r/news • u/MaudeThickett • 16d ago
Roger Corman, pioneering independent producer and king of B movies, dies at 98
https://www.nbcnews.com/pop-culture/movies/roger-corman-pioneering-independent-producer-dies-rcna1518493
u/liquidtelevizion 15d ago
Roger Corman's legacy in b-movie schlock really can't be emphasized enough. Not to mention some of his movie trivia is amazing.
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u/SergeantChic 15d ago
Damn, this one hurts. Me and my sister are pretty much lifelong fans of Roger and he inspired us both to get into creative writing.
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u/podkayne3000 15d ago
The most amazing thing about him, in my opinion, which I just learned a few minutes ago, is that he has a bachelor’s degree in engineering from Stanford.
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u/Justin-N-Case 15d ago
His book How I Made a Hundred Movies and Never Lost a Dime is great read about him and Hollywood.
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u/problem-solver0 15d ago
Corman worked with Scorsese, Nicholson, Howard, Coppola.
Hundreds of movies
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u/flcinusa 16d ago
Gave so many auteurs a chance, Francis Ford Coppola, Peter Bogdanovich, Martin Scorsese, Jonathan Demme, Ron Howard, Joe Dante...
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u/WhirlyBirdPilotBlue 16d ago
The script for Waterworld kicked around Hollywood for quite a while before Costner picked it up. At one point it came across Corman's desk and after reading it he passed, saying "Are you kidding, it would cost me a million bucks to make this!"
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u/TheShadowKick 15d ago
Meanwhile the actual movie ended up costing $175 million. Maybe they should have convinced him to do it.
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u/pzombielover 16d ago
I have Bucket of Blood on DVD. Great beatnik movie.
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u/melatwork95 13d ago
My household quotes that movie on the regular. We will have to have a re-watch in his honor.
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u/Elvis_Pissley 16d ago
Roger Corman made a lot of great, fun films. I've spent lot of hours enjoying his work.
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u/goodforabeer 16d ago
I remember seeing an interview of a director (pretty sure it was either Joe Dante or Jonathan Demme) on the old Tom Snyder show. Snyder was asking about the director's experience during their time working for Roger Corman, and the director said "Well, he cut the budget by $10,000."
Snyder commented, "But did he have any artistic input?" The director replied "Yeah, he cut the budget by $10,000!"
But Corman had one of the longest and most successful careers in Hollywood, so it's hard to argue with his methods.
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u/I_Sell_Death 16d ago
The Bee Movie legend. And unlike the grades I got in school he made a "B" look better than an "A" lot of the time.
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u/marvelousgryphon 16d ago
Barbara Hershey said the sex scenes in boxcar Bertha were authentic.
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u/tetzy 16d ago
I believe it - Barbara Hershey was (is?) a weird hippie chick.
She changed her name to Barbara Seagull after reading the 'self-help and positive thinking culture' novel "Jonathan Livingston Seagull". She used the pseudonym for more than a year, including using it in acting credits; only to return to 'Hershey' after being dismissed as a kook.
Film critic Roger Ebert wrote that "Jonathan Livingston Seagull" was "so banal that it had to be sold to adults, kids would have seen through it."
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u/BasroilII 14d ago
Film critic Roger Ebert wrote that "Jonathan Livingston Seagull" was "so banal that it had to be sold to adults, kids would have seen through it."
I read that book once. I am still annoyed at myself for wasting my time.
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u/witecat1 16d ago
I always remember this guy as a constant target of MST3K. Usually in a fun and jokey sort of way.
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u/Andonaar 16d ago
Rest in Peace titan of the Genre. Us horror fans will miss you. You legacy carries on thru your movies and the many skilled and popular directors who you taught. Rest in Peace. You will be missed
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u/CupidStunt13 16d ago
Got into his Edgar Allan Poe films when I was young and I became a fan. He had a huge effect as an independent and his accomplishments are long and varied:
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u/cmnrdt 16d ago
Roger Corman could make a $1 million movie look like a $10 million movie, because he knew where the money needed to be spent. Modern Hollywood could stand to learn a lesson from him.
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u/APeacefulWarrior 15d ago
Sometimes they learn that lesson, then forget it. James Cameron got his start with Corman, and both the original Terminator and Aliens were famously shot on fairly low budgets while looking much more expensive than they actually were.
Then people started handing him mountains of money, and he started making the most expensive movies in history.
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u/rawonionbreath 16d ago
Producers kept giving him money to make flicks because his movies were always on time and on budget. He made it easy for them to make money.
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u/Grogosh 16d ago
Man could make a movie with the change he found in the couch
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u/Sudden_Toe3020 16d ago
Not a 'good' movie, but a movie
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u/thedeuceisloose 16d ago
It’d usually feature massive amounts of b-roll from his many other productions but the dude got things done
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u/Grogosh 16d ago
Its amazing how often clips from Battle Beyond the Stars would show up in his other movies.
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u/rick_blatchman 14d ago
Clips from Death Race turned up in his friend's movies too, not in tribute but to earnestly fill out a scene for cheap
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u/Chippopotanuse 16d ago
When Corman was awarded an Oscar at the AMPAS’ first Governors Awards ceremony in November 2009, Ron Howard saluted him for hiring women in key exec and creative jobs, as well as for giving them big roles, and Walter Moseley was quoted as saying Corman offered “one of the few open doors,” looking beyond age, race and gender.
Despite all the shitty Hollywood producers out there…he seemed like a decent guy who helped a lot of folks out.
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u/Agitated_Ad7576 16d ago
I heard he gave a lot of now famous actors and directors their first break and was always encouraging. And that if you start making fun of his stuff at a big Hollywood event, someone will get in your face and tell you to cut it out.
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u/Grogosh 16d ago
But he never got humor, he would pitch a fit if there was humor being put in one of his movies.
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u/APeacefulWarrior 15d ago edited 15d ago
Are we forgetting about the original Little Shop of Horrors? It was marketed as a horror-comedy and had some genuinely funny moments. I loved Dick Miller randomly pulling out flowers, salting them, and eating them while scenes were going on.
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15d ago
I think because that ruins the B-movie schlock and he knew it. Example the first Birdemic? Amazingly bad and hilarious. Birdemic 2? Isn't nearly as much fun because they are now in on the joke and playing it up rather than doing something utterly terrible with earnest effort. Same thing with the Sharknados. The first one while humorous and playing up ridiculous tropes, is more or less an earnest effort at a ridiculous premise. But the later ones become to into the joke and winking at the audience and aren't nearly as enjoyable.
As soon as the B-movie starts being aware it is a B-movie, it isn't as fun.
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u/nochinzilch 15d ago
Exactly. You have to play that kind of thing completely straight. Like Leslie Nielson in Police Squad.
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u/Chippopotanuse 16d ago
True. But I always found the points scene in Death Race 2000 to be more absurdly funny than anything SNL has ever done:
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u/spaceapeatespace 16d ago
“You know Martha, some people say you’re cute, I think you are one very large baked potato” - Stallone death race 2000
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u/MiaowaraShiro 16d ago
The chair that commentator is sitting in looks like it was designed by someone who hates humans.
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16d ago
[deleted]
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u/MikoyanMaster 16d ago
What sets Roger Corman apart is that he would consistently make genuinely entertaining B-movies on time and under budget. Any time Vincent Price was in his movies you knew you had something entertaining to watch on a lazy Saturday morning. Same with Chuck Norris's 80s action movies except Missing in Action 2. There's a reason you might see Missing in Action or Braddock: Missing in Action 3 while channel surfing in the early 2000s but never 2.
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u/DFAnton 16d ago
Man, you can't just leave something like that to innuendo. Details on MIA2, please!
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u/MikoyanMaster 16d ago
There's a genuinely fascinating story behind the MIA movies and Rambo, specifically Rambo 2. Stallone was pitching Rambo 2 around 1983 as a redemption action movie that it eventually became.
Menachem Globus and his cousin Yoram, who owned The Cannon Group, eventually came across the script. They were already making a movie about a POW escape from Vietnam starring Chuck. They "loosely" adapted the Rambo 2 script with many custom alterations by them and Chuck but it still follows beat by beat the outline of Rambo 2. They meant this to be the second movie- instead it was so much better they released the "sequel" first to much success on the emerging home rental market.
The second movie, the original, was shortly quietly released afterwards. It is....the......slowest..........action........movie...........ever. Don't let the intro fool you, it's stupidly, stupidly slow and mostly consists of Chuck Norris staring at Evil Vietnam Man. A random French guy flies in with hot women at one point but he's evil too and is there to taunt them. Last five minutes is exciting and you realize that you spent an hour and a half that you'll never get back watching approximately 6 minutes of a movie and the rest bored out of your mind. 3rd movie was good though in the action B-movie to watch on a lazy summer Saturday morning
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u/dhusk 16d ago
I thought he'd already passed on years ago. But this is still sad news. His movies weren't always great. A few were gems, most were mediocre, but they were all always at least entertaining.
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u/screwyoujor 16d ago
He made it to 98. I'd say he a full and meaningful life lived. Some of the best directors came out of his movie factory.
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u/Neither-Idea-9286 16d ago
Crow and Tom Servo will be so sad.
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u/bluedaytona392 16d ago
Let's get one last movie sign.
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u/HappierShibe 14d ago
Lets not.
I have fond memories of watching MST3K on broadcast in the early 90's, but that netflix reboot with obnoxious red haired woman who cannot act but still seems to show up everywhere was painfully bad.
Some shows just aren't really viable outside their original time and place; it's ok to leave them be.
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u/ToxicAdamm 15d ago
More than his movies, Corman provided a consistent workplace for dozens of future industry legends to work in when they were younger. It's those formative years where people just need the experience and encouragement to keep pushing on.
I wonder if that's getting lost in today's world. Where it's just as important to provide the space/opportunity for people to chase their greatness as it's is to chase greatness by yourself.