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Production Notes |
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| Columbia Pictures presents Starman, starring Jeff Bridges and Karen Allen and directed by John Carpenter. Also starring Charles Martin Smith and Richard Jaeckel, Starman was written by Bruce A. Evans and Raynold Gideon, with Larry J. Franco producing and Barry Bernardi co-producing. Michael Douglas is executive producer. Starman was in development for four years at Columbia Pictures before it actually started production. Executive producer Michael Douglas had several projects going simultaneously, one of which was his hit Romancing the Stone. "Ultimately, Starman’s directorial reigns were assigned to John Carpenter, and with Larry J. Franco producing and Barry Bernardi co-producing, the film began. Douglas couldn’t have been more pleased with the choice of John Carpenter to direct the film. "John’s a great choice for Starman. He’s got a great sense of style and deals with action masterfully. I knew he was looking forward to directing a film that’s essentially a love story, one that depends exclusively upon handling the relationships between people and their character development." Known largely for his great success as a director of horror films (Halloween, The Fog, Christine) Carpenter his the opportunity to flex new muscles with Starman. "Of course, people haven’t seen this side of John," adds Douglas, "and they will be surprised to see how well he handles a love story—a comedy—a tender touching romance and adventure." Carpenter was extremely enthusiastic about the opportunity to show America at its most beautiful. Producer Larry J. Franco comments, "There are an awful lot of films today that focus on the things that are wrong in America. We had an opportunity with Starman to show the good side of America… its beauty and the beauty and potential of its people." Carpenter wanted to use the United States as "our very own back lot" so the cast and crew traveled from Los Angeles to Las Vegas, then Winslow, Meteor Crater and Monument Valley, Arizona, east to Nashville, Chattanooga and Manchester, Tennessee, upstate New York and Washington, D.C. The company returned to California to complete filming at The Burbank Studios. One interesting aspect of these locations –and a challenging one, to say the least—was that the chosen locations were not only used to sometimes play themselves, but more often were used to double other locations that were, in some cases, thousands of miles away. These included Nevada-for-Nebraska, Nevada-for-Colorado, Los Angeles-for-Wisconsin, Barstow-for-Arizona and Nashville-for-Wisconsin. To help coordinate the complicated location requirements, the production team and unit production manager enlisted the invaluable aid and support of Governor Richard Bryan, Representative Harry Reid and Film Commission and John Horton of the district of Columbia Film commission. Starman was in no way an uncomplicated logistical film. According to co-producer Bernardi, There are some amazing things about this film, including a dramatic finale with 16 helicopters airborne over Meteor Crater, a raging forest fire staged in Tennessee to create the effect of the crashed space ship, and a massive road block in Nevada which required closing an interstate for three days to complete the shot. The lighting challenges were immense, but easily accomplished by cinematographer Donald Morgan. One of the most inspiring and moving parts of filming Starman came for Morgan when he brought together six cinematographers and camera operators, all colleagues, who worked together like a symphony orchestra for the climactic crater sequence, with some of the men in airborne helicopters. Morgan also called on his early experience as an aerial photographer to help coordinate the special needs of that scene. Special effects coordinator Roy Arbogast has his hands full on Starman as he staged everything from a forest fire and a freeway tanker-truck crash to various otherworldly materializations and happenings. Arbogast had to rig Big Bertha, an enormous one-armed bandit in Las Vegas’ Horseshoe Casino, to get the giant slot machine to pay off a half-million dollars on cue. No stranger to the challenge of creating supernatural effects, Arbogast most recently gave a 1958 Plymouth Fury human characteristics in the John Carpenter thriller Christine. According to Bernardi, the Starman effects were a great undertaking and Roy is equal to the task. |
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