Wednesday, August 31, 2016

IT'S TIME TO SAY 'HASTA LA VISTA, BABY!' TO A CERTAIN WELL-WORN PHRASE

Chicago Tribune, December 17, 1997 Wednesday
 
IT'S TIME TO SAY 'HASTA LA VISTA, BABY!' TO A CERTAIN WELL-WORN PHRASE
By Mark Caro, Tribune Staff Writer


You know that feeling when you hear a phrase so often that you want to throw things through plate-glass windows?
Well, it's baaaaack.

The movie "Poltergeist II" seems an unlikely source for such a towering contribution to our popular culture, but its key phrase continues to haunt us.
"They're baaaaack!" squealed the little girl played by the late Heather O'Rourke in the 1986 movie about evil spirits invading a suburban home. Her cry -- the follow-up to her original "Poltergeist" announcement of "They're heeeere!" -- became the crux of the movie's marketing campaign.
Eleven years later, the expression doesn't need to come back, because it won't go away.
"They're ba-a-a-a-ck!" was the headline of Time magazine's Nov. 17 Winners & Losers column citing Saddam Hussein, Madeleine Albright and others.
"They're baaaaaa-aaaack!" read an Entertainment Weekly Nov. 14 table-of-contents promo for a story about teenage performers.
"She's baaaaaack!" topped a USA Today story on Nov. 7 about "The Little Mermaid."
And the Oct. 24 Washington Post managed a double play. In one story Joel Kotkin of the Pepperdine Institute for Public Policy mixed his movie references: "About 10 or 15 years ago, everybody thought Houston was dead and buried. And sort of like the Terminator, it's baaack." In another, sportswriter Leonard Shapiro pronounced, "Keith Olbermann. He's baaaaaack . . ."
The Tribune hasn't been immune, either, with five "baaaack" citations in October alone. In fact, the phrase has turned up more than 100 times in many variations. For those keeping score, it breaks down to one "baack," 27 "baaack," 28 "baaaack," 25 "baaaaack," eight "baaaaaack," six "baaaaaaack," three "baaaaaaaack," one "baaaaaaaaack," one "baaaaaaaaaack" and one "baaaaaaaaaaaack." There are also several hyphenated versions.
You'd think the expression's popularity might have died down after more than a decade, but the opposite seems to be occurring. A computer search through more than 150 magazines and 75 of the nation's top newspapers turned up 464 uses of "baaaaaack" in stories through the beginning of December this year, compared with 415 in 1996, 433 in 1995, 467 in 1994, 342 in 1993 and 295 in 1992.
Too bad Michael Grais and Mark Victor, the screenwriting team responsible for "Poltergeist II" and the original "Poltergeist" (with Steven Spielberg), can't get royalties for their phrase.
"It sure would have been nice to get a dime or a penny or a buck for every time I hear it," said Victor, who, like Grais, is a Highland Park High School graduate. "I hear it all the time. I don't even think about it anymore because it's so commonplace."
At this point most people quoting the expression probably couldn't even name its source. It's one of many film phrases that have worked their way into the vernacular.
"Show me the money" has played like a broken record since last winter's release of "Jerry Maguire." Other heavy-rotation movie quotes have included "Go ahead, make my day" from Clint Eastwood's 1983 "Sudden Impact," Arnold Schwarzenegger's taunt of "Hasta la vista, baby!" from 1991's "Terminator 2" -- which a current Chef Boy-Ar-Dee commercial transformed into "Pasta la vista, baby!" -- and "Phone home" from 1982's "E.T."
Television shows such as "Saturday Night Live" also have supplied their share of sayings (such as "Isn't that special?" and "Not!"), and you can thank the advertising world for "Where's the Beef?" (Wendy's) and "I love you, man!" (Bud Lite).
Such catch phrases usually have limited shelf lives. When's the last time you heard "Yes I am!" (also Bud Lite)?
But the "Poltergeist" expression endures. " 'They're baaaaack' somehow isn't boring people," said Richard Janda, an assistant professor of linguistics at the University of Chicago, who thought the phrase came from a "Halloween" movie. "The situation arises a lot when someone comes back, so you can say, 'They're baaaaack.' I use it. It makes people laugh."
And it's sure to keep amusing us for years. Not!

Copyright 1997 Chicago Tribune

Cuesta Verde Pics

*A special thank you to Jeff Jacobs, who provided these photos!*
These photos were taken on and around May 15, 1985 on a residential street in Chatsworth, CA. MGM needed a street that looked similar to the location in Simi Valley that was used in the original film, but that also had an empty lot to stand in for the lot where the Freeling's house had once stood. As you can see from the pics, a facade was constructed for what was supposed to be the boarded up house next door (other facades appear to have been constructed as well, perhaps to stand in for the house on the left and the homes directly across from the Freeling lot). The residents of the street (Mr. Jacobs' family among them) got to watch the filming, and also got to have their own homes made to look like a ghost town, with boarded up windows and "For Sale" signs on the lawns.  Mr. Jacobs generously shared with me the backstory on the photos (see below).










"For Sale" signs suddenly appeared in front of every house on the street.


I don't think the "Condemned" stamp is viewable in the film...but a nice detail here.









Another facade.


Mr. Jacobs' house is at the far end of the block, just this side of the red pickup truck.



Not sure who the guy on the left is. Craig looks a bit unhappy to be there.




David,
This is to answer your question about the filming of Poltergeist II on our block in Chatsworth, California, in May of 1985.
We lived at 21329 Celtic Street in Chatsworth (marked 'A' on the aerial photo below).  The false-front structures were built at the east end of Celtic, at the intersection of Variel Avenue.  At that time Variel did not extend north of Celtic, and the property east of Variel was completely vacant.  The athletic fields and sport courts east of Variel in the aerial photo did not exist.

'B' is the location of the hole in the ground marking the "Freeling home"; the locations marked 'C' are the false-front house next door (with the "Condemned" sign on it) and across the street.  MGM used a temporary paving substance to make it appear that Celtic Street extended further to the east ('D').
When our house was built in June 1984, we were told that the property was on the site of an ancient Indian settlement, dating back approximately 3,000 years.  Therefore we had a grading restriction on our deed.  Only three lots (ours, the corner lot to the west of us and the lot up the hill immediately to the north) out of 153 in the tract had grading restrictions in the deeds, which required that if we dug more than five feet down we had to have a qualified archaeologist and a representative from the tribe in attendance, and any artifacts belonged to them.  Naturally our friends jokingly told us, "Go see Poltergeist!"  Well, frankly, we're not fond of that genre of film -- but as it turned out we didn't have to go to the film, because less than a year after we moved in, Poltergeist II came to us.
I did send a copy of the grading restriction to the MGM location manager so he could appreciate the irony.

Our house (single-story with the brick facade and tudor-style timbers above the triple garage door) is clearly seen in the opening title sequence:

The "Cuesta Verde" sign is in front of a house identical to ours, on the northeast corner of Celtic and Eton ('E' on the aerial photo).  It was convenient for the producer because the owner had yet to put in any landscaping (and it looked horrible even before it was used in a horror film!).


We all received letters from MGM explaining what was going on.  Nevertheless it was still a surprise to come home from work one day and find "FOR SALE" signs (all with "555-xxxx" phone numbers) on every house on the street, including mine!
MGM arranged with the easternmost five or six property owners on both sides of Celtic to allow them to mess up their front yards and the fronts of their homes.  Mailboxes were loosened and displaced, decorative glass lanterns were broken, and landscaping was covered over with burlap and debris. 
MGM nicely asked all of us to keep our cars out of sight on one particular day -- either put them in the garage or park them around the corner.  One family on the south side of Celtic, however ('F' on the aerial photo), always kept their old blue Ford Fairlane out at the curb, and they were away from home for an extended time.  Because there was no (legal) way for the car to be removed, MGM's special effects people just did a quick dress-up to make the car look like it had been abandoned for two years.
The closing credits begin to roll as the Freelings' Oldsmobile station wagon drives away westbound on Celtic Street.  Stoney Point, a sandstone outcropping popular with local rockclimbers, is clearly visible directly ahead.  The horrible Metrolink commuter train collision of September 2008 took place at the base of Stoney Point, just 1100 feet from our house.  In the screenshot below, what appears to be a gap in the sidewalk on the left side of the street just beyond the dangling white "For Sale" sign is where Variel Avenue was covered over with dirt, and everything below the word "Cast" in the screenshot is the fake pavement.

Funny coincidence -- just as I was typing the last paragraph, the TV show "House Hunters" was showing the house at 21341 Celtic -- the one on the corner next to ours!  We sold the Chatsworth house in 1995 and we now live in the Pacific Northwest.

Michael Grais on P2

Michael Grais, co-writer (with Steven Spielberg and Mark Victor) of "Poltergeist" and co-writer/co-producer (with Mark Victor) of "Poltergeist II," has been kind enough to send me some information on his experience making the films. I'll update this page with info from Mr. Grais as I get it. I'd like to thank Michael, his assistant Joel Miller, and his manager Judy Fox for their kind permission to post this info. If you'd like more info on both their current and future film projects, click here:
 http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0334457/
http://www.albionentertainment.com/
(on Craig's transformation into Kane, P3, and P4):
CRAIG DID SWALLOW THE WORM AND HE WAS NOT DUBBED AND HIS IMPERSONATION
OF KANE WAS GREAT AND SPOOKY AS HELL. HE SCARED US ALL THAT DAY -- MAYBE
EVEN HIMSELF. HE IS A GREAT ACTOR.  WE DID NOT DO POLTERGEIST 3 BECAUSE
WE HAD JUST SPENT ABOUT TWO YEARS FROM WRITING TO DELIVERY OF P2 AND
DIDN'T WANT TO DO ANOTHER ONE. THEY ASKED US TO AFTER OPENING WEEKEND.
CALLED OUR OFFICE ON THE LOT. I HAVE HEARD THAT MGM (OR SONY) WAS IN
DEVELOPMENT OF P4 BUT NOT SURE WITH WHO OR WHAT HAS BECOME OF THAT SINCE
MGM HAS NOW GONE INDEPENDENT OF SONY AGAIN. I THINK THEY HAVE ANYWAY.

(on Kane's motivations and the P2 novel's scene of Kane "eating his lungs" in front of Carol Anne):
Kane was based directly on Jim Jones and the guyana massacre. He led his people out into the desert to die with him because he believed the end of the world was imminent and in his twisted mind "drinking the coolaid" was the best way to go. I never thought of him as a fallen healer and I created him. So he wasn't. He was always a religious nut and just got crazier with time until the end.

The scene with Kane ripping Carol Anne apart was a fabriction of the novelization writer and was never in any draft or discussed.

(on the following alleged deleted scenes:
1. A toaster floating in the air above Craig and Jobeth in the kitchen
 
2. Rev. Kane walking into the bedroom of Carol Anne while she's on the phone
 
3. A scene of Taylor building a fire in the backyard at night, while the Freelings sit close by (this scene was in an early draft script I read).
 
4. A scene in which Dana's being away at college is mentioned)
 
Grais:
All 4 scenes were shot -- but none exist that [I know] about.

Deleted Scenes for Poltergeist II


(above, a scene cut from the film in which Steve and Diane notice some poltergeist activity involving their toaster. This scene would have come right before the sequence when Kane walks up the driveway)
I received the following information from Scott Smith, who was one of the editors on P2:
Hi David, After looking at your website, I will follow up by saying that I was part of the team of picture editors brought on to work on the film. Thom Noble had previously committed to editing Mosquito Coast and was unable to finish the film.  At that time MGM hired Bud Smith as the supervising editor to oversee the final stages of the film. I was part of his picture editing team along with Jere Huggins who is also uncredited. We worked with the visual effect supervisor John Bruno, director Brian Gibson and producers Mark Victor and Mike Grais to tighten the film by first removing 15 minutes and then re-editing the balance of the movie. We presented our re-edited version of the film to the studio and at that point the film went into the final stages of post production and completion. If you are in contact with Mike Grais he would best tell you what was removed from the original scripted version as I was only working with the assembled film that was turned over from the previous editor. We did not put material back into the movie as it was running very long and needed to be paced up. Yes I agree that a SE DVD would be nice too. I am currently putting the polish on a DVD version of William Friedkin's "Cruising" for Warner Bros. This was on the shelf and is now being dusted off for a possible limited theatrical re-release and screening at festivals around the world in the near future.
From my interview with Michael Grais:
I asked him about the following alleged deleted scenes:
1. A toaster floating in the air above Craig and Jobeth in the kitchen
 
2. A dream sequence of Rev. Kane walking into the bedroom of Carol Anne while she's on the phone:
 
 
3. A scene of Taylor building a fire in the backyard at night, while the Freelings sit close by (this scene was in an early draft script I read).
 
4. A scene in which Dana's being away at college is mentioned
 
Grais replied:
All 4 scenes were shot -- but none exist that [I know] about.

In October of 2005, I went to L.A. on vacation, and made it to the Margaret Herrick Library in Beverly Hills. There I was able to read and take notes on the 3 early drafts of the P2 script. Here they are:
2nd Draft-January 18, 1985
1. After Diane hugs Carol Anne and tells her "Darlin, you can be anything you want to be," Carol Anne says "Can I be Robbie's wife?"

2. On the porch, Kane (who in this script is still called "Rev. James T. Boatwright," tells Steve about Taylor:
"He claims to be a Hopi, sometimes a Navajo...his real name is Ben Lagou." (the novelization of P2 states that "Ben Lagou" was a former member of Kane's cult, who left the group before they sealed themselves up inside the cavern to die. Ben later reincarnated and was reborn as the Indian Taylor. That's why Taylor knew who Kane was and why he was fighting him).

3. Later, when Steve has drank the worm and is arguing with Diane, Robbie walks into his bedroom and looks at his computer screen. He sees letters, equations, and numbers scrolling strangely across the screen. He stands there and stares at it.

4. Right before Steve vomits the worm, Diane asks him: "What about your obligations to me and to this family? Why don't you stop acting like a spoiled child and live up to your responsibilities?" to which Steve replies:
"Maybe you'd be better off without me around, Diane! Maybe I should just take off and figure out what's best for ME for a change!"

5. After the vomit creature leaves the room, Diane walks into the hallway and starts looking for the kids. The Beast is inside the walls and ceilings, and ripples can be seen moving under the wallpaper, fingers reaching out of it toward her. The ceiling starts breathing and skinlike membranes, like cancer, start flaking off. A seascape painting Carol Anne made earlier and put on the wall comes to life with water and sea animals; they drip down the staircase.

6. In the garage scene, the garage "grows and extends" (like the hallway scene in the first movie) so the Freelings cannot get out. Finally, they back the car up enough and it crashes through the garage door.

7. In the cavern, Steve expels his "power smoke" into the fire Taylor has set before jumping into it with Robbie.

8. On the other side, Steve yells at Boatwright's followers: "He is not God," to which they start moving into the Light and Boatwright, seeing the Light, is "blasted away into a dark tunnel." (in the first draft script, Boatwright goes into the Light with his followers).

9. At the end, Taylor brings the family up the surface of the lot, and they all watch as the other lost souls from the Cuesta Verde cemetary rise up out of the ground and get pulled into the "biloation point" from where the house vanished in the first film. Grandma Jess appears once more before going back into the Light. There is then a simple "fade out" ending, no discussion between Steven and Taylor about the car, etc.

10. Also notable about this script-in the first draft, it is Dr. Lesh who is working in the cavern in the beginning; this draft replaces her with Tangina. In addition, unlike draft one, where Dana is referred to as being "away at college in Boston," there is no mention of Dana in this script.
3rd Draft-March 4, 1985
1. Inside the cavern at the beginning, there is a pictograph on the wall that Taylor notices. It shows a snake crawling from a man's mouth (in the final film, this pictograph can actually be seen on the cave walls if you look closely enough. It's also mentioned in the P2 novelization by James Khan).

2. Right before the storm sequence when the ghosts first come back and talk to Carol Anne on her toy phone, there are several shots of water dripping from the ceiling in parts of the house as the rain begins to fall. The first shot is inside the garage, and we see water dripping slowly onto Robbie's clowndoll from the first film. The water drips down its face "like a tear." Later, while the family is trying to escape the garage and the car is being pelted with nails, paint, etc., the clown doll appears on the windshield, forcing it's head onto it and cracking the glass. It's obvious why these two scenes were taken out of later scripts-it wouldn't have made sense since the clown doll was sucked away with the rest of the house when it vanished.

3. James T. Boatwright is finally renamed "Henry Kane" in this draft.
4th Draft-April 17, 1985
1. In the morning, right before Kane walks up to the driveway, Steve and Diane are inside the kitchen drinking coffee. Steve attempts to put some bread into the toaster. The toaster starts jumping around, intentionally moving away from Steve each time he attempts to place the bread inside. Finally he says "So...I guess I'll just forget having toast...who needs toast? I like nice cold bread." Diane reaches for the toaster, and it doesn't move away from her. She smiles and says "Our toaster is angry with you." Steve reaches for the toaster again, but this time it floats up into the air and away from Steve. He finally reaches for it and dunks the bread inside like a basketball, and brings the toaster back down to the table. He smiles in victory (a still publicity photo of this scene showing the toaster floating in the air still exists).

2. After the family has escaped the garage and is headed back to Cuesta Verde, they stop at a road side gas station. The gas station attendant stands there looking at the Freelings' beat up car, his mouth dropping open. Steve attempts to roll down the window, but the window falls out of the door frame and shatters on the pavement. Steve looks up at the attendant and says "Could you fill her up? And change the tire while you're at it."

3. And the end (which still features the Cuesta Verde cemetary spirits going into the bilocation point and Jess appearing once more) after the "fade out" there is a title card on a black screen which reads "In Memory of Dominique Dunne." ROLL END CREDITS.
 
 
Also from this draft, in a page which was revised 5/14/85, this scene can be found (publicty still below)
 
EXT. GRAMMA JESS' HOUSE/FRONT YARD-SUNSET-DIANE, TANGINA
 
They walk together toward Tangina's car.
 
TANGINA
I want you to know something...I'm afraid. That's the real reason I haven't been here.
 
DIANE
I understand.
 
TANGINA
There's something else I feel you should know...The authorities are going to seal off the cavern..the day after tomorrow at noon...citing "health regulations."
 
Diane hugs Tangina.
 
DIANE
Maybe that'll end it all.
 
Tangina shrugs.
 
DIANE
I'll miss you.
 
TANGINA
God bless, child.
 
Tangina gets in her car and drives off, leaving Diane watching her, sadly.

******************

In addition, I learned from Zelda's former publicist that a (revised) scene involving Tangina and Kane right after the above conversation was also cut:


"Some of her best scenes went onto the cutting room floor. I don't recall all of the scenes now but one of them, as I do recall, involved a direct confrontation with the evil Reverend played by Julian Beck. Zelda was quite upset about it as she felt that was one of her best scenes (I never saw the scene nor was I there when it was filmed)."

Later Writer/Producer Michael Grais did confirm this:

"Yes, I do remember something like that...it was a great scene. Sorry it didn't make it in."


Allegedly (I haven't been able to confirm this yet), here's a general idea of what took place in the scene:

In the scene Kane tries to torment Tangina while Diane tells him to leave them alone. Kane says he remembers Tangina from taking Carol Anne away from him. He then says "You won't win this time."

 
 
 
If you'd like to read the first draft script of "Poltergeist II," it can be found at Craig Sinclair's online Heather O'Rourke Article Library here:
http://library.heatherorourke.net/index.php
(free registration required)

Tuesday, August 30, 2016

Behind the Scenes pictures for Poltergeist II (1986)


The Tom Korman Deposition

Below is an excerpt from the deposition given by agent Tom Korman in the Clemens/Yellin lawsuit against Spielberg/MGM.
Korman represented many famous clients over his decades long career in the industry: http://variety.com/2009/scene/news/agent-tom-korman-dies-at-76-1118007264/

Although Korman testified that he remembered sending the "Housebound" treatment to Spielberg's office, he could not remember how it was sent or when his office sent it. Korman (and his secretary, Mary Halchester) also could not locate any record of the treatment having been sent (she would later state in her deposition-below- not being able to remember seeing or sending  "Housebound" at all; though she admits that it was several years after the fact and that "oodles" of scripts had crossed her desk). No carbon copy letter was in their files. However, as Korman states, usually when scripts were sent with only a business card (as this one might have been), no record would have been kept. Korman could not remember whether the "Housebound" treatment was sent with a letter or a card. And, apparently, depositions given by the "go-fers" (messenger boys who would have delivered the treatment at the direction of Halchester) proved contradictory and/or inconclusive as well. The Defense team for Spielberg would later use this conflicting information to raise doubt, and to argue to the Judge presiding over the case that there was no evidence the treatment was ever delivered to the Amblin' offices. The Judge would eventually agree with them, saying that the specific "access" evidence brought forward would not go before a jury (the case was settled right before trial, in late 1986).































And here is the deposition of Mary Halchester, Korman's secretary:










Craig Reardon on the film's makeups

One of the interesting side aspects that came from the Clemens/Yellin lawsuit against Spielberg and MGM were the under oath depositions given by various crew members. Here, special makeup effects artist Craig Reardon discusses his work on the film. One of the allegations in the lawsuit was that the "face ripping" scene was "stolen" from the Clemens/Yellin "Housebound" treatment, but as can be seen in this 1985 deposition transcript, we find that actually Craig's assistant Michael McCraken came up with the face ripping idea on the set, on his own, and it wasn't even in the Spielberg/Grais/Victor script. According to Reardon, he then proposed the idea to Kathy Kennedy, who consulted Spielberg, who then approved it.