i want you to hit me as hard as you can
i'm just didn't anything weird you know freaky bizarre over the course of his esteemed career
john carpenter has been named in conjunction with the academy awards precisely two times the first
was early in his career when he served as the co-writer editor and composer for the short film
the resurrection of bronco billy which won the 1970 oscar for best live-action short film
the second was when jeff bridges was nominated for best actor in 1984's starman he's terrific
for a filmmaker who was dealt exclusively in horror and variants of science fiction starman
was a distinct foray into familiar genres mixed with romance that many did not associate with
john carpenter while it did result in a brief television series continuation in 1986 the
original film has become a cult classic despite being one of carpenter's lesser-known endeavors
starman began its long journey to the screen in the late 1970s when it was purchased by columbia
pictures at the request of michael douglas gree for lack of a better word is good at the same time
the studio was entertaining optioning a project called night skies which was from steven spielberg
night skies was envisioned as a follow-up to close encounters of the third kind but spielberg
had no desire to make a sequel to that film having seen what universal did with their jaws sequel the
original script for star man was written by bruce a evans and rain old gideon it was rewritten by
dean reisner best known for clint eastwood's play misty for me and dirty harry reisner boarded the
project just his original director mike riddell left the project riddell was the director of the
oscar-winning film on golden pawn and he departed due to creative differences with michael douglas
greed is right breesner was part of seven rewrites of starman which saw half a dozen directors join
and depart the project ultimately ryzner received no credit for the film as the writer's guild of
america determined that his contributions amounted to less than fifty percent of the final script
reasoner was succeeded by script doctors including edward zwick and diane thomas as columbia
continued to support the project as starman began to look more like the mature hit they were hoping
for colombia decided to end development on night skies feeling the film was too family-friendly
and disney-like in nature the studio allowed steven spielberg to make the film that he wanted
elsewhere while night skies never really came to fruition it did turn into two films you're
perhaps familiar with poltergeist and e.t the extraterrestrial thank you for watching joe blow
videos if you enjoy our shows please subscribe to our channel right now like this video and click on
the bells to be notified each time a new video goes up now back to the show dean reisner upon
reflecting on columbia's business decision simply said well it goes to show you how wrong you can
be in this business with et becoming the highest grossing film of all time colombia became worried
that starman shared too many plot similarities with that film at the time reisner was working
on the second draft of the screenplay when the carousel of filmmakers began first flashdance and
nine and a half weeks director adrian line came on and he was followed by john battham battam left
the project to direct war games after agreeing that starman and et were just too similar the next
filmmaker was tony scott who was followed by peter hymes before ultimately carpenter landed the gig
each of the filmmakers tried to distinguish the film in their own way tony scott wanted
to stylize the film and actually cast broadway actor philip anglim in the title role while
peter hymes wanted to make a more straightforward sci-fi movie michael douglas was very supportive
of john carpenter leading the project and said at the time it was a chance for the filmmaker
to surprise audience with a tale different than what he had made before carpenter at the time was
mostly known for genre films like christine the thing escape from new york the fog and halloween
and he adopted for an approach that would be low on special effects and emphasize the road
trip elements of the tale carpenter was also it bears mentioning wallowing in the poor box
office results for the thing and set out to make a movie that was the complete opposite of that film
carpenter took this on as an opportunity to showcase the natural beauty of the united states
with so many films at the time focusing on what was wrong with the us carpenter wanted to showcase
the good side of america its beauty and the potential of its people you are a strange species
not like any other carpenter's first choice for the title role was tom cruise he met with cruz
about the part but the timing just wasn't right as cruz had already committed to ridley scott's
legend while kevin bacon briefly had the role jeff bridges was then considered as he was already
looked at for the lead roles in previous john carpenter films the thing and escape from new york
both of those parts went to kurt russell jeff bridges had also recently starred in colombia's
against all odds which was fairly successful and two years prior had headlined disney's
science fiction classic tron for this role bridges studied or anthology to emulate the alien behavior
seen in the film including jerky head movements and other mannerisms he found that if an alien
were to inhabit a human body they would act with more primitive instincts and he acts kind of like
a bird in this movie karen ellen was cast in the secondary lead best known at the time for raiders
the lost ark she had fond memories of the movie and of carpenter and viewed the project as a study
and imagination and really enjoyed working with carpenter on the film the cast also included the
oscar-nominated richard j kell who was best known at the time for his tenure as an actor in westerns
having appeared in eight films with john wayne coincidentally jeff bridges would go on to get
an oscar nomination for true grit a remake of a john wayne classic the film also features charles
martin smith as mark sherman as well as two genres star wars ted white and mcganey in minor roles
while ganey has had a long tenure as a character actor ted white played jason voorhees in friday
the 13th the final chapter which was also released in 1984 carpenter then focused on accentuating the
romance between the two leads looking to echo classic movies about star-crossed lovers like
1945's brief encounter as production made use of physical locations around the country there
were logistical challenges including lighting especially during the climatic crater sequence
starman employed six cinematographers and camera operators during that sequence which also required
16 chinook helicopters carpenter who used some states to stand in for others during production
stated that they had to deal with everything from bad weather to fluctuating temperatures all
throughout production released two years after et starman would go on to gross a very disappointing
28.7 million dollars at the box office against a budget of 24 million echoing the things lackluster
19.6 million dollar box office against its 50 million dollar budget do you find [ __ ]
don't say that that's a nice word the critics were favorable but the movie was ultimately a
financial failure in the years since though it has grown in popularity and renowned
including a nomination for the afi's list of most romantic movies and best science fiction movies
and of course jeff bridges managed to score an oscar nomination off this starman deals with a
concept that could have easily become very silly but liked e.t deeply roots itself in
a realistic relationship between a human and an alien that transcends genre conventions inspired
by the voyager 2 spacecraft launched in 1977 the movie has some eerie parallels to the terminator
in the wisconsin parts of the movie the star man begins as a ball of energy that ventures to
the home of jenny hayden who recently suffered the loss of her husband scott you're not god the alien
replicates his body before sending a message to his home planet that the earth is hostile
with three days to rendezvous starman and jenny begin their journey to arizona along the way the
movie toys with humor as we see starman learn how to use money and how to drive a car in kudos
to karen allen for showcasing the full range of emotion that anyone would experience when seeing
their deceased spouse brought back to life i look like scott so you do not be a little bit jumpy
the special effects are fairly seamless and hold up even four decades later but what
works best in the movie are the intimate moments including the love scene between jenny and starman
for a film that's rated pg there's a remarkable amount of maturity on display here but it never
borders on inappropriate had the movie been released today probably would be a pg-13
but not for anything frightening or even adult in nature this is a sweet movie with great themes
musically and otherwise that also has a nice singing duet between jeff bridges and karen
allen that is truncated in the finished film but does a nice job evoking the fact that you know
karen allen and her husband were deeply in love and it's kind of bittersweet it's also one of the
few films on which john carpenter did not serve as his own composer instead jack nietzsche composed
the score whose title theme may be one of the best tracks you don't realize you already love
sweeping and appropriately epic the score has been sampled in popular songs like dan black symphonies
and its remix featuring kid cudi in the years since star man premiered its fan base has grown
in 1986 the television series starman premiered and lasted for a full season at abc set 15 years
after the film the show starred robert hayes as the deceased paul forrester resurrected by an
alien entity from the film of course robert hayes is best known for airplane the series featured the
return of the character of george fox played by michael cavanaugh taking over from richard
j kell while critics were mainly negative to the series it still lasted for 22 episodes
as of 2016 free guy and the atom project director sean levy has been attached to a remake written by
arash ml with michael douglas on board as producer greed works it is unknown if jet bridges would be
involved in any way but one would hope that maybe we'd see him return as he did for tron legacy
john carpenter is all but retired from directing but ventured outside of his genre comfort zone one
more time in 1992's comedy memoirs of an invisible man while that film doesn't nearly have the heart
of starman it does indeed show the carpenter was a lot more than a [ __ ] director starman
is the closest carpenter has ever gotten a steven spielberg's ambulance sensibility and it's every
bit as entertaining as et in its own way this is definitely an underrated gem that you've got
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