Earthquake (film)
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| Earthquake | |
|---|---|
 Earthquake movie poster |
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| Directed by | Mark Robson |
| Produced by | Mark Robson |
| Written by | George Fox Mario Puzo |
| Starring | Charlton Heston Ava Gardner George Kennedy Lorne Greene Geneviève Bujold Richard Roundtree Marjoe Gortner Barry Sullivan Lloyd Nolan Victoria Principal |
| Music by | John Williams |
| Cinematography | Philip Lathrop |
| Distributed by | Universal Pictures |
| Running time | 123 min. |
| Language | English |
| IMDb profile | |
Earthquake is the title of a blockbuster 1974 film that was among several successful so-called disaster films of the 1970s that places an all-star cast in life and death situations. The basic plot concerns the reactions and struggles for survival after a catastrophic earthquake hits the city of Los Angeles, California.
Directed by Mark Robson and with a screenplay by George Fox and Mario Puzo, starring Charlton Heston, Ava Gardner, Lorne Greene, George Kennedy, Geneviève Bujold, Richard Roundtree, Marjoe Gortner, Barry Sullivan, Lloyd Nolan, Victoria Principal, Monica Lewis and Walter Matthau (credited as "Walter Matuschanskayasky".)
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[edit] Origins
In the wake of the tremendous success of their disaster-suspense film Airport, Universal Studios began working with executive producer Jennings Lang to come up with another idea that would work with the same "disaster-suspense" genre that made Airport so financially successful, only on a larger scale. In a sense, the idea literally came to them as a direct result of the San Fernando Earthquake, a moderate earthquake which shook the Los Angeles area during the early morning hours of February 9, 1971. Director Mark Robson and Lang were intrigued with the idea of creating a disaster on film that would not be confined to an airliner, but rather take place over a large area. Thus, Earthquake was born.
[edit] Development
Lang scored a major coup when he was able to sign on legendary screenwriter Mario Puzo to pen the first draft during the summer of 1972. Puzo, fresh off the success of his novel and film, The Godfather, delivered the script in August. Much like his Godfather films, the characters and situations in his Earthquake script were intricate, and showed a similar attention to detail. However, Puzo's detailed script necessitated a much larger production budget (as the action and characters were spread over a much larger geographical area in the City of Los Angeles), and Universal was faced with either cutting the script down, or increasing the film's projected budget. Puzo's involvement with Earthquake was short lived, however, as Paramount Pictures was anxious to begin development with the followup to The Godfather, The Godfather: Part II. Since Puzo's services were contractually obligated to the sequel, he felt he would be unable to continue work on two projects of such a large scale, so he opted out of continuing any further work on Earthquake.
The Earthquake script languished at Universal Studios for a short period of time, but was brought back to life by the huge success of 20th Century Fox's hit, The Poseidon Adventure, released in December, 1972. Fueled by the enormous box office receipts of that film, Universal Studios put pre-production on Earthquake back in to high gear, hiring writer George Fox to continue work with Puzo's first draft. Director Mark Robson worked with Fox (who was more of a magazine writer - this was his first screenplay) to narrow the scope of the script down to fit into the budgetary constraints. After eleven drafts, Earthquake went before the cameras in February, 1974.
[edit] Production
Budgeted at $7,000,000 USD, Earthquake immediately found itself in a race against the clock against another (and bigger-budgeted) disaster film, The Towering Inferno, which was being produced by two movie studios (a motion picture first) by The Poseidon Adventure producer, Irwin Allen. While that film featured a larger "all star" cast (in fact, Universal had approached several, including Steve McQueen and Paul Newman, to star in Earthquake - but they had already signed to Allen), Universal was able to land Charlton Heston in the lead role, along with Ava Gardner (who signed at the proverbial "11th hour"), George Kennedy, Lorne Greene, Genevieve Bujold (who agreed to a part in the film to head off an impeding lawsuit by Universal over a prior project), and Richard Roundtree (fresh off the Shaft film series).
Production necessitated the complete destruction of the Universal Studios backlot in order to simulate the catastrophic earthquake of the title (as doing the same on Los Angeles streets would not have been possible). Along with a clever use of miniatures of actual buildings, matte paintings, and full-scale sets, Earthquake combined decades old special effects techniques with those developed especially for the film (including a revolutionary "Shaker Mount" camera system, which mimicked the effects of an earthquake.
Extensive use of highly trained stunt artists for the most dangerous scenes involving high falls, dodging falling debris, and flood sequences, set a Hollywood record for the most stunt artists involved in any film production up until that time: 141. Some stunt artists were required to fall sixty feet onto large air bags, for which they were paid the princely sum of $500.00
[edit] "Sensurround"
Universal Studios and Jennings Lang wanted Earthquake to be an "Event Film" - something that would draw audiences in to the theatre multiple times. After several ideas were tossed about (which included bouncing faux styrofoam "debris" over audience members heads), Universal's sound department came up with a process called "Sensurround" - a series of large speakers and a 1,500 watt amplifier, that would pump in sub-audible "infra bass", giving the viewer the sensation of an earthquake. The process was tested in several theatres around the United States prior to the films release, yielding various results (a famous example is the Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, California, where the "Sensurround" cracked the plaster in the ceiling. Ironically, the same theatre premiered Earthquake three months later -- with a newly-installed net over the audience to catch any falling debris -- to tremendous success).
[edit] Release
After October test screenings in various theatres throughout the country, Universal opted to cut thirty minutes from the film at the last minute (notably from the pre-quake sequences), at the cost of some of the dramatic flow (including a sub-plot involving an abortion).
Released in the United States on November 15, 1974, Earthquake grossed nearly $80,000,000 USD ($300,000,000 USD, adjusted for inflation in 2006 dollars), becoming the fourth-highest grossing film of 1974 (Its competition, The Towering Inferno, was the highest).
[edit] Television Premiere
For the film's October, 1976 television premiere on NBC, additional footage was added to expand the running time of the film so it could be shown over two nights. Contrary to popular belief, this "television version" made no use of material originally left out of the theatrical release (save one small scene), but rather new footage was shot some two years after the original, using some of the stars from the theatrical version.
[edit] Sequel
A script for a sequel, Earthquake II, was written in late-1975, and featured the characters of George Kennedy, Victoria Principal, Richard Roundtree, and Gabriel Dell, but was never pushed into production. Earthquake II details the main characters adjusting to new lives in San Francisco as refugees from the Los Angeles quake of the original film, when another major, more catastrophic earthquake and tsunami strikes the Bay Area. Production was cancelled in the pre-production stage in late-1977, as the popularity of disaster films was starting to wane.
[edit] Trivia
- The 1974 theatrical release used "Sensurround", a subwoofer system to create the feeling of an earthquake. This was simply a set of large subwoofers designed to create infra-bass (felt but not heard).
- Premiered on U.S. television in 1976, with additional footage and storylines added to lengthen the film in order to expand it over a two-night showing.
- The latest Universal Home Video DVD (released May 9, 2006) features the original "Sensurround" audio track, duplicating the original theatrical "Sensurround" track, which generated low frequency, high-power sound waves which "shook" the theatre.
- On an episode of Quantum Leap, Sam Beckett leaped in as one of the stuntmen on the film (footage from which was used). "Sam" is the man hanging from a piece of debris whom Sam Royce (Lorne Greene's character) attempts to save, but loses his grip and falls.
- Footage from the earthquake sequence was reused in the Galactica 1980 episode "The Night the Cylons Landed", in a "computer simulation" of a devastating Cylon attack on LA.
- Walter Matthau is credited in this film as "Walter Matushanskayasky". (Click the name to find out why.)
[edit] Awards
Earthquake won an Academy Award for Best Sound, as well as a Special Achievement Award for visual effects. The film introduced a widely publicised gimmick called "Sensurround." The marketing of the film made full use of this gimmick, and provided a novelty factor to help entice people into the cinemas. It was used again for the films Midway (1976), Rollercoaster (1977) and Battlestar Galactica but had limited use and was dispensed with after this.
[edit] Ride
A theme park attraction based on the film, called "Earthquake: The Big One," is located at both Universal Studios Hollywood, and Universal Orlando Resort. The attraction takes you through the world of Hollywood special effects, followed by the simulation of an Earthquake, measuring 8.3 on the Richter Scale, combining special effects such as a giant oil tanker exploding directly in front of the riders and 60,000 gallons of water crashing right into the side of your train. There is no connection between the events of the film, and the events depicted in the ride: The film takes place in Los Angeles, California, the ride takes place in San Francisco, California.
