Independent film legend Roger Corman dies at 98

Advance:

• Filmmaker and producer Roger Corman has died.
• He was 98 years old.
• He will be remembered for films like ‘Little Shop of Horrors’ and ‘Boxcar Bertha’ and many more.

Roger Corman, who became famous – and sometimes infamous – for his production of B movies and his advocacy of other filmmakers, died on May 9 at the age of 98.

Corman was known for opening doors for many others through his work and films, and although he didn’t win Oscars or make big box office hits with his films, he had a huge impact on film and pop culture.

Roger Corman: early life and career

Born in Detroit, Corman moved with his family in 1940 to Los Angeles. He attended Beverly Hills High School and then Stanford, where he majored in engineering. He admitted to being in love with cinema since he arrived in California.

However, if he dreamed of entering the world of cinema as soon as possible, he was hindered by military service and education elsewhere, including Oxford, England. In the early 1950s, he worked odd jobs and collected unemployment, and that period led to a renewed spark in his chosen career: while working as a script reader, he thought he could do better, sitting down to write ‘Highway Dragnet ‘ and selling the script. to Allied Artists for $4,000.

That, plus the money obtained from family and friends, allowed him to launch his stage as a producer, bringing ‘The Monster from the Bottom of the Ocean’ to the screens.

He joined forces with Sam Arkoff of American International Pictures and between 1955 and 1960 Corman produced or directed more than 30 films for AIP, all with a budget of less than $100,000 and produced in two weeks or less. They included western films (‘Five Guns West’, ‘Gunslinger’); horror and science fiction (‘The Day of the End of the World’, ‘The Undead’); as well as teen movies like ‘Carnival Rock’ and ‘Rock All Night’.

Roger Corman as director

While producing, Corman also wrote and directed his own films, including ‘Frankenstein Unbound,’ ‘Battle Beyond the Stars,’ ‘Deathsport,’ ‘The Trip,’ and even a major studio effort, with Columbia’s ‘The Wild Angels.’ . ‘.

However, it was in the world of B movies where Corman really flourished, turning low budgets into small hits and producing content, including a series of Edgar Allen Poe adaptations.

Roger Corman: other careers launched

Corman certainly had an eye for talent; Among the people whose careers he helped launch were people like Ellen Burstyn, Jack Nicholson and Robert De Niro, screenwriters like Robert Towne and directors like Martin Scorsese, Jonathan Demme, Joe Dante and Peter Bogdanovich.

He also supported arthouse films from around the world, including works by artists such as Ingrid Bergman and Werner Herzog. He reinvented his marketing and distribution, booking them in a wider variety of venues and giving audiences outside the big cities a taste of world cinema they hadn’t enjoyed before.

Roger Corman dies: family statement

Corman’s family issued the following statement:

“His films were revolutionary and iconoclastic and captured the spirit of an era. When asked how he would like to be remembered, he said: ‘I was a filmmaker, just that.’”

Roger Corman Movies:

Buy Roger Corman Movies on Amazon