Armchair Commentary

"Animal House" Exclusive Interview: New Book, New Stories and Visions of Broadway

Animal House, one of the most-loved movie comedies of all time, is hotter than ever. There’s a Broadway show in the works and a new, behind-the-scenes book called Fat, Drunk, & Stupid by producer Matty Simmons, who talks to us about what Hollywood first thought of the script (hated it!), what got cut, and why there was never a sequel.

Some highlights from the interview:

On getting the green light: My junior partner at the time was Ivan Reitman [who went on to make comedy classics including Ghostbusters] and we went into [Univeral Studios chief Ned] Tanen’s office and he said, “I hate this movie. Everyone’s drunk or having sex or getting beat up. Do you think you could make it for less than $3 million?" Now I had never made a movie. Ivan had made a couple of movies in Canada for about $8. I said, “Absolutely.” And I didn’t know what I was talking about. We made it for $2.8 million, and overall, everything in to date, it’s grossed about $600 million.

On the audience response: We screened that movie in Denver … and at the end of that movie, the audience was standing on chairs and screaming and applauding and yelling. No one had seen anything like it. And then when they brought it back to Hollywood, they did a test screening and it got the highest rating in the then-history of the ratings system.

On getting Animal House to Broadway, with music by Barenaked Ladies: I had the idea about four or five years ago and it took me that long to convince Universal to do it, because they own the rights. They said, “Well, if you bring in the right team.” So I brought in a top Broadway producer, who many years ago was my publicity man and has since won about six Tonys (Jeff Richards), and the director of the Book of Mormon, the hottest show on Broadway (Casey Nicholaw).

Read more on the Amazon Studios Hollywonk blog.

Dream Up some Team Ups

 

 Bro down. This is the kind of Hollywood pairing that makes us at Armchair happy folks. Two of the coolest guys in the game. One mellows out in Hawaii and is coming off a streak of roles that has made him a critic's favorite. The other likes to take road trips in his custom made Airstream and jog shirtless....a lot. The story has come out that Woody and McConaughey are teaming up to star in a cop drama. Apparently it is to be an 8 part series taking place in Louisiana and focusing on a serial killing case. I'm assuming there will be surfing breaks worked into the contracts. Not sure what kind of swells exist down in the Gulf but they'll find them. Will this show be good? Who knows? Will it be cool? Of course. Why? Because it's these two guys.

So....it brings up the question, what are some duos that still need to happen on film or TV? Obviously there is no shortage of buddy films and furthermore there is no shortage of buddy cop films and television. Will Ferrell and John C Reilly already happened so I don't have to hold out hope for that one anymore. And there are some that should never occur, see Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan in Cop Out.

In order to laugh until I cry, how about Louis CK and Zach Galifianakis as competing food truck owners? Would it work? Probably not but I would watch it and it would make a lot of money. Maybe you throw in Danny McBride and then you've got the right mix.

 

 

Oh how the acting Gods would be smiling. Daniel Day Lewis and Gary Oldman together on the big screen should happen well, just because theyare maybe the two best actors in the world. This would be more interesting than Deniro and Pacino in Heat but with less hype.

 

 

Daniel Craig & Michael Fassbender. Ladies, need I say more?

 

 

 

 

Jessica Biel and Scarlett Johansson. Fellas....?

 

 

 

 

 

OK, I realize Sean Connery is creeping towards his mid 80's and he's not really working anymore but I can dream. Two classic tough guys just sitting around talking about how they used to kick major tail. And yes Clint Eastwood will direct because who's going to tell him he can't. Hell, they can film it entirely on the Monterrey Peninsula so he wouldn't have to travel. The title could be Get Off My Lawn!

 

 

And of course, the duo I'd most like to see, Nicolas Cage and Nic Cage. All talented and all crazy, together in a tour de force performance. I'm sure a new Jekyll & Hyde adaptation is already in works so both can make an appearance. Could you imagine the tension on set whe   Nic's trailer is slightly smaller than Nicolas's? Maybe Roman Polanski could direct and then it would get real interesting. No..wait, is David Lynch available?

 

--Adam

Exclusive: True Tales of Unmade Movies and "Development Hell"

David Hughes mines Hollywood's depths for the untold stories behind the unmade movies (Sandman, where art thou?) and the unmade versions of movies that actually did reach the screen (like the fourth Indiana Jones film, written by Frank Darabont and meant to include Sean Connery).

In this exclusive guest post, Hughes answers the question at the heart of his acclaimed and — newly updated — book, Tales From Development Hell: The Greatest Movies Never Made:

We often hear this phrase, ‘Development Hell’, thrown about. But what does it mean? (I should know: I wrote the book on it.)

In an ideal world, a screenwriter would write a script, and assuming it's brilliant, attract (a) a director, (b) actors, (c) finance, and (d) members of the opposite sex. In practice, these things seldom happen — especially (d). Of all the scripts that get written (fewer than 1% of those that get started), fewer than 1% get anywhere near anyone with the power to get them made; of that 1%, only 1% will actually be made. In other words, every film you see is like Rocky’s whole life — a million to one shot. Many of the rest wind up circling the drain in a place called Development Hell.

Development is what happens when everyone with an interest in an unproduced script tries to help it get to a place where it’s ready to be turned into a movie. This will tend to involve studio executives, producers, actors, and multiple screenwriters — some brought on board because they have a particular ‘voice’, others because they had a hit the previous weekend. When all of these people pull in the same direction, working together to create the best possible version of a particular story — or, in most cases, one that’s achievable for the money — development can go smoothly. When some or all of the collaborators are pulling in different directions, and this process continues indefinitely, that’s Development Hell.

So how can budding screenwriters avoid this special form of damnation? One way is to refuse to sell anything you’ve written, leaving your perfect script as words on paper, like the blueprint for a wonderful building that will never be constructed. Another way is to be so amazingly rich, you can finance your own films. Another If, however, you want to see your masterpiece on the big screen, and you don’t have the necessary millions to make it yourself, there’s a pretty good chance you will end up in the special place reserved for screenplays that started out so perfect, they just had to be rewritten. And rewritten… And rewritten… The name of this particular circle of Hell? Why, Limbo of course.

The above article has since been optioned by a major Hollywood studio, and now features a talking dog, a car chase and a more “relatable” protagonist. A new writer is being drafted in to ‘punch up’ the second paragraph, and by the time they’ve finished, everyone will forget why they liked it in the first place.

Find more Hollywood stories and exclusive guest posts at the Amazon Studios Hollywonk blog.