Without Mel Brooks hiring Lynch to make THE ELEPHANT MAN — on the strength of ERASERHEAD alone — he is very likely just a guy who made a weird film at AFI. That whole filmography you love doesn’t happen.
We all need sponsors and mentors and patrons. We need people who believe in us.
We all need sponsors and mentors and patrons. We need people who believe in us.
Comments
There was also the time the studio told him to fire Gene Wilder from The Producers and hire a big name star instead. Brooks told them he’d do it - and kept Wilder on anyway.
Makes me love him even more.
NAKED LUNCH very much never gets made without the success of THE FLY.
https://insidepulse.com/2024/11/25/blu-ray-review-hollywood-90028-collectors-edition/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2ukxCErDkk
“Brooksfilms” was in the credits, but you had to know which Brooks that was…
Always liked him but obviously know very little about him
What he saw in David Lynch was a similar grasp on human emotion that was equal but different. He knew how to keep us enthralled.
And, to be fair, the existence of the Broadway play probably helped with the recognition factor prior to release.
The Broadway play proves that the idea is commercially viable AND a critics’ darling. The point is that it is NOT a weird uncommercial art project but the kind of film big studios actually love to make. The RISK is hiring Lynch.
That anything gets made is a miracle, but it’s a miracle that happens all the time.
Brooks’ interest in the themes of THE FLY and THE ELEPHANT MAN is hinted at in THE PRODUCERS, when Max Bialystock reads the first line of Kafka’s Metamorphosis and then tosses it aside as “too good.”
And the win ends up looking like the only path, once won.
What we all need is Mel Brooks
Most of us have some aspect of huge potential, which never hatches.
Would Lynch have hatched otherwise? That's not our timeline.
I'm glad Brooks saw it and incubated him.
Also, if Brooks hadn't, Lynch might have found some other interested producer. Not a given, but, given Lynch's talent, it seems likely.
Who would have expected Brooks to produce a film like that, and Lynch to direct it.
It was genius.
I hope Mr. Brooks is feeling the love tonight 💙
Thanks to all who got something from it.
Luck is a big part of anyone’s success. Anyone who tells you otherwise is blinded by their own arrogance or selling you a self-help product.
that post made me follow you 🤜🏼
Or maybe it’s not for you, and has no relevance to your life?
I like to think he would have made these films no matter what. He was that singular.
He helped SO. MANY. PEOPLE.
Got serious projects off the ground, and refused a screen credit, because he didn’t want people mistaking some of these works for comedies.
What a mensch.
My dad told me he produced the movie, which blew my mind, and this is when I started paying attention to film credits.
Shocking lack of ego for a film producer.