Saturday, March 10, 2007

After ten years of having a blast with The John Hughes Files, I'm officially retiring the site. My life has changed and its time to move on. I still have several articles from site regular Scott Collins, which I will continue to add to the Articles section. Otherwise, no new updates will be added, but the site itself will continue to remain online. THANK YOU to everyone who has visited, and especially to those of you who have contributed over the years. It's been very appreciated, by myself and John Hughes movie fans all over the world!

And Congratulations to Marleen Handley of Saginaw, Michigan, the winner of the John Hughes Contest!

Be sure to view Through the Eyes of John Hughes, a video tribute by David Blanchard.

Also check out Don't You Forget About Me, a compilation of essays about John Hughes films, edited by Jaime Clarke, with a forward by Ally Sheedy.

Sunday, February 11, 2007

Check out Don't Forget About Duckie, an EW interview with Jon Cryer.

"John had a real need to believe in teenage icons and create teenage iconography - that's what he was doing with Breakfast Club. I think he was really tortured in his high school, and [movies] were a way of him psychologically coming to terms with his youth and sort of reordering it in his mind as a storyteller. I think kids will always latch on to people saying, ''Your experience is important. What you're going through right now is not trivial. We care about it, and we're right there with ya.'"

Also online is a Weird Science cartoon at HowItShouldHaveEnded.com

Sunday, December 17, 2006

References were added for the film Totally Awesome.

Trivia for Vacation was added (thanks, Chris!), as well as more trivia for Home Alone, Home Alone 2, and Miracle on 34th Street.

Enjoy the holiday music below!

Monday, January 1, 2007 This year The John Hughes Files turns ten years old! Remember these pages? April 1998 May 2000 Thank You! to everyone who has visited, written, and spread the word about The John Hughes Files! This site is really a collaborative effort on the part of everyone who has enjoyed the films as much as I have over the years.

National Lampoon's Vacation Main Theme (Mavis Staples) Mele Kalikimaka (Bing Crosby) Hey Santa Claus (The Moonglows) Here Comes Santa Claus (Gene Autry) That Spirit of Christmas (Ray Charles) Home Alone Opening Credits (John Williams) Film Score (John Williams) Run Run Rudolph (Chuck Berry) Please Come Home for Christmas (Southside Johnny Lyon) Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree (Brenda Lee) O Holy Night (choir) Carol of the Bells (choir) Photo from Movie Screenshots Home Alone 2: Lost in New York Christmas All Over Again (Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers) All Alone on Christmas (Darlene Love) Jingle Bell Rock (Bobby Helms) It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas (Johnny Mathis) Silver Bells (Atlantic Starr) Cool Jerk (The Capitols) My Christmas Tree (choir) Miracle on 34th Street Santa Claus Is Back In Town (Elvis Presley) Joy to the World (Aretha Franklin) It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas (Dionne Warwick) Jingle Bells (Natalie Cole) Song for a Winter's Night (Sarah McLachlan)

Wednesday, November 15, 2006

Site regular Scott Collins has blessed us with an abundance of John Hughes articles! Two from 1984 are up right now: Geeks Bearing Gifts and Anthony Michael Hall as Geek. Many more are to come!

Warner Bros. has announced that they will release National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation on both the HD-DVD and Blu-ray formats on December 5th. Universal has announced that they will release The Breakfast Club on HD-DVD on December 26th.

More Gilmore Girls references have been added. Thanks, John!

Saturday, September 23, 2006

Currently on the market is the Brat Pack Collection, featuring Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, and Weird Science, plus an additional music CD featuring songs from the films. Click here to see the back side of the packaging that features the song listing.

John has sent along more references from "The Gilmore Girls." Thanks!

Trivia has been updated for Weird Science.

Sunday, September 3, 2006

A "Family Fun Edition" of Home Alone is coming your way just in time for the holidays! Released to own November 21, the film will be presented in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen, along with an English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround track. Extras will include an audio commentary with director Chris Columbus and Macaulay Culkin, a making of Home Alone featurette, a How to Burgular Proof your Home featurette, a Home Alone Round the World featurette, and a Where's the Buzz Now featurette. Completing the package will be deleted scenes, a 'smell-o-vision' feature, an Angels with Filthy Souls feature, three trailers, and three set-top games (Battle Plan, Trivia Game, and Head Count). Retail price, $19.98. See the cover art here. (Thanks to John for letting us know!)

Remember the band at Andie's hangout in Pretty In Pink? That was the Rave-Ups (Molly Ringwald's character in Sixteen Candles had the name written across her binder), and their song "Shut Up" has been added to the Jukebox!

Trivia for Sixteen Candles was added, as was an MST3k Reference.

Saturday, August 19, 2006

Some more links to video clips have been added to the Trailers page.

Monday, August 14, 2006

This just in: The new Pretty In Pink DVD (releasing on August 29th) does not include the actual original ending from the film. Instead is a feature with the cast talking about it, rather than the clip itself. (Thanks to Jeremy for this info.)

So I was browsing in Target today, when from the toys section I hear, "Hey, sexy giiiiirlfriiiieend!" I wandered over to see if Long Duk Dong was stalking me again, and I found a Sixteen Candles Talking Keychain! How about that!

Check out info on the upcoming film, Don't You Forget About Me!

Friday, August 11, 2006

Some more links to video clips have been added to the trailers, and some more references have been included. A bit of trivia was also added for National Lampoon's Vacation.

Wednesday, July 19, 2006

See Ferris Bueller in Shermer! Netflix Rolling Roadshow is showing Ferris Bueller's Day off on August 10th in Northbrook, IL (which used to be officially called "Shermerville" years ago), underneath the watertower that was painted with the "Save Ferris" logo in the film. Afterward a John-Hughes tribute 80s prom will be held at the local Marriott. Visit their site for more details.

Sixteen Candles - Geek Boogie (2.5 MB)

Weird Science - Just Like Frankenstein (2.31 MB)
Weird Science - The Creation (7.25 MB)
Weird Science - Wyatt and Lisa (2.55 MB)

Ferris Bueller's Day Off - Rooney Gets It (2.25 MB)
Ferris Bueller's Day Off - Chasing Ferris (876 KB)

Planes, Trains & Automobiles - Bathroom Ballet (2.03 MB)
Planes, Trains & Automobiles - Train Breakdown Blues (1.96 MB)

Coming out on October 10th is Too Cool For School, a DVD collection of the three special editions of Ferris Bueller, Pretty In Pink, and Some Kind of Wonderful. It will retail at $39.99.

Monday, July 17, 2006

Mystery Solved! The song that is playing in Sixteen Candles when the girls enter the gym for the school dance was a piece composed by Ira Newborn since, for legal reasons, they were not able to use "Our House" by Madness. Ira used the word "Filene," which was the nickname of his girlfriend at the time. (Thanks to Ira Newborn for this info, and to Lawrence Bennion for helping unearth it.) Listen to the clip here!

The webblog Stuck In The 80s recently did a show about Pretty In Pink. Visit their site to hear the show, give feedback, and download wallpaper for your desktop.

Saturday, July 15, 2006

More songs have been added to the brand new Jukebox! You will find a lot of songs from Sixteen Candles in particular, since there is no complete soundtrack on CD, and when it was released on record and cassette, only five songs were included. That's always amazed me, because it would make an excellent compilation (same for Weird Science, which I believe was only released on LP). There are also a lot of songs listed from Ferris Bueller's Day Off, another soundtrack-less Hughes film. Many of the other films have official soundtracks available. Locating them, however, may prove difficult (especially if you're trying to find the one from Planes, Trains & Automobiles).

Friday, July 14, 2006

Check out these fun videos from YouTube.com!

Simple Minds - Don't You Forget About Me
Breakfast Club 12" Remix Video Montage
Breakfast Club Trailer
Second version of trailer
The dancing scene!

The Psychedlic Furs - Pretty In Pink
OMD - If You Leave
Duckie lipsyncs and dances to Otis Redding

Oingo Boingo - Weird Science
Deleted scene from Weird Science
Ilan Mitchell-Smith today

Intro to Ferris Bueller TV show!
Recent DirecTV commercial with Ben Stein

Animated intro to Christmas Vacation

Also be sure to check out the Trailers page - more links to trailers and clips have been added.

Thursday, July 13, 2006

More references have been added.

New category added to the files: Ira Newborn.

Tuesday, June 20, 2006

A new Hughes teen comedy for 2007? Owen Wilson Becomes A "Drillbit" Posted: Tuesday June 20th, 2006 Source: The Hollywood Reporter Owen Wilson is set to star in Paramount's comedy "Drillbit Taylor" for director Steven Brill (Without a Paddle). Based on an original idea by John Hughes, who wrote a 70-page scriptment a few years ago, the screenplay was completed by Chris Brown and Seth Rogen (Freaks & Geeks). The story revolves around two high school freshmen targeted by the school bully on the first day of school. The boys hire what they think is a low-budget mercenary (Owen Wilson) to protect them, but he turns out to be anything but. Filming begins September 2006 in Los Angeles and will hopefully be released in summer 2007. More info about this project will be posted as it develops!

Saturday, June 10, 2006

See the covers for the new Pretty In Pink and Some Kind of Wonderful DVDs at DavisDVD.com! (Thanks to Eric and Antoinette for the link!)

A Chicago-based band named JoyFocus has recorded a song titled "Mr. Hughes Come Home" and you can hear it on their site! Check it out!

The References and Home Alone trivia sections have been updated.

This graphic was sent to me by Antoinette Jurado, and I liked it so much I had to share it:

Monday, May 29, 2006

R.I.P. Paul Gleason Actor Paul Gleason, otherwise known as principal Richard Vernon in The Breakfast Club, has died at age 67 of mesothelioma, a rare form of lung cancer linked to asbestos. Read more here at CNN.com. (Left:) Gleason spoofs his role in "Not Another Teen Movie"

Friday, May 19, 2006

See the original Pretty In Pink ending! Now you can see the original ending, where Andie chooses Duckie over Blaine. The Special Edition DVD debuts on August 29. The DVD will have anamorphic transfer, Dolby Digital 5.1 & 2.0 tracks, and a commentary with director Howard Deutch, as well as the featurettes "The First Time: The Making of Pretty in Pink," "Zoids and Richies," "Prom Queen: All About Molly," "Volcanic Ensembles," "Prom Stories," "Favorite Scenes," "The Lost Dance: The Original Ending" and "Wrap Up: The Epilogue." The DVD will sell for $14.99.

But that's not all! The SE of Some Kind of Wonderful comes out the same day, for the same price. This DVD will appear in anamorphic transfer, Dolby Digital 5.1 & 2.0 tracks, as well as commentary with director Howard Deutch and Lea Thompson, "The Making of Some Kind of Wonderful," "Meet the Cast," "The Music" and "John Hughes Time Capsule" featurettes. (Thanks to everyone who reminded me about these!)

Saturday, April 30, 2006

Added some more references today. (Thanks to Sasha for the heads up!)

Saturday, April 8, 2006

An early John Hughes script, Nate & Hayes, will be released on DVD this June 20th.

More "Gilmore Girls" references have been added to References. (Thanks to John for pointing them out!)

Previous News (2002-2006):

Available through YouTube.com, view the video The Breakfast Club, Sims Style! It's a creative music video with Sims characters acting out The Breakfast Club; includes songs and sounds from the film. Definitely worth a look.

The new Ferris Bueller DVD info is here! It retails for $19.99, and the extras include:

Getting the Class Together - The Cast of Ferris Bueller
The Making of Ferris Bueller's Day Off: Production Stories
Who is Ferris Beuller?
The World According to Ben Stein
Vintage Ferris Bueller
Class Album

Here's the back side!

Featured Artist: Yello Yello is an electronica band comprised of two Swiss musicians, Dieter Meier and Boris Blank. They are most well known in the United States for "Oh Yeah," which was featured in Ferris Bueller's Day Off. I personally became a fan of Yello after hearing "Desire" in Dutch (years before I knew who John Hughes was), and ordered two of their cassettes from a catalog. The tapes I received were Stella and, my all-time favorite, One Second. Interestingly, both albums contain "Oh Yeah." As a special feature, I'm offering mp3 downloads of all their songs that have been heard in John Hughes movies (I'm guessing he has been a fan of theirs for some time). And, although it's difficult to choose, I'm including three of my all-time favorites to help you expand your Yello knowledge. Enjoy!

Ferris Bueller's Day Off: Oh Yeah (2.82 MB) plays when we see Cameron's father's car, and during closing credits. Dutch: Tied Up (8.51 MB) comes on whenever we see the deck of nudie playing cards, and it plays again during the closing credits. Desire (3.38 MB) plays throughout the road scene in which Dutch and Doyle get a ride from two topless dancers. Early the next morning they pull into a truck stop, and we hear part of Otto di Catania (4.65). Planes, Trains & Automobiles: The very beginning of Lost Again (5.95 MB) plays when Neal and Del stare in horror at the one and only bed in the Braidwood Inn motel room. Three of Christine's Favorites: You can hear both Moon On Ice (5.89 MB) and Call It Love (7.05 MB) on the One Second album. Blazing Saddles (4.91 MB) appears on Flag. (These make for excellent driving music, by the way; Yello is almost always in my car's tape deck.)

Offical Website - YelloZone

Here's something cute...Allposters.com has, among other things, an I (heart) Jake Ryan tee-shirt for sale. (It's only available in Small, however.)

Molly Ringwald is considering doing a sequel for Sixteen Candles. Read more about it here at Yahoo!.

Scott Collins gives us the scoop on the Breakfast Club reunion at the 2005 MTV awards:

"Then, the moment we were all waiting for...Molly Ringwald, Anthony Michael Hall and Ally Sheedy came up on stage and they were presented their award by Paul Gleason. John Kapelos was in the audeince cheering them on as well. It was very sweet. Molly did the talking for the cast and she mentioned that while they knew they were making something of value, they had no idea that 20 years later, they would still be talking about it and it would have become something so treasured to people. She said that they didn't make the movie for critics or the Oscars but for "you--the MTV audience." Then, she made special mention of John Hughes. I don't remember it verbatim but it went along the lines of "I want to make mention of someone who should be here tonight and I wish he was here tonight and that's John Hughes because without him we would not be here. He wrote an amazing script and we had a great time making this movie." Anthony Michael Hall quipped that Emilio Estevez and Judd Nelson were in Africa with David Chapelle and they send thier best. Ally Sheedy whooped it up and shook her hair at the podium, echoing her classic movie moment of dandruff."

Roger Ebert has profiled Planes, Trains and Automobiles as one of his second volume of favorite films in his forthcoming The Great Movies II, now available at bookstores everywhere. Here's what Chris Fulmer said about it: "In the 4-page spread for it, the White-Haired One lists why he finds it to be so durable and touching, and also shares insight on a conversation he had once with John Candy, in which he concludes Candy was very much Del in real life. A definite must read from the nation's #1 movie man."

I thought I would experiment, and I created an interactive John Hughes Crossword! There are two versions of the same puzzle: Click here for Java (works on most browsers) Click here for dHTML (requires Internet Explorer 5 or later)

Now here's something interesting: In Fort Lauderdale, Florida is Broward Community College. Building 19, the student center, is named the "Robert E. Ferris" center. Adjacent to this is the "Buehler Planetarium." Just a coincidence, or an intentional match? (Brought to our attention by Rob in FL)

I created my very first online quiz: Which John Hughes Character Are You? There are one of eight characters you could be, depending on the answers you choose (but none of them are from The Breakfast Club - those guys have gotten their day in Quiz-dom as it is).

News on "32 Candles": USA Network pays homage to the 1984 classic coming-of-age flick Sixteen Candles with a two-hour original movie sequel, 36 Candles. Set twenty years after the original comedy, the definitive movie about first love returns in this look at what happens "happily ever after..." Samantha Baker comes home in time for her high school reunion and 36th birthday -- a day she wants to forget but can't since her dysfunctional family keeps reminding her. Farmer Ted, Long Duk Dong and first love Jake Ryan all converge on Shermer High for the reunion festivities. Confronted with her past and at a crossroads in her own life, Sam must figure out if what she wants at 36 is the same as what she wanted when she was 16 years old. Blue Crush producers Buffy Shutt and Kathy Jones of Shutt-Jones Prods. are developing the film with Ken Holdren producing. (from futoncritic.com)

Entertainment Weekly - October 13, 2000

Yahoo! Pick - August 6, 2001

Visitor count since October 1999