Corman's World: Exploits of a Hollywood Rebel Page #6

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came out of my films

"the wild angels"

and "the trip."

Peter Fonda starred

in both pictures

and Dennis hopper

costarred in "the trip."

That whole thing

came from Roger to me--

take the establishment on.

And since they had never

made a picture,

they wanted me to be

the executive producer.

And I said, "fine."

And I took the idea to aip

because "the wild angels"

and "the trip"

had been very successful.

And in one

unfortunate meeting,

one of the executives at aip

said to Dennis,

"lf you fall more than one day

behind schedule,

we want the right

to replace you."

I could see that Dennis and Peter

were really mad.

Fonda:
And I said, "i can't

put that pressure on hoppy.

That's not fair."

And Roger agreed.

Corman:
And I said

to this executive,

"he worked perfectly with me

on 'the trip'

and I am positive

he can do this."

And that was not

a good thing to say.

A number of things happened

and the picture moved over

to Columbia.

And aip and I

lost our percentage

of the profits

on one of the most successful

independent pictures ever made.

Oh.

Oh, what am I gonna do now?

Nicholson:
When I went to cannes

with "easy rider"...

Oh, my head.

...my character

came on the screen

and the movie exploded

in that audience.

It just went ka-pow

like it does in rock 'n' roll.

I'm the only person

who ever in real life felt,

"holy sh*t,

I'm a movie star"--

do you know what I mean?

--And knew.

So that's what the change

felt like.

I experienced it right here.

Roger, if you paid me

over minimum,

you would have had

"easy rider."

Bogdanovich:
"Easy rider" was

the beginning of the new Hollywood.

It's hard to imagine

the new Hollywood

without Roger corman.

So many people started

with Roger--

Francis coppola

and Bobby de niro

and Jack Nicholson.

And the list goes on and on.

At the end of the '60s

Hollywood was so desperate.

They didn't know

what to do.

And the young

Roger corman alumni

were there to step

into the breach.

Dern:

Jack's career took off.

And Peter and Dennis

got deals

at universal

to make their movies.

Well, those are all offshoots

of the university of corman.

Roger was in a perfect position,

having discovered and cultivated

Francis coppola, bogdanovich,

so many other people like that.

I always wondered

why Roger couldn't take

that next step

with those guys.

You had to take that leap. You had to

go from high school to college

or you had to go from college

to grad school.

It was a jump

that Roger never really took.

And that's the one place

that Roger left out of his mix.

And that's why

he's constantly being insulted

by people calling him

the king of the bs, right?

Dante:
Roger was never

taken seriously.

He was a schlockmeister

and a guy who did drive-in movies.

He never really got his due,

i don't think.

I mean, even "the lntruder,"

which is one of his best pictures,

it was a movie that was hardly ever

seen anywhere when it came out.

Dern:
Every year

at the academy awards,

they give out

a lifetime achievement award.

How they can not have gotten

to Roger corman by now

is disgusting.

And I don't know that they ever will,

because they'd say,

"well, what are the great movies

he made?"

I guess this proves there are

as many nuts in the academy

as anywhere else.

Nicholson:
Ls Roger worried about

being underappreciated?

If he is, I'm going over there

tomorrow night.

Shark! Shark!

Help!

Cut, cut, cut.

Eli roth:
Roger corman isn't

doing it for the awards.

The fans recognize him.

The filmmakers recognize him.

We know who he is

and we appreciate him.

And I don't think he needs

some statue

from some organization that never

liked his movies in the first place

to come out and say,

"we love you."

Julie:
From my viewpoint,

everything is going extremely well.

Observing Roger, however, now

as actor/producer...

Kevin, you're aware they're putting

a mic on the girl who's not in the shot?

Maybe the kit should be

just a couple of inches there

so you don't step over it.

No, wait until

she comes here. Stop.

It'll be after they say "action!"

Because the camera's on her

and it's going to come around

and see...

Okay, and we're out of the shot.

He is always noticing

what needs to be fixed,

what is the problem,

but that's the nature of producing.

Okay, so I'm looking here.

And on action, you say,

"there's someone here to see you."

Man:

Rolling sound.

Paul w.S. Anderson: You would think

that a man who makes so many films

kind of doesn't really care

about each individual film,

but I think Roger

for each of his movies--

they're like his children,

you know.

And he loves

every single one of them.

And he's so engaged

in every single one of them.

And, you know, the last time

i had lunch with him,

you know, he had to hurry away

'cause he was going back

to the cutting room

of "minotaur."

And it's like,

"you know, Roger..."

They're really--

it's just way too much time

spent on iva.

They're working on her makeup

all the time.

Explain who she

should put it on.

They can't do this stuff

for every shot.

Mary woronov:
I'll never forget Julie.

She was, like, amazing.

She was talking about

redecorating her house.

And then she had a child in a crib.

She was raising children,

you know.

And here she was--

she was known

to do movies even cheaper

than Roger corman.

I mean, this woman

was amazing.

The first film that I produced,

i didn't think of it as producing.

I didn't put a name to it.

I just thought,

"oh, this needs to be organized."

Roger did sit with me

for about 45 minutes

and go through what's needed--

the cast,

the crew,

and what the positions were

and a way in which

to Shepherd production through.

But then I thought, "well, he'll be

there every day and I could--"

no, he wasn't

really available.

And there was

this sense I had of,

"he just thinks

i can do this?"

And then I just did it.

But he will recognize

in someone

that he thinks they can do

whatever it is.

And then he just walks away

and they do it.

Corman:
I first met Julie

when she answered an ad

for a job as my assistant.

I offered her the job.

She turned down the job,

but she agreed

to have dinner with me.

We began dating and we also

began working together.

Roger had by then

asked me to marry him

and I had said yes. And then he

went off to the Philippines

and I didn't hear

from him for a week.

So I was like,

"i wonder what that means."

So I called him and said,

"are we still getting married?"

He said, "oh, yes.

Did you pick a date?"

And I said,

"well, I was thinking of December

or maybe later

in the spring."

"Oh, definitely December.

Sooner-- better, right?"

I said, "okay.

L just wonder

why you didn't call me."

Well, he didn't call me because

it was a long-distance call,

so it wouldn't have

occurred to him.

But anyway, you know,

getting to know each other.

All right now, everybody, reach

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