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 unforgettable 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.
This one prefers to hide out in the stacks all day long:
This one is fond of gnawing on pencils:
And this one has very little patience for revisions:
Sigh. So hard to find good help these days!
By Candace Ryan
Illustrated by Nathan Hale
Walker & Company, 2010
$16.99, ages 4-8, 40 pages
In this loopy, fun debut, a boy tries to convince his gray-haired teacher that an armchair with a powerful beak ate his homework, but fails to mention that his so-called "vulchair" also loves to munch on old ladies.
Even though Jeremy's gorilla-faced house looms large in the neighborhood, no one seems to believe that his house is any different than anyone else's, let alone that its genetically spliced with zoo animals.
It wouldn't be a big deal, except that his animal house, with its giraffe roof and monkey chimney, is always getting Jeremy into trouble in class.
While other kids only worry about dogs eating their homework, Jeremy has an entire house that gets into mischief -- every inanimate feature, from the roof to the bed, has eyes, a mouth and appendages, not to mention natural curiosity.
As a result, Jeremy is always coming to class with his homework half-gone or missing things entirely. Take the day his "snailbox," a mailbox with a snail head jutting out the front, devoured the class plant, or the day his "shrewler," a shrew with a ruler running down its tummy, gnawed his Statue of Liberty project.
Until now, Mrs. Nuddles shrugged off Jeremy's wild excuses, saying he had an overactive imagination, but this time Jeremy's gone too far and unless Jeremy can prove to Mrs. Nuddles during a home visit that a "vulchair" really does exist, he won't be going on the class field trip.
That afternoon Jeremy pleads with his house to behave, but as Mrs. Nuddles approaches the house for a visit, it's clear that something truly strange is going to happen. Condor wings swing open to greet her where front doors should be and the floor inside is a checkerboard of flamingos instead of tiles.
Spotting Mrs. Nuddles through his "windodo," Jeremy races down the "harecase" and explains that his parents are upstairs grooming the walls -- brushing the tusks of their "wallrus" and combing the "wallaby's" fur. Mrs. Nuddles eyes widen as she clasps her hands in shock.
But wait, don't look now Mrs. Nuddles, sister Jamie left the "skink" running around the house.
Suddenly the "skink," a lizard with a wash basin face, is knocking Mrs. Nuddles up to the "sealing." Jeremy's "chandelier" tries to catch her but snags his antlers in the ceiling's
We had another bat in the house this morning. (Just when you had asked, Elizabeth! Go figure.) I was enjoying my coffee and a book this morning at 5:30 am when all of the sudden this little guy came swooping in from the screened-in porch and flew around the downstairs. I screamed. (I really never scream about anything but there's something about swooping bats that gets to me.) (Okay, well, I think it's the wingspan, even though he looks so tiny in the picture.) He finally came to rest in the corner of a living room beam, where the hubby trapped him in a container. So, another call to animal control today to send him off and have him tested.
Holy infestation, Batman! I think we may have an issue.
.jpeg?picon=3103)
You are lucky to have three such valuable assistants. (Or is that two?) Either way, very sweet! And they are lucky to have you! Nice that it works out that way, isn't it?
It is nice! There are three of them... plus the occasional mouse to liven things up. I like the company. :-)
Cute assistants!
: )