ET, THE GOONIES, GREMLINS - back in the '80s, Amblin Entertainment carved out a pretty solid niche by placing kids into otherworldly situations and spinning their stories into cinematic gold.
However, looking back at the early output of Steven Spielberg's pop-culture-sculpting movie powerhouse, one title stands alone for taking the opposite approach.
Released in 1987, Batteries Not Included switched the formula by swapping kid heroes for pensioner protagonists and pairing them with a bunch of cute, metal UFO visitors. In a crumbling New York tenement, we meet Frank and Faye Riley (played by real-life couple Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy), an elderly couple whose apartment building and "mom and pop" diner are under constant threat of demolition from pushy developers and their ruthless lackeys.
With Faye's health rapidly deteriorating and closure slowly creeping in, all looks lost for this quaint corner of the Lower East Side - until the building's colourful cast of residents are visited by a bunch of beady-eyed flying saucers (nicknamed The Fix-Its) that bring a hearty dose of hope and a new lease of life to Frank and Faye's twilight years.
For director Matthew Robbins, it was the project's mixture of the mature and the mystical that initially piqued his interest. It started life as an episode idea for Spielberg's TV series Amazing Stories, pitched by filmmaker Mick Garris. The Jaws maestro quickly spotted its big-screen potential, enlisting Robbins and Brad Bird - future director of The Iron Giant - to flesh it out into a full feature.
"I was drawn to the prospect of working with senior actors that had to be very much the centre of the story," Robbins tells SFX.
"We hadn't yet cast Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy but the idea of that couple, their sentimentality and also the worry of Alzheimer's and making that a key part of the story, spoke to me.
この記事は SFX UK の May 2023 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です ? サインイン
この記事は SFX UK の May 2023 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です? サインイン
Making Alien - Jaws in Space - Forty-five years on from its original release, Alien continues to terrify. We dissect what arguably remains the most chilling instalment in the saga
The seven-strong crew of the commercial mining spacecraft the Nostromo seal their fate after reluctantly responding to a mysterious distress signal on a hostile planet. Here, a face-hugging alien from a derelict ship impregnates and later kills executive officer Kane (John Hurt) after its offspring is birthed onboard. After being unleashed, the fearsome newborn with acid for blood proceeds to dispatch the remainder of the crew.Ridley Scott's much more convoluted prequels have yet to reveal how the knowledge that led to this initial interception was acquired. However, the premise of the original Alien is perfect in its uncomplicated purity.
PURE AND SIMPLE
IN THE FINAL PART OF OUR EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW, SHOWRUNNER RUSSELL T DAVIES TALKS RELAUNCHING DOCTOR WHO
TO CAP IT ALL OFF
CELEBRATING 40 YEARS OF THE BBC SERIES THE TRIPODS
FRENCH REVOLUTION
THE WALKING DEAD SPIN-OFF SHOWRUNNER DAVID ZABEL ON BEING GIVEN THE TOUGH TASK OF REUNITING DARYL AND CAROL IN FRANCE
SILENT KILLERS
THE DIRECTOR OF HOLLYWOOD'S SPEAK NO EVIL REMAKE ON HORROR, COMEDY AND JAMES MCAVOY
BRING OUT YOUR DEAD
THE GHOST WITH THE MOST RETURNS FINALLY - IN BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE
TEENAGE DREAM
JOE LOCKE HITS THE ROAD RUNNING
MOB RULE THE PENGUIN
GOTHAM'S UP FOR GRABS IN BRUISING NEW CRIME SAGA BUT WHERE IS THE BATMAN?
SEASON OF THE WITCH
AS MARVEL TELEVISION CARVES OUT A NEW PATH FOR ITSELF, WE SPEAK TO CREATOR JAC SCHAEFFER, PLUS A CAST OF STARS LED BY KATHRYN HAHN AND JOE LOCKE, ABOUT THE MAGIC OF WANDAVISION'S SPIN-OFF AGATHA ALL ALONG
Ghouls Allowed
Even silence can't save you at this year's Halloween Horror Nights
