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Posted: |
Aug 22, 2016 - 11:27 AM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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CARPOOL was a 1996 comedy starring David Paymer as an impatient advertising executive who reluctantly replaces his ailing wife as chauffeur of the neighborhood carpool. While driving one day, Paymer stops at a local pastry shop, just as a robbery is taking place. Through a series of mix-ups, Tom Arnold, a bankrupt carnival owner, who has also dropped in for coffee and a doughnut, ends up with the robbery money. While fleeing the scene, he takes Daniel and the kids hostage, and a daylong chase scene begins. Arthur Hiller got to shoot the picture in his native British Columbia, with filming taking place in Vancouver and some smaller B.C. towns. The film only grossed about a quarter of its $17 million budget. John Debney provided the film's unreleased score.
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Posted: |
Aug 22, 2016 - 11:58 AM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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"Alan Smithee'" is the pseudonym that a Hollywood studio traditionally slapped on a film's credits if the original director insisted on having his name removed from the project. Notorious Hollywood screenwriter Joe Eszterhas (BASIC INSTINCT, SHOWGIRLS) concocted a plot involving a film so bad that the director wants his name removed, but since his real name is Alan Smithee, what can he do? Eric Idle starred as the misbegotten director, and Ryan O'Neal played the film's producer. The comedy was originally titled "An Alan Smithee Film." Then "Burn, Hollywood, Burn!" Ultimately, its official title became AN ALAN SMITHEE FILM BURN HOLLYWOOD BURN, eschewing all punctuation.
The 1998 movie was directed by Arthur Hiller. But the film's production company, Cinergi Pictures, preferred the cut made by producer-writer Eszterhas over Hiller's cut. Hiller hated the way the film was edited--so much so, that, yes, he insisted his name be removed from the credits. So it really is an Alan Smithee Film. After this debacle, the Director's Guild of America unregistered the name Alan Smithee. This is the last film to ever bear that pseudonym.
During post-production, Eszterhas announced through the media that Cinergi Pictures didn't have the money to pay for a soundtrack. He said he would finance the soundtrack himself, and asked artists to submit tracks for it. He received 9,200 CDs and cassettes, mostly from unknown, unsigned artists. He listened to a few tracks from each album, and compiled the soundtrack. Amazingly, there is a soundtrack release for the film, on Priority Records.
The movie was a box office bomb, grossing $52,850 against a budget of $10 million, as it was only released in 19 theaters.
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Posted: |
Aug 22, 2016 - 12:41 PM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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In his later years, Arthur Hiller received a number of awards from the industry. in 1999 he received the Robert B. Aldrich Achievement Award from the Director's Guild of America. Hiller had served as President of the Guild from 1989 to 1993. Hiller also received the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award at the 2002 Academy Awards ceremony in recognition of his humanitarian, charitable, and philanthropic efforts. And in 2002, he was honored with a star on Canada's Walk of Fame in Toronto.
Although Hiller occasionally tried his hand in various genres (musicals, thrillers, war films), it is as a director of all types of comedies--straight, romantic, social--for which he will be remembered.
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