RIP Joel Schumacher: THE LOST BOYS Director Has Passed Away at 80
Today brings the heartbreaking news that Joel Schumacher, director of The Lost Boys and Flatliners (among many others) has passed away; he was 80 years old. Variety reports that his death follows a long battle with cancer.
How Schumacher influenced The Lost Boys:
The original screenplay for The Lost Boys written by Jan Fischer and James Jeremias was originally about a bunch of “Goonie-type 5th-6th grade kid vampires”, with the Frog Brothers being “chubby 8-year-old cub scouts”, and Star being a boy instead of a love interest. The original inspiration came from James, who caught upon the notion that Peter Pan could fly, visited Wendy and her brothers at night, and never grew old. The simple notion that Peter Pan was a vampire was the genesis for the story. In the first draft of the script, the character of David was originally named Peter, and other characters also had names from the Peter Pan story. In the final draft, many name changes were made, but originally the two brothers were Michael and John (which was later changed to Sam) and the mother’s name was Wendy. The most obvious nod to the Pan story is the dog, Nanook, inspired by the character Nana the dog. The Grandfather character was never a part of the original story but later created in the draft by Jeffrey Boam, who was hired to do the final rewrite.
Joel Schumacher hated that idea and told the producers he would only sign on if he could change them to teenagers, as he thought it would be much sexier and more interesting. (Source)
Look for retrospectives of Schumacher’s films in the days and weeks to come. For now, everyone at Dread Central sends their sincerest condolences to the filmmaker’s fans, friends, and family. His immense talents will be sorely missed.
Categorized:News
