Roger Corman
Roger Corman (* 5. April 1926 in Detroit , Michigan ) is an American Independent - director and film producer . Corman made a name for himself with cheaply produced, but qualitatively above-average and commercially successful B-movies , which are predominantly assigned to the genre of exploitation films and often stood out for their radicalism in terms of form and content and subversiveness. His film adaptations of Edgar Allan Poe's stories became particularly well known . As a producer, Corman also gained film-historical importance through the sponsorship of later famous directors such as James Cameron , Martin Scorsese , Francis Ford Coppola , Jonathan Demme , Joe Dante , Peter Bogdanovich and others. Acting careers like Jack Nicholson's were also significantly advanced by Corman. In 2010 Corman was awarded an honorary Oscar for his life's work. Corman shot a total of 56 films and produced over 410 films.
Life
Corman originally studied engineering but switched to film in 1953. His specialty were stories that corresponded to the zeitgeist, were quickly realized and marketed with correct craftsmanship on a low budget. Although Corman won few prestigious awards in his career, his entertaining and often radical films all brought in profits - as his autobiography notes: "How I Made a Hundred Movies in Hollywood and Never Lost a Dime" (1998).
In fact, over the past 50 years he has produced 393 films for cinema and television and directed 56 of them himself. While Corman helped create the post-apocalyptic monster film such as It Conquered The World in the 1950s, in the 1960s he produced the Edgar Allan Poe adaptations with Vincent Price, such as House of Usher, and motorcycle films such as The Wild Angels , which are still highly regarded today . Originally he even paved the way for Easy Rider to hit the big screen, but was kicked out of the producing studio.
In 1961, Corman shot White Terror (The Intruder), the only film in which he claimed to have lost money. With the young William Shatner in the lead role, this was one of the first US films to seriously deal with the subject of racism .
In the 1960s, Roger Corman bought some Russian science fiction films and used them to produce relatively heavily modified new films by cutting them and adding new additional scenes with American actors. The most famous include Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet (German version of "Journey to the prehistoric planet") (1965) and Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women (1968), which in the Russian film Planeta Bur by Pavel Kluschanzew based, and Queen of Blood (1966) and Battle Beyond the Sun (1962; here, by the way, the young Francis Ford Coppola was responsible for the makeover), which were based on the works Encounter in Space and The Sky Calls by Mikhail Karjukov . The Russian staff of the original films were given English-language pseudonyms. Nonetheless, these films were remarkable in that they gave American audiences a rare glimpse into Soviet production at the time.
In addition to his lively quick shots, Corman stylishly supported the distribution and also the financing of foreign, artistically demanding films (for example Marlene Dietrich - Her Own Song from 2001). His record for fast production is two days and one night for a complete 35mm film shoot: the original Little Shop of Horrors started Jack Nicholson's career in 1960 . In general, Roger Corman gave many of today's Hollywood greats jump-start: Dennis Hopper , Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese , Jonathan Demme , James Cameron , Peter Bogdanovich , Joe Dante , George Lucas , Ron Howard , Robert Zemeckis , Sylvester Stallone and many more could do as Proven beginners in the Cormans film workshop - at that time his production company was called New World Pictures, later Concorde.
In the late 1980s, in addition to his Concorde studio in Los Angeles, he also founded a European branch in the west of Ireland , where he primarily had dark costume dramas realized. The studio still exists today, but Corman slowly withdrew from the business in 1999.
In 1992 Corman produced the first film version of The Fantastic Four , but it was never released. The film was made fast-track and on a $ 1 million budget. The reason for this type of production and the non-appearance of the film is, according to the statements of many people involved in the film, that the film company Constantin Film had secured the rights for The Fantastic Four until the end of 1992 and an automatic one when production started Extension of these rights for ten more years ensured. This extension of rights allowed the film studio to produce the famous Fantastic Four films with Jessica Alba a decade later . A bootleg of the 1992 film has now been uploaded to YouTube .
Occasionally Roger Corman is given the title "King of B-Movies", a designation that he rejects. Because B-films were originally the inferior productions that were quickly rolled down in the Hollywood studio system from the 1930s to 1960s and shown in cinemas in a double pack with more glamorous A-films. However, Corman's films have always been the main attraction in the cinema and not shamelessly attached strips. To date, Corman has produced over 410 films.
Corman has also appeared as a supporting actor in films since the 1960s, and in the 1990s in larger productions such as Das Schweigen der Lämmer (in the role of FBI director), Philadelphia and Apollo 13 .
At the beginning of September 2009 Corman was awarded the Oscar of Honor , which was presented to him on November 14th of the same year. In 2012, Corman's World: Exploits of a Hollywood Rebel, his autobiography, was released as a documentary.
His brother, Gene Corman , who was a year and a half younger , also worked as a film producer.
Filmography
Director
- 1955: Five revolvers go west (Five Guns West)
- 1955: Hot Colts and Fast Horses (Apache Woman)
- 1955: The last Seven (The Day the World Ended)
- 1955: Four Women in the Swamp (Swamp Women)
- 1956: One Shot Faster (The Oklahoma Woman)
- 1956: You shall die on Sunday (Gunslinger)
- 1956: It Conquered the World
- 1956: Envoy of Horror (Not of This Earth)
- 1956: The Undead
- 1956: She-Gods of Shark Reef
- 1956: Naked Paradise
- 1956: Attack of the Crab Monsters
- 1957: Rock All Night
- 1957: Teenage Doll
- 1957: Carnival Rock
- 1957: Sorority Girl riot
- 1957: The Viking Woman and the Sea Serpent
- 1957: Planet of the Dead Souls (War of the Satellites)
- 1958: Revolver-Kelly (Machine Gun Kelly)
- 1958: Teenage Caveman
- 1958: Gangster No. 1 (I Mobster)
- 1959: The Wasp Woman (The Wasp Woman)
- 1959: The Legacy of Professor Bondi (A Bucket of Blood)
- 1960: The Last Woman on Earth
- 1960: Creature from the Haunted Sea
- 1960: Ski Troop Attack
- 1960: Little Shop of Horrors (The Little Shop of Horrors)
- 1960: The Cursed (House of Usher)
- 1960: Atlas
- 1961: The Pit and the Pendulum (Pit and the Pendulum)
- 1961: Buried Alive (Premature Burial)
- 1962: The Horrible Mr. X (Tales of Terror)
- 1962: The London mass murderer (Tower of London)
- 1962: Fast Cars and Affairs (The Young Racers)
- 1962: The Raven - Duel of the Wizards (The Raven)
- 1962: White Terror (The Intruder)
- 1963: The Terror - The Innocents (The Terror)
- 1963: The Man with the X-Ray Eyes (X - The Man with the X-Ray Eyes)
- 1963: The Witch Hunter's Torture Chamber (The Haunted Palace)
- 1963: Dubrovnik (The Secret Invasion)
- 1964: Satanas - The Castle of the Bloody Beast (The Masque of the Red Death)
- 1964: The grave of Lygeia (The Tomb of Ligeia)
- 1966: The Wild Angels (The Wild Angels)
- 1967: Chicago Massacre (The St. Valentine's Day Massacre)
- 1967: The Merciless Ride (A Time for Killing) (unmentioned co-director)
- 1967: The Trip
- 1968: Target Harry (How To Make It)
- 1969: The Dissolute Life of the Marquis de Sade (De Sade) (unmentioned co-director)
- 1970: Bloody Mama
- 1970: GASS or: It was necessary to destroy the world in order to save it (GAS-SSS)
- 1971: Manfred von Richthofen - The Red Baron (Von Richthofen and Brown)
- 1978: Death Rally in Helix-City (Deathsport) (unmentioned co-director)
- 1980: Sador - Battle Beyond the Stars (unmentioned co-director)
- 1989: Roger Cormans Frankenstein (Frankenstein Unbound)
Producer (selection)
- 1954: The Las Vegas Car Trap (Highway Dragnet)
- 1954: The Fast and the Furious
- 1955: The Beast With a Million Eyes
- 1958: The Cry Baby Killer
- 1958: The last reminder was made of lead (Hot Car Girl)
- 1958: The horror came at midnight (Night of the Blood Beast)
- 1959: Attack of the Giant Leeches
- 1963: Dementia 13
- 1965: Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet (see Planet of the Storms )
- 1966: Shooting (The Shooting)
- 1966: Ride in the Whirlwind
- 1966: Queen of Blood
- 1966: Blood Bath
- 1967: Rebels in leather jackets (Devil's Angels)
- 1968: Movable Targets
- 1969: Naked Angels
- 1970: The Rockers on Boston Street
- 1970: I - a groupie
- 1972: The rebel's fist (Boxcar Bertha)
- 1972: Roller fever
- 1972: The Cremators
- 1972: God have mercy on the cops
- 1973: Mutiny on Devil's Island
- 1973: Crazy and dangerous
- 1973: The Sinking of Japan (Nippon chinbotsu) added US scenes in USA under the title Tidal Waves appeared
- 1974: The Prison of the Lost Girls (Caged Heat)
- 1974: Love Bad Mama (Big Bad Mama)
- 1975: Capone
- 1975: Frankenstein's Death Race (Death Race 2000)
- 1975: TNT Jackson
- 1976: Hollywood Boulevard
- 1976: Eat my dust
- 1976: raped behind bars
- 1976: The devil is going on in Hollywood!
- 1976: Cross and go to hell
- 1977: Ilsa - The Tigress
- 1977: Highway 101 - Full throttle until the scraps fly (Grand Theft Auto)
- 1977: I Never Promised You a Rose Garden
- 1978: like thunder and lightning
- 1978: Piranhas (Piranha)
- 1978: Giants with steel fists (Deathsport)
- 1979: Rock ' n' Roll High School
- 1979: Fast Charlie - The mad Charlie
- 1979: Saint Jack
- 1980: Humanoids from the Deep
- 1981: Planet of Terror (Galaxy of Terror)
- 1981: Sorceress - The Forces of Light (Sorceress)
- 1981: Highway Kids
- 1982: The Android (Android)
- 1982: Mutant: Forbidden World
- 1983: Deathstalker
- 1983: Love Letters
- 1983: Space Raiders
- 1985: The freaky college ghost
- 1985: Wizards of the Lost Kingdom
- 1986: In the realm of the Amazons
- 1986: Shopping (Chopping Mall)
- 1986: American Scorpion
- 1987: Boone: One villain among villains
- 1987: Stripped to Kill
- 1987: Slumber Party Massacre
- 1987: The Munchies
- 1987: Big Bad Mama 2
- 1987: Hour of the Assassins
- 1988: The vampire from space
- 1988: Night of the Demons
- 1988: Tango for a Killer (Two to Tango)
- 1988: Watchers
- 1988: Emmanuelle 6
- 1988: Crime Zone: Hell on Earth
- 1988: A Kingdom Before Time
- 1989: Blood Fist Fighter (Bloodfist)
- 1989: Stripped to Kill 2
- 1989: Barbarian Queen II (Barbarian Queen II: The Empress Strikes Back)
- 1989: Warlock - Satan's Son (Warlock)
- 1989: Transylvania Twist
- 1989: Lords of the Deep
- 1989: Heroes die lonely
- 1989: The Terror Within - Good Night Hell
- 1990: The Terror Within II - The genes strike back
- 1990: Deathstalker IV (Deathstalker IV: Match of the Titans)
- 1991: Dead Space
- 1992: Munchie
- 1992: Blackbelt
- 1993: Carnosaurus (Carnosaur)
- 1993: Corman's Dracula (Dracula Rising)
- 1993: Fantastic Four (not released)
- 1994: New Crime City
- 1995: Black Scorpion
- 1995: Caged Heat 3000
- 1995: Dillinger & Capone
- 1995: Babyface Nelson
- 1995: The Crazysitter
- 1995: Demonic Neighbors
- 1995: Alien Terminator
- 1995: The return of the piranhas
- 1995: The alien in you
- 1995: Forbidden Beauty (The Wasp Woman)
- 1995: A Hot Affair / Rendezvous with a Stranger (One Night Stand)
- 1996: Welcome to Planet Earth
- 1996: Last Exit to Earth
- 1996: Bloodfist 7
- 1996: The Lurker Below (Humanoids from the Deep)
- 1997: jailbreak
- 1997: Deadly Inferno
- 1997: The Haunted Sea
- 1997: Mind Breakers
- 1997: Alien Avengers 2
- 1997: The Sea Wolf
- 1997: Knockin 'on Deaths Door
- 1998: Running Woman
- 1998: Detonator
- 1998: Black Thunder - Die Welt am Abgrund (Black Thunder)
- 1998: Watchers reborn
- 1998: Molly and the Leprechaun
- 1998: Dangerous Curves
- 1998: Club Vampires
- 1999: The enchanted pony
- 1999: Hell House
- 2000: Living Target
- 2000: The Suicide Club
- 2000: White Inferno: Snowboarder on the Edge
- 2001: Raptor
- 2001: A Girl, three Guys and a Gun
- 2002: Marlene Dietrich - Her Own Song
- 2002: Brother in Arms
- 2002: Slaughter Studios
- 2002: Wolfhound
- 2003: Barbarian
- 2003: When Eagles Strike
- 2004: Asphalt Wars
- 2004: DinoCroc
- 2005: Scorpius Gigantus
- 2005: Bloodfist 2050
- 2006: Saurian
- 2006: The Hunt for Eagle One (The Hunt for Eagle One)
- 2007: Hell in the sky (Cry of the Winged Serpent)
- 2007: Searchers 2.0
- 2007: Supergator
- 2010: Dinoshark
- 2010: Dinocroc vs. Supergator
- 2010: Death Race 2
- 2010: Sharktopus
- 2011: Piranhaconda
- 2012: Death Race 3: Inferno
- 2014: Sharktopus vs. Pteracuda - Battle of the primeval giants (Sharktopus vs. Pteracuda)
- 2014: Operation Rogue
- 2015: Sharktopus vs. Whale wolf
- 2015: Art School of Horrors
- 2016: CobraGator
- 2017: Death Race 2050
- 2018: Death Race 4: Anarchy
Actors & Cameos (selection)
- Films as an actor
|
|
documentation
- 1983: Roger Corman: Hollywood's Wild Angel
- 1991: Crazy about the Movies: Dennis Hopper
- 1998: The Dark Side of Hollywood
- 2001: Schlock! The Secret History of American Movies
- 2008: Direct Your Own Damn Movie!
- 2009: Nightmares in Red, White and Blue
- 2010: With Great Power: The Stan Lee Story
- 2011: UFOs, sex and monsters - Roger Corman's wild cinema
- 2011: Produce Your Own Damn Movie!
Awards & honors
- 1966: Nominated for "Wild Angels", Venice Film Festival
- 1984: Winner of the "Presidents Award", Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films
- 1988: Winner of the "Life Career Award", Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films
- 1990: Winner of the Lifetime Achievement Award, Stockholm Film Festival
- 1991: Walk of Fame
- 1992: Nominated for "Frankenstein Unbound", Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films
- 1996: Winner of Career Achievement Award, Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards
- 1996: Winner of the Lifetime Achievement Award, Raindance Film Festival
- 1997: Winner of the "Filmmaker of the Year" award, American Cinema Editors
- 1997: Lifetime Achievement Award Winner, Casting Society of America
- 1997: Lifetime Achievement Award winner, Florida Film Festival
- 1998: Winner of the "Time-Machine Honorary Award", Sitges - Catalonian International Film Festival
- 1999: Winner of the Lifetime Achievement Award, Bram Stoker Awards
- 1999: Winner of the "Independent Filmmaker Award", Malibu Film Festival
- 2004: Winner of the "Independent Spirit Award", Empire Awards
- 2004: Winner of the "Governors' Award", Society of Camera Operators
- 2005: Lifetime Achievement Award Winner, New York City Horror Film Festival
- 2006: Lifetime Achievement Award Winner, PGA Awards
- 2007: Winner of the "Eyegore Award", Eyegore Awards
- 2009: Fangoria Horror Hall of Fame, Fangoria Chainsaw Awards
- 2009: Winner of the "Auteur Award", Satellite Awards
- 2010: Award for his commitment to the film industry, Academy Awards
- 2010: Lifetime Achievement Award winner, Louisville Fright Night Film Fest
- 2012: Winner of the "Silver Medallion Award", Telluride Film Festival
- 2014: Lifetime Achievement Award winner, Hawaii International Film Festival
- 2014: Winner of the "Legend Award", New Media Film Festival
- 2014: Winner of the "Bronze Award" for "Fist of the Dragon", WorldFest Houston
- 2016: 2nd place for "Fist of the Dragon", Action on Film International Film Festival
Autobiography
- How I Made A Hundred Movies in Hollywood and Never Lost a Dime. (together with Jim Jerome). 239 pp., Da Capo Press, New York 1998. ISBN 0-306-80874-9 .
literature
- Konstantin Kaminsky: The Voices of the Cosmos. Electronic Synthesis of Special Sound Effects in Soviet vs. American Science Fiction Movies from Sputnik 1 to Apollo 8. In: D. Zacharin, N. Meise (Ed.): Electrified Voices: Medial, Socio-Historical and Cultural Aspects of Voice Transfer. V&R, Göttingen 2013, ISBN 978-3-8471-0024-9 , pp. 273-290.
- Usch Kiausch: Fantastic results. A conversation with Roger Corman. In: Wolfgang Jeschke (Ed.): The Science Fiction Year 1994. Heyne, Munich, ISBN 3-453-07245-6 , pp. 373-380.
- Mark Thomas McGee: Roger Corman. The Best of the Cheap Acts. McFarland, London 1997, ISBN 0-306-80874-9 .
- Alan Frank: The Films of Roger Corman. "Shooting My Way Out of Trouble". BT Batsford, London 1998, ISBN 0-713-48272-9 .
- Robert Zion: Roger Corman. In: Encyclopedia of Fantastic Films. Corian, Meitingen, ISBN 3-89048-400-X .
Web links
- Roger Corman in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Roger Corman in the Internet Speculative Fiction Database (English)
- “Get out of here, as fast as you can!” - Interview with Katja Nicodemus in der Zeit , December 31, 2008, No. 2
- You don't need money for thoughts - Interview on taz.de, 2013
- English-language essay on the work of Roger Corman
- Tales Of Terror & Technicolor: Roger Corman's Poe Films
- Benjamin Maack: B-Movie King Corman: Sex, violence and superstars at one day
Individual evidence
- ↑ The Fantastic Four
- ↑ cf. Bacall, Calley, Corman and Willis to Receive Academy's Governors Awards at oscars.org, September 10, 2009 (accessed September 11, 2009)
- ↑ Take a Trip to Corman's World on Blu-ray and DVD this March
- ↑ sf-fan.de
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Corman, Roger |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American independent film producer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | April 5, 1926 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Detroit , Michigan , United States |