As you’ve all probably heard by now there’s a pretty massive article on the late John Hughes (director/writer of ’80s classics like, “The Breakfast Club,” “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” and many more) in the latest issue of Vanity Fair. We haven’t read it yet, but it’s by one of our favorite music/film writers David Kamp, so it’s a must-read for us this weekend.
The piece talks about a lot of unfinished or unproduced screenplays Hughes either wrote or never finished and one caught our eye via Slicing Up Eyeballs that was based on The Cure song, “Lovecats” that was introduced to the director via Molly Ringwald. She recalls:
When “The Breakfast Club” ended, he started writing a script called Lovecats, because I played him that song by the Cure, “The Lovecats.” I was obsessed by the Cure—still am. I think Robert Smith is an underrated songwriter. Anyway, I played this song for John, and he started writing a script, and he gave me a mix tape of what the soundtrack was gonna be. Which was pretty much Dave Brubeck, with the last song by Bob Dylan.
We assume it would have had The Cure song as well? Or is that too obvious? Another film idea is described by Anthony Michael Hall.
John had an idea for a movie called The Last Good Year. It was something that he pitched to me as something he wanted to do with me, about the last good year being 1962, before the Beatles’ invasion. Maybe it was a sarcastic title. The idea was, I think, that the cultural shift was significant to him—the crossover in time from Pat Boone America to Beatles America. He didn’t have too many of the story elements worked out, but, man, did he have a mix tape put together.
God, another good film and soundtrack we’ll never hear/see? A shame. We haven’t had time to dig into these meaty articles, but we will this weekend. You should too. /Film points out another alleged unproduced film as well, but it is from someone in the comments section, so you never know the validity there. Oh and another must-read is the Roger Ebert profile in Esquire.