Mel Brooks looks back on making The Fly remake with David Cronenberg and Jeff Goldblum
Director David Cronenberg’s 1986 version of The Fly, a remake of the 1958 film of the same title (which was based on a short story by George Langelaan), is widely considered to be one of the all-time greatest remakes – and one of the most unexpected things about that film is the fact that it was produced by comedy legend Mel Brooks! A few years ago, Brooks wrote an autobiography called All About Me!: My Remarkable Life in Show Business (you can pick up a copy at THIS LINK) – and in one chapter of the book, he looks back on the experience of making The Fly, explaining how he got involved, and covering how Cronenberg and stars Jeff Goldblum and Geena Davis were drawn into the project.
Here’s an excerpt from All About Me!: So sometime in 1984 or early 1985, Stuart Cornfeld came to me with an idea. He said, “I’ve just read a great script. There’s a movie that Fox owns that we should remake…it’s called The Fly.”
I remembered that movie. It was about tele-transportation and the scientist who’s in the teleporter doesn’t realize there’s a fly in the chamber with him. He ends up becoming a grotesque hybrid of human and fly.
“As I remember, there was nothing special about it. Why are you suggesting it?”
Stuart replied, “This script I read by a writer called Charles Pogue has a different take on it that I think would turn it into a really good horror movie. You see in the original, the event turning the scientist into the fly happens so quickly that it’s not horrific. It’s almost funny. But why not take our time with the process? Actually have the scientist very slowly become the fly.”
“Go on…” I said.
He said, “Well, in this version he thinks the experiment is a failure. He doesn’t realize that he has absorbed the genes of the fly and is slowly but surely becoming this horrible creature.”
“Ahh! Like a metamorphosis!”
“Right!” he said. “For instance, he’s putting six or seven teaspoons of sugar in his coffee and he doesn’t notice it. So like in every good horror movie, the audience knows what’s happening but not the leading character.”
“Okay! Sounds good. Let’s get the rights from Fox.”
We did, and Stuart began developing the film. His choice for director was the super talented Canadian David Cronenberg, who had made a reputation for himself as a top horror film director. I had seen some of his movies, including Scanners (1981), Videodrome (1983), and The Dead Zone (1983), and thought they were terrific. I agreed with Stuart that he was the guy.
David read Charles Pogue’s screenplay and liked it very much but would only sign on to direct if he got carte blanche on rewriting the script.
I said, “Stuart, let’s take a chance.”
So we signed Cronenberg. After a long back-and-forth in casting choices to play the lead we all decided on a brilliant actor Jeff Goldblum. I remembered seeing him in The Big Chill (1983) and thought he was wonderful.
Fox, our distributor, said, “No. Goldblum is good, but he’s not a star. We need a big star.”
I said, “No, we don’t need a big star. We need the right guy for the role, and that guy is Jeff Goldblum.”
Finally, they gave in.
In a lucky break for us, Jeff had a girlfriend who was an actress. He asked us to screen-test her for the female lead in The Fly. We tested her, and we loved her. Her name was Geena Davis. It was her first real starring role. She was marvelous in the part, especially in a scene where Jeff as Seth Brundle brings a new girlfriend to his laboratory.
When she’s a little frightened by the explanation of the teleporting chamber, he calms her with, “It’s okay, don’t be afraid.”
Geena steps out of the shadows where she has been hiding and says, “No, be afraid. Be very afraid.”
The phrase jumped out at me and I thought it would be perfect for the lead line in our advertising campaign. As a matter of fact, we made it the most important phrase right underneath the title, reading: THE FLY – BE AFRAID, BE VERY AFRAID.
It was a dynamite tagline, capturing the imagination of the public.
Cronenberg did a sensational job both in writing with Pogue and in directing the film. He was aided by a team of wonderful makeup artists, Chris Walas and Stephen Dupuis, who won the Academy Award for Best Makeup that year for their hideous and genius creation of “the Fly.” And composer Howard Shore did a magnificent job with the score of the film.
The Fly did very well, making almost five times its budget in box office. It was also a critical success.
And that’s how we got one of the best remakes ever made. As it turns out, Mel Brooks was the best producer The Fly could have possibly had. Are you a fan of the film? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
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