Cameron Crowe
Encyclopedia
Cameron Bruce Crowe is an American screenwriter and film director. Before moving into the film industry, Crowe was a contributing editor at Rolling Stone
magazine, for which he still frequently writes.
Crowe has made his mark with character-driven, personal films that have been generally hailed as refreshingly original and devoid of cynicism. Michael Walker in The New York Times
called Crowe "something of a cinematic spokesman for the post-baby boom generation" because his first few films focused on that specific age group, first as high schoolers and then as young adults making their way in the world.
Crowe's debut screenwriting effort, Fast Times at Ridgemont High
, grew out of a book he wrote while posing for one year undercover as a student at Clairemont High School
in San Diego, California, where he met Geraldine Edwards, who was a student there while he was visiting mutual friends in 1975. He later based part of his Penny Lane character on her in Almost Famous
after discovering that she had been going backstage to Rock and Roll concerts. Later, he wrote and directed one more high school saga, Say Anything, and then Singles, a story of Seattle twentysomethings that was woven together by a soundtrack centering on that city's burgeoning grunge
music scene. Crowe landed his biggest hit, though, with Jerry Maguire
. After this, he was given a green light to go ahead with a pet project, the autobiographical effort Almost Famous
. Centering on a teenage music journalist on tour with an up-and-coming band, it gave insight to his life as a 15-year-old writer for Rolling Stone. Part of the dialogue was inspired by comments that were made by Bebe Buell
in certain interviews. Also in late 1999, Crowe released his second book, Conversations with Billy Wilder
, a question and answer session with the legendary director.
, California. His father owned a real estate and phone service business, and his mother, Alice Marie, "was a teacher, activist, and all-around live wire who did skits around the house and would wear a clown suit to school on special occasions." She worked as a psychology professor and family therapist
and often participated in peace demonstrations and causes relating to the rights of farm workers. Crowe had two older sisters, but one died when he was young. The family moved around often but spent a lot of time in the desert town of Indio
. Crowe commented that Indio was where "people owned tortoises, not dogs". His family finally settled in San Diego.
Recognizing that Crowe was gifted, his mother pushed him to excel. He skipped kindergarten
and two grades in elementary, and by the time he attended Catholic high school, he was quite obviously younger than the other students. To add to his alienation, he was often ill because he suffered from nephritis
. This made him something of an outcast in the tanned surfer culture of Southern California
.
To compensate for his lack of social contacts, Crowe began writing for the school newspaper and by age 13 was contributing music reviews for an underground publication, The San Diego Door
. He then began corresponding with Lester Bangs
, who had left the Door to become editor at the national rock magazine Creem
, and soon he was also submitting articles to Creem as well as Circus
. Crowe graduated from the University of San Diego High School
in 1973 at age 16, and then attended the University of San Diego
studying journalism to hone his craft. On a trip to Los Angeles, he met Ben Fong-Torres
, the editor of Rolling Stone, who hired him to write for the magazine. He also joined the Rolling Stone staff as a Contributing Editor and then became the Associate Editor. During this time Crowe interviewed Bob Dylan, David Bowie, Neil Young, Eric Clapton, Carlos Santana, and the members of Led Zeppelin. Crowe was Rolling Stones youngest-ever contributor.
. He went on the road with them for three weeks at age 18 and interviewed not only the whole band, but also the entire road crew
. On his last night with the group, Gregg Allman
asked Crowe to his room and told him to bring identification to prove he was not a police officer. Although Crowe showed him his identification, Allman nevertheless confiscated all his tapes. Two days later, the president of the Allman Brothers' Capricorn Records
label called Crowe to let him know he was returning all the tapes. Allman later said he did not recall the incident.
Because Crowe was a fan of the 1970s hard rock
bands that the older writers did not like, he landed a lot of major interviews. He wrote predominantly about Yes
and the band members, and also about Led Zeppelin
, Eagles, King Crimson
, Linda Ronstadt
, Rory Gallagher
, Todd Rundgren
, and more. "He charmed a lot of people," Fong-Torres told Rachel Abramowitz in Premiere
. "He was the aw-shucks guy. 'I'm glad to be backstage. I love this band.'" In an interview with Joel Selvin
of the San Francisco Chronicle
Fong-Torres remarked, "He was the guy we sent out after some difficult customers. He covered the bands that hated Rolling Stone."
to New York in 1977, Crowe decided to stay behind. He also felt the excitement of the career was beginning to wane. Crowe appeared in the 1978 film American Hot Wax
, but then returned to his writing. Though he would continue to freelance for Rolling Stone on and off over the years, he turned his attention to a book.
At 22 and still boyish, Crowe came up with the idea to pose undercover as a high school student and write about his experiences. Simon & Schuster
gave him a contract, and he moved back in with his parents and enrolled as Dave Cameron at Clairemont High School
in San Diego. Reliving the senior year he never had, he made friends and began to fit in. Though he initially planned to include himself in the book, he realized that it would jeopardize his ability to truly capture the essence of the high school experience.
His book, Fast Times at Ridgemont High: A True Story came out in 1981. Crowe focused on six main characters: a tough guy, a nerd
, a surfer dude, a sexual sophisticate, and a middle-class brother and sister. He chronicled their activities in typical teenage settings—at school, at the beach, and at the mall, where many of them held afterschool jobs—and focused on details of their lives that probed into the heart of adolescence. This included scenes about homecoming
and graduation as well as social clique
s and sexual encounters.
Before the book was even released, Fast Times at Ridgemont High was optioned for a film. Released in 1982, the movie version lacked a specific plot and featured no major name stars, and the studio did not devote any marketing effort toward it. Nevertheless, it became a sleeper hit
due to word of mouth.
The reviews of Fast Times at Ridgemont High
were Positive, the film ended up launching the careers of some of the previously unknown actors, including Jennifer Jason Leigh
, Eric Stoltz
, Judge Reinhold
, Phoebe Cates
, Anthony Edwards
, and future Oscar-winners Nicolas Cage
(appearing under his given name, Nicolas Coppola), Forest Whitaker
, and Sean Penn
.
, the pseudo-sequel to Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Whereas its predecessor followed teenagers' lives in high school, The Wild Life traced the lives of several teenagers after high school living in an apartment complex. Filmmaker James L. Brooks
noticed Crowe's original voice and wanted to work with him. Brooks executive produced Crowe's first directing effort, 1989's Say Anything..., about a young man pining away for the affections of a beautiful girl. Though it could have easily ended up a formulaic teen love story, Say Anything... got a warm reception from critics. They applauded the way Crowe crafted an intriguing and insightful tale that also involved the girl's relationship with her father and how it is threatened when she discovers he is caught up in a shady business deal.
By this point, Crowe was ready to leave teen angst
behind and focus on his peers. His next project, 1992's Singles, centered on the romantic tangles among a group of six friends in their twenties in Seattle. The film starred Bridget Fonda
as a coffee-bar waitress fawning over an aspiring musician (Matt Dillon
) and Kyra Sedgwick
and Campbell Scott
as a couple wavering on whether to commit to each other. Music forms an integral backbone for the script, and the soundtrack became a best seller three months before the release of the film. Much of this was due to repeated delays while studio executives debated how to market it.
Singles successfully rode on the heels of Seattle's grunge music boom. During production, bands like Nirvana
were not yet national stars, but by the time the soundtrack was released, their song "Smells Like Teen Spirit
" had to be cut because it was too costly to buy the rights. Also, before they got big, Crowe signed members of Pearl Jam
to portray Dillon's fictional band Citizen Dick. Crowe also appeared in this project, appropriately, as a rock journalist at a club. Tim Appelo wrote in Entertainment Weekly
, "With ... an ambling, naturalistic style, Crowe captures the eccentric appeal of a town where espresso carts sprout on every corner and kids in ratty flannel shirts can cut records that make them millionaires."
, about a high-powered sports agent
who is fired after having a moment of clarity in which he writes and distributes a Mission Statement calling for more service to the athletes and less money for themselves. He strikes out to form his own agency. Tom Cruise
played the title role of Jerry and Cuba Gooding, Jr.
played Rod Tidwell, the up-and-coming football player whose catchphrase, "Show me the money!", became ubiquitous for a time. Renée Zellweger
also appeared as the bookkeeper who leaves her job to follow Maguire into new territory in both work and love. Crowe's earlier efforts brought him recognition, but this would send him soaring onto the A-list
. Gooding won a Best Supporting Actor
Oscar
for his role, and the film was also nominated for Best Picture, Best Screenplay, Best Editing, and Best Actor (for Cruise). Cruise also won his second Golden Globe for his role as Jerry.
, about the experiences of a teenage music journalist who goes on the road with an emerging band in the early 1970s. Newcomer Patrick Fugit
starred as William Miller, the baby-faced writer who finds himself immersed in the world of sex, drugs, and rock-and-roll, and Kate Hudson
co-starred as Penny Lane, a prominent groupie, or, as the film refers to her, a "Band-Aid." She is based on two women he met in the '70s: Playboy
Playmate, Bebe Buell
, and Geraldine Edwards. Buell was Todd Rundgren's girlfriend, and a well known groupie. Digging into his most personal memories, Crowe used a composite of the bands he had known to come up with Stillwater, the emerging act that welcomes the young journalist into its sphere, then becomes wary of his intentions. Seventies rocker Peter Frampton
served as a technical consultant on the film.
William Miller's mother figured prominently in the film as well (often admonishing, "Don't take drugs!"). The character was based on Cameron's own mother, who even showed up at the film sets to keep an eye on him while he worked. Though he asked her not to bother Frances McDormand
, who played her character, the two ended up getting along well. Also in the film he showed his sister (portrayed by Zooey Deschanel
) rebelling and leaving home, and in real life, his mother and sister Cindy did not talk for a decade and were still estranged to a degree when he finished the film. The family reunited when the project was complete.
In addition, Crowe took a copy of the film to London for a special screening with Led Zeppelin members Jimmy Page
and Robert Plant
, who provided some of the inspiration for the feuding bandmates. Additional inspiration for the inner band turmoil was provided by Gregg Allman and Dickey Betts of the Allman Brothers Band from Cameron's travels with them.
After the screening, Led Zeppelin granted Crowe the right to use one of their songs on the soundtrack—the first time they had ever consented to this since allowing Crowe to use "Kashmir" in Fast Times at Ridgemont High—and also gave him rights to four of their other songs in the movie itself, although they did not grant him the rights to "Stairway to Heaven
" for an intended scene (on the special "Bootleg" edition DVD, the scene is included as an extra sans the song where the viewer is instructed by a watermark to begin playing it). Crowe and his wife, musician Nancy Wilson
of Heart
, co-wrote three of the five Stillwater songs in the film, and Frampton wrote the other two. Reviews were almost universally positive, and it was nominated for and won a host of film awards, including an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for Crowe. Crowe and co-producer Danny Bramson also won the Best Compilation Soundtrack Album for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media Grammy Award
for the soundtrack. Despite these accolades, box office returns for the film were disappointing.
in 2001, a psychological thriller. Starring Tom Cruise
and Penélope Cruz
, the film received mixed reviews but still managed to gross $100.6 million at the US box office, making it his second highest grossing directorial effort behind only Jerry Maguire. Vanilla Sky is a remake of the 1997 Spanish movie Abre Los Ojos (Open your Eyes) by Alejandro Amenabar
. The female main character of Sofia is played by Penélope Cruz
in both the original movie and the Crowe's remake.
, the same as his previous effort, Vanilla Sky.
and Leon Russell
produced by award-winning producer T-Bone Burnett
. The documentary features musicians Neil Young
, Brian Wilson
, Booker T. Jones
, steel guitarist Robert Randolph, Don Was
and a 10-piece gospel choir who all appear on the album with John and Russell. Musician Stevie Nicks
and John's longtime lyricist Bernie Taupin
also appear. On March 2, 2011, the documentary was announced to open the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival.
and Reese Witherspoon
and be released by Columbia Pictures
. Filming was expected to begin in January 2009, but this has since been postponed.
writer Aline Brosh McKenna
, but Crowe seems to be taking a pass at the screenplay himself. The story follows Mee, who buys and moves into a dilapidated zoo (now Dartmoor Zoological Park
) in the English countryside. Looking for a fresh start along with his children and cancer-stricken wife, he hopes to refurbish the zoo and run it as a family business. It is possible that Crowe would change the location to the US. 20th Century Fox has set a December 23, 2011 release date and Matt Damon is the star.
on March 9, 2009, bassist Jeff Ament said "... our manager Kelly has had the idea to do a 20 year anniversary retrospective movie so he's been on board with [film director] Cameron Crowe for the last few years." Guitarist Mike McCready also stated in March, "“We are just in the very early stages of that…starting to go through all the footage we have, and Cameron’s writing the treatment." Preliminary footage was being shot as of June 2010. The film is scheduled for a 2011 release, and will have an accompanying book and soundtrack. A trailer for the movie, which featured Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder choosing between three permanent markers in a shop before turning to the camera and say "Three's good... Twenty is better" was shown before select movies at the 2011 BFI Film Festival.
in July 1986. Their twin sons, William James Crowe and Curtis Wilson Crowe, were born in January 2000. Crowe and Wilson separated in June 2008. Wilson filed for divorce on September 23, 2010, citing "irreconcilable differences." The divorce was finalized on December 8, 2010, ending the marriage.
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
magazine, for which he still frequently writes.
Crowe has made his mark with character-driven, personal films that have been generally hailed as refreshingly original and devoid of cynicism. Michael Walker in The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
called Crowe "something of a cinematic spokesman for the post-baby boom generation" because his first few films focused on that specific age group, first as high schoolers and then as young adults making their way in the world.
Crowe's debut screenwriting effort, Fast Times at Ridgemont High
Fast Times at Ridgemont High
Fast Times at Ridgemont High is a 1982 American coming-of-age teen comedy film written by Cameron Crowe and adapted from his 1981 book of the same name...
, grew out of a book he wrote while posing for one year undercover as a student at Clairemont High School
Clairemont High School
Clairemont High School is a public high school located in the Clairemont neighborhood of San Diego, California. It is part of the San Diego Unified School District. The campus is situated close to the intersection of Balboa Ave and Clairemont Drive. There are approximately 1,350 students and 87...
in San Diego, California, where he met Geraldine Edwards, who was a student there while he was visiting mutual friends in 1975. He later based part of his Penny Lane character on her in Almost Famous
Almost Famous
Almost Famous is a 2000 musical comedy-drama film written and directed by Cameron Crowe and telling the fictional story of a teenage journalist writing for Rolling Stone magazine while covering the fictitious rock band Stillwater , and his efforts to get his first cover story published...
after discovering that she had been going backstage to Rock and Roll concerts. Later, he wrote and directed one more high school saga, Say Anything, and then Singles, a story of Seattle twentysomethings that was woven together by a soundtrack centering on that city's burgeoning grunge
Grunge
Grunge is a subgenre of alternative rock that emerged during the mid-1980s in the American state of Washington, particularly in the Seattle area. Inspired by hardcore punk, heavy metal, and indie rock, grunge is generally characterized by heavily distorted electric guitars, contrasting song...
music scene. Crowe landed his biggest hit, though, with Jerry Maguire
Jerry Maguire
Jerry Maguire is a 1996 American romantic comedy-drama film starring Tom Cruise and Cuba Gooding, Jr. It was written, co-produced, and directed by Cameron Crowe...
. After this, he was given a green light to go ahead with a pet project, the autobiographical effort Almost Famous
Almost Famous
Almost Famous is a 2000 musical comedy-drama film written and directed by Cameron Crowe and telling the fictional story of a teenage journalist writing for Rolling Stone magazine while covering the fictitious rock band Stillwater , and his efforts to get his first cover story published...
. Centering on a teenage music journalist on tour with an up-and-coming band, it gave insight to his life as a 15-year-old writer for Rolling Stone. Part of the dialogue was inspired by comments that were made by Bebe Buell
Bebe Buell
Beverle Lorence "Bebe" Buell is an American fashion model and singer, and Playboy magazine's November 1974 Playmate of the Month. She is also known for dating rock musicians. She is actress Liv Tyler's mother from a brief relationship with Aerosmith vocalist Steven Tyler...
in certain interviews. Also in late 1999, Crowe released his second book, Conversations with Billy Wilder
Billy Wilder
Billy Wilder was an Austro-Hungarian born American filmmaker, screenwriter, producer, artist, and journalist, whose career spanned more than 50 years and 60 films. He is regarded as one of the most brilliant and versatile filmmakers of Hollywood's golden age...
, a question and answer session with the legendary director.
Early life
Crowe was born in Palm SpringsPalm Springs, California
Palm Springs is a desert city in Riverside County, California, within the Coachella Valley. It is located approximately 37 miles east of San Bernardino, 111 miles east of Los Angeles and 136 miles northeast of San Diego...
, California. His father owned a real estate and phone service business, and his mother, Alice Marie, "was a teacher, activist, and all-around live wire who did skits around the house and would wear a clown suit to school on special occasions." She worked as a psychology professor and family therapist
Family therapy
Family therapy, also referred to as couple and family therapy, family systems therapy, and family counseling, is a branch of psychotherapy that works with families and couples in intimate relationships to nurture change and development. It tends to view change in terms of the systems of...
and often participated in peace demonstrations and causes relating to the rights of farm workers. Crowe had two older sisters, but one died when he was young. The family moved around often but spent a lot of time in the desert town of Indio
Indio, California
Indio is a city in Riverside County, California, United States, located in the Coachella Valley of Southern California's Colorado Desert region. It lies east of Palm Springs, east of Riverside, and east of Los Angeles. It is about north of Mexicali, Baja California on the U.S.-Mexican border...
. Crowe commented that Indio was where "people owned tortoises, not dogs". His family finally settled in San Diego.
Recognizing that Crowe was gifted, his mother pushed him to excel. He skipped kindergarten
Kindergarten
A kindergarten is a preschool educational institution for children. The term was created by Friedrich Fröbel for the play and activity institute that he created in 1837 in Bad Blankenburg as a social experience for children for their transition from home to school...
and two grades in elementary, and by the time he attended Catholic high school, he was quite obviously younger than the other students. To add to his alienation, he was often ill because he suffered from nephritis
Nephritis
Nephritis is inflammation of the nephrons in the kidneys. The word "nephritis" was imported from Latin, which took it from Greek: νεφρίτιδα. The word comes from the Greek νεφρός - nephro- meaning "of the kidney" and -itis meaning "inflammation"....
. This made him something of an outcast in the tanned surfer culture of Southern California
Southern California
Southern California is a megaregion, or megapolitan area, in the southern area of the U.S. state of California. Large urban areas include Greater Los Angeles and Greater San Diego. The urban area stretches along the coast from Ventura through the Southland and Inland Empire to San Diego...
.
To compensate for his lack of social contacts, Crowe began writing for the school newspaper and by age 13 was contributing music reviews for an underground publication, The San Diego Door
The San Diego Door
The San Diego Door, was an underground newspaper that thrived in 1960s San Diego, California, United States. Alongside the San Diego Street Journal , it dominated the underground genre...
. He then began corresponding with Lester Bangs
Lester Bangs
Leslie Conway "Lester" Bangs was an American music journalist, author and musician. He wrote for Creem and Rolling Stone magazines, and was known for his leading influence in rock 'n' roll criticism....
, who had left the Door to become editor at the national rock magazine Creem
Creem
Creem , "America's Only Rock 'n' Roll Magazine," was a monthly rock 'n' roll publication first published in March 1969 by Barry Kramer and founding editor Tony Reay. It suspended production in 1989 but received a short-lived renaissance in the early 1990s as a glossy tabloid...
, and soon he was also submitting articles to Creem as well as Circus
Circus (magazine)
Circus was a monthly American magazine devoted to rock music. It was published from 1966 to 2006. In its heyday the magazine had a full-time editorial staff that included some of the biggest names in rock journalism, including Paul Nelson, David Fricke, and Kurt Loder, and rivaled Rolling Stone in...
. Crowe graduated from the University of San Diego High School
University of San Diego High School
The University of San Diego High School , also known as The University High School or "Uni", was a Catholic, co-educational, college preparatory secondary school located in San Diego, California...
in 1973 at age 16, and then attended the University of San Diego
University of San Diego
The University of San Diego is a Roman Catholic university in San Diego, California. USD offers more than sixty bachelor's, master’s, and doctoral programs...
studying journalism to hone his craft. On a trip to Los Angeles, he met Ben Fong-Torres
Ben Fong-Torres
Benjamin Fong-Torres is an American rock journalist, author, and broadcaster best known for his association with Rolling Stone magazine and the San Francisco Chronicle .-Biography:Due to the Chinese Exclusion Act, Fong-Torres' father, Ricardo Fong-Torres Benjamin Fong-Torres (方振豪; Cantonese:...
, the editor of Rolling Stone, who hired him to write for the magazine. He also joined the Rolling Stone staff as a Contributing Editor and then became the Associate Editor. During this time Crowe interviewed Bob Dylan, David Bowie, Neil Young, Eric Clapton, Carlos Santana, and the members of Led Zeppelin. Crowe was Rolling Stones youngest-ever contributor.
Rolling Stone
Crowe's first cover story was on The Allman Brothers BandThe Allman Brothers Band
The Allman Brothers Band is an American rock/blues band once based in Macon, Georgia. The band was formed in Jacksonville, Florida, in 1969 by brothers Duane Allman and Gregg Allman , who were supported by Dickey Betts , Berry Oakley , Butch Trucks , and Jai Johanny "Jaimoe"...
. He went on the road with them for three weeks at age 18 and interviewed not only the whole band, but also the entire road crew
Road crew
The road crew are the technicians or support personnel who travel with a band on tour, usually in sleeper buses, and handle every part of the concert productions except actually performing the music with the musicians...
. On his last night with the group, Gregg Allman
Gregg Allman
Gregory Lenoir Allman , known as Gregg Allman, is a rock and blues singer, keyboardist, guitarist and songwriter, and a founding member of The Allman Brothers Band. He was inducted with the band into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995 and received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Georgia...
asked Crowe to his room and told him to bring identification to prove he was not a police officer. Although Crowe showed him his identification, Allman nevertheless confiscated all his tapes. Two days later, the president of the Allman Brothers' Capricorn Records
Capricorn Records
Capricorn Records was an independent record label which was launched by Phil Walden, Alan Walden, and Frank Fenter in 1969 in Macon, Georgia.-First Incarnation:...
label called Crowe to let him know he was returning all the tapes. Allman later said he did not recall the incident.
Because Crowe was a fan of the 1970s hard rock
Hard rock
Hard rock is a loosely defined genre of rock music which has its earliest roots in mid-1960s garage rock, blues rock and psychedelic rock...
bands that the older writers did not like, he landed a lot of major interviews. He wrote predominantly about Yes
Yes (band)
Yes are an English rock band who achieved worldwide success with their progressive, art, and symphonic style of rock music. Regarded as one of the pioneers of the progressive genre, Yes are known for their lengthy songs, mystical lyrics, elaborate album art, and live stage sets...
and the band members, and also about Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin were an English rock band, active in the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s. Formed in 1968, they consisted of guitarist Jimmy Page, singer Robert Plant, bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham...
, Eagles, King Crimson
King Crimson
King Crimson are a rock band founded in London, England in 1969. Often categorised as a foundational progressive rock group, the band have incorporated diverse influences and instrumentation during their history...
, Linda Ronstadt
Linda Ronstadt
Linda Ronstadt is an American popular music recording artist. She has earned eleven Grammy Awards, two Academy of Country Music awards, an Emmy Award, an ALMA Award, numerous United States and internationally certified gold, platinum and multiplatinum albums, in addition to Tony Award and Golden...
, Rory Gallagher
Rory Gallagher
William Rory Gallagher, ; 2 March 1948 – 14 June 1995, was an Irish blues-rock multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and bandleader. Born in Ballyshannon, County Donegal, Ireland, and raised in Cork, Gallagher recorded solo albums throughout the 1970s and 1980s, after forming the band Taste...
, Todd Rundgren
Todd Rundgren
Todd Harry Rundgren is an American multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and record producer. Hailed in the early stage of his career as a new pop-wunderkind, supported by the certified gold solo double LP Something/Anything? in 1972, Todd Rundgren's career has produced a diverse range of recordings...
, and more. "He charmed a lot of people," Fong-Torres told Rachel Abramowitz in Premiere
Premiere (magazine)
Premiere was an American and New York City-based film magazine published by Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S., published between the years 1987 and 2007. The original version of the magazine, Première , was started in France in 1976 and is still being published there.-History:The magazine originally...
. "He was the aw-shucks guy. 'I'm glad to be backstage. I love this band.'" In an interview with Joel Selvin
Joel Selvin
Joel Selvin is a San Francisco-based music critic and author known for his weekly column in the San Francisco Chronicle which ran from 1972 to 2009. Selvin has written books covering various aspects of pop music and has interviewed a large number of musical artists...
of the San Francisco Chronicle
San Francisco Chronicle
thumb|right|upright|The Chronicle Building following the [[1906 San Francisco earthquake|1906 earthquake]] and fireThe San Francisco Chronicle is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California, but distributed throughout Northern and Central California,...
Fong-Torres remarked, "He was the guy we sent out after some difficult customers. He covered the bands that hated Rolling Stone."
Fast Times at Ridgemont High
When Rolling Stone moved its offices from the West CoastWest Coast of the United States
West Coast or Pacific Coast are terms for the westernmost coastal states of the United States. The term most often refers to the states of California, Oregon, and Washington. Although not part of the contiguous United States, Alaska and Hawaii do border the Pacific Ocean but can't be included in...
to New York in 1977, Crowe decided to stay behind. He also felt the excitement of the career was beginning to wane. Crowe appeared in the 1978 film American Hot Wax
American Hot Wax
American Hot Wax is a 1978 biopic film directed by Floyd Mutrux and written by John Kaye telling the story of Cleveland disc jockey Alan Freed, who was instrumental in introducing and popularizing rock 'n' roll in the 1950s...
, but then returned to his writing. Though he would continue to freelance for Rolling Stone on and off over the years, he turned his attention to a book.
At 22 and still boyish, Crowe came up with the idea to pose undercover as a high school student and write about his experiences. Simon & Schuster
Simon & Schuster
Simon & Schuster, Inc., a division of CBS Corporation, is a publisher founded in New York City in 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. It is one of the four largest English-language publishers, alongside Random House, Penguin and HarperCollins...
gave him a contract, and he moved back in with his parents and enrolled as Dave Cameron at Clairemont High School
Clairemont High School
Clairemont High School is a public high school located in the Clairemont neighborhood of San Diego, California. It is part of the San Diego Unified School District. The campus is situated close to the intersection of Balboa Ave and Clairemont Drive. There are approximately 1,350 students and 87...
in San Diego. Reliving the senior year he never had, he made friends and began to fit in. Though he initially planned to include himself in the book, he realized that it would jeopardize his ability to truly capture the essence of the high school experience.
His book, Fast Times at Ridgemont High: A True Story came out in 1981. Crowe focused on six main characters: a tough guy, a nerd
Nerd
Nerd is a derogatory slang term for an intelligent but socially awkward and obsessive person who spends time on unpopular or obscure pursuits, to the exclusion of more mainstream activities. Nerds are considered to be awkward, shy, and unattractive...
, a surfer dude, a sexual sophisticate, and a middle-class brother and sister. He chronicled their activities in typical teenage settings—at school, at the beach, and at the mall, where many of them held afterschool jobs—and focused on details of their lives that probed into the heart of adolescence. This included scenes about homecoming
Homecoming
Homecoming is the tradition of welcoming back alumni of a school. It most commonly refers to a tradition in many universities, colleges and high schools in North America...
and graduation as well as social clique
Clique
A clique is an exclusive group of people who share common interests, views, purposes, patterns of behavior, or ethnicity. A clique as a reference group can be either normative or comparative. Membership in a clique is typically exclusive, and qualifications for membership may be social or...
s and sexual encounters.
Before the book was even released, Fast Times at Ridgemont High was optioned for a film. Released in 1982, the movie version lacked a specific plot and featured no major name stars, and the studio did not devote any marketing effort toward it. Nevertheless, it became a sleeper hit
Sleeper hit
A sleeper hit, a.k.a. surprise hit , refers to a film, book, single, album, TV show, or video game that gains unexpected success or recognition...
due to word of mouth.
The reviews of Fast Times at Ridgemont High
Fast Times at Ridgemont High
Fast Times at Ridgemont High is a 1982 American coming-of-age teen comedy film written by Cameron Crowe and adapted from his 1981 book of the same name...
were Positive, the film ended up launching the careers of some of the previously unknown actors, including Jennifer Jason Leigh
Jennifer Jason Leigh
Jennifer Jason Leigh is an American film and stage actress, best known for her roles in Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Single White Female, Last Exit to Brooklyn, Georgia and Short Cuts...
, Eric Stoltz
Eric Stoltz
Eric Hamilton Stoltz is an American actor, director and producer. He is widely known for playing the role of Rocky Dennis in the biographical drama film Mask, which earned him the nomination for a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture...
, Judge Reinhold
Judge Reinhold
Judge Reinhold is an American actor, perhaps best known for co-starring in movies such as Beverly Hills Cop, Ruthless People, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, and The Santa Clause trilogy.-Early life:...
, Phoebe Cates
Phoebe Cates
Phoebe Cates is an American film actress, model, and entrepreneur known for her roles in several teen films, most notably Fast Times at Ridgemont High and Gremlins.-Early life:...
, Anthony Edwards
Anthony Edwards
Anthony Charles Edwards is an American actor and director. He has appeared in various movies and television shows, including Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Top Gun, Zodiac, Revenge of the Nerds, Northern Exposure and ER.-Early life:Edwards was born in Santa Barbara, California, the son of Erika...
, and future Oscar-winners Nicolas Cage
Nicolas Cage
Nicolas Cage is an American actor, producer and director, having appeared in over 60 films including Raising Arizona , The Rock , Face/Off , Gone in 60 Seconds , Adaptation , National Treasure , Ghost Rider , Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans , and...
(appearing under his given name, Nicolas Coppola), Forest Whitaker
Forest Whitaker
Forest Steven Whitaker is an American actor, producer, and director. He has earned a reputation for intensive character study work for films such as Bird and Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai, and for his recurring role as ex-LAPD Lieutenant Jon Kavanaugh on the gritty, award-winning television...
, and Sean Penn
Sean Penn
Sean Justin Penn is an American actor, screenwriter and film director, also known for his political and social activism...
.
Early directorial efforts
Following this success, Crowe wrote the screenplay for 1984's The Wild LifeThe Wild Life (film)
The Wild Life is a 1984 comedy-drama film, written by Cameron Crowe and directed by Art Linson.The movie was an indirect sequel to the film Fast Times at Ridgemont High. The film is only available on VHS and Laserdisc in pan and scan with stereo analog tracks. No DVD version has been released due...
, the pseudo-sequel to Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Whereas its predecessor followed teenagers' lives in high school, The Wild Life traced the lives of several teenagers after high school living in an apartment complex. Filmmaker James L. Brooks
James L. Brooks
James Lawrence Brooks is an American director, producer and screenwriter. Growing up in North Bergen, New Jersey, Brooks endured a fractured family life and passed the time by reading and writing. After dropping out of New York University, he got a job as an usher at CBS, going on to write for the...
noticed Crowe's original voice and wanted to work with him. Brooks executive produced Crowe's first directing effort, 1989's Say Anything..., about a young man pining away for the affections of a beautiful girl. Though it could have easily ended up a formulaic teen love story, Say Anything... got a warm reception from critics. They applauded the way Crowe crafted an intriguing and insightful tale that also involved the girl's relationship with her father and how it is threatened when she discovers he is caught up in a shady business deal.
By this point, Crowe was ready to leave teen angst
Angst
Angst is an English, German, Danish, Norwegian and Dutch word for fear or anxiety . It is used in English to describe an intense feeling of apprehension, anxiety or inner turmoil...
behind and focus on his peers. His next project, 1992's Singles, centered on the romantic tangles among a group of six friends in their twenties in Seattle. The film starred Bridget Fonda
Bridget Fonda
Bridget Jane Fonda is an American actress. She is best known for her roles in films such as The Godfather Part III, Single White Female, Point of No Return, It Could Happen to You, and Jackie Brown...
as a coffee-bar waitress fawning over an aspiring musician (Matt Dillon
Matt Dillon
Matthew Raymond "Matt" Dillon is an American actor and film director. He began acting in the late 1970s, gaining fame as a teenage idol during the 1980s.- Early life :...
) and Kyra Sedgwick
Kyra Sedgwick
Kyra Minturn Sedgwick is an American actress.Sedgwick is best known for her starring role as Deputy Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson on the TNT crime drama The Closer. Sedgwick's role in the series won her a Golden Globe Award in 2007 and an Emmy Award in 2010...
and Campbell Scott
Campbell Scott
Campbell Scott is an American actor, director, producer, and voice artist.-Life and career:Scott was born in New York City, the son of George C. Scott, an actor, director, and producer, and Colleen Dewhurst, a Canadian-born actress. He graduated from Lawrence University in 1983. His brother is...
as a couple wavering on whether to commit to each other. Music forms an integral backbone for the script, and the soundtrack became a best seller three months before the release of the film. Much of this was due to repeated delays while studio executives debated how to market it.
Singles successfully rode on the heels of Seattle's grunge music boom. During production, bands like Nirvana
Nirvana (band)
Nirvana was an American rock band that was formed by singer/guitarist Kurt Cobain and bassist Krist Novoselic in Aberdeen, Washington in 1987...
were not yet national stars, but by the time the soundtrack was released, their song "Smells Like Teen Spirit
Smells Like Teen Spirit
"Smells Like Teen Spirit" is a song by the American grunge band Nirvana. It is the opening track and lead single from the band's second album, Nevermind , released on DGC Records...
" had to be cut because it was too costly to buy the rights. Also, before they got big, Crowe signed members of Pearl Jam
Pearl Jam
Pearl Jam is an American rock band that formed in Seattle, Washington, in 1990. Since its inception, the band's line-up has included Eddie Vedder , Jeff Ament , Stone Gossard , and Mike McCready...
to portray Dillon's fictional band Citizen Dick. Crowe also appeared in this project, appropriately, as a rock journalist at a club. Tim Appelo wrote in Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
, "With ... an ambling, naturalistic style, Crowe captures the eccentric appeal of a town where espresso carts sprout on every corner and kids in ratty flannel shirts can cut records that make them millionaires."
Jerry Maguire
Branching into a new direction, Crowe wrote and directed Jerry MaguireJerry Maguire
Jerry Maguire is a 1996 American romantic comedy-drama film starring Tom Cruise and Cuba Gooding, Jr. It was written, co-produced, and directed by Cameron Crowe...
, about a high-powered sports agent
Sports agent
A sports agent procures and negotiates employment and endorsement contracts for an athlete.In return, the sports agent generally receives between 4 and 10% of the athlete's playing contract, and 10 to 20% of the athlete's endorsement contract, though these figures vary...
who is fired after having a moment of clarity in which he writes and distributes a Mission Statement calling for more service to the athletes and less money for themselves. He strikes out to form his own agency. Tom Cruise
Tom Cruise
Thomas Cruise Mapother IV , better known as Tom Cruise, is an American film actor and producer. He has been nominated for three Academy Awards and he has won three Golden Globe Awards....
played the title role of Jerry and Cuba Gooding, Jr.
Cuba Gooding, Jr.
Cuba M. Gooding, Jr. is an American actor. He is perhaps best known for his Academy Award-winning portrayal of Rod Tidwell in Cameron Crowe's 1996 film Jerry Maguire, and his critically acclaimed performance as Tré Styles in John Singleton's 1991 film Boyz n the Hood.-Early life:Gooding was born...
played Rod Tidwell, the up-and-coming football player whose catchphrase, "Show me the money!", became ubiquitous for a time. Renée Zellweger
Renée Zellweger
Renée Kathleen Zellweger is an American actress and producer. Zellweger first gained widespread attention for her role in the film Jerry Maguire , and subsequently received two nominations for the Academy Award for Best Actress for her roles as Bridget Jones in the comedy Bridget Jones's Diary ...
also appeared as the bookkeeper who leaves her job to follow Maguire into new territory in both work and love. Crowe's earlier efforts brought him recognition, but this would send him soaring onto the A-list
A-list
A-list is a term that alludes to major movie stars, or the most bankable in the Hollywood film industry.The A-list is part of a larger guide called The Hot List that has become an industry-standard guide in Hollywood...
. Gooding won a Best Supporting Actor
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actor who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry. Since its inception, however, the...
Oscar
Academy Awards
An Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...
for his role, and the film was also nominated for Best Picture, Best Screenplay, Best Editing, and Best Actor (for Cruise). Cruise also won his second Golden Globe for his role as Jerry.
Almost Famous
In 2000, Crowe tapped his rock-writer roots to write and direct Almost FamousAlmost Famous
Almost Famous is a 2000 musical comedy-drama film written and directed by Cameron Crowe and telling the fictional story of a teenage journalist writing for Rolling Stone magazine while covering the fictitious rock band Stillwater , and his efforts to get his first cover story published...
, about the experiences of a teenage music journalist who goes on the road with an emerging band in the early 1970s. Newcomer Patrick Fugit
Patrick Fugit
Patrick Raymond Fugit is an American actor best known for his debut performance in the lead role of Cameron Crowe's film Almost Famous.-Career:...
starred as William Miller, the baby-faced writer who finds himself immersed in the world of sex, drugs, and rock-and-roll, and Kate Hudson
Kate Hudson
Kate Garry Hudson is an American actress. She came to prominence in 2001 after winning a Golden Globe and receiving several nominations, including a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, for her role in Almost Famous. She then starred in the hit film How to Lose a Guy in 10...
co-starred as Penny Lane, a prominent groupie, or, as the film refers to her, a "Band-Aid." She is based on two women he met in the '70s: Playboy
Playboy
Playboy is an American men's magazine that features photographs of nude women as well as journalism and fiction. It was founded in Chicago in 1953 by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hefner's mother. The magazine has grown into Playboy Enterprises, Inc., with...
Playmate, Bebe Buell
Bebe Buell
Beverle Lorence "Bebe" Buell is an American fashion model and singer, and Playboy magazine's November 1974 Playmate of the Month. She is also known for dating rock musicians. She is actress Liv Tyler's mother from a brief relationship with Aerosmith vocalist Steven Tyler...
, and Geraldine Edwards. Buell was Todd Rundgren's girlfriend, and a well known groupie. Digging into his most personal memories, Crowe used a composite of the bands he had known to come up with Stillwater, the emerging act that welcomes the young journalist into its sphere, then becomes wary of his intentions. Seventies rocker Peter Frampton
Peter Frampton
Peter Kenneth Frampton is an English musician, singer, producer, guitarist and multi-instrumentalist. He was previously associated with the bands Humble Pie and The Herd. Frampton's international breakthrough album was his live release, Frampton Comes Alive!. The album sold over 6 million copies...
served as a technical consultant on the film.
William Miller's mother figured prominently in the film as well (often admonishing, "Don't take drugs!"). The character was based on Cameron's own mother, who even showed up at the film sets to keep an eye on him while he worked. Though he asked her not to bother Frances McDormand
Frances McDormand
Frances Louise McDormand is an American film and stage actress. She has starred in a number of films, including her Academy Award-winning performance as Marge Gunderson in Fargo, in 1996...
, who played her character, the two ended up getting along well. Also in the film he showed his sister (portrayed by Zooey Deschanel
Zooey Deschanel
Zooey Claire Deschanel is an American actress, musician, and singer-songwriter. In 1999, Deschanel made her film debut in Mumford, followed by her breakout role as young protagonist William Miller's troubled older sister Anita in Cameron Crowe's 2000 semi-autobiographical film Almost Famous...
) rebelling and leaving home, and in real life, his mother and sister Cindy did not talk for a decade and were still estranged to a degree when he finished the film. The family reunited when the project was complete.
In addition, Crowe took a copy of the film to London for a special screening with Led Zeppelin members Jimmy Page
Jimmy Page
James Patrick "Jimmy" Page, OBE is an English multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and record producer. He began his career as a studio session guitarist in London and was subsequently a member of The Yardbirds from 1966 to 1968, after which he founded the English rock band Led Zeppelin.Jimmy Page...
and Robert Plant
Robert Plant
Robert Anthony Plant, CBE is an English singer and songwriter best known as the vocalist and lyricist of the iconic rock band Led Zeppelin. He has also had a successful solo career...
, who provided some of the inspiration for the feuding bandmates. Additional inspiration for the inner band turmoil was provided by Gregg Allman and Dickey Betts of the Allman Brothers Band from Cameron's travels with them.
After the screening, Led Zeppelin granted Crowe the right to use one of their songs on the soundtrack—the first time they had ever consented to this since allowing Crowe to use "Kashmir" in Fast Times at Ridgemont High—and also gave him rights to four of their other songs in the movie itself, although they did not grant him the rights to "Stairway to Heaven
Stairway to Heaven
"Stairway to Heaven" is a song by the English rock band Led Zeppelin, released in late 1971. It was composed by guitarist Jimmy Page and vocalist Robert Plant for the band's untitled fourth studio album . The song, running eight minutes and two seconds, is composed of several sections, which...
" for an intended scene (on the special "Bootleg" edition DVD, the scene is included as an extra sans the song where the viewer is instructed by a watermark to begin playing it). Crowe and his wife, musician Nancy Wilson
Nancy Wilson (guitarist)
Nancy Lamoureux Wilson is an American singer, songwriter, guitarist and producer who, with her older sister Ann and lead guitarist Roger Fisher, became the core of the Seattle/Vancouver rock band Heart.-Life and career:...
of Heart
Heart (band)
Heart is an American rock band who first found success in Canada. Throughout several lineup changes, the only two members remaining constant are sisters Ann and Nancy Wilson. The group rose to fame in the 1970s with their music being influenced by hard rock as well as folk music...
, co-wrote three of the five Stillwater songs in the film, and Frampton wrote the other two. Reviews were almost universally positive, and it was nominated for and won a host of film awards, including an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for Crowe. Crowe and co-producer Danny Bramson also won the Best Compilation Soundtrack Album for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media Grammy Award
Grammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
for the soundtrack. Despite these accolades, box office returns for the film were disappointing.
Vanilla Sky
He followed Almost Famous with Vanilla SkyVanilla Sky
Vanilla Sky is a 2001 American psychological thriller film directed, co-produced and co-written by Cameron Crowe. The film is an English-language remake of the 1997 Spanish movie Abre los ojos , the screenplay for which was written by Alejandro Amenábar and Mateo Gil...
in 2001, a psychological thriller. Starring Tom Cruise
Tom Cruise
Thomas Cruise Mapother IV , better known as Tom Cruise, is an American film actor and producer. He has been nominated for three Academy Awards and he has won three Golden Globe Awards....
and Penélope Cruz
Penélope Cruz
Penélope Cruz Sánchez is a Spanish actress. Signed by an agent at age 15, she made her acting debut at 16 on television and her feature film debut the following year in Jamón, jamón , to critical acclaim...
, the film received mixed reviews but still managed to gross $100.6 million at the US box office, making it his second highest grossing directorial effort behind only Jerry Maguire. Vanilla Sky is a remake of the 1997 Spanish movie Abre Los Ojos (Open your Eyes) by Alejandro Amenabar
Alejandro Amenábar
Alejandro Fernando Amenábar Cantos is a Spanish- Chilean film director. Amenábar was born in Santiago, Chile to a Spanish mother and Chilean father, but the family moved to Spain just one year after his birth...
. The female main character of Sofia is played by Penélope Cruz
Penélope Cruz
Penélope Cruz Sánchez is a Spanish actress. Signed by an agent at age 15, she made her acting debut at 16 on television and her feature film debut the following year in Jamón, jamón , to critical acclaim...
in both the original movie and the Crowe's remake.
Elizabethtown
He returned in 2005, with Elizabethtown, which again opened to mixed reviews, scoring 45 on MetacriticMetacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
, the same as his previous effort, Vanilla Sky.
The Union
In November 2009, Crowe began filming a behind-the-scenes look at the creation of the album The Union, a collaboration between musicians Elton JohnElton John
Sir Elton Hercules John, CBE, Hon DMus is an English rock singer-songwriter, composer, pianist and occasional actor...
and Leon Russell
Leon Russell
Claude Russell Bridges , known professionally as Leon Russell, is an American musician and songwriter, who has recorded as a session musician, sideman, and maintained a solo career in music....
produced by award-winning producer T-Bone Burnett
T-Bone Burnett
Joseph Henry Burnett , widely known as T-Bone Burnett, is an American musician, songwriter, and soundtrack and record producer.He was a guitarist in Bob Dylan's band on the Rolling Thunder Revue...
. The documentary features musicians Neil Young
Neil Young
Neil Percival Young, OC, OM is a Canadian singer-songwriter who is widely regarded as one of the most influential musicians of his generation...
, Brian Wilson
Brian Wilson
Brian Douglas Wilson is an American musician, best known as the leader and chief songwriter of the group The Beach Boys. Within the band, Wilson played bass and keyboards, also providing part-time lead vocals and, more often, backing vocals, harmonizing in falsetto with the group...
, Booker T. Jones
Booker T. Jones
Booker T. Jones is a multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, record producer and arranger, best known as the frontman of the band Booker T. and the MGs. He has also worked in the studios with many well-known artists of the 20th and 21st centuries, earning him a Grammy Award for lifetime...
, steel guitarist Robert Randolph, Don Was
Don Was
Don Was is an American musician, bassist and record producer.-Life and career:Was was born in Detroit, Michigan. He graduated from Oak Park High School in the Detroit suburb of Oak Park, then attended the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor but dropped out after the first year...
and a 10-piece gospel choir who all appear on the album with John and Russell. Musician Stevie Nicks
Stevie Nicks
Stephanie Lynn "Stevie" Nicks is an American singer-songwriter, best known for her work with Fleetwood Mac and an extensive solo career, which collectively have produced over forty Top 50 hits and sold over 140 million albums...
and John's longtime lyricist Bernie Taupin
Bernie Taupin
Bernard John "Bernie" Taupin is an English lyricist, poet, and singer, best known for his long-term collaboration with Elton John, writing the lyrics for the majority of the star's songs, making his lyrics some of the best known in pop-rock's history.In 1967, Taupin answered an advertisement in...
also appear. On March 2, 2011, the documentary was announced to open the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival.
Deep Tiki
It was announced in early June 2008 that Crowe would be returning to write and direct his seventh feature film, set to star Ben StillerBen Stiller
Benjamin Edward "Ben" Stiller is an American comedian, actor, writer, film director, and producer. He is the son of veteran comedians and actors Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara....
and Reese Witherspoon
Reese Witherspoon
Laura Jeanne Reese Witherspoon , better known as Reese Witherspoon, is an American actress and film producer. Witherspoon landed her first feature role as the female lead in the film The Man in the Moon in 1991; later that year she made her television acting debut, in the cable movie Wildflower...
and be released by Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production and distribution company. Columbia Pictures now forms part of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. It is one of the leading film companies...
. Filming was expected to begin in January 2009, but this has since been postponed.
We Bought a Zoo
With production on "Deep Tiki" delayed, Crowe has set his next feature for the adaptation of the memoir, "We Bought a Zoo", by Benjamin Mee. There is already a screenplay by The Devil Wears PradaThe Devil Wears Prada (film)
The Devil Wears Prada is a 2006 comedy-drama film, a loose screen adaptation of Lauren Weisberger's 2003 novel of the same name. It stars Anne Hathaway as Andrea Sachs, a recent college graduate who goes to New York City and gets a job as a co-assistant to powerful and demanding fashion magazine...
writer Aline Brosh McKenna
Aline Brosh McKenna
Aline Brosh McKenna is an American screenwriter.McKenna was born in France and moved with her family to New Jersey, where she lived variously in Fort Lee, Demarest and Montvale, and attended Saddle River Day School in Saddle River, New Jersey.She graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University,...
, but Crowe seems to be taking a pass at the screenplay himself. The story follows Mee, who buys and moves into a dilapidated zoo (now Dartmoor Zoological Park
Dartmoor Zoological Park
Dartmoor Zoological Park is a zoological garden located near the village of Sparkwell, on the south-west edge of Dartmoor, in the county of Devon in the South West of England....
) in the English countryside. Looking for a fresh start along with his children and cancer-stricken wife, he hopes to refurbish the zoo and run it as a family business. It is possible that Crowe would change the location to the US. 20th Century Fox has set a December 23, 2011 release date and Matt Damon is the star.
Pearl Jam Twenty
In an interview with Pearl JamPearl Jam
Pearl Jam is an American rock band that formed in Seattle, Washington, in 1990. Since its inception, the band's line-up has included Eddie Vedder , Jeff Ament , Stone Gossard , and Mike McCready...
on March 9, 2009, bassist Jeff Ament said "... our manager Kelly has had the idea to do a 20 year anniversary retrospective movie so he's been on board with [film director] Cameron Crowe for the last few years." Guitarist Mike McCready also stated in March, "“We are just in the very early stages of that…starting to go through all the footage we have, and Cameron’s writing the treatment." Preliminary footage was being shot as of June 2010. The film is scheduled for a 2011 release, and will have an accompanying book and soundtrack. A trailer for the movie, which featured Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder choosing between three permanent markers in a shop before turning to the camera and say "Three's good... Twenty is better" was shown before select movies at the 2011 BFI Film Festival.
Personal life
Crowe married Nancy Wilson of the rock band HeartHeart (band)
Heart is an American rock band who first found success in Canada. Throughout several lineup changes, the only two members remaining constant are sisters Ann and Nancy Wilson. The group rose to fame in the 1970s with their music being influenced by hard rock as well as folk music...
in July 1986. Their twin sons, William James Crowe and Curtis Wilson Crowe, were born in January 2000. Crowe and Wilson separated in June 2008. Wilson filed for divorce on September 23, 2010, citing "irreconcilable differences." The divorce was finalized on December 8, 2010, ending the marriage.
Filmography
| Year | Film | Oscar nominations | Oscar wins | Credited as | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Director | Writer Screenwriter Screenwriters or scriptwriters or scenario writers are people who write/create the short or feature-length screenplays from which mass media such as films, television programs, Comics or video games are based.-Profession:... |
Producer | Other notes | ||||
| 1982 | Fast Times at Ridgemont High Fast Times at Ridgemont High Fast Times at Ridgemont High is a 1982 American coming-of-age teen comedy film written by Cameron Crowe and adapted from his 1981 book of the same name... |
||||||
| 1983 | Change of Heart | Music video | |||||
| 1984 | The Wild Life The Wild Life (film) The Wild Life is a 1984 comedy-drama film, written by Cameron Crowe and directed by Art Linson.The movie was an indirect sequel to the film Fast Times at Ridgemont High. The film is only available on VHS and Laserdisc in pan and scan with stereo analog tracks. No DVD version has been released due... |
Also actor | |||||
| 1989 | Say Anything... | ||||||
| 1992 | Singles | Also actor | |||||
| 1992 | Dyslexic Heart | Music video | |||||
| 1996 | Jerry Maguire Jerry Maguire Jerry Maguire is a 1996 American romantic comedy-drama film starring Tom Cruise and Cuba Gooding, Jr. It was written, co-produced, and directed by Cameron Crowe... |
5 | 1 | ||||
| 2000 | Almost Famous Almost Famous Almost Famous is a 2000 musical comedy-drama film written and directed by Cameron Crowe and telling the fictional story of a teenage journalist writing for Rolling Stone magazine while covering the fictitious rock band Stillwater , and his efforts to get his first cover story published... |
4 | 1 | ||||
| 2001 | Vanilla Sky Vanilla Sky Vanilla Sky is a 2001 American psychological thriller film directed, co-produced and co-written by Cameron Crowe. The film is an English-language remake of the 1997 Spanish movie Abre los ojos , the screenplay for which was written by Alejandro Amenábar and Mateo Gil... |
1 | |||||
| 2005 | Elizabethtown Elizabethtown (film) Elizabethtown is a 2005 American comedy-drama film written and directed by Cameron Crowe starring Orlando Bloom and Kirsten Dunst. Alec Baldwin has a small role as a CEO of an athletic shoe company and Susan Sarandon appears as a grieving widow... |
||||||
| 2009 | The Fixer The Fixer (song) "The Fixer" is a song by the American rock band Pearl Jam. Featuring lyrics written by vocalist Eddie Vedder and music co-written by drummer Matt Cameron and guitarists Mike McCready and Stone Gossard, "The Fixer" was released on August 24, 2009 as the first single from the band's ninth studio... |
Music video | |||||
| 2011 | The Union The Union (music documentary) The Union is a 2011 documentary film by Cameron Crowe exploring the creative process of musician Elton John and the making of 2010 album The Union.-Synopsis:... |
Documentary | |||||
| 2011 | Pearl Jam Twenty Pearl Jam Twenty Pearl Jam Twenty is 2011 American rockumentary directed by Cameron Crowe about the band Pearl Jam. Preliminary footage was being shot as of June 2010. Crowe completed filming in April 2011, after using 12,000 hours of footage of the band for the documentary... |
Documentary | |||||
| 2011 | We Bought a Zoo We Bought a Zoo We Bought a Zoo is an upcoming comedy-drama film directed by Cameron Crowe starring Matt Damon, Thomas Haden Church, Colin Ford, Scarlett Johansson, Desi Lydic, Patrick Fugit, and Elle Fanning.... |
||||||
As actor
- The Other Side of the WindThe Other Side of the WindThe Other Side of the Wind is an unfinished film directed by Orson Welles, shot between 1969 and 1976, and starring John Huston, Bob Random, Peter Bogdanovich, Susan Strasberg and Oja Kodar.-Summary:...
(1972) - American Hot WaxAmerican Hot WaxAmerican Hot Wax is a 1978 biopic film directed by Floyd Mutrux and written by John Kaye telling the story of Cleveland disc jockey Alan Freed, who was instrumental in introducing and popularizing rock 'n' roll in the 1950s...
(1978) - The Wild LifeThe Wild Life (film)The Wild Life is a 1984 comedy-drama film, written by Cameron Crowe and directed by Art Linson.The movie was an indirect sequel to the film Fast Times at Ridgemont High. The film is only available on VHS and Laserdisc in pan and scan with stereo analog tracks. No DVD version has been released due...
(1984) - Singles (1992)
- Minority ReportMinority Report (film)Minority Report is a 2002 American neo-noir science fiction film directed by Steven Spielberg and loosely based on the short story "The Minority Report" by Philip K. Dick. It is set primarily in Washington, D.C...
(2002)
Awards and nominations
- Academy Award Nominated Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen for Jerry Maguire (1996)
- Academy AwardAcademy Award for Best PictureThe Academy Award for Best Picture is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to artists working in the motion picture industry. The Best Picture category is the only category in which every member of the Academy is eligible not only...
Nominated Best Picture for Jerry Maguire (1996) - Academy Award Won Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen for Almost Famous (2000)
- BAFTA Film Award Best Screenplay – Original for Almost Famous (2001)
- DGA AwardDirectors Guild of America AwardsThe Directors Guild of America Awards are issued annually by the Directors Guild of America. The first DGA Award was an "Honorary Life Member" award issued in 1938 to D.W. Griffith....
Nominated for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures (2001) - Golden Globe Award Best Motion Picture – Comedy/Musical (2001) for Almost Famous
- Grammy Award for Best Compilation Soundtrack Album for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media – Almost Famous soundtrack (with co-producer Danny Bramson)
External links
- "Allmovie". Cameron Crowe. Retrieved June 21, 2006.