Ghost Story released December 18, 1981

Ghost Story is a 1981 American horror film based on the book of the same name by Peter Straub. It is directed by John Irvin and it stars Fred Astaire, Melvyn Douglas, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., John Houseman and Craig Wasson (in a dual role). It was the last film to feature Astaire, Fairbanks, and Douglas, and the first film to feature Michael O’Neill.

Directed by
  John Irvin

Writers
  Lawrence D. Cohen Writer
  Peter Straub Novel

Producers
  Douglas Green … co-producer
  Ronald G. Smith … associate producer
  Burt Weissbourd … producer

Cast
  Fred Astaire … Ricky Hawthorne
  Melvyn Douglas … Dr. John Jaffrey
  Douglas Fairbanks Jr. … Edward Charles Wanderley
  John Houseman … Sears James
  Craig Wasson … Don Wanderley/David Wanderley
  Patricia Neal … Stella Hawthorne
  Alice Krige … Eva Galli/Alma Mobley
  Jacqueline Brookes … Milly
  Miguel Fernandes … Gregory Bate
  Lance Holcomb … Fenny Bate
  Mark Chamberlin … Young Jaffrey
  Tim Choate … Young Hawthorne
  Kurt Johnson … Young Wanderley
  Ken Olin … Young James

Make Up Department
  Irving Buchman … makeup artist
  Albert Jeyte … makeup artist
  Robert Jiras … makeup artist
  Philip Leto … hair stylist
  Rick Sharp … makeup artist
  Dick Smith … special makeup

Special Effects Department
  Henry Millar Jr. … special effects

Visual Effects Department
  Syd Dutton … matte artist
  Dennis Glouner … matte photography
  Bill Taylor … matte photography
  Albert Whitlock … special visual effects
  Henry Schoessler … matte crew

Trivia:

 

• The last feature film for veteran actors Melvyn Douglas, Fred Astaire, and Douglas Fairbanks Jr..
• Melvyn Douglas (Dr. John Jaffery) is actually mentioned in the novel on which the movie is based.
• Fred Astaire (Ricky Hawthorne) is actually mentioned in the novel on which the movie is based.
• Young Ricky Hawthorne says, “I can’t dance.” Old Ricky Hawthorne is played by Fred Astaire. This line wasn’t in the novel.
• Searching for someone qualified to score a story dealing with elderly people, the production team was reminded of Le chat (1971), a French film about a bitter old couple spending time arguing. That’s how Philippe Sarde was hired and why some of the main theme of that precise film is repeatedly used in the score of “Ghost Story.”
• Robin Curtis’ film debut.
• The pipe organ used is the same organ that was used by Lon Chaney in The Phantom of the Opera (1925).
• Interiors were constructed inside the abandoned Union Station, the former New York Central Railroad’s passenger train station on Broadway in Albany, NY and included a two story set. The murder or death scene was filmed on the second floor of that set. Scenes were filmed in sequence and the two story set was significantly aged after the death scene so that it later appeared as the derelict house. After the movie, the old station was refurbished and restored to its former grandeur and served as office space for Fleet Bank and now Bank of America.

Steven Spielberg Birthday December 18

Steven Allan Spielberg, KBE (born December 18, 1946) is an American film director, screenwriter, and film producer. In a career spanning over four decades, Spielberg’s films have touched on many themes and genres. Spielberg’s early sci-fi and adventure films sometimes centering on children, were seen as an archetype of modern Hollywood blockbuster filmmaking. In later years his films began addressing such issues as The Holocaust, slavery, war and terrorism.

Spielberg won the Academy Award for Best Director for 1993′s Schindler’s List and 1998′s Saving Private Ryan. Four of Spielberg’s films, Jaws (1975), Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), and Jurassic Park (1993), broke box office records, each becoming the highest-grossing film made at the time. To date, the unadjusted gross of all Spielberg-directed films exceeds $8.5 billion worldwide. Forbes magazine places Spielberg’s personal net worth at $3.0 billion. In 2006, Premiere listed him as the most powerful and influential figure in the motion picture industry. Time listed him as one of the 100 Most Important People of the Century. At the end of the twentieth century, Life named him the most influential person of his generation.

 

 

 

 

 

ET and Steven Spielberg

Trademark:

Uses powerful flashlights in dark scenes (Jurassic Park (1993); The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997) and E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial (1982)). The outline of the beam is often made visible through dust, mist, or fog.

Frequently uses music by John Williams.

Often shows shooting stars (Jaws (1975)).

Onscreen performers staring, usually at something off camera.

He often uses images of the sun (Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), The Color Purple (1985), Empire of the Sun (1987), Saving Private Ryan (1998)).

His films often show children in some sort of danger.

Consistent references to World War II.

Frequent references to Disney films, music, or theme parks.

Frequently uses a piano as an element in key scenes (Schindler’s List (1993), Saving Private Ryan (1998), Minority Report (2002)).

Important images, or characters, are often seen through the rear-view mirror of a car (Duel (1971) (TV), E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial (1982), Jurassic Park (1993), Schindler’s List (1993), Artificial Intelligence: AI (2001)).

Frequently casts Tom Hanks, Richard Dreyfuss, Harrison Ford, Frank Welker and Tom Cruise.

Protagonists in his films often come from families with divorced parents, with fathers portrayed as reluctant, absent or irresponsible, most notably in _E.T.: the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)_ (Elliot’s mother is divorced and father is absent) and Catch Me If You Can (2002) (Frank Abagnale’s mother and father split early in the film). This reflects Spielberg’s own experience as a youth with his parents breaking up.

A common theme in many of his films is ordinary people who discover something extraordinary – people, places, artifacts, creatures, etc. (Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial (1982)).

Since Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), all of his movies have featured visual effects (even those that were undetected) by Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), the F/X house created by his friend George Lucas. The only exception has been The Terminal (2004), which had F/X work by Digital Imageworks.

Is credited for starting the summer blockbuster tradition with 1975′s first $100 million megahit, Jaws (1975).

Trivia:

Member of Theta Chi Fraternity (Zeta Epsilon Chapter, Long Beach State University). One of his fraternity brothers was Roger Ernest.

Received the Germany’s Cross of Merit with star for his sensible representation of Germany’s history in Schindler’s List (1993). [1998]

Jonathan Norman was sentenced to 25 years to life, for stalking Spielberg and threatening to rape him. [June 1998]

Chosen by Entertainment Weekly as the most powerful person in entertainment in 1997. [31 October 1997]

American Film Institute Life Achievement Award. [1995]

There are seven children in the Capshaw-Spielberg family: Theo Spielberg, who was adopted by Kate Capshaw before their marriage and later adopted by Spielberg, born in 1988, Sasha Spielberg, born on 14 May 1990, Sawyer Spielberg, born on 10 March 1992, their adopted daughter Mikaela George Spielberg, born on 28 February 1996, and Destry Allen Spielberg, born on 1 December 1996. Kate Capshaw’s daughter Jessica Capshaw, born in 1976, is from her previous marriage. Steven Spielberg’s son Max Spielberg, born in 1985, is from his previous marriage to Amy Irving.

Amy Irving gave birth to his son Max Spielberg on 13 June 1985.

He claims Richard Dreyfuss is his alter-ego.

Attended California State University, Long Beach after being turned down by USC Cinema school twice.

Attended Arcadia High School in Phoenix.

Awarded second annual John Huston Award for Artists Rights by the Artists Rights Foundation. [1995]

Co-founder (with Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen) of DreamWorks SKG.

He has one of the original Rosebud sleds from Citizen Kane (1941) in his house.

Godfather of Drew Barrymore and Gwyneth Paltrow.

Named Best Director of the 20th Century in an Entertainment Weekly on-line poll, substantially beating out runners-up Alfred Hitchcock and Stanley Kubrick. [September 1999]

Born to Arnold Spielberg, a computer engineer, and Leah Adler, née Posner, a restaurateur and concert pianist.

Received the Distinguished Public Service Award, the U. S. Navy’s highest civilian honor, on Veterans Day 1999 for his work on the movie Saving Private Ryan (1998).

Sits on USC School of Cinema-Television’s Board of Councilors.

When he was a child, he sneaked onto the lot of Universal Studios during a tour and befriended an editor who showed him a few things about filmmaking.

Gwyneth Paltrow calls him Uncle Morty.

During filming of their episode of “Night Gallery” (1970), Spielberg gave Joan Crawford the gift of a single red rose in a Pepsi bottle. During an on-set conversation with Detroit Free Press reporter Shirley Eder, Crawford pointed out Spielberg and said, “Go interview that kid, because he’s going to be the biggest director of all time!” Crawford and Spielberg remained good friends until her death in 1977.

Awarded the honor of Knight of the Order of the British Empire (KBE) in New Years Honours 2001 by Queen Elizabeth II for his contribution to the British film industry. As a non-Commonwealth citizen, he will not be able to use the title. [December 2000]

States that the work of David Lean has had a profound effect on his career.

Spent five months developing the script for Rain Man (1988) with Ronald Bass, but had to commit to his handshake deal to direct Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989). Spielberg gave all of his notes to Barry Levinson.

Almost directed Big (1988) with Tom Hanks starring, but didn’t want to steal the thunder of his sister, Anne Spielberg, who co-wrote the script.

Personally offered the American Beauty (1999) script to Sam Mendes, who ended up winning the Academy Award for Best Director on the film, which was Mendes’s debut feature.

Flew Will Smith to his Hamptons home via helicopter to offer him the part in Men in Black (1997).

Often casts new actors based on their performances in other works. Rarely does auditions for major roles.

Was asked to approve use of the theme music from Jaws (1975) for Swingers (1996). When he saw a cut of the film, he saw Vince Vaughn, whom he chose to play Nick Van Owen in The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997).

He is an Eagle Scout and was on an advisory board for the Boy Scouts of America. He left this position because he did not agree with the fact that the Boy Scouts of America discriminated against homosexuals.

Was directing a childbirth scene when he received a call that Amy Irving was giving birth to their son Max Spielberg.

According to the 2001 issue of Forbes’ “400 Richest People In America,” Spielberg’s fortune is $2.1 billion.

Was irked when footage from his movie Duel (1971) (TV) was used as stock footage in an episode of “The Incredible Hulk” (1978). But since Universal Studios owned the rights to both the The Incredible Hulk series and the film of Duel, taking legal action was not possible. However, he subsequently updated his contracts to include a clause that would protect his future material from being used as stock footage.

On May 31, 2002, graduated from California State University Long Beach with a bachelor’s degree in film and electronic arts. He had dropped out of college in 1968 to concentrate on his career, but during the 2000s fulfilled his remaining graduation requirements via independent projects, which required correspondence courses and several term papers. For Spielberg, the school waived its requirement that all senior film majors must submit a completed 12-minute short film, accepting Schindler’s List (1993) in its place. He donned cap and gown and marched in the commencement ceremony with his fellow graduates.

Received honorary doctor of humane letters degree from Yale University (27 May 2002).

When Spielberg received his undergraduate degree (about 35 years after he had first entered college), the orchestra played the theme from the “Indiana Jones” series of films as he walked up to and across the stage.

Owns the rights to the Stephen King novel “The Talisman”. As of 2002, the book has not been made into a film. He is now producing this film for release in 2007.

His father served in World War II in South East Asian Front.

Michael Kahn has edited all of Spielberg’s theatrical features since Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), their first collaboration. Kahn did not, however, edit E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial (1982) because he was editing Poltergeist (1982). E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial (1982) was edited by Carol Littleton.

According to the 2002 edition of Forbes’ “400 Richest People in America,” his fortune is estimated at $2.2 billion, a $100 million improvement over the 2001 estimate.

Ranked #1 in Premiere’s 2003 annual Hollywood Power List. It is the third time he received the top ranking (the others being in 1994 & 1995). He had ranked #6 in 2002.

In Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), the humans and aliens use music and computers to communicate. Spielberg’s father was a computer scientist and his mother was a musician. This fact was only recently pointed out to him on “Inside the Actors Studio” (1994) by host James Lipton and he was unsurprisingly delighted when he realised the connection.

Is set to produce a mini-series for HBO that will set out to debunk the legend of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. The mini-series, written by David Leland, will focus on the historical reality of life in 500 A.D., when Arthur was thought to be King and will have no round table, Merlin, Lancelot, Excalibur, or knights. Camelot itself will be shown to have been a simple Roman fort and Arthur, named Artos in the film, will be portrayed as a humble blacksmith whose forging skills win him the English throne. It was expected to air sometime in 2004. [2003]

The first film he directed that was not scored by John Williams was The Color Purple (1985), which was scored by Quincy Jones.

Was voted the 11th Greatest Director of all time by Entertainment Weekly.

In 1983, he lost the Best Picture Oscar to Gandhi (1982), directed by Richard Attenborough. He later went on to direct five cast members, as well as Attenborough, in his later movies: Amrish Puri in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984); Roshan Seth in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984); Richard Attenborough in Jurassic Park (1993); Ben Kingsley in Schindler’s List (1993), Nigel Hawthorne in Amistad (1997) and Martin Sheen in Catch Me If You Can (2002).

Has worked with four actors from the Hannibal Lecter film series, in reverse order to the order in which the Lecter films came out. The first one he worked with was Ralph Fiennes in Schindler’s List (1993), who went on to play Francis Dollarhyde in Red Dragon (2002). His next film was The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997), with Julianne Moore, who played Clarice Starling in the third Lecter film, Hannibal (2001). After this, he made Amistad (1997), with Anthony Hopkins, who began playing Hannibal Lecter in the second film, The Silence of the Lambs (1991). After this he made Saving Private Ryan (1998), which featured Dennis Farina, who played Jack Crawford in the original Lecter film, Manhunter (1986).

When asked what are the films he’s made he would like to be remembered for, he said E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial (1982) and Schindler’s List (1993).

Although close friend, George Lucas, has vowed to only shoot future movies digitally, Spielberg has been the most vocal film-maker of the opposing view: to continue shooting all of his movies on film. Other directors siding with Spielberg include Martin Scorsese and Oliver Stone.

According to his interview on the series “Inside the Actors Studio” (1994), his favorite curse word is “Rats!”

To date, has never provided a director’s commentary on any of his films DVDs. [2004]

In the 2004 edition of Forbes’ “400 Richest People in America”, his net worth is estimated at $2.6 billion, his highest showing yet. The only filmmaker ahead of him is his good friend George Lucas, whose worth is estimated at $3 billion.

Described One Froggy Evening (1955) as “the most perfect cartoon ever made”.

His longtime friend George Lucas originally wanted him to direct the third entry of the original Star Wars trilogy, Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi (1983) and Spielberg was eager to do so, but Lucas was unsuccessful in getting him the job because of his dispute with the Director’s Guild at the time.

When he used product placement in E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial (1982), he used Reese’s Pieces only because M & M’s parent company didn’t want their product associated with aliens and UFOs.

Directed nine actors in Oscar-nominated performances: Liam Neeson; Ralph Fiennes; Anthony Hopkins; Tom Hanks; Melinda Dillon; Whoopi Goldberg; Oprah Winfrey; Margaret Avery and Christopher Walken.

Wrote a letter to Polish writer/director Mira Hamermesh in appreciation of one of her films.

Graduated from Saratoga High School in Saratoga, California.

Ranked #2 on Premiere’s 2005 Power 50 List, behind only Peter Jackson. Had the same ranking in 2004, behind Pixar bosses John Lasseter and Steve Jobs.

Though he has directed 9 actors in Oscar-nominated performances, to date he has never directed an Oscar-winning performance.

Ranked #1 in Empire (UK) magazine’s “The Greatest directors ever!” (2005).

Has been Honorary Member of the Society of Operating Cameramen (SOC) since 1995 and received the Governors Award “for his contributions in the advancement of the use of the motion picture camera”.

He has always been very protective of his name. If his company is working on a film and he feels it is not up to his standards, he will remove his name as a producer.

Aside from producing The Goonies (1985), he also directed at least one scene in the movie.

In the 2005 edition of Forbes’ “400 Richest People in America”, his net worth is estimated at $2.7 billion, a $100 million improvement over 2004 (due mostly to his share of the DreamWorks Animation public stock offering). He, and good friend George Lucas (net worth: $3.5 billion) are the only filmmakers on the list.

In December, he, Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen sold DreamWorks SKG to Paramount Pictures Corporation for $1.6 billion.

Once screened Lawrence of Arabia (1962) with director David Lean, who gave Spielberg a “live director’s commentary”, as Spielberg put it. Spielberg said that it was one of the best moments of his life, learning from a true master. Consequently, Spielberg stated that it helped him make better pictures and that commentary directly influenced every movie he has made since.

His ten favourite films of all time are: Fantasia (1940); Citizen Kane (1941); A Guy Named Joe (1943); It’s a Wonderful Life (1946); The War of the Worlds (1953); Psycho (1960); Lawrence of Arabia (1962); 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968); The Godfather (1972) and La nuit américaine (1973).

Has an estimated fortune of $2.8 billion ($2,800,000,000), according to the “Los Angeles Business Journal”. The size of his fortune him the 14th richest person in the Los Angeles area and likely the wealthiest producer-director in the world (with only his friend George Lucas coming close).

His iconic character “E.T.” from E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial (1982) is ranked #26 on Premiere Magazine’s 100 Greatest Movie Characters of All Time.

Is the most represented filmmaker on the American Film Institute’s 100 Most Inspiring Movies of All Time, with five films on the list and three in the top ten. They are: Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) at #58; The Color Purple (1985) at #51; Saving Private Ryan (1998) at #10; E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial (1982) at #6 and Schindler’s List (1993) at #3.

Ranked #6 in the Power Rankings and #1 in the Money Rankings on Forbes’ 2006 Celebrity 100 List, with earnings of $332 million. Most of those earnings were from the 2005 sale of DreamWorks to Paramount Pictures.

Ranked #4 on Premiere’s 2006 “Power 50″ list. Had ranked #2 in 2005.

Interviewed in “Directors Close Up: Interviews with Directors Nominated for Best Film by the Directors Guild of America”, ed. by Jeremy Kagan, Scarecrow Press, 2006.

In 1996, he purchased Clark Gable’s Oscar (which he won for It Happened One Night (1934)) to protect it from further commercial exploitation and gave it back to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, commenting that he could think of “no better sanctuary for Gable’s only Oscar than the Motion Picture Academy”.

On 14 December 2002 he bought Bette Davis’ Oscar, which she won for Dangerous (1935), at a Sotheby’s auction in New York to return it to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The statuette was among the memorabilia sold by the Planet Hollywood restaurant chain, which has emerged from bankruptcy protection.

On 19 July 2001 he purchased Bette Davis’ Oscar statuette, which she won for Jezebel (1938), at a Christie’s auction and returned it to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Early in his career, while working for Universal Studios, he was asked to give a tour to a special guest who had just sold the film rights to one of his books to the studio. That guest was Michael Crichton, who later worked with Spielberg on Jurassic Park (1993).

Both live-action adaptations of “The Incredible Hulk” have references to his films. The first used stock footage from Duel (1971) (TV). In the 2003 film by Ang Lee (Hulk (2003)), the impact of the Hulk hitting the ground causes ripples to form in nearby bodies of water, just as the Tyrannosaur does in Jurassic Park (1993).

Though he frequently works with Tom Hanks, Hanks is not, as of 2006, involved in Spielberg’s biopic about Abraham Lincoln, even though he is descended from the family of Lincoln’s mother, Nancy Hanks.

Owns one of the largest gun collections on the East Coast. He shoots, but only privately.

Awarded Kennedy Center Honors in 2006, with Dolly Parton, Smokey Robinson, Zubin Mehta, and Andrew Lloyd Webber.

According to Teri Garr, Spielberg told her on a set that one of his favorite movies is Viva Las Vegas (1964), starring Elvis Presley.

Is of Hungarian descent, which explains his surname, coming from the Austrian city where his ancestors lived.

Considered directing Memoirs of a Geisha (2005).

He, George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola presented Martin Scorsese with his first ever award for Best Director, for The Departed (2006).

Is a huge fan of the actors Steve Martin, Bill Murray and Robin Williams. He is also proud to admit they are good friends of his.

Was offered the opportunity to direct California Split (1974), but job went to Robert Altman.

Was originally set to direct Cape Fear (1991). He later recommended Martin Scorsese for the job and personally called the director, letting him know that this was a commercial film that had potential to be a hit, which would exercise more power for Scorcese to make his films.

Attended the funeral of Princess Diana with friends Richard Attenborough, Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman and Tom Hanks. [September 6, 1997]

Went to the same college, CSULB as Frank Miranda.

Was originally in talks to direct The Mask of Zorro (1998) but later only produced it.

Burt Reynolds film “White Lightning” (1973) was originally slated to be Spielberg’s first theatrical feature and he spent months on pre-production.

Robbie Williams mentions him in his song “I Will Talk and Hollywood Will Listen”.

2007- Ranked #2 on EW’s The 50 Smartest People in Hollywood.

Is a fan of “Doctor Who” (1963).

In 2007, Forbes estimated his earnings for the year 2006 to be $110 million.

Is a fan of video games and says that their development is intriguing to him.

His dog Elmer starred in several of his films including Jaws (1975) and Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977).

Owns homes in Pacific Palisades, California; New York City; East Hampton, New York; and Naples, Florida.

Pulled out of his role as advisor to the 2008 Beijing Olympics, reacting to the Chinese government’s inaction over the genocide in Darfur (February 2008).

Is a fan of the works of Carl Barks, and cites them as a big inspiration on his storytelling.

Dated actress Valerie Bertinelli in the late ’70s.

Turned down the opportunity to direct Deep Impact (1998) and The Mask of Zorro (1998) to work on Saving Private Ryan (1998).

Steven Spielberg receiveing Philadelphia'’s 2009 Liberty Medal

Served on the Board for the Institute for the Study of Women in Men in Society for USC. Hosted events for the intellectual society at his screening room and offices on the Universal lot in the late 1980s.

In the 5th edition of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die (edited by Steven Jay Schneider), 8 of Spielberg’s films are listed: Jaws (1975), Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial (1982), The Color Purple (1985), Jurassic Park (1993), Schindler’s List (1993) and Saving Private Ryan (1998).

When Spielberg accepted the Cecil B. DeMille award at the 66th Annual Golden Globe Awards he expressed his gratitude to DeMille for helping him come to love filmmaking in the first place, describing his earliest childhood memory of going to see DeMille’s The Greatest Show on Earth (1952) with his father. “I think my fate was probably sealed that day in 1952″, he said, recalling how the train wreck scene in that film inspired first a keen interest in electric train sets and eventually his passion for film.

Is an excellent shot with a shotgun. Actor Shia LaBeouf once said about his shooting, “He’s an Olympic shot. The hand-eye co-ordination of that man is unlike anything I’ve ever seen. If he weren’t a great director, he could be one of our greatest snipers”.

Worked with both father and son Brolin actors. He worked with James Brolin in Catch Me If You Can (2002), and Josh Brolin in The Goonies (1985) and “Into the West” (2005).

Is one of 7 directors to win the Golden Globe, Director’s Guild, BAFTA, and Oscar for the same movie, winning for Schindler’s List (1993). The other directors to achieve this are ‘Mike Nichols (I)’ for The Graduate (1967), Milos Forman for One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975), Richard Attenborough for Gandhi (1982), Oliver Stone for Platoon (1986), Ang Lee for Brokeback Mountain (2005), and Danny Boyle for Slumdog Millionaire (2008).

  

Ed Wood, Jr. Birthday October 10, 1924

 

Ed Wood, Jr.

Edward Davis Wood, Jr. (October 10, 1924 – December 10, 1978), better known as Ed Wood, was an American screenwriter, director, producer, actor, author, and editor, who often performed many of these functions simultaneously. In the 1950s, Wood made a run of cheap and poorly produced genre films, now humorously celebrated for their technical errors, unsophisticated special effects, large amounts of ill-fitting stock footage, idiosyncratic dialogue, eccentric casts and outlandish plot elements, although his flair for showmanship gave his projects at least a modicum of critical success.

Wood’s popularity waned soon after his biggest ‘name’ star, Béla Lugosi, died. He was able to salvage a saleable feature from Lugosi’s last moments on film, but his career declined thereafter. Toward the end of his life, Wood made pornographic movies and wrote pulp crime, horror, and sex novels. His posthumous fame began two years after his death, when he was awarded a Golden Turkey Award as Worst Director of All Time. The lack of conventional filmmaking ability in his work has earned Wood and his films a considerable cult following.

Following the publication of Rudolph Grey’s biography Nightmare of Ecstasy: The Life and Art of Edward D. Wood, Jr. (1992), Wood’s life and work have undergone a public rehabilitation of sorts, with new light shed on his evident zeal and honest love of movies and movie production. Tim Burton’s biopic of the director’s life, Ed Wood, earned two Academy Awards.

Trivia:

Reportedly went into battle during his stint in the marines wearing a red bra and panties under his uniform.

One of Mr. Wood’s pseudonyms (Akdov Telmig) is vodka gimlet spelled backwards…

At the time of his death, the industry newspaper, Variety, failed to run his obituary.

A surviving non-fiction manuscript, supposedly written by Wood, about working in Hollywood was published as “Hollywood Rat Race” in December 1998.

The continued interest in Wood led to two of his steamy adult paperbacks being reset and republished. They included “Death of a Transvestite” (1967, aka “Let Me Die in Drag”) republished in 1995 and 1999, and “Killer in Drag” (1965) that was republished in 1999.

Wood served in the U.S. Marine Corps during World War II and took part in the storming of the beaches at Tarawa.

His first wife, Norma McCarty, kicked him out of their house on their wedding night when she discovered he was wearing women’s underwear. The marriage was never consummated, serving as grounds for an annulment less than six months later.

Upon returning to the US following WWII, he briefly attended Northwestern University in Chicago before joining a travelling carnival (he started out as the Geek, biting the heads off of live chickens, before becoming the Half Man, Half Woman).

Enlisted in the US Marine Corps in May of 1942. His claims to wearing women’s underwear in battle never seem to distract him from his duty: In addition to taking part in combat in the Marshall Islands and Naumea, he also survived the bloody battle for Tarawa. By all accounts he was a fierce combat soldier. During the invasion he had most of his front teeth knocked out in hand-to-hand combat with a Japanese soldier. Wood later served in a G-2 (intelligence) unit in the South Pacific, until he was machine-gunned up one of his legs which then became gangrenous. He served out the remainder of his time as an office typist, and was honorably discharged in 1944. He was decorated with the Silver and Bronze Stars, two Purple Hearts, and Sharpshooter’s Medal. By all accounts, Wood was an exemplary combat soldier.

Born October 10th, the same day that his idol Orson Welles died many years later.

Is portrayed by Johnny Depp in Ed Wood (1994)

Four of his films have been lampooned on the television series “Mystery Science Theater 3000″ (1988): The Unearthly (1957), Bride of the Monster (1955), The Violent Years (1956) and The Sinister Urge (1960). MST’s producers considered including Plan 9 from Outer Space (1959), but found it had too much dialog for the show’s format, and that it would make too obvious a target, stating that “Everyone’s made fun of ‘Plan 9 From Outer Space’.” Series regular and head writer Michael J. Nelson would, however, go on to do an audio commentary for a 2006 DVD release.

One of his regular cast members was Lyle Talbot, who also played Commissioner Gordon in one of the first Batman serials. The biopic of Ed Wood was directed by Tim Burton, who also directed two Batman films.

Executor of B-actor Kenne Duncan’s estate. Duncan and Wood were good friends and long time drinking buddies. Wood held Duncan’s (a BYOB event) wake at the pool of his apartment building and invited guests to give their recollections of his friend on the diving board.

Noted actor George Zucco, whose career had hit the skids and trying to recover from a recent stroke, approached Wood about working for him in 1953. Zucco literally begged him for work, but Wood had nothing in the casting stage at the time.

Hired Lyle Talbot and Bela Lugosi at the nadir of their careers. Both actors would be paid off daily in cash, not necessarily by their demands (although Lugosi was often insistent due to his heroin habit). Wood habitually paid off everyone, cast and crew, in cash. In the last few years of his life this habit led to him being rolled stumbling out of liquor stores in the seedy neighborhood he lived in.

Profiled in Tom Weaver’ book “It Came from Weaver Five” (McFarland & Co., 1996).

Star Trek: The Motion Picture released Dec. 7, 1979

Star Trek: The Motion Picture is a 1979 science fiction film released by Paramount Pictures. It is the first film based on the Star Trek television series. When a mysterious and immensely powerful alien cloud called V’ger approaches Earth, destroying everything in its path, Admiral James T. Kirk (William Shatner) assumes command of his old starship—the USS Enterprise—to lead it on a mission to save the planet and determine V’ger’s origins.

When the original television series was cancelled in 1969, Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry lobbied Paramount to continue the franchise through a film. The success of the series in syndication convinced the studio to begin work on a feature film in 1975. A series of writers attempted to craft a suitably epic script, but the attempts did not satisfy Paramount, so the studio scrapped the project in 1977. Paramount instead planned on returning the franchise to its roots with a new television series, Star Trek: Phase II. The box office success of Close Encounters of the Third Kind convinced Paramount that science fiction films other than Star Wars could do well at the box office, so the studio canceled production of Phase II and resumed its attempts at making a Star Trek film. In 1978, Paramount assembled the largest press conference held at the studio since the 1950s to announce that Academy Award–winning director Robert Wise would helm a $15 million film adaptation of the television series.

With the cancellation of the new television series, the writers rushed to adapt the planned pilot episode of Phase II, “In Thy Image,” into a film script. Constant revisions to the story meant that new versions of the shooting script were distributed hourly. The Enterprise was completely redesigned inside and out; costume designer Robert Fletcher provided new uniforms and production designer Harold Michelson fabricated new sets. Jerry Goldsmith composed the score, beginning an association with Star Trek that would continue until 2002. When the original contractors for the optical effects proved unable to complete their tasks in time, effects supervisor Douglas Trumbull was given carte blanche to meet the December 1979 release date. The film came together only days before the premiere; Wise took the just-completed film to its Washington, D.C., opening, but always felt that the theatrical version was a rough cut of the film he wanted to make.

Released in North America on December 7, 1979, Star Trek: The Motion Picture received mixed reviews from critics, many of whom criticized the film for its lack of action and over-reliance on special effects. The final production cost ballooned to approximately $46 million. The film earned $139 million worldwide, falling short of studio expectations but enough for Paramount to propose a cheaper sequel. Roddenberry was forced out of creative control for Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. In 2001, Wise created a director’s cut for a special DVD release of the film; a team remastered the audio, tightened and added scenes, and used new computer-generated effects to complete his vision.

Directed by Robert Wise

Star Trek The Motion Picture Cast

Writers
  Television series Star Trek
   Gene Roddenberry
  Story
   Alan Dean Foster
  Screenplay
   Harold Livingston

Producers
  David C. Fein … producer (2001 director’s edition)
  Jon Povill … associate producer
  Gene Roddenberry … producer

Cast
  William Shatner … Admiral James T. Kirk
  Leonard Nimoy … Mr. Spock
  DeForest Kelley … Dr. Leonard ‘Bones’ McCoy
  James Doohan … Cmdr. Montgomery ‘Scotty’ Scott
  George Takei … Lt. Cmdr. Hikaru Sulu
  Majel Barrett … Dr. Christine Chapel
  Walter Koenig … Lt. Pavel Chekov
  Nichelle Nichols … Lt. Cmdr. Uhura
  Persis Khambatta … Lt. Ilia
  Stephen Collins … Cmdr. Willard Decker
  Grace Lee Whitney … CPO Janice Rand
  Mark Lenard … Klingon Captain
  Billy Van Zandt … Alien Boy
  Roger Aaron Brown … Epsilon Technician
  Gary Faga … Airlock Technician
  David Gautreaux … Cmdr. Branch
  John D. Gowans … Assistant to Rand
  Howard Itzkowitz … Cargo Deck Ensign
  Jon Rashad Kamal … Cmdr. Sonak
  Marcy Lafferty … Chief DiFalco
  Michele Ameen Billy … Lieutenant
  Jeri McBride … Technician
  Terrence O’Connor … Chief Ross
  Michael Rougas … Lt. Cleary
  Susan J. Sullivan … Vice-Adm. Lori Ciana

Plot

A Starfleet monitoring station detects an alien force hidden in a massive cloud of energy moving through space towards Earth. The cloud destroys three Klingon warships and the monitoring station en route. On Earth, the starship Enterprise is undergoing a major refit; its former commander, James T. Kirk, has been promoted to Admiral and works in San Francisco as Chief of Starfleet Operations. Starfleet dispatches the Enterprise to investigate the cloud entity as the ship is the only one in intercept range, requiring its new systems to be tested in transit.

Persis Khambatta

Kirk takes command of the ship citing his experience, angering Captain Willard Decker, who had been overseeing the refit as its new commanding officer. Testing of Enterprise’s new systems goes poorly; two officers, including the science officer, are killed by a malfunctioning transporter, and improperly calibrated engines almost destroy the ship. The tension between Kirk and Decker increases when the admiral demonstrates his unfamiliarity with Enterprise. Spock arrives as replacement science officer, explaining that while on his home world undergoing a ritual to purge all emotion, he felt a consciousness that he believes emanates from the cloud.

The Enterprise intercepts the energy cloud and is heavily damaged by an alien vessel. A probe appears on the bridge, attacks Spock and abducts the navigator, Ilia. She is replaced by a robotic doppelgänger, a probe sent by “V’ger” to study the crew. Decker is distraught over the loss of Ilia, with whom he had a romantic history. He becomes troubled as he attempts to extract information from the doppelgänger, which has Ilia’s memories and feelings buried within. Spock takes a spacewalk to the alien vessel’s surface and attempts a telepathic mind meld with it. In doing so, he learns that the vessel is V’ger itself, a living machine.

At the heart of the massive ship, V’ger is revealed to be Voyager 6, a 20th-century Earth space probe believed lost. The damaged probe was found by an alien race of living machines that interpreted its programming as instructions to learn all that can be learned, and return that information to its creator. The machines upgraded the probe to fulfill its mission, and on its journey the probe gathered so much knowledge that it achieved consciousness. Spock realizes that V’ger lacks the ability to give itself a focus other than its original mission; having learned what it could on its journey home, it finds its existence empty and without purpose. Before transmitting all its information, V’ger insists that the Creator come in person to finish the sequence. Realizing that the machine wants to merge with its creator, Decker offers himself to V’ger; he merges with the Ilia probe and V’ger, creating a new form of life that disappears into another dimension. With Earth saved, Kirk directs the Enterprise out to space for future missions.

Trivia
Viewing Spock’s mind meld with V’Ger frame by frame shows images of the Klingons, Ilia, Epsilon IX, and the Voyager VI space probe.

Paramount then announced that they would be creating a new TV network, initially operating one night a week showing Paramount TV-movies and a new “Star Trek” series about the Enterprise’s second 5-year mission, with most of the original cast and the title “Star Trek Phase II”. It soon became clear that they could not make a go of the new network, but Paramount continued work on the new series in the hope of selling it to one of the existing networks.

For a previous unproduced TV series of his called “Genesis II”, Gene Roddenberry had created a story he called “Robot’s Return”. This was now rewritten for “Star Trek” by Alan Dean Foster under the title “In Thy Image”, and proposed as the two-hour premiere episode of “Star Trek Phase II”. However, Paramount executive ‘Michael Eisner’ responded, “We’ve been looking for the feature for five years and this is it”, and made the final decision to forget the new series and produce the story as a movie.

The decision was made in August 1977, but in order to keep the team together during the necessary renegotiation of contracts, Paramount kept it secret until March 1978; when Rona Barrett broke the secret in December 1977, they denied it. Meanwhile, they pretended that the TV series was still going to happen, even soliciting scripts for episodes that would never be made. Sets built for the TV series were used in the movie, but modelwork had to be redone after the changeover was made public, due to the need for finer detailing in a movie.

Director Robert E. Collins, whose background was mostly in television, was hired to direct the two-hour premiere, but after the change to a movie, Paramount wanted a more experienced director and replaced him with Robert Wise.

Gene Roddenberry wanted Alan Dean Foster to write the final script for the film, but Harold Livingston thought him too inexperienced and tried to hire Steven Bochco, who was unavailable; Michael Cimino, who wasn’t interested; and Bill L. Norton, who initially accepted but found it beyond his capabilities. In the end Livingston did the job himself. He disagreed repeatedly with Roddenberry over rewrites and other matters, and quit and returned several times.

The TV series was to have three new regular characters. Paramount was concerned that William Shatner might ask for too much money to continue playing Kirk if the run of the series was extended beyond the initial order of 13 episodes; the character of Decker was created so that if Kirk had to be written out, Decker could become the series’ new lead role. Decker was played in the movie by Stephen Collins.

Leonard Nimoy declined to return as Spock for the series, so a new Vulcan character called Lieutenant Xon was created to be the new science officer. An employee of an agent was dating a young actor, David Gautreaux, who had no agent of his own; she suggested him for the part and he got it, then was told that it was actually for a movie. When Nimoy finally agreed to do the movie, Spock replaced Xon in the script and Gautreaux was given the smaller part of Commander Branch.

The character of Lieutenant Ilia, played by Persis Khambatta, was also intended as a continuing role in the TV series.

The original version of the “Space Walk” sequence had both Spock and Captain Kirk travelling through V’ger. Because it complicated the flow of the film, the scene was reshot with Spock alone, and that’s what’s seen in the final cut. However, a fraction of this alternate scene remains in the longer version, where Kirk says, “I have him in sight”.

The V’ger prop was so large and involved so much work that one end of it was being used in scenes while the other end was still being built.

In the scene where Kirk addresses the crew prior to launching, much of the crew were extras who were noted Star Trek fans, including Bjo Trimble, co-organizer of the letter-writing campaign that kept the original Star Trek alive for a third season.

It was understood in the script, but not in the film, that Commander Willard Decker was the son of Commodore Matthew Decker, the half-crazed starship captain who committed suicide in the Star Trek episode ‘The Doomsday Machine’.

Jerry Goldsmith’s Academy Award-nominated score featured a special musical instrument called the ‘Blaster Beam’, an instrument 15 feet long, incorporating artillery shell casings and motorized magnets. It was used as part of any scene featuring V’ger. The instrument was invented by former child star turned New Age musician Craig Hundley who, in his youth, had portrayed Captain Kirk’s nephew, Peter Kirk, in the Star Trek episode, ‘Operation – Annihilate!’. He appeared in another episode as Tommy Starnes in ‘And the Children Shall Lead’.

Gene Roddenberry so loved the main theme from the score that he reused it for Star Trek: The Next Generation.

The voice of actress Majel Barrett (who plays Dr. Christine Chapel and was Gene Roddenberry’s wife) was used for Star Fleet computers such as that of the Enterprise throughout the “Star Trek” franchise, from the original Star Trek series through to the Star Trek reimagining. Her voice in this picture is already very recognizable although she doesn’t have a lot of lines.

Because of the need to re-build sets and models when the production switched from a television series to a big-budget feature film, the production was already ten weeks behind schedule before a single frame was shot. Director Robert Wise repeatedly considered quitting the production, and at one point even suggested that Paramount cancel the project altogether.

Robert Wise was convinced to accept the position as director by his wife, who was a huge fan of the original Star Trek television series. His wife was also instrumental in convincing Wise to campaign for Leonard Nimoy’s return to the project.

Prior to production, Gene Roddenberry joked that he wanted Richard Burton for the role of Kirk and Robert Redford to play Spock. The joke was reported as fact by some media. The role of Decker wasn’t cast until days before production started. Actors considered included: Andrew Robinson – who later played Elim Garak on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine), Jordan Clarke, ‘Richard Kelton (I)’, Lance Henriksen, Tim Thomerson, ‘Stephen Macht (I)’, Art Hindle and Frederic Forrest.

This film marked the first appearance of the ridged-forehead Klingons. In the original TV series Gene Roddenberry wanted the Klingons to look alien, but budget constraints prevented this from being done beyond giving the actors dark mark-up and fake eyebrows. The change in the Klingons’ appearance was partially addressed in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode, ‘Trials and Tribble-ations’, establishing the existence of smooth-forehead Klingons. However, ridged-forehead Klingons appeared in the prequel series Star Trek: Enterprise prompting a satisfactory explanation to the brief existence of smooth-forehead Klingons. The episodes ‘Affliction’ and ‘Divergence’ showed their existence resulted from a viral mutation caused by Klingon experimentation with enhanced human DNA.

The original TV series theme by Alexander Courage can be heard briefly during Kirk’s log entry after Spock rejoins the crew. It can also be heard during two more “Captain’s Log” dictations. Except for the opening fanfare which became a regular part of later Trek films and a small excerpt heard at the end of Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, and a significant reference toward the end of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, this is the only time in the film series that the television theme is heard in a major fashion.

Marcy Lafferty, who plays DiFalco, was married to William Shatner at the time.

In the DVD making of documentary, William Shatner says that at the time they were filming, there was no clear end to the film and that the writers were constantly re-writing the ending. He recalls that at one point he came up with what he considered a good ending and pitched it to co-star Leonard Nimoy who thought it was a good idea. They then went together to Robert Wise to pitch the idea to him. Wise also liked the idea. Now Shatner had to pitch it to Gene Roddenberry. Shatner claims that by the time he pitched the ending to Roddenberry that he was so exhausted from mustering up the energy to pitch the idea (in addition to the energy he use to work on the film) that his pitch didn’t go over so well and Gene Roddenberry rejected it. In his book “Star Trek Movie Memories” (1994), Shatner recalls the story differently: the scene in question is the one in which the Enterprise crew starts to leave the bridge in order to show the Ilia/Probe it is acting like a little child. When Roddenberry rejected it, Robert Wize got Harold Livingston to write the scene instead.

James Doohan’s twin sons, Montgomery Doohan and Christopher Doohan, appear as extras in the movie.

Uhura’s communications earpieces are the only original props from the original TV series. They were dug out of storage when it was realized someone had forgotten to make new ones for the movie.

Persis Khambatta became very emotional about having her head shaved for her role. She kept her shorn hair in a box for a time and asked Gene Roddenberry to take out insurance in case her hair didn’t grow back. It did.

The Klingon words spoken by the Klingon ship’s captain were actually invented by actor James Doohan (Commander Scott). Later, linguist Marc Okrand devised grammar and syntax rules for the language, along with more vocabulary words in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, and wrote a Klingon dictionary.

All of the extras in the rec-deck briefing sequence were Star Trek fans called upon to appear in the film. Most of their checks were not cashed; Harve Bennett said that they were probably framed as souvenirs by the fans.

Post-production went on right up until the day before the film’s world premiere. Because time was so short, all the prints of the film were shipped “wet” – fresh from the duplication lab – and were airlifted directly out from a warehouse on the Paramount lot as they were assembled. Rewrites took place daily during filming, most of them on the order of William Shatner or Leonard Nimoy dropping lines that were superfluous (“My character wouldn’t say that”, etc). The logistics of the very end of the film – Decker merging with V’Ger – was devised more or less on the spot.

When Spock mindmelds with the giant Ilia, a number of images are reflected across his spacesuit’s visor. Viewing the sequence in slow motion, you can see pictures foreshadowing V’ger’s identity.

Among the extras in the crew briefing sequence was writer David Gerrold, who had created the Tribbles for the original Star Trek series.

Many story ideas were considered during the early planning stages, including the Enterprise meeting God, preventing Kennedy’s assassination, becoming the Greek Titans, and trying to prevent a black hole from swallowing the galaxy. The Enterprise meeting God was used for Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, while preventing the Kennedy assassination was briefly reconsidered for Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home before it was rejected again.

Gene Roddenberry had asked his wife Majel Barrett – Christine Chapel – if she would don fur and a tail to “reprise” the role of Lieutenant M’Ress from the animated Star Trek. She refused.

For the DVD release, the producers toyed with the idea of digitally inserting a shot of the NX-01 Enterprise (Jonathan Archer’s ship from the prequel series Star Trek: Enterprise) into the rec room scene where Decker shows Ilia a display of previous ships named Enterprise. The idea was eventually dropped, possibly since the shot would not be able to be seen clearly anyway (the pictures were not easily legible onscreen). The NX-01 would have replaced the shot of the ‘ringed’ S.S. Enterprise – which eventually appeared on “Enterprise” anyway (in the bar scene in the episode “First Flight”).

Leonard Nimoy agreed to appear in the film only after Paramount agreed to a settlement of his lawsuit against them for allowing his TV series likeness to be used by advertisers.

The producers and the cast were very worried about their appearance after being away from Star Trek for ten years. Special lighting and camera tricks were used to hide the cast’s aging, and William Shatner went on a near-starvation diet prior to filming. However, in all subsequent Star Trek movies it was decided to make the aging of the crew part of the story.

WILHELM SCREAM: In Engineering when Enterprise is attacked by the V’GER blast (“Special Edition” only), and in the transporter chamber, when Commanders Sonak and Ciani lose their patterns from its malfunction.

So far, this film still has the longest running time of any Star Trek movie. In fact, until the release of Star Trek this was the only one to break the two-hour mark.

Jerry Goldsmith’s famous theme for the movie almost didn’t happen. One of the first scenes Goldsmith scored was the scene when Kirk and Scotty do a flyover of the refit Enterprise. Robert Wise liked the music that Goldsmith composed, but in the end, he rejected it, saying it didn’t fit the movie because it lacked a theme/motif. Goldsmith went back to the drawing board and composed the famous theme that has become a staple of the Star Trek universe.

James Doohan also devised the Vulcan words heard during the Kolinahr sequence. The scenes were originally shot in English, and when it was decided to change the dialogue to Vulcan, Doohan wrote lines that fit the existing lip movements. Some of the subtitles were rearranged to make this less obvious.

Orson Welles narrated trailers for the film.

After the original Star Trek TV series proved a success in syndication, Paramount became interested in making a “Star Trek” movie. Writers who contributed ideas or draft scripts in 1975-77 included Gene Roddenberry, Jon Povill, Robert Silverberg, John D.F. Black, Harlan Ellison, Theodore Sturgeon, and Ray Bradbury. A story called “Star Trek: Planet of Titans” was selected; Chris Bryant and Allan Scott wrote a script, which was then rewritten by Philip Kaufman. At this point Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope burst upon the world, and Paramount reacted by canceling “Star Trek: Planet of Titans” before pre-production started. Allegedly they thought there wasn’t a sufficient market for another big science-fiction film.

Visual effects supervisor Douglas Trumbull claims that although the models built for the film were quite large, they were in fact not large enough to facilitate shooting many of the desired camera angles. The production had to commission a special periscope lens system from Panavision which allowed the shots to be accomplished. To achieve maximum depth-of-field, many of the shots also required very long exposure times of up to several minutes per frame.

The images of the interior of the V’ger cloud were created using airbrush paintings. Led by animation supervisor Alison Yerxa, a team of animators created thousands of air-brushings using white paint on black paper. These were then photographed, made into transparencies, and used as positive and negative masks on a special multi-plane animation camera. Color tints were then added using filters during the optical composting process. The sequence was inspired by a Canadian documentary called Universe, which visual effects supervisor Douglas Trumbull had seen during the making of 2001: A Space Odyssey.

At one time, according to the Guinness Book of Records, this was the most expensive film ever made with a total production cost of US$46 million.

Some of the clothing worn by the aliens in the movie (seen at Starfleet Headquarters) was made from unused bolts of cloth left over from The Ten Commandments

Director Robert Wise’s wife, Millicent, is also part of the crew in the Rec Room scene. She can be seen in front, close to David Gerrold.

In the DVD “making-of” documentary, there is archival behind the scenes footage of tests for make-up, costumes, and sets. Among the footage shown is an early screen test for Persis Khambatta as Lieutenant Ilia. In the test, she is wearing a female uniform from the original TV series: A gold one-piece mini-skirt dress with a Lieutenant stripe, black pantyhose, and black boots. This is due to the fact that it was her screen test for the aborted “Star Trek – Phase II” series, which was going to re-use the “Original Series” costume designs.

The amazing popularity of Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope had a definite impact on the storyline, pacing and even marketing of Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Many hardcore sci-fi fans (including prominent sci-fi writers) viewed Star Wars as mere fantasy, an updating of Buck Rogers/Flash Gordon level matinee fluff. Gene Roddenberry always saw Star Trek as a more serious endeavor, and did not want Star Trek: The Motion Picture to be seen as “cashing in”. So the story for Star Trek: The Motion Picture was pushed toward more sophisticated and complex ideas, the decision was made to have no battle scenes of any type. In fact, the earliest Presskit promotional material for newspaper ads had as the main line, “There Is No Comparison”.

Almost all of the dialogue in the Enterprise bridge scenes had to be overdubbed by the actors in post-production. This was due to the fact that the animation/graphics seen on the bridge station display monitors was projected from behind the bridge set walls by dozens of 16 mm projectors (one for each display screen), as computer technology was not advanced enough at the time to use real computer monitors on a practical basis. As a result, the clattering sound of the noisy projectors nearly drowned out the voices of the actors, and their dialogue had to be dubbed over later at considerable added time and expense.

Just before the Epsilon IX station is destroyed by V’Ger, Cmdr. Branch (David Gautreaux) mentions that the size of the V’Ger cloud is “My God – over 82 AUs in diameter”. For comparative purposes, the distance between Earth and the Sun is 1 AU (short for “Astronomical Unit”) and the distance between the Sun and Pluto ranges between 30-40 AUs, which would mean the V’Ger cloud could theoretically encompass the entire Solar System! In the Director’s Cut, the line is altered by skillful sound editing, making the size of the cloud only “over 2 AU’s in diameter” – Wise perhaps (Wisely) decided 82 AUs was just too much.

For the Director’s Cut, Robert Wise received permission and a budget to complete the film as he had originally intended. Several special effects scenes, that could not be finished in 1979 due to time and budget constraints, were redone, sometimes with the use of the original models. A completely original model of V’Ger, as it appeared when the surrounding clouds had dissipated, was based on the cross-sectional reading of the ship that appeared on a screen in the movie. A computerized “model” of the Enterprise was created, using the original physical model as reference, to create new CGI shots.

When Spock travels through V’ger and sees all the incredible imagery, Darth Vader and Miss Piggy can be seen. It comes right after his line “Who or what are we dealing with?”. There are not actual photos of the two characters in this sequence. What you are actually seeing is an overhead perspective of the Epsilon IX station. The “Vader” mask is the antenna relays and the “Miss Piggy” snout is most likely the command tower. There are no actual photos of either of the characters.

Had this movie aired as a two-hour TV series premiere as intended, the episode title would have been “In Thy Image.”

Marvel Comics did a three-issue adaptation of this movie to kick-off their new Star Trek comic series. It was a good adaptation of this movie, except that they used the Memory Wall sequence instead of the Spock Walk sequence. It appears that they were using the original script as the basis for their adaptation and didn’t know the Memory Wall scene had been scrapped.

Another theory put forth on the Star Trek convention circuit as to the new look of the Klingons, was that any Klingon personnel that were expected to have any contact with human or other human-like races,(such as any posting near the neutral zone or for diplomatic missions,) were surgically altered to more easily blend in. That is why all the original series Klingons were “ridgeless.” Supposedly, according to the Star Trek rumor mill, by the time the motion picture came out, the story line says that the Klingons had abandoned this practice because they realized that their physical alterations made little difference with regards to how they were perceived.

The story of Star Trek: The Motion Picture is basically the same as “The Changeling” episode from the original series. In the episode, an Earth probe (Nomad) is merged with alien technology and goes on a murderous rampage destroying that which is not “perfect.”

In this movie, Mark Lenard plays a Klingon ship captain; this is the third alien species in the Star Trek franchise that the actor played – the first was the Romulan commander the Original Series episode “Balance of Terror,” then a recurring role as Spock’s father, Vulcan Ambassador Sarek.

The first time in the Star Trek canon that Yeoman Rand and Chekov have appeared together.

-Source(s) IMDB, Wikipedia

Amazon Specials!

Joe Dante Birthday November 28

Joe Dante

Joseph James “Joe” Dante (born November 28, 1946) is an American film director and producer of films generally with humorous and scifi content.

His films include Piranha (1978) and The Howling (1981), both from scripts by John Sayles; Segment 3 of Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983); Gremlins (1984), his first major hit, and its sequel Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990); Explorers (1985), Innerspace (1987), Amazon Women on the Moon (1987); The ‘Burbs (1989), Matinee (1993), Runaway Daughters (1994), The Second Civil War (1997), The Warlord: Battle for the Galaxy (1998), Small Soldiers (1998), Looney Tunes: Back in Action (2003), and Homecoming (2005). In 1995-1996, Dante worked on The Phantom, and when he was removed from the film, he chose screen credit (as executive producer) rather than pay.  He was creative consultant on Eerie, Indiana (1991-1992) and directed five episodes. He played himself in the series finale.

Always casts Dick Miller in a cameo or supporting role.

Frequently has films/TV shows with themes similar to the movie in various scenes.

Always includes a reference to the Warner Bros. cartoons somewhere in each of his works.

Frequently casts Robert Picardo in supporting roles or cameos.

Frequently casts William Schallert in supporting roles or cameos.

Frequently hired composer Jerry Goldsmith.

Frequently casts Kevin McCarthy.

Frequently casts Ron Perlman in supporting roles or cameos.

Trivia

Former Roger Corman protégé. Also helped by Steven Spielberg.

Directors he has cited as his principal influences include Chuck Jones, Frank Tashlin, James Whale, Roger Corman, and Jean Cocteau.

Was interested in directing Batman (1989).

Was scheduled to direct a Jaws (1975) parody (under the National Lampoon banner) in the early 1980s called “Jaws 3 People 0″. Universal Pictures dropped this concept in favor of a “straight” film (which became the critical and financial flop Jaws 3-D (1983)).

 

Dracula Has Risen from the Grave released November 24, 1968

Dracula Has Risen from the Grave is a 1968 British horror film directed by Freddie Francis for Hammer Films. It stars Christopher Lee as Count Dracula, with support from Rupert Davies, Veronica Carlson, Barry Andrews, Barbara Ewing, Ewan Hooper and Michael Ripper.

The world of the film is arguably far darker and more ambiguous than the world created by director Terence Fisher for the previous three films in the Dracula series.

Dracula Has Risen from the Grave is the Sequel to “Prince of Darkness” (1966).

Veronica Carlson and Christopher Lee

Directed by Freddie Francis

Writer – John Elder

Producer – Aida Young 

Cast
  Christopher Lee … Dracula
  Rupert Davies … Monsignor Ernest Mueller
  Veronica Carlson … Maria Mueller
  Barbara Ewing … Zena
  Barry Andrews … Paul
  Ewan Hooper … Priest
  Marion Mathie … Anna Mueller
  Michael Ripper … Max
  John D. Collins … Student
  George A. Cooper … Landlord
  Chris Cunningham … Farmer
  Norman Bacon … Mute Boy
 
 The Story: (Spoiler Alert!!)

A year has passed since the demise of Dracula, buried under the ice in the river that flows past his castle. Ernst Mueller [Rupert Davies], monsignor of the monastery at Kleinberg, has decided to visit the village to see that all is well. What he finds is appalling. The village priest [Ewan Hooper] has become an alcoholic. The villagers will not attend Sunday Mass because the shadow of Dracula’s castle touches the church during the evening hours. The Monsignor decides to exorcise the castle and prove to the villagers that the evil is gone. He and the priest climb the hill to the castle, but the priest chickens out halfway. The Monsignor continues alone to the castle door where he performs his exorcism and seals the castle door with a large cross. The priest, in the meantime, is taking swigs from his hipflask. He stumbles over a cliff, cuts his head, lands on the river ice, causing it to crack open just above Dracula’s body. The priest’s blood drips through the cracked ice, flowing into Dracula’s mouth, and Dracula is thus resurrected.

Veronica Carlson

Barred from his castle by the cross on the door, Dracula [Christopher Lee] must now find other lodgings. He enslaves the priest, forcing him to dig up a new coffin for him. He also forces him to reveal who is responsible for the exorcism. The coffin is loaded onto a funeral coach, and the priest and Dracula head toward Kleinberg. His exorcism finished, the Monsignor also returns to Kleinberg where he lives with his brother’s widow Anna [Marion Mathe] and his niece Maria [Veronica Carlson]. It is Maria’s birthday, and a dinner party is planned for her. Tonight, Maria will introduce her boyfriend Paul [Barry Anderson], who she has been climbing over the rooftops to meet secretly) to her family. Paul works as a baker at the Johann Cafe and engages in scholarly studies during his spare time. Scared to meet Maria’s family for the first time, Paul’s plight is not helped when his friends at the cafe spill beer down his shirt. Still, all goes well at the dinner until Paul, in a fit of truthfulness, admits to the Monsignor that he is an atheist. Paul returns to the cafe, downs 3 glasses of Schnapps, and passes out. The waitress Xena [Barbara Ewing] carries him up to bed just as Maria enters through a window.

On her way home, Xena is attacked by Dracula. With Xena’s help, Dracula and his coffin are moved into a storage room in the cafe cellar, and the priest takes a room at the cafe. The next evening, when Maria drops by the cafe to see Paul, Xena leads her into the bakery, covers her head with a bag, and takes her to see Dracula. Maria escapes, however, when Paul comes looking for her, and she tells of being attacked by a man “with burning eyes.” Angry at the failed attempt, Dracula kills Xena and orders the priest to destroy her in the furnace fire. Later that night, Dracula comes to Maria’s bedside and drinks from her. He returns the next night but, just as he prepares to drink from her, the Monsignor enters the room. Dracula sees the cross in the Monsignor’s hand and leaps from the window. The Monsignor attempts to follow but is knocked out by the priest. As the Monsignor lies dying, he sends for Paul and tells him what he must do to save Maria. Paul finds Dracula’s coffin and drives a stake through his heart but, because neither he nor the priest can pray to God, Dracula succeeds in removing the stake. He escapes, summons Maria and, together with the priest, they return to Dracula’s castle. Paul gets a horse and follows.

Upon reaching the castle, Dracula forces Maria to remove the cross from the castle door. As she throws it down the cliff, Paul arrives. He and Dracula battle. They both fall off the porch. Paul catches a branch on the way down but Dracula falls to the ground where he is impaled upon the cross just tossed away by Maria. As the priest recites the Pater Noster, Dracula turns to dust.

Production Info:

This was the first of the Hammer Dracula films to be shot at Elstree Studios in London. Notably missing are the approach road, coach path and moat seen in front of Castle Dracula in 1958′s Dracula and 1966′s Dracula: Prince of Darkness. Those films were made at Bray Studios.

The film was photographed by Arthur Grant using colored filters belonging to director Freddie Francis, also a cameraman by trade, who used them when photographing The Innocents (1961). Whenever Dracula (or his castle) is in a scene, the frame edges are tinged crimson, amber and yellow.

In Australia, the film was the first Hammer Dracula to be passed by the censors; the previous films Dracula (1958) and Dracula: Prince of Darkness (1966) were banned. The film was slightly censored and ran for a three-week season at Sydney’s Capitol theatre in January 1970. In the US, the film was rated G. ……… Source(s) IMDB, Wikipedia

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Dracula vs. Frankenstein released November 1971

Dracula vs. Frankenstein is a 1971 horror film directed by Al Adamson.

 Cast
  J. Carrol Naish … Dr. Frankenstein, aka Dr. Duryea
  Lon Chaney … Groton
  Anthony Eisley … Mike Howard
  Regina Carrol … Judith Fontaine
  Greydon Clark … Strange
  Zandor Vorkov … Count Dracula
  Angelo Rossitto … Grazbo
  Anne Morrell … Samantha
  William Bonner … Biker
  Russ Tamblyn … Rico
  Jim Davis … Police Sgt. Martin
  John Bloom … Frankenstein’s Monster
  Shelly Weiss … The Creature
  Forest J Ackerman … Dr. Beaumont

Story: During the day, Doctor Duryea [J Carroll Naish] runs the Creature Emporium [a sideshow in an amusement park near the beach in Venice, California] from his wheelchair but, by night, Duryea is a mad scientist working on some sort of blood serum. For this serum he needs the blood of women who were scared to death, as it is their fear that “energizes the molecular structure of their blood”. To do this, he has his zombie Groton [Lon Chaney Jr] behead girls with an axe and then bring him their bodies. Duryea then rejunvenates them so that he can harvest their blood.

One day Dr Duryea is visited by Count Dracula [Zandor Vorkov] who has found the remains of the original Frankenstein monster. In exchange for some of Duryea’s serum (which will make Dracula invincable), Dracula offers the doctor the use of the Frankenstein monster [John Bloom] in order to get revenge on Duryea’s adversary, Dr Beaumont [Forrest J Ackerman]. Together, they reanimate the monster and he does eventually kill Beaumont.

Meanwhile, Las Vegas showgirl Judith Fontaine [Regina Carrol] is searching for her sister Joanie, who disappeared after joining a group of hippies who hang near the Creature Emporium. Police Sgt Martin [Jim Davis] has been of no help, so Judith goes to the local hippie hangout and shows around a photo of her sister. No one has seen her. When someone slips some LSD into her coffee, Judith winds up on the couch of aging hippie Mike Howard[Anthony Eisley], who offers his help (along with a few kisses). When they learn that Joanie was last seen at the Creature Emporium, they pay a visit to Dr Duryea, but he claims to have never seen Joanie.

Meanwhile, more girls have turned up missing and a few male bodies have been found chopped to bits on the beach. When friend Samantha [Anne Morrell] is carried through a trapdoor under the Creature Emporium, Mike and Judith break in and discover, to their horror, the undead bodies of all the girls, including Joanie [Marie Lease], that the doctor has been using. In the fight that ensues, Dr Duryea is beheaded in his guillotine and Groton is shot by Sgt Martin. Judith is carried off by Dracula. Mike frees Judith but, as they run away, Dracula zaps Mike with his ring of fire, burning him to a crisp. Dracula and the Frankenstein monster carry Judith to an old abandoned church where Dracula ties her to a chair and prepares to make her immortal, but the Frankenstein monster has a sudden change of heart and protects her.

Dracula and the Frankenstein monster duke it out. Their fight carries them outside into the surrounding woods. Dracula bests the Frankenstein monster by pulling off his arms and head. But the sun is rising, and Dracula must get back to his coffin. He makes a dash for the church door but collapses on the stairs and burns up in the morning sun. Judith unties her binds and gets away.

 Trivia
Final film appearances of J. Carrol Naish and Lon Chaney Jr..           

Originally planned as a sequel to Satan’s Sadists, with Russ Tamblyn and other “bikers” reprising their parts from that film. However, not long after filming began, it was decided to turn it into a horror film instead of a biker picture and much of the footage with Tamblyn and other actors from the first film was cut out. They were unable to cut them completely out of the movie, though, which is why Tamblyn and his biker gang seem to be wandering in and out of the film, with no connection to the story line and with not much to do.

It was originally intended to have Dracula turn Frankenstein’s Monster into a bloodthirsty vampire, so the Monster could better serve the Count’s purpose. The idea was dropped, however, when the fangs kept falling out of actor John Bloom’s mouth, which he couldn’t keep in due to his heavy makeup.

Much of the electrical lab equipment in Duryea’s lab are props originally used in Frankenstein. Ken Strickfaden, who had designed all the electrical gadgetry in that film, supplied the equipment.

In his scene confronting Count Dracula, J. Carrol Naish looks noticeably older than he does elsewhere in the film. This is due to the time that had elapsed between the bulk of his scenes, when it was intended as a different film entirely, and the Dracula/Frankenstein scenes that were grafted on later.

Regina Carrol and victim

At this point in his career, J. Carrol Naish was very ill and frail and could no longer remember dialogue, so he read it off cue cards. However, he had only one real eye, so in his dialogue closeups you can see one eye moving back and forth, reading the lines, while the other eye remains fixed in position.

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Martin Scorsese Birthday Nov. 17

Martin Marcantonio Luciano Scorsese (born November 17, 1942) is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and film historian. He is the founder of the World Cinema Foundation, a recipient of the AFI Life Achievement Award for his contributions to the cinema and has won awards from the Oscars, Golden Globe, BAFTA, and Directors Guild of America. Scorsese is president of the Film Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to film preservation and the prevention of the decaying of motion picture film stock.

Scorsese’s body of work addresses such themes as Italian American identity, Roman Catholic concepts of guilt and redemption, machismo, and violence. Scorsese is widely considered to be one of the most significant and influential American filmmakers of his era, directing landmark films such as Taxi Driver, Raging Bull and Goodfellas; all of which he collaborated on with actor Robert De Niro. He won the Academy Award for Best Director for The Departed and earned an MFA in film directing from the New York University Tisch School of the Arts.

Trivia:

Listed as one of 50 people barred from entering Tibet. Disney clashed with Chinese officials over the film Kundun (1997), which Scorsese directed. [19 December 1996]

Awarded third annual John Huston Award for Artists Rights by the Artists Rights Foundation. [1995]

Presented with a special tribute at the 1976 Telluride Film Festival. It was presented by Michael Powell. [1976]

He is a longtime friend and was once a housemate of The Band’s Robbie Robertson. He directed The Last Waltz (1978), the documentary of their supposedly last gig which Robertson produced. Robertson later produced the soundtrack for Scorsese’s The Color of Money (1986).

Good friends with editor Thelma Schoonmaker & cinematographer Michael Ballhaus. Scorsese introduced Thelma to her husband Michael Powell and he often quotes Powell as an influence.

His name is pronounced “Scor-sez-see”.

He directed Michael Jackson’s Bad (1987) (V) music video. The full length video runs 16 minutes and is in both black & white and color. It is usually shortened down to just the color segment for television.

He appears as attached to his pet white Bichon Frise Zoe as he was to his beloved parents – except Zoe is right beside Marty every day in the office.

Daughter Francesca Scorsese born. [16 November 1999]

John Woo dedicated his action film Dip huet seung hung (1989) (“The Killer”) to Scorsese on a commentary he did for the movie’s DVD.

Daughter Domenica Cameron-Scorsese with Julia Cameron.

Taught both Oliver Stone and Spike Lee at NYU.

Was at one point going to make a movie about the life of comedian Richard Pryor.

He was an altar boy at Old St. Patrick’s Cathedral, which was used in his early films I Call First (1967) and Mean Streets (1973). Old St. Patrick’s is also where the baptism scene in The Godfather (1972) took place.

Was at one point slated to direct Clockers (1995), but for reasons that are not entirely clear, handed the directing chores to his onetime NYU student Spike Lee, while staying on as producer. He was also at one point going to direct Little Shop of Horrors (1986) for David Geffen, with Steven Spielberg as the executive producer. He was ultimately uninvolved, but claims that he wanted to shoot the movie in 3-D. It no doubt would have been a loving homage to Roger Corman, for whom he directed Boxcar Bertha (1972).

He took a cameo in his film Taxi Driver (1976) (as a man about to kill his wife) only because the actor who was supposed to play the role was sick on the day the scene was to be shot. Says he is generally uncomfortable in front of the camera.

Has a dog named Silas.

Is the subject of the song “Martin Scorsese” by alternative band King Missile.

Father of actress Cathy Scorsese from his first marriage.

Is of Italian-Sicilian descent.

Has asthma.

Of the three films he’s been trying to make since the mid-1970s, he has done two: The Last Temptation of Christ (1988) and Gangs of New York (2002). The third film, a biopic of Dean Martin called “Dino”, has been on hiatus at Warner Brothers since the late 1990s. Scorsese has a very specific all A-list cast in mind, probably why it has yet to be produced. He wants Tom Hanks to star as Martin, Jim Carrey to play Jerry Lewis, John Travolta to play Frank Sinatra, Hugh Grant to play Peter Lawford, and Adam Sandler to play Joey Bishop.

Was voted the 4th greatest director of all time by Entertainment Weekly, making him the only living person in the top 5 and the only working film director in the top 10 (Ingmar Bergman being retired as a filmmaker).

Appeared on “Curb Your Enthusiasm” (2000) as a shrill version of himself who comes to regret his decision to cast Larry David as a violent gangster in a movie after David repeatedly ruins the suit he needs to wear as the character.

Several characters in his films refer to the legendary (noir) actor John Garfield, star of the original The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946), which is also mentioned.

He was one of three major directors to have been offered the opportunity to direct Schindler’s List (1993) by producer Steven Spielberg, the other two being Roman Polanski and Billy Wilder. Scorsese thought a Jewish filmmaker should direct it; Polanski wasn’t yet ready to deal with the painful subject (having lost his mother in the Holocaust); and Wilder (who was retired and who lost his mother and grandmother in the Holocaust) finally told Spielberg that he should do it himself.

Because so many of his actors win or are nominated for awards, actors are dying to work with him. The film With Friends Like These… (1998) pokes fun at this very real desire.

Both The Last Temptation of Christ (1988) and Gangs of New York (2002) were personal passions of his that he had wanted to make since the 1970s. When he first starting considering them, Robert De Niro was in his mind to play the lead characters in both (Jesus Christ in “Temptation” and Bill Cutting in “Gangs”). De Niro ultimately turned down the part in “Temptation” and it was decided he was too old to play Cutting by the time that “Gangs” finally went into production.

He has famously collaborated with Robert De Niro in 8 films. Scorsese has said that his creative collaboration with De Niro is very deep and that they can often understand each other without even talking. Their collaboration has had many dry spells (including recently), but Scorsese says he shows almost every script he writes or considers directing to De Niro to see what the actor’s thoughts on them are even when De Niro ultimately has no involvement the film.

Appeared in an “American Express” ad where he goes to pick up photos of his nephew’s birthday party at a drug store, and then proceeds to nervously pick through what’s wrong with each picture while trying to get the clueless photo-lab clerk’s opinion on them. He proceeds to buy more film with an American Express card and calls the people on the pictures saying they need to reshoot. Scorsese says this funny ad is probably the closest he’s come to accurately “playing” himself.

Apart from his legendary work as a filmmaker, he has been a vocal supporter of film preservation for almost three decades. His efforts to create a strong public awareness for the work of film archives include The Film Foundation, a non-profit organisation which he started together with other filmmakers. The Film Foundation regularly partners with the American film archives on the restoration of “lost” or endangered films. With this background he has agreed to serve as Honorary President of the Austrian Film Museum in Vienna.

Personally spurns the notion of the “director’s cut” feeling that once a film has been completed, it should not be further altered in any way.

He lost three best director – and best picture – Oscars to leading-man actors turned directors: Robert Redford, Kevin Costner, and Clint Eastwood (Raging Bull (1980) lost to Redford’s Ordinary People (1980); Goodfellas (1990) to Costner’s Dances with Wolves (1990); The Aviator (2004) to Eastwood’s Million Dollar Baby (2004)). On the only two occasions when he was Oscar-nominated as Best Director in years ending in zero, he was beaten by actors making their directorial debuts (Redford and Costner).

In 1975, he accepted the Oscar for “Best Actress in a Leading Role” on behalf of Ellen Burstyn, who wasn’t present at the awards ceremony. She won for her performance in Scorsese’s Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (1974)

President of jury at the Cannes Film Festival in 1998.

Has mentioned that he thought Robert De Niro’s best performance under his direction was as Rupert Pupkin in The King of Comedy (1982).

Ranked #3 in Empire (UK) magazine’s “The Greatest directors ever!” [2005]

His favorite films include: Citizen Kane (1941), The Red Shoes (1948) and Il gattopardo (1963) (“The Leopard”).

Was friend, protégé, and employee of actor-director John Cassavetes.

When asked where audiences would find the next Martin Scorsese, he said to look to Wes Anderson, the young director of Rushmore (1998).

Has directed, as of 2008, 6 biopics: Raging Bull (1980), The Last Temptation of Christ (1988), Goodfellas (1990), Casino (1995), Kundun (1997) and The Aviator (2004).

He received a Degree ad honorem in “Cinema, TV and Multimedia Production” from the University of Bologna on 26 November 2005.

Served as mentor to Georgia Lee and invited her to apprentice for Gangs of New York (2002) in Europe.

The 1912 American Mutoscope & Biograph Company short The Musketeers of Pig Alley (1912) heavily influenced Scorsese in the making of his own gangster films Goodfellas (1990), and Gangs of New York (2002). The film was picked by Scorcese for his 2005 tribute at Beaubourg, centre d’art et de culture Georges Pompidou (1977) in Paris, France. Biograph is the oldest movie company in America and in existence today, headed by producer/director Thomas R. Bond II.

Scorsese and Taxi Driver (1976) are, among others, named as inspiration for the Massive Attack debut “Blue Lines”.

He signed a four-year, first-look deal to develop projects with studio executives of Paramount. [November 2006]

The Departed (2006) is the highest-grossing movie of his 40-year career ($132,373,442 (USA)).

The Aviator (2004) was his first movie to gross over $100 million in the U.S.

He has worked with big names of music business: Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, The Rolling Stones, ‘Michael Jackson (I)’ and David Bowie.

Directed 17 different actors in Oscar nominated performances: Jodie Foster, Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, Leonardo DiCaprio, Daniel Day-Lewis , Cate Blanchett, Winona Ryder, Ellen Burstyn, Sharon Stone, Diane Ladd,Cathy Moriarty, Juliette Lewis, Lorraine Bracco, Paul Newman, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Alan Alda and Mark Wahlberg. (Burstyn, De Niro, Newman, Pesci and Blanchett won Oscars for their roles in one of Scorsese’s movies).

When he won his Best Director Oscar for The Departed (2006), he received the award from legendary directors, George Lucas, Francis Ford Coppola, and Steven Spielberg. The four were part of the “New Hollywood” movement of the 1970s and combined have 9 Academy Awards and 38 Nominations.

As a teenager in the Bronx, Scorsese frequently rented Michael Powell’s The Tales of Hoffmann (1951) from a store that only had one copy of the reels. When it wasn’t available the owner told him, “that Romero kid has it,” referring to George A. Romero who was also a big fan of the film. Today, both directors cite the film as a major influence.

Says he was happy with the fact that it took so long for him to win Best Director, because if he had won it earlier, it would have affected his directing and films.

Recipient of the 2007 Kennedy Center Honors. Other recipients that year were Leon Fleisher, Steve Martin, Diana Ross, and Brian Wilson.

Says the only thing he regrets in his career is that he was only able to make The Last Temptation of Christ (1988) on a small budget although he imagined it to be a grand version.

Was originally going to direct The Honeymoon Killers (1969), but was replaced after a week of shooting.

Served as a guest critic on “Siskel & Ebert & the Movies” (1986) following the death of ‘Gene Siskel’. The episode was “The Best Films of the 90s” in which Roger Ebert cited Scorsese’s Goodfellas (1990) as one of the best films of the 90s (#3). Scorsese’s full list of his favorite films of the 1990s: 10.) Tie: Malcolm X (1992) and Heat (1995), 9.) Fargo (1996), 8.) Crash (1996), 7.) Bottle Rocket (1994), 6.) Breaking the Waves (1996), 5.) Bad Lieutenant (1992), 4.) Eyes Wide Shut (1999), 3.) Duo sang (1994) (“A Borrowed Life”), 2.) The Thin Red Line (1998), 1.) Dao ma zei (1986) (“Horse Thief”).

He was made a Fellow of the British Film Institute in recognition of his outstanding contribution to film culture.

Resides in New York City. His production offices are located on W. 57th Street in Manhattan.

Attended Cardinal Hayes high school in the Bronx as a young man. Fellow alumni included George Carlin, George Dzundza, Regis Philbin and Jamal Mashburn.

Is a fan of the British Hammer Films series.

A huge fan of Fawlty Towers (1975). He describes the episode “The Germans” as “so tasteless, its hilarious.”.

In the 5th edition of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die (edited by Steven Jay Schneider), 7 of Scorsese’s films are listed: Mean Streets (1973), Taxi Driver (1976), Raging Bull (1980), The King of Comedy (1982), Goodfellas (1990), Casino (1995) and The Departed (2006).

Haig Manoogian was Scorsese’s mentor at NYU. He eventually produced Scorsese’s first film (I Call First (1967)) and when he died in 1980, Scorsese dedicated Raging Bull (1980) to Manoogian.

Roger Ebert is a great admirer of Scorsese’s work. 14 of Scorsese’s films were given four stars by Ebert (Mean Streets (1973), Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (1974), Taxi Driver (1976), Raging Bull (1980), After Hours (1985), The Last Temptation of Christ (1988), Goodfellas (1990), The Age of Innocence (1993), Casino (1995), Kundun (1997), Bringing Out the Dead (1999), The Aviator (2004), The Departed (2006), Shine a Light (2008)), seven of his films are in Ebert’s Great Movies list (“Mean Streets”, “Taxi Driver”, “Raging Bull”, “After Hours”, “The Last Temptation Of Christ”, “Goodfellas”, and “The Age of Innocence”), and Ebert has written an entire book of his reviews, interviews and essays on Scorsese’s work simply titled “Scorsese By Ebert”.

As of November 10th 2009, five of his films are on the IMDb’s Top 250 Films list: Goodfellas (1990), Taxi Driver (1976), Raging Bull (1980), The Departed (2006), and Casino (1995).

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A Nightmare on Elm Street released Nov. 16, 1984

A Nightmare on Elm Street is a 1984 American horror film directed and written by Wes Craven, and the first film of the A Nightmare on Elm Street franchise. The film features John Saxon, Heather Langenkamp, Ronee Blakley, Amanda Wyss, Jsu Garcia, Robert Englund and Johnny Depp in his feature film debut. Set in the fictional Midwestern town of Springwood, Ohio, the plot revolves around several teenagers being terrorized in their nightmares by the ghost of a serial child murderer named Fred Krueger.

Craven produced A Nightmare on Elm Street on an estimated budget of just $1.8 million, a sum the film earned back during its first week. Grossing $25.5 million at the United States box office, A Nightmare on Elm Street has become one of the most popular entries in the horror genre and the film’s villain, Fred Krueger, has become one of the most well recognized villains in cinema history. Both critics and Craven have mentioned that the film owes some of its success to John Carpenter’s Halloween (1978), which was very influential in spawning a long line of slasher films and originating many clichés found in low-budget horror films of the 1980s and 1990s.

The film’s premise is the question of the distinction between dreams and reality. The villain, Fred Krueger, exists in the “dream world” yet can kill in the “real world”. Sequels to the original would continue to confuse dreams and reality, before finally confusing art and reality by showing Heather Langenkamp, playing a fictionalized version of herself, haunted by the villain of a series of films in which she has had a major part in reality. Critics praised the film’s ability to transgress “the boundaries between the imaginary and real”, toying with audience perceptions. Some movie historians interpreted this overriding theme as a social subtext, “the struggles of adolescents in American society”, and their overwhelming need to confront “the harsh realities of life”.

 

Creepshow released November 12, 1982

Movie Poster 27x40

 

Creepshow is an American horror-comedy anthology film directed by George A. Romero (of Night of the Living Dead and Dawn of the Dead fame), and written by Stephen King (Carrie, The Shining, Misery, The Stand).

It was considered a sleeper hit at the box office when released in November 1982, earning over $21 million domestically, and remains a popular film to this day among horror genre fans. The film was shot on location in Pittsburgh and the suburb areas. It consists of five short stories referred to as “Jolting Tales of Horror”: “Father’s Day”, “The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill”, “Something to Tide You Over”, “The Crate” and “They’re Creeping Up on You!”. Two of these stories, “The Crate” and “The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill” (originally titled “Weeds”), were adapted from previously published Stephen King’s short horror tales. The segments are tied together with brief animated sequences. The film is bookended by scenes, featuring a young boy named Billy (played by Stephen King’s own son, Joe King), who is punished by his father for reading horror comics. The film is an homage to the E.C. horror comic books of the 1950s such as Tales from the Crypt, The Vault of Horror and The Haunt of Fear.

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In later years, the international rights of the film would be acquired by Republic Pictures, which today is a subsidiary of the Paramount Motion Pictures Group, itself owned by Viacom. The film’s UK rights are owned by Universal Pictures.

Trivia:

• Stephen King carried a toy figure of the character “Greedo” from Star Wars (1977) on the “Creepshow” set for good luck.
• Cameo: [Joe Hill] (son of Stephen King) The young boy featured in the beginning of the film (avid reader and collector of “Creepshow” comic books).
• Rice Krispies were used as maggots on the corpse’s eyes in the first story, “Father’s Day”. In addition, real maggots were also utilized.
• The marble ashtray (which plays a major role in Creepshow’s first story, “Father’s Day”) is featured in all five of the film’s stories if you look closely.
• The wrestling match Jordy Verrill is watching on TV in the second segment, “The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill”, was being called by Vince McMahon (Chairman of the WWF – now WWE). The wrestlers in the ring were then-current WWF Champion Bob Backlund and The Samoan No. 1.
• A sign leading to “Castle Rock” (Stephen King’s trademark fictitious town) appears at the very end of the segment “The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill”, among other signs.
• Ted Danson, who played Harry Wentworth in “Something to Tide You Over”, said in a T.V. interview that his daughter was on the set during the scene where his character returns from the dead encased in rotting flesh and seaweed. He purposely tried avoiding his young daughter out of fear of scaring her. Finally, despite his best efforts, she went up to him, looked at him and simply said, “Oh, hi Dad.”
• It is rumored that Max von Sydow was originally slated to play Upson Pratt in Creepshow’s final story, “They’re Creeping Up On You!”.
• In a “Creepshow” special feature from the pages of “Cinefantastique” magazine around the time of “Creepshow”’s release, Stephen King (screenwriter) and George A. Romero (director), revealed that if the film’s final story (“They’re Creeping Up On You!”) had proven to be too difficult and ambitious to film, it would have been substituted with the King short story “The Hitch-Hiker”, which ended up being the final story of the film’s sequel, Creepshow 2 (1987), directed by George A. Romero’s cinematographer on the original Creepshow, Michael Gornick.
• Originally, in Stephen King’s first draft 142-page screenplay for the film, the stories “The Crate” and “Something to Tide You Over” switched places. Making “The Crate” story number 3 and “Tide” story number 4. This is also how the Berni Wrightson Creepshow graphic novel adaptation turned out.
• In Stephen King’s original script for the film, the final story, “They’re Creeping Up On You!”, originally took place in a lush, carpeted penthouse apartment. However, because with roaches this would have been unworkable, Romero opted for a more empty almost hospital room-like set for the story.
• Two of the characters featured in the film, Tabitha and Richard (The new professors at the faculty reception at the beginning of the fourth segment, “The Crate”), were named after Tabitha King (Stephen King’s wife) and Richard Bachman (his ghostwriting name), according to the author.
• In the film’s second segment, “The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill”, the film playing on Jordy’s television in the background is A Star Is Born (1937), according to director George Romero’s commentary on the UK special edition DVD.
• The prop 10-cent “CREEPSHOW” comic book featured in the film was drawn and inked by veteran artist ‘Jack Kamen’, one of the artists for the original E.C. crime and horror comics of the 1950′s. Creepshow was a tribute to these comic books. Jack Kamen also created the comic book-style poster for the film, which was also featured on the front of the Plume “Creepshow” comic book adaptation (which Bernie Wrightson, another prolific horror comic artist, drew and inked the interiors for). Originally, (‘Stephen King (I)’ wanted Graham Ingels, another EC artist (famous for his work on the title “The Haunt of Fear”) to do the artwork for the film’s poster, but he refused. It was head of EC comics ‘William M. Gaines’ who then suggested Jack Kamen do the assignment. Kamen accepted.
• A screen capture of the “Creepshow” comic book featured in the film reveals that the letters page has letters from “Brian Hall of Ann Arbor, Mich.” and “David Graves of Spruce, Maryland”, among others. Spruce is the maiden name of King’s wife Tabitha. David Graves is the name of King’s late brother-in-law (married to wife Tabitha’s sister, Catherine). David Graves lived in Maryland (although not “Spruce”, Md), until his death in 2000.
• The on-set nickname for the monster in the crate in Creepshow’s fourth story was “Fluffy”, as named by director George A. Romero. The creature’s creator (and makeup artist on the entire film), Tom Savini, was the shorter garbageman featured near the end of the film.
• Why does Aunt Bedelia’s father come to life after 7 years in the first story “Father’s Day”? Not because of the lucky number it turns out. If you watch closely you will see Bedelia spills whiskey on the grave. In Gaelic, the word for whiskey is translated as Water of Life, and is likely a nod to James Joyce and his book “Finnegan’s Wake”. In the story a builder’s laborer falls from a ladder and breaks his skull, but is revived when someone spills whiskey on his corpse at the wake. The story of Finnegan’s Wake is in turn written based off an old Dublin street ballad.
• At the end of “The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill”, on the signpost is the town of Portland, Maine. This was Stephen King’s home town, and King is the star of this segment of the film.
• Adrienne Barbeau was still married to John Carpenter when Creepshow was released. Carpenter would make the film version of Stephen King’s Christine (1983) the following year. King wrote and makes an appearance in Creepshow.
• The housekeeper in the “Father’s Day” sequence is Mrs.Danvers. The malevolent housekeeper in Alfred Hitchcock’s suspense film Rebecca (1940) is also named Mrs. Danvers.