Roger Corman’s Legacy by Janet L. Hetherington

With Piranha 3D making its theatrical debut on August 20, 2010, it seems fitting to revisit the low-budget films of legendary producer and director Roger Corman.

Corman’s films may have been B-list but they spawned a generation of A-list filmmakers – including Joe Dante (The Howling, Gremlins and Gremlins 2: The New Batch), who directed the original 1978 Piranha movie after a long apprenticeship at New World Pictures.

Both Corman and Dante were on hand at Comic-Con International in San Diego for a special panel to discuss Roger Corman’s Cult Classics. This is a line of new DVDs from Shout! Factory showcasing over 50 vintage Corman films – including Piranha, released on DVD and Blu-Ray on August 3, 2010.

“These were low-budget, non-union films for drive-in markets. Some other people were making these types of movies, but not quite as well,” Dante said.

Piranha (1978)

“Inspired” by the success of Jaws, Piranha tells the story of rookie skip-tracer Maggie McKeon (Heather Menzies) and booze-soaked river rat Paul Grogan (Bradford Dillman), who search for missing teen-agers and stumble upon a top-secret military laboratory conduction genetic research on piranha for the purpose of developing the most lethal form of biological warfare imaginable.

When the deadly eating machines are accidentally released from the compound, they head downstream, consuming everything in their path. With Paul and Maggie in hot pursuit, the piranhas’ next stop is the children’s summer camp — where Paul’s young daughter is vacationing — and then the newly opened, multi-million-dollar water resort.

Piranha enjoyed box-office success and became one of New World Pictures’ biggest worldwide hits. The movie was also well-received by critics, who appreciated its fast pacing, energetic cast, clever conspiracy satire, inventive special effects and ability to scare the audience.

Piranha won the Saturn Award for Best Editing (shared by Dante and Mark Goldblatt) and was nominated as Best Horror Film.

Mentor to Many

Roger Corman signing for fans at the San Diego Comic Con in July 2010

Like so many Roger Corman productions, Piranha served as a career springboard for many of its participants, including director Dante, screenwriter John Sayles (Lone Star, Passion Fish, Eight Men Out) and producer Jon Davison (Airplane!, Robocop and RoboCop 2). Future Academy Award-winner Rob Bottin (Total Recall, The Thing, Se7en) provided special makeup effects in what marked his first screen credit, and the visual effects team boasted not one, but two, future Oscar winners: Phil Tippett (Jurassic Park, Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back) and Chris Walas (The Fly, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Gremlins).

Other famed directors and actors who cut their teeth on Corman films include Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese, Jonathan Demme, James Cameron, Peter Bogdanovich, Jack Nicholson, Peter Fonda, Bruce Dern, Michael McDonald, Dennis Hopper, Robert De Niro, David Carradine and many more.

Joe Dante worked with Roger Coman on "Hollywood Boulevard" (1976)

“The people Roger hired all wanted to make movies,” Dante said. “I worked on a movie called Hollywood Boulevard. It was a three-girl formula that was made in 10 days. We used action scenes taken from other movies – space movies, car crashes, jungle scenes.

The girls were three actresses, and they worked for Miracle Pictures. It’s a miracle it got made!”

Corman began his film career in 1953 as a producer and screenwriter, and he began directing films in 1955. In his most active period, Corman would produce up to seven movies a year and often shot extremely quickly on sets from other larger productions. He shot the original version of The Little Shop of Horrors in two days and one night.

Corman is known for stressing the importance of budgeting and resourcefulness. “One thing you learned about Roger is you never reshoot,” commented editor, director and producer Allan Holzman.

“Like with Death Race 2000,we would shoot movies on less than you fill your gas tank,” Corman quipped.

 Corman retired from directing in 1971 to focus on production and distribution through his company New World/Concorde/New Horizons, making low-budget films and using the profits to distribute distinguished art films.

In 2009, Roger Corman received an Academy Award for Lifetime Achievement.

Roger Corman’s Cult Classics

Corman gems planned for release from Shout! Factory include:

12/7 – Crazy Mama / The Lady In Red [Double Feature]

12/7 – Big Bad Mama / Big Bad Mama II [Double Feature]

11/16 – Streets / Angel In Red [Double Feature]

11/2 – Not Of This Earth (1988)

11/2 – The Terror Within / Dead Space [Double Feature]

10/19 – The Warrior And The Sorceress / Barbarian Queen [Double Feature]

10/5 – The Evil / Twice Dead [Double Feature]

10/5 – The Slumber Party Massacre Collection

9/14 – Starcrash (DVD & Blu-ray)

8/3 – Death Sport/Battle Truck [Double Feature]

8/3 – Humanoids From The Deep (DVD & Blu-Ray)

8/3 – Piranha (DVD & Blu-Ray)

7/20 – Galaxy Of Terror (DVD & Blu-Ray)

7/20 – Forbidden World (Blu-ray/DVD Combo)

6/22 – Death Race 2000 (DVD & Blu-Ray)

5/11 – Rock ‘N’ Roll High School (DVD & Blu-ray)

5/4 – Suburbia

 Janet L. Hetherington is a writer, screenwriter and graphic storyteller. She is a pop culture addict who shares a studio in Ottawa, Canada, with artist Ronn Sutton and a ginger cat, Heidi.  For more of Janet’s musings make visit @ Best Destiny

POP CULTURE ADDICT NOTE:  For more on Roger Corman be sure to check out PCA’s own interview with him at http://popcultureaddict.com/close/rogercorman/