“Did he make a comeback yet?”
In a recent interview with the L.A. Times, Kevin Smith called ’80s director/’00s recluse John Hughes his “generation’s J.D. Salinger.” I’m not going to get into that comparison, no way, but it’s worth mentioning that Salinger hasn’t written anything in 40 years, whereas Hughes hasn’t done much movie-wise in a decade. He has more in common with Terrence Malick (20 years between Badlands Days of Heaven and The Thin Red Line) than the completely AWOL Salinger.
Recently, Hughes received a credit under an alias for his, albeit old, story idea for Drillbit Taylor. Sure that film flopped hard, but its release has given the media reason to put out a Hughes APB and it’s hit the Internet pretty hard. Driving home on Monday, I heard a report on NPR about race and the unflappable popularity of Hughes’s character Long Duk Dong from Sixteen Candles. It’s clear that audiences still want the real deal to return, especially during this current hunger for the ’80s and LOL comedy.
As the Times points out, Hughes still maintains select ties to showbiz folk, notably producer and friend Tom Jacobson, and he met with Vince Vaughn a few years ago. I know, big deal, but he’s not exactly chain smoking, shooting guns in his house and sleeping in his bowling alley. Will the man who perfected the affable white goofball in beloved, classic films like Weird Science, Planes, Trains & Automobiles and The Breakfast Club really never write/direct another movie? Ever? You really think so? Even with comedy’s ring leader and producer of Drillbit, Judd Apatow, offering gushers like…
“John Hughes wrote some of the great outsider characters of all time,” says Apatow. “It’s pretty ridiculous to hear people talk about the movies we’ve been doing, with outrageous humor and sweetness all combined, as if they were an original idea. I mean, it was all there first in John Hughes’ films. Whether it’s ‘Freaks and Geeks’ or ‘Superbad,’ the whole idea of having outsiders as the lead characters, that all started with Hughes.”
Apatow uses the same kind words for director Harold Ramis (Caddyshack, Vacation, which Hughes wrote) and now he’s producing Ramis’s arguable comeback film, 2009’s anticipated Year One. So you have to wonder, with all of Apatow’s conecs and influence, has he not mentioned an official return to comedy to one of his biggest inspirations? Jus’ sayin’.
Discuss: Would you like to see John Hughes return, as long as it’s not Curly Sue Squared? Moreover, what are the odds we’ll see it happen?
March 26th, 2008 at 2:16 pm
I don’t know, I’m optimistic about a John Hughes return. I’d pay to see it. If it was written under the name, John Hughes, I would go.
I mean, George Romero was pulled out of hiding to make “Land of the Dead” after zombie flicks became “the thing” in horror.
We’ll see. I would be delighted to see another teen John Hughes flick!
March 26th, 2008 at 2:18 pm
I’d do anything to see Ferris Bueller’s Day Off II.
March 26th, 2008 at 2:23 pm
Isn’t this what happened with Lucas when he announced his return to film with the new SW films?
And look what we got. I see film-making like any other creative medium. If you take a long break from it, you will be rusty. Sure you won’t forget the fundamentals. But you gotta keep those muscles active.
March 26th, 2008 at 2:39 pm
Uncle Buck II? Nah, there’s no topping perfection.
March 26th, 2008 at 2:40 pm
LOL comedy? conecs? Hunter, please stop. You’re being completely ridiculous with these stupid abbreviations and crap. You’re paid to write, so stop taking the short cuts and write. Conecs? goddammit, how hard is it to write connections?
March 26th, 2008 at 2:40 pm
drillbit taylor felt like a john hughes film.
March 26th, 2008 at 2:50 pm
@ Zap
Short cuts? Orly?
@ Captain Awesome
If Hughes does come back, I doubt he’d make a teen movie. I don’t want to see Hughes taking on today’s text messaging squirts and Fall Out Boy. Apatow already mentions Google once or twice every movie right? Haha. Hughes would probably come off like Zap Rowsdower up there. But something like PT&A? Sweetness. Or, uh, Dutch. Any Dutch fans?
March 26th, 2008 at 2:58 pm
I would luke him to make a comeback but if the ideas that he has are stories that would of worked in the 80’s and that apateow thought that drillbitwas a idea that he could of made modern.
But I would him another try
March 26th, 2008 at 3:15 pm
All I’m gonna ask is why? The guys list sputtered towards the end and you want him back? I’m just living day by day, getting surprised with what /film tells me is gonna come out next…
March 26th, 2008 at 4:37 pm
According to J.D. Salinger’s daughter’s memoir, her father writes everyday and has like 15 completed novels. He just hasn’t published anything in forever. But when he dies, a ton of unreleased stuff is going to get published and there is going to be Salinger mania. Imagine Vonnegut’s death times 50.
March 26th, 2008 at 5:19 pm
I think we should just have a Funeral for John Hughes right now and get it over with.
March 26th, 2008 at 5:22 pm
@ jonny
I think John Hughes should just adapt/direct Catcher in the Rye and get it over with. ;)
March 26th, 2008 at 5:39 pm
@ Hunter…
Don’t make me get out of this chair and assassinate you.
>:E
March 26th, 2008 at 5:50 pm
Wow! Such opinionated views! This is the most hate filled board I’ve seen on here…and all for John Hughes. That alone says home influential the guy was/is. I’d like to see him make another film, but I don’t think he needs a “comeback.” When most of his flicks still resonate today it’s more a matter of what story will he tell next…not how much money will his next flick earn so that people consider him “back in the game.” As much as I’d like to see more of his work, I’d stay in hiding if I were him. I think the critics…and some of the posters on this blog…would probably be chomping at the bits to destroy a new Hughes flick just for the sake of destroying it. Long live Hughes!
March 26th, 2008 at 7:22 pm
@Eddie
“This is the most hate filled board I’ve seen on here”
You must have missed the Billy Mitchel thread.
http://www.slashfilm.com/2008/03/06/did-steve-wiebe-reclaim-his-title-of-the-king-of-kong/
that was fun. :)
March 26th, 2008 at 8:02 pm
For the edification of those not in the know, DRILLBIT TAYLOR did not ‘flop hard’, as was suggested above. The film cost about $40 mil, and in five days, has made $14 mil back worldwide. It will most likely make its budget back in theatres, and though that won’t recoup the marketing and rental expenses, you have my personal guarantee it will cover the spread, AND make a profit on DVD.
Of course, this isn’t the first time he’s written under a pseudonym - he also wrote MAID IN MANHATTAN. Yeah, I’d be using a pen name if I wrote that, too.
Here’s hoping that John Hughes, one of the top five writers of the eighties, the man who once had an ENTIRE FLOOR of the Fox Plaza (aka. The Nakatomi Building from DIE HARD) dedicated to his movies, the man who grossed $477 million against a budget of $18 million for HOME ALONE, and then seemingly gave up, comes back and starts writing again. We need some reality in this climate of terrible writing.
And just for the record, Salinger’s a mopey turd who accidentally touched a nerve with similarly mopey teens. He loses out because he never ONCE included the line, “THOSE AREN’T PILLOWS!” in his writings.
March 26th, 2008 at 9:25 pm
For every good Hughes movie, there was a terrible one.
But his top five or six were really pretty impressive.
March 26th, 2008 at 9:39 pm
@ Jonny
Holy crap! You weren’t kidding! Freakin’ hilarious!
March 27th, 2008 at 6:16 am
@Hunter
”20 years between Bad Lands and The Thin Red Line”
no,no - 20 years between Days of Heaven and The Thin Red Line
…and apologies but just to be a total smartarse it’s Badlands.