Future Films
Here are the exciting projects we are working on. Please check back with us – more details and images will be added as each project takes shape.
WHERE The Light Factory (345 N. College Street)
ADMISSION $5 Members / $7 Non-Members
CRAZY HORSE [2011]
Directed by Frederick Wiseman
USA, France / Color / French with English Subtitles
Not Rated; 134 min
After examining the Paris Opera Ballet in La Danse, documentarian Frederick Wiseman returns to France to explore another famed institution: Le Crazy Horse, a long-running cabaret renowned for its elegant and innovative exotic dance revues.
Founded in 1951 by Alain Bernardin, Le Crazy Horse has become the Parisian nightlife ‘must’ for visitors, ranking alongside the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre. Le Crazy Horse sets itself apart from the average strip club by adhering to exacting standards in choreography, lights and physiques. The erotic revue is composed of songs and sequences that blend traits of old-fashioned burlesque, Bob Fosse and Cirque du Soleil, designed not only for the enjoyment of men, but also couples.
Wiseman’s impeccable eye finds the Le Crazy Horse a uniquely French showcase, with an emphasis on elegance, perfectionism and a grueling schedule (2 shows a night and 3 on Saturdays, 7 days a week). The film shows us the rehearsals for and the unveiling of the brand new show – Désir – created by the renowned French choreographer Phillippe Decoufle.
“It is a deft revelation of shared humanity, the kind of thing no one does better than Frederick Wiseman.” – Los Angeles Times
“Completing his wonderful French cultural trilogy that also includes portraits of the Comédie-Fran¸aise and the Paris Opera Ballet, indefatigable documentarian Frederick Wiseman freely, unobtrusively prowls the joint to create a movie that respects the serious work involved in simulating the sensations of pleasure.” – Entertainment Weekly
“The spectacle lodges somewhere between erotic reverie and the perfection of a revolving sculpture.” – New Yorker
“Every shot and edit in Wiseman’s film also suggests without over-explaining, allowing a viewer to lose herself in pleasure…” – Village Voice
“There are lots of different ways to make film. I don’t believe there has to be any orthodox way to making movies, or any rules. It’s what works for the filmmaker, and, theoretically, the audience.”
Documentarian Frederick Wiseman has been noted for his ability to capture the nuances of life in American institutions such as prisons, hospitals, welfare offices, and high schools. He started out in 1963 by producing a fictional feature film, The Cool World, an examination of the lives of Harlem teenagers. In the beginning, Wiseman was a staunch social reformist, and his films were calls for change. Titicut Follies, his first documentary, is an exposé of life in a prison for the criminally insane in Bridgewater, MA. It was controversial and left Wiseman with the reputation of being a muckraker. His four subsequent documentaries were all exposés of other tax-supported institutions designed to show the ineffectiveness of the bureaucracy that not only threatens to destroy them, but also dehumanizes the people they were meant to serve. Wiseman toned down his message and began focusing more on American culture to point out the symbolism of daily activities in his film Primate (1974). In the ‘80s, he began examining institutions as they relate to ideology. Unlike other documentaries, Wiseman’s work does not progress chronologically; rather, the segments are arranged thematically, like an essay, and are linked via rhetorical devices such as comparison and contrast to create a patterned structure. His films are never narrated, thereby forcing viewers to make connections between the sequences themselves. Wiseman has occasionally returned to fictional films, albeit in a non-fiction performance style, as with Seraphita’s Diary (1982) and La Derniere Lettre (2002). —allmovie guide
WHERE Actor’s Theatre (650 E. Stonewall Street)
ADMISSION is Free and so is the popcorn. Cash bar available.
JAWS [1975]
Directed by Steven Spielberg
USA / Color / English
Based on Peter Benchley’s best-selling novel, Steven Spielberg’s 1975 shark saga set the standard for the New Hollywood popcorn blockbuster while frightening millions of moviegoers out of the water. One early summer night on fictional Atlantic resort Amity Island, Chrissie decides to take a moonlight skinny dip while her friends party on the beach. Yanked suddenly below the ocean surface, she never returns. When pieces of her wash ashore, Police Chief Brody (Roy Scheider) suspects the worst, but Mayor Vaughn (Murray Hamilton), mindful of the lucrative tourist trade and the approaching July 4th holiday, refuses to put the island on a business-killing shark alert. After the shark dines on a few more victims, the Mayor orders the local fishermen to catch the culprit. Satisfied with the shark they find, the greedy Mayor reopens the beaches, despite the warning from visiting ichthyologist Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss) that the attacks were probably caused by a far more formidable Great White. One more fatality later, Brody and Hooper join forces with flinty old salt Quint (Robert Shaw), the only local fisherman willing to take on a Great White–especially since the price is right. The three ride off on Quint’s boat “The Orca,” soon coming face to teeth with the enemy.
Rated PG; 125 min.
In addition to the well-known nickname of “Bruce”, Steven Spielberg also called the shark “the great white turd” when he really got frustrated with the troublesome animatronic fish.
Brody’s dog in the movie was actually Steven Spielberg’s real dog.
After the shark was built, it was never tested in the water, and when it was put in the water at Martha’s Vineyard, it sank straight to the ocean floor. It took a team of divers to retrieve it.
The mechanical shark spent most of the movie broken-down, and was unavailable for certain shots. This led Steven Spielberg to use the camera as the “shark”, and film from the shark’s point of view. Many think this added to the “chilling/haunting” quality in the final release saying that it would have made it too “cheesy” had they shown the shark as much as originally planned.
During pre-production, director Steven Spielberg, accompanied by friends Martin Scorsese, George Lucas and John Milius, visited the effects shop where “Bruce” the shark was being constructed. Lucas stuck his head in the shark’s mouth to see how it worked and, as a joke, Milius and Spielberg sneaked to the controls and made the jaw clamp shut on Lucas’ head. Unfortunately, and rather prophetically, considering the later technical difficulties the production would suffer, the shark malfunctioned, and Lucas got stuck in the mouth of the shark. When Spielberg and Milius were finally able to free him, the three men ran out of the workshop, afraid they’d done major damage to the creature.
WHERE Outside in Transamerica Square (401 N. Tryon Street)
ADMISSION is FREE, but donations are gladly accepted.
LABYRINTH [1986]
Directed by Jim Henson
USA & UK / Color / English
Sarah (a teenage Jennifer Connelly) rehearses the role of a fairy-tale queen, performing for her stuffed animals. She is about to discover that the time has come to leave her childhood behind. In real life she has to baby-sit her brother and contend with parents who don’t understand her at all. Her petulance leads her to call the goblins to take the baby away, but when they actually do, she realizes her responsibility to rescue him.
Sarah negotiates the Labyrinth to reach the City of the Goblins and the castle of their King Jareth , played by a glam-rocking David Bowie, who performs five of his songs. The rest of the cast are puppets, a wonderful array of Jim Henson’s imaginative masterpieces. Henson gives credit to children’s author and illustrator Maurice Sendak, and the creatures in the movie will remind Sendak fans of his drawings; the castle of the king is a living M.C. Escher set. The film combines the highest standards of art, costume, and set decoration. Like executive producer George Lucas’s other fantasies, Labyrinth mixes adventure with lessons about growing up.
Rated PG; 101 min.
The owl in the title sequence is computer generated – the first attempt at a photo-realistic CGI animal character in a feature film.
Monty Python member Terry Jones wrote one early version of the script. Little of his material was retained beyond the point where Sarah eats the poisoned peach. The original script ended with Sarah punching and kicking Jareth, then watching him shrink down until he’s becomes a small and “snivelling” goblin. Also, Toby’s name was Freddie in the early drafts of the story. The baby’s name was changed because the infant Toby Froud would only react to his own name.
The full costume for Hoggle was lost for some time. It turns out that it was lost on an airplane and later bought from the airline by ‘The Unclaimed Baggage Center’, a store in Scottsboro Alabama. It is now on display in their museum.
Sarah’s bedroom at the beginning of the movie. She has a stuffed animal that looks like Sir Didymus on her dresser, a doll that looks like Ludo on the shelves next to her door (along with the book “Where the Wild Things Are” as the camera pans across her desk), a Firey doll on a shelves next to her bed, bookends with with Goblins reminiscent of Hoggle on her dresser, and figurine of Jareth on the right hand side of her desk. After you see the Hoggle bookend, there is a scrapbook shown. It shows newspaper clippings of Sarah’s famous actress mom with another man, David Bowie. In addition, the dress that she wears in the ballroom scene can also been seen adorning the miniature doll in her music box, and a wooden maze game on her dresser next to her books is reminiscent of the hedge section of the Labyrinth. There is also a small painting on her wall that depicts a contraption much like the one operated by the “Cleaners” that Sarah and Hoggle had to escape from. And there is a copy of the famous picture by M.C. Esher which is used in the room where the final confrontation with Jareth occurs.
Sarah’s dog “Merlin” is also used for Sir Didymus’ mount “Ambrosius”. In Geoffrey of Monmouth’s The History of the Kings of Britain, Merlin is called “Merlin Ambrosius”.
The sources of the characters can be seen inThe various things that Jareth does with the crystal balls (rolling them around his arms and in his hands and so forth) are not camera tricks or any other kind of special effect. They are actually done by choreographer Michael Moschen, who is an accomplished juggler. Moschen was actually crouched behind Bowie with his arm(s) replacing Bowie’s. Unlike a typical Muppet performance, however, he had no video screen to view his performance. In other words, his manipulations were performed completely blind.
David Bowie did the voice (gurgling) for the baby in the song “Magic Dance”.
Jim Henson is creator of The Muppets and undoubtedly the most beloved puppeteer in history. In 1955 Jim, already a skilled puppeteer, began his studies in Theatre Arts at the University of Maryland. That year marked the appearance of his first television show, Sam and Friends, a five-minute late-night puppet show he produced along with another freshman, Jane Nebel, whom he would marry in 1959. The show featured some early incarnations of his famous Muppet characters, including a lovable frog named Kermit that Jim fashioned from one of his mother’s old coats and two ping-pong balls. In 1958 Sam and Friends earned Jim his first Emmy Award, and he would go on to win an impressive 30 Emmys during his lifetime for his work with the Jim Henson Company.
The Muppets — Jim coined the term “Muppet” to describe his unique combination of marionette and foam-rubber hand puppets — immediately proved popular, starring in TV commercials and regularly appearing on The Ed Sullivan Show. Then, in 1969, came the immensely successful Sesame Street. It wasn’t until The Muppet Show, which starred Kermit and the egotistical and hilariously outspoken Miss Piggy, was introduced in 1976 that Jim became a favorite of fans of all ages. An estimated 235 million viewers tuned in to The Muppets each week in more than 100 countries.
In 1979, Jim turned to the big screen with a feature film, The Muppet Movie, followed The Great Muppet Caper (1981), in which Jim made his directorial debut, and The Muppets Take Manhattan (1984). In 1989, he decided to entrust The Muppets to The Walt Disney Company. Jim died unexpectedly in 1990, robbing him of the chance to continue his work with Disney, a company he deeply admired.
WHERE Actor’s Theatre (650 E. Stonewall Street)
ADMISSION is Free and so is the popcorn. Cash bar available.
THE WARRIORS [1979]
Directed by Walter Hill
USA / Color / English
A prominent New York City gang leader named Cyrus (Roger Hill) wants to wage an all-out battle against the police, and as part of his strategy he calls upon Gotham’s gangs to set aside their turf wars and come together at a summit. At the meeting, a rival leader kills Cyrus, but a Coney Island gang called the Warriors is wrongly blamed for Cyrus’ death. Before you know it, the cops and every gangbanger in town is hot on the Warriors’ trail.
Rated R; 93 min
Loosely based on Xenophon’s “Anabasis”, the account of an army of Greek mercenaries who, after aligning themselves with Cyrus the Younger in the battle of Cunaxa (401 BC) in his attempt to seize the Persian throne, found themselves isolated behind Persian enemy lines.
The name Ajax came after the Greek Warrior.
Newcomers were cast to create the feel of “real people caught in dangerous situations”. The cast felt like they were a gang before filming started. James Remar even spent time in Coney Island so he could observe real individuals to base his portrayal of Ajax on.
The Homicides were a real Coney Island gang, and they didn’t approve of fictional gangs wearing colors on their turf. The wardrobe department made sure nobody walked off location wearing The Warriors colors. The actors were safe during the cemetery scene in Brooklyn because of a fence surrounding it.
Crew members were sent death threats because local gangs weren’t cast. Thousands of dollars worth of equipment were damaged when one gang tore through the set during a lunch break.
The film trucks were “protected” by a real gang called The Mongrels for $500 a day.
The crew once got urinated upon from a tower block due to the noise they were creating in the night.
The Baseball Furies were created due to Walter Hill’s love of baseball and the music group Kiss.
Walter Hill is an American film director, screenwriter and producer. Hill is known for male-dominated action films and revival of the Western. He said in an interview, “Every film I’ve done has been a Western,” and elaborated in another, “The Western is ultimately a stripped down moral universe that is, whatever the dramatic problems are, beyond the normal avenues of social control and social alleviation of the problem, and I like to do that even within contemporary stories.”
WHERE Outside in Transamerica Square (401 N. Tryon Street)
ADMISSION is FREE, but donations are gladly accepted.
THE NEVERENDING STORY [1984]
Directed by Wolfgang Petersen
West Germany & USA / Color / English
Wolfgang Petersen made his English language film debut with the film adaptation of the German novel “Die Unendliche Geschichte”, or “The Neverending Story” by Michael Ende. The story begins with a troubled boy named Bastian (Barret Oliver), who is being raised by his father, his mother having recently passed away. An avid reader with an active imagination, Bastian walks into a used bookstore owned by Mr. Koreander and finds a mysterious book that captures his curiosity. Mr. Koreander seemingly doesn’t want to sell the book to him, but Bastian manages to run from the store with book in hand.
Bastian takes the book to school with him, where he is tormented by three bullies. To avoid the them, Bastian finds refuge in a rarely-used attic within the school and begins to read from the book about a magical land called Fantasia. Fantasia is a wonderful place with many unusual characters and is ruled by the Childlike Princess, but something terrible is happening to Fantasia as parts of it are disappearing by an unknown force referred to only as “the nothing”. The Childlike Princess calls upon the strongest warrior to find a human child to stop “the nothing”. The warrior, a boy named Atreyu (Noah Hathaway) of a tribe similar to Native Americans, takes the protective signet that the Childlike Princess gives to him and sets off to find a human child, which can only be found beyond the bounds of Fantasia.
To his astonishment, as Bastian reads the book and the many adventures, challenges and dangers and Atreyu faces, Bastian slowly begins to realize whom Atreyu and the Childlike Princess are actually seeking.
Rated PG; 102 min.
The film itself actually “ends” about halfway through the book.
Author Michael Ende decided that he was unhappy with the film’s version of his story, and refused to have his name placed in the opening credits. A small credit appears at the end with his name.
The Night Hob says a profanity in the opening scene where the Rockbiter appears running down all in its path. This profanity is often dubbed over by the grumble of the Rockbiter’s scooter, so that it can be shown as a children’s film.
Most of the film was shot in Germany in the summer of 1983. It was Germany’s hottest summer in 25 years.
The original Auryn for this film now hangs in an enclosed glass display in Steven Spielberg’s office.
Noah Hathaway was hurt twice during the making of the movie. During his horse riding training he was thrown off a horse which then stepped on him. Then during the shooting of the drowning sequence in the “swamp of sadness” his leg got caught on the elevator and he was pulled under water. He was unconscious by the time he was brought to the surface.
The makeup team on the movie tried to paint Noah Hathaway green, just as Atreyu is in the book. “It wasn’t believable. I looked like fungi!” Hathaway said.
The theme song was sang by Limahl, who was the lead singer of the pop band Kajagoogoo.
“The Childlike Empress” wasn’t just child-”like”. She was portrayed by Iranian born dancer Tami Stronach who was only 11 years old when the production started.
According to the book the name that Bastian screams almost indecipherable into the night is “Moonchild”, but it has often been debated what Barret Oliver actually says.
You can “ride” on Falcor’s back on location at the Bavaria Filmplatz Munich, Germany.
Born in Emden, Germany, Wolfgang Petersen began directing stage productions at age 21 while still an acting student at Hamburg’s Ernst Deutsch Theatre. Eventually deciding to focus his efforts solely on directing, Petersen entered the Berlin Film and Television Academy, where he trained for four years.
In 1970, Petersen made his television directorial debut with I Will Kill You, Wolf which he followed with 6 two-hour telefeatures for the series Tatort (Crime Scene). Reifezeugnis (Final Grades), one of his shows in this series, turned newcomer Nastassja Kinski literally overnight into a star and to this day it is the most successful TV movie in the history of German television.
Among his other early successes were Smog, which won the 1975 Silver Prix Futura in Berlin, and Black and White Like Day and Night, for which he earned the award as Best Director at the Paris Film Festival in 1978.
Petersen started his feature film career winning the German National Film Prize of Best New Director for The One or the Other in 1973. He soon gained international recognition with the controversial 1977 drama The Consequence; the WWII nautical adventure Das Boot (1981), still the most successful German post-war movie today, garnering two Oscar nominations (Best Director, Best Screenplay Adaptation); The NeverEnding Story (1984), his first English-language film; the space fantasy Enemy Mine (1985), starring Louis Gossett Jr. and Dennis Quaid; and – after taking permanent residence in the United States – the suspense thriller Shattered (1991), starring Tom Berenger. In 1993, Petersen directed the critically acclaimed suspense thriller, In the Line of Fire, starring Clint Eastwood, which was nominated for three Academy Awards (Best Supporting Actor, Best Screenplay and Best Editing). This triumph was followed by the box office hits Outbreak (1995), starring Dustin Hoffman; and Air Force One (1997), starring Harrison Ford. In 2000, Petersen returned to the water with the seafaring drama The Perfect Storm, starring George Clooney and Mark Wahlberg. His next screen adventure took the audience 3000 years back in history to the Late Bronze Age with Troy (2004), written by David Benioff and inspired by The Iliad, Homer’s timeless poem about love and war, starring Brad Pitt, Eric Bana and Orlando Bloom.
Petersen’s last five films have grossed a total of $1.5 billion at the box office worldwide. He is currently developing a live-action adaptation of the 2006 anime film Paprika. He is directing a film adaptation of the science fiction novel Old Man’s War for a 2012 release.
WHERE Actor’s Theatre (650 E. Stonewall Street)
ADMISSION is Free and so is the popcorn. Cash bar available.
THE GOONIES [1985]
Directed by Richard Donner
USA / Color / English
Mikey Walsh and Brandon Walsh are brothers whose family is preparing to move because developers want to build a golf course in the place of their neighborhood — unless enough money is raised to stop the construction of the golf course, and that’s quite doubtful. But when Mikey stumbles upon a treasure map of the famed “One-Eyed” Willy’s hidden fortune, Mikey, Brandon, and their friends Lawrence “Chunk” Cohen, Clark “Mouth” Devereaux, Andrea “Andy” Carmichael, Stefanie “Stef” Steinbrenner, and Richard “Data” Wang, calling themselves The Goonies, set out on a quest to find the treasure in hopes of saving their neighborhood.
The treasure is in a cavern, but the entrance to the cavern is under the house of evil thief Mama Fratelli and her sons Jake Fratelli, Francis Fratelli, and the severely disfigured Lotney “Sloth” Fratelli. Can The Goonies survive Willie’s boobytrapped cavern, the Fratelli crooks, and each other in order to find the treasure and save their homes?
Rated PG; 114 min.
Director Richard Donner has a cameo as the gray-haired sheriff on the quads as the Goonies exit the cave with the ship.
The Goonies Oath that was cut out goes as follows: “I will never betray my goon dock friends / We will stick together until the whole world ends / Through heaven and hell, and nuclear war / Good pals like us, will stick like tar / In the city, or the country, or the forest, or the boonies / I am proudly declared a fellow Goony.”
The pirate ship was entirely real. All the shots were filmed in the ship. After the film, it was offered to anyone who would take it. No one wanted it, so the ship was scrapped.
According to Sean Astin, he was allowed to keep the treasure map used in the film. Several years later his mother discovered it, thought it was just a crinkled piece of paper, and threw it in the trash.
When the boys are sitting in the living room watching MTV, they weren’t actually watching the Cyndi Lauper “Good Enough” video, which was developed six months after filming wrapped up.
The cast was not allowed to see the pirate ship before the scene was shot. When they did see it, some of the kids said “Holy shit!” The scene had to be re-shot without them cursing.
When rocks are falling from the cave ceiling, Jonathan Ke Quan (Data) screams “Holy S-H-I-T!” He said he spelled the expletive because his mother made him promise not to use any bad language in the movie.
“Shit” or “bullshit”is uttered 19 times, not counting the line “Holy S-H-I-T!”
When Chunk and Sloth head down through the grate to follow the gang and the Fratellis, Sloth is wearing an Oakland Raiders T-Shirt. John Matuszak, who played Sloth, was a former Oakland Raiders football player.
RICHARD DONNER
Working briefly as an actor in the late 1950s, American director Richard Donner first wielded the megaphone for a group of TV commercials, then graduated to the weekly western Wanted: Dead or Alive. Some of Donner’s best early work was concentrated on the fantasy anthology Twilight Zone, including the imperishable 1963 episode “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet.” Donner also worked for Hanna-Barbera, directing several episodes of “Danger Island”, a component of the 1968 kid’s series The Banana Splits; there was, however, very little that was “kiddie” about “Mystery Island,” a hallucinatory symphony of hand-held camerawork. A film director since 1961 Donner turned to movie work full time with 1968’s Salt and Pepper. The Omen (1976), a demonic-possession opus, was Donner’s first major moneymaker, leading to his directing assignment on the first Superman film in 1978. Superman was popular enough to inspire three sequels, the first of which contained so much uncredited Donner-directed footage that the director was compelled to sue. Donner has struck gold at the box office several times since 1978, notably with the three action-packed Lethal Weapon films starring Mel Gibson and Danny Glover, and more recently with another Gibson vehicle, Maverick (1994) —allmovie guide
WHERE Transamerica Square (401 N. Tryon Street)
ADMISSION is FREE, but donations are gladly accepted.
THE DARK CRYSTAL [1982]
Directed by Jim Henson and Frank Oz
USA & UK / Color / English
“Another World, Another Time… In the Age of Wonder. A thousand years ago, this land was green and good, until the Crystal cracked. For a single piece was lost; a shard of the Crystal. Then strife began, and two new races appeared: the cruel Skeksis… the gentle Mystics. ”
1,000 years ago the crystal cracked, and the spirits of the UrSkek were divided into the peaceful Mystics and the evil Skeksis. A prophecy was written that stated if a Gelfling healed the crystal, the world would be renewed and the UrSkek would be reunited. Due to the prophecy, the Skeksis hunted down and killed all the Gelflings.
The last Gelfling left on Thra, a male named Jen, was saved and raised by the Mystics. Jen is sent by his dying master on a journey to heal the Dark Crystal. If Jen succeeds, the world will be saved; but if Jen fails, the Skeksis will rule the land forever. On his quest to The Castle of the Crystal, Jen meets Kira, another Gelfling. The two must battle the evil Skeksis and save Thra
Rated PG; 93 min.
At the time it was made, it was hailed as the only live action film in which a human actor makes no appearance.
Pre-production work revolved around Brian Froud’s designs without a finished script. When Froud originally presented Jim Henson with concept drawings for the crystal, Henson seemed totally perplexed. When Froud asked why, Henson said he had no idea what the designs were for. As it turned out, Froud had misunderstood Henson during early production conversations – Henson intended the film to be called “The Dark Chrysalis,” referring to the Skesis dominance over the world. Henson, however, loved the concept art and integrated the idea of the crystal into the storyline.
Early drafts of the script featured Jen and Kira traveling through the underworld where they encountered a race of underground mining creatures. This concept was later integrated by Jim Henson into Fraggle Rock and served as the partial basis for the story of The Power of the Dark Crystal.
Although there are nine of them, the Skeksis were originally based on the seven deadly sins.
Brian Froud’s fascination with lobsters led to many crustacean touches in the design of the film, particularly in the design of the Garthim, the henchmen of the Skeksis.
The Garthim costumes were so heavy that the performers had to be hung up on a rack every five minutes to rest whilst still in costume.
The movie’s conceptual artist Brian Froud and puppet designer Wendy Midener met on the set of the movie and were later married.
Jim Henson
Jim Henson is creator of The Muppets and undoubtedly the most beloved puppeteer in history. In 1955 Jim, already a skilled puppeteer, began his studies in Theatre Arts at the University of Maryland. That year marked the appearance of his first television show, Sam and Friends, a five-minute late-night puppet show he produced along with another freshman, Jane Nebel, whom he would marry in 1959. The show featured some early incarnations of his famous Muppet characters, including a lovable frog named Kermit that Jim fashioned from one of his mother’s old coats and two ping-pong balls. In 1958 Sam and Friends earned Jim his first Emmy Award, and he would go on to win an impressive 30 Emmys during his lifetime for his work with the Jim Henson Company.
The Muppets — Jim coined the term “Muppet” to describe his unique combination of marionette and foam-rubber hand puppets — immediately proved popular, starring in TV commercials and regularly appearing on The Ed Sullivan Show. Then, in 1969, came the immensely successful Sesame Street. It wasn’t until The Muppet Show, which starred Kermit and the egotistical and hilariously outspoken Miss Piggy, was introduced in 1976 that Jim became a favorite of fans of all ages. An estimated 235 million viewers tuned in to The Muppets each week in more than 100 countries.
In 1979, Jim turned to the big screen with a feature film, The Muppet Movie, followed The Great Muppet Caper (1981), in which Jim made his directorial debut, and The Muppets Take Manhattan (1984). In 1989, he decided to entrust The Muppets to The Walt Disney Company. Jim died unexpectedly in 1990, robbing him of the chance to continue his work with Disney, a company he deeply admired.
Frank Oz
Frank Oz (born Frank Oznowicz) graduated from California’s Oakland City College during 1962 and joined the humans behind Jim Henson’s fledgling Muppet group as a puppeteer the following year. He was part of the first-season cast of Saturday Night Live as the Mighty Favag and appeared in The Blues Brothers with John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd. After The Muppet Show went on the air in 1976, Oz became vice president of the Henson organization, and was responsible for the portrayals of Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, and Animal, among other characters, earning three Emmy Awards for his work on the show. He later served as a producer for The Great Muppet Caper (1980), directed by Henson, with whom he co-directed The Dark Crystal a year later. He later directed The Muppets Take Manhattan in 1984. Two years later, with Henson in the director’s chair, Oz was one of the voices in Labyrinth. Moving outside of Henson’s orbit, Oz directed the screen version of the musical Little Shop of Horrors (1986), Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (1988), What About Bob? (1991), and the Kevin Kline vehicle In & Out (1997). He also served as the voice of Yoda in five Star Wars movies: The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi, Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace, Star Wars: Episode II — Attack of the Clones, and Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith.