time I think about John, I just weep because there was so much talent that was messed with in Hollywood and that's why he moved back to the Midwest and took his kids with him.

Did you talk to any other actors after he passed away?
I talked with Jeffrey right away and Alan Ruck, later. They had a midnight screening of 'Ferris' at the American Cinematheque Egyptian Theater down on Hollywood Boulevard and we came and did a talk.

But when he died, we were all just so shocked. His oldest son had just given birth to their first baby and they were living in New York and he came to New York to see the baby and he went for a walk in the morning and fell dead on the street. Heart attack. It was so shocking. But the thing is he was a chain smoker. I think he was 59 and then it was like, "You're gone." [Pause] So never smoke.

I know you've talked in other interviews about John's staging the parade scene. Did you actually get to see them film it in Chicago or were you in LA?
I was actually there. They brought me to Chicago as a rain scene, because they planned to do all outdoor shooting but if rain happens, they have to have something else they can shoot, they can't just shut down because that's just too expensive to have people sitting around waiting for rain to stop so they have indoor scenes planned in case of. They built the desk sets and bookcases and all that stuff in Chicago.

'Ferris Bueller' parade scene:

I was there for a week and then they were moving back to LA to do the indoor scenes so they had to take everything they built for our two offices and pack it up and ship it out to LA and put it in this high school out in the West Valley. I said, "Wow. That's pretty expensive." They said, "Yeah, it costs $10,000." I said, "That's more than I'm being paid to be in the movie. The desk I'm sitting at costs more than my entire salary. I think that's wrong!" [Laughs] That's movies!

Do you feel like over the years you've told every story about the set there is or are there some details you've never mentioned?
One quirky little thing; Mia Sara was playing the girlfriend and she had long hair so they hired her hairdresser to do her hair but he didn't know how to do any other kind of hair. I wanted to have the bubble hairdo. He didn't know how to do it. I said, "You pick up the hair and you back comb it down and smooth it out." He was pulling my hair. I said, "Give me the brush. I'll do it myself." So I did my own hair for the movie.

Grace and the Pencils (start at 5:41):

Grace's bubble hairdo was your idea?
Yeah. Oh! Here's a good story. I didn't ask anybody, I just did it. In Chicago, we did wardrobe for me. I tried on three different outfits and John came and looked and said, "Okay, this is a good one." And so, we chose the dress together and then I just decided I would do my hair like I was a woman from the 1960s, early '70s and that's when women teased their hair and had big bubble hairdos.

I walked on the set and he's just looking at me and we were gonna do the scene where I'm sitting at the desk, the first time you see me and he said, "How many pencils do you think you can stick in there?" I said, "Let's just see." I put in one and leaned my head down and it stayed so I put in another and leaned my head down and it stayed and another and it stayed and I put in a fourth one and leaned my head down and it fell and I said, "I can hold three," and he said, "Okay, let's start with that." So he just had me going up into my hair and finding pencil after pencil. [Laughs]

It seems like John was really collaborative. That's rare in a director.
He was totally not ego-filled with sharing ideas. He really wanted people to contribute. There was a whole group of us people that he used over and over again and we were those small parts which would be not small characters, you know what I mean? We're memorable because he made us memorable.

The 7 Best Viral Marketing Campaigns in Movie History

Ryan McKee — 2011-06-07T11:15:00+00:00

'Super 8' hits theaters June 10, and the viral marketing campaigns for it have been spinning like mad. Director J.J. Abrams loves a good viral campaign and is probably one of the few directors who actually thinks about it as he's constructing the initial movie. The success of 'Super 8''s marketing remains to be seen, but there are plenty of online hints and movie references that nerds (ourselves included) will be digging through for months.

'Super 8' already has intrigue and mystery down, which you'll see are two big factors in a successful online promotion. Below, we take a look at the seven best viral marketing campaigns in movie history.

7. 'Snakes on a Plane' (2006)

Some consider 'Snakes on a Plane' a disappointment at the box office. However, the movie grossed over $62m. That is staggering considering almost every person who paid to see it, did so "ironically." The movie became a hit simply because of its name making the rounds online. New Line already had a Internet phenomenon before they even started marketing it, proving names do matter.

6. 'Inception' (2010)

After Christopher Nolan's 'The Dark Knight' enjoyed overwhelming success -- due in some part to its viral campaign -- it stood to reason the progressive director would want the same for 'Inception.' Keeping most of the film under wraps, the stealth marketing team put together the 'Mind Crime' virtual game online and produced a series of "real" interviews with scientists who specialize in dreams. Fans were already interested, but these efforts pushed their intrigue past the tipping point.

5. 'Paranormal Activity' (2009)

Made for a mere $15,000, 'Paranormal Activity' grossed over $193 million. The filmmakers owe a lot of their success to hitting the social networks hard, especially Twitter. After the film's limited release, they encouraged viewers to "Tweet Their Screams" and write 140-character-long reviews. After Paramount saw the online interest, the studio announced they'd launch it nationally if the movie received one million "demands" on Eventful. They made people work for it and, therefore, gave them a vested interest before even seeing it.

4. 'Cloverfield' (2008)

Director J.J. Abrams already had experience with viral marketing from his TV show 'Lost,' which had 'The Lost Experience' online. The studio used similar online tie-ins for 'Cloverfield.' However, wanting to keep the film as much of a secret from scoopers as possible, they misdirected information online, calling the movie 'Slusho' and 'Colossus,' despite already knowing the title. Fans started looking for hints everywhere before 'Cloverfield' was even close to theaters.

3. 'The Dark Knight' (2008)

Like 'Cloverfield,' 'The Dark Knight' used misdirection. One of the first marketing stunts was a fake website for Harvey Dent's campaign for district attorney, complete with shareable "I Believe in Harvey Dent" political posters. The posters slowly changed to an image of the Joker with the text, "see you in December." The final push launched WhySoSerious.com, which revealed more images of the Joker as well as the first teaser trailer, helping the film gross more than $1 billion.

2. 'Toy Story 3' (2010)

Instead of using misdirection to provoke interest, 'Toy Story 3' launched a unique viral video campaign with fake, vintage '80s commercials for the toy Lots o' Huggin Bear; Internet-only videos like one with Woody and Buzz on an IM chat; and hilarious '70s-themed interviews with the Ken doll called 'Groovin' With Ken'; as well as his advice series 'Ken's Dating Tips.' All of this excess creative content, as well as a Facebook application that allowed fans to purchase advance tickets through the site and update their friends when doing so, pushed the Pixar flick past $1 billion in sales.

1. 'The Blair Witch Project' (1999)

Before YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and even Friendster, 'The Blair Witch Project' set the standard for guerilla marketing done virally. Shot on a shoestring budget at a time when fake documentaries weren't commonplace, the film gave the impression this was real, actual "found footage." The filmmakers and Artisan Entertainment supported that by building a website that backed this claim; they also circulated the rumors via online message boards. The film terrified audiences all the more when, in the back of their heads, they thought it might just be real.

What Do You Think is the Most Memorable Viral Campaign of All Time?
The Blair Witch Project	1518 (63.0%)
Cloverfield	167 (6.9%)
The Dark Knight	289 (12.0%)
Inception	80 (3.3%)
Paranormal Activity	211 (8.8%)
Snakes on a Plane	80 (3.3%)
Toy Story 3	63 (2.6%)

Check Out Moviefone's Summer Movie Guides:

Action | Comedies |

Chick Flicks and Rom-Coms | Family and Kids | Independents

Watch Behind-the-Scenes Footage of Slimer From 'Ghostbusters' (VIDEO)

Moviefone Staff — 2011-06-03T10:00:00+00:00

For a 'Ghostbusters' fan, discovering that Slimer wasn't real was like finding out Santa Claus didn't exist. (OK, not really, but it was still a bit disheartening.) Luckily, a video featuring vintage tests of the Slimer puppet has just appeared on YouTube and shows us exactly how the ghost was brought to life.

The clip starts with some behind-the-scenes footage of Bill Murray speaking with the actress who was inside the Slimer costume, Robin Shelby. The good stuff starts at around the four-minute mark, as we see everyone's favorite ghost in dress rehearsal. It is pretty entertaining -- and a little creepy -- to watch someone control Slimer's every single facial expression through a gigantic remote control.

Hit the jump to check out the entire video.

[via Cinemablend]

14 Classic Film Noirs to Feed Your 'L.A. Noire' Fix

Sharon Knolle — 2011-05-30T12:30:00+00:00

If you've developed a taste for smoky bars, mysterious murders and cops pounding a dangerous beat thanks to the engrossing 'L.A. Noire,' we've got some essential film noirs for you, including several that inspired the video game.

Let us take you back to 1940s Los Angeles for classics like 'Double Indemnity,' with a double-dealing Barbara Stanwyck, and 'The Big Sleep,' with Humphrey Bogart as jaded P.I. Philip Marlowe. Then we tour the underbelly of overlooked L.A. noirs, where the cops can be more crooked than the criminals. Finally, we leave you with modern classics like 'Heat,' where the City of Angels is now in color, but just as noir.

1. 'Double Indemnity' (1944)
The clinches are steamy, the dialogue snappy, and the passion lethal when insurance salesman Walter Neff (Fred MacMurray) meets greedy trophy wife Phyllis (Barbara Stanwyck), who's soon pitching him on bumping off her husband. Watch a clip.

2. 'Murder My Sweet' (1944)
You can't get more classic than a P.I. in his office after hours, a client who wants his ex found, a gold-digging dame, and lines like "Boys tell me I did a couple of murders. Anything in it?" from our hero. Add in a textbook interrogation scene, numerous bonks on the head, flashbacks and voice-over narration that's been copied and parodied ever since.

3. 'The Big Sleep' (1946)
Humphrey Bogart tries to get to the bottom of a few L.A. murders, two rich and wild sisters, and a mysterious blackmail ring in this gold standard of noirs, based on the book by Raymond Chandler. The mystery's a bit fuzzy, but dig that smoking chemistry between Bogie and future wife Lauren Bacall. Watch a clip where Bogart contends with her man-crazy younger sister.

4. 'Sunset Boulevard' (1950)
Billy Wilder's bitter valentine to Hollywood still stings. Dive in as aspiring screenwriter Joe Gillis (William Holden) recalls how he found himself lying face down in a pool, murdered by a faded movie star.

Floating in a Pool
Sunset Blvd. at MOVIECLIPS.com

5. 'In a Lonely Place' (1950)
Possibly even darker than 'Sunset Boulevard,' with Bogart as a novelist-turned-screenwriter who becomes a murder suspect just as he's beginning a relationship with a beautiful neighbor (noir great Gloria Grahame). Watch a clip where Bogart's mean temper gives Grahame doubts about his innocence.

6. 'Kiss Me Deadly' (1955)
They didn't make 'em like this in the '40s: This is a noir for the atomic age, with dames who aren't just dangerous but psychotic, and a hero (Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer) who plays as rough as any of the heavies as he scours L.A. from flophouses to mansions for answers.

Lesser-Known Noirs: Cops, Crooked and Straight

7. 'He Walked by Night' (1948)
A great police procedural as the cops try to track a disturbed killer who disappears through the L.A. sewer system and could be just about anyone. The entire movie is online at YouTube.

8. 'Private Hell 36' (1954)
Two cops (Steve Cochran and Howard Duff) come across a stash of cash and decide to keep it for themselves. Add in a money-hungry girlfriend (Ida Lupino) and growing mistrust between the partners, and you've got the makings for a nifty little noir, directed by Clint Eastwood fave Don Siegel. Watch a clip.

9. 'Tension' (1949)
The clip below is one of the greatest intros of any noir, with homicide detective Barry Sullivan explaining how he breaks suspects. In this film, he's on a murder case he'd like to pin on a jealous husband, if he can. How he cozies up to the wife is definitely not by the book.

More Modern Classics
10. 'Chinatown' (1974)
In 1930's Los Angeles, private investigator Jack Gittes (Jack Nicholson) finds himself wading knee-deep into dirty politics and family secrets when he gets caught up in the conflicted lives of Evelyn Mulwray (Faye Dunaway) and her powerful father (the director John Huston, as one of noir's most memorable villains). In the clip below, Gittes receives a stern warning from none other than the film's director, Roman Polanski.

Nosy Fella
Chinatown at MOVIECLIPS.com

11. 'To Live and Die in L.A.' (1985)
Sure, it's got a Wang Chung soundtrack, but this sun-soaked noir by 'French Connection' director William Friedkin is just as gritty and bloody as any film in the genre. William Petersen is a Treasury agent willing to go to any lengths to nail counterfeiter Willem Dafoe. Check out this tense wrong-way chase scene on a busy L.A. freeway that begins at Union Station.

12. 'Heat' (1995)
Michael Mann's urban epic of an obsessed cop (Al Pacino) squaring off with a master thief (Robert De Niro) is a masterpiece of style, tension and elegance, with two legendary leads, a top-notch ensemble and a daring daylight robbery in downtown L.A.

13. 'Strange Days' (1995)
Missed this one in the '90s? Go back and savor Kathryn Bigelow's nihilistic vision of L.A. on the verge of the millennium, where a sleazy dealer in high-tech videos (Ralph Fiennes) is sent a copy of a murder. He and his bodyguard (Angela Bassett) try to find the truth, while staying two steps ahead of the killer cops on their trail. Check out the trailer.

14. 'L.A. Confidential' (1997)
Vice, homicide, narcotics, violent interrogations and Irish senior brass are just a few of the things that 'L.A. Noire' has in common with this Oscar winner. Relive the film's brutal "Bloody Christmas" scene, where boozed-up cops decide to get payback on some suspects who supposedly attacked their colleagues.

Want more cops & robbers? Check out our previous lists: The 10 Best Cop Films, Best Prison Break Movies and The 10 Best Heist-Movie Disguises.

Happy 25th Anniversary, 'Top Gun'! Here Are Some Other Unintentionally Homoerotic Movie Scenes

Gabrielle Dunn — 2011-05-17T17:00:00+00:00

The Tom Cruise / Val Kilmer action masterpiece 'Top Gun' turns 25 years old this week. A story of friendship and jet-flying, the movie also became famous for a very different, albeit unintentional, reason: the unexplained and really quite striking homoeroticism of a certain volleyball scene.

In an attempt to show up Kilmer's Iceman, Maverick (Cruise at his delicious prime) decides that playing volleyball against him is a good idea. Shirtless. Sweating. Wearing tight jeans. Sweating. It's ridiculous and sexy and iconic and confusing. Even Kelly McGillis couldn't figure this one out.

It's the quintessential unintentionally gay scene for all time. So, in honor of 'Top Gun,' Moviefone gathered some other scenes that (probably) didn't mean to be quite as homoerotic as they turned out ... in only the best ways possible.

First, the Mother Lode:

'Top Gun': The Volleyball Scene

Some are quite sweet (Sylvester Stallone and Carl Weathers in 'Rocky III,' Sam and Frodo in 'Return of the King') and some are just plain gross (Steve-O and a beer funnel in 'Jackass Number Two'; see below), but they all showcase that gray area between friends and lovers.

Oh, and biceps. Can't forget biceps.

'Predator': Dutch and Dillon's Reunion

'Road House': "I Used to [ahem] Guys Like You in Prison" (NSFW)

'The Road Warrior': Lord Humongous's Outfit

'Jackass Number Two': Butt Chug (Not Safe For Work/Life)
'Rocky III' Beach Training

Some other favorites that we couldn't ignore:

Every arm wrestling scene from 'Over the Top': What's with all the sweating and grunting? Just make out already.

Anything from '300': You're going to war in a Speedo? With those muscles, you should be modeling Abercrombie & Fitch, not spearing people.

Batman's nipple suit in 'Batman Forever': Were the close-ups on Kilmer's butt and package necessary? Come on, Val. 'Top Gun' was enough.

Did we miss any good ones? Tell us your favorite unintentionally homoerotic movie scene!

'Stand by Me' at 25 -- The Stars' Oral History of Their Beloved Classic

Eric Larnick — 2011-03-25T17:00:00+00:00

In celebration of its 25th anniversary, Rob Reiner's seminal classic 'Stand by Me' was released on Blu-ray for the first time this week. The movie, set in the 1950s, tells a bittersweet tale of four adolescent friends who go off into the woods in search of a rumored dead body that may or not be a missing young boy they know. They must also find this body before the bullying Ace Merrill (Kiefer Sutherland) and his gang, the Cobras, get to it. What follows is a poignant coming-of-age tale about childhood adventures in the summer and the pain of growing up.

'Stand by Me' was an immediate success, touching a nerve with audiences young and old. To celebrate the film's 25th anniversary, Moviefone spoke with director Rob Reiner and several of the film's stars: Wil Wheaton (narrator Gordie Lachance), Corey Feldman (oddball Teddy Duchamp) and Casey Siemaszko (the bullying Billy Tessio). They shared their memories on the once-in-a-lifetime Oregon shoot, the adventures they had off-camera and the global impact of 'Stand by Me.'

HOW 'STAND BY ME' CAME TO LIFE

Rob Reiner: The story that it comes from was a book called 'Different Seasons,' a novella called 'The Body' [by Stephen King] and in it these four boys go on this journey together to find a dead body and Gordie was kind of an observer. It was just four of them and Gordie as the observer and I thought, "Oh, maybe if I make Gordie the main guy, the story can really be about him and what he goes through and all these doubts about himself and how he feels his father doesn't love him. Through the help of his friends he starts to feel good about himself and all that, and then he goes on to be a successful writer." Once I hit on that, and I realized Gordie was going to be the focus of it, everything kind of came very clear to me. That's when I got really excited about it.

We didn't know if it was going to be successful or not. I do remember two days before we started shooting, all the financing went away and Norman Lear stepped in at the last second and said "I'll finance the picture." We didn't even have a distributor. We just started making it.

FINDING THE RIGHT CAST

Gordie Lachance (Played by Wil Wheaton)
Wil Wheaton:I was a young actor and there were wonderful people attached to the project already and my agent got me an audition for the movie and I was lucky enough to be cast in the film. But at 12 years old, what drew me to it was that it was there. I didn't have the maturity and sophistication to appreciate what it was back then -- To me as a kid, it felt like a really cool adventure story where from my point of view, our team "won."

Corey Feldman: Will was from L.A. and he was very conservative, a geek if you will. He still is and he'll admit to that. I didn't see him that way, I saw him as quiet and shy.

Reiner: Wil Wheaton was the perfect Gordie. I saw this very sensitive kid who had these doubts about himself and even though he was much more self-assured, he had this sweet, sensitive look to him.

Teddy Duchamp (Played Corey Feldman)
Feldman: For the sake of honesty and to be really brash, what drew me to it was that my parents were my managers and I did what they told me to do. It was, "Hey you have an audition with Rob Reiner." "You mean 'Meathead' from 'All in the Family'? OK cool, what does he want?" -- When I met with Rob, the first thing I thought was that he didn't look like Meathead anymore. He had matured and looked very much like a director. So immediately I walked in the room and took him very seriously. Number two, once I saw the material, I realized this was a bit more heavy than anything I had previously worked on. The subject matter was going to be a bit more difficult and a little more intensive than anything I had done in the past.

Reiner: To be honest, I don't think there was anybody else that could have played the part that Corey Feldman played. We couldn't find anybody else, he came to it with all this kind of anger and he had a very dark side to him and I said "Wow, I don't know what's going on in his life but he's the only kid at that age that could play that."

Wheaton: Of all of us, Corey had spent his whole life in the industry so in some ways he was the veteran kind of guy. He had been on more sets than all of us and had a real history with movies. We all went and saw 'Goonies' together. It came out while we were working on 'Stand by Me' and then 'Explorers,' that River was in, we all went and saw 'Explorers' too. Of the four of us, Corey was kind of the movie star. That was a really weird world for me to be adjacent to.

Vern Tessio (Played Jerry O'Connell)
Reiner: Jerry O'Connell was kind of a schlubby fat kid at the time. (Laughs) Now he's this stud, he's married to Rebecca Romijn, and he's handsome and everything, but he was this schlubby kid. He came in and had no experience at all, but he walked in and he was Vern. He was this kid, and I didn't know if he could do it because he had never acted before but I thought "Well, if he can be like he is in his room, he'll be the perfect Vern."

Wheaton: Jerry was hilarious. Jerry has such a wonderful sense of humor and it was the same when we were kids; he was constantly making us laugh. He was just so funny and so friendly and just so easy to get along with.

Chris Chambers (Played by River Phoenix)
Reiner: River Phoenix was like, you know, he was a young James Dean and I had never seen anybody like this.

Wheaton: I remember being extremely impressed and a little intimidated by River. He was so professional and so intense, he just seemed a lot older than he was. He seemed to have this wisdom around him that was really difficult to quantify at that age. It seemed there was more going on with him. He just seemed cool.

Feldman: River and I had known each other for quite a few years. He had moved out [to L.A.] when he was around 9 or 10 years old, something like that. That was when we met, so we hit it off really early and we became fast friends. Whenever we saw each other on auditions we would hang out or play outside while everyone else was sitting in the room waiting for their shot. When we got to the set, or even when we got to the plane, we were very excited that we were both doing this so we got to hang out together and play together. We were like BFFs immediately and that's how the rest of the shoot went. River and I formed a very close bond for the rest of filming.

Train!
Stand by Me at MOVIECLIPS.com

THE DIRECTING STYLE OF ROB REINER

Feldman: He brought us up two weeks early before the filming got underway and he had us just sit together and live together. We were doing these rehearsal days that kind of became more like actors' workshops. I had never done any type of acting class. A lot of the procedure and technique he was using was new to me. It was very new ground. It was like transferring what you had in a serious actor, into a way that a child would interpret it.

Casey Szimeasko: It was kind of like a summer vacation really even though we were doing this film; it wasn't a big film in the sense that it didn't feel big budget. I don't think they spent much money on it. But it felt more like a summer vacation -- I can't recall ever working like that since then really. He's a great storyteller obviously, I would go to the set just to hang out and watch him work and listen to the stories.

Feldman: He became kind of the father of these four kids. He was like the summer camp counselor for the four of us and we were in out own private world. Everything else that coexisted in and around the set was kind of gravy.

Wheaton: One of my fondest memories of Rob Reiner was that he was always teaching. He could've just said "Do it this way," but he didn't. He explained it to me why I should do it that way. Why it was different, why it was better, why it was a stronger choice. Around that time I sort of became an actor as opposed to being someone who said lines and hit their mark.

Milk Money
Stand by Me at MOVIECLIPS.com

KIEFER SUTHERLAND'S ACE MERRILL AND HIS GANG, THE COBRAS

Wheaton: He plays this character who wouldn't think twice about shanking a guy for no good reason. In fact, at the end of the movie, when he says to River "You're dead," you believe him. All of the other guys, over the last 25 years have related these stories about how afraid of him they were. I don't recall being afraid of him. I don't recall him being overtly menacing or frightening or cruel or anything like his character. I just remember thinking "He's a really good actor." He was one of those guys I just watched and tried to learn from being around.

But I know a lot of the other guys, especially Jerry, were terrified.

Szimeasko: When you're working, you're all playing your parts. There was an intensity when we were working but then they yell "cut," we were a bunch of kids, pretty much -- It was really beautiful in Eugene, Oregon, we had great weather, it was just a fun group of guys and we were driving around a lot. I remember driving down to Portland a couple of times, hitting the bars and clubs and stuff.

Reiner: I don't want to hear about those things! (Laughs) No, I'm kidding. John Cusack used to tell me he and Keifer used to get in trouble and do stuff. I said "John, don't tell me about that, I don't need to know."

THE PIE-EATING CONTEST

Reiner: That scene was amazing because I agonized so much over that. I knew the audience would probably like it, but I was trying to figure out what kind of writer Gordie Lachance becomes. Ultimately, in my mind, he became Stephen King. And Stephen King is a great story teller and most of the stories he tells are supernatural or there's horror involved, and I said "I don't know if this is the writer Gordie becomes" -- But then I thought, he's 12-years-old, this is the kind of story he'd tell when he was 12-years-old and so I went back and forth and finally I agreed to keep it.

Wheaton: I do remember going down to the set while they were filming that because I wanted to see how they were going to put the whole thing together. I thought it was hilarious.

Looking back on the film now, and I just watched the film with Rob and Corey, and Rob says "Look you can really see, it's so clear it's a tube behind the guy's head." And I just thought "Well yeah," but that's great because this is a 12-year-old kid telling the story, that's how it looks in his mind. Of course it's cartoonish and of course it's gross and way over the top. Because that's the way it exists in Gordie's mind.

Reiner: The audience went crazy when they first saw it. And I said we were smart to leave it in.

Watch the infamous pie-eating scene. (NSFW)

"MOVIE CAMP"

Reiner: It was the most glorious summer. It was the most beautiful summer vacation. The way I think of it, it was like movie camp. We were all up there in this idyllic setting, it was beautiful weather, and we were all making this film that we all love.

Sziemasko: I keep thinking about softball games we had on Sundays and we'd have these softball games where it would be old and young men and women, these kids, so it was kind of like a family summer kind of vibe.

Wheaton: My mom organized two white water rafting trips for the cast and crew and we all went, on our day off, white water rafting in the Mackenzie River --

Sziemasko: We ended up at this hippie hot spring where it was clothing optional. So there were all these naked bikers up there and then the crew and these kids. It was kind of interesting. I remember there was this thing called the Country Fair, it was a hippie fair, and I juggled with the Flying Karamazov Brothers.

Reiner: I remember one time driving back from the location with my friend [producer] Andy Scheinman, we were driving and the top was down on his car. He had the radio on and it was The Beatles' 'Strawberry Fields Forever'; we were playing it really loud and we were just having a great time. Just as it said "strawberry fields forever" we drove by a huge strawberry field and it was just that kind of synchronicity. Those types of things would happen and I'd just be like "Wow! This is the coolest thing."

Feldman: [River and I] used to go to these 18-and-under night clubs in Oregon and it was really a coming of age experience for both of us because we were the two oldest and we had a history together, so we really started experimenting on everything at that point. It was this first time I ever drank alcohol, the first time I ever kissed a girl off-screen and it was the first time I smoked marijuana. I did all of these things as part of my coming-of-age experience of 'Stand by Me' and so did River.

I was 12 and turned 13 actually on set. It was an interesting time capsule because we were literally going through these changes on celluloid, in real life.

Wheaton: I was sad when it was over because we were all going back to our regular lives. Things were different on location. It wasn't "real life" on location.

Leeches
Stand by Me at MOVIECLIPS.com

MEMORIES OF THE FILM'S RELEASE

Reiner: I was over in London at the time and when we were working on the campaign, I was filming 'Princess Bride,' and the picture came out in America. I was so nervous about it because it was the film that was most reflective of my sensibility of the films I've done. If it did well I would say "OK this validates me and people are interested in the kinds of film I want to make," and I thought "If it doesn't do well, I don't know what I'm going to do because this is the kind of thing I want to do."

Sziemasko: I was in Los Angeles opening weekend, they only opened in a few theaters on the coast, and I was in Westwood and I was like, "Jeez, man, what is this line around the corner," and I said "Oh my God, it's 'Stand by Me.'"

Wheaton: Back in those days it was really common to release a movie in about five markets and generate word of mouth, some excitement for the movie. So when it went into wider release, more people knew about it -- I remember when we were working on the movie, there was this kind of ambient feeling that we were working on something special, that we were working on something the really mattered, something we could be proud of. I, just being young and naive, took for granted that it was successful. I didn't know how lucky.

Reiner: When it became a success, in those days you didn't have to do $20, $25 million the first weekend, I don't think we ever made more than $3.5 million any weekend but it just stayed in theaters forever -- We just never dropped and people loved it.

LOOKING BACK 25 YEARS LATER

Reiner: The thing that always strikes me is that people love this movie and they say "It reminds me of my childhood, exactly what I went through as a kid." And I say "Were you from a rural area?" And they'd say "No, no I lived in the city" It doesn't matter if you're from a small town or a city or the country, those feelings are universal and the same.

Feldman: As a kid, I don't think I really got it. I got what I was doing, I got what my character was about, I related to the character -- I remember when it was released in the theaters, it would always be people in their 30s and 40s. It would be like "Oh my God, this is the most amazing movie ever!" And me as a kid I would be like "It's OK, I mean you know, 'The Goonies' is cooler." I didn't watch the film for probably about ten years. But I went back and showed it to my kid, probably right after summer, only like 4 or 5 months ago. Going back I showed it to him for the first time, he is six now. Outside of the bad language there is really not too much context in there that is not suitable for children -- I really got so much out of it, more than I did as a kid. I finally understood everything.

Wheaton: A few years ago, my wife and I took our kids up to Oregon and we went to Brownsville where we filmed it because I wanted to see what it looked like. We walked into the visitors center and in the visitors center they have a map that they give away of all our locations. They had this map in five languages. It was in Dutch, in Japanese, English, I think German, all these different languages. I was talking to a woman in one of the restaurants there and she said people come from around the world to go to Brownsville. To see where 'Stand By Me' was made. It is a fairly major tourist destination and that just blew my mind.

Reiner: To me, it was my most important film at the time because it validated my thoughts about what kind of entertainment people would like and it was the kind of stuff I liked. I always look back at it as the most important film for me because it was really a reflection of my sensibility.

Goodbye to Childhood
Stand by Me at MOVIECLIPS.com

Feldman: At that time for those four kids, it seemed so important and seemed so heavy. But it was all really just another weekend. It was really just another play-adventure, you know? When you look at it as an adult, you look back on it saying "those were the most special times." I think a lot of people are going to rediscover this film with this new release and I think they are going to go back and watch it as adults and go "Oh my god, I'm getting something completely different from it, then I did then."

Wheaton: I went to Japan in 1990 to promote 'Toy Soldiers.' Sean Astin and I went over for a big press tour. We did get out a little bit and I did get to see Tokyo a little bit and we went to a theater where 'Stand by Me' was being produced as a play. They weren't producing Stephen King's 'The Body,' which 'Stand by Me' originated from, they were producing 'Stand by Me' the play. And I actually got to go and meet the actors. I got to meet the kid who was playing me and take pictures with them. I thought it was so cool that this film, at the time I had done it five years before, was translated into another language, into another culture and then produced as a play. That was pretty awesome.

Cinematical Seven: Girl Gangs That Kick Ass

Alison Nastasi — 2011-03-24T22:00:00+00:00

As the reviews for Zack Snyder's 'Sucker Punch' come rolling in (you can read Todd Gilchrist's take on it over here) the movie about a young girl who creates a fantasy world to escape from her dark reality got us thinking. Babydoll, played by Emily Browning, is the lead player whose sanity is in question. She empowers herself with a team of ass-kicking friends to help her find her way through things. Girl gangs who buck the system and take control aren't a new phenomenon, but as Moviefone's Gary Susman asked the other day, "Why aren't there more movies like this?"

It'd be an easy task to come up with a list of male-dominated movies where groups of guys bond through a shared experience -- some through the trauma and exhilaration of violence, and some that actually manage to be meaningful. The female spectrum of films like this does exist -- and while some revolve around a romantic plotline, others are just about a bunch of woman trying to find themselves and beating incredible odds to do it. Whether the gang arrives at that juncture through an exploitation, comedy, or documentary lens isn't as important as the journey. Here are seven films that take a variety of approaches and kick some serious ass along the way.

'Foxfire'

Before Angelina Jolie became part of the crypto-Hollywood nightmare known as Brangelina, she was the leader of the pack in 1996's 'Foxfire' based on the Joyce Carol Oates novel. Jolie plays Legs, a drifter who gets under the skin of a group of high school girls, some who are facing drug problems, abuse and bullying. The girls form a bond when they take the reigns after Legs encourages them to stand up to a teacher that's been sexually harassing them. They get suspended from school for several weeks after threatening to "snip his little nuts off with toenail clippers," and run wild in the woods, setting up a clubhouse in an abandoned cottage. Their bravado earns them a serious rep and helps other girls empower themselves too. It's a pretty over-wrought affair -- the part erotic, part ridiculous topless tattoo scene helps confirm that -- but the film presents some important girl-centric issues with lots of spirit and a healthy dose of romanticism (there are lots of candles, even).

'The Craft'

On a less serious, but fun note there's Andrew Fleming's 'The Craft,' which follows four high school girls who transform their self-hatred, insecurity and conflict into something sexy-bitchy-cool by way of witchcraft. The racist popular girl, the jerky jock and the abusive dad all get what's coming to them when new girl Sarah rolls into town and hooks up with three awkward Catholic school students who claim to be witches. They need a fourth to summon the powers of Mother Nature and Sarah happens to be a "natural witch." The mojo is so strong that the girls get everything they ask for, x1000. Of course, things get a little loco. Also, there's nothing more kickass than watching Fairuza Balk's mouth open up like the Alien Queen during a feeding frenzy while she enacts her revenge. Jealous!

'Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!'

Russ Meyer's bodacious bad girl flick is the ultimate girl gang movie. The busty babes of Meyer's universe prove that you can be pretty and pretty pissed off, not letting anyone stand in your way. Say what you like about 'Faster Pussycat's' kitschy vulgarity, but tough gang leader Varla -- played by the glorious Tura Satana, who we recently lost -- talks trash like it's poetry and gets you gunning for the ultraviolence. Roger Ebert -- a close friend of Meyer's and co-writer for his 'Beyond the Valley of the Dolls' -- described why some women might like this movie best when he said:

"Take away all the jokes, the elaborate camera angles, the violence, the action and the sex, and what remains is the quintessential Russ Meyer image: a towering woman with enormous breasts, who dominates all the men around her, demands sexual satisfaction and casts off men in the same way that, in mainstream sexual fantasies, men cast aside women."

Power, baby.

'The Runaways'

Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning pop pills, pee on guitars, make out with girls and kick all kinds of ass while on stage performing as Joan Jett and Cherie Currie -- two members of the 70's band, The Runaways. The teenage girl group is brought together through their shared love of music and their equally miserable lives. They're like feral children set free on the road, and things stay wild. The girls have to contend with bottles being thrown at them, a verbally abusive and sadistic manager and male rocker machismo while on tour. Whatever gets dished out, the ladies take it like pros and prove they can party like rock stars in the process.

'The Heroic Trio'

Some Hong Kong hero dramas relegate their female players to forgettable supporting roles, but 1992's 'The Heroic Trio' places its ladies front and center. The movie's been described as kind of a superhero chick flick, but when you get Michelle Yeoh, Anita Mui and Maggie Cheung together kicking ass, we're not talking about something that would make an Oprah top ten list. Throw into the mix all the Hong Kong cinema goodies that make these movies so great: wire-fu, stunning cinematography and choreography, sexy weapons, hyperbolic action and more. It's a live-action comic book that combines romance, gore, visual thrills and the fantastical universe of well-drawn female characters together better than many American superhero sagas.

'Nine to Five'

Desk job rage and screwball shenanigans abound in the 1980 comedy, 'Nine to Five.' Lily Tomlin is an efficient office manager who gets unfairly passed over for promotion. Jane Fonda is a recently divorced housewife trying to pick up the pieces and move on. Dolly Parton is the boss's secretary who no one likes because they think she's having an affair with him. The boss is the bad guy, played by Dabney Coleman, who is indeed a total cad. After repeated humiliations, the women join forces and start fantasizing about what it would be like to kill him off. This turns into an actual kidnapping plot that wins them the rights they deserve. As our own Jenni Miller points out, " ... This comedy has at its core the hard-working, bad-ass spirit that these three women have out the wazoo in real life too."

'Hell on Wheels'

Bob Ray's 2007 documentary about the Texas roller derby community is about the bumps and bruises of the game, but also the intricacies of friendships and women struggling to carve a place of their own in the business world. As four derby captains band together to build their own all-female run league, squabbles, labor disputes, and lots of drama threatens to screw things up. It's an inspiring celebration of bone-crunching girl power that our own Jette Kernion describes as "a fascinating story."

Which 'Star Wars' Film Will Work Best in 3D?

Todd Gilchrist — 2011-03-10T12:00:00+00:00

Last week, Lucasfilm finally announced an official date for the release of 'Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace' in 3D: Feb. 10, 2012. Whether you love or hate the prequels, 'The Phantom Menace' is the first film in the series -- especially for fans who consider them, and not the original trilogy, generational benchmarks -- and it is natural for Lucas and 20th Century Fox to start at the beginning of the saga. But the question isn't whether the prequels should be the trilogy to initiate this cinematic re-release, it's whether they're the films that will truly make the best use of 3D; no matter which order you choose to see these six films, some of them feature scenes and sequences which will simply look better when converted into three dimensions.

So in descending order from worst to best, we've decided to put together a countdown of which 'Star Wars' films will make the best use of 3D overall, and which scenes in those films will (presumably) look the best once you're in the theater with your glasses on, ready to finally be truly immersed in the world George Lucas created such a long time ago.

6. 'Episode II: Attack of the Clones'
Thanks in no small part to George Lucas's affection for cars and racing, many of the sequences in all of the films should be fairly dynamic in 3D, simply because of the way in which they were originally shot. But the interesting thing about 3D is that it is meant to work in the same way as our natural vision, and pretty much anything that's more than 50 feet away from us is no longer in 3D, even in the real world. Because of that, and counterintuitive as it sounds, a lot of the films' more expansive landscapes, even ones in the vastness of space, may not look as dynamic as audiences may expect. And it's because of this -- the fact that as awesome as the chase on Coruscant is -- that much of 'Episode II' will probably not gain a whole lot from the conversion process. That said, Yoda's debut as a fighter equal to his less diminutive protégés (much less opponents) should be a pretty amazing sequence to behold.

5. 'Star Wars'
Because it's an easier process to dimensionalize computer-animated (and digitally-photographed) images than ones created in-camera on celluloid, the actual conversion process may itself be an issue for Lucas when he takes on the original trilogy. The 1977 original is by far the least visually dynamic of all of the films, which may actually work in its favor. There's more immediate recognition of spatial dimensions there than in the films where there are completely fantastical, computer-animated worlds from the top of the screen to bottom - but it's also a film which may ultimately seem the most perfunctory in its 3D execution. That said, the scenes inside the Death Star - such as Obi-Wan's infiltration of the cavernous room where the controls for the tractor beam are located - should be impressive, and it seems as if all fans have been imagining the trench-run finale in 3D all their lives, making it the showcase of this film as a whole.

4. 'Episode I: The Phantom Menace'
There are three sequences in particular that should truly benefit from 3D conversion in 'Episode I:' the underwater journey to Otoh Gunga, where Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan battle sea creatures and the obnoxious personality of Jar-Jar Binks; the pod race where Anakin Skywalker decimates his opponent against a backdrop of farting aliens and two-headed race commentators; and the Duel of the Fates, where Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan face down Darth Maul. The pod race seems most readily compatible with 3D - just imagine being behind the wheel of Anakin's vehicle as he races towards the horizon - but all three should look good, even if, again, you do have to endure an unhealthy dose of Jar-Jar to fully experience them.

3. 'Return of the Jedi'
I was originally tempted to put this film at Number One simply because I've been ducking trees during the speeder bike sequence since the film was originally released in theaters in 1983, but no matter where it is on this list, it should look pretty amazing, from the opening scenes on Tatooine where Luke fights the Rancor and Han hangs dangerously over the Sarlacc pit, to the final showdown between Luke and Darth Vader in the Emperor's throne room. The fact that this will be the last film shown is a convenient coincidence, because it features an abundance of natural foliage that will presumably be something of a nightmare to convert into 3D, but assuming that Lucasfilm has been working on the process for several years, it should look every bit as believable and immersive as the landscapes of Pandora in 'Avatar' - especially if they get those POV shots in the speeder bike sequence right.

2. 'Episode III: Revenge of the Sith'
In spite of the fact that space is actually going to be kind of an issue for the conversion of the series - to dimensionalize stars and other distant objects will only undermine the scope of the images (too much dimensionalization of background details has a miniaturizing effect) - I'm really looking forward to seeing the opening sequence of 'Episode III' because of the way that Lucas shot the action. Not only is the space footage shot in a way that maximizes the frame and the effect of 3D, but it builds to a terrific visual gauntlet that pays off with a shot of a massive space cruiser flying directly at the camera. Meanwhile, the battle between Obi-Wan and General Grievous is itself a fairly epic set piece, and of course the final showdown between Obi-Wan and Anakin should look impressive as well.

1. 'The Empire Strikes Back'
It's possible I found the most sequences in any 'Star Wars' film here because I know Irvin Kershner's installment best, but just think about the possibilities: the snowy landscapes of Hoth, the AT-AT attack on the rebel stronghold, the slimy textures and twisting greenery of Dagobah, the amazing, amazing, asteroid field chase, the endless pristine hallways of Cloud City, and of course, the battle in its bowels between Luke and Darth Vader. Imagine how awesome it will look for Luke to truly be perched dangerously on a ledge thousands of feet above what seems like certain death as Vader offers his opponent some harsh truths about his identity. It's not without good reason that fans of the series think this film has everything - except of course a conclusive ending - and its variety of settings and their consistent suitability for dimensionalization should make it the most highly-anticipated of all of the 'Star Wars' films, but also offer a payoff that's well worth the wait.

More: 10 'Star Wars' Scenes We Want to See in 3D (And 5 We Don't)

Shelf Life: E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial

Todd Gilchrist — 2011-03-08T20:00:00+00:00

On Friday, March 11, Disney is releasing 'Mars Needs Moms,' a film which, while perhaps unfortunately titled, is actually a terrific piece of family-friendly science fiction. More than just being fun and thrilling and sentimental in all the right places, the film recalls the heyday of Amblin Entertainment, when Steven Spielberg and his colleagues were firing on all pistons creating entertainment that had not just populist appeal or technical precision but real sophistication - a level of intelligence and intensity that flirts at the edge of being too mature, but never quite goes too far.

As such, it seemed appropriate to pick a title for this week's column that connected 'Mars Needs Moms' with the kinds of movies that it's clearly trying to evoke, if not outright emulate. And even though movies like Joe Dante's 'The Explorers' or Randall Kleiser's 'Flight of the Navigator' share a lot more immediate conceptual similarities to Simon Wells' forthcoming film, it was unavoidable that 'E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial,' Spielberg's watershed family film, be this week's choice.

The Facts: Released June 11, 1982, 'E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial' was an immediate commercial and critical success, earning more money than any other film in history at the time of its initial theatrical run and amassing a cumulative total of $792 million. The film was nominated for nine Academy Awards, including Best Picture, and won four, for Best Score (by John Williams), Best Sound, Best Sound Effects, and Best Visual Effects. It was also nominated for 12 BAFTA awards and five Golden Globes, and won Best Picture honors from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, the Kansas City Film Critics Circle, and the Boston Society of Film Critics. Additionally, the film enjoys a 98 percent fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

What Still Works: Having last seen the film when it was re-released in 2002, not only is it still entertaining, it's just as emotionally powerful as ever. Spielberg, drawing upon his own experiences as a child of divorce, creates a resonant tale of a kid looking for someone or some thing to take the place of his absent father, and finds it in a creature that not only can he take care of and help, but when it's necessary, can take care of him. There's a certain kind of brilliance to the very design of E.T., which both resembles a small child and an old man, conveying parental wisdom and youthful optimism that Elliot needs in equal measures.

The opening scenes ring with a certain kind of suburban authenticity that few other filmmakers successfully communicate; they tend either to whitewash childhood and adolescence or exploit its traumas, but Spielberg creates a recognizable world that is populated by people and relationships that seem familiar, but at the same time have a kind of stylization that elevates the story's dramatic intensity. (One can only imagine what the smoke budget must have been on the film.) The rooms in Eliot's house are cluttered and unclean, lived-in and believably blue-collar, and carry the imprint of a family that clearly loves one another but can't quite come together.

On top of the look and design of the family and their environment, Spielberg finds countless opportunities to imprint little flourishes that create an emotional veracity and define character in ways that are almost subliminal. Elliot's introduction, his first line of dialogue, is a whimper of a comment about wanting to join his brother and his brother's friends in the board game they're playing; the tone and tenor of his offer perfectly reflects his status as an aspiring member of his brother's inner circle, and at the same time a middle child hanger-on who is too old to play with his sister but not mature enough to play with Michael.

Similarly, Mary's response to Elliot's "penis breath" comment is one more of bemusement than anger, and it hints at her fragile emotional state in the wake of her husband leaving or her own lack of maturity and/or offers a springboard for the rest of her behavior in the film. Meanwhile, one of my favorite shots is of the morning after Elliot introduced Michael to E.T. and he sits pondering the discovery as he rides on a school bus that is otherwise filled with playing students, throwing paper and carrying on obliviously in a world that to them doesn't yet possess larger, unseen forces. It's the duality of this sort of need to grow up, to mature, and yet the shock and excitement of discovering something that isn't taken seriously by adults, which gives the film its power.

This is the film which painted (however fairly or unfairly) Spielberg as a filmmaker who could not only speak to, but speak for kids; it's telling that with the exception of Mary, their mother (prior to the end sequences with the military), we don't see the faces of any of the adults in the adolescent characters' worlds. And later, in the scene in which Eliot and E.T. are being examined by the team of military doctors, theirs are the only two characters that are not encased in plastic or otherwise obstructed - only they can communicate with one another, while the rest of the world is outside their special, unspoken bond.

Finally, the film is a technical marvel, taking full advantage of the lessons Spielberg learned on 'Jaws' with its broken shark, as he withholds direct images of E.T. until it's important and emotional for him to do so. Allen Daviau does some absolutely breathtaking things with light and shadow, even in relatively neutral moments such as when Eliot is introducing E.T. to his Star Wars action figures in his bedroom. But as a whole the film is elegant and moody and gorgeously involving because not everything is shot in a flat or clear way - unclear meaning shadowy but logically comprehensible, creating a palpable sense of the secrecy that Eliot, Michael and Gertie share over E.T.'s existence.

What Doesn't Work: Spielberg has shown a boundless appetite for sentimentality, and while I think he mostly modulates it well in this film, he goes slightly overboard at the end, if only with one small detail: the rainbow that lights up the sky when the alien mothership takes off into the cosmos. Not as bad but also not unlike that horrible, horrible digital dissolve that transitions from Matt Damon into "old" Private Ryan in 'Saving Private Ryan,' it's one gesture too many, and it spoils the already operatic but almost perfectly balanced pitch of emotion and story that Spielberg already achieved with the farewell scene. (By comparison, a small twinkle as it leaves Earth's atmosphere would have been more than enough.)

Otherwise, the only other minor complaint I have is that - whether it's Spielberg or John Williams' fault - there's absolutely no breathing room at all in the film to interpret or feel without some guidance from the music. The score seems to literally fill in every single moment of the film, and goes from one piece to the next as each scene finishes, and it becomes slightly cloying, at least once you begin to notice it. At the same time, Williams obviously does some brilliant work here - as similar to his 'Star Wars' and 'Raider of the Lost Ark' music as it is - but its overall impact could potentially be stronger if it was used more sparingly.

What's The Verdict: 'E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial' holds up and deserves all of the accolades and success it has received. Few films have ever used such sophistication to so simply capture the essence of childhood, and although Spielberg certainly had established himself as a force to be reckoned with prior to its release, he became canonized with this film in a legitimate and again, deserving way. The movie is funny and sweet and scary and hugely emotionally involving, and it's with good reason that so many other filmmakers attempted to recreate, imitate or just plain rip off his inspirational creativity in the decades to follow. In short, 'E.T.' is a true-blue masterpiece, and it's a film that will continue to entertain and inspire for generations to come.

'Pretty in Pink' Cast: Where Are They Now?

Eric Larnick — 2011-03-03T13:30:00+00:00

Twenty-five years ago this week, 'Pretty in Pink' hit theaters, digging its hooks into teens across the country. The film not only stands as one of the great teen romances, it's also an iconic '80s film and a creative peak for its mastermind John Hughes and his red-headed, feminine muse, Molly Ringwald.

In 'Pretty in Pink,' Ringwald stars as Andie Walsh, an independent-minded outcast in high school who begins a tempestuous relationship with Blane (Andrew MccCarthy), a rich, preppy boy who may not be man enough to endure the taunts of his snobbish friends for dating a poor girl. Caught in the middle is Jon Cryer's Duckie, who loves Andie with all his heart, even if she doesn't return the feeling.

To celebrate the movie's 25th anniversary, we thought we'd find out Where Are They Now: The Stars of 'Pretty in Pink.' (Very special thanks to 'You Couldn't Ignore Me If You Tried,' Susannah Gora's excellent book about the Brat Pack, now out in paperback.)

Molly Ringwald (Andie Walsh)
Then: 'Pink' marked Ringwald's third team-up with John Hughes, and she was firmly established as the young actress of her time. She got her start as a child actor in theater productions and commercials before landing a supporting part on 'The Facts of Life.' Her breakout film role came in Hughes' first directorial effort, 'Sixteen Candles.' She got the part because, according to her, "He just picked my head shot out and put it on his board above where he was writing about this girl. So when it came time to cast that part ... he said, 'I want to meet that girl.'" The surprise hit was followed by 'The Breakfast Club.' At the time, Hughes approached Justine Bateman then Jodie Foster for the part of Andie; when neither woman's schedule allowed her to take the part, Ringwald, who had become a close friend of Hughes, stepped in.

Now: Molly Ringwald and John Hughes had a unique bond, perhaps spurred on by sharing a birthday, but 'Pink' marked the end of the Ringwald-Hughes cycle of films. The actress revealed that Hughes stopped talking to her, as he took the end of the partnership personally. Ringwald turned down parts in 'Pretty Woman' and 'Ghost' and relocated to France, where she performed in French-language cinema. She eventually moved back to the States, concentrating on theater, appearing on Broadway, off-Broadway, national tours and London's West End, occasionally popping up in TV movies. Since 2008, she has appeared on ABC Family's 'The Life of an American Teenager,' completing the circle of life by playing the young female protagonist's mother.

Girls on Film: Molly Ringwald and the Modern Teen Heroine

Andrew McCarthy (Blane)
Then: McCarthy made his film debut in 1982's coming-of-age story 'Class.' In 1985 he debuted on Broadway and starred in the post-college drama about the problems of pretty people, 'St. Elmo's Fire,' earning him a spot in that most elite of '80s cliques, the Brat Pack. He was cast as Blane, whose strong lips made him the object of Andie's affection and immediately earned the scorn of Duckie for having a major appliance for a name.

Now: McCarthy became a Hollywood dreamboat, scoring leads in youth-oriented fare like 'Mannequin,' 'Less Than Zero' and 'Weekend at Bernie's,' the most impossible premise for a movie ever. Since then, he has bounced between movies, television and Broadway, working consistently in all three fields. When he's not busy doing all that, he acts as a travel writer sharing his thoughts and experiences from around the world, even recently being named the Society of American Travel Writers Journalist of the Year.

Jon Cryer (Duckie)
Then: Born into an acting family, Cryer was an alumnus of the long-standing Stagedoor Manor Performing Arts Training Center summer camp in New York, then moved to London to study acting at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts. He made his screen debut as the lead of the teen romantic comedy 'No Small Chance' in 1984. Two years later, he was cast as Duckie, Andie's best friend who is hopelessly in love with her. The part was originally offered to Anthony Michael Hall (who rejected it, trying to shed his geek image) then went to Robert Downey Jr., but scheduling conflicts got in the way.

Now: Duckie has the unfortunate distinction of being maybe the only nice guy who doesn't get the girl at the end of a movie. Originally, Hughes had planned for Duckie and Andie to get together, but for whatever reason, test audiences hated that ending (Ringwald was disappointed that Downey had to bow out, as she felt she and Cryer never had the romantic chemistry she had with RDJ). Producers made Hughes re-shoot the ending, and Duckie kind of turned into the doormat of '80s teen-movie lore. Cryer followed 'Pink' up with the notorious bomb 'Superman IV: The Quest for Peace.' More bad luck followed for the next decade, as Cryer starred in three high-profile sitcoms that were all canceled after one season. In perhaps the cruelest twist of fate, Cryer's biggest post-'Pink' successes -- 'Hot Shots!' and the CBS comedy 'Two and a Half Men' - came by co-starring with raving egomaniac Charlie Sheen. For the sake of Cryer's career, Sheen better not go to jail / become a public pariah / die.

James Spader (Steff)
Then: The Boston-born Spader shocked his parents by dropping out of high school to pursue acting in New York. He studied at the Michael Chekhov School while holding down a variety of day jobs. His first high-profile gigs came in the Brooke Shields romance 'Endless Love' and the teen-gang drama 'Tuff Turf,' with Robert Downey Jr. 'Pink' marked his breakthrough, playing Steff, quite possibly the most gleefully jerkish bad guy in an '80s movie.

Now: With Spader unleashing the full power of his d-bag prowess in 'Pink,' he went on to become one of the best sleazy character actors of all time -- meant as a compliment -- in films like 'Less Than Zero,' Wolf,' David Cronenberg's 'Crash' and his critical breakout 'sex, lies and videotape.' Spader later moved to television, where he won three Emmys for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series for his part as Alan Shore on 'The Practice'/'Boston Legal.' He recently completed a Broadway run starring in David Mamet's 'Race.'

Annie Potts (Iona)
Then: Born in Nashville, Potts pursedtheater arts in college and by 'Pink' was already to known to movie fans as Janine, the best secretary ever, in 'Ghostbusters.' For the part of Iona, Andie's wise older friend who gives her advice on how to get through high school, Hughes originally wanted Angelica Huston; when he couldn't get her, he, like Dr. Venkman and everyone else, was transfixed by Potts' bug eyes.

Now: Annie, we're sorry about the bug-eyes thing. Just a few months after 'Pink''s release, Potts would be featured in the hit television show 'Designing Women,' which ran for seven years. Potts also appeared in 'Ghostbusters 2,' voiced Bo Peep in 'Toy Story' and its first sequel, then took the lead on another TV show, the Lifetime series 'Any Day Now.' She is currently performing in the Tony Award-winning play 'God of Carnage.'

Harry Dean Stanton (Jack Walsh)
Then: At the time of the movie, the veteran character actor Stanton was already 59, so we'll give a brief recap, highlighting only the most awesome moments. He studied journalism and radio arts at the University of Kentucky, studied acting at the Pasadena Playhouse, was a Navy sailor in WWII, and began building up his long acting resume appearing movies like 'How the West Was Won,' 'Cool Hand Luke,' 'Two-Lane Blacktop,' 'Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid,' 'The Godfather Part II,' 'Alien,' 'Escape from New York' and 'Repo Man.' His breakthrough lead role came with 1984's Cannes Film Festival sensation, 'Paris, Texas,' one of the greatest movies ever made. Roger Ebert said, "No movie featuring either Harry Dean Stanton or M. Emmet Walsh in a supporting role can be altogether bad" (with Ebert conceding 'Dream a Little Dream' to be the lone exception). His turn as the poor and depressed father of Andie in 'Pretty in Pink' gave the teen-movie genre one of its most nuanced parent roles.

Now: After 'Pink,' Stanton became a member of David Lynch's troupe of recurring actors, appearing in 'Wild at Heart,' 'Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me,' 'The Straight Story' and 'Inland Empire.' He also stars on the hit HBO series 'Big Love' and, in his spare time, occasionally tours with country music acts. Basically, he's one of the coolest guys alive.

Alexa Kenin (Jena Hoeman)
Then: Hailing from New York City, Kenin got her start as a child actor and became something of a veteran of the 'ABC Afterschool Special,' appearing in five episodes over six years. She starred as "Dana" in the 1980 teen girl classic 'Little Darlings.' She continued working in television and off-Broadway productions until she was cast as Andie's friend Alexa.

Now: Sadly, only a few months before the release of the film, Kenin was murdered by her boyfriend in their Manhattan apartment. 'Pink,' along with the movie 'Animal Behavior,' was released posthumously. During 'Pink''s credits, a dedication appears to her and Bruce Weintraub, the film's production designer, who died of AIDS shortly before its release.

Kate Vernon (Benny Hanson)
Then: Daughter of John Vernon (aka "Dean Wormer" in 'Animal House'), the blond actress first came to fame with a two-year stint on the CBS soap opera 'Falcon Crest,' as one of Lorenzo Llamas's many wives. After her character was killed off in a tragic fall, she moved to movies, landing the part of the stuck-up witch who makes life hell for Andie because: 1) Andie is poor; 2) she realizes she is Steff's sloppy seconds after he is rejected by Andie; and 3) she's upset that she has a boy's name and her boyfriend has a girl's name.

Now: Vernon never really had another movie hit as big as 'Pink,' but she has fared much better on television, with reoccurring roles on 'Who's the Boss?', 'L.A. Law' and 'Nash Bridges.' Her biggest role was on the revamped 'Battlestar Galactica' as Ellen Tigh, a central figure in the series' paranoid Cylon mystery. We can't tell you anything more without revealing, like, 37 spoilers.

Gina Gershon (Trombley)
Then: The L.A.-born beauty attended Beverly Hills High School (yeah, the 90210 one) with Lenny Kravitz, studied drama at NYU, then worked with David Mamet at the Circle in the Square Professional Theater School. She did two professional plays and had a part in the music video for The Cars' 'Hello Again' before landing a small part in 'Pink,' as another tormentor of Andie's. Her most notable scene is the gym class game of volleyball that turns nasty.

Now: 'Pink' was Gershon's big break, leading to her continued working to this day. Immediately after the film, she starred in 'Red Heat' alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger and 'Cocktail' with Tom Cruise. She went on to recurring parts in 'Melrose Place,' 'Curb Your Enthusiasm' and 'Rescue Me,' appeared in the mega-hit 'Face/Off,' and starred in three Broadway revivals ('Cabaret,' 'Boeing-Boeing,' and 'Bye Bye Birdie'). She's become a gay icon thanks to her parts in the lesbian crime caper 'Bound' and the notorious camp classic 'Showgirls.' Gershon has also parlayed her talents into the music world, playing the Jew's harp on recordings with Scissor Sisters, Paul Simon and Herbie Hancock.

Andrew "Dice" Clay ('Dice-Man')
Then: He's one of the most notorious stand-ups of all time, but when he appeared in 'Pretty in Pink,' he hadn't yet achieved infamy. "Dice" got his start doing comedy in local Brooklyn clubs, before moving up to Manhattan, then Los Angeles, where he became a regular at the world-famous Comedy Store. Aside from a few appearances on 'Diff'rent Strokes' and a bit part in the Johnny Depp sex comedy 'Private Resort,' 'Pink' gave Clay his first national exposure, playing a nightclub bouncer who tells Cryer, "Love's a b*tch, Duck."

Now: Clay next appeared with a two-year stint on the Michael Mann-produced police drama 'Crime Story,' but quit to pursue comedy full-time. His big break was a set at a Rodney Dangerfield-hosted show that landed him his first HBO solo special. In 1990, he released two albums, 'Dice' and 'The Day the Laughter Died,' became the only comedian in history to sell out Madison Square Garden two nights in a row, and starred in the high-profile bomb 'The Adventures of Ford Fairlane.' Since then, the hype and furor has died down. He still pops up every few years, be it on 'The Opie and Anthony Show' or 'Celebrity Apprentice' to garner some comeback publicity.

Dweezil Zappa (Simon)
Then: The son of the prolific, avant-garde musician Frank Zappa, Dweezil was born Ian Donald Calvin Euclid and later changed his name to Dweezil, his father's nickname for him that was based on his mother's pinky toe (obviously). Along with his brother and sisters, he pursued music at a very early age, becoming proficient in guitar. He was dating Ringwald at the time of filming and scored a tiny part as her goofy burnout schoolmate.

Now: Dweezil continued pursuing music, recording with such notable luminaries as the Fat Boys, Don Johnson and Winger. He served as an MTV VJ in the late '80s but was fired for badmouthing the network. Starting in the '90s, Dweezil planted himself firmly in the eye of the "alternative" hurricane, recording the theme song to Ben Stiller's sketch show; voicing a character on the cult cartoon 'Duckman'; hosting a late-night show with his brother Ahmet on the USA Network; recording music and hosting a cooking show with then-girlfriend Lisa Loeb on the Food Network; recording with "Weird" Al Yankovic; and working on a 75-minute music project entitled 'What the Hell Was I Thinking?' featuring guitar work from Van Halen, Brian May and Angus Young (it has yet to be released). Currently he tours nationally with the 'Zappa Playing Zappa' tour, in which he exposes young audiences to the music of his late father.

Kristy Swanson (Duckette)
Then: Swanson got her start in commercials and TV guest spots before landing two simultaneous 1986 John Hughes parts. In 'Ferris Bueller's Day Off,' she's the student who tells Ben Stein that her best friend's sister's boyfriend's brother's girlfriend heard from this guy who knows this kid who's going with the girl who saw Ferris pass out at 31 Flavors the night before. (It was pretty serious, we guess.) In 'Pink' she had the silent, 10-second part of Duckette, a blonde beauty who shows up out of nowhere at the senior prom, batting her eyes at Duckie. Because after fighting with Steff, getting picked on at school and letting the girl of his dreams go off with another man, he needed something good to happen for him.

Now: After 'Pink,' she continued acting in television, then landed the title part in 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer.' Even though 'Buffy' went on to become a highly influential, beloved and critically acclaimed television franchise, the original movie bombed, so Swanson did not get to enjoy any of it. She appeared in several other '90s films, like 'The Chase,' 'Higher Learning' and 'Big Daddy.' She moved back into television work, became a spokesperson for the Medifast Diet, posed for Playboy and won the reality competition 'Skating With the Stars.' She later married her skating partner and currently has one child with him.

Howard Deutch (director)
Then: Deutch got his start directing music videos before making 'Pink,' his feature film debut. 'Pink' also marked the start of a three-year collaboration with John Hughes, as he directed Hughes' next two scripts, 'Some Kind of Wonderful' and 'The Great Outdoors.'

Now: Without editorializing too much, after his team-up with Hughes ended, Deutch went to make some of the worst comedies of all time: 'Grumpier Old Men,' 'The Odd Couple Two,' 'The Whole Ten Yards,' and 'My Best Friend's Girl' (we guess he got tired of doing sequels). On the bright side, he met Lea Thompson on the set of 'Some Kind of Wonderful' and later married her. And she still looks great -- good for him!

John Hughes (writer/producer)
Then: By 'Pretty in Pink''s release, Hughes had already left his mark on the decade. He had scripted 'National Lampoon's Vacation'; he wrote and directed 'Sixteen Candles,' 'Weird Science' and 'The Breakfast Club'; and simultaneously made 'Ferris Bueller' and 'Pink.'

Now: Unhappy with the changes that had been made to 'Pink''s ending, Hughes switched the genders and wrote 'Some Kind of Wonderful.' He pursued Ringwald for the film, but she declined, wanting to do something different from teen cinema. Ringwald speculated in her eulogy to Hughes that he took the rejection personally, as he never did another teen movie again. After 'Wonderful' he transitioned into a partnership with John Candy, doing comedies like 'Planes, Trains and Automobiles' and 'Uncle Buck,' and penning the box-office phenomenon 'Home Alone.' After Candy's death in 1994, his writing style seemed to change again, as he focused on writing slapstick movies starring dogs and kids, sometimes under the pen name Edmond Dantes (the wrongly imprisoned character who faces solitary confinement in 'The Count of Monte Cristo'). Hughes rarely gave interviews, and lived a mostly quiet life in Chicago with his family until succumbing to a sudden heart attack in August 2009.

Rent 'Pretty in Pink' at Netflix
Buy 'Pretty in Pink' on DVD

Top Film Events of the Week: Quentin Tarantino, 'The Professional' & 'TMNT'

Todd Gilchrist — 2011-02-28T20:00:00+00:00

On Sunday, Hollywood held a little celebration in honor of itself, which a lot of people around the world tuned in to watch. But now that the James Franco & Anne Hathaway Variety Three-Plus Hours is over, it's time to get back to actually watching the movies that the filmmaking industry churns out. And thankfully, there are as always plenty of great options, if of course you know where to look.

But before we get to the stuff we think you should see up on the big screen, we want to make special mention of a monthlong programming series coordinated by head cinephile and New Beverly Cinema owner Quentin Tarantino, who is returning to the theater officially for the first time since his 2007 Grindhouse series. We've mentioned just one of the double features set to be screened this week, but stay tuned for updates and ongoing mentions over the next several weeks.

Otherwise, we would like to remind you to please leave comments and send in emails (cinematicaltips AT aol.com) with any suggestions you may have for events, screenings, or other opportunities film fans may have to share with others in their celebration of the medium. Also, when and if you attend any of the events listed below, please let us know about your experiences, and let the organizers know where you found out about it!

Chicago

On March 1, check out Alfred Hitchcock's 'Psycho' on the big screen at the Gene Siskel Center. The film starts at 6:00, but make sure you check out the Siskel Film Center website for ticket information and additional screening details.

On March 2, make sure you head over to the Max Palevsky Cinema for not one but two screenings of Martin Scorsese's Vegas crime opus 'Casino.' The film is showing at 6:00 and 9:15 at Ida Noyes hall, but make sure you visit the Eventful website for ticket information and additional screening details.

Dallas

On March 4, there's no better place to be in Dallas than at The Texas Theatre, for a screening of the original 'The Texas Chain Saw Massacre.' The film is being screened twice, on both March 4 and 5, but make sure you visit The Texas Theatre website for ticket information and additional screening details.

Houston

Meanwhile in Houston, check out back-to-back midnight screenings on March 4 and 5 of Alex Cox's cult masterpiece 'Repo Man' at the River Oaks Theatre. Make sure you visit the River Oaks Theatre website for ticket information and additional screening details.

Los Angeles

Anyone unlucky enough to miss Christopher Morris' truly amazing comedy 'Four Lions' has an amazing opportunity to see it under the best possible circumstances when Morris will appear in person for a three-day run of the film, along with some of his earlier work, at the Silent Movie Theatre. Each night of its limited run will feature a different collection of Morris materials, so make sure you visit the Cinefamily website for ticket information and additional screening details.

Tarantino's monthlong programming series at the New Beverly starts on March 1, but if you can't make it every night, at least rope off a few hours on March 6 and 7 for a double feature of 'Road Games' and 'The Anderson Tapes,' the former of which was featured prominently in Mark Hartley's incredible Ozploitation documentary 'Not Quite Hollywood.' There's no telling whether Tarantino might show up himself and bring a few guests, but make sure you visit the New Beverly Cinema website for ticket information and additional screening details.

New York

This screened last weekend in Los Angeles, but thankfully the east coast is getting to enjoy a double dose of turtle power on March 4 and 5 when the Sunshine Cinema screens the original motion picture classic 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.' Both screenings begin at midnight but make sure you visit the Sunshine Cinema website for ticket information and additional screening details.

San Francisco

The Castro Theatre is hosting a series of films focusing on voyeurism and the nature of the camera in relation to art and culture, and on March 4 they're showing a fascinating double feature of 'Medium Cool' and Antonioni's 'Blow-Up.' Haskell Wexler will be in attendance to host the screening, but make sure you visit the Castro Theatre website for ticket information and additional screening details.

Seattle

Metro Cinemas in Seattle is kicking ass and taking names this week, starting with screenings on March 2 of Wong Kar-Wai's 'In the Mood For Love.' The film shows at 7:10 and 9:10, but make sure you visit the Metro Cinemas website for ticket information and additional screening details.

On March 4 and 5, come and enjoy midnight screenings of Academy Award winner Natalie Portman's very first film, Luc Besson's 'The Professional.' Both screenings are at midnight, but make sure you visit the Egyptian Theatre website for ticket information and additional screening details.

And the Winner Should Have Been ...

Todd Gilchrist — 2011-02-24T12:15:00+00:00

Even if the Academy Awards weren't looming large in the foreground of film coverage this week, the Oscars seem to inspire ongoing debate over which nominees were duly rewarded, who was robbed, and which nominees should have joined the ranks of the also-rans. This year's competition is racing toward a photo finish, with pundits and experts predicting different winners with equally powerful logic, we at Moviefone decided to recuse ourselves from that conversation and focus on the far more important task of pointing out the Academy's many oversights in past years.

Without getting encyclopedic -- because, quite frankly, who couldn't come up with a different and equally worthy collection of films and filmmakers that should have won? -- we assembled a dream team of sorts of should-have-been-winners from the annals of cinema history. Notably, none of our bizarro-world winners below were even nominated, and yet they continue to overshadow (if not fully obliterate) the winners and even other nominees from the years in which they were eligible.

Best Picture
At the 41st Academy Awards ceremony, which took place on April 14, 1969, 'Oliver!' took home the top prize, beating out 'Funny Girl,' 'The Lion in Winter,' Rachel, Rachel,' and 'Romeo and Juliet.' A different movie that year was nominated for Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, Best Art Direction and Best Special Effects (in fact the only Oscar it took home), Stanley Kubrick's '2001: A Space Odyssey,' which is widely regarded as one of the greatest, if not the greatest science-fiction film of all time, was not even nominated for Best Picture. And while we still remember Zefirelli's Shakespeare adaptation and the other films (except for 'Rachel, Rachel,'), all of them pale in comparison to the imagination, intelligence and vision of Kubrick's film.

Best Director
Incredibly, 'Vertigo' was nominated for only two Oscars, Best Art Direction and Best Sound, which both reflect the thoroughness of Alfred Hitchcock's vision for the film, but fail to celebrate the reason they worked at all: Hitchcock himself. Vincente Minnelli took home the statuette for 'Gigi,' and beat out the likes of Richard Brooks, Robert Wise and Stanley Kramer, but none of these filmmakers' works reflected the same sort of soul-baring artistry of Hitchcock's film. And even though it took 'Vertigo' some years to be fully appreciated, Hitchcock's technical bona fides were more than sufficient, classic status or not, for him to earn that glorious gold paperweight.

Best Actor
One can only suppose that the Academy feared that he might show up to accept the award with his unmentionables hanging out, but that still wasn't a good enough reason not to nominate Sacha Baron Cohen for Best Actor for his performance in 'Borat.' Mind you, Forest Whitaker was terrific as the terrifying dictator Idi Amin in 'The Last King of Scotland,' but in terms of the completeness of a transformation, Cohen was equal in his efforts. Not only does Cohen make our sides split from laughing, but he manages to make us care about this naïvely horrifying immigrant and in the process contemplate our own prejudices (sometimes without even realizing it).

Best Actress
This one is perhaps an easier oversight due to the fact that her performance was in a foreign film that received little critical recognition and no attention at all from the Academy, but Brigitte Bardot's performance in Roger Vadim's '... And God Created Woman' is more than the sum of her body parts put on display during its running time. What's most amazing is how the film lives on as a symbol of a changing time and how this young woman tragically tries to find conventional happiness, only to succumb to the charms of a life unfettered from responsibility. (It's also because of the surprise of its longevity that it went unrewarded when the film was first released.)

Best Foreign Film
Although he was nominated for an Adapted Screenplay award in 1969, Luchino Visconti seems like one of the Academy's most egregious overlooked artists. In 1963, his film 'The Leopard' was not merely an Italian melodrama but an embodiment of changing times - the world over. Although its competition, from the likes of a firing-on-all-pistons Federico Fellini (whose '8 1/2' won the statuette) and a piss-and-vinegar Roman Polanski ('Knife in the Water'), at the very least indicates that the Academy didn't entirely screw the pooch on that year's nominees, 'The Leopard' is truly one of the greatest films ever made -- a sumptuous, thoughtful, thought-provoking and ultimately profound opus anchored by a brilliant performance by Burt Lancaster -- which endures and feels even more important today than it did then.

Best Original Score
Criminally, Ennio Morricone won only one Oscar throughout his entire career -- an honorary achievement award for the entirety of his body of work. But while it could turn into an endless debate which of his countless iconic scores deserved to win by itself, the answer seems like it would have to be his work on 'The Good, the Bad & the Ugly.' He somehow managed to churn out one great score after the next for decades, but his work on the final film in the "Dollars" trilogy arrived at a sort of nexus in his career, when his worldwide recognition helped him get higher-profile work, and his music shifted ever so slightly from the shaggy, irresistible works he dashed off, to more introspective and epic scores. Again, however, there are plenty of scores before then and after which were equally sumptuous, psychedelic, creepy, fun, scary, or meditative, but they were all sophisticated, and this score in particular combines all of those impulses into a neat but undeniable single package.

Best Original Song
Best Original Song is a category in which it seems like the Academy has consistently picked the wrong nominees, much less winners, thanks in no small part to shitty, outdated rules and perhaps more importantly, equally outdated tastes. Never was this more obvious than in 1978, when the Bee Gees' stellar, iconic, unforgettable, and quite frankly brilliant theme song to 'Saturday Night Fever,' "Staying Alive," failed to receive one nomination; instead, the main theme from "A Little Night Music" won, which appears to violate the Academy's current rules about songs from pre-existing sources being ineligible. Regardless of the rules, however, the Bee Gees didn't merely make a best-selling or iconic soundtrack, they truly encapsulated an epochal moment in the zeitgeist and provided a larger soundtrack, for a generation, which still reverberates as much as it keeps us dancing.

Shelf Life: 'All The President's Men'

Todd Gilchrist — 2011-02-15T21:30:00+00:00

In spite of the fact that this is the week when we celebrate Valentine's Day, looking at the list of new DVD and Blu-ray releases, it seemed like there were more important - not to mention culturally relevant - movies to look at and place within a contemporary context. At one point, Sir Richard Attenborough's 'Chaplin' was a candidate for this week's column, but its minor awards season attention didn't render it worthy enough to supersede other films (and it certainly didn't help that we received the Blu-ray late Monday for Tuesday publication). Meanwhile, Warner Home Video is releasing two digibook Blu-ray sets for some of their most acclaimed films, and what resonates about those titles (at least in theory) is not just the quality of the films themselves but the way in which they anticipated and continue to reflect the artistic and cultural values of subsequent generations.

One of these two releases, 'Network,' is pretty unassailable, in a slightly different and yet equally powerful way as James L. Brooks' depressingly prescient 'Broadcast News' - both depict sea changes in the focus and impact of media, filtered through different sorts of stories. But Alan J. Pakula's 'All the President's Men' is another animal entirely, a ice-cold (and yet because of it, somehow irresistibly sexy) chronicle of news reporting in an era when the news cycle hadn't yet overtaken the possibility that real stories would get overlooked or ignored. But is it still a genuinely great movie? That's what this week's "Shelf Life" intends to determine.

The Facts: Released on April 4, 1976, two years after the publication of Bob Woodard and Carl Bernstein's nonfiction book of the same name, 'All the President's Men' earned more than $70 million against its reported $8.5 million budget, making it a massive commercial hit. Meanwhile, the film netted a variety of nominations and awards, including eight Academy Awards, for Best Picture, Director (for Pakula), Adapted Screenplay (for William Goldman), Supporting Actor (for Jason Robards), Supporting Actress (for Jane Alexander), Editing, Sound, and Art Direction. (It won Adapted Screenplay, Supporting Actor, Sound, and Art Direction.) It was also nominated for 10 BAFTA Awards and four Golden Globes. It currently enjoys a 100% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

What Still Works: Being a journalist of any kind today feels almost nothing like what Woodward and Bernstein do or have to do today, but 'All the President's Men' is one of the single most inspiring films about reporting news ever made. The added value of the real story notwithstanding, the film shows the amount of work that must go into serious reporting, but it also shows how effective all of that work can be. And in spite of the potential physical danger the duo faced while piecing together the story of the Watergate burglary, there's a liberating thrill that comes from watching something happen that absolutely must, but others desperately want stopped.

Whether it was by accident or design, where the film seems to be most authentic is in the way its characters are complex and intelligent but never infallible, nor omniscient. Robert Redford's portrayal of Woodward dances a delicate balance between dumb luck and narrow avoidance of failure, while Dustin Hoffman's Bernstein has instinct and insight but not always the tact or subtlety to be able to get what he needs or wants. That these two characters never simply concoct information - not in a reporting sense, but in terms of the film's logical progression - gives the film and additional layer of realism and believability that makes its story seem true, and not simply a dramatization of true events.

Finally, the film really captures the feeling of finding the truth about something, in a full, complex and complete kind of way, and the sense of empowerment that comes from, quite frankly, doing almost anything well. This is communicated less in the story itself than by the story as a device - a depiction of the pursuit of a larger truth that is hard to uncover but worth the effort. Particularly in the entertainment industry, there seems to be an impulse to regurgitate and report of rumor or hearsay simply because it seems newsworthy, regardless of its actual newsworthiness, or worse yet, its accuracy. While that is partially the result of a never-ending, 24-hour news cycle, it is representative of a different era, and that sometimes shocking difference reinforces the idea that good journalism will always be wanted, and especially needed, because its ultimate importance cannot be overestimated.

What Doesn't Work: It's precisely that disparity between today and 1976, when the film was released, that will prove the most jarring for many viewers. That isn't to say that the film is less effective because it isn't 100% timeless in terms of period or procedure - although is timeless in more important ways because its larger themes aren't tied to more immediate technological concerns, but larger societal implications - but that modern viewers may be less able to relate to the shoe leather and determination that the work of Woodard and Bernstein requires in order to uncover the truth. We live in an era where the discipline is gone of searching for something, researching and collecting information, interpreting that information and streamlining it into a focus, cogent argument or analysis, and our ability to google-search an answer to any question makes the film occasionally seem like its characters are going to more trouble than those answers are worth.

Meanwhile, although I deeply admire the film's commitment to authenticity in terms of the journalists' repeated efforts to speak with, follow up and interrogate interviewees, that back and forth does sometimes slightly feel like dramatic manipulation; not that the film must have single-minded movement towards its real-life conclusion, uninterrupted by problems or obstacles, but the idea of going to a source, speaking with them, going away and discussing it, and then returning immediately to ask more questions is, for lack of a better way to describe it, inefficient. That said of course, the process for a reporter is absolutely inefficient at times, but for the purposes of a film, I ask rhetorically whether the film might have ultimately been dramatically stronger had it condensed even one or two of the multiple conversations that Woodward and Bernstein have with their interviewees. (In fact, it's almost a relief when Woodward confronts Deep Throat, telling him he's tired of the runaround and won't settle for vague answers.)

Finally, while the end of the film has an unobtrusiveness that absolutely works - a sense that dogged commitment and persistence won out over flash and misdirection and misinformation - there is a slightly jarring feeling that comes from the final shots of the film, which are literally teletype headlines of subsequent stories bearing out their research and reporting as true. Beyond an obviously empowering sense of vindication, the simplicity, and perhaps more, the lack of personality of those headlines, compromises the humanity of the characters' efforts throughout the film. At the same time, that may indeed be the point - that objectivity and persistence won out over all in the end, and that the clear and unvarnished truth of their reporting is a triumph over the lies and deception of the Nixon administration - and as such, the film's triumph is a philosophical one over a human one, and depending on one's connection with the film that may be precisely what's desired or a bit of a digression from the previous scenes.

What's The Verdict: 'All the President's Men' is a truly great movie, and these observations of its choices notwithstanding, it is an almost flawless portrait of the power of the news media, when it is vigilant. Honestly I can't say that I would ever go looking for the kind of story that these two reporters broke, or would be up for the work involved even if it did, but I found myself more inspired than ever to write and report in a way that captures the essence of the facts without undue prejudice, and absolutely with the fullest sense of accuracy and clarity possible. But particularly in an era where events like Wikileaks are in some ways exposing the depths of concealment and, again, deception on the part of the government to the people of the United States and the world, this film is a sobering reminder that there are unfortunate and unflattering and awful truths that sometimes must be reported - and that those revelations are indeed beneficial in the long run even if they don't always seem that way at the time.

'The Silence of the Lambs' Revisited: The True Story of Hannibal Lecter and Buffalo Bill

Eric Larnick — 2011-02-14T18:30:00+00:00

Most people think of February 14 as Valentine's Day, but if you're not the romantic type, you'll be happy to know that this date has another cause for celebration: It was on this day 20 years ago that 'The Silence of the Lambs' opened in theaters. The blockbuster made hundreds of millions of dollars and won scores of major awards, becoming the only horror film to win the Oscar for Best Picture. It also dominated the four other major categories: Actor, Actress, Director, and Screenplay.

Even more impressive for the film's accomplishments, however, is the dark story at the heart of the film. Rarely has pop culture centered around a character as twisted as Hannibal Lecter, the cannibalistic prisoner who offers to help young FBI agent Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster) on a serial-killer case, albeit through strong psychological manipulation. Just as depraved was the criminal Starling was pursuing during the film, Jame Gumb, aka Buffalo Bill, whose horrific method of kidnapping and murdering women shocked and disturbed audiences when they saw the film in 1991. But not everyone realizes that the strange movie characters were based on real people.

As we look back on the film's 20th anniversary, Moviefone examines the true-crime history of 'The Silence of the Lambs.'

The True-Crime Story
Thomas Harris was moved to write the novel that inspired the film after meeting FBI agent John E. Douglas, one of the godfathers of criminal profiling. While attending the lecture of the decorated special agent, Harris learned about three notorious serial killers: Ted Bundy, Gary M. Heidnik and Ed Gein. These vile men shaped the character Buffalo Bill.

Ted Bundy
Ted Bundy remains one of the most infamous figures in American history -- not surprising, considering that he killed at least 30 people between the years 1974 and 1978. Harris had attended a portion of Bundy's 1979 murder trial in Miami, and later even sent him a copy of his first book in the Lecter series, 'Red Dragon.' It makes sense, then, that Bundy influenced the characters of both Buffalo Bill and Hannibal Lecter.

Like Buffalo Bill, part of Bundy's modus operandi was to pretend to be injured, usually wearing an arm brace, and to ask for help from his unsuspecting victim. And like Lecter, Bundy had an interesting relationship with a criminal investigator. His contact was Robert Keppel, a homicide detective who had achieved national attention as being one of the men who had helped track him down in the midst of his cross-country murdering spree. Keppel was serving as the chief consultant to the task force for the unsolved Green River Murders when he was contacted by Bundy from his Florida holding cell; Bundy offered to help form a profile to help catch the Green River Killer. While working with Bundy ultimately provided little help, Keppel was able to get him to confess to several more unsolved murders. Bundy was executed in 1989, while the Green River Killer -- Gary Ridgway -- was finally apprehended in 2001.

How Buffalo Bill Catches One Victim:

Gary M. Heidnik
Like Buffalo Bill, Gary Heidnik held his prisoners captive under grisly circumstances. John Douglas recalled: "He kept women in a pit about five and a half feet deep. His lawyers argued that he was insane, but he had over half a million dollars in his bank account. He selected stocks with his little disability check through Merrill Lynch. So Merrill Lynch testified, 'We would like to say it was through our strategy that he got so much money, but he did this on his own.'" All told, Heidnik kidnapped, tortured and killed six women in his Philadelphia basement.

Ed Gein
Perhaps the most notorious influence on 'Silence of the Lambs' was Wisconsin farmer Ed Gein. Although he only confessed to two murders in his lifetime, Gein shocked the nation in 1957 when police raided his house to discover numerous desecrated body parts, including some used as wardrobe and furniture, while other parts were stored as food. Over the course of six years, Gein robbed the graves of freshly buried middle-aged women -- women that he thought resembled his mother -- and took them home to tan their skins, and then cut them up.

Gein was raised by his mother, an abusive Lutheran who taught him daily that women were instruments of the devil. He and his brother were kept from other children during adolescence; after his father and brother passed, his only company in life was his mother, until she died from a stroke in 1945. After her passing, Gein decided that he wanted to become a woman, and began collecting the body parts, in hopes of building a "woman suit" that he could wear. Gein was found legally insane, and spent the rest of his life in a mental institution.

The crimes of Ed Gein influenced the creation not just of Buffalo Bill but also of Norman Bates, in both the novel and in Alfred Hitchcock's seminal adaptation 'Psycho.' Robert Bloch, the author of 'Psycho,' lived only 35 miles away from Gein, and published the book two years after the case. Owing to the nature of the times, the details of Gein's crimes were not published in the news, and Bloch based the character of Bates on the circumstances of the case. He later remarked that he was shocked to discover "how closely the imaginary character I'd created resembled the real Ed Gein both in overt act and apparent motivation." Gein's necrophiliac tendencies also served as the inspiration for Leatherface in 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.'

Playing the Part of "Buffalo Bill"
The highly controversial part of Buffalo Bill was played in the film by character actor Ted Levine. Levine told the Chicago Reader: "I scared them to death in the audition. I had no idea what I was going to do. I read the script; I read the book; I tried stuff." Producer Ed Saxon recalled: "There was a sense of watching the real thing, of the guy who was really trying to keep everything under control. In that audition Ted was Gumb. It got kind of electric."

In addition to researching several profiles of serial killers, Ted Levine also frequented transvestite bars, interviewing the patrons to get a better understanding of Bill's transgender behavior. In a weird twist of fate, Jonathan Demme shot Bill's portions of the film in Levine's own hometown of Belaire, Ohio. During filming, Levine got along so well with his kidnap victim -- played by Brooke Smith -- that Jodie Foster's on-set nickname for her was "Patty Hearst."

The most notorious moment of Bill's on-screen career almost didn't happen. In keeping with his fascination of moths and re-emerging from their cocoons, Bill's cross-dressing nude dance was an important moment of character insight in Thomas Harris' original novel. However, it was cut from the screenplay, and would have never been filmed if Levine himself hadn't insisted it be included; he thought the scene was a defining moment for the character. To prepare for the scene, Levine said, "I took a couple shots of tequila."

Watch the Infamous "Buffalo Bill Dance" (NSFW)

Impact

With the release of 'Silence,' the film was protested by members of the LGBT community for its negative portrayal of a transgender character. In the original book, a discussion between the FBI and a sex-reassignment surgeon explains that Bill only believes himself to be a transsexual, but that scene was cut in the adaptation of the film (though a version of it exists on the DVD).

After filming, Levine said: "It was hard. I'll never do a character like this again." Levine has since worked to take on more heroic roles to avoid being typecast, most notably playing the part of Capt. Stottlemeyer on the detective show 'Monk.'

Buffalo Bill has one odd legacy in pop culture -- the character served as the inspiration for Seth Green's Chris Griffin on 'Family Guy.'

Hannibal Lecter: Based on a True Story?
As for the man that aided Clarice Starling in capturing Buffalo Bill, the origin of his twisted character has never been fully revealed. Several authors have theorized that Lecter was based on several serial killers throughout the last century.

Thomas Harris rarely grants interviews and has never officially explained where the inspiration came from. But according to his mentor John Douglas, "A lot of people who deal with criminals and who are making decisions for probation and parole don't want to know about the crime. What I've always said is, 'To understand the artist, you must look at the art work.' Harris saw this kind of stuff. And then what he did was he took a composite. Hannibal Lecter does not really exist. There is no one, thank goodness, like him."

Cameron Crowe on 'Almost Famous,' 'Say Anything ...' and Where He Keeps the Boom Box

John Sellers — 2011-02-10T14:00:00+00:00

The news that Cameron Crowe is back in action on the set of a movie made us happier than Spicoli eating pizza in class. Throw in that the director sent lead actor Matt Damon a mix CD to play while reading the initial script, and we have high hopes that 'We Bought a Zoo' might be another Crowe classic.

Music is a main character in Crowe's best films, and that was never more evident than in 2000's 'Almost Famous' (a tricked-out "director's cut" version of which has recently been released on Blu-ray). Next month, we'll be counting down a list of the best music scenes in movies (check back in March!), and that film's legendary 'Tiny Dancer' sing-along charts very high, as does the boombox serenade from 'Say Anything ...' So, we naturally jumped at an offer to interview Crowe, via email, about how he harnesses the power of music in his films.

And we're so glad we did, because now we can always say that Cameron Crowe emailed us from a Home Depot. Here's how he prefaced his reply to our questions:

Thanks, and I'm honored! Writing you now from the set of our new movie 'We Bought A Zoo' ... having fun, shooting a scene today at a Home Depot in Thousand Oaks. I am surrounded with wood, and batteries. Hope this translates to some smokin' answers to your fine questions ...

Read on for the full interview, including anecdotes about the unforgettable scenes involving 'Tiny Dancer' and 'In Your Eyes.' And keep refreshing your browsers in March for our list of the 50 best music scenes in movie history.

Moviefone: Compared with the other four films you wrote and directed yourself, where does 'Almost Famous' rank in terms of importance to you personally?
Cameron Crowe: [The most important is] definitely 'Almost Famous,' a script that was in my drawer as a passion project for a long time. I wanted to make a movie that paid tribute to a lot of very vivid characters I met [back] in the day, and also I wanted to make a movie about loving music. Every character, in some way or another, is dedicated to the way music can make you feel. On the right day, the right song can last forever.

I still make a mix CD every month, as a diary for how that month felt. 'Almost Famous' was like a mix in movie form. That's the way it felt to be 15 and falling in love with life and music.

Were you any more or less meticulous about song selection on 'Almost Famous' than you had been on previous films?
I'm always meticulous, but in many ways the song chooses the scene. There is usually a song that I've written the scene to, like Led Zeppelin's 'Misty Mountain Hop,' or there is only one song that was meant to be in that spot. Songs are sacred things and you have to earn them. People hear them in a new way thanks to a movie, and you want the movie to always do the song justice. Take Cat Stevens' 'The Wind' or Elton John's 'Tiny Dancer' in 'Almost Famous' -- they were the only two songs that worked. You know when it's right.

(Click image to view the scene.)

You've gone on record saying that Billy Idol's 1986 song 'To Be a Lover' was your inspiration for the boom box scene in 'Say Anything ...,' so we were wondering if 'Tiny Dancer' was your first choice.
'To Be a Lover' was a song I liked for [exactly] one day -- the day I wrote that scene. It never worked for the scene the day before or after. John Cusack is playing Fishbone's 'Bonin' in the Boneyard' in the actual scene, but when we put the movie together, it didn't work at all. He seemed like a crazed Fishbone fan who just happened to be outside her window.

But with 'In Your Eyes,' it was like his life was leading to that moment. We were lucky Peter Gabriel let us use it. It's a mystical kind of marriage, when a song works with film. I live for those kinds of marriages. It's always fun to find that connection as a director.

'Tiny Dancer' was always the choice [for the 'Almost Famous' scene]. It was always my favorite song from the 'Madman Across the Water' album, and always felt like the perfect song that could bring a band back together. It's also about the road and about the women you sometimes meet on tour. Thanks again to Elton for giving us all the separated tracks so that we could mix it especially for the movie.

What has Elton John said to you about that scene?
He's discussed the song a lot, and it's now a perennial in his live show. He also gives the movie credit for its resurgence, which is ridiculously generous. My mom called me one night not too long ago and said, "Quick -- turn on the TV. Elton John is thanking you for 'Almost Famous.'" I turned on the TV. It was surreal. He's a completely surprising, generous artist whose work just gets stronger.

Of all the memorable scenes in the film, why do you think the 'Tiny Dancer' one has remained so indelible?
Because everybody in the scene loved the song so much and loved singing it -- except for Noah Taylor, who plays the road manager. He loathed the song. He's a punk-rocker through and through. If you look at his face, he's in exquisite pain!

How satisfying was it for you that your script for 'Almost Famous' beat out, say, 'Gladiator' for Best Original Screenplay?
I was in shock. Fully expected Kenneth Lonergan's wonderful script for 'You Can Count On Me' to win, and when they announced my name, the world turned psychedelic. I still don't remember what happened next. I think [presenter] Tom Hanks saw the panic in my eyes and said, "Turn around, say a few words, have fun ..." What I said at the podium, I have no idea.

"I am a golden god!" vs. "Show me the money!" -- which quote wins?
"Show me the money," because I just heard Obama quote it in the State of the Union address.

Last question: Whatever happened to Lloyd's boom box, by the way?
It's in my garage. I think I'll play a Fishbone cassette on it tonight, in your honor.

Follow John Sellers on Twitter.

'Groundhog Day' Cast: Where Are They Now?

Rose Martelli — 2011-02-02T09:31:00+00:00

Because we're huge fans of the real Groundhog Day and Punxsutawney Phil (especially since that furry rodent has predicted an early spring, despite blizzards galore), today feels like the right time to get super-obsessed with a certain Bill Murray comedy.

That movie, of course, is 1993's 'Groundhog Day,' in which Murray plays a TV weatherman named Phil Connors, a curmudgeon forced to relive the same 24-hour period over and over. It's one of our all-time favorites -- and we're not just saying that because cast member Stephen Tobolowsky, aka Ned Ryerson, is a Moviefone columnist.

Tobolowsky writes today about the lasting effects of his memorable, scene-stealing role. But here, we take a fond look back at where Murray, Tobolowsky and the rest of the cast were in 1993, and catch you up with what they're doing now.

Bill Murray (Phil Connors)
Then: Murray had been riding high on the Hollywood A-list for well over a decade, starting soon after he gained national exposure as a Not Ready for Primetime Player on the second season of 'Saturday Night Live.' Before starring in 'Groundhog Day,' Murray already had such monumental credits to his name as 'Caddyshack,' 'Stripes' and 'Tootsie,' as well as a little something called 'Ghostbusters.'

Now: In retrospect, 'Groundhog Day' could be considered the turning point in Murray's career -- the point at which he began leaving behind his image as a goofball actor and started being cast in more thespian-y roles. Following 'Groundhog,' he played a villain opposite Robert De Niro and Uma Thurman in 'Mad Dog and Glory,' and took smart, small parts in 'Ed Wood' and 'Cradle Will Rock.' That trend would pinnacle with Murray's Oscar-nominated turn in 'Lost in Translation,' playing a lonely, out-of-fashion actor. In recent years, the pace of Murray's output has slowed somewhat -- but he could return with a vengeance if 'Ghostbusters III' gets made.

Andie MacDowell (Rita)
Then: The transition from model to actress wasn't easy for MacDowell. After appearing in the pages of Vogue and in TV ads for Calvin Klein, MacDowell's first film performance, in 'Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes,' was dubbed over by Glenn Close to eradicate her too-Southern accent. Her big break came five years later, in Steven Soderbergh's Cannes Film Festival darling, 'Sex, Lies and Videotape.' Between that film and 'Groundhog Day,' MacDowell starred in one hit ('Green Card') and one mega-flop ('Hudson Hawk').

Now: 'Groundhog Day' kicked MacDowell's career into high gear artistically and commercially, as she appeared in an array of well-received and/or high-grossing movies: 'Short Cuts,' 'Four Weddings and a Funeral,' 'Michael,' 'The End of Violence,' and 'Unstrung Heroes,' to name just a few. Look for her soon in the much-anticipated remake of 'Footloose.'

Chris Elliott (Larry)
Then: Elliott was best known for his various sketch characters (like The Guy Under the Seats and The Conspiracy Guy) on 'Late Night with David Letterman,' as well as for his short-lived, cultishly adored Fox sitcom 'Get A Life,' in which he played a 30-year-old paperboy who lives above his parents' garage. (Fun fact: 'Adaptation' scribe Charlie Kaufman was a writer on the show!)

Now: Unlike his 'Groundhog' co-star Murray, Elliott's SNL stint would come following the film's release; he only stayed on for one season. A Hollywood journeyman, Elliott's career has veered from kids' television (Nickelodeon's 'The Adventures of Pete and Pete') to Farrelly Brothers' comedies ('Kingpin,' 'There's Something About Mary') and from animated voice work ('King of the Hill,' 'Futurama') to plenty of guest-starring roles ('How I Met Your Mother,' 'Third Watch,' 'Everybody Loves Raymond.') The 50-year-old is also a three time author, and will star in the wacky 'Walker, Texas Ranger' parody 'Eagleheart,' debuting Feb. 3 on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim programming block. He's also the father of current SNL cast member Abby Elliott.

Stephen Tobolowsky (Ned Ryerson)
Then: Then, now, forever and ever, until eternity, Stephen Tobolowsky epitomizes the "that guy" character actor. Since his first notable role in 1984's 'Swing Shift,' he's probably appeared in more movies that the entire cast of 'Groundhog Day' combined, and was a guest-starring maniac on such TV hits as 'Knots Landing,' 'Falcon Crest,' 'Cagney and Lacey,' '227,' 'Designing Women,' 'L.A. Law,' and 'The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd.'

Now: Having nailed the part of Ned Ryerson, perhaps the world's most annoying insurance salesman (and that's saying something), Tobolowsky began to vary up his career post-'Groundhog.' In 2002, he received a Tony nomination for his performance in the Broadway play 'Morning's at Seven.' In 2005, he starred in a mockumentary entitled 'Stephen Tobolowsky's Birthday Party,' in which the eponymous actor fetes himself while entertaining such guests as Mena Suvari and Amy Adams with his well-spun yarns. Since 2009, he's entertained in a similar storytelling fashion via his podcasts, 'The Tobolowsky Files.' His ever-expanding list of credits includes 'Deadwood,' 'Californication,' 'Heroes,' and most recently, ex-glee club director turned local drug dealer Sandy Ryerson on 'Glee' -- the character's surname likely being an homage to the part he played in 'Groundhog.'

Brian Doyle-Murray (Buster Green)
Then: Doyle-Murray's career trajectory mirrored that of his younger, more famous brother, Bill. Both had performed with the improv troupe Second City in Chicago in the 1970s, and Doyle-Murray had been a featured player and writer on SNL in the late '70s and early '80s. While he'd gained a reputation for taking bit parts in his brother's movies --'Caddyshack,' 'Scrooged,' 'Ghostbusters II' -- he also appeared without him in such memorable films as 'JFK,' 'Razor's Edge' and 'Sixteen Candles.' Doyle-Murray co-wrote 'Caddyshack' with its director, Harold Ramis, who would later go on to direct 'Groundhog Day.' Doyle-Murray also appeared on Chris Elliott's sitcom 'Get A Life.'

Now: Doyle-Murray went on to appear with Elliott once more, in 'Cabin Boy,' but curiously, has not been seen onscreen with his brother since. His film credits have included 'Waiting for Guffman' and 'As Good As It Gets.' Since 2009, Doyle-Murray's had a recurring role on the sitcom 'The Middle' as a car-dealership owner and the boss of dad Mike Heck (Neil Flynn).

Rick Overton (Ralph)
Then: Starting off as a comedian and improv artist in New York City, Overton went on to play character roles in a successful string of pre-'Groundhog' credits, including 'Beverly Hills Cop,' 'Gung Ho,' 'Willow,' 'Earth Girls Are Easy' and 'The Rocketeer.' He also had a couple of writing gigs under his belt, including an episode of 'The New Adventures of Beans Baxter,' a short-lived Fox show about a teenage spy.

Now: He's won an Emmy for his writing work on 'Dennis Miller Live,' guest-starred on 'Lost,' 'Alias' and 'Joan of Arcadia' (in which he played God himself) and memorably portrayed the Drake (as in, "I love the Drake!") on an episode of 'Seinfeld.' One of his most recent credits: an appearance on Doyle-Murray's show, 'The Middle.'

Robin Duke (Doris the waitress)
Then: Performing improv with Second City led to a spot on the SNL cast roster. Starting to sound familiar? Before acting and writing for SNL from 1981 to 1984 (where her most renowned role was undoubtedly Wendy Whiner: "But we have a reservaaaaation!"), Duke appeared on SNL's Canadian doppelganger 'SCTV' -- one of only three comedians (Martin Short was another) who appeared as regulars on both TV sketch shows.

Now: Duke followed up 'Groundhog' with a handful of comedies, including 'I Love Trouble,' 'Multiplicity' (reuniting her with MacDowell and director Ramis) and 'Stuart Saves His Family,' after which her Hollywood resume has subsisted mostly on TV guest spots. But back in her native Canada, her comedy roots still run deep: She and some fellow female Canuck comics formed a sketch troupe, Women Fully Clothed, which has toured Canada extensively, and she teaches in the School of Creative and Performing Arts at Humber College in Toronto.

Willie Garson (Kenny)
Then: A graduate of the Yale School of Drama, Garson had enjoyed a career that was heavy on the TV guest-star spots before 'Groundhog' came around. You might have caught him on 'Family Ties,' 'Cheers,' 'My Two Dads,' 'Newhart,' 'Coach' -- or, in his most recurring appearance, as oldest son Kevin's best friend on 'Mr. Belvedere.' His few film credits were mostly known as duds, especially 'Troop Beverly Hills' and 'The Adventures of Ford Fairlane.'

Now: Garson's role on 'Sex and the City' as Carrie's best gay friend, Stanford, made him a household name. He now co-stars on the USA Network's show 'White Collar.' In 2009, Garson adopted a son, Nathan.

Angela Paton (Mrs. Lancaster)
Then: An uncredited, blink-and-you'll-miss-it part in 'Dirty Harry' led to only a few more movies ('Welcome Home, Roxy Carmichael,' 'Flatliners') but loads of TV guest spots on 'thirtysomething,' 'Falcon Crest,' 'The Wonder Years,' 'Father Dowling Mysteries, Quantum Leap,' 'Wings,' 'Murphy Brown,' 'Doogie Howser, M.D.' and more.

Now: And the beat goes on for the woman who plays the owner of the B&B that Phil Connors stays at in Punxsutawney. Paton's resume has continued to steer towards TV work ('Dave's World,' 'NYPD Blue,' 'Chicago Hope,' 'Dharma & Greg,' 'Becker,' 'Curb Your Enthusiasm') with occasional bit parts in films like 'Clean Slate,' 'Trapped in Paradise,' 'The Wedding Singer' and 'American Wedding.' Her most recent appearances have been on 'Sons of Tucson,' 'My Name is Earl' and 'Grey's Anatomy.'

Harold Ramis (co-writer, director)
Then: Ramis and Murray had been thick as thieves for years before the former directed the latter in 'Groundhog Day.' Both had grown up in Chicago and studied with Second City before breaking into movies, and Murray had previously appeared in movies written and/or directed by Ramis, including 'Meatballs,' 'Caddyshack,' 'Stripes' and 'Ghostbusters' -- in which he also portrayed geeky scientist Dr. Egor Spengler. Ramis also directed the 1981 classic 'National Lampoon's Vacation.'

Now: Ramis helmed three more films in the 1990s: the bombs 'Stuart Saves His Family' and 'Multiplicity' and the hit 'Analyze This.' Ramis' most recent offering, which he directed, co-wrote and took a role in, was 2009's 'Year One.' He also makes the occasional acting-only cameo (as in 'Knocked Up,' as Seth Rogen's dad) and has directed a handful of episodes of 'The Office.' In 2004, Ramis received a star on the St. Louis Walk of Fame (he'd gone to college at local Washington University, on which 'Animal House' was partly based).

Scooter (the groundhog)
Then: Scooter was the name of the rodent cast in the role of Punxsutawney Phil (although it has been reported that an entire family of groundhogs was raised and kept for the sake of the production). A Hollywood virgin at the time, Scooter had no other film credits to his name prior to portraying the folksy Phil, aka "Seer of Seers, Sage of Sages, Prognosticator of Prognosticators and Weather Prophet Extraordinary."

Now: Considering that the average lifespan of a groundhog kept in captivity tops out somewhere around 10 years, chances are Scooter (who never did another movie) is no longer with us. But according to folklore, the one and only, real-life Punxsutawney Phil is somewhere around 120 years old and still alive and kicking in Pennsylvania. And Scooter lives on, with this goony flash animation game on the Sony website.

Read Stephen Tobolowsky's column about 'Groundhog Day.'

Rent 'Groundhog Day' at Netflix
Buy 'Groundhog Day' on Blu-ray/DVD