A Weekly Bruce Campbell Role #20: The Hudsucker Proxy (1994)

A Weekly Bruce Campbell Role #20: The Hudsucker Proxy (1994)

The Hudsucker Proxy is a 1994 comedy film directed, produced, and co-written by the Coen brothers and co-written by Sam Raimi (who also served as a second unit director). It stars Tim Robbins, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Paul Newman, and Bruce Campbell, and tells the story of a naïve business graduate (Robbins) who gets hired as president of a manufacturing company as part of a stock swindle.

In the film, Bruce plays the role of a news reporter Smitty. In his book If Chins Could Kill: Confessions of a B Movie Actor, he talks about how he first declined the role that he would have to audition for, but eventually was offered it audition-free, due to his previous relationship with the Coen brothers on The Evil Dead (where Joel worked as an assistant editor) and Crimewave. In the book he also describes how star-struck he was to work beside Paul Newman and how in awe he was by the professionalism of Jennifer Jason Leigh, who always perfectly knew her seemingly endless barrage of lines and never once tripped up.

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u/Hurley815 — 4 hours ago

Bruce Campbell’s Ash Williams retirement just got even more final: he’s done with voice work, too

Personally, I am perfectly fine with this. He's done more than enough for us Evil Dead fans over the decades and even if he decided to go forward with the animated series, I just don't think it would have worked. Evil Dead is so deeply rooted in practical effects and actors' physicality that I just can't see that satisfyingly being translated into animation.

Also he's a 68 year old man with cancer. So let him tour with his movie, let him smoke weed a and let him ride his tricycle. He's more than deserved it. None of us can possibly demand anything more from him at this point.

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u/Hurley815 — 2 days ago

A Weekly Bruce Campbell Role #19: Army of Darkness (1992)

Army of Darkness is a dark fantasy adventure film from 1992 directed and co-written by Sam Raimi, co-written by Ivan Raimi, produced by Rob Tapert, and starring Bruce Campbell. It is the final installment in the original Evil Dead trilogy, this time following the reluctant hero Ash traveling to 1300 AD England, now battling Evil forces in Middle Ages. The music for the film was composed by Joseph LoDuca, who has done the same for both of the previous Evil Dead movies, with one specific track (March of the Dead) being composed by Danny Elfman, who Raimi previously worked with on Darkman (and works with on many other projects in the future).

Raimi made Army of Darkness as a part of his deal with Universal Pictures, which makes it the only big budget studio production from the original trilogy, while also crafting it as more of a dark adventure rather than another horror movie. With the budget of 12 million dollars, Army of Darkness was more than three times as expensive as The Evil Dead and Evil Dead II combined. And even though this allowed the filmmakers to really push the envelope on their franchise, it also came with a very troubled and complicated shoot as well as studio interreference. The movie was originally supposed to be titled The Medieval Dead, but that decision was eventually vetoed by Universal who wanted to sell Army of Darkness as a standalone movie with little to no connections to the previous two films. The studio also demanded to cut or change several scenes as well as to completely rework the ending. However, Raimi was eventually able to put together a director's cut that adds or changes several scenes to their original state, as well as reintroduces the original ending.

Army of Darkness barely made its production budget back in the US theaters, however when it was released on VHS and later DVD, it started gaining international cult following that keeps growing to this day, making it a fan favorite not only as an Evil Dead sequel, but also as a standalone adventure movie.

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u/Hurley815 — 7 days ago

A Weekly Bruce Campbell Role #18: Eddie Presley (1992)

Eddie Presley is a 1992 drama film directed by Jeff Burr and written by Duane Whitaker who also stars. The film tells the story of Eddie Presley (Whitaker), a former owner of a chain of pizza restaurants who is trying to realize his life-long dream of becoming an Elvis Presley impersonator. This dream, however, brings him much pain and difficulties that, among other things, for a while put him into a psychiatric hospital with mental breakdown.

Bruce Campbell has a very small cameo in the film as one of the orderlies at the hospital. However what is noteworthy about this cameo is that he shares it with Quentin Tarantino, right before or just around his directorial debut with Reservoir Dogs.

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u/Hurley815 — 14 days ago

A Weekly Bruce Campbell Role #17: Waxwork II: Lost in Time (1992)

Waxwork II: Lost in Time is a dark fantasy horror comedy from 1992 written and directed by Anthony Hickox, who also directed and co-wrote Sundown: The Vampire in Retreat. It is a sequel to his movie Waxwork from 1988 that continues the story of Mark (Zach Galligan) and Sarah (Monika Schnarre) who are now traveling through a series of parallel realities that mirror a variety of fictional stories from human history.

Bruce Campbell plays a small role in one of these realities, specifically one loosely based on the Shirley Jackson novel The Haunting of Hill House. Here he plays John Loftmore, a leader of a group of paranormal investigators researching a haunted house. In this segment, Bruce is also accompanied by actress Marina Sirtis, best known for portraying Counselor Deanna Troi in Star Trek: The Next Generation.

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u/Hurley815 — 21 days ago

A Weekly Bruce Campbell Role #16: Mindwarp (1991)

Mindwarp is a post-apocalyptic sci-fi movie from 1991 directed by Steve Barnett and written by John Brancato and Michael Ferris.

It takes place in a sheltered community controlled by AI where the only way for people to experience life is through virtual reality simulations. One of the residents of this community, Judy (Marta Martin), wants to know what lies out there in the real world and rebels against this system. For that, the AI exiles her outside of the community and into a futuristic wasteland with gangs of radioactive mutants. Here Judy meets Stover (Bruce Campbell), seemingly the last regular human left in the outside world, and together they need to survive in this post-apocalyptic nightmare.

One notable thing about Mindwarp is that through its production Bruce was able to meet Ida Gearon, who was the costume designer for the film. Based on his autobiography If Chins Could Kill: Confessions of a B Movie Actor, Bruce wanted to find excuses to spend more time with Ida in the costume department, so he told her that he wants to learn sewing because his character, living in a post-apocalyptic wasteland, should master such a craft.

Needles to say that no scene of Campbell's character sewing was in the script or in the finished movie, but his plan worked nevertheless. Ida Gearon and Bruce Campbell got married in 1991 and are still married to this day.

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u/Hurley815 — 28 days ago

A Weekly Bruce Campbell Role #15: Lunatics: A Love Story (1991)

Lunatics: A Love Story is a 1991 romantic comedy written and directed by Josh Becker and produced by Sam Raimi, Rob Tapert, and Bruce Campbell. All four creators having a shared history in their amateur Super 8 short films from the 1970s as well as the original Evil Dead trilogy, Crimewave, or Darkman.

The film tells a story of Nancy (Deborah Foreman), a naive young woman who gets dumped by her boyfriend (portrayed by Bruce Campbell) and finds herself stranded in Los Angeles, and Hank (Ted Raimi), an unstable yet well-meaning shut-in tortured by aggressive hallucinations (usually also portrayed by Bruce Campbell). The two inevitably cross paths and form a very strange but endearing couple.

The score for the movie was composed by Joseph LoDuca, who also composed music for other Raimi/Tapert/Campbell projects like the Evil Dead trilogy, Ernie & Emma, or the TV shows Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, Xena: Warrior Princess, or Ash vs Evil Dead. The film's co-star Deborah Foreman also played alongside Bruce in Sundown: The Vampire in Retreat from 1989. The other co-star, Ted Raimi, is the younger brother of Sam Raimi, who, similarly to LoDuca, also worked on various projects with Sam and Bruce.

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u/Hurley815 — 1 month ago

A Weekly Bruce Campbell Role #14: Darkman (1990)

Darkman is a noir superhero movie from 1990 directed and co-written by Sam Raimi.

Raimi originally wanted to make a movie based on the pulp hero The Shadow but was turned down by the studio (The Shadow was later made by Russell Mulcahy with Alec Baldwin in 1994), so Raimi invented his own superhero called Darkman.

The movie stars Liam Neeson as scientist Peyton Westlake, who, after being brutally attacked by mobsters and then seeking experimental treatment to save his own life, becomes Darkman: an antihero with superhuman strength but also very unstable mental state. On top of that, he can create convincing disguises to impersonate other people.

The movie also stars Frances McDormand, Larry Drake, or Ted Raimi. Similar to Crimewave, the titular Darkman was originally supposed to be played by Bruce Campbell, but the studio vetoed it. Bruce therefore appears only at the very end of the film as Darkman's last disguise, for which he is credited as "Final Shemp". He also worked on the post-production of the movie, mainly adding his voice to several characters (including Darkman) in ADR.

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u/Hurley815 — 1 month ago

A Weekly Bruce Campbell Role #13: Maniac Cop (1990)

Maniac Cop 2 is a horror slasher from 1990 directed by William Lustig and written by Larry Cohen. It is a sequel to the original Maniac Cop from 1988.

Robert Z'Dar returns as the titular Maniac Cop who in the first movie faced against Officer Jack W. Forrest Jr. played by Bruce Campbell. Campbell was also supposed to return as the lead for the sequel but unfortunately the timing of making the film was not good. He was in the middle of a divorce with his first wife and when he was asked to return for Maniac Cop 2, Bruce, by his own admission, stated: "Give me this number or kill me."

For this reason, Bruce's character appears only in one scene at the start of the movie, where he is killed by Maniac Cop.

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u/Hurley815 — 2 months ago

Bruce Campbell has written a western novella called Reconcile

From his Facebook:

"My mother, Joanne, loved the Western genre. She read every Zane Grey novel he ever wrote. I know because I drew stick-figure cartoons in the margins of her massive paperback collection.

Westerns, by nature, are riddled with clichés – the steely-eyed, unshaven hero protecting innocent pioneers from brutal, unforgiving savages.

With Reconcile, I tried to sidestep many of the cliché elements we've read or seen in Westerns for a generation. Reality isn't tidy or reliable. Reality has unpleasant circumstances that don't always resolve themselves like they do in the movies. In the heat of battle, the "good guys" and "bad guys" aren't so easily defined.

In the sprawling history of the American West, I'd like to think a different kind of story was possible, and I hope you enjoy it."

https://a.co/d/0cBipikD
https://books.apple.com/us/book/reconcile/id6785094624

u/Hurley815 — 2 months ago

A Weekly Bruce Campbell Role #12: Sundown: The Vampire in Retreat (1989)

Sundown: The Vampire in Retreat is a 1989 western horror comedy directed by Anthony Hickox. It takes place in a remote desert town, where a community of vampires is trying to live peacefully, drinking synthetic blood and using sunscreen to protect themselves during the day.

Things start to shake up when the town is visited by a mysterious stranger played by Bruce Campbell. The film also stars David Carradine, Morgan Brittany, M. Emmet Walsh, or George Buck Flower.

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u/Hurley815 — 2 months ago
▲ 231 r/XFiles

Have been watching The X-Files for 20 years and never noticed that Chris Carter plays an FBI agent in Anasazi

u/Hurley815 — 2 months ago