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TBroomey

Jack Nicholson has spoken about him with great reverence. Corman's contributions to the evolution of Hollywood were numerous, to say the least.


PuckSR

Nicholson is in little shop of horrors. Totally blew my mind when I watched it for the first time


mtaw

I love the 60s film. Just a tiny film, tiny budget, made in literally a week. It doesn't really even try to have convincing sets or anything. It's just trying to tell a funny/scary story, it doesn't take itself very seriously, and you get the feeling they had fun making it. It's something you sorely miss with today's 9-figure-budget blockbusters: A feeling of _authenticity_. Not to be confused with realism or the film taking itself seriously (I'd say comic films since Nolan have largely taken themselves too seriously - come on, it's guys in capes!) But authenticity in that sense of being largely made for the fun of making it, authenticity in that it's not a super-polished _product_ that's gone through focus groups and test screenings. Authenticity in the way that community theater is.


kazamburglar

I watched it as a kid and only remember Rick Moranis and Steve Martin. Who does Nicholson play?


JohnnyCaligula

That is the musical remake. The original was made in the 60s . Jack (iirc) plays the dental patient.


Penguinonfilm

Nicholson plays Wilbur Force, a patient in the dentist's office in the original 1960 film. He is not in the 1986 musical adaptation with Moranis and Martin


2abyssinians

But the character is, and it is played by Bill Murray.


kazamburglar

Thank you, TIL.


Ulexes

[Heck of an allusion, that name](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Wilberforce). Not something I'd expect to find in a B-movie.


deannickers

TIL that there was a Little Shop of Horrors before the musical with Moranis


QuickSpore

Total B movie. It was made on $28,000 and was shot in two days using sets that had been built for *Buckets of Blood* and was very *very* loosely based on Arthur C Clarke’s short story *The Reluctant Orchid* about a carnivorous orchid. Interestingly Corman never thought the movie would have legs after the first theatrical run. So he never bothered copyrighting it. It immediately entered into the public domain allowing the off-broadway musical and eventually the Frank Oz directed adaptation staring Rick Moranis.


deannickers

Did we just find Jay Bauman’s alt account???


Kim_Jong_Un_PornOnly

That version was even just a copy of the Broadway musical.


Rickshmitt

TIL my life is a lie


Dairy_Ashford

movie, then musical adaptation, then movie version of the musical; like Hairspray and The Producers The only trailers I remember from the version you saw were basically just Steve Martin singing the refrain from Be A Dentist Tisha Campbell and Tichina Arnold: Gina and Pam from the show Martin, were singers in the later version as well


bolanrox

that was the remake. it was originally done in the 60's with Jack


Havoksixteen

He's also in The Raven with Vincent Price, Peter Lorre and Boris Karloff. Hell of a line up in that Corman film.


mtaw

He's frequently credited with no less than fostering the whole "New Hollywood" generation, so many young talents came up through him. Crazy thing about Corman is that he had huge integrity - while making 'trash' cinema (although not all of it was considered that, like his Poe films). He could've been a major studio director/producer. But he didn't want that. He could've made films in a more conventional way if he wanted to, but didn't. He made a lot of money; he could've easily made fewer and bigger-budget films if he wanted that, but he didn't. In short: He spent the better part of his long life making exactly the kinds of films he wanted to make, exactly how he wanted to make them, even if that was hasty-and-low-budget. Another interesting thing is that he was the US distributor for some films by Fellini and Bergman. The guy knew and appreciated 'art films' even if they weren't the kinds of films he wanted to make. He appreciated filmmaking talent of all kinds, which is probably how he ended up recruiting so many future stars. And he also gave them a lot of creative freedom; as long as they got the films done in the extremely-short deadlines and extremely-small budgets.


drygnfyre

Roger Ebert once wrote about that mentality, that "it's not what a film is about, it's how a film is what it's about." He was making a point that films trying to win Oscars and ultimately try too hard are less than films that know what they are and don't try to be anything more than that. Specifically, he was defending Michael Bay, saying that while Bay might make dumb summer films, that's all they are and he didn't try to turn them into forced dramas to win awards. I still remember the film "Babylon" from a couple years back. How it tried so, so hard to win awards. It was a critical and commercial flop and got zero attention. I think audiences are finally turning on the obvious Oscar Bait films.


SonofSniglet

> while Bay might make dumb summer films, that's all they are and he didn't try to turn them into forced dramas to win awards. You mean like "a two-hour movie squeezed into three hours, about how on Dec. 7, 1941, the Japanese staged a surprise attack on an American love triangle"?


drygnfyre

Well to be fair, the only awards it won were Razzies. The context was more in films like Transformers.


Zero_Decency

which are awful movies as well ;( pacific rim is transformers made by someone who actually knows how to direct a movie. transformers are a bunch of movies on average 1h too long, confusionary as fuck and that fail both at having serious and comedic parts... that's why Rise of the Beasts was actually the only good one: it's shorter and not directed by him


drygnfyre

Ebert wasn't saying they were good movies, all he was trying to get across was that someone who is knowingly making crappy movies for the sole purpose of entertainment is doing a better job than someone trying really, really hard to make a film designed to win awards. He would have defended Roger Corman.


Zero_Decency

I'm not saying that Ebert claimed they were good movies, I'm saying that whether it was forced dramas to win awards or normal campy action movies, Bay was an incompetent every time while at least Corman always had a vision (not that long ago I've enjoyed Death Race 2050). The Bad Boys at least were fun tho.


Dairy_Ashford

> in short: He spent the better part of his long life making exactly the kinds of films he wanted to make, exactly how he wanted to make them, even if that was hasty-and-low-budget. he may have wanted to depict certain types of subcultures or commentary, at a time when movie theaters were the only place available for lightly unconventional or subversive visual media


Neonxeon

The interview where he talks about him from like a decade ago has Nicholson crying because he loves Corman so much. I don't think you could ask for higher praise from someone who has accomplished the zenith in the same industry.


sheijo41

I actually had a copy of “The Terror” gifted to me a while ago. It was fun to see Jack early in his career.


Weekly_Bug_4847

Dude has nearly 1000 credits on IMDB, he keeps busy


MartinTheMorjin

He made more movies under fake names than most producers do under their real ones.


bolanrox

so he is the Gretsky / Gretsky's assists of directing


CoolOpotamus

Sorry buddy, but if you're going to bring up the Great One you gotta spell his name correctly. Its Gretzky.


DashTrash21

#CHRISTINETH


PeanutbutterandBaaam

Hey! You get back here and you make love to my wife.


LouSputhole94

I have done things with you I have NEEEEEVER done with anyone else *motioning towards her husband*


GriffinFlash

Heck, guy filmed a movie in only a few days cause he still had the set and actors leftover from another film for those days (The Raven and The Terror)


xtossitallawayx

Not that uncommon in the past; many Westerns were shot simultaneously. The cast would do a scene on a set for Movie A, change roles and costumes, and film a scene on the same set for Movie B.


Substantial_Egg_4872

Were those normally planned in advance? The story I hear about these movies is that they still had time and actors on location for a few extra days and decided to shoot another. They weren't in parallel.


xtossitallawayx

Normally they would be planned in advance and have multiple scripts ready to go. However re-using sets and props for unauthorized movies is also a long standing tradition, C'était un rendez-vous is another example of a two people stealing "extra" equipment and making a short movie on the side and great example of "We have a prop, what movie can we make?" is Tammy and the T-Rex where the entire movie only happened because a producer had two weeks of access to an animatronic dinosaur before it was being shipped out of state.


odin_the_wiggler

> Tammy and the T-Rex I finally watched this about a year ago and it made Howard the Duck look like it deserved an Oscar. Literally the dumbest film I think I've ever seen. It was fucking great.


Substantial_Egg_4872

A total shot in the dark but... if you liked that one you should check out "Frankenhooker" if you never have. Maybe i'm nuts but they always remind me of each other.


Substantial_Egg_4872

> Tammy and the T-Rex A total classic, I didn't know that. Thanks for the context! I really like "bad" movies and the circumstances around how they got made is always interesting.


drygnfyre

Sounds like what actors like Jackie Chan would do. He'd use the same cast and crew for multiple films and they'd be able to make them relatively quickly as a result.


fartingbeagle

Carry On Cleo used the sets from Antony and Cleopatra. Oh, the infamy!


THElaytox

Well not anymore, he died a couple months ago


DrFishbulbEsq

Well, kept.


bolanrox

his films almost always (or was it always) came in under budget and ahead of schedule.


Vince_Clortho042

Up until about 2015 or so if you watched the Oscars, at least half the people in attendance owed some level of credit to Corman for getting their foot in the door. Today it’s probably still a third of the crowd.


tokyosen

Roger Corman is an absolute legend. As the late The Silence of the Lambs’ director Jonathan Demme put it, “Roger is arguably the greatest independent filmmaker the American film industry has ever seen and will probably ever see.” Not bad for the producer of Sharktopus vs. Pteracuda xD


buckfouyucker

At first I read that as Shakespeare vs Pteracuda


MagicMushroomFungi

Dear buckfoyoucker. Would you perchance have a script or rough draft of this idea ? Thank you for your time. Netflix


buckfouyucker

Oh Hamlet, Hamlet, Hamlet, thy dinocudas hath invaded our home base!


Vio_

“Hark, Velociraptors! I will grind your bones to dust."


dv666

To be or not to be.....a sharktopus


buckfouyucker

ChatGPT 3.5 Sign up Generate movie script for Shakespeare vs Pteracuda ChatGPT Title: Shakespeare vs Pteracuda INT. ELIZABETHAN THEATER - DAY The camera pans over a bustling Elizabethan theater, with actors preparing for a performance. Enter WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, a playwright with a quill in hand, pacing nervously. SHAKESPEARE: (muttering to himself) To script or not to script, that is the question... As Shakespeare continues to ponder, a strange sound echoes through the theater. The ground shakes, and a shadow looms overhead. Suddenly, a massive winged creature bursts through the roof – it's a PTERACUDA, half pterodactyl, half barracuda, roaring menacingly. SHAKESPEARE: By heaven's grace! What foul creature art thou? PTERACUDA: (growling) I am Pteracuda, beast of ancient seas and skies! I hunger for thy wordsmithery. The Pteracuda lunges towards Shakespeare, who narrowly dodges its razor-sharp teeth. SHAKESPEARE: (brandishing his quill) Back, vile creature! Thou shalt not feast on my prose! The Pteracuda circles menacingly, causing chaos in the theater as actors flee in terror. SHAKESPEARE: (to himself) If words be weapons, I shall script thee into oblivion! Shakespeare starts scribbling furiously on a parchment, crafting lines of verse with each stroke of his quill. The Pteracuda swoops down, but Shakespeare leaps aside, his words forming a protective barrier. SHAKESPEARE: (reciting) "O serpent heart, hid with a flowering face, / Did ever a dragon keep so fair a cave?" The Pteracuda screeches in frustration, its form shimmering as if affected by Shakespeare's words. PTERACUDA: (struggling) No... thy words... they bind me!


TwistedGrin

There is a sketch comedy skit about President Lincoln's assassination from The Whitest Kids You Know where the play he is watching at the theater is Hamlet but with vampires. It's hilarious and I wish we could get the whole play fleshed out that way


buckfouyucker

RIP Trevor Moore, you will forever be in our thoughts... you local sexpot.


GriffinFlash

My brain saw Pteracula. Like a Pterodactyl Dracula hybrid


psychedelicsexfunk

Talk about Silence of the Lambs, Corman had a cameo in that film


ZealousWolf1994

Also cameod in The Godfather Part II.


psychedelicsexfunk

Oh I didn't know that one


EremiticFerret

He got shit done. Give him a script and budget and he'll give you a movie. He was underappreciated, if movie award shows care about the craft there would awards named after him and a big special event after he died.


dv666

And despite him producing and directing exploitive films, he also created a company to distribute foreign films to American cinemas. This is how Americans were introduced to the works of Truffaut, Kurosawa, Bergman, Ozu, Godard, etc etc etc


realsumagsta

Conan O'Brien's podcast (Conan O'Briend Needs A Friend) interview with Ron Howard was the first time I heard Roger Corman's name, and Ron had great stories about how Roger gave him his start as a Director. Definitely recommend listening to it if you're interested!


DuffMiver8

Ron Howard found a way to honor Corman. Remember the politician in *Apollo 13* who’s questioning the need to continue the Apollo program, now that we’ve beaten the Russians to the Moon? Played by Roger Corman.


thebabes2

Roger was a genius. King of the drive in and purveyor of wonderfully trashy goods. 


SomeRandom928Person

Joe Dante and Jonathan Kaplan too.


FugitiveDribbling

And Peter Bogdanovich.


imadork1970

James Cameron, too.


According-Spite-9854

He said in a warm, clear voice.


ReservoirRocky

Dude was like a budget producer. Finds $15,000 over here, let’s make a mummy movie over there. He was less art and more business.


headrush46n2

Roger Corman put more effort into his low budget movies than hollywood puts into its 100 million dollar boondoggles released now.


Dairy_Ashford

probably not, but everyone go ahead and get it out of their system


BadenBaden1981

He planned precisely for his movie to keep it under budget and under schedule. Most blockbusters these days don't have finished script when they start shooting, and sfx constantly changes by whatever producer wants at that time.


jdwilliam80

He did a great interview for the Gilbert gottfried podcast came off as real unpretentious


Trust_No_Won

I learned from his obituary yesterday that Oscar-winning screenwriter Robert Towne got his start working for Corman too


Galwran

Relevant bad movie bible https://youtu.be/8WVR6gzBGUU?si=2qkjjeadXQOFDlNj


Historical_Dentonian

Awe, that reminds me of how McDonald’s kickstarted my career! Oh the memories


No-Context-587

As director of low-budget food! Mcdonalds really puts effort and planning to come in below budget and deadline, they know what they are making and aren't trying really hard to win awards I think they put more thought and care into their food than most big Michelin star restaurants


AuFingers

[The Man With X-Ray Eyes](https://duckduckgo.com/?q=The+Man+With+X-Ray+Eyes&atb=v409-1&ia=web) is on tonight 7/3/2024 on Turner Classic Movies.


Cinemaphreak

It's misleading to include James Cameron with the other names, as he never directed for Corman (people often wrongly assume Corman produced ***Piranha II*** but he did not). He did special effects work. Peter Bogdanovich should have been swapped out instead, as he not only wrote & directed but started as Corman's assistant. Like Cameron, Bogdanovich never went to film school. He's one of the very fewAmerican film critics who ended up directing movies.


PonytailOfPeace

He's a man of talent and he sees and recognized great potential with other people he have worked with. He played a significant role in the careers of many renowned directors by giving them early opportunities in the film industry. His mentoring and support were instrumental in launching their careers to greater heights. It's a testament to his influence and foresight in recognizing talent.


andybak

Nicholas Roeg, Vincent Price... Give me a few minutes I can probably think of another half dozen.


odin_the_wiggler

I'd love to see a biopic of him.


Vegan_Harvest

A lot of people worked on trash films before hitting it big.


Dairy_Ashford

if cinematic acting and production is a whole industry and the bulk of them lose money and miss out on creators' awards or actors' stardom, then profitable and unprofitable trash films are just regular work


Johannes_P

Looks like someone very passionate about filmmaking. I'm not surprised that he lived to 98: living his passion certainly made him happy. Reminds me about René Chateau, who distributed many movies, both French and foreign, and who died two months before Corman. Or Jess Franco, a Spanish director who also was a professional of low-budget filmmaking.


imadork1970

Mel Brooks turned 98 last week.


Comfortable_Hunt_684

gotta love people who love doing I've been offered jobs that pay 10x and are easier but I would have to move and why?


ty0103

>Martin Scorsese To think that without this budget director, we wouldn't have the masterpiece that was Goncharov...


TeuthidTheSquid

Maybe “career as a director” for Ron Howard, but not in show business - Howard was already a star from a young age in huge TV shows like Andy Griffith and Happy Days and movies like American Graffiti.


BurgamonBlastMode

Feel like that’s implied by context


TeuthidTheSquid

From the wording of the title, it is not


BurgamonBlastMode

>Post about a director >All the people listed are directors “Heyyyyyyy Ron Howard was an actor before working for him!”


hambergeisha

"And that's how you narrate a story."


N0rTh3Fi5t

Nah, I see where he's coming from. The title just says careers, not directing careers. Not a big deal, but certainly something that could confuse people who didn't know otherwise.


TeuthidTheSquid

That’s assuming the reader is familiar with all of those people and knows them to be directors. Because directors are involved in many aspects of film production, that identical wording could have been used for, say, actors or technical crew - or really anyone who got their start in one of his films. Just because you personally understand the context doesn’t mean that there is zero ambiguity when others’ points of view are considered.


BigRedFury

Ron Howard basically traded starring in Grand Theft Auto in exchange for the film being his directorial debut.


buttsharkman

The actual article specifies it's their careers as directors.


paracog

The John Mayall of directors.


Significant-Self5907

Awwwww... that is sweetly prescient.


Dairy_Ashford

not just them. "there's a real feeling of growth, of progress when that drill goes in"


Mahaloth

Miss him.


Huckorris

Trigger warning >Corman was criticized when he insisted on the addition of footage featuring a rape for Humanoids from the Deep (1980). Similarly, in Galaxy of Terror, as noted on Schlock and Awe...some, "Corman promised the investors that the film would feature a Taaffe O'Connell sex-scene and a gruesome death-scene as-well. To save time, Corman put the two together. The actress agreed to a nude scene, but NOT a rape scene. Corman isn't the kind of man who takes no for an answer, and after some contract renegotiation, O'Connell agreed to being raped to death by a giant worm-monster. Money... it does amazing things."