Podcasts about keifer sutherland

A bad version of "In the air tonight" by Keifer Sutherland got us to thinking about a top 3 list of actors who really can sing! Do Cheech & Chong belong on that list??

Welcome back to another edition of the Video Store Podcast. This week, get your BFFs together for a movie marathon focusing on Film Friendships. I've selected four films for the staff picks wall, highlighting my favorite best buds and friendships forged in fire. I also answer the age-old question, “Can men and women really be friends?” Let's dig in. Stand by Me (1986)First up is Rob Reiner's 1986 coming-of-age classic, Stand by Me. Starring Wil Wheaton, River Phoenix, Corey Feldman, Jerry O'Connell, and Keifer Sutherland, Stand by Me is a classic focusing on the friendship between four boys growing up in the summer of 1959. Do you still have friends like you did when you were twelve? I hope so. Gather your besties on the couch for this one. Now and Then (1995)Next is the 1995 film Now and Then. I return to my twelve-year-old self whenever I watch this film, not just because I relate to the young leads of the film, but because of the deep and sincere friendship that is the film's through-line. Starring Christina Ricci, Rosie O'Donnell, Thora Birch, Melanie Griffith, Gaby Hoffman, Demi Moore, Ashleigh Aston Moore, and Rita Wilson, these ladies deliver a powerful dramatic, and comedic performance. Get your best gals together for a great film with a great soundtrack. When Harry Met Sally… (1989)Yes, I know what you're thinking: a rom-com in a movie about friendship? You read that right. When Harry Met Sally… addresses the age-old question, “Can men and women be friends?” Well, I've got thoughts on the matter and you'll have to listen to this week's show to find out why I've selected this one for a podcast on film friendship. Thelma & Louise (1991)Closing out our staff picks wall this week is the 1991 drama/comedy/road movie Thelma & Louise. Starring Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon, this Oscar-winning film about two best friends on the run from the law deals deeply with ideas of freedom, friendship, and letting go of others' expectations. Get your bestie to ride shotgun with you for this one. Buckle up. It's a bumpy ride. Thanks for joining us this week on the Video Store Podcast. We hope you'll bring a friend with you and enjoy these films together. Thanks for reading Video Store Podcast! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.videostorepodcast.com

National short girl appreciation day. Entertainment from 1967. Pan Am flight 103 Lackabie bombing, 1st basketball game played, 1st crossword puzzle printed. Todays birthdays - Phil Donahue, Jane Fonda, Frank Zappa, Samuel L. Jackson, Nick Gilder, Jane Kaczmarek, Lee Roy Parnell, Ray Romano, Keifer Sutherland. George S. Patton died.Intro - Pour some sugar on me - Def Leppard     http://defleppard.com/Short girls - Don ArndtDay dream believer - The MonkeesFor loving you - Bill Anderson    Jan HowardBirthdays - In da club - 50 Cent      http://50cent.com/Don't eat the yellow snow - Frank ZappaSamuel L. Jackson in Snakes on a planeHot child in the city - Nick GilderWhat kind of fool do you think I am - Lee Roy ParnellExit - It's not love - Dokken      http://dokken.net/

Welcome back to The Movie Draft House! It's December 2024 and we're ringing in the new year with a month full of "missing persons" films. We start the month off with a remake with the George Sluizer film "The Vanishing" starring Keifer Sutherland, Jeff Bridges, Nancy Travis, and Sandra Bullock! Tune in to find out why Jeff loved this film, why Mark hates Keifer Sutherland, and why remakes are generally a bad idea! IMDB synopsis "The boyfriend of an abducted woman never gives up the search as the abductor looks on." Follow the podcast across all social media! ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Twitter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠  ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

We can deep in the reads on Kenny Rogers Face, Keifer Sutherland, The Karate Kid and so much more on this Thanksgiving edition of Lights Out!

Tate is out, Sage is in, and he makes his first pick for our game of Connections, picking Forsaken from 2015, starring Keifer Sutherland, Donald Sutherland, Brian Cox, and Demi Moore. This movie was directed by Jon Cassar. GD4AM: 54/100 IMDb: 6.4/10 Metacritic: 55/100 Letterboxd: 3.0/5 RT: 40% In 1872, an embittered gunslinger named John Henry Clayton attempts to make amends with his estranged father Reverend Samuel Clayton while their community is besieged by ruthless land-grabbers. This movie is currently streaming on Amazon Prime. NEXT MOVIE REVIEW: St. Elmo's Fire (1985), which is currently available for rent on most VOD platforms.

In this episode of JacquesTalk we discuss the addition of Dalvin Cook and Dak's future now that CeeDee Lamb has been signed with Clarence E. Hill. We also discussed the Steve McNair documentary and the classic show 24 with Keifer Sutherland.

Today on Sense of Soul we have Twin flames Iseluleko aka Íse and Isis Ma'at El 0. Together they created The Divine Man Channeling Experience, The Hopi Brothers, a benevolent collective of Native American men, speak through pure channel Isis, and support modern men in remembering and reclaiming their original and honorable masculinity. As the husband and partner to Isis, Íse guides this one-of-a-kind interactive experience through storytelling, modeling, and instrumental instruction, wherein men are able to create who they'd like to be in our world as noble men, husbands, fathers, and leaders. You may remember Íse on Sense of Soul in prior also known as Kiko Ellsworth, he is the founder of The Divine Man: Men's Self-Mastery Program. He's an Emmy Award-winner and inspirational speaker who has appeared in hundreds of TV shows, commercials, voice overs, and films- opposite other major stars such as Will Smith, Keifer Sutherland, Martin Lawrence, Eric Roberts, Danny Trejo, and others- spanning his 20+ year entertainment career. His beautiful Twin Flame Isis channels a collective of Earth Spirits. She receives information from collectives of energy, such as Ascended Masters, Earth Spirits, Elementals, ETs, and Angels. Every message that comes forth is a message from higher frequencies, every word pours forth as heavenly truth, and she is a humble medium through which these messages can alter and uplift a person's human experience for the rest of their life. Through consistent spiritual practice, constant mental discipline, and collaboration with Divine Plant Medicine Teachers and her Divine Masculine counterpart, her services continue to grow exponentially, deeply aligned in the energies of love, compassion, inner-standing, and higher consciousness. To honor and support you and your journey. https://www.isisinspires.com https://www.iseluleko.com www.senseofsoulpodcast.com

Kiefer Sutherland's talents go far beyond acting and he's got a new album to prove it.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I hid Radio personality Ellen K in my Walk in Closet! AND I played in Lou diamond Phillips Poker game in the hollywood Hills every Week for years! Keifer Sutherland was at the table while Melissa Ethridge played guitar in the corner.

Hour 2 of Jake & Ben on June 26, 2024 Do NBA prospects with parents that played have a higher chance of sucess as a pro?  What You Got Wednesday: Worst Jazz draft picks of all time, Best Donald and Keifer Sutherland movies.  Tune in to our draft coverage tonight. 

Jake & Ben Full Show from June 26, 2024 Hour 1 The New York Nets sent a haul to Brooklyn for Mikal Bridges. This is the type of Big Game that the Jazz should be on the lookout for! Top 3 Stories of the Day: NBA Draft is tonight! Also, Spicy Tuna is back and Dennis Lindsey has a new gig.  Texas A&M Baseball coach Jim Schlossnagle lit up a reporter for asking a valid question.  Hour 2 Do NBA prospects with parents that played have a higher chance of sucess as a pro?  What You Got Wednesday: Worst Jazz draft picks of all time, Best Donald and Keifer Sutherland movies.  Tune in to our draft coverage tonight. 

What You Got Wednesday: Worst Jazz draft picks of all time, Best Donald and Keifer Sutherland movies. 

Would you spend £200 on a sachet of mayo? I'm more of a ketchup person myself…Happy Fri-yay! We've reached the end of the week and it's time for the next instalment of The Chris Moyles Show on Radio X Podcast - the 445th episode, to be exact. On the show this week, Chris and team were joined by three incredible guests. Firstly, chef and restaurateur, Jamie Oliver, has swapped the kitchen utensils for the dictaphone as he releases his second childrens' book, ‘Billy and the Epic Escape'. However, Jamie's not the only one who has been busy writing, as Dragons' Den's Deborah Meaden shares handy finance tips. Finally, the ‘24' actor, musician and all-round legend, Keifer Sutherland, graced the studio to tell us all about his new venture into the whisky business. As well as all that, The Boffin Booth returned as Pippa gets tested on ‘Teletubbies', and the prize-winning game, The Wall, saw some lucky callers get some epic prizes from the Radio X cupboard. Sounds good, right? Well. As Deborah Meaden would say, ‘I'm in'! Hit play and get stuck in to…Dom's Euros sweepstake mistakeJames' posh breakfastChris' new trademark noiseEnjoy! The Chris Moyles Show on Radio XWeekdays 6:30am-10am

In the latest Round Table some maybe discouraging news on Flanagan, Edgar Wright has his Running Man, a fire at The Overlook, and Keifer Sutherland talks bullying on Stand By Me. Then Tadd and Peter have a fun Palaver topic, build your own Ka-Tet from the entire King Universe for your own journey to The Dark Tower.    Engage with the show by Email or Social Media! Check the website at DarkTowerPalaver.com or Patreon at patreon.com/darktowerpalaver

Keifer Sutherland, Julia Roberts, and The Baconator. This movie has it all!  This is the last movie review of Season XV. Check it out and then join us next week for our final ranking of the movies we watched in the 90's. Like what you're hearing? Follow us out on Spotify! Have movie recommendations? Hit us up at  

Who is Ethan Carter and where the heck has he gone? Adam and Kiaran are on the case to solve the mystery of The Vanishing of Ethan Carter. Tune in to find out if we found him, and whether the mystery is worth solving. 

National short girl appreciation day. Entertainment from 2005. Pan Am flight 103 Lackabie bombing, 1st basketball game played, 1st crossword puzzle printed. Todays birthdays - Phil Donahue, Jane Fonda, Frank Zappa, Samuel L. Jackson, Nick Gilder, Jane Kaczmarek, Lee Roy Parnell, Ray Romano, Keifer Sutherland. George S. Patton died.Intro - Pour some sugar on me - Def Leppard http://defleppard.com/Short girls - Don ArndtRun it - Chris BrownCome a little closer - Dierks BentleyBirthdays - In da club - 50 Cent http://50cent.com/Don't eat the yellow snow - Frank ZappaSamuel L. Jackson in Snakes on a planeHot child in the city - Nick GilderWhat kind of fool do you think I am - Lee Roy ParnellExit - It's not love - Dokken http://dokken.net/ https://cooolmedia.com/

This season's SORKINING is a great one. The fellas dive into Sorkin's film debut 'A Few Good Men'(1992). Starring Tom Cruise, Jack Nicholson, Demi Moore, Kevin Bacon, Keifer Sutherland, Kevin Pollack, Josh Malina, Cuba Gooding Jr, and...Noah Wyle...oh and JT Walsh. Come for the conversation on the whiskey and movie...stay for the discussion on what we think Aaron Sorkin is trying to say about the US Military. Finally...just how the hell many movies has Kevin Bacon been in? Thanks to our Whiskies: Jeremy-Elijah Craig Brandon- Penelope

Description Returning guest Ryan Haupt joins Joe and Producer Andrew to discuss the 1993 Disney adaptation of The Three Musketeers. Starring Chris O’Donnell, Charlie Sheen, Keifer Sutherland, and Oliver Platt, this film is a fun—if loose—adaptation of the 1884 Alexandre … Continue reading →

Billy The Kid leads his group of Regulators to get revenge on the death of their mentor.  As his legend grows, the Regulators find them selves in a fight for their lives on the way to becoming legendary outlaws of the Old West.  Emllio Estevez, Keifer Sutherland, Charlie Sheen, and Lou Diamond Phillips star in the 1988 film, Young Guns! We also discuss Ahsoka episode 3 this week, talk Jennifer Lawrence's latest rom-com (psst she gets naked!) talk about the passing the voice of Harley Quinn, and discuss next week's film for Matt's birthday, Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves. Visit us for all episodes & more at the www.therebelradiopodcast.com Please leave us a 5-Star review on iTunes! You can also find us on Spotify iHeartRadio Follow us on Facebook

Today, your trusted team of Dad cinephiles is standing at attention to revisit a classic courtroom drama that remains as sharp and relevant as ever – A FEW GOOD MEN.Directed by Rob Reiner and written by the renowned Aaron Sorkin, "A Few Good Men" invites us into a military courtroom where young Navy lawyer Lt. Daniel Kaffee, played by Tom Cruise, is tasked with defending two Marines accused of murder. Kaffee faces off against the intimidating Colonel Nathan R. Jessup, played by the legendary Jack Nicholson in one of his most memorable roles.We'll discuss the tight, crackling dialogue that Sorkin is known for and how it elevates the courtroom scenes into riveting exchanges. We'll also delve into the powerful performances, not only from Cruise and Nicholson but also from a stellar supporting cast including Demi Moore, Kevin Bacon, and Kiefer Sutherland.We'll explore the ethical dilemmas at the heart of the story: the tension between duty and morality, the consequences of blind obedience, and the courage it takes to stand up for the truth. As Dads, we'll talk about the lessons we hope to teach our kids about integrity and standing up for what is right, even when it's not easy.Plus, we can't resist breaking down that iconic showdown in the courtroom — "You can't handle the truth!" — and discussing how this line has become ingrained in pop culture.So, suit up and join us as we march into the compelling and morally complex world of "A Few Good Men". You're tuned into Bad Dads Film Review, where we navigate the highs and lows of cinema, one dad joke at a time. Order in the court!We love to hear from our listeners! By which I mean we tolerate it. If it hasn't been completely destroyed yet you can usually find us on twitter @dads_film, on Facebook Bad Dads Film Review, on email at baddadsjsy@gmail.com or on our website baddadsfilm.com. Until next time, we remain... Bad Dads

Greetings, programs, and welcome to another edition of the Awesome Friday Podcast. This week on the show, we're taking on her recent Netflix release, They Cloned Tyrone, and the still-in-cinemas Joy Ride.  Simon also gets Matthew talking about the recent musical episode of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, which is why the episode runs a little over time.   We hope you enjoy it!STRIKE NOTE:            This episode was produced during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labour of the writers and actors currently on strike, the films discussed here wouldn't exist.BONUS CONTENT:     This week on the Patron Subscriber feed, we discuss the movies we watch at various holidays.  Patreon subscribers at every tier get access, and those tiers start at just $2 CAD per month.Link: https://www.patreon.com/posts/august-13th-chat-87645683   SUPPORT:             Patreon    Ko-Fi EPISODE HOMEPAGE:     Visit this episode's homepage for JustWatch-powered streaming links for each movie discussed!Link: https://awesomefriday.ca/2023/08/podcast-they-cloned-tyrone-joy-ride/CONNECT WITH US:        Awesome Friday: https://awesomefriday.ca        Matthew: https://stretched.ca/ Simon: https://temporarypen.com/ SHOW LINKS: Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/awesome-friday/id480100293 Amazon: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/18daf305-2c59-4718-bd5c-0dc393173353 Deezer: https://www.deezer.com/en/show/2775782 Goodpods: https://goodpods.app.link/ulvugeHonjb Google: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9hd2Vzb21lZnJpZGF5LnBvZG9tYXRpYy5jb20vcnNzMi54bWw IHeartRadio: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/85390621/ Overcast: https://overcast.fm/itunes480100293/the-awesome-friday-movie-podcast Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4kwPQGeBvVFVtewkCbrbA9 Meanwhile, relax and enjoy your flight.  

On this week's episode, we remember William Friedkin, who passed away this past Tuesday, looking back at one of his lesser known directing efforts, Rampage. ----more---- From Los Angeles, California, the Entertainment Capital of the World, it’s The 80s Movies Podcast. I am your host, Edward Havens. Thank you for listening today. Originally, this week was supposed to be the fourth episode of our continuing miniseries on the 1980s movies released by Miramax Films. I was fully committed to making it so, but then the world learned that Academy Award-winning filmmaker William Friedkin passed away on Tuesday. I had already done an episode on his best movie from the decade, 1985’s To Live and Die in L.A., so I decided I would cover another film Friedkin made in the 80s that isn’t as talked about or as well known as The French Connection or The Exorcist or To Live and Die in L.A. Rampage. Now, some of you who do know the film might try and point that the film was released in 1992, by Miramax Films of all companies, and you’d be correct. However, I did say I was going to cover another film of his MADE in the 80s, which is also true when it comes to Rampage. So let’s get to the story, shall we? Born in Chicago in 1935, William Friedkin was inspired to become a filmmaker after seeing Citizen Kane as a young man, and by 1962, he was already directing television movies. He’d make his feature directing debut with Good Times in 1967, a fluffy Sonny and Cher comedy which finds Sonny Bono having only ten days to rewrite the screenplay for their first movie, because the script to the movie they agreed to was an absolute stinker. Which, ironically, is a fairly good assessment of the final film. The film, which was essentially a bigger budget version of their weekly variety television series shot mostly on location at an African-themed amusement park in Northern California and the couple’s home in Encino, was not well received by either critics or audiences. But by the time Good Times came out, Friedkin was already working on his next movie, The Night They Raided Minsky’s. A comedy co-written by future television legend Norman Lear, Minsky’s featured Swedish actress Britt Ekland, better known at the time as the wife of Peter Sellers, as a naive young Amish woman who leaves the farm in Pennsylvania looking to become an actress in religious stage plays in New York City. Instead, she becomes a dancer in a burlesque show and essentially ends up inventing the strip tease. The all-star cast included Dr. No himself, Joseph Wiseman, Elliott Gould, Jack Burns, Bert Lahr, and Jason Robards, Jr., who was a late replacement for Alan Alda, who himself was a replacement for Tony Curtis. Friedkin was dreaming big for this movie, and was able to convince New York City mayor John V. Lindsay to delay the demolition of an entire period authentic block of 26th Street between First and Second Avenue for two months for the production to use as a major shooting location. There would be one non-production related tragedy during the filming of the movie. The seventy-two year old Lahr, best known as The Cowardly Lion in The Wizard of Oz, would pass away in early December 1967, two weeks before production was completed, and with several scenes still left to shoot with him. Lear, who was also a producer on the film, would tell a reporter for the New York Times that they would still be able to shoot the rest of the film so that performance would remain virtually intact, and with the help of some pre-production test footage and a body double, along with a sound-alike to dub the lines they couldn’t get on set, Lahr’s performance would be one of the highlights of the final film. Friedkin and editor Ralph Rosenblum would spend three months working on their first cut, as Friedkin was due to England in late March to begin production on his next film, The Birthday Party. Shortly after Friedkin was on the plane to fly overseas, Rosenblum would represent the film for a screening with the executives at United Artists, who would be distributing the film. The screening was a disaster, and Rosenblum would be given carte blanche by the studio heads to save the film by any means necessary, since Friedkin was not available to supervise. Rosenblum would completely restructure the film, including creating a prologue for the story that would be retimed and printed on black and white film stock. The next screening would go over much better with the suits, and a mid-December 1968 release date was set up. The Birthday Party was an adaptation of a Harold Pinter play, and featured Robert Shaw and Patrick Magee. Friedkin had seen the play in San Francisco in 1962, and was able to get the film produced in part because he would only need six actors and a handful of locations to shoot, keeping the budget low. Although the mystery/thriller was a uniquely British story, Harold Pinter liked how Friedkin wanted to tell the story, and although Pinter had written a number of plays that had been adapted into movies and had adapted a number of books into screenplay, this would be the first time Pinter would adapt one of his own stories to the silver screen. To keep the budget lower still, Friedkin, Pinter and lead actor Robert Shaw agreed to take the minimum possible payments for their positions in exchange for part ownership in the film. The release of Minsky’s was so delayed because of the prolonged editing process that The Birthday Party would actually in theatres nine days before Minsky’s, which would put Friedkin in the rare position of having two movies released in such a short time frame. And while Minsky’s performed better at the box office than Birthday Party, the latter film would set the director up financially with enough in the bank where he could concentrate working on projects he felt passionate about. That first film after The Birthday Party would make William Friedkin a name director. His second one would make him an Oscar winner. The third, a legend. And the fourth would break him. The first film, The Boys in the Band, was an adaptation of a controversial off-Broadway play about a straight man who accidentally shows up to a party for gay men. Matt Crowley, the author of the play, would adapt it to the screen, produce the film himself with author Dominick Dunne, and select Friedkin, who Crowley felt best understood the material, to direct. Crowley would only make one demand on his director, that all of the actors from the original off-Broadway production be cast in the movie in the same roles. Friedkin had no problem with that. When the film was released in March 1970, Friedkin would get almost universally excellent notices from film critics, except for Pauline Kael in the New York Times, who had already built up a dislike of the director after just three films. But March 1970 was a different time, and a film not only about gay men but a relatively positive movie about gay men who had the same confusions and conflicts as straight men, was probably never going to be well-received by a nation that still couldn’t talk openly about non-hetero relationships. But the film would still do about $7m worth of ticket sales, not enough to become profitable for its distributor, but enough for the director to be in the conversation for bigger movies. His next film was an adaptation of a 1969 book about two narcotics detectives in the New York City Police Department who went after a wealthy French businessman who was helping bring heroin into the States. William Friedkin and his cinematographer Owen Roizman would shoot The French Connection as if it were a documentary, giving the film a gritty realism rarely seen in movies even in the New Hollywood era. The film would be named the Best Picture of 1971 by the Academy, and Friedkin and lead actor Gene Hackman would also win Oscars in their respective categories. And the impact of The French Connection on cinema as a whole can never be understated. Akira Kurosawa would cite the film as one of his favorites, as would David Fincher and Brad Pitt, who bonded over the making of Seven because of Fincher’s conscious choice to use the film as a template for the making of his own film. Steven Spielberg said during the promotion of his 2005 film Munich that he studied The French Connection to prepare for his film. And, of course, after The French Connection came The Exorcist, which would, at the time of its release in December 1973, become Warner Brothers’ highest grossing film ever, legitimize the horror genre to audiences worldwide, and score Friedkin his second straight Oscar nomination for Best Director, although this time he and the film would lose to George Roy Hill and The Sting. In 1977, Sorcerer, Friedkin’s American remake of the 1953 French movie The Wages of Fear, was expected to be the big hit film of the summer. The film originally started as a little $2.5m budgeted film Friedkin would make while waiting for script revisions on his next major movie, called The Devil’s Triangle, were being completed. By the time he finished filming Sorcerer, which reteamed Friedkin with his French Connection star Roy Scheider, now hot thanks to his starring role in Jaws, this little film became one of the most expensive movies of the decade, with a final budget over $22m. And it would have the unfortunate timing of being released one week after a movie released by Twentieth Century-Fox, Star Wars, sucked all the air out of the theatrical exhibition season. It would take decades for audiences to discover Sorcerer, and for Friedkin, who had gone some kind of mad during the making of the film, to accept it to be the taut and exciting thriller it was. William Friedkin was a broken man, and his next film, The Brinks Job, showed it. A comedy about the infamous 1950 Brinks heist in Boston, the film was originally supposed to be directed by John Frankenheimer, with Friedkin coming in to replace the iconic filmmaker only a few months before production was set to begin. Despite a cast that included Peter Boyle, Peter Falk, Allen Garfield, Warren Oates, Gena Rowlands and Paul Sorvino, the film just didn’t work as well as it should have. Friedkin’s first movie of the 1980s, Cruising, might have been better received in a later era, but an Al Pacino cop drama about his trying to find a killer of homosexual men in the New York City gay fetish underground dance club scene was, like The Boys in the Band a decade earlier, too early to cinemas. Like Sorcerer, audiences would finally find Cruising in a more forgiving era. In 1983, Friedkin made what is easily his worst movie, Deal of the Century, an alleged comedy featuring Chevy Chase, Gregory Hines and Sigourney Weaver that attempted to satirize the military industrial complex in the age of Ronald Reagan, but somehow completely missed its very large and hard to miss target. 1985 would see a comeback for William Friedkin, with the release of To Live and Die in LA, in which two Secret Service agents played by William L. Petersen and John Pankow try to uncover a counterfeit money operation led by Willem Dafoe. Friedkin was drawn to the source material, a book by former Secret Service agent Gerald Petievich, because the agency was almost never portrayed on film, and even less as the good guys. Friedkin would adapt the book into a screenplay with Petievich, who would also serve as a technical consultant to ensure authenticity in how Petersen and Pankow acted. It would be only the second time Friedkin was credited as a screenwriter, but it would be a nine-minute chase sequence through the aqueducts of Los Angeles and a little used freeway in Wilmington that would be the most exciting chase sequence committed to film since the original Gone in 60 Seconds, The French Connection, or the San Francisco chase sequence in the 1967 Steve McQueen movie Bullitt. The sequence is impressive on Blu-ray, but on a big screen in a movie theatre in 1985, it was absolutely thrilling. Which, at long last, brings us to Rampage. Less than two months after To Live and Die in LA opened to critical raves and moderate box office in November 1985, Friedkin made a deal with Italian mega-producer Dino DeLaurentiis to direct Rampage, a crime drama based on a novel by William P. Wood. DeLaurentiis had hired Friedkin for The Brinks Job several years earlier, and the two liked working for each other. DeLaurentiis had just started his own distribution company, the DeLaurentiis Entertainment Group, which we’ll shorten to DEG for the remainder of this episode, and needed some big movies to fill his pipeline. We did an episode on DEG back in 2020, and if you haven’t listened to it yet, you should after you finish this episode. At this time, DEG was still months away from releasing its first group of films, which would include Maximum Overdrive, the first film directed by horror author Stephen King, and Blue Velvet, the latest from David Lynch, both of which would shoot at the same time at DEG’s newly built studio facilities in Wilmington, North Carolina. But Friedkin was writing the screenplay adaptation himself, and would need several months to get the script into production shape, so the film would not be able to begin production until late 1986. The novel Rampage was based on the real life story of serial killer Richard Chase, dubbed The Vampire Killer by the press when he went on a four day killing spree in January 1978. Chase murdered six people, including a pregnant woman and a 22 month old child, and drank their blood as part of some kind of ritual. Wood would change some aspects of Chase’s story for his book, naming his killer Charles Reece, changing some of the ages and sexes of the murder victims, and how the murderer died. But most of the book was about Reece’s trial, with a specific focus on Reece’s prosecutor, Anthony Fraser, who had once been against capital punishment, but would be seeking the death penalty in this case after meeting one of the victims’ grieving family members. William L. Petersen, Friedkin’s lead star in To Live and Die in LA, was initially announced to star as Fraser, but as the production got closer to its start date, Petersen had to drop out of the project, due to a conflict with another project that would be shooting at the same time. Michael Biehn, the star of James Cameron’s The Terminator and the then recently released Aliens, would sign on as the prosecutor. Alex McArthur, best known at the time as Madonna’s baby daddy in her Papa Don’t Preach music video, would score his first major starring role as the serial killer Reece. The cast would also include a number of recognizable character actors, recognizable if not by name but by face once they appeared on screen, including Nicholas Campbell, Deborah Van Valkenberg, Art LaFleur, Billy Greenbush and Grace Zabriskie. Friedkin would shoot the $7.5m completely on location in Stockton, CA from late October 1986 to just before Christmas, and Friedkin would begin post-production on the film after the first of the new year. In early May 1987, DEG announced a number of upcoming releases for their films, including a September 11th release for Rampage. But by August 1987, many of their first fifteen releases over their first twelve months being outright bombs, quietly pulled Rampage off their release calendar. When asked by one press reporter about the delay, a representative from DEG would claim the film would need to be delayed because Italian composer Ennio Morricone had not delivered his score yet, which infuriated Friedkin, as he had turned in his final cut of the film, complete with Morricone’s score, more than a month earlier. The DEG rep was forced to issue a mea culpa, acknowledging the previous answer had been quote unquote incorrect, and stated they were looking at release dates between November 1987 and February 1988. The first public screening of Rampage outside of an unofficial premiere in Stockton in August 1987 happened on September 11th, 1987, at the Boston Film Festival, but just a couple days after that screening, DEG would be forced into bankruptcy by one of his creditors in, of all places, Boston, and the film would be stuck in limbo for several years. During DEG’s bankruptcy, some European companies would be allowed to buy individual country rights for the film, to help pay back some of the creditors, but the American rights to the film would not be sold until Miramax Films purchased the film, and the 300 already created 35mm prints of the film in March 1992, with a planned national release of the film the following month. But that release had to be scrapped, along with the original 300 prints of the film, when Friedkin, who kept revising the film over the ensuing five years, turned in to the Weinsteins a new edit of the film, ten minutes shorter than the version shown in Stockton and Boston in 1987. He had completely eliminated a subplot involving the failing marriage of the prosecutor, since it had nothing to do with the core idea of the story, and reversed the ending, which originally had Reece committing suicide in his cell not unlike Richard Chase. Now, the ending had Reece, several years into the future, alive and about to be considered for parole. Rampage would finally be released into 172 theatres on October 30th, 1992, including 57 theatres in Los Angeles, and four in New York City. Most reviews for the film were mixed, finding the film unnecessarily gruesome at times, but also praising how Friedkin took the time for audiences to learn more about the victims from the friends and family left behind. But the lack of pre-release advertising on television or through trailers in theatres would cause the film to perform quite poorly in its opening weekend, grossing just $322,500 in its first three days. After a second and third weekend where both the grosses and the number of theatres playing the film would fall more than 50%, Miramax would stop tracking the film, with a final reported gross of just less than $800k. Between the release of his thriller The Guardian in 1990 and the release of Rampage in 1992, William Friedkin would marry fellow Chicago native Sherry Lansing, who at the time had been a successful producer at Paramount Pictures, having made such films as The Accused, which won Jodie Foster her first Academy Award, and Fatal Attraction. Shortly after they married, Lansing would be named the Chairman of Paramount Pictures, where she would green light such films as Forrest Gump, Braveheart and Titanic. She would also hire her husband to make four films for the studio between 1994 and 2003, including the basketball drama Blue Chips and the thriller Jade. Friedkin’s directing career would slow down after 2003’s The Hunted, making only two films over the next two decades. 2006’s Bug was a psychological thriller with Michael Shannon and Ashley Judd, and 2012’s Killer Joe, a mixture of black comedy and psychological thriller featuring Matthew McConaughey and Emile Hirsch, was one of few movies to be theatrically released with an NC-17 rating. Neither were financially successful, but were highly regarded by critics. But there was still one more movie in him. In January 2023, Friedkin would direct his own adaptation of the Herman Wouk’s novel The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial for the Paramount+ streaming service. Updating the setting from the book’s World War II timeline to the more modern Persian Gulf conflict, this new film starred Keifer Sutherland as Lieutenant Commander Queeg, alongside Jason Clark, Jake Lacy, Jay Duplass, Dale Dye, and in his final role before his death in March, Lance Reddick. That film will premiere at the Venice Film Festival in Italy next month, although Paramount+ has not announced a premiere date on their service. William Friedkin had been married four times in his life, including a two year marriage to legendary French actress Jean Moreau in the late 70s and a two year marriage to British actress Lesley-Anne Downe in the early 80s. But Friedkin and Lansing would remain married for thirty-two years until his death from heart failure and pneumonia this past Tuesday. I remember when Rampage was supposed to come out in 1987. My theatre in Santa Cruz was sent a poster for it about a month before it was supposed to be released. A pixelated image of Reece ran down one side of the poster, while the movie’s tagline and credits down the other. I thought the poster looked amazing, and after the release was cancelled, I took the poster home and hung it on one of the walls in my place at the time. The 1992 poster from Miramax was far blander, basically either a entirely white or an entirely red background, with a teared center revealing the eyes of Reece, which really doesn’t tell you anything about the movie. Like with many of his box office failures, Friedkin would initially be flippant about the film, although in the years preceding his death, he would acknowledge the film was decent enough despite all of its post-production problems. I’d love to be able to suggest to you to watch Rampage as soon as you can, but as of August 2023, one can only rent or buy the film from Amazon, $5.89 for a two day rental or $14.99 to purchase. It is not available on any other streaming service as of the writing and recording of this episode. Thank you for joining us. We’ll talk again soon, when I expect to release the fourth part of the Miramax miniseries, unless something unexpected happens in the near future. Remember to visit this episode’s page on our website, The80sMoviePodcast.com, for extra materials about Rampage and the career of William Friedkin. The 80s Movies Podcast has been researched, written, narrated and edited by Edward Havens for Idiosyncratic Entertainment. Thank you again. Good night.

This week, we continue out look back at the films released by Miramax in the 1980s, focusing on 1987. ----more---- TRANSCRIPT   From Los Angeles, California. The Entertainment Capital of the World. It's the 80s Movie Podcast. I am your host, Edward Havens. Thank you for listening today.   On this episode, we are continuing our miniseries on the movies released by Miramax Films in the 1980s, concentrating on their releases from 1987, the year Miramax would begin its climb towards the top of the independent distribution mountain.   The first film Miramax would release in 1987 was Lizzie Borden's Working Girls.   And yes, Lizzie Borden is her birth name. Sort of. Her name was originally Linda Elizabeth Borden, and at the age of eleven, when she learned about the infamous accused double murderer, she told her parents she wanted to only be addressed as Lizzie. At the age of 18, after graduating high school and heading off to the private women's liberal arts college Wellesley, she would legally change her name to Lizzie Borden.   After graduating with a fine arts degree, Borden would move to New York City, where she held a variety of jobs, including being both a painter and an art critic for the influential Artforum magazine, until she attended a retrospective of Jean-Luc Godard movies, when she was inspired to become a filmmaker herself.   Her first film, shot in 1974, was a documentary, Regrouping, about four female artists who were part of a collective that incorporated avant-garde techniques borrowed from performance art, as the collective slowly breaks apart. One of the four artists was a twenty-three year old painter who would later make film history herself as the first female director to win the Academy Award for Best Director, Kathryn Bigelow.    But Regrouping didn't get much attention when it was released in 1976, and it would take Borden five years to make her first dramatic narrative, Born in Flames, another movie which would also feature Ms. Bigelow in a supporting role. Borden would not only write, produce and direct this film about two different groups of feminists who operate pirate radio stations in New York City which ends with the bombing of the broadcast antenna atop the World Trade Center, she would also edit the film and act as one of the cinematographers. The film would become one of the first instances of Afrofuturism in film, and would become a cultural touchstone in 2016 when a restored print of the film screened around the world to great critical acclaim, and would tie for 243rd place in the 2022 Sight and Sound poll of The Greatest Films Ever Made. Other films that tied with include Preston Sturges' Sullivan's Travels, Woody Allen's Annie Hall, David Cronenberg's Videodrome, and Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange. A   Yes, it's that good, and it would cost only $30k to produce.   But while Born in Flames wasn't recognized as revolutionary in 1983, it would help her raise $300k for her next movie, about the lives of sex workers in New York City. The idea would come to her while working on Born in Flames, as she became intrigued about prostitution after meeting some well-educated women on the film who worked a few shifts a week at a brothel to earn extra money or to pay for their education. Like many, her perception of prostitution were women who worked the streets, when in truth streetwalkers only accounted for about 15% of the business. During the writing of the script, she began visiting brothels in New York City and learned about the rituals involved in the business of selling sex, especially intrigued how many of the sex workers looked out for each other mentally, physically and hygienically.   Along with Sandra Kay, who would play one of the ladies of the night in the film, Borden worked up a script that didn't glamorize or grossly exaggerate the sex industry, avoiding such storytelling tropes as the hooker with a heart of gold or girls forced into prostitution due to extraordinary circumstances. Most of the ladies playing prostitutes were played by unknown actresses working off-Broadway, while the johns were non-actors recruited through word of mouth between Borden's friends and the occasional ad in one of the city's sex magazines.   Production on Working Girls would begin in March 1985, with many of the sets being built in Borden's loft in Manhattan, with moveable walls to accommodate whatever needed to be shot on any given day. While $300k would be ten times what she had on Born in Flames, Borden would stretch her budget to the max by still shooting in 16mm, in the hopes that the footage would look good enough should the finished film be purchased by a distributor and blown up to 35mm for theatrical exhibition.   After a month of shooting, which involved copious amounts of both male and female nudity, Borden would spend six months editing her film. By early 1986, she had a 91 minute cut ready to go, and she and her producer would submit the film to play at that year's Cannes Film Festival. While the film would not be selected to compete for the coveted Palme D'Or, it would be selected for the Directors' Fortnight, a parallel program that would also include Spike Lee's She's Gotta Have It, Alex Cox's Sid and Nancy, Denys Arcand's The Decline of the American Empire, and Chantel Akerman's Golden Eighties.   The film would get into some trouble when it was invited to screen at the Toronto Film Festival a few months later. The movie would have to be approved by the Ontario Film and Video Review Board before being allowed to show at the festival. However, the board would not approve the film without two cuts, including one scene which depicted the quote unquote graphic manipulation of a man's genitalia by a woman. The festival, which had a long standing policy of not showing any movie that had been cut for censorship, would appeal the decision on behalf of the filmmakers. The Review Board denied the appeal, and the festival left the decision of whether to cut the two offending scenes to Borden. Of all the things I've researched about the film, one of the few things I could not find was whether or not Borden made the trims, but the film would play at the festival as scheduled.   After Toronto, Borden would field some offers from some of the smaller art house distributors, but none of the bigger independents or studio-affiliated “classics” divisions. For many, it was too sexual to be a straight art house film, while it wasn't graphic enough to be porn. The one person who did seem to best understand what Borden was going for was, no surprise in hindsight, Harvey Weinstein. Miramax would pick the film up for distribution in late 1986, and planned a February 1987 release.   What might be surprising to most who know about Harvey Weinstein, who would pick up the derisive nickname Harvey Scissorhands in a few years for his constant meddling in already completed films, actually suggested Borden add back in a few minutes of footage to balance out the sex with some lighter non-sex scenes. She would, along with making some last minute dialogue changes, before the film opened on February 5th, not in New York City or Los Angeles, the traditional launching pads for art house films, but at the Opera Plaza Cinema in San Francisco, where the film would do a decent $8k in its first three days.   Three weeks after opening at the Opera Plaza, Miramax would open the film at the 57th Street Playhouse in midtown Manhattan. Buoyed by some amazing reviews from the likes of Siskel and Ebert, Vincent Canby of the New York Times, and J. Hoberman of The Village Voice, Working Girls would gross an astounding $42k during its opening weekend. Two weeks later, it would open at the Samuel Goldwyn Westside Pavilion Cinemas, where it would bring in $17k its first weekend. It would continue to perform well in its major market exclusive runs. An ad in the April 8th, 1987 issue of Variety shows a new house record of $13,492 in its first week at the Ellis Cinema in Atlanta. $140k after five weeks in New York. $40k after three weeks at the Nickelodeon in Boston. $30k after three weeks at the Fine Arts in Chicago. $10k in its first week at the Guild in San Diego. $11k in just three days at the TLA in Philly.   Now, there's different numbers floating around about how much Working Girls made during its total theatrical run. Box Office Mojo says $1.77m, which is really good for a low budget independent film with no stars and featuring a subject still taboo to many in American today, let alone 37 years ago, but a late June 1987 issue of Billboard Magazine about some of the early film successes of the year, puts the gross for Working Girls at $3m.   If you want to check out Working Girls, the Criterion Collection put out an exceptional DVD and Blu-ray release in 2021, which includes a brand new 4K transfer of the film, and a commentary track featuring Borden, cinematographer Judy Irola, and actress Amanda Goodwin, amongst many bonus features. Highly recommended.   I've already spoken some about their next film, Ghost Fever, on our episode last year about the fake movie director Alan Smithee and all of his bad movies. For those who haven't listened to that episode yet and are unaware of who Alan Smithee wasn't, Alan Smithee was a pseudonym created by the Directors Guild in the late 1960s who could be assigned the directing credit of a movie whose real director felt the final cut of the film did not represent his or her vision. By the time Ghost Fever came around in 1987, it would be the 12th movie to be credited to Alan Smithee.   If you have listened to the Alan Smithee episode, you can go ahead and skip forward a couple minutes, but be forewarned, I am going to be offering up a different elaboration on the film than I did on that episode.   And away we go…   Those of us born in the 1960s and before remember a show called All in the Family, and we remember Archie Bunker's neighbors, George and Louise Jefferson, who were eventually spun off onto their own hit show, The Jeffersons. Sherman Hemsley played George Jefferson on All in the Family and The Jeffersons for 12 years, but despite the show being a hit for a number of years, placing as high as #3 during the 1981-1982 television season, roles for Hemsley and his co-star Isabel Sanford outside the show were few and far between. During the eleven seasons The Jeffersons ran on television, from 1975 to 1985, Sherman Hemsley would only make one movie, 1979's Love at First Bite, where he played a small role as a reverend. He appeared on the poster, but his name was not listed amongst the other actors on the poster.   So when the producers of the then-titled Benny and Beaufor approached Hemsley in the spring of 1984 to play one of the title roles, he was more than happy to accept. The Jeffersons was about to start its summer hiatus, and here was the chance to not only make a movie but to be the number one listed actor on the call sheet. He might not ever get that chance again.   The film, by now titled Benny and Buford Meet the Bigoted Ghost, would shoot in Mexico City at Estudios America in the summer of 1984, before Hemsley was due back in Los Angeles to shoot the eleventh and what would be the final season of his show. But it would not be a normal shoot. In fact, there would be two different versions of the movie shot back to back. One, in English, would be directed by Lee Madden, which would hinge its comedy on the bumbling antics of its Black police officer, Buford, and his Hispanic partner, Benny. The other version would be shot in Spanish by Mexican director Miguel Rico, where the comedy would satirize class and social differences rather than racial differences. Hemsley would speak his lines in English, and would be dubbed by a Spanish-speaking actor in post production. Luis Ávalos, best known as Doctor Doolots on the PBS children's show The Electric Company, would play Benny. The only other name in the cast was boxing legend Smokin' Joe Frazier, who was making his proper acting debut on the film as, not too surprisingly, a boxer.   The film would have a four week shooting schedule, and Hemsley was back to work on The Jeffersons on time. Madden would get the film edited together rather quick, and the producers would have a screening for potential distributors in early October.   The screening did not go well.   Madden would be fired from the production, the script rewritten, and a new director named Herbert Strock would be hired to shoot more footage once Hemsley was done with his commitments to The Jeffersons in the spring of 1985. This is when Madden contacted the Directors Guild to request the Smithee pseudonym. But since the film was still in production, the DGA could not issue a judgment until the producers provided the Guild with a completed copy of the film.   That would happen in the late fall of 1985, and Madden was able to successfully show that he had directly a majority of the completed film but it did not represent his vision.   The film was not good, but Miramax still needed product to fill their distribution pipeline. They announced in mid-March of 1987 that they had acquired the film for distribution, and that the film would be opening in Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, Miami, Nashville, St. Louis, and Tampa-St. Petersburg FL the following week.    Miramax did not release how many theatres the film was playing in in those markets, and the only market Variety did track of those that week was St. Louis, where the film did $7k from the four theatres they were tracking that week. Best as I can tell from limited newspaper archives of the day, Ghost Fever played on nine screens in Atlanta, 4 in Dallas/Fort Worth, 25 screens in Miami, and 12 in Tampa-St. Pete on top of the four I can find in St. Louis. By the following week, every theatre that was playing Ghost Fever had dropped it.   The film would not open in any other markets until it opened on 16 screens in the greater Los Angeles metro region on September 11th. No theatres in Hollywood. No theatres in Westwood. No theatres in Beverly Hills or Santa Monica or any major theatre around, outside of the Palace Theatre downtown, a once stately theatre that had fallen into disrepair over the previous three decades. Once again, Miramax didn't release grosses for the run, none of the theatres playing the film were tracked by Variety that week, and all the playdates were gone after one week.   Today, you can find two slightly different copies of the film on a very popular video sharing website, one the theatrical cut, the other the home video cut. The home video cut is preceded by a quick history of the film, including a tidbit that Hemsley bankrolled $3m of the production himself, and that the film's failure almost made him bankrupt. I could not find any source to verify this, but there is possibly specious evidence to back up this claim. The producers of the film were able to make back the budget selling the film to home video company and cable movie channels around the world, and Hemsley would sue them in December 1987 for $3m claiming he was owed this amount from the profits and interest. It would take nine years to work its way through the court system, but a jury in March 1996 would award Hemsley $2.8m. The producers appealed, and an appellate court would uphold the verdict in April 1998.   One of the biggest indie film success stories of 1987 was Patricia Rozema's I've Heard the Mermaids Singing.   In the early 1980s, Rozema was working as an assistant producer on a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation current affairs television show called The Journal. Although she enjoyed her work, she, like many of us, wanted to be a filmmaker. While working on The Journal, she started to write screenplays while taking a classes at a Toronto Polytechnic Institute on 16mm film production.   Now, one of the nicer things about the Canadian film industry is that there are a number of government-funded arts councils that help young independent Canadian filmmakers get their low budget films financed. But Rozema was having trouble getting her earliest ideas funded. Finally, in 1984, she was able to secure funding for Passion, a short film she had written about a documentary filmmaker who writes an extremely intimate letter to an unknown lover. Linda Griffiths, the star of John Sayles' 1983 film Lianna, plays the filmmaker, and Passion would go on to be nominated for Gold Hugo for Best Short Film at the 1985 Chicago Film Festival.   However, a negative review of the short film in The Globe and Mail, often called Canada's Newspaper of Record, would anger Rozema, and she would use that anger to write a new script, Polly, which would be a polemic against the Toronto elitist high art milieu and its merciless negative judgements towards newer artists. Polly, the lead character and narrator of the film, lives alone, has no friends, rides her bike around Toronto to take photographs of whatever strikes her fancy, and regularly indulges herself in whimsical fantasies. An employee for a temporary secretarial agency, Polly gets placed in a private art gallery. The gallery owner is having an off-again, on-again relationship with one her clients, a painter who has misgivings she is too young for the gallery owner and the owner too old for her.    Inspired by the young painter, Polly anonymously submits some of her photographs to the gallery, in the hopes of getting featured, but becomes depressed when the gallery owner, who does not know who took the photos, dismisses them in front of Polly, calling them “simple minded.” Polly quits the gallery and retreats to her apartment. When the painter sees the photographs, she presents herself as the photographer of them, and the pair start to pass them off as the younger artist's work, even after the gallery owner learns they are not of the painter's work. When Polly finds out about the fraud, she confronts the gallery owner, eventually throwing a cup of tea at the owner.   Soon thereafter, the gallery owner and the painter go to check up on Polly at her flat, where they discover more photos undeniable beauty, and the story ends with the three women in one of Polly's fantasies.   Rozema would work on the screenplay for Polly while she was working as a third assistant director on David Cronenberg's The Fly. During the writing process, which took about a year, Rozema would change the title from Polly to Polly's Progress to Polly's Interior Mind. When she would submit the script in June 1986 to the various Canadian arts foundations for funding, it would sent out with yet another new title, Oh, The Things I've Seen.   The first agency to come aboard the film was the Ontario Film Development Corporation, and soon thereafter, the National Film Board of Canada, the Ontario Arts Council, and the Canada Council would also join the funding operation, but the one council they desperately needed to fund the gap was Telefilm Canada, the Canadian government's principal instrument for supporting Canada's audiovisual industry. Telefilm Canada, at the time, had a reputation for being philosophically averse to low-budget, auteur-driven films, a point driven home directly by the administrator of the group at the time, who reportedly stomped out of a meeting concerning the making of this very film, purportedly declaring that Telefilm should not be financing these kind of minimalist, student films. Telefilm would reverse course when Rozema and her producer, Alexandra Raffé, agreed to bring on Don Haig, called “The Godfather of Canadian Cinema,” as an executive producer.   Side note: several months after the film completed shooting, Haig would win an Academy Award for producing a documentary about musician Artie Shaw.   Once they had their $350k budget, Rozema and Raffé got to work on pre-production. Money was tight on such an ambitious first feature. They had only $500 to help their casting agent identify potential actors for the film, although most of the cast would come from Rozema's friendships with them. They would cast thirty-year-old Sheila McCarthy, a first time film actress with only one television credit to her name, as Polly.   Shooting would begin in Toronto on September 24th, 1986 and go for four weeks, shooting completely in 16mm because they could not afford to shoot on 35mm. Once filming was completed, the National Film Board of Canada allowed Rozema use of their editing studio for free. When Rozema struggled with editing the film, the Film Board offered to pay for the consulting services of Ron Sanders, who had edited five of David Cronenberg's movies, including Scanners, Videodrome and The Fly, which Rozema gladly accepted.   After New Years 1987, Rozema has a rough cut of the film ready to show the various funding agencies. That edit of the film was only 65 minutes long, but went over very well with the viewers. So much so that the President of Cinephile Films, the Canadian movie distributor who also helped to fund the film, suggested that Rozema not only add another 15mins or so to the film wherever she could, but submit the film to the be entered in the Directors' Fortnight program at the Cannes Film Festival. Rozema still needed to add that requested footage in, and finish the sound mix, but she agreed as long as she was able to complete the film by the time the Cannes programmers met in mid-March. She wouldn't quite make her self-imposed deadline, but the film would get selected for Cannes anyway. This time, she had an absolute deadline. The film had to be completed in time for Cannes.   Which would include needing to make a 35mm blow up of the 16mm print, and the production didn't have the money. Rozema and Raffé asked Telefilm Canada if they could have $40k for the print, but they were turned down.   Twice.   Someone suggested they speak with the foreign sales agent who acquired the rights to sell the film at Cannes. The sales agent not only agreed to the fund the cost from sales of the film to various territories that would be returned to the the various arts councils, but he would also create a press kit, translate the English-language script into French, make sure the print showing at Cannes would have French subtitles, and create the key art for the posters and other ads. Rozema would actually help to create the key art, a picture of Sheila McCarthy's head floating over a body of water, an image that approximately 80% of all buyers would use for their own posters and ads around the world.   By the time the film premiered in Cannes on May 10th, 1987, Rozema had changed the title once again, to I've Heard the Mermaids Singing. The title would be taken from a line in the T.S. Eliot poem The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, which she felt best represented the film.   But whatever it was titled, the two thousand people inside the theatre were mesmerized, and gave the film a six minute standing ovation. The festival quickly added four more screenings of the film, all of which sold out.   While a number of territories around the world had purchased the film before the premiere, the filmmakers bet big on themselves by waiting until after the world premiere to entertain offers from American distributors. Following the premiere, a number of companies made offers for the film. Miramax would be the highest, at $100,000, but the filmmakers said “no.” They kept the bidding going, until they got Miramax up to $350k, the full budget for the film. By the time the festival was done, the sales agent had booked more than $1.1m worth of sales. The film had earned back more than triple its cost before it ever opened on a single commercial screen.   Oh, and it also won Rozema the Prix de la Jeunesse (Pree do la Jza-naise), the Prize of the Youth, from the Directors Fortnight judges.   Miramax would schedule I've Heard the Mermaids Singing to open at the 68th Street Playhouse in New York City on September 11th, after screening at the Toronto Film Festival, then called The Festival of Festivals, the night before, and at the Telluride Film Festival the previous week. Miramax was so keen on the potential success of the film that they would buy their first ever full page newspaper, in the Sunday, September 6th New York Times Arts and Leisure section, which cost them $25k.   The critical and audience reactions in Toronto and Telluride matched the enthusiasm on the Croisette, which would translate to big box office its opening weekend. $40k, the best single screen gross in all Manhattan. While it would lose that crown to My Life as a Dog the following week, its $32k second weekend gross was still one of the best in the city. After three weekends in New York City, the film would have already grossed $100k. That weekend, the film would open at the Samuel Goldwyn West Pavilion Cinemas, where a $9,500 opening weekend gross was considered nice. Good word of mouth kept the grosses respectable for months, and after eight months in theatres, never playing in more than 27 theatres in any given week, the film would gross $1.4m in American theatres.   Ironically, the film did not go over as well in Rozema's home country, where it grossed a little less than half a million Canadian dollars, and didn't even play in the director's hometown due to a lack of theatres that were willing to play a “queer” movie, but once all was said and done, I've Heard the Mermaids Singing would end up with a worldwide gross of more than CAD$10m, a nearly 2500% return on the initial investment. Not only would part of those profits go back to the arts councils that helped fund the film, those profits would help fund the next group of independent Canadian filmmakers. And the film would become one of a growing number of films with LGBTQ lead characters whose success would break down the barriers some exhibitors had about playing non-straight movies.   The impact of this film on queer cinema and on Canadian cinema cannot be understated. In 1993, author Michael Posner spent the first twenty pages of his 250 plus page book Canadian Dreams discussing the history of the film, under the subtitle “The Little Film That Did.” And in 2014, author Julia Mendenhall wrote a 160 page book about the movie, with the subtitle “A Queer Film Classic.” You can find copies of both books on a popular web archive website, if you want to learn more.   Amazingly, for a company that would regularly take up to fourteen months between releases, Miramax would end 1987 with not one, not two, but three new titles in just the last six weeks of the year. Well, one that I can definitely place in theatres.   And here is where you just can't always trust the IMDb or Wikipedia by themselves.   The first alleged release of the three according to both sources, Riders on the Storm, was a wacky comedy featuring Dennis Hopper and Michael J. Polland, and supposedly opened in theatres on November 13th. Except it didn't. It did open in new York City on May 7th, 1988, in Los Angeles the following Friday. But we'll talk more about that movie on our next episode.   The second film of the alleged trifecta was Crazy Moon, a romantic comedy/drama from Canada that featured Keifer Sutherland as Brooks, a young man who finds love with Anne, a deaf girl working at a clothing store where Brooks and his brother are trying to steal a mannequin. Like I've Heard the Mermaids Singing, Crazy Moon would benefit from the support of several Canadian arts foundations including Telefilm Canada and the National Film Board of Canada.   In an unusual move, Miramax would release Crazy Moon on 18 screens in Los Angeles on December 11th, as part of an Oscar qualifying run. I say “unusual” because although in the 1980s, a movie that wanted to qualify for awards consideration had to play in at least one commercial movie theatre in Los Angeles for seven consecutive days before the end of the year, most distributors did just that: one movie theatre. They normally didn't do 18 screens including cities like Long Beach, Irvine and Upland.   It would, however, definitely be a one week run.   Despite a number of decent reviews, Los Angeles audiences were too busy doing plenty of other things to see Crazy Moon. Miramax, once again, didn't report grosses, but six of the eighteen theatres playing the film were being tracked by Variety, and the combined gross for those six theatres was $2,500.   It would not get any award nominations, and it would never open at another movie theatre.   The third film allegedly released by Miramax during the 1987 holiday season, The Magic Snowman, has a reported theatrical release date of December 22, 1987, according to the IMDb, which is also the date listed on the Wikipedia page for the list of movies Miramax released in the 1980s. I suspect this is a direct to video release for several reasons, the two most important ones being that December 22nd was a Tuesday, and back in the 1980s, most home video titles came out on Tuesdays, and that I cannot find a single playdate anywhere in the country around this date, even in the Weinstein's home town of Buffalo. In fact, the only mention of the words “magic snowman” together I can find for all of 1987 is a live performance of a show called The Magic Snowman in Peterborough, England in November 1987.   So now we are eight years into the history of Miramax, and they are starting to pick up some steam. Granted, Working Girls and I've Heard the Mermaids Singing wasn't going to get the company a major line of credit to start making films of their own, but it would help them with visibility amongst the independent and global film communities. These guys can open your films in America.   Thank you for joining us. We'll talk again next week, when we continue with story of Miramax Films, from 1988.   Remember to visit this episode's page on our website, The80sMoviePodcast.com, for extra materials about the movies we covered this episode.   The 80s Movies Podcast has been researched, written, narrated and edited by Edward Havens for Idiosyncratic Entertainment.   Thank you again.   Good night.

Coming up, Jordan and I refuse to drink the coffee as we review the 1993 thriller “The Vanishing”, starring Jeff Bridges, Sandra Bullock, Keifer Sutherland, and Nancy Travis. We talk about why people do not like this movie, some questions we have about this movie, and we argue about Barney as a villain. Thank you all for listening, Love you all, and peace.Click here to check out our linktree! Here you can find the Verdict League, Twitter, Tik Tok, Instagram, and Podcast streaming options for spotify and non spotify users for every show on the Couch Podcast Network all in one place!!

This week, we're continuing our BORN IN THE MONTH OF JULY celebration with the Corey Feldman (born July 16, 1971) starring vampire summer romp classic "The Lost Boys."

Dana and Tom welcome back Christine Duncan to re-discuss the courtroom drama, A Few Good Men (1992): directed by Rob Reiner, written by Aaron Sorkin, starring Tom Cruise, Demi Moore, Kevin Pollack, Keifer Sutherland, Kevin Bacon, and Jack Nicholson.Plot Summary: "A Few Good Men" is a riveting legal thriller that delves into the depths of military justice and the clash between honor and truth. Lieutenant Daniel Kaffee (Tom Cruise), a talented but complacent lawyer, finds himself assigned to defend two Marines charged with murder. As he uncovers a web of secrecy and cover-ups, Kaffee must confront the formidable Colonel Nathan Jessup (Jack Nicholson), a commanding officer determined to protect his authority at any cost. With compelling performances and sharp dialogue, director Rob Reiner crafts a gripping courtroom drama that examines the price of integrity in the face of overwhelming power.You can now follow us on Instagram, Twitter, or TikTok (@gmoatpodcast) or find our Facebook page at Greatest Movie of All-Time Podcast.For more on the episode, go to: https://www.ronnyduncanstudios.com/post/a-few-good-men-1992-revisit-ft-christine-duncanFor the Original Episode on A Few Good Men, go to: https://www.ronnyduncanstudios.com/post/a-few-good-men-1992For the entire rankings list so far, go to: https://www.ronnyduncanstudios.com/post/greatest-movie-of-all-time-list

This week on the 'Cast' the boys discuss Shirtless oiled up saxophone players and Keifer Sutherland's hair as well as Corey Haim's questionable outfit choices. Just kidding..Well, sort of. We also talk about the movie that's near and dear to both of our dried up raisins for hearts since we were condemned to an eternity of hanging upside down in caverns. But hey, at least we'll stay pretty! Join Bobby and Mark as they venture to Santa Carla to meet The Lost Boys!

This week on the 'Cast' the boys discuss Shirtless oiled up saxophone players and Keifer Sutherland's hair as well as Corey Haim's questionable outfit choices. Just kidding..Well, sort of. We also talk about the movie that's near and dear to both of our dried up raisins for hearts since we were condemned to an eternity of hanging upside down in caverns. But hey, at least we'll stay pretty! Join Bobby and Mark as they venture to Santa Carla to meet The Lost Boys!Intro/outro by: Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio

 Courtesy of Executive Producer Patron James, here is Dreamboat Anni's favorite horror movie that we haven't covered on the show yet, one of the coolest movies of 1987 and a cultural touchstone for many, THE LOST BOYS starring Corey Feldman, Corey Haim, Keifer Sutherland, Alex Winter and many more! 

In this episode of iHeartRadio's Pop Culture Weekly with Kyle McMahon, Kyle talks with Diane Lane & Michael Gandolfini about their Apple TV+ limited series Extrapolations. Then Kyle talks with Kiefer Sutherland and the cast of Paramount+'s Rabbit Hole including Meta Golding & Charles Dance, Walt Klink, Enid Graham & Rob Yang and series creators Glenn Ficarra & John Requa.You can stream Extrapolations exclusively on Apple TV+ here.You can stream Rabbit Hole exlusively on Paramount+ here.Kyle McMahon's Death, Grief & Other Sh*t We Don't Discuss is now streaming: https://www.deathandgrief.show/Chapter-One-The-Diagnosis-AKA-WTF/---------------Get all the Pop Culture Weekly podcast info you could want including photos, videos & transcripts at: https://podcast.popcultureweekly.comWatch celebrity interviews at: https://www.facebook.com/realkylemcmahon/videosor Kyle McMahon YouTube at: https://www.youtube.com/officialkylemcmahonRead the latest at http://www.PopCultureWeekly.comFollow Kyle on:Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/kmacmusicFacebook: http://www.facebook.com/realkylemcmahonInstagram: http://www.instagram.com/kmacmusicYouTube: http://www.youtube.com/officialkylemcmahonWebsite: http://www.kylemcmahon.mePop Culture Weekly twitter: http://www.twitter.com/popculturepodca

We continue our look back at the movies released by independent distributor Vestron Pictures, focusing on their 1988 releases. ----more---- The movies discussed on this episode, all released by Vestron Pictures in 1988 unless otherwise noted, include: Amsterdamned (Dick Maas) And God Created Woman (Roger Vadim) The Beat (Paul Mones) Burning Secret (Andrew Birkin) Call Me (Sollace Mitchell) The Family (Ettore Scola) Gothic (Ken Russell, 1987) The Lair of the White Worm (Ken Russell) Midnight Crossing (Roger Holzberg) Paramedics (Stuart Margolin) The Pointsman (Jos Stelling) Salome's Last Dance (Ken Russell) Promised Land (Michael Hoffman) The Unholy (Camilo Vila) Waxwork (Anthony Hickox)   TRANSCRIPT   From Los Angeles, California, the Entertainment Capital of the World, it's The 80s Movies Podcast. I am your host, Edward Havens. Thank you for listening today.   At the end of the previous episode, Vestron Pictures was celebrating the best year of its two year history. Dirty Dancing had become one of the most beloved movies of the year, and Anna was becoming a major awards contender, thanks to a powerhouse performance by veteran actress Sally Kirkland. And at the 60th Academy Awards ceremony, honoring the films of 1987, Dirty Dancing would win the Oscar for Best Original Song, while Anna would be nominated for Best Actress, and The Dead for Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Costumes.   Surely, things could only go up from there, right?   Welcome to Part Two of our miniseries.   But before we get started, I'm issuing a rare mea culpa. I need to add another Vestron movie which I completely missed on the previous episode, because it factors in to today's episode. Which, of course, starts before our story begins.   In the 1970s, there were very few filmmakers like the flamboyant Ken Russell. So unique a visual storyteller was Russell, it's nigh impossible to accurately describe him in a verbal or textual manner. Those who have seen The Devils, Tommy or Altered States know just how special Russell was as a filmmaker. By the late 1980s, the hits had dried up, and Russell was in a different kind of artistic stage, wanting to make somewhat faithful adaptations of late 19th and early 20th century UK authors. Vestron was looking to work with some prestigious filmmakers, to help build their cache in the filmmaking community, and Russell saw the opportunity to hopefully find a new home with this new distributor not unlike the one he had with Warner Brothers in the early 70s that brought forth several of his strongest movies.   In June 1986, Russell began production on a gothic horror film entitled, appropriately enough, Gothic, which depicted a fictionalized version of a real life meeting between Mary Godwin, Percy Shelley, John William Polidori and Claire Clairemont at the Villa Diodati in Geneva, hosted by Lord Byron, from which historians believe both Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and John William Polidori's The Vampyre were inspired.   And you want to talk about a movie with a great cast. Gabriel Byrne plays Lord Byron, Julian Sands as Percy Shelley, Natasha Richardson, in her first ever movie, as Mary Shelley, Timothy Spall as John William Polidori, and Dexter Fletcher.   Although the film was produced through MGM, and distributed by the company in Europe, they would not release the film in America, fearing American audiences wouldn't get it. So Vestron would swoop in and acquire the American theatrical rights.   Incidentally, the film did not do very well in American theatres. Opening at the Cinema 1 in midtown Manhattan on April 10th, 1987, the film would sell $45,000 worth of tickets in its first three days, one of the best grosses of any single screen in the city. But the film would end up grossing only $916k after three months in theatres.   BUT…   The movie would do quite well for Vestron on home video, enough so that Vestron would sign on to produce Russell's next three movies. The first of those will be coming up very soon.   Vestron's 1988 release schedule began on January 22nd with the release of two films.   The first was Michael Hoffman's Promised Land. In 1982, Hoffman's first film, Privileged, was the first film to made through the Oxford Film Foundation, and was notable for being the first screen appearances for Hugh Grant and Imogen Stubbs, the first film scored by future Oscar winning composer Rachel Portman, and was shepherded into production by none other than John Schlesinger, the Oscar winning director of 1969 Best Picture winner Midnight Cowboy. Hoffman's second film, the Scottish comedy Restless Natives, was part of the 1980s Scottish New Wave film movement that also included Bill Forsyth's Gregory's Girl and Local Hero, and was the only film to be scored by the Scottish rock band Big Country.   Promised Land was one of the first films to be developed by the Sundance Institute, in 1984, and when it was finally produced in 1986, would include Robert Redford as one of its executive producers. The film would follow two recent local high school graduates, Hancock and Danny, whose lives would intersect again with disastrous results several years after graduation. The cast features two young actors destined to become stars, in Keifer Sutherland and Meg Ryan, as well as Jason Gedrick, Tracy Pollan, and Jay Underwood. Shot in Reno and around the Sundance Institute outside Park City, Utah during the early winter months of 1987, Promised Land would make its world premiere at the prestigious Deauville Film Festival in September 1987, but would lose its original distributor, New World Pictures around the same time. Vestron would swoop in to grab the distribution rights, and set it for a January 22nd, 1988 release, just after its American debut at the then U.S. Film Festival, which is now known as the Sundance Film Festival.    Convenient, eh?   Opening on six screens in , the film would gross $31k in its first three days. The film would continue to slowly roll out into more major markets, but with a lack of stellar reviews, and a cast that wouldn't be more famous for at least another year and a half, Vestron would never push the film out to more than 67 theaters, and it would quickly disappear with only $316k worth of tickets sold.   The other movie Vestron opened on January 22nd was Ettore Scale's The Family, which was Italy's submission to that year's Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film. The great Vittorio Gassman stars as a retired college professor who reminisces about his life and his family over the course of the twentieth century. Featuring a cast of great international actors including Fanny Ardant, Philip Noiret, Stefania Sandrelli and Ricky Tognazzi, The Family would win every major film award in Italy, and it would indeed be nominated for Best Foreign Language Film, but in America, it would only play in a handful of theatres for about two months, unable to gross even $350k.   When is a remake not a remake? When French filmmaker Roger Vadim, who shot to international fame in 1956 with his movie And God Created Woman, decided to give a generational and international spin on his most famous work. And a completely different story, as to not resemble his original work in any form outside of the general brushstrokes of both being about a young, pretty, sexually liberated young woman.   Instead of Bridget Bardot, we get Rebecca De Mornay, who was never able to parlay her starring role in Risky Business to any kind of stardom the way one-time boyfriend Tom Cruise had. And if there was any American woman in the United States in 1988 who could bring in a certain demographic to see her traipse around New Mexico au natural, it would be Rebecca De Mornay. But as we saw with Kathleen Turner in Ken Russell's Crimes of Passion in 1984 and Ellen Barkin in Mary Lambert's Siesta in 1987, American audiences were still rather prudish when it came to seeing a certain kind of female empowered sexuality on screen, and when the film opened at 385 theatres on March 4th, it would open to barely a $1,000 per screen average. And God Created Woman would be gone from theatres after only three weeks and $717k in ticket sales.   Vestron would next release a Dutch film called The Pointsman, about a French woman who accidentally gets off at the wrong train station in a remote Dutch village, and a local railwayman who, unable to speak the other person's language, develop a strange relationship while she waits for another train that never arrives.   Opening at the Lincoln Plaza Cinemas on New York's Upper West Side on April 8th, the film would gross $7,000 in its first week, which in and of itself isn't all that bad for a mostly silent Dutch film. Except there was another Dutch film in the marketplace already, one that was getting much better reviews, and was the official Dutch entry into that year's Best Foreign Language Film race. That film, Babette's Feast, was becoming something more than just a movie. Restaurants across the country were creating menus based on the meals served in the film, and in its sixth week of release in New York City that weekend, had grossed four times as much as The Pointsman, despite the fact that the theatre playing Babette's Feast, the Cinema Studio 1, sat only 65 more people than the Lincoln Plaza 1. The following week, The Pointsman would drop to $6k in ticket sales, while Babette's Feast's audience grew another $6k over the previous week. After a third lackluster week, The Pointsman was gone from the Lincoln Plaza, and would never play in another theatre in America.   In the mid-80s, British actor Ben Cross was still trying to capitalize on his having been one of the leads in the 1981 Best Picture winner Chariots of Fire, and was sharing a home with his wife and children, as well as Camilo Vila, a filmmaker looking for his first big break in features after two well-received short films made in his native Cuba before he defected in the early 1980s. When Vila was offered the chance to direct The Unholy, about a Roman Catholic priest in New Orleans who finds himself battling a demonic force after being appointed to a new parish, he would walk down the hall of his shared home and offered his roomie the lead role.   Along with Ned Beatty, William Russ, Hal Holbrook and British actor Trevor Howard in his final film, The Unholy would begin two weeks of exterior filming in New Orleans on October 27th, 1986, before moving to a studio in Miami for seven more weeks. The film would open in 1189 theatres, Vestron's widest opening to date, on April 22nd, and would open in seventh place with $2.35m in ticket sales. By its second week in theatres, it would fall to eleventh place with a $1.24m gross. But with the Summer Movie Season quickly creeping up on the calendar, The Unholy would suffer the same fate as most horror films, making the drop to dollar houses after two weeks, as to make room for such dreck as Sunset, Blake Edwards' lamentable Bruce Willis/James Garner riff on Hollywood and cowboys in the late 1920s, and the pointless sequel to Critters before screens got gobbled up by Rambo III on Memorial Day weekend. It would earn a bit more than $6m at the box office.   When Gothic didn't perform well in American theatres, Ken Russell thought his career was over. As we mentioned earlier, the American home video store saved his career, as least for the time being.    The first film Russell would make for Vestron proper was Salome's Last Dance, based on an 1891 play by Oscar Wilde, which itself was based on a story from the New Testament. Russell's script would add a framing device as a way for movie audiences to get into this most theatrical of stories.   On Guy Fawkes Day in London in 1892, Oscar Wilde and his lover, Lord Alfred Douglas, arrive late at a friend's brothel, where the author is treated to a surprise performance of his play Salome, which has recently been banned from being performed at all in England by Lord Chamberlain. All of the actors in his special performance are played by the prostitutes of the brothel and their clients, and the scenes of the play are intertwined with Wilde's escapades at the brothel that night.   We didn't know it at the time, but Salome's Last Dance would be the penultimate film performance for Academy Award winning actress Glenda Jackson, who would retire to go into politics in England a couple years later, after working with Russell on another film, which we'll get to in a moment. About the only other actor you might recognize in the film is David Doyle, of all people, the American actor best known for playing Bosley on Charlie's Angels.   Like Gothic, Salome's Last Dance would not do very well in theatres, grossing less than half a million dollars after three months, but would find an appreciative audience on home video.   The most interesting thing about Roger Holzberg's Midnight Crossing is the writer and director himself. Holzberg started in the entertainment industry as a playwright, then designed the props and weapons for Albert Pyun's 1982 film The Sword and the Sorcerer, before moving on to direct the second unit team on Pyun's 1985 film Radioactive Dreams. After making this film, Holzberg would have a cancer scare, and pivot to health care, creating a number of technological advancements to help evolve patient treatment, including the Infusionarium, a media setup which helps children with cancer cope with treatment by asking them questions designed to determine what setting would be most comforting to them, and then using virtual reality technology and live events to immerse them in such an environment during treatment.   That's pretty darn cool, actually.   Midnight Crossing stars Faye Dunaway and Hill Street Blues star Daniel J. Travanti in his first major movie role as a couple who team with another couple, played by Kim Cattrall and John Laughlin, who go hunting for treasure supposedly buried between Florida and Cuba.   The film would open in 419 theaters on May 11th, 1988, and gross a paltry $673k in its first three days, putting it 15th on the list of box office grosses for the week, $23k more than Three Men and a Baby, which was playing on 538 screens in its 25th week of release. In its second week, Midnight Crossing would lose more than a third of its theatres, and the weekend gross would fall to just $232k. The third week would be even worse, dropping to just 67 theatres and $43k in ticket sales. After a few weeks at a handful of dollar houses, the film would be history with just $1.3m in the bank. Leonard Klady, then writing for the Los Angeles Times, would note in a January 1989 article about the 1988 box office that Midnight Crossing's box office to budget ratio of 0.26 was the tenth worst ratio for any major or mini-major studio, ahead of And God Created Woman's 8th worst ratio of .155 but behind other stinkers like Caddyshack II.   The forgotten erotic thriller Call Me sounds like a twist on the 1984 Alan Rudolph romantic comedy Choose Me, but instead of Genevieve Bujold we get Patricia Charbonneau, and instead of a meet cute involving singles at a bar in Los Angeles, we get a murder mystery involving a New York City journalist who gets involved with a mysterious caller after she witnesses a murder at a bar due to a case of mistaken identity.   The film's not very good, but the supporting cast is great, including Steve Buscemi, Patti D'Arbanville, Stephen McHattie and David Straithairn.   Opening on 24 screens in major markets on May 20th, Call Me would open to horrible reviews, lead by Siskel and Ebert's thumbs facing downward, and only $58,348 worth of tickets sold in its first three days. After five weeks in theatres, Vestron hung up on Call Me with just $252k in the kitty.   Vestron would open two movies on June 3rd, one in a very limited release, and one in a moderate national release.   There are a lot of obscure titles in these two episodes, and probably the most obscure is Paul Mones' The Beat. The film followed a young man named Billy Kane, played by William McNamara in his film debut, who moves into a rough neighborhood controlled by several gangs, who tries to help make his new area a better place by teaching them about poetry. John Savage from The Deer Hunter plays a teacher, and future writer and director Reggie Rock Bythewood plays one of the troubled youths whose life is turned around through the written and spoken word.   The production team was top notch. Producer Julia Phillips was one of the few women to ever win a Best Picture Oscar when she and her then husband Michael Phillips produced The Sting in 1973. Phillips was assisted on the film by two young men who were making their first movie. Jon Kilik would go on to produce or co-produce every Spike Lee movie from Do the Right Thing to Da 5 Bloods, except for BlackkKlansman, while Nick Weschler would produce sex, lies and videotape, Drugstore Cowboy, The Player and Requiem for a Dream, amongst dozens of major films. And the film's cinematographer, Tom DiCillo, would move into the director's chair in 1991 with Johnny Suede, which gave Brad Pitt his first lead role.   The Beat would be shot on location in New York City in the summer of 1986, and it would make its world premiere at the Cannes Film Market in May 1987. But it would be another thirteen months before the film arrived in theatres.   Opening on seven screens in Los Angeles and New York City on June 3rd, The Beat would gross just $7,168 in its first three days.  There would not be a second week for The Beat. It would make its way onto home video in early 1989, and that's the last time the film was seen for nearly thirty years, until the film was picked up by a number of streaming services.   Vestron's streak of bad luck continued with the comedy Paramedics starring George Newbern and Christopher McDonald. The only feature film directed by Stuart Margolin, best known as Angel on the 1970s TV series The Rockford Files, Newbern and McDonald play two… well, paramedics… who are sent by boss, as punishment, from their cushy uptown gig to a troubled district at the edge of the city, where they discover two other paramedics are running a cadavers for dollars scheme, harvesting organs from dead bodies to the black market.   Here again we have a great supporting cast who deserve to be in a better movie, including character actor John P. Ryan, James Noble from Benson, Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs from Welcome Back Kotter, the great Ray Walston, and one-time Playboy Playmate Karen Witter, who plays a sort of angel of death.   Opening on 301 screens nationwide, Paramedics would only gross $149,577 in its first three days, the worst per screen average of any movie playing in at least 100 theatres that weekend. Vestron stopped tracking the film after just three days.   Two weeks later, on June 17th, Vestron released a comedy horror film that should have done better. Waxwork was an interesting idea, a group of college students who have some strange encounters with the wax figures at a local museum, but that's not exactly why it should have been more popular. It was the cast that should have brought audiences in. On one side, you had a group of well-known younger actors like Deborah Foreman from Valley Girl, Zack Gailligan from Gremlins, Michelle Johnson from Blame It on Rio, and Miles O'Keeffe from Sword of the Valiant. On the other hand, you had a group of seasoned veterans from popular television shows and movies, such as Patrick Macnee from the popular 1960s British TV show The Avengers, John Rhys-Davies from the Indiana Jones movies, and David Warner, from The Omen and Time after Time and Time Bandits and Tron.   But if I want to be completely honest, this was not a movie to release in the early part of summer. While I'm a firm believer that the right movie can find an audience no matter when it's released, Waxwork was absolutely a prime candidate for an early October release. Throughout the 1980s, we saw a number of horror movies, and especially horror comedies, released in the summer season that just did not hit with audiences. So it would be of little surprise when Waxwork grossed less than a million dollars during its theatrical run. And it should be of little surprise that the film would become popular enough on home video to warrant a sequel, which would add more popular sci-fi and horror actors like Marina Sirtis from Star Trek: The Next Generation, David Carradine and even Bruce Campbell. But by 1992, when Waxwork 2 was released, Vestron was long since closed.   The second Ken Russell movie made for Vestron was The Lair of the White Worm, based on a 1911 novel by Bram Stoker, the author's final published book before his death the following year. The story follows the residents in and around a rural English manor that are tormented by an ancient priestess after the skull of a serpent she worships is unearthed by an archaeologist.   Russell would offer the role of Sylvia Marsh, the enigmatic Lady who is actually an immortal priestess to an ancient snake god, to Tilda Swinton, who at this point of her career had already racked up a substantial resume in film after only two years, but she would decline. Instead, the role would go to Amanda Donohoe, the British actress best known at the time for her appearances in a pair of Adam Ant videos earlier in the decade. And the supporting cast would include Peter Capaldi, Hugh Grant, Catherine Oxenberg, and the under-appreciated Sammi Davis, who was simply amazing in Mona Lisa, A Prayer for the Dying and John Boorman's Hope and Glory.   The $2m would come together fairly quickly. Vestron and Russell would agree on the film in late 1987, the script would be approved by January 1988, filming would begin in England in February, and the completed film would have its world premiere at the Montreal Film Festival before the end of August.   When the film arrived in American theatres starting on October 21st, many critics would embrace the director's deliberate camp qualities and anachronisms. But audiences, who maybe weren't used to Russell's style of filmmaking, did not embrace the film quite so much. New Yorkers would buy $31k worth of tickets in its opening weekend at the D. W. Griffith and 8th Street Playhouse, and the film would perform well in its opening weeks in major markets, but the film would never quite break out, earning just $1.2m after ten weeks in theatres. But, again, home video would save the day, as the film would become one of the bigger rental titles in 1989.   If you were a teenager in the early 80s, as I was, you may remember a Dutch horror film called The Lift. Or, at the very least, you remember the key art on the VHS box, of a man who has his head stuck in between the doors of an elevator, while the potential viewer is warned to take the stairs, take the stairs, for God's sake, take the stairs. It was an impressive debut film for Dick Maas, but it was one that would place an albatross around the neck of his career.   One of his follow ups to The Lift, called Amsterdamned, would follow a police detective who is searching for a serial killer in his home town, who uses the canals of the Dutch capital to keep himself hidden. When the detective gets too close to solving the identity of the murderer, the killer sends a message by killing the detective's girlfriend, which, if the killer had ever seen a movie before, he should have known you never do. You never make it personal for the cop, because he's gonna take you down even worse.   When the film's producers brought the film to the American Film Market in early 1988, it would become one of the most talked about films, and Vestron would pick up the American distribution rights for a cool half a million dollars. The film would open on six screens in the US on November 25th, including the Laemmle Music Hall in Beverly Hills but not in New York City, but a $15k first weekend gross would seal its fate almost immediately. The film would play for another four weeks in theatres, playing on 18 screens at its widest, but it would end its run shortly after the start of of the year with only $62,044 in tickets sold.   The final Vestron Pictures release of 1988 was Andrew Birkin's Burning Secret. Birkin, the brother of French singer and actress Jane Birkin, would co-write the screenplay for this adaptation of a 1913 short story by Austrian novelist Stefan Zweig, about a about an American diplomat's son who befriends a mysterious baron while staying at an Austrian spa during the 1920s. According to Birkin in a 2021 interview, making the movie was somewhat of a nightmare, as his leading actors, Klaus Maria Brandauer and Faye Dunaway, did not like each other, and their lack of comfort with each other would bleed into their performances, which is fatal for a film about two people who are supposed to passionately burn for each other.   Opening on 16 screens in major markets on Thursday, December 22nd, Burning Secret would only gross $27k in its first four days. The film would actually see a post-Christmas bump, as it would lose a screen but see its gross jump to $40k. But after the first of the year, as it was obvious reviews were not going to save the film and awards consideration was non-existent, the film would close after three weeks with only $104k worth of tickets sold.   By the end of 1988, Vestron was facing bankruptcy. The major distributors had learned the lessons independents like Vestron had taught them about selling more volumes of tapes by lowering the price, to make movies collectables and have people curate their own video library. Top titles were harder to come by, and studios were no longer giving up home video rights to the movies they acquired from third-party producers.   Like many of the distributors we've spoken about before, and will undoubtedly speak of again, Vestron had too much success with one movie too quickly, and learned the wrong lessons about growth. If you look at the independent distribution world of 2023, you'll see companies like A24 that have learned that lesson. Stay lean and mean, don't go too wide too quickly, try not to spend too much money on a movie, no matter who the filmmaker is and how good of a relationship you have with them. A24 worked with Robert Eggers on The Witch and The Lighthouse, but when he wanted to spend $70-90m to make The Northman, A24 tapped out early, and Focus Features ended up losing millions on the film. Focus, the “indie” label for Universal Studios, can weather a huge loss like The Northman because they are a part of a multinational, multimedia conglomerate.   This didn't mean Vestron was going to quit quite yet, but, spoiler alert, they'll be gone soon enough.   In fact, and in case you are newer to the podcast and haven't listen to many of the previous episodes, none of the independent distribution companies that began and/or saw their best years in the 1980s that we've covered so far or will be covering in the future, exist in the same form they existed in back then.    New Line still exists, but it's now a label within Warner Brothers instead of being an independent distributor. Ditto Orion, which is now just a specialty label within MGM/UA. The Samuel Goldwyn Company is still around and still distributes movies, but it was bought by Orion Pictures the year before Orion was bought by MGM/UA, so it too is now just a specialty label, within another specialty label. Miramax today is just a holding company for the movies the company made before they were sold off to Disney, before Disney sold them off to a hedge fund, who sold Miramax off to another hedge fund.    Atlantic is gone. New World is gone. Cannon is gone. Hemdale is gone. Cinecom is gone. Island Films is gone. Alive Films is gone. Concorde Films is gone. MCEG is gone. CineTel is gone. Crown International is gone. Lorimar is gone. New Century/Vista is gone. Skouras Films is gone. Cineplex Odeon Films is gone.   Not one of them survived.   The same can pretty much be said for the independent distributors created in the 1990s, save Lionsgate, but I'll leave that for another podcast to tackle.   As for the Vestron story, we'll continue that one next week, because there are still a dozen more movies to talk about, as well as the end of the line for the once high flying company.   Thank you for joining us. We'll talk again soon.   Remember to visit this episode's page on our website, The80sMoviePodcast.com, for extra materials about the movies we covered this episode.   The 80s Movies Podcast has been researched, written, narrated and edited by Edward Havens for Idiosyncratic Entertainment.   Thank you again.   Good night.

How Brad Pitt's romance just took a turn. Did he introduce his kids to girlfriend Ines? Plus, inside TJ Holmes and Amy Robach's romantic getaway. And, a surprising celeb hook-up. The major stars we spotted on a double date with the Biebers. Then, Madonna's plastic surgery confession? How she's addressing rumors she changed her face. And, how Alec Baldwin just shaved years off his potential prison sentence in the “Rust” set shooting. Plus, why “Real Housewife” Kim Zolciak's mansion is being foreclosed. And, Kelsey Grammer's “Frazier” reboot reveals. He gets emotional over the loss of Kirstie Alley. And, ET's Black History Month Spotlight. LL Cool J kicks off our celebration of icons. Then, Keifer Sutherland on his action-packed TV return.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Today on the Woody and Wilcox Show:. Recap of Bengals-Chiefs game; Weekend Update on SNL; Woman has men knocking on her door for sex; Reviews of You People; Cool Beans Remix; Woody and the smoke detector; Slanted toilet seats; Insurance companies may not cover certain car brands; Keifer Sutherland's new show; 7-11 worker cleaned microwave with a mop; And so much more!

A recap of 2022, money isn't sexist, going into goblin mode and Keifer Sutherland's got gravitas.

On this episode, we travel back to 1984, and the days when a "young adult" novel included lots of drugs and partying and absolutely no sparkly vampires or dystopian warrior girls. We're talking about Jay McInerney's groundbreaking novel, Bright Lights, Big City, and its 1988 film version starring Michael J. Fox and Keifer Sutherland. ----more---- Hello, and welcome to The 80s Movies Podcast. I am your host, Edward Havens. Thank you for listening today. The original 1984 front cover for Jay McInerney's Bright Lights, Big City If you were a young adult in the late 1980s, there's a very good chance that you started reading more adult-y books thanks to an imprint called Vintage Contemporaries. Quality books at an affordable paperback price point, with their uniform and intrinsically 80s designed covers, bold cover and spine fonts, and mix of first-time writers and cult authors who never quite broke through to the mainstream, the Vintage Contemporary series would be an immediate hit when it was first launched in September 1984. The first set of releases would include such novels as Raymond Carver's Cathedral and Thomas McGuane's The Bushwhacked Piano, but the one that would set the bar for the entire series was the first novel by a twenty-nine year old former fact checker at the New Yorker magazine. The writer was Jay McInerney, and his novel was Bright Lights, Big City. The original 1984 front cover for Raymond Carver's Cathedral Bright Lights, Big City would set a template for twenty something writers in the 1980s. A protagonist not unlike the writer themselves, with a not-so-secret drug addiction, and often written in the second person, You, which was not a usual literary choice at the time. The nameless protagonist, You, is a divorced twenty-four year old wannabe writer who works as fact-checker at a major upscale magazine in New York City, for which he once dreamed of writing for. You is recently divorced from Amanda, an aspiring model he had met while going to school in Kansas City. You would move to New York City earlier in the year with her when her modeling career was starting to talk off. While in Paris for Fashion Week, Amanda called You to inform him their marriage was over, and that she was leaving him for another man. You continues to hope Amanda will return to him, and when it's clear she won't, he not only becomes obsessed with everything about her that left in their apartment, he begins to slide into reckless abandon at the clubs they used to frequent, and becoming heavily addicted to cocaine, which then affects his performance at work. A chance encounter with Amanda at an event in the city leads You to a public humiliation, which makes him starts to realize that his behavior is not because his wife left him, but a manifestation of the grief he still feels over his mother's passing the previous year. You had gotten married to a woman he hardly knew because he wanted to make his mother happy before she died, and he was still unconsciously grieving when his wife's leaving him triggered his downward spiral. Bright Lights, Big City was an immediate hit, one of the few paperback-only books to ever hit the New York Times best-seller chart. Within two years, the novel had sold more than 300,000 copies, and spawned a tidal wave of like-minded twentysomething writers becoming published. Bret Easton Ellis might have been able to get his first novel Less Than Zero published somewhere down the line, but it was McInerney's success that would cause Simon and Schuster to try and duplicate Vintage's success, which they would. Same with Tana Janowitz, whose 1986 novel Slaves of New York was picked up by Crown Publishers looking to replicate the success of McInerney and Ellis, despite her previous novel, 1981's American Dad, being completely ignored by the book buying public at that time. While the book took moments from his life, it wasn't necessarily autobiographical. For example, McInerney had been married to a fashion model in the early 1980s, but they would meet while he attended Syracuse University in the late 1970s. And yes, McInerney would do a lot of blow during his divorce from his wife, and yes, he would get fired from The New Yorker because of the effects of his drug addiction. Yes, he was partying pretty hard during the times that preceded the writing of his first novel. And yes, he would meet a young woman who would kinda rescue him and get him on the right path.  But there were a number of details about McInerney's life that were not used for the book. Like how the author studied writing with none other than Raymond Carver while studying creative writing at Syracuse, or how his family connections would allow him to submit blind stories to someone like George Plimpton at the Paris Review, and not only get the story read but published. And, naturally, any literary success was going to become a movie at some point. For Bright Lights, it would happen almost as soon as the novel was published. Robert Lawrence, a vice president at Columbia Pictures in his early thirties, had read the book nearly cover to cover in a single sitting, and envisioned a film that could be “The Graduate” of his generation, with maybe a bit of “Lost Weekend” thrown in. But the older executives at the studio balked at the idea, which they felt would be subversive and unconventional. They would, however, buy in when Lawrence was able to get mega-producer Jerry Weintraub to be a producer on the film, who in turn was able to get Joel Schumacher, who had just finished filming St. Elmo's Fire for the studio, to direct, and get Tom Cruise, who was still two years away from Top Gun and megastardom, to play the main character. McInerney was hired to write the script, and he and Schumacher and Cruise would even go on club crawls in New York City to help inform all of the atmosphere they were trying to capture with the film. In 1985, Weintraub would be hired by United Artists to become their new chief executive, and Bright Lights would be one of the properties he would be allowed to take with him to his new home. But since he was now an executive, Weintraub would need to hire a new producer to take the reigns on the picture. Enter Sydney Pollack. By 1985, Sydney Pollack was one of the biggest directors in Hollywood. With films like They Shoot Horses, Don't They?, Jeremiah Johnson, Three Days of the Condor, The Electric Horseman and Tootsie under his belt, Pollock could get a film made, and get it seen by audiences. At least, as a director. At this point in his career, he had only ever produced one movie, Alan Rudolph's 1984 musical drama Songwriter, which despite being based on the life of Willie Nelson, and starring Nelson, Kris Kristofferson and Rip Torn, barely grossed a tenth of its $8m budget. And Pollock at that moment was busy putting the finishing touches on his newest film, an African-based drama featuring Meryl Streep and longtime Pollock collaborator Robert Redford. That film, Out of Africa, would win seven Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Director, in March 1986, which would keep Pollock and his producing partner Mark Rosenberg's attention away from Bright Lights for several months. Once the hype on Out of Africa died down, Pollock and Rosenberg got to work getting Bright Lights, Big City made. Starting with hiring a new screenwriter, a new director, and a new leading actor. McInerney, Schumacher and Cruise had gotten tired of waiting. Ironically, Cruise would call on Pollock to direct another movie he was waiting to make, also based at United Artists, that he was going to star in alongside Dustin Hoffman. That movie, of course, is Rain Man, and we'll dive into that movie another time. Also ironically, Weintraub would not last long as the CEO of United Artists. Just five months after becoming the head of the studio, Weintraub would tire of the antics of Kirk Kerkorian, the owner of United Artists and its sister company, MGM, and step down. Kerkorian would not let Weintraub take any of the properties he brought from Columbia to his new home, the eponymously named mini-major he'd form with backing from Columbia. With a new studio head in place, Pollock started to look for a new director. He would discover that director in Joyce Chopra, who, after twenty years of making documentaries, made her first dramatic narrative in 1985. Smooth Talk was an incredible coming of age drama, based on a story by Joyce Carol Oates, that would make a star out of then seventeen-year-old Laura Dern. UA would not only hire her to direct the film but hire her husband, Tom Cole, who brilliantly adapted the Oates story that was the basis for Smooth Talk, to co-write the screenplay with his wife. While Cole was working on the script, Chopra would have her agent send a copy of McInerney's book to Michael J. Fox. This wasn't just some random decision. Chopra knew she needed a star for this movie, and Fox's agent just happened to be Chopra's agent. That'd be two commissions for the agent if it came together, and a copy of the book was delivered to Fox's dressing room on the Family Ties soundstage that very day. Fox loved the book, and agreed to do the film. After Alex P. Keaton and Marty McFly and other characters he had played that highlighted his good looks and pleasant demeanor, he was ready to play a darker, more morally ambiguous character. Since the production was scheduled around Fox's summer hiatus from the hit TV show, he was in. For Pollock and United Artists, this was a major coup, landing one of the biggest stars in Hollywood. But the project was originally going to be Toronto standing in for New York City for less than $7m with a lesser known cast. Now, it was going to be a $15m with not only Michael J. Fox but also Keifer Sutherland, who was cast as Tad, the best friend of the formerly named You, who would now known as Jamie Conway, and would be shot on location in New York City. The film would also feature Phoebe Cates as Jamie's model ex-wife, William Hickey, Kelly Lynch. But there was a major catch. The production would only have ten weeks to shoot with Fox, as he was due back in Los Angeles to begin production on the sixth season of Family Ties.  He wasn't going to do that thing he did making a movie and a television show at the same time like he did with Back to the Future and Family Ties in 1984 and 1985. Ten weeks and not a day more. Production on the film would begin on April 13th, 1987, to get as much of the film shot while Fox was still finishing Family Ties in Los Angeles. He would be joining the production at the end of the month. But Fox never get the chance to shoot with Chopra. After three weeks of production, Chopra, her husband, and her cinematographer James Glennon, who had also shot Smooth Talk, were dismissed from the film. The suits at United Artists were not happy with the Fox-less footage that was coming out of New York, and were not happy with the direction of the film. Cole and Chopra had removed much of the nightlife and drug life storyline, and focused more on the development of Jamie as a writer. Apparently, no one at the studio had read the final draft of the script before shooting began. Cole, the screenwriter, says it was Pollock, the producer, who requested the changes, but in the end, it would be not the Oscar-winning filmmaker producing the movie that would be released but the trio of newer creatives. Second unit footage would continue to shoot around New York City while the studio looked for a new director. Ironically, days after Chopra was fired, the Directors Guild of America had announced that if they were not able to sign a new agreement with the Producers Guild before the end of the current contract on June 30th, the directors were going on strike. So now United Artists were really under the gun. After considering such filmmakers as Belgian director Ulu Grosbard, who had directed Meryl Streep and Robert De Niro in Falling in Love, and Australian director Bruce Beresford, whose films had included Breaker Morant and Tender Mercies, they would find their new director in James Bridges, whose filmography included such critical and financial success as The Paper Chase, The China Syndrome and Urban Cowboy, but had two bombs in a row in 1984's Mike's Murder and 1985's Perfect. He needed a hit, and this was the first solid directing offer in three years. He'd spend the weekend after his hiring doing some minor recasting, including bringing in John Houseman, who won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his role in The Paper Chase, as well as Swoosie Kurtz, Oscar-winning actors Jason Robards and Dianne Weist, and Tracy Pollan, Fox's co-star on Family Ties, who would shortly after the filming of Bright Lights become Mrs. Michael J. Fox, although in the film, she would be cast not as a love interest to her real-life boyfriend's character but as the wife of Keifer Sutherland's character. After a week of rewriting McInerney's original draft of the screenplay from the Schumacher days, principal photography re-commenced on the film. And since Bridges would be working with famed cinematographer Gordon Willis, who had shot three previous movies with Bridges as well as the first two Godfather movies and every Woody Allen movie from Annie Hall to The Purple Rose of Cairo, it was also decided that none of Chopra's footage would be used. Everything would start back on square one. And because of the impending Directors Guild strike, he'd have only thirty-six days, a tad over five weeks, to film everything. One of the lobby cards from the movie version of Bright Lights, Big City And they were able to get it all done, thanks to some ingenious measures. One location, the Palladium concert hall on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, would double as three different nightclubs, two discotheques and a dinner club. Instead of finding six different locations, which would loading cameras and lights from one location to another, moving hundreds of people as well, and then setting the lights and props again, over and over, all they would have to do is re-decorate the area to become the next thing they needed. Bridges would complete the film that day before the Directors Guild strike deadline, but the strike would never happen. But there would be some issue with the final writing credits. While Bridges had used McInerney's original screenplay as a jumping off point, the writer/director had really latched on to the mother's death as the emotional center of the movie. Bridges' own grandmother had passed away in 1986, and he found writing those scenes to be cathartic for his own unresolved issues. But despite the changes Bridges would make to the script, including adding such filmmaking tropes as flashbacks and voiceovers, and having the movie broken up into sections by the use of chapter titles being typed out on screen, the Writers Guild would give sole screenwriting credit to Jay McInerney. As post-production continued throughout the fall, the one topic no one involved in the production wanted to talk about or even acknowledge was the movie version of Bret Easton Ellis's Less Than Zero that rival studio 20th Century Fox had been making in Los Angeles. It had a smaller budget, a lesser known filmmaker, a lesser known cast lead by Andrew McCarthy and Jami Gertz, and a budget half the size. If their film was a hit, that could be good for this one. And if their film wasn't a hit? Well, Bright Lights was the trendsetter. It was the one that sold more copies. The one that saw its author featured in more magazines and television news shows. How well did Less Than Zero do when it was released into theatres on November 6th, 1987? Well, you're just going to have to wait until next week's episode. Unless you're listening months or years after they were published, and are listening to episodes in reverse order. Then you already know how it did, but let's just say it wasn't a hit but it wasn't really a dud either. Bridges would spend nearly six months putting his film together, most of which he would find enjoyable, but he would have trouble deciding which of two endings he shot would be used. His preferred ending saw Jamie wandering through the streets of New York City early one morning, after a long night of partying that included a confrontation with his ex-wife, where he decides that was the day he was going to get his life back on track but not knowing what he was going to do, but the studio asked for an alternative ending, one that features Jamie one year in the future, putting the finishing touches on his first novel, which we see is titled… wait for it… Bright Lights, Big City, while his new girlfriend stands behind him giving her approval. After several audience test screenings, the studio would decide to let Bridges have his ending. United Artists would an April 1st, 1988 release date, and would spend months gearing up the publicity machine. Fox and Pollan were busy finishing the final episodes of that season's Family Ties, and weren't as widely available for the publicity circuit outside of those based in Los Angeles. The studio wasn't too worried, though. Michael J. Fox's last movie, The Secret of My Success, had been released in April 1987, and had grossed $67m without his doing a lot of publicity for that one, either. Opening on 1196 screens, the film would only manage to gross $5.13m, putting it in third place behind the previous week's #1 film, Biloxi Blues with Matthew Broderick, and the Tim Burton comedy Beetlejuice, which despite opening on nearly 200 fewer screens would gross nearly $3m more. But the reviews were not great. Decent. Respectful. But not great. The New York-based critics, like David Ansen of Newsweek and Janet Maslin of the Times, would be kinder than most other critics, maybe because they didn't want to be seen knocking a film shot in their backyard. But one person would actually would praise the film and Michael J. Fox as an actor was Roger Ebert. But it wouldn't save the film. In its second week, the film would fall to fifth place, with $3.09m worth of tickets sold, and it would drop all the way to tenth place in its third week with just under $1.9m in ticket sales. Week four would see it fall to 16th place with only $862k worth of ticket sales. After that, United Artists would stop reporting grosses. The $17m film had grossed just $16.1m. Bright Lights, Big City was a milestone book for me, in large part because it made me a reader. Before Bright Lights, I read occasionally, mainly John Irving, preferring to spend most of my free time voraciously consuming every movie I could. After Bright Lights, I picked up every Vintage Contemporary book I could get my hands on. One of the checklists of Vintage Contemporary books listed in the back of a Vintage Contemporary book. And one thing that really helped out was the literal checklist of other books available from that imprint in the back of each book. Without those distinct covers, I don't know if I would have discovered some of my favorite authors like Raymond Carver and Don DeLillo and Richard Ford and Richard Russo. Even after the Vintage Contemporary line shut down years later, I continued to read. I still read today, although not as much as I would prefer. I have a podcast to work on. I remember when the movie came out that I wasn't all that thrilled with it, and it would be nearly 35 years before I revisited it again, for this episode. I can't say it's the 80s as I remember it, because I had never been to New York City by that point in my life, I had never, and still never have, done anything like cocaine. And I had only ever had like two relationships that could be considered anything of substance, let alone marriage and a divorce. But I am certain it's an 80s that I'm glad I didn't know. Mainly because Jamie's 80s seemed rather boring and inconsequential. Fox does the best he can with the material, but he is not the right person for the role. As I watched it again, I couldn't help but wonder what if the roles were reversed. What if Keifer Sutherland played Jamie and Michael J. Fox played the friend? That might have been a more interesting movie, but Sutherland was not yet at that level of stardom. Thank you for joining us. We'll talk again next week, when Episode 95, on the novel and movie version of Less Than Zero is released. Remember to visit this episode's page on our website, The80sMoviePodcast.com, for extra materials about Bright Lights, Big City, both the book and the movie, as well as other titles in the Vintage Contemporary book series. The full cover, back and front, of Richard Ford's 1986 The Sportswriter, which would be the first of four novels about Frank Bascombe, a failed novelist who becomes a sportswriter. The second book in the series, 1995's Independence Day, would win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, as well as the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, the first of only two times the same book would win both awards the same year. The 80s Movies Podcast has been researched, written, narrated and edited by Edward Havens for Idiosyncratic Entertainment. Thank you again. Good night.  

Marisa Saks joins me today as my guest to discuss her new app Caviar Lifestyles. Hope its more than just a swipe, its a connection.  Caviar Lifestyles founder, entrepreneur, and actress Marisa Saks is the former co-host of Bravo TVs “The Millionaire Matchmaker." Other productions include “Scary Movie 5” with Charlie Sheen, “Entourage," “Bold & the Beautiful," "All My Children," studio films with The Rock in “Faster”, and Adam Sandler in “Just Go With it," appearances in international films, “24” with Keifer Sutherland, “The Defenders” with Jim Belushi and Jerry O'Connell, MTV series and much more.  Marisa's established an international brand, network, and high exposure to marketing channels while working on “The Millionaire Matchmaker” these channels will be fully leveraged to boost the Caviar Lifestyles app and brand. The Caviar Lifestyles App aims to address the frustrations of common dating and lifestyle apps by taking the focus off the connection's physical appearance and placing the emphasis on like-mindedness or a shared common interest. Marisa was raised on the east side suburbs of Cleveland, Ohio. A graduated from Ohio State with a BA in Marketing and Dramatic Arts

Extras producers and friends of the podcast Alan Griswold and Constantine Nasr discuss their extras on some recent 4K releases.We start off the episode with filmmaker Constantine Nasr as he discusses his all-new documentary "To Kill a Mockingbird: All Points of View," which is a part of the "To Kill a Mockingbird" (1962) 60th Anniversary Limited Edition 4K release from Universal Studios.  The film stars Gregory Peck who won an academy award for best actor for his portrayal of Atticus Finch.  In 2003 the American Film Institute named Atticus Finch the greatest movie hero of the 20th Century.  Next filmmaker Alan Griswold discusses his extras work on the 2008 action/comedy "Tropic Thunder" recently released on 4K from Kino Lorber.  Starring Ben Stiller, who also directed, Robert Downey Jr., Jack Black, Danny McBride, Nick Nolte, Matthew McConaughey, and Tom Cruise, this R-rated comedy takes a satirical look at the Hollywood movie-making process.  We take a deep dive look into the making of the exceptional extra "Rain of Madness" and the unique involvement of the cast and filmmakers in the making of this mockumentary.We finish out our episode speaking with Alan Griswold about his extras for the 1987 cult favorite, THE LOST BOYS, directed by Joel Schumacher and starring Keifer Sutherland, Jason Patric, and the two Corey's, Corey Haim and Corey Feldman.  This film was recently released by Warner Bros on 4K with no new extras, but with most all of the legacy extras, including an audio commentary with Joel Schumacher, a 24-minute retrospective, seven featurettes, deleted scenes, and a music video.  We also explore the legacy of this film and its impact on the teen vampire genre.Purchase on Amazon:To Kill a Mockingbird 4K Limited EditionTropic Thunder 4KLost Boys 4KRivendell Films - Constantine NasrMonkey Deux - Alan Griswold Warner Archive & Warner Bros Catalog GroupThe Extras Facebook pageThe Extras Twitter Otaku Media produces podcasts, behind-the-scenes extras, and media that connect creatives with their fans and businesses with their consumers. Contact us today to see how we can work together to achieve your goals. www.otakumedia.tv

We discuss the 1987 vampire movie "The Lost Boys" starring Keifer Sutherland, Jason Patric, The Two Coreys, and Billy Wirth (of course). *** ⁠Subscribe on Apple⁠ ⁠Subscribe on Good Pods⁠ ⁠Subscribe on Google Podcasts⁠ ⁠Subscribe on Pandora⁠ ⁠Find us on Amazon Music⁠ Email us! ⁠heydidyoueverseethatmovie@gmail.com⁠ ⁠Find us on Facebook⁠ ⁠Find us on Instagram⁠ Dez wrote and performed our theme song!⁠ Listen to more of his music here. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/heydidyoueverseethatmovie/support

After moving to a new town, two brothers quickly discover that the community is infested with vampires. Directed by Joel Schumacher. Screenplay by Jan Fischer, James Jeremias & Jeffrey Boam. Story by Fischer & Jeremias. Starring Jason Patric, Corey Haim, Dianne Wiest, Edward Hermann, Corey Feldman, Jami Gertz, Jamison Newlander and Keifer Sutherland. OLLOW US ON LETTERBOXD - Zach1983 & MattCrosby Thank you so much for listening! Please follow the show on Twitter: @GreatestPod Subscribe on Apple Podcasts / Podbean This week's recommendations: Eureka (Streaming Rental) Hack-O-Lantern (Shudder) Carnival of Souls (Shudder) Grave Encounters (Shudder)

The team breaks down season 3 episode 9, 9pm-10pm. Hit up the socials or email us at thelast24podcast@gmail.com.

The team breaks down season 3 episode 8, 8pm-9pm. Hit up the socials or email us at thelast24podcast@gmail.com. 

The breakdown season 3 episode 7, 7pm-8pm. Hit up the socials or email us at thelast24podcast@gmail.com.

The team breaks down season 3 episode 6, 6pm-7pm. Hit up the socials or reach out to thelast24podcast@gmail.com.   

What guest star has this show been keeping from us? What book store did David get his furniture from? And what Colin Farrell movie is a good one? We phone in these questions and more as we watch Season 6, Episode 13 of Family Matters.Alex Diamond, David Kenny, and John McDaniel heard that the long-running network sitcom Family Matters ends with side character Steve Urkel going to space. And the best way to figure out how that happened - obviously - is to watch the last episode first and make our way backwards through nearly ten years of television.Join our countdown to number one (and our slow descent into madness) in all the places you expect internet people to be:Website: jumpingtheshuttle.spaceEmail: jumpingtheshuttle@gmail.comInstagram: @JumpingTheShuttle / @ThatAlexD / @dak577Twitter: @JumpingShuttle / @ThatAlexD / @dak577TikTok: @JumpingTheShuttle / @dak577Brought to you by Smooth My Balls

The team breaks down season 3 episode 5, 5pm-6pm. Mike got a coupon in the mail so he bought the doughnuts. Hit up the socials or reach out to thelast24podcast@gmail.com.   

The team breaks down season 3 episode 4, 4pm-5pm. Big news from Dave. Hit up the socials or reach out to thelast24podcast@gmail.com.   

On this episode: Norm MacDonald's secret he left behind, and Ezra Miller is an NFT trailblazer… PLUS King Walken takes the stage, Robby P pairs up with Bong Joon Ho, and Ethan Hawke comes to Marvel's rescue. In news: The Sky is Everywhere, Don't Look Up, Listener Stephen, The Maple Syrup Don, Ezra Miller, Hawaii 5-0, The Flash, Danny Glover, Smash Mouth, BB Mack, Henry Rollins, Music, Black Flag, He Never Died, SyFy, Alex Trebek, Crypto, Greg Srisavasdi, $SHIB, $DOGE, $BCH, Willy Wonka, Shia LeBeouf, Celebrity Deathmatch, Charlie Sheen, Daniel Day Lewis, Joaquim Phoenix, Willem Dafoe, Norm MacDonald, Michael Richards, Robert Pattinson, Bong Joon Ho, Parasite, Edward Ashton, Mickey7, Lord of the Rings, Nicki Six, Okja, The Host, creature feature, Tremors, Burt Ward, Fred Ward, Batman, Everything Everywhere All At Once, Dune: Part 2, David Lynch, Emperor Palpatine, Wizard of Oz, Ian Mckellan, Harry Potter, James Hong, Big Trouble in Little China, Gong Gong, Ralph Feinnes, In Bruges, Keifer Sutherland, Gene Hackman, Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, Sting, David Lynch, Paul Verhoeven, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Super Bowl, Christopher Walken, Seven Psychopaths, Guy Pearce, Wynona Rider, Edwards Scissorhands, Foo Fighters, Denis Villenueve, Ethan Hawke, Marvel Movies Fanny and Alexander, Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese, Guardians of the Galaxy, James Gunn, Thor: Ragnarok, Taika Waititi, Doctor Stranger: In the Multiverse of Madness, Sam Raimi, The Red Museum, Akira, Kevin Spacey, Baby Driver, House of Cards, CODA, Vinegar Syndrome, Pauly Shore, Pinnochio, Pacific Rim, Atlantic Rimhttp://www.MCFCpodcast.comEmail us at MCFCpodcast@gmail.com    Leave us a voicemail (209) 730-6010Joseph Navarro    Pete Abeytaand Tyler Noe    Streaming Picks:Anthropoid - Amazon PrimeWho Framed Roger Rabbit - Disney+Emmet Otter's Jug Band Christmas - HBO MaxWhite Hot: The Rise and Fall of Abercrombie & Fitch - NetflixCorpus Christie - Kanopy, Plex, Criterion Channel, VuduElla Enchanted - HBO MaxShe's The Man - Tru TV, DirecTVHigh School Musical - Disney+Call Me By Your Name - FreeVee

Join Disney's Ike Eisenmann, and author, Jonathan Rosen, as they take a look back at the Sci/Fi Noir film from 1998, Dark City. Starring Rufus Sewell, Jennifer Connelly, and Keifer Sutherland,  the movie is listed on many best of year.