Something Wicked This Way Comes (1983 film)
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| Something Wicked This Way Comes | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Jack Clayton |
| Produced by | Peter Douglas |
| Written by | Ray Bradbury, John Mortimer (uncredited) |
| Starring | Jason Robards, Jonathan Pryce |
| Music by | James Horner |
| Cinematography | Stephen H. Burum |
| Editing by | Barry Mark Gordon Art J. Nelson |
| Distributed by | Walt Disney Pictures |
| Release date(s) | April 29, 1983 |
| Running time | 95 min. |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $19,000,000 (estimated) |
| Allmovie profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Something Wicked This Way Comes is a 1983 film based on the Ray Bradbury novel of the same name, starring Jason Robards and Jonathan Pryce. Directed by Jack Clayton from a screenplay written by Bradbury himself, the movie suffered from offscreen conflicts of vision. Although Disney was making a conscious effort at the time to expand past children's fare as they had become associated with and make more complex and mature films, they struggled against the creepy and sometimes gruesome nature of the source material.
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[edit] Plot Synopsis
In a small town, two young boys named Will and Jim encounter a sinister carnival whose proprietors Mr. Dark and Mr. Cooger lure the townsfolk to their doom by promising to fulfill their childhood desires. As Will, Jim, and Will's father, Charles Halloway, are about to find out these wishes come at a horrific price.
[edit] Cast
- Jason Robards as Charles Halloway
- Jonathan Pryce as Mr. Dark
- Vidal Peterson as Will Halloway
- Shawn Carson as Jim Nightshade
- Diane Ladd as Mrs. Nightshade
- Royal Dano as Tom Fury
- Pam Grier as the Dust Witch
- Mary Grace Canfield as Miss Foley
- Bruce Fischer as Mr. Cooger
- Arthur Hill as The Narrator
[edit] Production History
In 1977, Bradbury sold the film rights to Something Wicked This Way Comes to Paramount. He and director Jack Clayton, whom Bradbury had previously worked with on Moby Dick, produced a completed script however production never began. The film was eventually put into turnaround.
At this time Walt Disney Pictures was concentrating on live action adventure and horror films in an attempt to break free from their stereotype as an animation only studio. After the success of family-oriented fantasy pictures by competing studios, such as Time Bandits and The Dark Crystal Disney decided to purchase the adaptation's rights and hired Bradbury to produce a new script from scratch.
The studio sought Bradbury's input on selecting a cast and director, and he suggested Clayton feeling they had worked well together at Paramount. In a 1981 issue of Cinefantastique Bradbury states that his top choices to play Mr. Dark were Peter O'Toole and Christopher Lee. However, Disney decided to go with a relatively unknown actor instead in order to keep the budget down. As the film progressed two differing visions emerged for the film with Bradbury wishing to stay as faithful to the novel as possible, and Clayton wanting to make a more accessible and family friendly film. The two became estranged when Clayton hired writer John Mortimer to do an uncredited revision of Bradbury's screenplay at the studio's behest.[1]
Initial test screenings did not fare well with audiences and Disney re-commissioned Bradbury to write an opening narration sequence and new ending. Disney also spent an additional US$5 Million on refilming, re-editing, and rescoring the picture. Bradbury referred to the film's final cut as "not a great film, no, but a decently nice one."[2]
[edit] Differences between the book and the film
Although the main plot of the film closely follows that of the book, it nonetheless diverges in several ways, most notably in its ending.
- In both versions, the lightning-rod salesman Tom Fury appears near the beginning of the story and mysteriously disappears shortly before the carnival opens. However, in the book, he is revealed to have been transformed into a dwarf with no memory of his former life, whereas in the film he is only held captive by the carnival and later brings about the death of the Dust Witch. The film does not specify if he survives the storm afterward.
- Near the beginning of the film, a man with a missing leg and a single crutch looks into the Mirror Maze and regains his leg. No such event occurs in the book. Additionally The Dust Witch is described as a blind hag in the book, while in the film she is a beautiful temptress.
- In the book Mr. Dark is also known as the Illustrated Man (a title which was the namesake of a later Bradbury anthology) and is described as having tattoos which cover nearly his entire body. In the film the only tattoos he has are of Will and Jim.
- When Will and Jim are hiding in the gutter from the carnival members, they are almost exposed when a dog barks over the gutter after dropping its treat inside. The book originally had a child dropping a wad of bubblegum in the gutter and calling his mom to look and see what he found.
- Instead of being regressed on the carousel to a crying little girl, Miss Foley {Folly} consciously becomes a pretty young woman.
[edit] Awards & Reception
The Film was well received by critics earning a 69% "Fresh" rating at the film aggregate site Rotten Tomatoes. Pulitzer Prize winning critic Roger Ebert gave the film three and a half star review calling it "a horror movie with elegence". Despite the positive press the film only made $8.4 million at the domestic box office.
It won the 1984 Saturn Award for Best Fantasy Film and was nominated for fives others including best music and best supporting actor for Jonathan Pryce. The film was also nominated for Best Picture at the Hugo Awards and Grand Jury Prize at the Avoriaz Film Festival.
[edit] References in popular culture
In the original version of Epcot's Journey Into Imagination ride, the words Something Wicked are printed on the spine of one of the colossal books in the Literature scene. This is both a reference to the Disney movie and an ode to author Ray Bradbury who helped design the Epcot center.[3]
The film was spoofed in an episode of the animated series Tiny Toons Adventures entitled Something Stupid This Way Comes. Plucky plays the fool and Buster and Babs have to rescue him from the evil ringmaster-who gets his comeuppance in the end.
In the Venture Bros. episode "Powerless in the Face of Death," The manner in which Dr. Orpheus asks the heads about the Venture boys is similar to the questioning technique of Mr. Dark in Something Wicked This Way Comes. The image of each boy is drawn on his hands and he describes Dean as having "rusted-colored" hair (Nightshade's hair in the movie was hair "dark as night") and Hank as "towheaded" (same as Halloway).
In the film "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban", at its beginning, Hogward's choral sings a song entitled "Something Wicked this Way Comes".
In the Warner Bros cartoon "Freakazoid," the main character is locked in a cell with a character named Fanboy, who proceeds to discuss "Tron" and how it is wrongfully-blamed for the bankruptcy of Disney. He maintains that the real films that 'broke the bank' were "The Black Hole" and "Something Wicked This Way Comes."
[edit] References
- ^ Weller, Sam (2005). The Bradbury Chronicles: The Life of Ray Bradbury. New York: William Morrow, 306-309. ISBN 0-06-054581-X.
- ^ Bradbury, Ray (2005). Bradbury Speaks: Too Soon from the Cave, Too Far from the Stars. New York: William Morrow, 10. ISBN 0-06-058568-4.
- ^ Journey Into Imagination Fact Sheet
