john landis blues brothers

Ted Mann owned those theaters, and he was not the most liberal guy.”, “After the exhibitor screening I got called into Lew Wasserman’s office, he was the head of Universal Studios, and Ted was there. Simon is a member of several guilds, including BAFTA and the Television Academy, and is an Emmy voter. They put Jake’s old band back together to raise money to save the orphanage where they were both brought up. It is supposed to be a tribute to the original. Actually, written on our camera when we shot The Blues Brothers was the phrase Death To Disco.”, “Motown wasn’t performing and out of the acts were in the film, these legendary performers, only Ray Charles was doing fine at that time. Those boys are dead from the first frame. Director John Landis blazed a trail from 1978 to 1988 that produced no fewer than six movies considered classics. Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. I’ve done my job. I was dumbfounded.”, Landis added, “Honestly, we were quite frightened, and Universal was scared sh**less. Two bumbling government employees think they are U.S. spies, only to discover that they are actually decoys for Nuclear War. The Blues Brothers is a seminal film from 1980, a movie which manages to straddle genres like no other, combining comedy, music, action and crime. At a 1962 college, Dean Vernon Wormer is determined to expel the entire Delta Tau Chi Fraternity, but those troublemakers have other plans for him. “That is mainly because we made it to be released as a roadshow movie with an intermission. “Ultimately, I guess the music would be the answer for why the movie has remained so popular all these years,” Landis explained. Dan Aykroyd and friends tell the story of the famous Saturday Night Live recurring musical characters. Who will go and see it, I don’t know, but I’m still delighted. I don’t know what that means, but An American Werewolf in London was a movie I wrote when I was a teenager. “I’m fortunate that I’ve made about eight or nine movies that continue to generate income, which means people are still buying them and watching them. The only reason a story was put in was to keep it moving from musical number to musical number, because everyone knows that straight concert films are pretty boring, even if you really like the performer(s). The Blues Brothers is a classic movie, a slight misfire at the box office on original release, but a film that gained a substantial cult following via cinema re-releases and especially home viewing. They were wrong. Animal House, Trading Places, Coming to America, and Three Amigos, I just made a lot of movies that have done well,” mused Landis. Look at his movies such as Spies Like Us or, even better, Ghostbusters. I had long hair and a beard. The Blues Brothers ended up opening in just under 600, and in LA, it never played the Westside, but it played Downtown and Hollywood and so on.”. PRISONER Hey!! It is a horror film, but it happens to be very funny.”. MEN ON A MISSION Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi as the Blues Brothers, shot by Annie Leibovitz for Rolling Stone, in 1979. “Who knows? He can be found on Twitter @ShowbizSimon and you can see more of his work on his website. Susan wants her reprehensible ex-husband dead and, in several bungled attempts by henchmen, tries to accomplish the deed. Goodbye.’ I told him I’d have to change it a bit, and he was like, ‘Go ahead.’ So revised it, he took a look at it, and we ended up working on it together.”, “Dan wrote the line, ‘There’s 106 miles to Chicago, we got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes,’ then John would say, ‘Hit it.’ I just changed that a bit, so it was, ‘...half a pack of cigarettes, it’s dark, and we’re wearing sunglasses.’ I also put in the whole thing about being on a mission from God, which was me teasing Dan because he was evangelistic about this music. Max is the son of John Landis, best known for directing a string of successful movies in the late ’70s and early ’80s, including American Werewolf in London, Animal House, Blues Brothers, Trading Places, and ¡Three Amigos!, among others, before his career faded into oblivion long before Max Landis began steady work. Stephen Scaia . Every member of the band effectively had their own movie. The Blues Brothers - John Landis (1980) HOME: MENU : A road movie, a modern musical, a prototype for many others movies, the film of John Landis is completely full of pure blues spirit, together with his derivatives genres rhythm & blues, rock and soul, including even a short and funny excursion into the country & western genre. You must be a registered user to use the IMDb rating plugin. Simon is also currently developing his first feature documentary. An incredibly dull-witted family unknowingly stumble upon an illegal weapons deal while on the trail of their "stolen" garbage. Even though I wish this film could have been a little edgier and darker in tone like the original, I do find its bold and effective use of color to be magnificent and fascinating. It broke my heart. “I’ll never forget when people started watching TV and movies on their phones. Search for "Blues Brothers 2000" on Amazon.com, Title: A snobbish investor and a wily street con artist find their positions reversed as part of a bet by two callous millionaires. He has also worked as a puppeteer, performing as Grover in The Muppet Movie. The movie is about two brothers, Jake and Elwood, played by John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd. A small town is terrorized by "The Banana Killer", which turns out to be the missing link between man and ape. He threw it over the producer’s fence wrapped in the cover of the San Fernando Valley phonebook. They all said the same thing, and that was that it was too scary to be funny, or it was too funny to be scary.”, “People still refer to it as a comedy-horror film, but my intention, and I’ll still argue this, is that it’s not a comedy. Let our editors help you find what's trending and what's worth your time. Also, people complain about the Bluesmobile in this film being able to drive underwater. He has worked for the biggest brands in the industry, including Variety, E! There were wonderful things in it, but it was completely impossible to shoot. He has covered everything from red carpets to the Oscars and created, scripted, produced, and presented a range of primetime entertainment news shows on major networks. www.thisissimonthompson.com, © 2021 Forbes Media LLC. You make movies for many reasons, just for money sometimes, for political reasons very often, and sometimes you have to, or there are unpleasant reasons. Now, for a limited time, the iconic musical comedy is returning to select theaters. Directed by John Landis. Perhaps this film has a little more depth than people expect, so they incorrectly perceive it to be a lackluster and shallow mindnumbing entertainment. “That had never been done before. Jake Blues, just released from prison, puts together his old band to save the Catholic home where he and his brother Elwood were raised. The Blues Brothers we have is not the movie that Landis intended audiences to see. Simon Thompson is an experienced journalist and groundbreaking producer based in Los Angeles. The following year, they starred alongside musical heroes Ray Charles, James Brown and Aretha Franklin in John Landis' now legendary The Blues Brothers. We didn’t just have to recut it; we had to lift stuff out of it, we ad to make sequences shorter, and so on. The Blues Brothers is the latest classic film to return to theaters courtesy of the TCM Big Screen Classics Presents series in partnership with Fathom Events. It is absolutely a Christmas movie there. About 95 percent of the script I wrote when I was 18, and I could never get it made. The Blues Brothers, which grossed $115.2 million against a $30 million budget, is, according to Landis, the first US movie to gross more money overseas than it did at the domestic box office. The movie’s history was shaped by many things, including racism. Father: Marshall David Landis Mother: Shirley Levine Father: Walter Levine (stepfather) Wife: Deborah Nadoolman (m. 27-Jul-1980) Hitting theaters on Friday, June 20, 1980, it landed with a three day total of $4.86 million, placing it in the number two spot on the box office chart behind the Star Wars sequel, The Empire Strikes Back. The never aired animated series featuring adventures of Elwood (Peter Aykroyd), Jake (Jim Belushi), and the band. John David Landis (born 3 August 1950) is an American filmmaker and producer, known for having directed some of the most beloved comedies of the late '70s and early '80s, including Animal House, The Blues Brothers, Trading Places, Coming to America note . There are about 40 classic Christmas songs that we had to record because it was cheaper for us to do them than to buy the library music. In the first one the entire band's clothing "magically" changes for a concert, but if you know that this is merely a representation of the character's psychological state and not a literal change, then the film works much better. FADE IN: WALKING THROUGH THE PRISON Jake is escorted by two Guards down a jail hall. This movie was originally to be a sequel back in 1981 just before Belushi died. Well, in the first film the car flew, performed flips, and was nearly indestructible. “The Blues Brothers”-John Landis (1980) By Chris Middlehurst Published 15 November, 2016 It is very hard to make a film that lives and breathes the joys and energy of youth, probably the reason why so many of the best films about … Jake Blues, just released from prison, puts together his old band to save the Catholic home where he and his brother Elwood were raised. Despite being released in June 1983, many people consider it to be a Christmas movie. In Los Angeles in the 70s, Westwood Village had the Fox and Bruin cinemas in the Westside. Dan just said, ‘I’ve never done this before I wrote that. A big part of the reason for the movie existing in the first place was Dan and John’s idea to focus attention on rhythm and blues and blues music. First her boyfriend hires two dim-witted hitmen. View production, box office, & company info. Watching this film, actually, it seems that their first intent was … With Landis once again at the helm as director, Aykroyd re-creates his role of rhythm-and-blues man Elwood Blues, and the film's numerous R&B performances and production numbers include Aretha Franklin singing her classic "Respect." He opens the door and all three of them enter the room. You may opt-out by. 87 of 126 people found this review helpful. “I am very happy about that, but it was never the plan,” the director said. He hated me the moment I walked in. That script got me a tremendous amount of work as a writer, but no one would make it. Elwood, the now lone "Blues Brother" finally released from prison, is once again enlisted by Sister Mary Stigmata in her latest crusade to raise funds for a children's hospital. “In terms of The Blues Brothers, it’s interesting to me that it’s still so popular.”, “I remember that Dan wrote this insane, huge script, it was hundreds of pages thick, and he signed it Scriptathon 5000. It’s the best way for it to be seen.”. GUARD TWO What wing? The Blues Brothers john belushi (Actor), dan aykroyd (Actor), john landis (Director) In fact, if you watch the DVD of the first film, you find in the deleted scenes and "Making-of" section that the Bluesmobile is supposed to be "magic", because it was parked each night inside a power transformer. News, BBC, Reuters, IGN, the Oscar-nominated ITN Productions, and Quibi. He was doing country and western and having great success, but many others in the movie were playing third-tier venues, and their records weren’t selling. John Belushi, Aretha Franklin and Dan Aykroyd in The Blues Brothers. We were having trouble booking the movie, so the bosses said to me, ‘It’s no longer a roadshow movie, you have to get at least 20 minutes more out of it, and they can have one extra show a day.’ I couldn’t argue against that at the time, but it ruined the pace of the movie. On the other side of the holidays, 2021 sees another of Landis’ classics celebrate a milestone as An American Werewolf in London follows in The Blues Brothers’ footsteps and turns 40. Back then, they would watch it and decide which of their houses they wanted to show it in, and as a filmmaker, you tried to book certain specific theaters that were higher grossing. Shawn Pacheco Dec 15, 2019. 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