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Roger Corman

March 20, 2023

Roger William Corman (born April 5, 1926)[3] is an American film director, producer, and actor.[4][5] Known under various monikers such as "The Pope of Pop Cinema", "The Spiritual Godfather of the New Hollywood", and “The King of Cult”, he is known as a trailblazer in the world of independent film.[6] Many of Corman's films are based on works that have an already-established critical reputation, such as his cycle of low-budget cult films adapted from the tales of Edgar Allan Poe.[7]

Roger Corman
Corman in Hollywood, 2012
Born
Roger William Corman

(1926-04-05) April 5, 1926 (age 96)
Detroit, Michigan, U.S.
Alma materStanford University (BS, Industrial Engineering, 1947)[1]
Occupations
  • Film director
  • producer
  • actor
Years active1954–present
Organizations
Known for
Spouse
​
(m. 1970)​
Children4
RelativesGene Corman (brother)
Awards
Honours

In 1964, Corman—admired by members of the French New Wave and Cahiers du Cinéma—became the youngest filmmaker to have a retrospective at the Cinémathèque Française,[8] as well as in the British Film Institute and the Museum of Modern Art. He was the co-founder of New World Pictures, the founder of New Concorde and is a longtime member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.[9] In 2009, he was awarded an Honorary Academy Award[10] "for his rich engendering of films and filmmakers".[11]

Corman is also famous for distributing in the U.S. many foreign directors, such as Federico Fellini (Italy), Ingmar Bergman (Sweden), François Truffaut (France) and Akira Kurosawa (Japan). He mentored and gave a start to many young film directors such as Francis Ford Coppola,[12] Ron Howard,[13] Martin Scorsese,[14] Jonathan Demme,[15] Peter Bogdanovich,[16] Joe Dante,[17] John Sayles,[18] and James Cameron,[19][20] and was highly influential in the New Hollywood filmmaking movement of the 1960s and 1970s.[21][22] He also helped to launch the careers of actors like Peter Fonda,[23] Jack Nicholson,[19] Dennis Hopper,[18] Bruce Dern,[24] Diane Ladd,[25] and William Shatner.[26] Corman has occasionally taken minor acting roles in the films of directors who started with him, including The Silence of the Lambs,[27] The Godfather Part II,[28] Apollo 13,[29] The Manchurian Candidate,[30] and Philadelphia.[31]

A documentary about Corman's life and career entitled Corman's World: Exploits of a Hollywood Rebel, directed by Alex Stapleton, premiered at the Sundance and Cannes Film Festivals in 2011. The film's TV rights were picked up by A&E IndieFilms after a well-received screening at Sundance.[32]

Early life

Corman was born in Detroit, Michigan, the son of Anne (née High) and William Corman, an engineer.[33] His younger brother, Gene, produced numerous films, sometimes in collaboration with Roger.[33] Corman and his brother were raised Catholic.[34]

Corman went to Beverly Hills High School and then to Stanford University to study industrial engineering. While at Stanford, Corman realized he did not want to be an engineer. He enlisted in the V-12 Navy College Training Program with six months of study to complete. After serving in the United States Navy from 1944 to 1946, he returned to Stanford to finish his degree, receiving a Bachelor of Science in industrial engineering in 1947.[1] While at Stanford University, Corman was initiated in the fraternity Sigma Alpha Epsilon.

In 1948, he worked briefly at U.S. Electrical Motors on Slauson Avenue in Los Angeles, but his career in engineering lasted only four days; he began work on Monday and quit on Thursday, telling his boss "I've made a terrible mistake."[35] Gene Corman was already working in the film industry as an agent, and Roger decided to go into filmmaking instead.[citation needed]

Early film career

Corman found work at 20th Century Fox initially in the mail room. He worked his way up to a story reader. The one property that he liked the most and provided ideas for was filmed as The Gunfighter with Gregory Peck. When Corman received no credit at all, he left Fox and decided he would work in film by himself. Under the G.I. Bill, Corman studied English literature at Oxford University and lived in Paris for a time.

 
Corman in 2006

He then returned to Los Angeles and tried to re-establish himself in the film industry. He took various jobs, including television stagehand at KLAC and a messenger at Fox. He worked as an assistant to agent Dick Hyland, a literary agent.[36]

Highway Dragnet

Corman wrote a script in his spare time and sold it to William F. Broidy at Allied Artists for $2,000. "Dick thought it was funny and let me pay myself a commission," said Corman.[37] Originally called House in the Sea, it was retitled Highway Dragnet (1953) and starred Richard Conte and Joan Bennett. Corman also worked as associate producer on the film for nothing, just for the experience.

Producer

Corman used his script fee and personal contacts to raise $12,000 to produce his first feature, a science-fiction film, Monster from the Ocean Floor (1954). It was produced by Corman's own company, Palo Alto, and released by Robert L. Lippert.

The film did well enough to encourage Corman to produce another film, the racing-car thriller The Fast and the Furious (1955), directed by its star, John Ireland, and co-starring Dorothy Malone. Decades later, producer Neal H. Moritz and Universal Pictures licensed the title for the 2001 franchise-launching film, The Fast and the Furious. Moritz had difficulty choosing between proposed titles Racer X, Redline, Race Wars, and Street Wars, and was inspired by a documentary on American International Pictures that included Corman's film. Moritz was able to trade the use of some stock footage to Corman for use of the title.[38]

Corman sold the movie to a new independent company, the American Releasing Company (ARC), run by James H. Nicholson and Samuel Z. Arkoff. Although Corman had a number of offers for the film from Republic and Columbia, he elected to go with ARC because they undertook to advance money to enable him to make two more movies.

Director

Corman's second film for ARC was one he decided to direct, Five Guns West (1955), a Western, made in color for around $60,000, with Malone and John Lund.[39] The script was written by Robert Wright Campbell, who worked with Corman on several more occasions.

Corman announced he would make four more projects for ARC: High Steel, Cobra, Fortress Beneath the Sea, and an untitled film from Campbell.[40] Instead, Corman did some uncredited directing on The Beast with a Million Eyes (1955), then made another Western, Apache Woman (1955), starring Lloyd Bridges, written by Lou Rusoff. Rusoff and Corman reunited on Day the World Ended (1955), a postapocalyptic science-fiction film, which was popular.

Corman was to make The Devil on Horseback by Charles B. Griffith about the Brownsville Raid,[41] but it was too expensive.

The Woolner Brothers, Louisiana drive-in owners, financed Corman's Swamp Women (1956), a girls-on-the-lam saga.

He returned to ARC for two Westerns, The Oklahoma Woman (1956) and Gunslinger (1956) (with Ireland); Gunslinger was co-written by Griffith, who became a crucial collaborator with Corman over the next five years. He bought a script from Curtis Harrington, The Girl from Beneath the Sea.[42] Harrington made it for Corman years later as Night Tide (1961).

Beverly Garland, one of Corman's early regular stock players, recalled working with him:

Roger made us work hard and long, I remember that! He was always fascinating to me, a fascinating man – and a good businessman! He had such incredible energy, it was tremendous – he was a dynamo to be around. I always knew he was going to be a huge success because there was no stopping him. He just made up his mind that he was going to be a success and that was it. [43]

American International Pictures and Allied Artists

 
Drive-in advertisement from 1957 featuring the double feature, Attack of the Crab Monsters and Not of This Earth. Corman films were popular on the drive-in circuit, and were generally marketed towards a teenage audience.[44]

ARC changed its name to American International Pictures. Corman was established as their leading filmmaker. They financed Corman's next film as director, the science-fiction story It Conquered the World (1956). Co-written by Griffith, it was a follow-up to The Day the World Ended. It was a big hit.

He optioned a TV play The Stake and hoped to get Dana Andrews to star.[45] It was never made. Instead, Walter Mirisch of Allied Artists hired Corman to make The Undead (1957), inspired by The Search for Bridey Murphy. Griffith wrote the script.

In June, Corman made a science-fiction film for Allied Artists, Not of this Earth (1957), written by Griffith.

In August 1956, AIP financed a Corman heist movie shot in Hawaii, Naked Paradise (1957), co-written by Griffith. Corman shot it back-to-back with a movie made with his own money, She Gods of Shark Reef (1958) – Corman wound up selling the movie to AIP.

Corman and Griffith reunited in Attack of the Crab Monsters (1957) for Allied, which wound up being one of his most successful early films.[46]

For his own production company, Corman made a rock-and-roll "quickle", Carnival Rock (1957), released by Howco. Rock All Night (1957) was a heist film written by Griffith expanded from a TV play, "The Little Guy", with musical acts inserted.[47]

He was meant to make Rock'n'Roll Girl for AIP in December 1957.[48]

In April 1957, Corman announced he would try to make two films back-to-back from then on to save costs.[49]

Corman made two "teen girl noirs", Teenage Doll (1957) for the Woolner Brothers and Sorority Girl (1957), starring Susan Cabot for AIP.[50]

For AIP, he made The Saga of the Viking Women and Their Voyage to the Waters of the Great Sea Serpent (1957), shot in August 1957.[51] He was meant to follow this with Teenage Jungle by Tony Miller.[52]

The success of Not of this Earth and Crab Monsters led to Allied offering Corman a four-picture deal for 1958.[53]

Machine Gun Kelly and producing

Corman received his first serious critical praise for Machine-Gun Kelly (1958), an AIP biopic of the famous gangster, which gave Charles Bronson his first leading role and co-starred Cabot. Campbell wrote the script.

Also for AIP, he did Teenage Caveman (1958), with Robert Vaughn, originally titled Prehistoric World.

He helped produce two films for Allied Artists, both from scripts by Leo Gordon: Hot Car Girl (1958), directed by Bernard Kowalski and produced by his brother Gene (the first film they made together) from a script by Gordon; and The Cry Baby Killer (1958), which gave Jack Nicholson his first starring role.

He had his biggest budget yet for I Mobster (1958), a gangster story, co-produced by Edward L. Alperson and Corman's brother Gene for 20th Century Fox. In September 1958, he was reported as scouting locations in Australia to do a remake of H. Rider Haggard's She.[54]

War of the Satellites (1958) was conceived and shot in record time to take advantage of the Sputnik launch; it was his first collaboration with art director Daniel Haller.

Corman also produced, but did not direct, Stakeout on Dope Street (1958), directed by Irvin Kershner, Night of the Blood Beast (1958), directed by Kowalski for AIP, using leftover costumes from Teenage Caveman, and Crime and Punishment U.S.A. (1959), directed by Dennis Sanders with George Hamilton in his first lead role.

The Filmgroup

 
Barboura Morris and Susan Cabot in a scene from The Wasp Woman (1959)

In January 1959, Corman announced he would be moving into distribution.[55]

In 1959, Corman founded The Filmgroup with his brother Gene, a company producing or releasing low-budget black-and-white films as double features for drive-ins and action houses.[56] In February 1959, Filmgroup announced they would release 10 films. Their first movies were High School Big Shot (1959) and T-Bird Gang (1959) produced by Stanley Bickman.[57]

Roger seemed a driven man. Roger wanted to accomplish a lot, he had to have a lot of drive to do it, and he pushed through. He not only pushed through, he punched through! With a lot of energy, and a lot of disregard at times... What we did for Roger Corman – I mean, things that you could never do in a real studio, but you did for this guy! Everything seemed unreal with him. [58]
– Susan Cabot

For AIP, Corman and Griffith made a black comedy, A Bucket of Blood (1959). Corman announced he would follow it with a similar comedy, The Bloodshot Private Eye.[59] It does not seem to have been made. Instead, Griffith reused the same script structure and Corman employed many of the same cast in The Little Shop of Horrors (1960). This film was reputedly shot in two days and one night.[60]

For Filmgroup, Corman directed The Wasp Woman (1959), starring Cabot from a script by Gordon. His brother and he made two films back-to-back in South Dakota: Ski Troop Attack (1960), a war movie written by Griffith and directed by Corman, and Beast from Haunted Cave (1959), the first film directed by Monte Hellman.

Corman went to Puerto Rico and produced another two films back-to-back: Battle of Blood Island (1960), directed by Joel Rapp, and Last Woman on Earth (1960), directed by Corman from a script by Robert Towne. Filming on these two films went so quickly that Corman commissioned Griffith to write a third, which was shot at the same time: Creature from the Haunted Sea (1961).

Corman was going to make Part Time Mother from a script by Griffith[61] but it appears to have never been made.

House of Usher

AIP wanted Corman to make two horror films for them, in black and white, at under $100,000 each on a 10-day shooting schedule. Corman, however, was tired of making films on this sort of budget and was worried the market for them was in decline. He proposed making a film in colour for $200,000, shot over 15 days. Corman proposed an adaptation of "The Fall of the House of Usher" by Edgar Allan Poe and AIP agreed. The film was announced in May 1959.[62]

Richard Matheson was hired to do the adaptation and Vincent Price was brought in to star; Haller did the art direction. The resulting film, House of Usher (1960), shot in early 1960, was a critical and commercial hit.

Following this, Corman bought two scripts, Sob Sisters Don't Cry and Cop Killer.[63] In March 1960, Corman announced that Filmgroup would be part of an international production group, Compass Productions.[64] He directed a peplum in Greece, Atlas (1961) in August.

He was going to direct a thriller from a script by Robert Towne, I Flew a Spy Plane Over Russia.[65] It was not made; neither were two comedies he was to make with Dick Miller and Jon Haze, Murder at the Convention[66] and Pan and the Satyrs.[67]

House of Usher had been so successful that AIP wanted a follow-up, and Corman, Haller, Matheson and Price reunited on The Pit and the Pendulum (1961). It was another sizeable hit, and the "Poe cycle" of films was underway.

Corman hired Charles Beaumont to write Masque of the Red Death and announced two films, Captain Nemo and the Floating City[68] and House of Secrets.[69]

The Intruder

Following The Pit and the Pendulum, Corman directed one of William Shatner's earliest appearances in a lead role with The Intruder (a.k.a. The Stranger, 1962). Based on a novel by Charles Beaumont, the film was co-produced by Gene Corman and was shot in July and August 1961.[70] It took a while for the film to be released and it lost money.[71]

Corman was unhappy with his profit participation on the first two Poe films, so he made a third adaptation for different producers, The Premature Burial (1962), written by Charles Beaumont and starring Ray Milland. The film was co-financed by Pathe labs; AIP put pressure on Pathe and ended up buying out their interest.

For producer Edward Small, Corman made a historical horror piece about Richard III, Tower of London (1962), starring Vincent Price. It was meant to be the first in a three-picture deal with Small, but Corman did not enjoy working with the producer.

For Filmgroup, he also bought the rights to a Soviet science-fiction film, Nebo Zovyot (1959) and had some additional footage shot for it by his then-assistant, Francis Ford Coppola; the result was Battle Beyond the Sun (1962). He also released The Magic Voyage of Sinbad (1962), dubbed from a Soviet film.

The fourth Poe was an anthology, Tales of Terror (1962), shot in late 1961. One of the installments, "The Black Cat", was a comedy, inspiring Corman to do a whole Poe story comedically next: The Raven (1963). Later, Corman used the sets for that film for The Terror (1963), made for Filmgroup but released by AIP, and starring Boris Karloff (whose scenes were all shot in two days) and Jack Nicholson. Corman did not direct all of this film; additional scenes were shot by Monte Hellman, Coppola, and Jack Hill, among others.

The Young Racers (1963) was produced and directed by Corman in Europe for AIP, starring and written by Campbell. Working on the film was Francis Ford Coppola, whom Corman financed to make his directorial debut, Dementia 13 (1963).

Back in the U.S., Corman made X: The Man with the X-ray Eyes (1963), a contemporary science-fiction film for AIP starring Ray Milland. He followed it with The Haunted Palace (1963), ostensibly part of the Poe cycle—it featured Price and was made for AIP, written by Beaumont—but was actually based on a story by H. P. Lovecraft.

Corman directed a war film in Yugoslavia with his brother, The Secret Invasion (1964), with Stewart Granger and Mickey Rooney, from a script by Campbell. Following this, he announced he would make The Life of Robert E. Lee as part of a four-picture deal with Filmgroup worth $3.75 million. Other movies were Fun and Profit by Joel Rapp, The Wild Surfers by John Lamb, and Planet of Storms by Jack Hill.[72] None of these films was made, nor was The Gold Bug, a Poe adaptation written by Griffith.[73]

End of the Poe cycle and filming in Europe

Corman made two Poes in England starring Price, the much-delayed The Masque of the Red Death (1964), with Campbell rewriting Beaumont's scripts, and The Tomb of Ligeia (1965), from a script by Robert Towne. Corman made no further Poes; AIP started up a fresh Poe cycle in the late 1960s, but Corman was not part of it.

Corman got Towne to write a script called The Red Baron.[74] He bought the rights to another Soviet science-fiction film, Planeta Bur (1962), and had some additional footage added to it by Curtis Harrington. The result was Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet (1965). Harrington used footage from Planeta Bur in another film financed by Corman, Queen of Blood (1966).

He also bought the rights to a Yugoslavian film, Operation Titan (1963), and financed additional shooting by Jack Hill and Stephanie Rothman. The result was Blood Bath (1966). He also had an investment in the beach party films Beach Ball (1965) and It's a Bikini World (1967).

Working for major studios

Corman said, "For ten years as an independent I could get financing for $100-$200-$300,000 pictures. Everything had been interesting, artistically satisfying, economically satisfying. But I decided I was going nowhere and wanted to move directly into the business. So I accepted a contract with Columbia."[75]

In August 1965, Corman announced he had signed a contract with United Artists to make two films over three years. He also signed with Columbia to make a Western, The Long Ride Home, based on a script by Robert Towne.[76]

He was announced for a number of other projects at Columbia: the biopic of Robert E. Lee, an adaptation of Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, an adaptation of Kafka's The Penal Colony, and a script by novelist Richard Yates about the Battle of Iwo Jima.[77][78] He intended to make The Deserters for UA, from a script by Wright, but that was not made either.[79]

He later reflected, "Every idea I submitted was considered too strange, too weird; every idea they had seemed too ordinary to me. Ordinary pictures don't make money."[75]

The Wild Angels

After a year of not directing, Corman took a leave of absence under his contract with Columbia to make a film for AIP, the first biker movie, The Wild Angels. It starred Peter Fonda and Nancy Sinatra, from a script by Griffith; Peter Bogdanovich worked as Corman's assistant. The film opened the 1966 Venice Film Festival and was hugely successful at the box office, making over $6 million on a $350,000 budget and kicking off the "biker movie" cycle.[80]

He wanted to make a film about the Red Baron, but Columbia turned it down because of The Blue Max (1966). He proposed a movie about the St Valentine's Day Massacre and also an adaptation of the novel Only Lovers Left Alive.[75] Nick Ray was meant to be making Only Lovers in Britain.

Corman did begin directing Long Ride Home with Glenn Ford at Columbia. However, Corman left production a few weeks into the shoot in June 1966 and was replaced by Phil Karlson.[81] The film was retitled A Time for Killing (1967).

Corman received an offer to direct a studio film,The St. Valentine's Day Massacre (1967), for 20th Century Fox, starring Jason Robards and George Segal. He did not enjoy the restrictions of working for a major studio. He was given a $2.5 million budget and made it for $400,000 less.[82] Corman, an independent director, was most comfortable in his own style: shoestring budgets and shooting schedules measured in days, rather than weeks. Nonetheless, it is generally considered one of his best films as a director.

Corman was meant to follow this with Robert E. Lee for United Artists at a budget of $4.5 million.[75] It was not made. Neither was a story Corman optioned, The Spy in the Vatican.[83]

Return to independence

 
Corman on the set of The Trip (1967)

He continued to finance films for Filmgroup: Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet (1965), dubbing a Soviet movie Planeta Bur into English with some additional footage shot by Curtis Harrington, Queen of Blood (1966), using some Soviet footage but a mostly new film, directed by Harrington, Blood Bath (1966), an adapted Yugoslavian film with additional footage shot by Stephanie Rothman and Jack Hill, and Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women (1967), yet another dubbed version of Planeta Bur with some additional footage shot by Corman's then-assistant Peter Bogdanovich.

He had money in Navy vs. the Night Monsters (1967). He financed two Westerns shot back to back in Utah directed by Monte Hellman and written and co-produced by Jack Nicholson, The Shooting (1967) and Ride in the Whirlwind (1967), which became cult successes.[84][83] He also financed two films directed by Dan Haller, Devil's Angels (1967), a follow-up to Wild Angels written by Griffith, and a car racing film shot in Europe, The Wild Racers (1968). He announced a comedy about the population explosion, There Just Isn't Any Room, but it appears to have never been made.[85]

Corman directed The Trip for AIP, written by Jack Nicholson and starring Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper and Bruce Dern. This began the psychedelic film craze of the late 1960s and was the American entry at Cannes that year.[86] AIP made some changes to the film in post-production, which made Corman unhappy.

In September 1967, he announced plans to build a new film studio.[87] However, this did not happen for a number of years.

Corman made a film for American TV, Target: Harry (1968), shot in Europe with his brother producing. He did some uncredited directing on AIP's De Sade (1969) when director Cy Endfield fell ill. He financed Bogdanovich's first feature, Targets (1968), which incorporated footage from The Terror. He also produced The Dunwich Horror (1970) for AIP, directed by Haller and co-written by Curtis Hanson, and financed Haller's Paddy.

Final films as director

For AIP, Corman returned to the director's chair for a gangster film, Bloody Mama (1970), starring Shelley Winters and a young Robert de Niro. It was a big hit at the box office. He also directed a black comedy, Gas-s-s-s (1970), written by George Armitage; it was cut without his permission by AIP and was a financial failure.

 
Roger Corman, Von Richthofen and Brown, 1970

United Artists finally agreed to finance his Red Baron project, although they asked that it emphasize American characters. Accordingly, it was filmed as Von Richthofen and Brown (1971), shot in Ireland in July 1970. There were several plane crashes during filming and one person died.[88]

Corman was going to make a film of Couples, a novel by John Updike for United Artists, and In from a script by Richard Schupe,[89] but decided to take a break from directing.

"Directing is very hard and very painful," he said in 1971. "Producing is easy. I can do it without really thinking about it."[90]

New World Pictures

In May 1970, Corman founded New World Pictures, which became a small independently owned production/distribution studio,[91] immediately successful with Angels Die Hard (1970), a biker film, and The Student Nurses (1971), directed by Rothman. The Big Doll House (1971), directed by Jack Hill in the Philippines, was a big hit, making a star of Pam Grier. The company made a profit of $3.2 million in its first financial year, and Corman says all eleven out of his first eleven films were successful.[92] Angels Die Hard led to a series of biker films, including Angels Hard as They Come (1971), produced by Jonathan Demme with Jack Fisk working as art director. Bury Me an Angel (1971) was the first biker movie directed by a woman, Barbara Peeters. Corman financed the directorial debuts of Curtis Hanson, Sweet Kill (1971), produced by Corman protege Tamara Asseyev. Student Nurses led to a "cycle" of nurse pictures, including Private Duty Nurses (the first film directed by George Armitage), Night Call Nurses (1972) (the first feature directed by Jonathan Kaplan), The Young Nurses and Candy Stripe Nurses (1975). There was also The Student Teachers (1973) and Summer School Teachers (1974). Big Doll House was followed by a series of women in prison pictures, such as Women in Cages (1972), The Hot Box (1972), Black Mama, White Mama (1973), The Arena (1974) (the first film directed by Steve Carver) and Caged Heat (1974) (the first film directed by Demme). Of New World's second year, Corman says 11 of the 12 releases were successful.[93] Corman produced one more film at AIP, Boxcar Bertha (1972), the second feature directed by Martin Scorsese, starring David Carradine. He also executive produced Unholy Rollers (1972) for AIP. A proposed political satire, The Wild Political Prank, was not made.[94] He made I Escaped from Devil's Island (1973) with his brother and produced Cockfighter (1974) with Monte Hellman, which was a rare financial failure for New World. A big hit was Big Bad Mama (1974), a gangster film directed by Carver and starring Angie Dickinson. It led to a follow-up, Crazy Mama (1975), produced by his wife and directed by Demme. In 1975, Corman said New World was "the most successful independent film company in the country...if you count AIP as a major". He said they were "the best of the cheap acts".[95]

Distributing foreign films

In the 1970s the major Hollywood studios were moving away from distributing foreign arthouse pictures, New World moved into the market and became the U.S. distributor for Cries and Whispers (1972), directed by Ingmar Bergman. Corman bought it for $75,000 and it earned over $2 million at the U.S. box office.[93][96] and Corman's distribution side of New World brought many foreign films to mass audiences in the U.S. for the first time - reportedly some played at drive-ins and grindhouses - including the works of François Truffaut (The Story of Adele H., Small Change), Peter Weir (The Cars That Ate Paris), Federico Fellini (Amarcord), Joseph Losey (The Romantic Englishwoman), Volker Schlöndorff (The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum, The Tin Drum) and Akira Kurosawa (Dersu Uzala). New World also released Fantastic Planet (1974).

In a 10-year period, New World Pictures won more Academy Awards for Best Foreign Film than all other studios combined.

20th Century Fox

He had a four-picture deal with 20th Century Fox, making Capone (1975), Fighting Mad (1976) (directed by Demme), Moving Violation (1976) and Thunder and Lightning (1977).

Peak of New World

Death Race 2000 (1975), written by Robert Thom and directed by Paul Bartel, was a big hit, earning $4 million.[97] It helped inspire a series of car chase movies: Cannonball (1976), directed by Bartel; Eat My Dust! (1976), directed by Griffith starring Ron Howard, which led to a follow-up, Grand Theft Auto (1978), Howard's directorial debut. There was also The Great Texas Dynamite Chase (1976), Deathsport (1978) and Smokey Bites the Dust (1981).

New World's trailers were cut by Joe Dante and Alan Arkush. Corman gave them the chance to direct together, with Hollywood Boulevard (1976), which used outtakes from other New World films. It was successful enough for Corman to give both men jobs directing features on their own: Dante with Piranha (1978) and Arkush with Rock 'n' Roll High School (1979).

Piranha was written by John Sayles, who had been discovered by Corman's story editor, Frances Doel. Sayles later wrote The Lady in Red (1979) for Corman, which was directed by Lewis Teague.

Other popular films around this time included Tidal Wave (1975), a Japanese film to which Corman added some extra footage, and Jackson County Jail (1976). He also financed I Never Promised You a Rose Garden.[98] Less popular was Avalanche (1979), a disaster film directed by Corey Allen.

For Universal he made Fast Charlie... the Moonbeam Rider (1979), directed by Carver. He financed Bogdanovich's Saint Jack (1979).

Corman was criticised when he insisted on the addition of footage featuring a rape for Humanoids from the Deep (1980).[99]

The success of Star Wars inspired New World's most expensive film yet, Battle Beyond the Stars (1981).[100] This film required extensive special effects, prompting Corman to buy a movie studio in Main Street Venice for $1.5 million.[101] Corman made a TV film for CBS, The Georgia Peaches (1980).

Battle Beyond the Stars was so successful Corman had its footage and music score reused in other films such as Galaxy of Terror (1981) and Forbidden World (1982).

He picked up a film called The Personals (1983) which enjoyed success.[102]

Millennium Films

Corman sold New World Pictures in January 1983 to a consortium of three lawyers for $16.9 million.[103]

Under the terms of the contract, he agreed to stay on as a consultant for two years and to provide New World with at least five films they could release. New World agreed to distribute all of Corman's films until March 1984. He set up a new production company, Millennium – the title of which was taken from the name of a 1981 retrospective of Corman's work at the National Film Theatre of London. He announced plans to make films budgeted between $2–5 million using cash from his sale of New World to finance personally. He announced an intention to make fewer commercial films, movies more like I Never Promised You a Rose Garden and Cries and Whispers.

Millennium's films included Space Raiders (1983), a science fiction epic using footage and music from Battle Beyond the Stars; Love Letters (1984), a serious drama from Amy Holden Jones; Screwballs (1984), a sex comedy in the vein of Porky's; Suburbia (1984), directed by Penelope Spheeris, which he acquired, Deathstalker; and Kain of Dark Planet (which became The Warrior and the Sorceress).[104]

New Horizons

Corman says people struggled with the name "Millennium" – "nobody could spell it, nobody knew what it meant" – so he changed it to New Horizons by early 1984.[105]

Corman and the new owners of New World ended up suing each other in March 1985. Corman claimed that New World failed to honor their guarantee to distribute his movies at a fee of 15%. He sought $400 million in damages and the return of the company. He said they refused to distribute School Spirit (1985) and Wheels of Fire. He also claimed that New World cheated him distributing Space Raiders, Screwballs and Slumber Party Massacre. New World sued Corman in return, claiming he was seeking to return to distribution, and was discrediting New World to potential investors. They said Corman bypassed New World for some of his films, such as Columbia's Hardbodies (1984). Corman argued "My whole point in selling was to free myself of the burden of running the company and to get guaranteed distribution. If I can't get my guaranteed distribution, I'm forced to go back to running the company."[106]

Concorde Pictures

The case with New World settled out of court. In March 1985 Corman announced he would establish a new distribution "cooperative", Concorde Pictures, where producers could get relatively cheap distribution from Concorde in exchange for contributing to the company's overhead. Their first releases were Corman productions School Spirit, Wheels of Fire and Barbarian Queen.[107] Concorde later merged with a low budget production company, Cinema Group, and announced plans to make 15-20 films a year.[108]

Early Concorde releases include Loose Screws (1985), a sequel to Screwballs; Streetwalkin' (1985), a more serious drama directed by Joan Freeman; Cocaine Wars (1986), the first in a series of movies Corman would finance in South America; Hour of the Assassin (1987), shot in Peru and the first film directed by Luis Llosa; and Munchies (1987), a spoof of Gremlins directed by Tina Hirsch.

Corman also remade Not of this Earth (1988) and released Big Bad Mama II (1987), and Transylvania Twist (1989); all three were directed by Jim Wynorski. He produced another version of Masque of the Red Death (1989), directed by Larry Brand.

He produced Sweet Revenge (1987), Slumber Party Massacre II (1988), directed by Deborah Brock, Andy Colby's Incredible Adventure (1988), also directed by Brock, and The Terror Within (1989), directed by Thierry Notz.

Corman financed the early directorial efforts of Carl Franklin (Nowhere to Run (1989)), Vargas Llosa and Katt Shea (Stripped to Kill (1988), Stripped to Kill II (1989)). More experimental was Nightfall (1988).

After Hour of the Assassin, he made a series of films in Peru, including Crime Zone (1989), also directed by Luis Llosa, and Full Fathom Five (1990), directed by Carl Franklin.

Concorde had a big hit with Bloodfist (1989), starring Don "the Dragon" Wilson which cost $1 million and earned over $6 million. Concorde signed Wilson to a long-term contract and he made a number of sequels for the company, including Bloodfist II and Fighting to Win.[109]

Frankenstein Unbound

He returned to directing once more with Frankenstein Unbound (1990).

Concorde and New Horizon in the 1990s

In 1990, Concorde sued MGM for $6 million.[110]

Concorde's films included Overexposed (1990), The Unborn (1991), and In the Heat of Passion (1992). They had a big hit with Carnosaur (1993), which led to several sequels. He financed Fire on the Amazon (1991, directed Luis Llosa) which had Sandra Bullock and Craig Sheffer in early roles.

Corman had to deal with the decline of the drive-in market and studio competition through the 1990s, but Concorde-New Horizons still made 15-24 pictures a year.[111] This included a never-released version of The Fantastic Four.

Roger Corman Presents

In 1995 Corman was executive producer on Roger Corman Presents, a special series of 13 movies for Showtime with budgets of around $1.5 million each. "I think the Corman name means action, humor and some titillation," says Mike Elliott, the producer of the series. "It's going to deliver the goods – and it will have a little moral statement in there as well."[112] Corman ended up doing a second season of 11 movies. The films were Bram Stoker's Burial of the Rats, Hellfire, Virtual Seduction, Suspect Device, Unknown Origin, Terminal Virus, Where Evil Lies, Vampirella, Shadow of a Scream, Subliminal Seduction, House of the Damned (a.k.a. Spectre), The Haunted Sea, Alien Avengers (a.k.a. Aliens Among Us) and its sequel, Inhumanoid, Sawbones, Not Like Us, and Last Exit to Earth. He created his own comic book franchise, Black Scorpion, which led to a sequel and later a TV series. Corman also executive-produced remakes of The Wasp Woman, Humanoids from the Deep, A Bucket of Blood (a.k.a. The Death Artist), Piranha and Not of this Earth.

Ireland

Concorde set up operations in Ireland as Concorde Anois, building studios in Connemara, County Galway.[113] He received some support from the Irish government, a decision which became controversial when the content of some Corman productions such as Criminal Affairs was criticized in the press.[114][115][116][117][113]

Later Concorde-New Horizons films included Overdrive (1997). "The genres still hold", said Corman in 1997, "action adventure, the suspense thriller, science fiction and horror. The difference is that they are bigger and better now. "[118]

Corman also produced the film Moving Target which was filmed in County Galway. It was his last film produced with Concorde-New Horizons.

Roger Corman's Cosmic Comics

Corman operated a short-lived comic book imprint in 1995–1996 called Roger Corman's Cosmic Comics. It produced comics based on his films, written and drawn in a similar no-hold-barred style. Titles included Bram Stoker's Burial of the Rats, Caged Heat 3000, Death Race 2020, Welcome to The Little Shop of Horrors, and Rock & Roll High School — the latter featuring the Melvins (instead of the Ramones).[119] Notable creators published by Cosmic Comics included Trevor Goring, James Kochalka, Jason Lutes, Pat Mills, Shane Oakley, Jerry Prosser, and J. R. Williams. The longest-running title was Death Race 2020, which lasted eight issues[120] — but was left unfinished when the company closed down.

Later career: Syfy Channel

He continued to produce creature films, such as Raptor (2001, dir Jim Wynorski). Dinocroc (2004), which aired on the Syfy cable television channel[121] and was popular enough for two sequels, Supergator and Dinocroc vs. Supergator (2010), as well as a spin-off film, Dinoshark (2010). Supergator (2007) was turned down by the Syfy channel, but Corman made it anyway.

Corman also continued to make action films: Escape from Afghanistan (2001) was a Russian film, Peshavar Waltz plus some additional footage; The Hunt for Eagle One (2006) and The Hunt for Eagle One: Crash Point (2006) were shot in the Philippines; Roger Corman's Operation Rogue (2014); Fist of the Dragon (2015).

In 2006 Corman said he made 60% of his films overseas. "These foreign countries are offering subsidies that are so great that not only I but many independent producers are moving overseas", he said.[122] He sold the remake rights of Death Race 2000 to Universal, who made Death Race (2008) with Jason Statham, with Corman credited as executive producer. It led to two direct-to-video prequels and one direct-to-video sequel.

In 2009, Corman produced and directed alongside director Joe Dante the web series "Splatter" for Netflix.[123] The protagonist of the film is portrayed by Corey Feldman,[124] and the story talks of the haunting tale of rock-and-roll legend Johnny Splatter.[125] He also started contributing trailer commentaries to Dante's web series Trailers from Hell.[126] In 2011, Corman cited James Cameron's Avatar (2009) and Christopher Nolan's Inception (2010) as examples of "great imagination and originality".[127]

By now, the SyFy channel was Corman's leading market. For them, he made Sharktopus (2010) and Piranhaconda (2012). Corman produced the 2017 film Death Race 2050, a sequel to the 1975 film Death Race 2000. It was made with Universal, Corman's first film with a major studio in more than two decades.[128]

Personal life

Corman married Julie Halloran in 1970.[129] They have four children.[130] On April 3, 2018, a lawsuit by Corman's sons, Roger Martin Corman and Brian Corman, was filed against Corman to prevent the trade of his film collection. It was settled in 2020.[131] In 2016, Corman also sued a wealth management company about suspected losses of his personal fortune. To date[when?], the result of that dispute has not been disclosed.[132]

Recognition

In 1964, Corman was the youngest producer/director to be given a retrospective at the Cinémathèque Française, as well as retrospectives at the British Film Institute and the Museum of Modern Art.

Corman won the Lifetime Achievement Award at Stockholm International Film Festival in 1990.

Corman was the subject of the 1978 documentary Roger Corman: Hollywood's Wild Angel, produced and directed by Christian Blackwood. Portions of the film reappeared in 2011's Corman's World.

In 1998, he won the first Producer's Award ever given by the Cannes Film Festival.

In 2006, Corman received the David O. Selznick Award from the Producers Guild of America. Also in 2006, his film Fall of the House of Usher was among the twenty-five movies selected for the National Film Registry, a compilation of significant films being preserved by the Library of Congress.

In 2009, The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awarded Corman with an Academy Honorary Award at the inaugural Governors Awards,[133] on November 14, 2009.[134]

In 2010, writer and actor Mark Gatiss interviewed Corman for his BBC documentary series A History of Horror, of which the second half of the second episode focuses on Corman.[135]

In 2010, Corman was inducted into the Beverly Hills High School Hall of Fame.

In 2012, Corman was honored with the Filmmaker on the Edge Award at the Provincetown International Film Festival.

In 2018, he received the "Extraordinary Contribution to Film" award at the Austin Film Festival.[136]

Archive

Film elements and prints for many movies directed, produced, and/or distributed by Corman are held at the Academy Film Archive as part of the New Horizons Collection.[137] The Academy Film Archive restored Corman's film The Masque of the Red Death in 2019.[138]

"The Corman Film School"

A number of noted filmmakers (including directors, producers, writers, and cinematographers) have worked with Corman, usually early in their careers, including Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese, Ron Howard, Polly Platt, Peter Bogdanovich, Declan O'Brien, Armondo Linus Acosta, Paul Bartel, Jonathan Demme, Donald G. Jackson, Gale Anne Hurd, Carl Colpaert, Joe Dante, James Cameron, John Sayles, Monte Hellman, Carl Franklin,[139] George Armitage, Jonathan Kaplan, George Hickenlooper, Curtis Hanson, Jack Hill, Robert Towne, Menahem Golan, James Horner, and Timur Bekmambetov. Many have said that Corman's influence taught them some of the ins and outs of filmmaking.[140] In the extras for the DVD of The Terminator, director James Cameron asserts, "I trained at the Roger Corman Film School." The British director Nicolas Roeg served as the cinematographer on The Masque of the Red Death.[141] Cameron, Coppola, Demme, Hanson, Howard and Scorsese have all gone on to win Academy Awards. Howard was reportedly told by Corman, "If you do a good job on this film, you'll never have to work for me again."

Actors who obtained their career breaks working for Corman include Jack Nicholson, Peter Fonda, Bruce Dern, Charles Bronson, Todd Field[142] Michael McDonald, Dennis Hopper, Tommy Lee Jones, Talia Shire, Sandra Bullock, Robert De Niro, and David Carradine, who received one of his first starring film roles in the Corman-produced Boxcar Bertha (1972) and went on to star in Death Race 2000 (along with Sylvester Stallone).

Many of Corman's protegés have paid their mentor homage by awarding him cameos in films, such as in The Godfather Part II,[143] The Silence of the Lambs,[144] Apollo 13,[140] and as recently as Demme's 2008 film Rachel Getting Married.

Name First Corman film Year Credited as
George Armitage Gas-s-s-s 1970 writer, associate producer, cast member
Paul Bartel Death Race 2000 1975 director
Timur Bekmambetov The Arena 2001
Peter Bogdanovich Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women 1968 director, cast member
James Cameron Battle Beyond the Stars 1980 art direction, visual effects
Francis Ford Coppola Battle Beyond the Sun 1962 director (scenes in American version)
Joe Dante Hollywood Boulevard 1976 co-director, editor
Jonathan Demme Angels Hard as They Come 1971 writer, producer
Todd Field Eye of the Eagle 2: Inside the Enemy 1989 actor
Carl Franklin 1989 actor, writer, director
Mark Goldblatt Eat My Dust! 1976 production assistant, associate editor
Curtis Hanson The Dunwich Horror 1970 co-writer
Monte Hellman Beast from Haunted Cave 1959 director
Jack Hill The Terror 1963 writer
James Horner The Lady in Red 1979 composer
Ron Howard Grand Theft Auto 1977 director, co-writer
Gale Anne Hurd Humanoids from the Deep 1980 production assistant
Janusz Kamiński Saturday the 14th Strikes Back 1988 gaffer, chief lighting technician, cinematographer
Jonathan Kaplan Night Call Nurses 1972 director, editor
Jack Nicholson The Little Shop of Horrors 1960 actor
Phedon Papamichael Dance of the Damned 1988 cinematographer
Nicolas Roeg The Masque of the Red Death 1964
John Sayles Piranha 1978 writer
Martin Scorsese Boxcar Bertha 1972 director
Katt Shea Stripped to Kill 1987 writer, director, cast member
Robert Towne Last Woman on Earth 1960 writer, cast member
Irvin Kershner Stakeout on Dope Street 1958 director, writer

Filmography

Main article: Roger Corman filmography

The IMDb credits Corman with 55 directed films and some 385 produced films from 1954 through 2008, many as uncredited producer or executive producer (consistent with his role as head of his own New World Pictures from 1970 through 1983). Corman also has significant credits as writer and actor.

Roger Corman's Cult Classics

In 2010, Roger Corman teamed up New Horizons Pictures with Shout! Factory to release new DVD and Blu-ray editions of Corman productions under the name Roger Corman's Cult Classics.[145][146] The releases have concentrated on 1970–1980s films he produced through New World rather than directed. These titles include Rock 'n' Roll High School, Death Race 2000, Galaxy of Terror, Forbidden World and Piranha, with additional titles continuing to be released.[147]

Books

  • Corman, Roger; Jerome, Jim (1990). How I Made a Hundred Movies in Hollywood and Never Lost a Dime. Random House. ISBN 978-0-394-56974-1. OCLC 840687965.
    • His autobiography documents his experiences in the film industry

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Further reading

  • Di Franco, J. Philip, The Movie World of Roger Corman (New York: Chelsea House, 1979)
  • Laroni, Giulio, Il cinema secondo Corman. Intervista allo scopritore di Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese, James Cameron (Milano: Biblion Edizioni, 2016)
  • Nasr, Constantine (ed.), Roger Corman: Interviews (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2011)
  • Price, Robert M., "Cormanghast: The Poe Films of Roger Corman". Parts 14 (November 1997), 3–14, 20.
  • Routt, William D. (1994). O'Regan, Tom; Miller, Toby (eds.). "Art, popular art". Continuum: The Australian Journal of Media & Culture. 7 (2). In 1990 Corman published an autobiography, written in collaboration with Jim Jerome, How I Made a Hundred Movies in Hollywood and Never Lost a Dime and thereby, unwittingly, joined my act.
  • Silver, Alain (2006). Roger Corman: Metaphysics on a Shoestring. Los Angeles: Silman-James Press.
  • Will, David and Willemen, Paul, Roger Corman: The Millennic Vision (Edinburgh: Edinburgh Film Festival, 1970)

External links

 
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Roger Corman.
 
Wikiquote has quotations related to Roger Corman.
  • interview at DBCult Film Institute
  • Roger Corman bibliography (via UC Berkeley)
  • Roger Corman at IMDb
  • Roger Corman biography on (re)Search my Trash
  • Roger Corman at Senses of Cinema
  • Roger Corman 1974 Interview
  • 2011 radio interview at The Bat Segundo Show
  • Interview with Roger Corman, accessed October 20, 2016.

March 20, 2023
roger, corman, roger, william, corman, born, april, 1926, american, film, director, producer, actor, known, under, various, monikers, such, pope, cinema, spiritual, godfather, hollywood, king, cult, known, trailblazer, world, independent, film, many, corman, f. Roger William Corman born April 5 1926 3 is an American film director producer and actor 4 5 Known under various monikers such as The Pope of Pop Cinema The Spiritual Godfather of the New Hollywood and The King of Cult he is known as a trailblazer in the world of independent film 6 Many of Corman s films are based on works that have an already established critical reputation such as his cycle of low budget cult films adapted from the tales of Edgar Allan Poe 7 Roger CormanCorman in Hollywood 2012BornRoger William Corman 1926 04 05 April 5 1926 age 96 Detroit Michigan U S Alma materStanford University BS Industrial Engineering 1947 1 OccupationsFilm directorproduceractorYears active1954 presentOrganizationsAcademy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Producers Guild of America New World Pictures New Concorde American International PicturesKnown forIt Conquered the World A Bucket of Blood The Little Shop of Horrors The Corman Poe Cycle X The Man with the X ray Eyes The Wild Angels The St Valentine s Day Massacre The TripSpouseJulie Corman m 1970 wbr Children4RelativesGene Corman brother AwardsEmpire Independent Spirit Award Telluride Silver Medallion Award SOC Governors Award Raindance Lifetime Achievement Award PGA Lifetime Achievement Award in Motion PicturesHonoursAcademy Honorary Award Saturn Life Career Award Sitges Time Machine Honorary Award Inkpot Award 2005 2 In 1964 Corman admired by members of the French New Wave and Cahiers du Cinema became the youngest filmmaker to have a retrospective at the Cinematheque Francaise 8 as well as in the British Film Institute and the Museum of Modern Art He was the co founder of New World Pictures the founder of New Concorde and is a longtime member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences 9 In 2009 he was awarded an Honorary Academy Award 10 for his rich engendering of films and filmmakers 11 Corman is also famous for distributing in the U S many foreign directors such as Federico Fellini Italy Ingmar Bergman Sweden Francois Truffaut France and Akira Kurosawa Japan He mentored and gave a start to many young film directors such as Francis Ford Coppola 12 Ron Howard 13 Martin Scorsese 14 Jonathan Demme 15 Peter Bogdanovich 16 Joe Dante 17 John Sayles 18 and James Cameron 19 20 and was highly influential in the New Hollywood filmmaking movement of the 1960s and 1970s 21 22 He also helped to launch the careers of actors like Peter Fonda 23 Jack Nicholson 19 Dennis Hopper 18 Bruce Dern 24 Diane Ladd 25 and William Shatner 26 Corman has occasionally taken minor acting roles in the films of directors who started with him including The Silence of the Lambs 27 The Godfather Part II 28 Apollo 13 29 The Manchurian Candidate 30 and Philadelphia 31 A documentary about Corman s life and career entitled Corman s World Exploits of a Hollywood Rebel directed by Alex Stapleton premiered at the Sundance and Cannes Film Festivals in 2011 The film s TV rights were picked up by A amp E IndieFilms after a well received screening at Sundance 32 Contents 1 Early life 2 Early film career 2 1 Highway Dragnet 2 2 Producer 2 3 Director 2 4 American International Pictures and Allied Artists 2 5 Machine Gun Kelly and producing 2 6 The Filmgroup 3 House of Usher 3 1 The Intruder 3 2 End of the Poe cycle and filming in Europe 4 Working for major studios 4 1 The Wild Angels 5 Return to independence 5 1 Final films as director 6 New World Pictures 6 1 Distributing foreign films 6 2 20th Century Fox 6 3 Peak of New World 7 Millennium Films 8 New Horizons 8 1 Concorde Pictures 8 2 Frankenstein Unbound 8 3 Concorde and New Horizon in the 1990s 8 4 Roger Corman Presents 8 5 Ireland 9 Roger Corman s Cosmic Comics 10 Later career Syfy Channel 11 Personal life 12 Recognition 13 Archive 14 The Corman Film School 15 Filmography 16 Books 17 References 18 Further reading 19 External linksEarly life EditCorman was born in Detroit Michigan the son of Anne nee High and William Corman an engineer 33 His younger brother Gene produced numerous films sometimes in collaboration with Roger 33 Corman and his brother were raised Catholic 34 Corman went to Beverly Hills High School and then to Stanford University to study industrial engineering While at Stanford Corman realized he did not want to be an engineer He enlisted in the V 12 Navy College Training Program with six months of study to complete After serving in the United States Navy from 1944 to 1946 he returned to Stanford to finish his degree receiving a Bachelor of Science in industrial engineering in 1947 1 While at Stanford University Corman was initiated in the fraternity Sigma Alpha Epsilon In 1948 he worked briefly at U S Electrical Motors on Slauson Avenue in Los Angeles but his career in engineering lasted only four days he began work on Monday and quit on Thursday telling his boss I ve made a terrible mistake 35 Gene Corman was already working in the film industry as an agent and Roger decided to go into filmmaking instead citation needed Early film career EditCorman found work at 20th Century Fox initially in the mail room He worked his way up to a story reader The one property that he liked the most and provided ideas for was filmed as The Gunfighter with Gregory Peck When Corman received no credit at all he left Fox and decided he would work in film by himself Under the G I Bill Corman studied English literature at Oxford University and lived in Paris for a time Corman in 2006 He then returned to Los Angeles and tried to re establish himself in the film industry He took various jobs including television stagehand at KLAC and a messenger at Fox He worked as an assistant to agent Dick Hyland a literary agent 36 Highway Dragnet Edit Corman wrote a script in his spare time and sold it to William F Broidy at Allied Artists for 2 000 Dick thought it was funny and let me pay myself a commission said Corman 37 Originally called House in the Sea it was retitled Highway Dragnet 1953 and starred Richard Conte and Joan Bennett Corman also worked as associate producer on the film for nothing just for the experience Producer Edit Corman used his script fee and personal contacts to raise 12 000 to produce his first feature a science fiction film Monster from the Ocean Floor 1954 It was produced by Corman s own company Palo Alto and released by Robert L Lippert The film did well enough to encourage Corman to produce another film the racing car thriller The Fast and the Furious 1955 directed by its star John Ireland and co starring Dorothy Malone Decades later producer Neal H Moritz and Universal Pictures licensed the title for the 2001 franchise launching film The Fast and the Furious Moritz had difficulty choosing between proposed titles Racer X Redline Race Wars and Street Wars and was inspired by a documentary on American International Pictures that included Corman s film Moritz was able to trade the use of some stock footage to Corman for use of the title 38 Corman sold the movie to a new independent company the American Releasing Company ARC run by James H Nicholson and Samuel Z Arkoff Although Corman had a number of offers for the film from Republic and Columbia he elected to go with ARC because they undertook to advance money to enable him to make two more movies Director Edit Corman s second film for ARC was one he decided to direct Five Guns West 1955 a Western made in color for around 60 000 with Malone and John Lund 39 The script was written by Robert Wright Campbell who worked with Corman on several more occasions Corman announced he would make four more projects for ARC High Steel Cobra Fortress Beneath the Sea and an untitled film from Campbell 40 Instead Corman did some uncredited directing on The Beast with a Million Eyes 1955 then made another Western Apache Woman 1955 starring Lloyd Bridges written by Lou Rusoff Rusoff and Corman reunited on Day the World Ended 1955 a postapocalyptic science fiction film which was popular Corman was to make The Devil on Horseback by Charles B Griffith about the Brownsville Raid 41 but it was too expensive The Woolner Brothers Louisiana drive in owners financed Corman s Swamp Women 1956 a girls on the lam saga He returned to ARC for two Westerns The Oklahoma Woman 1956 and Gunslinger 1956 with Ireland Gunslinger was co written by Griffith who became a crucial collaborator with Corman over the next five years He bought a script from Curtis Harrington The Girl from Beneath the Sea 42 Harrington made it for Corman years later as Night Tide 1961 Beverly Garland one of Corman s early regular stock players recalled working with him Roger made us work hard and long I remember that He was always fascinating to me a fascinating man and a good businessman He had such incredible energy it was tremendous he was a dynamo to be around I always knew he was going to be a huge success because there was no stopping him He just made up his mind that he was going to be a success and that was it 43 American International Pictures and Allied Artists Edit Drive in advertisement from 1957 featuring the double feature Attack of the Crab Monsters and Not of This Earth Corman films were popular on the drive in circuit and were generally marketed towards a teenage audience 44 ARC changed its name to American International Pictures Corman was established as their leading filmmaker They financed Corman s next film as director the science fiction story It Conquered the World 1956 Co written by Griffith it was a follow up to The Day the World Ended It was a big hit He optioned a TV play The Stake and hoped to get Dana Andrews to star 45 It was never made Instead Walter Mirisch of Allied Artists hired Corman to make The Undead 1957 inspired by The Search for Bridey Murphy Griffith wrote the script In June Corman made a science fiction film for Allied Artists Not of this Earth 1957 written by Griffith In August 1956 AIP financed a Corman heist movie shot in Hawaii Naked Paradise 1957 co written by Griffith Corman shot it back to back with a movie made with his own money She Gods of Shark Reef 1958 Corman wound up selling the movie to AIP Corman and Griffith reunited in Attack of the Crab Monsters 1957 for Allied which wound up being one of his most successful early films 46 For his own production company Corman made a rock and roll quickle Carnival Rock 1957 released by Howco Rock All Night 1957 was a heist film written by Griffith expanded from a TV play The Little Guy with musical acts inserted 47 He was meant to make Rock n Roll Girl for AIP in December 1957 48 In April 1957 Corman announced he would try to make two films back to back from then on to save costs 49 Corman made two teen girl noirs Teenage Doll 1957 for the Woolner Brothers and Sorority Girl 1957 starring Susan Cabot for AIP 50 For AIP he made The Saga of the Viking Women and Their Voyage to the Waters of the Great Sea Serpent 1957 shot in August 1957 51 He was meant to follow this with Teenage Jungle by Tony Miller 52 The success of Not of this Earth and Crab Monsters led to Allied offering Corman a four picture deal for 1958 53 Machine Gun Kelly and producing Edit Corman received his first serious critical praise for Machine Gun Kelly 1958 an AIP biopic of the famous gangster which gave Charles Bronson his first leading role and co starred Cabot Campbell wrote the script Also for AIP he did Teenage Caveman 1958 with Robert Vaughn originally titled Prehistoric World He helped produce two films for Allied Artists both from scripts by Leo Gordon Hot Car Girl 1958 directed by Bernard Kowalski and produced by his brother Gene the first film they made together from a script by Gordon and The Cry Baby Killer 1958 which gave Jack Nicholson his first starring role He had his biggest budget yet for I Mobster 1958 a gangster story co produced by Edward L Alperson and Corman s brother Gene for 20th Century Fox In September 1958 he was reported as scouting locations in Australia to do a remake of H Rider Haggard s She 54 War of the Satellites 1958 was conceived and shot in record time to take advantage of the Sputnik launch it was his first collaboration with art director Daniel Haller Corman also produced but did not direct Stakeout on Dope Street 1958 directed by Irvin Kershner Night of the Blood Beast 1958 directed by Kowalski for AIP using leftover costumes from Teenage Caveman and Crime and Punishment U S A 1959 directed by Dennis Sanders with George Hamilton in his first lead role The Filmgroup Edit Barboura Morris and Susan Cabot in a scene from The Wasp Woman 1959 In January 1959 Corman announced he would be moving into distribution 55 In 1959 Corman founded The Filmgroup with his brother Gene a company producing or releasing low budget black and white films as double features for drive ins and action houses 56 In February 1959 Filmgroup announced they would release 10 films Their first movies were High School Big Shot 1959 and T Bird Gang 1959 produced by Stanley Bickman 57 Roger seemed a driven man Roger wanted to accomplish a lot he had to have a lot of drive to do it and he pushed through He not only pushed through he punched through With a lot of energy and a lot of disregard at times What we did for Roger Corman I mean things that you could never do in a real studio but you did for this guy Everything seemed unreal with him 58 Susan Cabot For AIP Corman and Griffith made a black comedy A Bucket of Blood 1959 Corman announced he would follow it with a similar comedy The Bloodshot Private Eye 59 It does not seem to have been made Instead Griffith reused the same script structure and Corman employed many of the same cast in The Little Shop of Horrors 1960 This film was reputedly shot in two days and one night 60 For Filmgroup Corman directed The Wasp Woman 1959 starring Cabot from a script by Gordon His brother and he made two films back to back in South Dakota Ski Troop Attack 1960 a war movie written by Griffith and directed by Corman and Beast from Haunted Cave 1959 the first film directed by Monte Hellman Corman went to Puerto Rico and produced another two films back to back Battle of Blood Island 1960 directed by Joel Rapp and Last Woman on Earth 1960 directed by Corman from a script by Robert Towne Filming on these two films went so quickly that Corman commissioned Griffith to write a third which was shot at the same time Creature from the Haunted Sea 1961 Corman was going to make Part Time Mother from a script by Griffith 61 but it appears to have never been made House of Usher EditAIP wanted Corman to make two horror films for them in black and white at under 100 000 each on a 10 day shooting schedule Corman however was tired of making films on this sort of budget and was worried the market for them was in decline He proposed making a film in colour for 200 000 shot over 15 days Corman proposed an adaptation of The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe and AIP agreed The film was announced in May 1959 62 Richard Matheson was hired to do the adaptation and Vincent Price was brought in to star Haller did the art direction The resulting film House of Usher 1960 shot in early 1960 was a critical and commercial hit Following this Corman bought two scripts Sob Sisters Don t Cry and Cop Killer 63 In March 1960 Corman announced that Filmgroup would be part of an international production group Compass Productions 64 He directed a peplum in Greece Atlas 1961 in August He was going to direct a thriller from a script by Robert Towne I Flew a Spy Plane Over Russia 65 It was not made neither were two comedies he was to make with Dick Miller and Jon Haze Murder at the Convention 66 and Pan and the Satyrs 67 House of Usher had been so successful that AIP wanted a follow up and Corman Haller Matheson and Price reunited on The Pit and the Pendulum 1961 It was another sizeable hit and the Poe cycle of films was underway Corman hired Charles Beaumont to write Masque of the Red Death and announced two films Captain Nemo and the Floating City 68 and House of Secrets 69 The Intruder Edit Following The Pit and the Pendulum Corman directed one of William Shatner s earliest appearances in a lead role with The Intruder a k a The Stranger 1962 Based on a novel by Charles Beaumont the film was co produced by Gene Corman and was shot in July and August 1961 70 It took a while for the film to be released and it lost money 71 Corman was unhappy with his profit participation on the first two Poe films so he made a third adaptation for different producers The Premature Burial 1962 written by Charles Beaumont and starring Ray Milland The film was co financed by Pathe labs AIP put pressure on Pathe and ended up buying out their interest For producer Edward Small Corman made a historical horror piece about Richard III Tower of London 1962 starring Vincent Price It was meant to be the first in a three picture deal with Small but Corman did not enjoy working with the producer For Filmgroup he also bought the rights to a Soviet science fiction film Nebo Zovyot 1959 and had some additional footage shot for it by his then assistant Francis Ford Coppola the result was Battle Beyond the Sun 1962 He also released The Magic Voyage of Sinbad 1962 dubbed from a Soviet film The fourth Poe was an anthology Tales of Terror 1962 shot in late 1961 One of the installments The Black Cat was a comedy inspiring Corman to do a whole Poe story comedically next The Raven 1963 Later Corman used the sets for that film for The Terror 1963 made for Filmgroup but released by AIP and starring Boris Karloff whose scenes were all shot in two days and Jack Nicholson Corman did not direct all of this film additional scenes were shot by Monte Hellman Coppola and Jack Hill among others The Young Racers 1963 was produced and directed by Corman in Europe for AIP starring and written by Campbell Working on the film was Francis Ford Coppola whom Corman financed to make his directorial debut Dementia 13 1963 Back in the U S Corman made X The Man with the X ray Eyes 1963 a contemporary science fiction film for AIP starring Ray Milland He followed it with The Haunted Palace 1963 ostensibly part of the Poe cycle it featured Price and was made for AIP written by Beaumont but was actually based on a story by H P Lovecraft Corman directed a war film in Yugoslavia with his brother The Secret Invasion 1964 with Stewart Granger and Mickey Rooney from a script by Campbell Following this he announced he would make The Life of Robert E Lee as part of a four picture deal with Filmgroup worth 3 75 million Other movies were Fun and Profit by Joel Rapp The Wild Surfers by John Lamb and Planet of Storms by Jack Hill 72 None of these films was made nor was The Gold Bug a Poe adaptation written by Griffith 73 End of the Poe cycle and filming in Europe Edit Corman made two Poes in England starring Price the much delayed The Masque of the Red Death 1964 with Campbell rewriting Beaumont s scripts and The Tomb of Ligeia 1965 from a script by Robert Towne Corman made no further Poes AIP started up a fresh Poe cycle in the late 1960s but Corman was not part of it Corman got Towne to write a script called The Red Baron 74 He bought the rights to another Soviet science fiction film Planeta Bur 1962 and had some additional footage added to it by Curtis Harrington The result was Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet 1965 Harrington used footage from Planeta Bur in another film financed by Corman Queen of Blood 1966 He also bought the rights to a Yugoslavian film Operation Titan 1963 and financed additional shooting by Jack Hill and Stephanie Rothman The result was Blood Bath 1966 He also had an investment in the beach party films Beach Ball 1965 and It s a Bikini World 1967 Working for major studios EditCorman said For ten years as an independent I could get financing for 100 200 300 000 pictures Everything had been interesting artistically satisfying economically satisfying But I decided I was going nowhere and wanted to move directly into the business So I accepted a contract with Columbia 75 In August 1965 Corman announced he had signed a contract with United Artists to make two films over three years He also signed with Columbia to make a Western The Long Ride Home based on a script by Robert Towne 76 He was announced for a number of other projects at Columbia the biopic of Robert E Lee an adaptation of Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man an adaptation of Kafka s The Penal Colony and a script by novelist Richard Yates about the Battle of Iwo Jima 77 78 He intended to make The Deserters for UA from a script by Wright but that was not made either 79 He later reflected Every idea I submitted was considered too strange too weird every idea they had seemed too ordinary to me Ordinary pictures don t make money 75 The Wild Angels Edit After a year of not directing Corman took a leave of absence under his contract with Columbia to make a film for AIP the first biker movie The Wild Angels It starred Peter Fonda and Nancy Sinatra from a script by Griffith Peter Bogdanovich worked as Corman s assistant The film opened the 1966 Venice Film Festival and was hugely successful at the box office making over 6 million on a 350 000 budget and kicking off the biker movie cycle 80 He wanted to make a film about the Red Baron but Columbia turned it down because of The Blue Max 1966 He proposed a movie about the St Valentine s Day Massacre and also an adaptation of the novel Only Lovers Left Alive 75 Nick Ray was meant to be making Only Lovers in Britain Corman did begin directing Long Ride Home with Glenn Ford at Columbia However Corman left production a few weeks into the shoot in June 1966 and was replaced by Phil Karlson 81 The film was retitled A Time for Killing 1967 Corman received an offer to direct a studio film The St Valentine s Day Massacre 1967 for 20th Century Fox starring Jason Robards and George Segal He did not enjoy the restrictions of working for a major studio He was given a 2 5 million budget and made it for 400 000 less 82 Corman an independent director was most comfortable in his own style shoestring budgets and shooting schedules measured in days rather than weeks Nonetheless it is generally considered one of his best films as a director Corman was meant to follow this with Robert E Lee for United Artists at a budget of 4 5 million 75 It was not made Neither was a story Corman optioned The Spy in the Vatican 83 Return to independence Edit Corman on the set of The Trip 1967 He continued to finance films for Filmgroup Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet 1965 dubbing a Soviet movie Planeta Bur into English with some additional footage shot by Curtis Harrington Queen of Blood 1966 using some Soviet footage but a mostly new film directed by Harrington Blood Bath 1966 an adapted Yugoslavian film with additional footage shot by Stephanie Rothman and Jack Hill and Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women 1967 yet another dubbed version of Planeta Bur with some additional footage shot by Corman s then assistant Peter Bogdanovich He had money in Navy vs the Night Monsters 1967 He financed two Westerns shot back to back in Utah directed by Monte Hellman and written and co produced by Jack Nicholson The Shooting 1967 and Ride in the Whirlwind 1967 which became cult successes 84 83 He also financed two films directed by Dan Haller Devil s Angels 1967 a follow up to Wild Angels written by Griffith and a car racing film shot in Europe The Wild Racers 1968 He announced a comedy about the population explosion There Just Isn t Any Room but it appears to have never been made 85 Corman directed The Trip for AIP written by Jack Nicholson and starring Peter Fonda Dennis Hopper and Bruce Dern This began the psychedelic film craze of the late 1960s and was the American entry at Cannes that year 86 AIP made some changes to the film in post production which made Corman unhappy In September 1967 he announced plans to build a new film studio 87 However this did not happen for a number of years Corman made a film for American TV Target Harry 1968 shot in Europe with his brother producing He did some uncredited directing on AIP s De Sade 1969 when director Cy Endfield fell ill He financed Bogdanovich s first feature Targets 1968 which incorporated footage from The Terror He also produced The Dunwich Horror 1970 for AIP directed by Haller and co written by Curtis Hanson and financed Haller s Paddy Final films as director EditFor AIP Corman returned to the director s chair for a gangster film Bloody Mama 1970 starring Shelley Winters and a young Robert de Niro It was a big hit at the box office He also directed a black comedy Gas s s s 1970 written by George Armitage it was cut without his permission by AIP and was a financial failure Roger Corman Von Richthofen and Brown 1970 United Artists finally agreed to finance his Red Baron project although they asked that it emphasize American characters Accordingly it was filmed as Von Richthofen and Brown 1971 shot in Ireland in July 1970 There were several plane crashes during filming and one person died 88 Corman was going to make a film of Couples a novel by John Updike for United Artists and In from a script by Richard Schupe 89 but decided to take a break from directing Directing is very hard and very painful he said in 1971 Producing is easy I can do it without really thinking about it 90 New World Pictures EditIn May 1970 Corman founded New World Pictures which became a small independently owned production distribution studio 91 immediately successful with Angels Die Hard 1970 a biker film and The Student Nurses 1971 directed by Rothman The Big Doll House 1971 directed by Jack Hill in the Philippines was a big hit making a star of Pam Grier The company made a profit of 3 2 million in its first financial year and Corman says all eleven out of his first eleven films were successful 92 Angels Die Hard led to a series of biker films including Angels Hard as They Come 1971 produced by Jonathan Demme with Jack Fisk working as art director Bury Me an Angel 1971 was the first biker movie directed by a woman Barbara Peeters Corman financed the directorial debuts of Curtis Hanson Sweet Kill 1971 produced by Corman protege Tamara Asseyev Student Nurses led to a cycle of nurse pictures including Private Duty Nurses the first film directed by George Armitage Night Call Nurses 1972 the first feature directed by Jonathan Kaplan The Young Nurses and Candy Stripe Nurses 1975 There was also The Student Teachers 1973 and Summer School Teachers 1974 Big Doll House was followed by a series of women in prison pictures such as Women in Cages 1972 The Hot Box 1972 Black Mama White Mama 1973 The Arena 1974 the first film directed by Steve Carver and Caged Heat 1974 the first film directed by Demme Of New World s second year Corman says 11 of the 12 releases were successful 93 Corman produced one more film at AIP Boxcar Bertha 1972 the second feature directed by Martin Scorsese starring David Carradine He also executive produced Unholy Rollers 1972 for AIP A proposed political satire The Wild Political Prank was not made 94 He made I Escaped from Devil s Island 1973 with his brother and produced Cockfighter 1974 with Monte Hellman which was a rare financial failure for New World A big hit was Big Bad Mama 1974 a gangster film directed by Carver and starring Angie Dickinson It led to a follow up Crazy Mama 1975 produced by his wife and directed by Demme In 1975 Corman said New World was the most successful independent film company in the country if you count AIP as a major He said they were the best of the cheap acts 95 Distributing foreign films Edit In the 1970s the major Hollywood studios were moving away from distributing foreign arthouse pictures New World moved into the market and became the U S distributor for Cries and Whispers 1972 directed by Ingmar Bergman Corman bought it for 75 000 and it earned over 2 million at the U S box office 93 96 and Corman s distribution side of New World brought many foreign films to mass audiences in the U S for the first time reportedly some played at drive ins and grindhouses including the works of Francois Truffaut The Story of Adele H Small Change Peter Weir The Cars That Ate Paris Federico Fellini Amarcord Joseph Losey The Romantic Englishwoman Volker Schlondorff The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum The Tin Drum and Akira Kurosawa Dersu Uzala New World also released Fantastic Planet 1974 In a 10 year period New World Pictures won more Academy Awards for Best Foreign Film than all other studios combined 20th Century Fox Edit He had a four picture deal with 20th Century Fox making Capone 1975 Fighting Mad 1976 directed by Demme Moving Violation 1976 and Thunder and Lightning 1977 Peak of New World Edit Death Race 2000 1975 written by Robert Thom and directed by Paul Bartel was a big hit earning 4 million 97 It helped inspire a series of car chase movies Cannonball 1976 directed by Bartel Eat My Dust 1976 directed by Griffith starring Ron Howard which led to a follow up Grand Theft Auto 1978 Howard s directorial debut There was also The Great Texas Dynamite Chase 1976 Deathsport 1978 and Smokey Bites the Dust 1981 New World s trailers were cut by Joe Dante and Alan Arkush Corman gave them the chance to direct together with Hollywood Boulevard 1976 which used outtakes from other New World films It was successful enough for Corman to give both men jobs directing features on their own Dante with Piranha 1978 and Arkush with Rock n Roll High School 1979 Piranha was written by John Sayles who had been discovered by Corman s story editor Frances Doel Sayles later wrote The Lady in Red 1979 for Corman which was directed by Lewis Teague Other popular films around this time included Tidal Wave 1975 a Japanese film to which Corman added some extra footage and Jackson County Jail 1976 He also financed I Never Promised You a Rose Garden 98 Less popular was Avalanche 1979 a disaster film directed by Corey Allen For Universal he made Fast Charlie the Moonbeam Rider 1979 directed by Carver He financed Bogdanovich s Saint Jack 1979 Corman was criticised when he insisted on the addition of footage featuring a rape for Humanoids from the Deep 1980 99 The success of Star Wars inspired New World s most expensive film yet Battle Beyond the Stars 1981 100 This film required extensive special effects prompting Corman to buy a movie studio in Main Street Venice for 1 5 million 101 Corman made a TV film for CBS The Georgia Peaches 1980 Battle Beyond the Stars was so successful Corman had its footage and music score reused in other films such as Galaxy of Terror 1981 and Forbidden World 1982 He picked up a film called The Personals 1983 which enjoyed success 102 Millennium Films EditCorman sold New World Pictures in January 1983 to a consortium of three lawyers for 16 9 million 103 Under the terms of the contract he agreed to stay on as a consultant for two years and to provide New World with at least five films they could release New World agreed to distribute all of Corman s films until March 1984 He set up a new production company Millennium the title of which was taken from the name of a 1981 retrospective of Corman s work at the National Film Theatre of London He announced plans to make films budgeted between 2 5 million using cash from his sale of New World to finance personally He announced an intention to make fewer commercial films movies more like I Never Promised You a Rose Garden and Cries and Whispers Millennium s films included Space Raiders 1983 a science fiction epic using footage and music from Battle Beyond the Stars Love Letters 1984 a serious drama from Amy Holden Jones Screwballs 1984 a sex comedy in the vein of Porky s Suburbia 1984 directed by Penelope Spheeris which he acquired Deathstalker and Kain of Dark Planet which became The Warrior and the Sorceress 104 New Horizons EditCorman says people struggled with the name Millennium nobody could spell it nobody knew what it meant so he changed it to New Horizons by early 1984 105 Corman and the new owners of New World ended up suing each other in March 1985 Corman claimed that New World failed to honor their guarantee to distribute his movies at a fee of 15 He sought 400 million in damages and the return of the company He said they refused to distribute School Spirit 1985 and Wheels of Fire He also claimed that New World cheated him distributing Space Raiders Screwballs and Slumber Party Massacre New World sued Corman in return claiming he was seeking to return to distribution and was discrediting New World to potential investors They said Corman bypassed New World for some of his films such as Columbia s Hardbodies 1984 Corman argued My whole point in selling was to free myself of the burden of running the company and to get guaranteed distribution If I can t get my guaranteed distribution I m forced to go back to running the company 106 Concorde Pictures Edit The case with New World settled out of court In March 1985 Corman announced he would establish a new distribution cooperative Concorde Pictures where producers could get relatively cheap distribution from Concorde in exchange for contributing to the company s overhead Their first releases were Corman productions School Spirit Wheels of Fire and Barbarian Queen 107 Concorde later merged with a low budget production company Cinema Group and announced plans to make 15 20 films a year 108 Early Concorde releases include Loose Screws 1985 a sequel to Screwballs Streetwalkin 1985 a more serious drama directed by Joan Freeman Cocaine Wars 1986 the first in a series of movies Corman would finance in South America Hour of the Assassin 1987 shot in Peru and the first film directed by Luis Llosa and Munchies 1987 a spoof of Gremlins directed by Tina Hirsch Corman also remade Not of this Earth 1988 and released Big Bad Mama II 1987 and Transylvania Twist 1989 all three were directed by Jim Wynorski He produced another version of Masque of the Red Death 1989 directed by Larry Brand He produced Sweet Revenge 1987 Slumber Party Massacre II 1988 directed by Deborah Brock Andy Colby s Incredible Adventure 1988 also directed by Brock and The Terror Within 1989 directed by Thierry Notz Corman financed the early directorial efforts of Carl Franklin Nowhere to Run 1989 Vargas Llosa and Katt Shea Stripped to Kill 1988 Stripped to Kill II 1989 More experimental was Nightfall 1988 After Hour of the Assassin he made a series of films in Peru including Crime Zone 1989 also directed by Luis Llosa and Full Fathom Five 1990 directed by Carl Franklin Concorde had a big hit with Bloodfist 1989 starring Don the Dragon Wilson which cost 1 million and earned over 6 million Concorde signed Wilson to a long term contract and he made a number of sequels for the company including Bloodfist II and Fighting to Win 109 Frankenstein Unbound Edit He returned to directing once more with Frankenstein Unbound 1990 Concorde and New Horizon in the 1990s Edit In 1990 Concorde sued MGM for 6 million 110 Concorde s films included Overexposed 1990 The Unborn 1991 and In the Heat of Passion 1992 They had a big hit with Carnosaur 1993 which led to several sequels He financed Fire on the Amazon 1991 directed Luis Llosa which had Sandra Bullock and Craig Sheffer in early roles Corman had to deal with the decline of the drive in market and studio competition through the 1990s but Concorde New Horizons still made 15 24 pictures a year 111 This included a never released version of The Fantastic Four Roger Corman Presents Edit In 1995 Corman was executive producer on Roger Corman Presents a special series of 13 movies for Showtime with budgets of around 1 5 million each I think the Corman name means action humor and some titillation says Mike Elliott the producer of the series It s going to deliver the goods and it will have a little moral statement in there as well 112 Corman ended up doing a second season of 11 movies The films were Bram Stoker s Burial of the Rats Hellfire Virtual Seduction Suspect Device Unknown Origin Terminal Virus Where Evil Lies Vampirella Shadow of a Scream Subliminal Seduction House of the Damned a k a Spectre The Haunted Sea Alien Avengers a k a Aliens Among Us and its sequel Inhumanoid Sawbones Not Like Us and Last Exit to Earth He created his own comic book franchise Black Scorpion which led to a sequel and later a TV series Corman also executive produced remakes of The Wasp Woman Humanoids from the Deep A Bucket of Blood a k a The Death Artist Piranha and Not of this Earth Ireland Edit Concorde set up operations in Ireland as Concorde Anois building studios in Connemara County Galway 113 He received some support from the Irish government a decision which became controversial when the content of some Corman productions such as Criminal Affairs was criticized in the press 114 115 116 117 113 Later Concorde New Horizons films included Overdrive 1997 The genres still hold said Corman in 1997 action adventure the suspense thriller science fiction and horror The difference is that they are bigger and better now 118 Corman also produced the film Moving Target which was filmed in County Galway It was his last film produced with Concorde New Horizons Roger Corman s Cosmic Comics EditCorman operated a short lived comic book imprint in 1995 1996 called Roger Corman s Cosmic Comics It produced comics based on his films written and drawn in a similar no hold barred style Titles included Bram Stoker s Burial of the Rats Caged Heat 3000 Death Race 2020 Welcome to The Little Shop of Horrors and Rock amp Roll High School the latter featuring the Melvins instead of the Ramones 119 Notable creators published by Cosmic Comics included Trevor Goring James Kochalka Jason Lutes Pat Mills Shane Oakley Jerry Prosser and J R Williams The longest running title was Death Race 2020 which lasted eight issues 120 but was left unfinished when the company closed down Later career Syfy Channel EditHe continued to produce creature films such as Raptor 2001 dir Jim Wynorski Dinocroc 2004 which aired on the Syfy cable television channel 121 and was popular enough for two sequels Supergator and Dinocroc vs Supergator 2010 as well as a spin off film Dinoshark 2010 Supergator 2007 was turned down by the Syfy channel but Corman made it anyway Corman also continued to make action films Escape from Afghanistan 2001 was a Russian film Peshavar Waltz plus some additional footage The Hunt for Eagle One 2006 and The Hunt for Eagle One Crash Point 2006 were shot in the Philippines Roger Corman s Operation Rogue 2014 Fist of the Dragon 2015 In 2006 Corman said he made 60 of his films overseas These foreign countries are offering subsidies that are so great that not only I but many independent producers are moving overseas he said 122 He sold the remake rights of Death Race 2000 to Universal who made Death Race 2008 with Jason Statham with Corman credited as executive producer It led to two direct to video prequels and one direct to video sequel In 2009 Corman produced and directed alongside director Joe Dante the web series Splatter for Netflix 123 The protagonist of the film is portrayed by Corey Feldman 124 and the story talks of the haunting tale of rock and roll legend Johnny Splatter 125 He also started contributing trailer commentaries to Dante s web series Trailers from Hell 126 In 2011 Corman cited James Cameron s Avatar 2009 and Christopher Nolan s Inception 2010 as examples of great imagination and originality 127 By now the SyFy channel was Corman s leading market For them he made Sharktopus 2010 and Piranhaconda 2012 Corman produced the 2017 film Death Race 2050 a sequel to the 1975 film Death Race 2000 It was made with Universal Corman s first film with a major studio in more than two decades 128 Personal life EditCorman married Julie Halloran in 1970 129 They have four children 130 On April 3 2018 a lawsuit by Corman s sons Roger Martin Corman and Brian Corman was filed against Corman to prevent the trade of his film collection It was settled in 2020 131 In 2016 Corman also sued a wealth management company about suspected losses of his personal fortune To date when the result of that dispute has not been disclosed 132 Recognition EditIn 1964 Corman was the youngest producer director to be given a retrospective at the Cinematheque Francaise as well as retrospectives at the British Film Institute and the Museum of Modern Art Corman won the Lifetime Achievement Award at Stockholm International Film Festival in 1990 Corman was the subject of the 1978 documentary Roger Corman Hollywood s Wild Angel produced and directed by Christian Blackwood Portions of the film reappeared in 2011 s Corman s World In 1998 he won the first Producer s Award ever given by the Cannes Film Festival In 2006 Corman received the David O Selznick Award from the Producers Guild of America Also in 2006 his film Fall of the House of Usher was among the twenty five movies selected for the National Film Registry a compilation of significant films being preserved by the Library of Congress In 2009 The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awarded Corman with an Academy Honorary Award at the inaugural Governors Awards 133 on November 14 2009 134 In 2010 writer and actor Mark Gatiss interviewed Corman for his BBC documentary series A History of Horror of which the second half of the second episode focuses on Corman 135 In 2010 Corman was inducted into the Beverly Hills High School Hall of Fame In 2012 Corman was honored with the Filmmaker on the Edge Award at the Provincetown International Film Festival In 2018 he received the Extraordinary Contribution to Film award at the Austin Film Festival 136 Archive EditFilm elements and prints for many movies directed produced and or distributed by Corman are held at the Academy Film Archive as part of the New Horizons Collection 137 The Academy Film Archive restored Corman s film The Masque of the Red Death in 2019 138 The Corman Film School EditA number of noted filmmakers including directors producers writers and cinematographers have worked with Corman usually early in their careers including Francis Ford Coppola Martin Scorsese Ron Howard Polly Platt Peter Bogdanovich Declan O Brien Armondo Linus Acosta Paul Bartel Jonathan Demme Donald G Jackson Gale Anne Hurd Carl Colpaert Joe Dante James Cameron John Sayles Monte Hellman Carl Franklin 139 George Armitage Jonathan Kaplan George Hickenlooper Curtis Hanson Jack Hill Robert Towne Menahem Golan James Horner and Timur Bekmambetov Many have said that Corman s influence taught them some of the ins and outs of filmmaking 140 In the extras for the DVD of The Terminator director James Cameron asserts I trained at the Roger Corman Film School The British director Nicolas Roeg served as the cinematographer on The Masque of the Red Death 141 Cameron Coppola Demme Hanson Howard and Scorsese have all gone on to win Academy Awards Howard was reportedly told by Corman If you do a good job on this film you ll never have to work for me again Actors who obtained their career breaks working for Corman include Jack Nicholson Peter Fonda Bruce Dern Charles Bronson Todd Field 142 Michael McDonald Dennis Hopper Tommy Lee Jones Talia Shire Sandra Bullock Robert De Niro and David Carradine who received one of his first starring film roles in the Corman produced Boxcar Bertha 1972 and went on to star in Death Race 2000 along with Sylvester Stallone Many of Corman s proteges have paid their mentor homage by awarding him cameos in films such as in The Godfather Part II 143 The Silence of the Lambs 144 Apollo 13 140 and as recently as Demme s 2008 film Rachel Getting Married Name First Corman film Year Credited asGeorge Armitage Gas s s s 1970 writer associate producer cast memberPaul Bartel Death Race 2000 1975 directorTimur Bekmambetov The Arena 2001Peter Bogdanovich Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women 1968 director cast memberJames Cameron Battle Beyond the Stars 1980 art direction visual effectsFrancis Ford Coppola Battle Beyond the Sun 1962 director scenes in American version Joe Dante Hollywood Boulevard 1976 co director editorJonathan Demme Angels Hard as They Come 1971 writer producerTodd Field Eye of the Eagle 2 Inside the Enemy 1989 actorCarl Franklin 1989 actor writer directorMark Goldblatt Eat My Dust 1976 production assistant associate editorCurtis Hanson The Dunwich Horror 1970 co writerMonte Hellman Beast from Haunted Cave 1959 directorJack Hill The Terror 1963 writerJames Horner The Lady in Red 1979 composerRon Howard Grand Theft Auto 1977 director co writerGale Anne Hurd Humanoids from the Deep 1980 production assistantJanusz Kaminski Saturday the 14th Strikes Back 1988 gaffer chief lighting technician cinematographerJonathan Kaplan Night Call Nurses 1972 director editorJack Nicholson The Little Shop of Horrors 1960 actorPhedon Papamichael Dance of the Damned 1988 cinematographerNicolas Roeg The Masque of the Red Death 1964John Sayles Piranha 1978 writerMartin Scorsese Boxcar Bertha 1972 directorKatt Shea Stripped to Kill 1987 writer director cast memberRobert Towne Last Woman on Earth 1960 writer cast memberIrvin Kershner Stakeout on Dope Street 1958 director writerFilmography EditMain article Roger Corman filmography The IMDb credits Corman with 55 directed films and some 385 produced films from 1954 through 2008 many as uncredited producer or executive producer consistent with his role as head of his own New World Pictures from 1970 through 1983 Corman also has significant credits as writer and actor Roger Corman s Cult ClassicsIn 2010 Roger Corman teamed up New Horizons Pictures with Shout Factory to release new DVD and Blu ray editions of Corman productions under the name Roger Corman s Cult Classics 145 146 The releases have concentrated on 1970 1980s films he produced through New World rather than directed These titles include Rock n Roll High School Death Race 2000 Galaxy of Terror Forbidden World and Piranha with additional titles continuing to be released 147 Books EditCorman Roger Jerome Jim 1990 How I Made a Hundred Movies in Hollywood and Never Lost a Dime Random House ISBN 978 0 394 56974 1 OCLC 840687965 His autobiography documents his experiences in the film industryReferences Edit a b The Award of a Lifetime for Roger Corman Stanford Alumni Magazine January February 2010 Inkpot Award New Horizons Pictures Roger Corman Official Website Retrieved May 25 2010 Roger Corman Great Director profile Senses of Cinema sensesofcinema com Retrieved January 31 2018 Roger Corman Biography Retrieved January 31 2018 Leeder Murray 2019 Roger Corman Cinema and Media Studies Olsen Eric B Roger Corman History of Horror Archived from the original on January 21 2013 Retrieved April 19 2013 ROGER CORMAN FAST CHEAP amp UNDER CONTROL The Melbourne Cinematheque Archived from the original on June 22 2013 Retrieved August 1 2013 Roger Corman Oscars org Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences September 17 2014 Retrieved September 18 2017 Rafferty Terrence January 8 2010 The Oscars Roger Corman King of the B s Takes His Place on the A List The New York Times Retrieved January 31 2018 Roger Corman to receive honorary Oscar for lifetime achievement NOLA com Retrieved January 31 2018 Scorsese to De Niro 10 Hollywood Greats Who Got Their Start with Roger Corman Time ISSN 0040 781X Retrieved September 18 2017 Gaita Paul December 10 2015 How Roger Corman Gave Ron Howard His First Big Break Variety Retrieved September 18 2017 Watch Martin Scorsese Talk About Roger Corman in a Scene from Corman s World IndieWire December 15 2011 Retrieved September 18 2017 Jonathan Demme on his transition from exploitation movies to his best work Silence of the Lambs Los Angeles Times February 10 1991 ISSN 0458 3035 Retrieved September 18 2017 Targets An Introduction by Peter Bogdanovich DVD Los Angeles California Paramount Pictures 1968 The Fall of the House of Usher Legend to Legend Joe Dante Reflects Upon Roger Corman and the Poe Cycle Blu ray Disc Hertfordshire UK Arrow Video 1960 a b Roger Corman Scorsese Stallone Sayles and other A listers talk about the B movie king Entertainment Weekly Retrieved January 31 2018 a b Maslin Janet 2008 Roger Corman Hollywood s Wild Angel 1978 Movies amp TV Dept The New York Times Archived from the original on January 20 2008 Among the Corman associates and protegees interviewed are David Carradine Peter Fonda Ron Howard Paul Bartel Martin Scorcese Joe Dante and Peter Bogdanovich On Demme see Charlie Rose PBS first aired April 29 2017 Steuer Eric 10 Ways B Movie Master Roger Corman Changed Filmmaking WIRED Retrieved September 18 2017 Watch How Roger Corman Gave Rise to Scorsese Coppola and New Hollywood No Film School February 15 2017 Retrieved January 31 2018 Roger Corman Peter Fonda and Jack Nicholson Take Audiences on THE TRIP Cinapse April 14 2016 Retrieved January 31 2018 The Wild Angels Lays Out the Rules of the Biker Film PopMatters April 22 2015 Retrieved January 31 2018 King Susan December 24 2015 Diane Ladd sees kindred spirit in Joy costar Jennifer Lawrence Los Angeles Times Retrieved January 31 2018 Sagers Aaron October 31 2017 WATCH Roger Corman on working with William Shatner on The Intruder Syfy Retrieved January 31 2018 10 Things You Didn t Know About The Silence Of The Lambs Decider February 12 2016 Retrieved January 31 2018 Roger Corman cameo in Godfather Part II Public Domain Library October 4 2012 Retrieved January 31 2018 Repertoire Of Horrors The Films Of Roger Corman NPR Retrieved January 31 2018 Kermode Mark November 21 2004 First drill a hole in his head The Guardian Retrieved January 31 2018 Empire Roger Corman Empire Retrieved January 31 2018 A amp E INDIEFILMS INVESTS IN SUNDANCE ENTRY CORMAN S WORLD EXPLOITS OF A HOLLYWOOD REBEL Movie City News Retrieved April 19 2013 a b H W Wilson Company 1984 Current Biography Yearbook New York How I Made a Hundred Movies in Hollywood and Never Lost a Dime by Roger Corman 1998 p 4 Holte Michael Ned Value Engineering Roger Corman with his own Context East of Borneo Retrieved May 24 2012 Hollywood Variety February 13 1952 p 74 Gaydos Steven May 29 2015 King of B s Roger Corman Remembers His Stint as an Agent Vice President Variety Franich Darren Fast amp Furious producer on the first film We were the little movie nobody really cared about EW com May 25 2016 Retrieved September 25 2017 Seven Theaters Offer Sabrina Los Angeles Times November 24 1954 p 14 Paul Schofield Gets Huston Attention Los Angeles Times February 9 1955 p 21 Hopper Hedda July 12 1955 Story of Ex Fighter to Be Dramatic Film Los Angeles Times p 12 Pryor Thomas M March 12 1956 Matador is eyed by two studios Allied and United Artists Are Discussing Plan to Sponsor Jointly Conrad Novel R K O to Share Arness Of Local Origin The New York Times p 23 Weaver Tom 1988 Interviews with B Science Fiction and Horror Movie Makers Writers Producers Directors Actors Moguls and Makeup p 54 Dirks Tim The History of Film The 1950s Filmsite Retrieved March 1 2023 Schallert Edwin April 24 1956 Drama Gable Turner Costar Deal Foreseen Andrews Indicated for Stake Los Angeles Times p 21 Schallert Edwin September 28 1956 Flynn Sanders Raft Sought as Stellar Trio Sheep Man Keel Film Los Angeles Times p 25 FILM EVENTS Prize TV Play Will Be Filmed Los Angeles Times October 6 1956 p B2 Tin Star Filming Set in Black and White Los Angeles Times November 11 1956 p F12 Shoot Two Features Together Variety May 1 1957 p 10 Schallert Edwin June 14 1957 Brian Donlevy Will Do Golden Spur on Own Schell Term Pacted Los Angeles Times p A9 MOVIELAND EVENTS Viking Women Soon Descending on Films Los Angeles Times June 17 1957 p C12 MOVIELAND EVENTS Tomorrow s Miracle Masaryk Story Set Los Angeles Times June 18 1957 p C6 MOVIELAND EVENTS Hollywood Story Promises Novelty Los Angeles Times September 6 1957 p 24 Scheuer Philip K September 21 1958 Shocker Pioneers Tell How to Make Monsters Want to Make a Monster Experts Tell How It s Done Los Angeles Times p E1 Roger Corman seeks own distribution Variety January 14 1959 p 23 pp 22 41 Ray Fred Olen Filmgroup in The New Poverty Row Independent Filmmakers as Distributors McFarland 1991 Roger Corman Sets 10 to Nourish Filmgroup Variety February 18 1959 p 3 Weaver Tom 1988 Interviews with B Science Fiction and Horror Movie Makers Writers Producers Directors Actors Moguls and Makeup p 69 Scheuer Philip K December 18 1959 Gwen Verdon Will Bring In Redhead City Assured of Star Play Acting Vacation to De Sica Los Angeles Times p C9 Simpson MJ September 23 1995 Interview with Roger Corman Archived from the original on July 16 2011 Retrieved October 24 2007 I shot Little Shop of Horrors in two days and a night for about 30 000 and the picture has lasted all these years Genet s deathwatch to be given locally Los Angeles Times December 23 1959 ProQuest 167569403 FILMLAND EVENTS Ilona Massey Signed for Airplane Drama Los Angeles Times May 5 1959 p A13 FILMLAND EVENTS Los Angeles Times February 13 1960 ProQuest 167672426 FILMLAND EVENTS Los Angeles Times March 17 1960 ProQuest 167593632 FILMLAND EVENTS Los Angeles Times June 2 1960 ProQuest 167750888 Scheuer P K July 13 1960 Hollywood steals political thunder ProQuest 167722969 a href Template Cite journal html title Template Cite journal cite journal a Cite journal requires journal help Scheuer P K November 15 1960 Harrison portman up for sherlock Los Angeles Times ProQuest 167823876 via ProQuest Zweig s jeremiah bought for film Los Angeles Times March 2 1961 ProQuest 167799171 Hitler announced as subject of two films Los Angeles Times March 31 1961 ProQuest 167833005 The Intruder DVD Beaver Retrieved April 19 2013 SEIDENBAUM A March 23 1963 CHAINED BY TIMIDITY Los Angeles Times ProQuest 168300813 Scheuer P K August 30 1963 MGM to assemble comic big parade Los Angeles Times ProQuest 168397800 Scheuer P K November 11 1963 The couch and I as harvey session Los Angeles Times ProQuest 168456531 MOVIE CALL SHEET Los Angeles Times March 19 1965 ProQuest 155111194 a b c d Thomas K June 10 1966 Cormann whiz kid of the B s Los Angeles Times ProQuest 155444364 Martin B August 2 1965 MOVIE CALL SHEET Los Angeles Times ProQuest 155292242 Corman 1990 p 125 P B September 12 1965 Horror with a rich happy ending The New York Times ProQuest 116987235 Martin B December 31 1965 Menotti opera to be filmed Los Angeles Times ProQuest 155331846 Joan Didion said she went to see The Wild Angels because there on the screen was some news I was not getting from the New York Times I began to think I was seeing ideograms of the future Didion Joan The White Album 1979 p 100 Martin B July 1 1966 Train on a foreign track Los Angeles Times ProQuest 155465611 Mark McGee Faster and Furiouser The Revised and Fattened Fable of American International Pictures McFarland 1996 p 266 a b Martin B July 12 1966 Filmways inks Jack Clayton Los Angeles Times ProQuest 155433741 Thomas K October 4 1970 Monte Hellman and Hollywood s best kept secret Los Angeles Times ProQuest 156573556 Betty April 22 1967 Senta to play secret agent Los Angeles Times ProQuest 155638079 V C September 18 1966 Roger Corman A good man gone to pot The New York Times ProQuest 117483759 Isadora shooting under way Los Angeles Times September 7 1967 ProQuest 155884455 12 FILM PLANES GROUNDED The Irish Times September 17 1970 ProQuest 525577654 Martin B February 18 1970 MOVIE CALL SHEET Los Angeles Times ProQuest 156409055 Goldman C 1971 An interview with ROGER CORMAN Film Comment Vol 7 no 3 pp 49 54 ProQuest 210229038 Morris Gary January 2000 Roger Corman s New World Pictures Bright Lights Film Journal Archived from the original on December 5 2012 Retrieved April 19 2013 Thomas K January 9 1972 Movies Los Angeles Times ProQuest 156855866 a b Warga W February 25 1973 Cries and whispers a departure for king of the bs Los Angeles Times ProQuest 157207286 A H W July 23 1972 The postman rings thrice The New York Times ProQuest 119538974 Murphy November 8 1975 Best of cheap acts thrives at 5 Los Angeles Times ProQuest 157883180 Champlin C February 25 1957 Bergman A private man with a hit on his hands Los Angeles Times ProQuest 157236082 B D December 28 1975 King of schlock The New York Times ProQuest 120227731 K T June 7 1977 Horrors it s the tycoon of Z movies The Washington Post ProQuest 146754853 Epstein A May 8 1980 HUMANOIDS HAYWIRE WOMEN SAY Los Angeles Times ProQuest 162791881 Kilday G November 1 1978 FILM CLIPS Los Angeles Times ProQuest 158712364 Lee G August 29 1980 CORMAN SHOESTRINGS AND CANNY GUESSES Los Angeles Times ProQuest 162892380 Champlin C March 5 1983 CRITIC AT LARGE Los Angeles Times ProQuest 153410813 Yoshihara N January 17 1983 New world pictures sold to 3 lawyers Los Angeles Times ProQuest 153338673 Caulfield Deborah June 13 1983 Film Clips Corman Names His New Baby Los Angeles Times p g1 Chase C January 27 1984 Corman sees love letters setting trend The New York Times ProQuest 122375077 London Michael March 6 1985 Film Clips Corman New World Sue in a Battle for Control Los Angeles Times p i1 London M March 22 1985 FILM CLIPS Los Angeles Times ProQuest 154149583 CINEMA GROUP CONCORDE UNITE FOR DISTRIBUTION Los Angeles Times July 18 1985 ProQuest 154255916 Steve Pond June 1 1990 Summer s sizzling start The Washington Post ProQuest 140166128 Cieply M amp ALAN CITRON TIMES S W March 30 1991 Creditors file to put MGM pathe into bankruptcy Los Angeles Times ProQuest 1641869647 a href Template Cite news html title Template Cite news cite news a CS1 maint multiple names authors list link Thrifty Corman healthy in 4th decade Variety July 10 1995 Yikes roger corman is back stil The New York Times July 9 1995 a b Brian Reddin May 3 2017 Roger Corman i gConamara Roger Corman in Connemara TV documentary in Ga and English Ireland TG4 Retrieved May 6 2017 Michael Foley M C August 29 1997 Equity says its dispute with Corman is purely industrial The Irish Times ProQuest 525942163 Linehan H August 22 1997 CORMAN UNCOVERED The Irish Times ProQuest 525971725 Whitington Paul September 21 2014 Movies A documentary recalls the mayhem of Roger Corman s time in Connemara The Independent Corman Uncovered Irish Times August 22 1997 P M January 5 1997 Funny but they almost don t look like B movies The New York Times ProQuest 109749108 Reed Patrick A Pop Music Comics The 90s part three Roger Corman amp The Melvins and more KISS Depth of Field February 11 2012 Roger Corman s Cosmic Comics at the Grand Comics Database Retrieved April 26 2021 Sharktopus Plot Details and Dinoshark Image Revealed February 17 2010 King S August 20 2006 Movies CINE FILE the mass production man roger corman has made countless films with meager budgets but undying energy Los Angeles Times ProQuest 422078548 Roger Corman and Joe Dante SPLATTER Netflix Full Info on Feldman Corman and Dante s Splatter October 15 2009 See a Gruesome Advance Clip from Splatter DreadCentral June 2012 Roger Corman Trailers From Hell Archived from the original on March 20 2013 Retrieved April 19 2013 Roger Corman CORMAN S WORLD Interview Collider December 12 2011 Retrieved June 4 2020 Gardner Eriq February 25 2016 Roger Corman How I Made 400 Films Mentored Coppola and Ended Up Fighting in Court for My Fortune Hollywood Reporter Roger Corman s Flicks May Be B Shlock but No One in Hollywood Has Nurtured More A Talent Roger M Corman Born 05 17 1976 in California California Birth Index B Movie King Reaches Settlement With Sons Over Trust Law360 February 26 2020 Gardner Eriq February 25 2016 Roger Corman How I Made 400 Films Mentored Coppola and Ended Up Fighting in Court for My Fortune The Hollywood Reporter the Cormans say they were stunned to discover their 73 million had dwindled to 13 million See Roger Corman Receive His Honorary Oscar June 14 2012 Allen Nick November 15 2009 Lauren Bacall receives Oscar Daily Telegraph Retrieved November 15 2009 A History of Horror with Mark Gatiss Q amp A with Mark Gatiss BBC Retrieved November 12 2010 2018 Winners Austin Film Festival October 28 2018 Retrieved October 9 2021 New Horizons Collection Academy Film Archive October 13 2015 Preserved Projects Academy Film Archive Escaping the curse of Corman Independent co uk October 22 2011 a b Nashawaty Chris Roger Corman Scorsese Stallone Sayles and other A listers talk about the B movie King Entertainment Weekly Retrieved February 19 2010 MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH The Apex of Roger Corman s Poe Films Todd Field Biography Turner Classic Movies November 29 2015 Roger Corman on The Blair Witch Project and why Mean Streets would have made a great blaxploitation film Interview by Andrew J Rausch Images Journal Retrieved June 14 2013 Roger Corman Legendary AIP Director Monsterizes AMC Archived from the original on February 5 2007 MacIntyre April April 30 2012 Roger Corman s Cult Classics Sneak Peek of new DVD collection Monsters and Critics com WotR Ltd Archived from the original on May 1 2010 Retrieved November 18 2018 Latchem John January 12 2010 Shout Factory to Release Roger Corman Library Home Media Magazine Archived from the original on March 3 2016 Retrieved November 18 2018 Roger Corman s cult classics Shout Factory Archived from the original on April 11 2010 Retrieved October 6 2010 Further reading EditDi Franco J Philip The Movie World of Roger Corman New York Chelsea House 1979 Laroni Giulio Il cinema secondo Corman Intervista allo scopritore di Francis Ford Coppola Martin Scorsese James Cameron Milano Biblion Edizioni 2016 Nasr Constantine ed Roger Corman Interviews Jackson University Press of Mississippi 2011 Price Robert M Cormanghast The Poe Films of Roger Corman Parts 14 November 1997 3 14 20 Routt William D 1994 O Regan Tom Miller Toby eds Art popular art Continuum The Australian Journal of Media amp Culture 7 2 In 1990 Corman published an autobiography written in collaboration with Jim Jerome How I Made a Hundred Movies in Hollywood and Never Lost a Dime and thereby unwittingly joined my act Silver Alain 2006 Roger Corman Metaphysics on a Shoestring Los Angeles Silman James Press Will David and Willemen Paul Roger Corman The Millennic Vision Edinburgh Edinburgh Film Festival 1970 External links Edit Wikimedia Commons has media related to Roger Corman Wikiquote has quotations related to Roger Corman Roger Corman interview at DBCult Film Institute Roger Corman bibliography via UC Berkeley Roger Corman at IMDb Roger Corman biography on re Search my Trash Roger Corman at Senses of Cinema Roger Corman 1974 Interview 2011 radio interview at The Bat Segundo Show Interview with Roger Corman accessed October 20 2016 Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Roger Corman amp oldid 1143516954, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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