Blind Item #8 - His Personal Porno
Back in the day, this director was A+ list. He had just made the movie that would define his career and he was on top of the world. It is a movie that almost everyone has seen, and if you haven't seen it, you know exactly what it is about. That is how pervasive it is. Anyway, the studio wanted a movie from the director. He was hot. So, he proposed something that looking back looks idiotic and destined to be a bomb, but hey, he was the director of that thing so we have to let him. I think the director knew his movie was crap. His celebrity offspring told him the movie was crap. The director didn't care. This was his own personal porno. You can't look at the top names when you look at the cast. That was cover. It is the actresses that got topless in the movie for their first credit. Most of them had to casting couch to get in that movie. There are so many sex scenes that ended up on the cutting room floor with actresses who had casting couched to get a role and then have sex on camera only to see it end up solely in the director's home movie collection. He had recordings made of sex with those actresses too in case they ever decided to come after him. He threatened to release the tapes. He thought he was untouchable. He kind of is now.
Stanley Kubrick, movie blockbuster Spartacus and his personal porno, Lolita?
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DeleteSorry did not see "celebrity offspring". Hmm trying to make Coppola work here.
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ReplyDeleteAdrian Lyne/Fatal Attraction -daughter a famous documentary filmmaker /photog and Lolita?
ReplyDeleteOr first thought Paul Verhoevan -Basic Instinst and Showgirls -author daughter but not sure “celebrity”...
ReplyDeleteRichard Kelly comes up - but that's only because after Donnie Darko his movies were "meh," but I don't see a "celebrity offspring."
ReplyDeleteAlso Donnie Darko wasn't one of those movies that either everyone has seen or knows about. Disregard my choice above. Null and void.
ReplyDeleteRon Howard movie being Cocoon. So hot!
ReplyDeleteBased on the last sentence "he kind of is now" tells me the director has passed away. So maybe Kubrick?
ReplyDeleteWas Kubrick known for his couch? I’ve only heard him being a pita for doing multiple takes.
Delete"Untouchable" - DePalma, which he made after Body Double (crap&porno)?
ReplyDeleteScarface defined his career
Was trying to make Bruce Paltrow, Gwyneth's dad fit with the movie "A Little Sex" but he did not make a major movie prior to that.
ReplyDeleteI am onboard with Kubrick, too, but haven't found a celebrity offspring. Eyes Wide Shut being the softie porno. Side note: 2001 A Space Odyssey: A movie some people have seen, most people have heard about, and everyone is like, what the fuck?
ReplyDeleteKubrik. The big names were Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman. The movie was "Eyes Wide Shut" . . . so many sex scenes and big breaks for a lot of actresses.
ReplyDeleteBody double was not crap.
ReplyDeleteAgreed! I love that movie. Plus it has "Relax" w/Frankie Goes to Hollywood--what more could you ask for?
DeleteLaser beams!
Kubrick
ReplyDeleteDefined: 2001 Space Oddysey
Bomb: Eyes Wide Shut
i read this as the famous hit coming at a time he was already a+list and the bomb coming immediately after it. and that he's still alive if he is now untouchable (because of the blackmail power of his clips.) so:
ReplyDeletepaul verhoeven, who had just made total recall and robocop, making basic instinct, with showgirls for the second movie.
Hmmmm David Lynch, Blue Velvet? his daughter is director Jennifer Lynch
ReplyDeleteBlue velvet instantly popped into my head.
DeleteKubrick has no celebrity offspring. And the blind sounds like the sex movie was made right after the hit movie, not thirty years later.
ReplyDelete"I think the director knew his movie was crap. His celebrity offspring told him the movie was crap."
ReplyDeleteI don't see any celebrity offspring from Kubrick...
Kubrick was a hot shot long before 2001. Adriane Lynne is more likely.
ReplyDeleteThe problem with Kubrick is Eyes Wide Shut came after Full Metal Jacket, not even close to being his biggest triumph which has to be 2001. I like DePalma for Body Double after Scarface, but no celebrity offspring at the time to tell him it was crap. Only A+ director with celebrity offspring old enough and all time classic movies I can think of is John Huston. Though I know the definition of celebrity on here is at times stretched pretty far.
ReplyDeletehis daughter, helen verhoeven, is an artist who was showing in world class galleries by the mid-nineties, so she was old enough to recognize that showgirls (1995) was an embarassment.
ReplyDeletethere are too many huge kubrick movies for any one of them to be considered his defining film.
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ReplyDeleteThere are no topless background girls in Lyne's Lolita, and no sex scenes that could have possibly be filmed and cut that involved anyone below the top credits.
ReplyDelete(I love this movie so I've popped in to defend it =))
Why do the first three sentences of this blind remind me of James Cameron?
ReplyDeletelook at 1987-1995:
ReplyDeletepaul verhoeven's imdb filmography
his daughter helen is a celebrity artist. she's represented by the saatchi gallery, among others.
Im liking the Verhoeven guess a lot, Showgirls after Basic Instinct sounded ridiculous even back then and Celebrity daughter painter works too. He is almost 80 and living in Holland so maybe thats the sort of untouchable part, though I think A+ list is a stretch, Beside Basic Instinct the only other real blockbuster is Total Recall, lots of awesome culty movies, but only those two big hits.
ReplyDeleteWho is the Actress that got topless in the movie for their first credit? Was there a now hot actress who got started in Eyes Wide Shut being topless?
ReplyDeleteIf you are referring to Eyes Wide Shut as the pervasive movie. Its not that huge. I asked 10 of the ppl around me if they had heard of it, only 2 had, it wasnt that hot.
I thought "Eyes Wide Shut" was a huge deal?
DeleteTinto Brass... Caligula
ReplyDeleteI like the paul verhoeven guess.
ReplyDeleteVerhoeven Basic Instinct Starship Troopers a lot of Playboy Playmates played Female Troopers
ReplyDeleteDefinitely NOT Stanley Kubrick.
I was thinking the first three sentences sounded like William Friedkin and 'The Exorcist'. Nothing else in the description applies, however.
ReplyDeletePossible reasons "he kind of is now":
ReplyDeleteHe's dead.
He's already so disgraced by something else this couldn't make it worse.
He's retired and so far out of the limelight who cares.
I also thought he could have turned it over to authorities and come clean, but the casting couch isn't illegal, right? If that's all they could accuse him of, he's cleaner than Weinstein. Maybe that's what it means: with others looking so bad now, he would be fine?
Showgirls certainly had plenty of topless background girls. But I wouldn't call Basic Instinct "the movie that would define his career." He's usually known more for the violent satires, isn't he?
ReplyDeleteKubrick was untouchable after spartacus, de palma's breakthrough was carrie, verhoeven had about 4-5 big hits before showgirls, polanski had Repulsion before rosemary's baby.
ReplyDeleteI cant believe Polanski had the gall to make "Repulsion" (spoiler Alert: it's about a mentally messed-up woman and at the end of the film, we find out she was molested as a child).
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ReplyDeleteStarship Troopers shouldn't have had a lot of sex scenes filmed for it. Also, it's not crap. ;)
ReplyDeleteI really think the guy is dead. It says, 'BACK IN THE DAY, this director was A+ list.'
ReplyDeleteThat implies that he no longer is an A+ director. Is it even possible for someone who made a movie that almost everyone has seen to stop being an A+ director, except by dying? Besides, he's (kind of) untouchable. The only way to be untouchable without being A+ is being dead imo.
Michael Cimino "The Deer Hunter"/"Heaven's Gate" ?
ReplyDeleteI forgot to ask the better question: why would Verhoeven be untouchable now? Sex tapes aren't a guarantee anymore; ask Harvey. He is 79.
ReplyDelete@Florin, right, Starship Troopers isn't crap, and he certainly didn't think so when he made it. It's cheesy, but it's kind of accidentally great, and you can enjoy it on the satirical level he meant or as a throwback heroic war movie. It does have the shower scene, and it's possible more barracks nudity like that was cut. But that would make his big career-defining movie everyone has seen Showgirls, so it doesn't work.
Brian De Palma's daughter is named Lolita
ReplyDeleteBTW, Cimino died in 2016, if being dead is a factor.
ReplyDeletePossibly John Boorman - movie being either Zardoz or less likely, Exorcist 2?
ReplyDeleteIs it Coppola? After The Godfathers and Apocalypse Now, he made One From The Heart which nearly tanked Zoetrope studios. It also has a list an arms length of uncredited women, and was the first screen credit for Rebecca De Mornay. I have no idea if she got nude in it though.
ReplyDeleteNM, I don't think Cimino had any kids, much less celeb kids.
ReplyDeleteCoppola also had massive egg on his face after The Godfather 3.
ReplyDeleteBlake Edwards. Big hit was “10”, personal porno was “SOB”. Even Julie Andrews went topless in this one.
ReplyDeleteCoppola followed Apocalypse Now (the movie everyone knows) with One from the Heart, a complete flop that he self-financed. Haven't seen it, so I don't know who the poor actress he blackmailed is.
ReplyDeleteHe is certainly less untouchable than he would have been before Harvey.
Verhoeven is best guess, but I don't see him having one career defining movie, he had a string of hits before Showgirls. Robocop, Total Recall, and Basic Instinct.
ReplyDeleteLooking through all the other directors mentioned on imdb, Showgirls is the only title that I'd call "crap" and fits with having tons of sex scenes the director could shoot. It was also heavily mocked when it was released and critics trashed it big time. It makes sense that people around him knew it was trash to begin with.
FTR, Kubrick couldn't make a crap movie if he was directing from the toilet. He's out.
If the guy isn't dead, then Verhoeven is a good guess. He has made some fantastic films, but there can be so much gratuitous nudity it can detract from them - I'm thinking of 'Black Book' where Carice van Houten rarely seems to have all of her clothes on!
ReplyDeleteBut if he IS dead, and as disappointing as I'd find it (I'm from an area where Huston lived for a long time, and he's still remembered fairly fondly), then John Huston is probably right, with the film being "Wise Blood", made directly after "The Man Who Would Be King" which was a big critical and commercial hit for him (although personally I tend to think of him more in terms of his 1950s and 1980s - i.e. The Dead - work).
The celebrity sprog may then be Tony Huston, rather than Angelica, as it seems that Tony was a scriptwriter on it according to the Oracle of Wiki.
@ Do Tell - sure, but that was years later. He was coming off I & II, then Apocalypse Now, which is the movie I think fits the blind.
ReplyDeleteRE: Blake Edwards daughter is a theatrical/film director, Emma Hamilton.
ReplyDeleteI like the Blake Edwards guess. I only don't get the "untouchable now" hint. He died 7 years ago...
ReplyDelete"celebrity offspring" usually indicates they aren't actors. an artist who's career was starting to take off, making a name for herself, would be horrified for her father, who was famous and respected in their home country of holland, and had just made 3 international blockbusters, to make "showgirls".
ReplyDeletei think he's untouchable because he lives and mostly works in europe.
If the movie is Lolita, I cannot find the names above involved. The director was someone else entirely.
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ReplyDeleteIf the movie is Lolita, I cannot find the names above involved. The director was someone else entirely. Was the previous film everyone recalls involving a dead rabbit?
Showgirls. Makes sense with all the extra girls/dancers.
ReplyDeleteI agree w/ @ just sayin'
ReplyDeletepaul verhoeven
hits were basic instinct / total recall etc
and the bomb was Showgirls
Tacky as it was, isn't "Showgirls" brutally honest about the sleazy exploitation in Hollywood that this blog details?
ReplyDeletePerhaps it was hated because it was a funhouse mirror.
Maybe Guy Ritchie's King Arthur? He's famous for that Brad Pitt cockney movie that no one understands and he has "celebrity offspring"
ReplyDeleteStanley Kubrick made SEVERAL movies which are iconic in their own ways and that everyone has heard about even if they haven't seen them. Also, Kubrick is rumoured (here on CDaN, in the comments) to have been murdered days before Eyes Wide Shut premiered, becasue he exposed certain people too much, and the movie was recut after his deatrh. not him.
ReplyDeleteDoes George Lucas have a celebrity offspring and made a movie wit lots of sex?
Stanley Kubrick has tons of hits, critical and box office in addition to what's mentioned here (2001 and Lolita); The Shining, Dr. Strangelove, Clockwork Orange, Paths of Glory. He doesn't have one hit and I think someone else edited Eyes Wide Shut because he died, so can't really be blamed for that bomb. Also, no celeb offspring.
ReplyDeleteI'm against saying this is Verhoeven, just because I haven't seen Basic Instinct and I don't know exactly what it is about. Has to be something so culturally pervasive that you'd have to live under a rock not to know about – like Star Wars, Godfather, Scarface, etc. Lucas hasn't directed anything besides Star Wars since Star Wars, so he's out. De Palma's kids aren't famous, so he's out. I think Coppola is the only one that fits – One From The Heart came directly after Godfather II and Apocalypse Now, movies that EVERYONE knows (I haven't seen Apocalypse either, and I know what that one's about!)
ReplyDeleteIf it's not Coppola, what other movies fit the "everyone definitely knows them" bill? Think that's the key.
It's Coppola. He no longer makes movies.
ReplyDeleteMy initial guess was George Lucas with the box office bomb being "Howard the Duck." He's "untouchable" now because he's quietly retired, and the "Star Wars" franchise isn't going anywhere no matter how sordid accusations come out. I can't make "celebrity offspring" fit, though.
ReplyDeleteSo I'll go with the Verhoeven guess. "Basic Instinct" was huge back in the '90s, and even if you never saw the film, then you probably at least saw a parody of the Sharon Stone crossed legs scene.
Basic Instinct actually was culturally pervasive the more I think about it. It was a huge hit in 92 and launched the career of Sharon Stone. It has the infamous scene where she crosses her legs while the cops are interrogating her. In fact, that glimpse of her vagina was probably the most talked about thing in movies that year. I was a kid but remember it vividly.. for reasons. It was also nominated for awards and makes sense the studios would give him a green light on whatever his next project was. Not sure what makes him untouchable though.
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ReplyDeleteNot Kubrick. Lolita has zero nudity, even implied. After 2001, he was supposed to team again with MGM for a different project with little potential for nudity, a Napoleon biopic. A Clockwork Orange was something he made when Napoleon collapsed because of the budget. And apart from Eyes Wide Shut, few of his later films had tons of female parts that would justify some audition of big name actresses, especially as he lived in the UK.
ReplyDeleteNot Coppola. He didn't have just one film that defined his career. The guy had made The Godfather, part I and II before Apocalypse Now...
It could be De Palma. The world was is after Scarface, and he did Body Double. But he has no celebrity offspring, and he had no kids at all at this point in his life...
It could be Dennis Hopper. Easy Rider, then The Last Movie, which was a catastrophe due to the well documented amount of cocaine during shooting. It killed his career as a director.
Or it could be just BS that just makes up a story about De Palma.
First Time/Long Time
ReplyDeleteI kind of liked the DePalma idea, thinking "Untouchable" was a clue, but I have another suggestion.
Director: Garry Marshall. Died last year.
Iconic Movie: Pretty Woman
Follow-up Piece of Crap: Exit to Eden
Three kids in the biz, all of whom had bit parts in Exit to Eden and knew it was crap.
Plenty of opportunities to film sex scenes that could have been included but weren't.
I like this. He is A+ - SS is A+++ maybe Idk
Deletehm, i love the garry marshall guesss, barbotus. pretty woman fits the term "career defining" pretty damn well. and exit to eden is about a director's fantasy on an s&m island. rosie o'donnell was famously in this as a dominatrix in leather before she came out. i wonder if she has any stories.
ReplyDelete@barbotus great guess! I had no idea this film existed...wtf??? Definitely fits the criteria of crap! And, Marshall seems to fit all the other clues!
ReplyDeleteI don't think Kubrick would be referred to as "was A+ list". He's perma A+ list where directors are concerned.
ReplyDeleteWell, I was deeply in love with Dana Delany at the time and would have paid to watch her read the phone book. The movie was actually (sort of) based on an S&M romance novel by Anne Rice under a pen name. Book was much darker. They turned it into a really weird buddy cop thing with Dan Ayckroyd and Rosie O'Donnell as cops who went undercover on the S&M island owned by Delany (who semi-scandalously went full frontal). It was truly garbage.
ReplyDeleteI read that book .
ReplyDeleteGarry Marshall must be the one. The only one who touches all the bases. Good one, Barbotus. I will also echo your sentiments concerning Ms. Delany.
ReplyDelete'A Clockwork Orange' was notorious for its rape scene/s and Caligula for sex scenes.
ReplyDeleteThis is not De Palma. He did not have any "offspring" at the time of Body Double.
ReplyDeleteGary Marshall is a great guess. He went from Pretty Woman to Exit to Eden. Very weird choice of a film with good actors as "cover" and lots of supporting cast for nudity/sex. His director son would have been old enough to give an opinion on the film.
Verhoeven is another good guess. Went from Basic Instinct to Show Girls, although that's not that big of a stretch. He makes a lot of films with sex/nudity. His daughters were old enough at the time to voice their opinions.
Good call on Garry Marshall. Everything seems to fit, and Exit to Eden taking place on a sex island raises some eyebrows as well.
ReplyDeleteBODY DOUBLE: The first time I watched it I was totally confused about what, exactly, it was supposed to be. Cheesy von cheese, However, the music was haunting. Melanie was at her apex of beauty. I could still watch it and enjoy it.
ReplyDeleteWhen Show Girls came out there was a full-page ad with a seductive come-on. I was visiting a Mormon family in Utah when it debuted. They took me to 'Temple' with them that Sunday. I was confused. No Star of David anywhere! Anyway, the Bishop held the full-page ad up and waved it in front of the congregation telling them NOT to go near the theater as they could lose their soul to see it.
Fast forward a few days later, a weekday, a school day. Decided to quietly slip into the movie theater to see what the fuss was about. There, taking up every seat possible, was 98% of Salt Lake City's male high school students! All good Mormons of course. Spoke to the two teens next to me and one of them said, "I came to see this so when I go see 'Unzipped' this weekend, no one will suspect anything!" Pretty sure he's living in San Francisco now. This was '95.
Eyes Wide Shut was probably changed after Kubrick died. His death might have been an assassination, but a skilled conspiracy theorist would not assert that he was, because we don't know, at least not yet. The film was not crap, it was important and revealing, and it probably would have been *much* more revealing had the director's cut been released. I don't know whether Kubrick lived long enough to finish his edit of the film. I would also mention that there is enormous symbolism in the fact that Spielberg of all people inherited Kubrick's unfinished "AI" and made a Hollywood mess of what presumably would have been another important Kubrick film. That echoed the scenario in which Kubrick was assassinated and Eyes Wide Shut was largely neutered by industry people.
ReplyDeleteDirector: Francis Ford Coppola
ReplyDeleteBig Movie: The Godfather
Bad Movie: Dracula (also Monica Bellucci's first English film)
Celebrity offspring: Sophia and/or Roman Coppola
Brian de Palma, sad to say. "On top of the world" - Scarface. Also, the Untouchables. Hope this isn't true :((
ReplyDeleteBrian de Palma's last production was (I think)that Lindsay Lohan/James Deen mess. Celebrity offspring is Melanie Griffith. I love "Body Double"/his work as well, but IIRC it was not successful on original release.
ReplyDeletePolanski, with Rosemary's Baby as the definitive movie. Untouchable as in out of the country.
ReplyDeleteWhat? (1972) as the movie.
ReplyDelete@Amelia - you're thinking of the Canyons which was Paul Shrader (Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, Affliction). And, yeah, there's some stuff with De Palma that fits - he characterized Body Double as a hardcore porn suspense film. But, no celebrity offspring.
ReplyDelete@Unknown - I was pushing Polanski - the follow-up film being What? - but no agreement except you! Like De Palma, no celebrity offspring.
I'm liking Garry Marshall.
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ReplyDeleteFrancis Ford Copolla: One More From the Heart (1982)
ReplyDeleteFollowed Apocalypse Now.
Celebrity offspring: Roman Copolla
Look at understudies in the flop (i.e. Rebecca De Mornay). Topless scenes confirmed.
I haven't watched the movie so I can't say whether sex scenes would have made sense (and then ended up on cutting room floor).
But it could fit.
*Coppola
DeleteAish.
Garry Marshall's follow-up to Pretty Woman was Frankie and Johnny; otherwise I like him for the guess.
ReplyDeleteI was worried it was kevin smith with "zak and miri make a porno"
ReplyDeleteJohn Huston, Anjelica Huston, Myra Breckenridge?
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't exactly call Showgirls something that fits "You can't look at the top names when you look at the cast." And people legitimately, at the time, thought Showgirls was going to make them so much money because Eszterhas.
ReplyDeleteMovie: Caligula
ReplyDeleteDirector(ish): Bob Guccione
Celebrity offspring: Bob Guccione, Jr.
Top-billed cast:Malcolm McDowell, John Geiguld, Peter O'Tool, and Helen Mirren.
I keep coming back to Caligula, but not Tinto Brass...Bob Guccione.
ReplyDeleteGuccione wasn't the credited director, but he directed all of the hard-core inserts on the film. He also personally cast the performers for the hard-core work.
While not for being a director, he was undoubtedly A+ list.
Celebrity offspring, Bob Jr. - founder and publisher of Spin Magazine.
The film that came before...the one everyone knows? Guccione was a heavy investor on Chinatown.
I also remember hearing stories of Guccione secretly videotaping his personal sex.
Generally, details are purposefully inaccurate to provide cover, but this line sticks - "You can't look at the top names." "It was cover." Caligula boasted an A+ cast, but none of which participated in the har-core. It was said that Brass shot the principals on the sets during the day, while Guccione covertly shot his hardcore footage at night.
None of the others guessed at are fitting as well as Caligula for me.
I doubt Kubrick was like that, hence the reason why he became reclusive in England. I believe Eyes Wide Shut was to expose what we don’t see in High Society circles and the levels of depravity.
ReplyDeleteI’ll guess and say Mike Nichols
ReplyDeleteWhew...glad to be mistaken! Thanks friends! :))
ReplyDeleteJohn Huston, Danny Huston...
ReplyDelete