Connect with us

News

“Roar”: The Most Dangerous Film Ever Made

Published

on

 

Drafthouse Films and Olive Films are re-releasing the cult hit and rarely seen 1981 movie “Roar” in theaters on April 17. “Roar” has been touted as a movie like no other, and one that will never be made again. The tagline reads, “No animals were harmed in the making of this picture, 70 cast and crew members were”.

[iframe id=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/9RmnuHTJI9U”]

The movie follows estranged wife Madelaine (Tippi Hedren) who visits her husband (Noel Marshall); a man living on a refuge with a menagerie of wild beasts. These animals include tigers, elephants, leopards and cheetahs. She arrives at the sanctuary with her 3 children (A young Melanie Griffith among them), but her husband is nowhere to be found, instead she is met by a pride of lions and untamed beasts.

The intrigue of “Roar” is that it was even made in the first place. Produced by Noel Marshall (“The Exorcist”), the movie is filled with cringe-worthy shadenfruede, which depicts animal attacks and maulings. The problem is, some of these altercations are real. Although this movie is a big-budget Hollywood production, it could also be viewed as a documentary of sorts. The concept was to let the cats interact naturally with the cast and crew. But these animals aren’t predictable; at 8 feet long and up to 400 pounds these cats act purely on improvisation.

https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-gIKo7Me2lrA/ULoc9WJ6jkI/AAAAAAAAMes/tgFzqT079JE/s400/roar+crowd.jpg

Photo credit: Drafthouse Pictures

 

 

 

 

Of the blood shed on the set: Hedren was injured from a bite wound, which wasn’t edited out for the movie. Producer Noel Marshall was hospitalized for a very terrifying lion attack, and a young Cinematographer named Jon De Bont (Speed, The Haunting) was scalped during filming and needed 120 stitches. Assistant Director Doran Kauper was bitten in the throat during a take and it almost cost him his life. Melanie Griffin (Hedren’s real-life daugher) suffered such a major laceration, it required plastic surgery.

Photo credit: Drafthouse Pictures

 

Tim League, CEO of Drafthouse Films, has written an essay about the film, the cast, and the constant disasters that plagued the picture. His essay titled “The Grandeur of Roar” describes animal professional’s reaction to Hedren’s and Marshall’s pitch for the film, “Upon approaching animal trainers for support, they were told their idea was a suicide mission and were dismissed as ‘brainsick’ and ‘completely and utterly insane.’“ League writes.

Jon De Bont suffered a lion's mauling during "Roar"

Jon De Bont suffered a lion’s mauling during “Roar”. Photo credit: Drafthouse Pictures

 

 

IMDb reports that the animal attacks in “Roar” are real. Over 150 cats were used in the film, the crew had to remain behind safety cages and protective barriers, but sometimes that wasn’t enough. Leagues’ article says that Hedren and Marshall had been breeding the lions in their Beverly Hills home until it became too small and they moved to a ranch north of Los Angeles and began shooting “Roar”.

Despite the danger of working with such unpredictable wildlife, Mother Nature also took its toll on the production. The Southern California filming location suffered Wildfires and a flood, killing some of the cats and bringing production to a halt. The problems were so severe the movie took 11 years to complete.

Utterly Terrifying ROAR, Starring Tippi Hedren & Melanie Griffith, Joins Pride Of Drafthouse Films

Photo credit: Drafthouse Pictures

 

Variety has called “Roar” the “most disaster-plagued film in the history of Hollywood.”

Tippi Hedren has been quoted as saying,”This was probably one of the most dangerous films that Hollywood has ever seen. It’s amazing no one was killed.”

Recent reviews of the film have compared it to what might be a bloody production of a Walt Disney film.

It’s like Walt Disney went insane and made a snuff version of SWISS FAMILY ROBINSON!” Hitflix

“Just watching it feels dangerous!” Movies.com

“Like watching a live-action Lion King as Mufasa holds a switchblade to your throat.” – Complex

The movie will have a theatrical re-release on April, 17, head over to Drafthouse Pictures for more details.

 

'Civil War' Review: Is It Worth Watching?

Click to comment

You must be logged in to post a comment Login

Leave a Reply

Movies

‘Evil Dead’ Film Franchise Getting TWO New Installments

Published

on

It was a risk for Fede Alvarez to reboot Sam Raimi’s horror classic The Evil Dead in 2013, but that risk paid off and so did its spiritual sequel Evil Dead Rise in 2023. Now Deadline is reporting that the series is getting, not one, but two fresh entries.

We already knew about the Sébastien Vaniček upcoming film that delves into the Deadite universe and should be a proper sequel to the latest film, but we are broadsided that Francis Galluppi and Ghost House Pictures are doing a one-off project set in Raimi’s universe based off of an idea that Galluppi pitched to Raimi himself. That concept is being kept under wraps.

Evil Dead Rise

“Francis Galluppi is a storyteller who knows when to keep us waiting in simmering tension and when to hit us with explosive violence,” Raimi told Deadline. “He is a director that shows uncommon control in his feature debut.”

That feature is titled The Last Stop In Yuma County which will release theatrically in the United States on May 4. It follows a traveling salesman, “stranded at a rural Arizona rest stop,” and “is thrust into a dire hostage situation by the arrival of two bank robbers with no qualms about using cruelty-or cold, hard steel-to protect their bloodstained fortune.”

Galluppi is an award-winning sci-fi/horror shorts director whose acclaimed works include High Desert Hell and The Gemini Project. You can view the full edit of High Desert Hell and the teaser for Gemini below:

High Desert Hell
The Gemini Project

'Civil War' Review: Is It Worth Watching?

Continue Reading

Movies

‘Invisible Man 2’ Is “Closer Than Its Ever Been” to Happening

Published

on

Elisabeth Moss in a very well-thought-out statement said in an interview for Happy Sad Confused that even though there have been some logistical issues for doing Invisible Man 2 there is hope on the horizon.

Podcast host Josh Horowitz asked about the follow-up and if Moss and director Leigh Whannell were any closer to cracking a solution to getting it made. “We are closer than we have ever been to cracking it,” said Moss with a huge grin. You can see her reaction at the 35:52 mark in the below video.

Happy Sad Confused

Whannell is currently in New Zealand filming another monster movie for Universal, Wolf Man, which might be the spark that ignites Universal’s troubled Dark Universe concept which hasn’t gained any momentum since Tom Cruise’s failed attempt at resurrecting The Mummy.

Also, in the podcast video, Moss says she is not in the Wolf Man film so any speculation that it’s a crossover project is left in the air.

Meanwhile, Universal Studios is in the middle of constructing a year-round haunt house in Las Vegas which will showcase some of their classic cinematic monsters. Depending on attendance, this could be the boost the studio needs to get audiences interested in their creature IPs once more and to get more films made based on them.

The Las Vegas project is set to open in 2025, coinciding with their new proper theme park in Orlando called Epic Universe.

'Civil War' Review: Is It Worth Watching?

Continue Reading

News

Jake Gyllenhaal’s Thriller ‘Presumed Innocent’ Series Gets Early Release Date

Published

on

Jake gyllenhaal presumed innocent

Jake Gyllenhaal’s limited series Presumed Innocent is dropping on AppleTV+ on June 12 instead of June 14 as originally planned. The star, whose Road House reboot has brought mixed reviews on Amazon Prime, is embracing the small screen for the first time since his appearance on Homicide: Life on the Street in 1994.

Jake Gyllenhaal’s in ‘Presumed Innocent’

Presumed Innocent is being produced by David E. Kelley, J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot, and Warner Bros. It is an adaptation of Scott Turow’s 1990 film in which Harrison Ford plays a lawyer doing double duty as an investigator looking for the murderer of his colleague.

These types of sexy thrillers were popular in the ’90s and usually contained twist endings. Here’s the trailer for the original:

According to Deadline, Presumed Innocent doesn’t stray far from the source material: “…the Presumed Innocent series will explore obsession, sex, politics and the power and limits of love as the accused fights to hold his family and marriage together.”

Up next for Gyllenhaal is the Guy Ritchie action movie titled In the Grey scheduled for release in January 2025.

Presumed Innocent is an eight-episode limited series set to stream on AppleTV+ starting June 12.

'Civil War' Review: Is It Worth Watching?

Continue Reading