Something Wicked This Way Comes (1983 film)
Encyclopedia
Something Wicked This Way Comes is a 1983 film based on the Ray Bradbury
novel of the same name
, starring Jason Robards
and Jonathan Pryce
. Directed by Jack Clayton
from a screenplay written by Bradbury himself, the movie suffered from offscreen conflicts of vision. It was shot in Vermont
and at the Walt Disney Studios
.
to Paramount
. He and director Jack Clayton, whom Bradbury had previously worked with on Moby Dick
, produced a completed script. However, production never began and the film was eventually put into turnaround.
At this time Walt Disney Pictures
was concentrating on films with more mature themes in an attempt to break free from their stereotype as an animation and family film studio. After the success of family-oriented fantasy pictures by competing studios, such as Time Bandits
and The Dark Crystal
, Disney decided to purchase the adaptation's rights and hired Bradbury to produce a new script from scratch.
The studio sought Bradbury's input on selecting a cast and director, and he suggested Clayton feeling they had worked well together at Paramount. In a 1981 issue of Cinefantastique
, Bradbury stated that his top choices to play Mr. Dark were Peter O'Toole
and Christopher Lee
. However, Disney decided to go with a relatively unknown actor instead in order to keep the budget down. As the film progressed, two differing visions emerged for the film, with Bradbury wishing to stay as faithful to the novel as possible, and Clayton wanting to make a more accessible and family friendly film. The two became estranged when Clayton hired writer John Mortimer
to do an uncredited revision of Bradbury's screenplay at the studio's behest.
Initial test screenings did not fare well with audiences, and Disney re-commissioned Bradbury to write an opening narration sequence and new ending. Disney also spent an additional US$5 million on refilming, re-editing, and rescoring the picture. Bradbury referred to the film's final cut as "not a great film, no, but a decently nice one."
. Roger Ebert
gave the film a three and a half star review, calling it "a horror movie with elegance". The film was a financial loss, only making $8.4 million at the domestic box office.
It won the 1984 Saturn Award
for Best Fantasy Film and was nominated for five others including best music for James Horner
and best supporting actor for Jonathan Pryce. The film was also nominated for Best Picture at the Hugo Awards and Grand Jury Prize at the Avoriaz Film Festival.
Ray Bradbury
Ray Douglas Bradbury is an American fantasy, horror, science fiction, and mystery writer. Best known for his dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451 and for the science fiction stories gathered together as The Martian Chronicles and The Illustrated Man , Bradbury is one of the most celebrated among 20th...
novel of the same name
Something Wicked This Way Comes (novel)
Something Wicked This Way Comes is a 1962 novel by Ray Bradbury. It is about two 13-year-old boys, Jim Nightshade and William Halloway, who have a harrowing experience with a nightmarish traveling carnival that comes to their Midwestern town one October. The carnival's leader is the mysterious "Mr...
, starring Jason Robards
Jason Robards
Jason Nelson Robards, Jr. was an American actor on stage, and in film and television, and a winner of the Tony Award , two Academy Awards and the Emmy Award...
and Jonathan Pryce
Jonathan Pryce
Jonathan Pryce, CBE is a Welsh stage and film actor and singer. After studying at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and meeting his longtime partner English actress Kate Fahy in 1974, he began his career as a stage actor in the 1970s...
. Directed by Jack Clayton
Jack Clayton
Jack Clayton was a British film director who specialised in bringing literary works to the screen.-Career:A native of East Sussex, Clayton started his career as a child actor on the 1929 film Dark Red Roses...
from a screenplay written by Bradbury himself, the movie suffered from offscreen conflicts of vision. It was shot in Vermont
Vermont
Vermont is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state ranks 43rd in land area, , and 45th in total area. Its population according to the 2010 census, 630,337, is the second smallest in the country, larger only than Wyoming. It is the only New England...
and at the Walt Disney Studios
Walt Disney Studios (Burbank)
The Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, California, United States, serve as the international headquarters for media conglomerate The Walt Disney Company. The Walt Disney Studio's house offices for each of the company's divisions along with creative spaces designed for movie production. The Walt Disney...
.
Premise
In a small town, two young boys named Will and Jim encounter a sinister carnival whose proprietor, Mr. Dark, lures the townsfolk to their doom by promising to fulfill their childhood desires. As Will, Jim, and Will's father, Charles Halloway, are about to find out, these wishes come at a horrific price. Will they survive?Cast
- Jason RobardsJason RobardsJason Nelson Robards, Jr. was an American actor on stage, and in film and television, and a winner of the Tony Award , two Academy Awards and the Emmy Award...
as Charles Halloway - Jonathan PryceJonathan PryceJonathan Pryce, CBE is a Welsh stage and film actor and singer. After studying at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and meeting his longtime partner English actress Kate Fahy in 1974, he began his career as a stage actor in the 1970s...
as Mr. Dark - Vidal Peterson as Will Halloway
- Shawn Carson as Jim Nightshade
- Diane LaddDiane LaddDiane Ladd is an American actress, film director, producer and published author. She has appeared in over 120 roles, on television, and in miniseries and feature films, including Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore , Wild at Heart , Rambling Rose , Ghosts of Mississippi, Primary Colors, 28 Days , and...
as Mrs. Nightshade - Royal DanoRoyal DanoRoyal Edward Dano was an American film and television character actor.-Early life:Dano was born in New York City to Mary Josephine , an Irish immigrant, and Caleb Edward Dano, a printer for newspapers. He reportedly left home at the age of twelve and at various intervals, lived in Florida, Texas...
as Tom Fury - Pam GrierPam GrierPamela Suzette "Pam" Grier is an American actress. She became famous in the early 1970s, after starring in a string of moderately successful women in prison and blaxploitation films such as 1974's Foxy Brown. Her career was revitalized in 1997 after her appearance in Quentin Tarantino's film...
as the Dust Witch - Mary Grace CanfieldMary Grace CanfieldMary Grace Canfield is an American actress who often played the role of a romance-starved spinster/wallflower...
as Miss Foley - Bruce Fischer as Mr. Cooger
- Arthur HillArthur Hill (actor)Arthur Edward Spence Hill was a Canadian actor best known for appearances in British and American theater, movies and television...
as The Narrator
Production history
In 1977, Bradbury sold the film rights to Something Wicked This Way ComesSomething Wicked This Way Comes (novel)
Something Wicked This Way Comes is a 1962 novel by Ray Bradbury. It is about two 13-year-old boys, Jim Nightshade and William Halloway, who have a harrowing experience with a nightmarish traveling carnival that comes to their Midwestern town one October. The carnival's leader is the mysterious "Mr...
to Paramount
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...
. He and director Jack Clayton, whom Bradbury had previously worked with on Moby Dick
Moby Dick (1956 film)
Moby Dick is a 1956 film adaptation of Herman Melville's novel Moby-Dick. It was directed by John Huston with a screenplay by Ray Bradbury and the director. The film starred Gregory Peck, Richard Basehart, and Leo Genn...
, produced a completed script. However, production never began and the film was eventually put into turnaround.
At this time Walt Disney Pictures
Walt Disney Pictures
Walt Disney Pictures is an American film studio owned by The Walt Disney Company. Walt Disney Pictures and Television, a subsidiary of the Walt Disney Studios and the main production company for live-action feature films within the Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group, based at the Walt Disney...
was concentrating on films with more mature themes in an attempt to break free from their stereotype as an animation and family film studio. After the success of family-oriented fantasy pictures by competing studios, such as Time Bandits
Time Bandits
Time Bandits is a 1981 British fantasy film produced and directed by Terry Gilliam.Terry Gilliam wrote the screenplay with fellow Monty Python alumnus Michael Palin, who appears with Shelley Duvall in the small, recurring roles of Vincent and Pansy. The film is one of the most famous of more than...
and The Dark Crystal
The Dark Crystal
The Dark Crystal is a 1982 British-American fantasy film directed by Jim Henson and Frank Oz. Although marketed as a family film, it was notably darker than previous material created by them. The animatronics used in the film were considered groundbreaking. The primary concept artist was the...
, Disney decided to purchase the adaptation's rights and hired Bradbury to produce a new script from scratch.
The studio sought Bradbury's input on selecting a cast and director, and he suggested Clayton feeling they had worked well together at Paramount. In a 1981 issue of Cinefantastique
Cinefantastique
Cinefantastique was a horror, fantasy, and science fiction film magazine originally started as a mimeographed fanzine in 1967, then relaunched as a glossy, offset quarterly in 1970 by publisher/editor Frederick S. Clarke...
, Bradbury stated that his top choices to play Mr. Dark were Peter O'Toole
Peter O'Toole
Peter Seamus Lorcan O'Toole is an Irish actor of stage and screen. O'Toole achieved stardom in 1962 playing T. E. Lawrence in Lawrence of Arabia, and then went on to become a highly-honoured film and stage actor. He has been nominated for eight Academy Awards, and holds the record for most...
and Christopher Lee
Christopher Lee
Sir Christopher Frank Carandini Lee, CBE, CStJ is an English actor and musician. Lee initially portrayed villains and became famous for his role as Count Dracula in a string of Hammer Horror films...
. However, Disney decided to go with a relatively unknown actor instead in order to keep the budget down. As the film progressed, two differing visions emerged for the film, with Bradbury wishing to stay as faithful to the novel as possible, and Clayton wanting to make a more accessible and family friendly film. The two became estranged when Clayton hired writer John Mortimer
John Mortimer
Sir John Clifford Mortimer, CBE, QC was a British barrister, dramatist, screenwriter and author.-Early life:...
to do an uncredited revision of Bradbury's screenplay at the studio's behest.
Initial test screenings did not fare well with audiences, and Disney re-commissioned Bradbury to write an opening narration sequence and new ending. Disney also spent an additional US$5 million on refilming, re-editing, and rescoring the picture. Bradbury referred to the film's final cut as "not a great film, no, but a decently nice one."
Awards and reception
The film has received middling reviews. Something Wicked This Way Comes holds a 57% "Rotten" rating at the film aggregate site Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
. Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
gave the film a three and a half star review, calling it "a horror movie with elegance". The film was a financial loss, only making $8.4 million at the domestic box office.
It won the 1984 Saturn Award
Saturn Award
The Saturn Award is an award presented annually by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films to honor the top works in science fiction, fantasy, and horror in film, television, and home video. The Saturn Awards were devised by Dr. Donald A. Reed in 1972, who felt that films within...
for Best Fantasy Film and was nominated for five others including best music for James Horner
James Horner
James Roy Horner is an American composer, orchestrator and conductor of orchestral and film music. He is noted for the integration of choral and electronic elements in many of his film scores, and for frequent use of Celtic musical elements...
and best supporting actor for Jonathan Pryce. The film was also nominated for Best Picture at the Hugo Awards and Grand Jury Prize at the Avoriaz Film Festival.