Read This Book In A Weekend

This book was an easy read. I enjoyed this book and knew of the movies on the cover. However, I didn’t realize he made Career Opportunities, Curly Sue, Dutch and Dennis the Menace. None of these movies interest me. I won’t be watching them. I will watch Some Kind of Wonderful and Breakfast Club yearly. The Some Kind of Wonderful soundtrack is my favorite 80s movie soundtrack by a long shot followed not so closely by Girls Just Want To Have Fun. It was interesting to learn of John Hughes’ passion for music. He spent a great deal of time seeking out new bands and songs for his movies. He wanted his character’s dialogue and actions to match up to the music in the movie scenes that he had envisioned. He was a workaholic for sure.

I remember seeing Home Alone with my cousins at the theatre when it opened. There must have been at least ten of us that went. Fun times! I watch Home Alone every Christmas. Another John Hughes Christmas classic is National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. It too is watched yearly a time or two…or three. These two movies are just part of my holiday planning. I know every line of dialogue, but it is honest belly laughs each viewing.

It is hard to imagine my life without John Hughes’ movies. Confession time. I never cared too much for Sixteen Candles. My friend, Lydia, wants me to do a deep dive into all the Molly Ringwald teen movie roles. I will consider it. Molly Ringwald wrote a couple of books too. I could read those and report back. Did you know she was on the cover of TIME magazine? TIME magazine used to be a huge deal back in the day. It is still around, but it doesn’t have the same pull on the market like it used to. John Hughes and Molly Ringwald had a complicated relationship. I think there is a lot more to the story than either of them told. Although, after reading this book John Hughes had complicated relationships with everyone it seems.

25 Things I Learned From Reading John Hughes A Life In Film

1. Pretty In Pink’s original conclusion had Andie ending up with Duckie. Test audiences did not like this ending and wanted her to end up with Blane. They decided to give the audience what they wanted and called everyone back to refilm the dance footage. Andrew McCarthy had begun working another project and his hair was in a buzz cut. If you go back and watch the closing of Pretty In Pink, you will see Blane is wearing an ill fitted wig.
2. John Hughes told friends that his work on 101 Dalmatians brought him his highest earnings. This was a result of him cutting a deal to receive a percentage of the merchandising dollars.
3. John Cusack was going to play Bender in The Breakfast Club…wth?!?…I love me some John Cusack, but NO!NO!NO! Judd Nelson was the perfect Bender.
4. Allison and Bender’s style in The Breakfast Club was based on Chrissie Hynde of the band The Pretenders.
5. Chrissie Hynde’s husband, at the time, Jim Kerr, was the lead singer of the band Simple Minds. They sang the famous song from The Breakfast Club “Don’t You Forget About Me”
6. John Hughes and John Candy were the best of friends. When John Candy died John Hughes took his death extremely hard.
7. Anthony Michael Hall and Molly Ringwald were a couple during the filming of The Breakfast Club.
8. Paramount Studios wanted Jennifer Beals for the lead of Pretty In Pink over Molly Ringwald. Her movie Flashdance was a huge hit and they wanted to get her into another film ASAP.
9. Lea Thompson met her husband Howard Duetch on the movie Some Kind of Wonderful. Howard Duetch directed the film.
10. She Is Having A Baby was based heavily on John Hughes’ marriage to his wife Nancy. He took it personally when the movie did poorly at the box office.
11. John Hughes ghosted people before it was a thing. He had a reputation for being able to cut people from his life with no explanation given and the people cut out were left to figure out what in the heck had happened? I find this interesting as he stayed married to his wife, Nancy, until his death on August 6, 2009. From all accounts he was happily married and loved being a father.
12. John began his career as a freelance writer for Playboy and for Lampoon. He also worked for an ad agency. He would sometimes show up for work at the at the ad agency and sneak out to make a Lampoon meeting.
13. John attended University of Arizona and had four majors in the two years he went there. He did not graduate.
14. John Hughes’ first paying job as a writer was ghostwriting The Berrys comic strip.
15. He was a co-writer of Jaws 3. It was a parody of the Jaws movie franchise and never made it to the big screen.
16. Robin Wright was going to star as Lisa in Weird Science. However, she landed a role on the soap opera Santa Barbara. Kelly LeBrock ended up in the role.
17. Matthew Broderick and Jennifer Grey who played siblings in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off were engaged at one time in real life.
18. Ben Stein was not an actor before appearing in the Ferris Bueller movie. He was a newspaper writer and speech writer for President Richard Nixon. He helped in the making of President Nixon’s resignation speech.
19. John Hughes wrote National Lampoon’s Class Reunion based on a parody of his own class reunion. It wasn’t a huge hit.
20. Maid in Manhattan which starred Jennifer Lopez was based on a John Hughes story.
21. Home Alone was the highest grossing comedy of all time when made. Google search shows it is still in the Top 10.
22. Christina Applegate starred in his movie called Just Visiting. I have never heard of this movie.
23. John Candy told John Hughes he wanted to play the cameo role in Home Alone at Union scale as a thank you for all John Hughes had done for his career. Crazy, as he missed out on a lot of cash, with John Hughes having offered to pay him one percent of the Home Alone earnings.
24. John Candy was going to star in Beethoven, but had a scheduling conflict and Charles Grodin accepted the role.
25. Baby’s Day Out was a successful movie in Calcutta. It played in a theatre there for over a year. Baby’s Day Out bombed in the United States.

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Filed under: Natalie Merchant - @ October 17, 2021 3:22 pm