John Hughes, after directing one film, has been awarded virtual autonomy is in hew three-year, $30 million production pact with Universal Pictures. He polishes off screenplays in one sitting, has assembled a talented cast of youngsters - headed by Molly Ringwald and Anthony Michael Hall - with whom he is making film after film, and works within jogging distance of his north suburban Chicago home. Sixteen Candles, brought in under its $6.5 million budget, is realistic yet funny, a combination that has eluded the rest of the Porky's generation of filmmakers.
Hughes has attained this bounty by penning some projects he no longer wishes to acknowledge: stories for National Lampoon such as "My Vagina" that led to screenplays for National Lampoon's Class Reunion and Nate and Hayes, which brought him rent-a-writer contracts for the twin 1983 successes of National Lampoon's Vacation and Mr. Mom. He would rather dwell on the future, which will see him directing Breakfast Club, also with Ringwald and Hall, and also about high school.
- JB
In Sixteen Candles, did you make the movie you wanted to make?
Yes. It was my intent to write it from the female point of view, because this genre is generally about males, and sex is a predominant theme. I think they tend to ignore the families. When you're 30, you forget that at 16 sex was not your primary motivation; you were much more interested in having a boyfriend or girlfriend.
But there was a traditional Lampoon male: The Geek.
At that age, 14, it's real difficult, because the girls your age are ahead of you and aren't interested in you. The Geek is just too young, too wise for his age.
The film has some rough edges and oddly unmotivated music.
We had a fast-paced shooting schedule. I was determined to make the film with 15- and 16-year-olds, because I knew that if I went with 18-year-olds or over, the way it really was would have been forgotten or glossed over. You go through high school, you get it over with, and when you get older you say, "Boy, high school was just great."
I was very worried that some of the long dialogue scenes would get booed off the screen, but I think they work because by the time you reach them, you've gotten to know the characters. I used music in the study-hall scene to sort of propel along a scene that I felt was important but was very slow and very early in the film. Well, there was a kid wearing a Walkman in the scene.
Are you trying to become the Fassbinder of Northbrook, with a company of young actors making realistic youth comedies, churning out pleasant product on a low budget?
I realize I can't go on working with the same people forever, though I do have another one with Molly and another with Anthony. I just don't think 16-hyear-olds are being served well by my generation.
Let's talk about Vacation, which was based upon a Lampoon story, "Vacation '58." That was a John Hughes movie, but then Mr. Mom comes out with no personality at all, like Jefferson Springbok, your Lampoon synonym.
Mr. Mom was pretty badly butchered. I just got raped on the project. It is, in fact, the story of my and my two children. I did the first draft in a day and a half, one sitting.
The idea for Weird Science, my next project after Breakfast Club, came about while waiting for a meeting with producer Joel Silver. I got real excited about it and told him the story, and he liked it. I started writing on a Saturday and mailed a draft out on Monday night. That Sunday we made the deal.
Do you keep a little gag book that you'll use to inject into a script?
[Shudder] I never start with the jokes. I look at an issue and try to find every story in it. The world can only take so many Airplane!s. To me, Animal House was a character movie. I'm a great fan of Capra, Hitchcock, and The Honeymooners. Stories and characters. You get a lot of bad comedy from people sitting around a bar and saying, "Wouldn't it be funny if?" The Lampoon taught me the value of being honest, to reach deep into myself and put out things that other people were also thinking.
