The 1990s were a different time in Hollywood, and it’s worth wondering how one of the most controversial movies ever made became both a box office hit and cultural touchstone. Indeed, the lurid American crime spree depicted in Oliver Stone’s Natural Born Killers has remained a haunting fever dream lodged firmly in the collective consciousness over the past three decades despite public outcries and attempts to ban the film. The themes of Americans’ obsession with violence as magnified through mass media have only gotten more topical since the movie’s release, but the production itself was grueling and the movie elicited major post-release outrage.
Let’s get all riled up and find out Wtf Happened to this Movie!
Natural Born Killers came from a screenplay written by Quentin Tarantino, with a story focusing on a man and woman who get married and go on a cross-country killing spree.
Let’s get all riled up and find out Wtf Happened to this Movie!
Natural Born Killers came from a screenplay written by Quentin Tarantino, with a story focusing on a man and woman who get married and go on a cross-country killing spree.
- 3/30/2023
- by Jake Dee
- JoBlo.com
Quentin Tarantino’s disdain for “Natural Born Killers,” the movie Oliver Stone made from the script he sold to the director, has become well-known in the 27 years since it was released. Though still the story of psychopathic killers Mickey and Mallory Knox (Woody Harrelson and Juliette Lewis), the script was heavily revised by Stone, along with screenwriter David Veloz, and associate producer Richard Rutowski, with Tarantino ending up with a story credit.
In a recent, wide-ranging podcast interview with “Billions” co-creator and showrunner Brian Koppelman (director of 2009’s “Solitary Man”), Tarantino opened up about his negative feelings toward the film, which were first prompted by Koppelman himself. (Via The Playlist.)
Koppelman said he “hated it so much because what you ended up doing with Honey Bunny [in ‘Pulp Fiction’], the crime as a sacrament of love, is in your script of ‘Natural Born Killers.’ In fact, it’s what the whole fucking thing...
In a recent, wide-ranging podcast interview with “Billions” co-creator and showrunner Brian Koppelman (director of 2009’s “Solitary Man”), Tarantino opened up about his negative feelings toward the film, which were first prompted by Koppelman himself. (Via The Playlist.)
Koppelman said he “hated it so much because what you ended up doing with Honey Bunny [in ‘Pulp Fiction’], the crime as a sacrament of love, is in your script of ‘Natural Born Killers.’ In fact, it’s what the whole fucking thing...
- 8/1/2021
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Indiewire
Someone must have left the freezer door in the morgue open, because grisly reminders of the past are thawing before our eyes. You can see it this weekend with the release of John Lee Hancock’s The Little Things, a throwback to the days when movie stars hung out at crime scenes instead of in spandex, and it’ll be more apparent next month with the launch of Clarice, a television spinoff of 1991’s The Silence of the Lambs. All the evidence points to only one conclusion: the serial killer thrillers of the ‘90s are back!
Not that we’re complaining. For a macabre minute or two, every Hollywood name appeared eager to play either the detective or the killer—the hunter or the obsessed, which often proved interchangeable for both characters. Granted that means there can be something formulaic about many of these movies. Yet they can also be bleak,...
Not that we’re complaining. For a macabre minute or two, every Hollywood name appeared eager to play either the detective or the killer—the hunter or the obsessed, which often proved interchangeable for both characters. Granted that means there can be something formulaic about many of these movies. Yet they can also be bleak,...
- 1/30/2021
- by David Crow
- Den of Geek
Following the success of “Reservoir Dogs” and his screenplay for “True Romance,” Quentin Tarantino got an offer from Miramax to write the sixth film in the “Halloween” horror movie franchise. Tarantino reveals in a new interview with Consequence of Sound that he never got started on the script but he did kick around a few ideas of what would happen. “Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers” (1989) ended with a mysterious man in black breaking the killer Michael Myers out of jail. It would have been up to Tarantino to figure out who the man in black is and what he and Michael Myers do next.
“Yeah, I was like, ‘Leave that scene where [the Man in Black] shows up, alright, and freeze Michael Myers,'” Tarantino said. “And so the only thing that I had in my mind, I still hadn’t figured out who that dude was, was like the first 20 minutes...
“Yeah, I was like, ‘Leave that scene where [the Man in Black] shows up, alright, and freeze Michael Myers,'” Tarantino said. “And so the only thing that I had in my mind, I still hadn’t figured out who that dude was, was like the first 20 minutes...
- 12/17/2019
- by Zack Sharf
- Indiewire
The Panic in Needle Park
Written by Joan Dion and John Gregory Dunne; based on the book by James Mills
Directed by Jerry Schatzberg
USA, 1971
Al Pacino gives a riveting performance as Bobby, an energetic street hustler and heroin addict who forms a bizarre, yet accepting relationship with a homeless woman, Helen, played by Kitty Winn. The Panic in Needle Park is a gut-wrenching expose into the drug culture in New York City. American films of the late sixties, such as Easy Rider, Performance and The Trip, portrayed the edgy glamour and counter-culture boom of the sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll revolution, but after the release of The Panic in Needle Park, filmmakers forecast the downward spiral of addiction. Sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll transgressed into heroin, prostitution and jail. To this day, no other film has topped the realistic portrayal of the drug culture. Shot in a documentary-like fashion,...
Written by Joan Dion and John Gregory Dunne; based on the book by James Mills
Directed by Jerry Schatzberg
USA, 1971
Al Pacino gives a riveting performance as Bobby, an energetic street hustler and heroin addict who forms a bizarre, yet accepting relationship with a homeless woman, Helen, played by Kitty Winn. The Panic in Needle Park is a gut-wrenching expose into the drug culture in New York City. American films of the late sixties, such as Easy Rider, Performance and The Trip, portrayed the edgy glamour and counter-culture boom of the sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll revolution, but after the release of The Panic in Needle Park, filmmakers forecast the downward spiral of addiction. Sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll transgressed into heroin, prostitution and jail. To this day, no other film has topped the realistic portrayal of the drug culture. Shot in a documentary-like fashion,...
- 6/23/2013
- by Yale Freedman
- SoundOnSight
Chicago – Oliver Stone’s “Natural Born Killers” is easily one of the best films of the ’90s, an experimental, daring, visually mesmerizing study of not just violence but America’s obsession with it. At the peak of his directorial abilities, one of the best filmmakers of the ’80s and ’90s turned his lens on the way we turn evil people into tabloid heroes and he did it with such vibrant style that “Nbk” has just as much resonance as it did fifteen years ago.
Blu-Ray Rating: 4.5/5.0
Woody Harrelson and Juliette Lewis star as Mickey and Mallory Knox, a pair of love-crossed serial killers who have upgraded the exploits of Bonnie and Clyde for a new generation. Their dark pasts of fire and gasoline have exploded into the kind of story that journalists and TV shows dream about. Robert Downey Jr. co-stars as a journalist whose attention feed the murders of...
Blu-Ray Rating: 4.5/5.0
Woody Harrelson and Juliette Lewis star as Mickey and Mallory Knox, a pair of love-crossed serial killers who have upgraded the exploits of Bonnie and Clyde for a new generation. Their dark pasts of fire and gasoline have exploded into the kind of story that journalists and TV shows dream about. Robert Downey Jr. co-stars as a journalist whose attention feed the murders of...
- 10/23/2009
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
Seeing as how October is the month of spooky and scary Halloween and its associated themed entertainments, we’ve got something here just for you. If you’re a fan of movies like Natural Born Killers and think you know the movie very well, we’ve got a website for you.
To commemorate the 15th anniversary of the film and its upcoming director’s cut release on Blu-ray and DVD on October 13th, Warner Bros has created a site and included a pretty detailed trivia game to test your knowledge of the movie. The questions range from the rather simple to the much more detailed and specific so if you are not sure of your Natural Born Killers knowledge, you may want to get the film first and then try your hand at the trivia.
You don’t win anything at the site except the right to post your score...
To commemorate the 15th anniversary of the film and its upcoming director’s cut release on Blu-ray and DVD on October 13th, Warner Bros has created a site and included a pretty detailed trivia game to test your knowledge of the movie. The questions range from the rather simple to the much more detailed and specific so if you are not sure of your Natural Born Killers knowledge, you may want to get the film first and then try your hand at the trivia.
You don’t win anything at the site except the right to post your score...
- 10/2/2009
- by Joe Gillis
- The Flickcast
Movie Info: Writer: David Veloz, Jerry Stahl Director: David Veloz Cast: Ben Stiller, Maria Bello, Spencer Garrett, Owen Wilson, Elizabeth Hurley, Lourdes Benedicto, Fred Willard, Liz Torres, Charles Fleischer, Cheryl Ladd, Janeane Garofalo, Douglas Spain, Connie Nielsen, Jerry Stahl, Sandra Oh Rating: R Studio: Lionsgate Release Info: Theatrical Release: September 16, 1998 DVD Release Date: July 29, 2008 Online Availability: Amazon Who knew that Ben [...]ShareThis...
- 8/1/2008
- by Dominick
SYDNEY -- Creative teams from eight projects will receive advice from such high-profile advisors as Master and Commander scribe John Collee as part of the 2005 SPARK script-writing hothouse, organizers announced Tuesday. A joint venture of the Australian Film Commission and the Australian Film, Television and Radio School, SPARK is modeled on similar script incubation programs around the world including the Sundance Lab in the United States and Equinox in France. From Aug. 28?Sept. 4, the teams will attend an intensive residential workshop near Noosa, Queensland, where they will receive script advice from a team of local and international advisors including American writer Susan Shilliday (Legends of the Fall) and David Veloz, the U.S. screenwriter of Natural Born Killers and Behind Enemy Lines. Collee will also contribute to the workshop.
- 8/10/2005
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
In "Permanent Midnight", based on the autobiographical Jerry Stahl book of the same name, Ben Stiller plays a permanently strung-out Hollywood TV writer wallowing in a wildly destructive love-hate relationship with heroin.
Call it "Leaving Los Angeles".
While the picture sees itself as a black comedy, there's a tiresome, self-absorbed smugness coursing through its needle-punctured veins. Not that there isn't a place for another addiction movie, but there's a been-there, done-that feel to writer-director David Veloz's approach that will likely have audiences turning elsewhere for their entertainment fix.
For his third big-screen appearance of the summer (after "There's Something About Mary" and "Your Friends & Neighbors"), Stiller turns in a committed if somewhat one-note performance as Stahl's alter-ego. Missing is any tangible trace of warmth or likability that would keep viewers' sympathies in tow despite his constant, self-indulgent screw-ups.
Instead, one watches with growing disinterest as Jerry sabotages his career (as a writer on a thinly veiled version of "ALF"), his marriage of convenience to his British wife (Elizabeth Hurley) and his relationship with their newborn child.
To further erode the involvement factor, first-time director Veloz, who shared screenwriting credits on "Natural Born Killers", structures Stahl's odyssey as one big flashback, restlessly moving back and forth in time as he spins the story of his life to Kitty (Maria Bello), a fellow user and potential love interest, from their cheap hotel room. Again, any willingness to connect with the film is thwarted by all the intrusive shifting and narration.
Despite the liabilities, "Permanent Midnight" is not without a few inspired sequences, including one speed-induced scene during which Jerry and his dealer constantly slam their bodies against a high-rise plate glass window. In another surreal instance, he's pulled over by a perplexed cop for going what looks like 5 mph down an empty street in a seriously drugged-up state, oblivious to the baby, in a day-old diaper, at his side.
The supporting cast also have their moments. Hurley is convincing as Jerry's green-card bride who nevertheless falls in love with him and initially tries to help him overcome his problems. Also good are Liz Torres as another of his drug buddies and Janeane Garofalo as an agent who's a fan of his work. The real Stahl pops up in a cameo as a jaded doctor.
On the other end of the camera, cinematographer Robert Yeoman, who effectively evoked heroin's purple haze in Gus Van Sant's "Drugstore Cowboy", does yeoman work here. And aural contributions from the likes of Prodigy, Moby and Morcheeba add an appropriately wired texture to composer Daniel Licht's trippy score.
PERMANENT MIDNIGHT
Artisan Entertainment
Director-screenwriter: David Veloz
Producers: Jane Hamsher, Don Murphy
Based on the book by: Jerry Stahl
Executive producer: Yalda Yehranian
Director of photography: Robert Yeoman
Production designer: Jerry Fleming
Editors: Steven Weisberg, Cara Silverman
Costume designers: Louise Mingenbach,
Lori Eskowitz
Music composer: Daniel Licht
Music supervisor: Jeff Rabhan
Casting: Ronnie Yeskel, Richard Hicks
Color/stereo
Cast:
Jerry: Ben Stiller
Sandra: Elizabeth Hurley
Jana: Janeane Garofalo
Kitty: Maria Bello
Nicky: Owen C. Wilson
Vola: Lourdes Benedicto
Craig Ziffer: Fred Willard
Dita: Liz Torres
Running time -- 97 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
Call it "Leaving Los Angeles".
While the picture sees itself as a black comedy, there's a tiresome, self-absorbed smugness coursing through its needle-punctured veins. Not that there isn't a place for another addiction movie, but there's a been-there, done-that feel to writer-director David Veloz's approach that will likely have audiences turning elsewhere for their entertainment fix.
For his third big-screen appearance of the summer (after "There's Something About Mary" and "Your Friends & Neighbors"), Stiller turns in a committed if somewhat one-note performance as Stahl's alter-ego. Missing is any tangible trace of warmth or likability that would keep viewers' sympathies in tow despite his constant, self-indulgent screw-ups.
Instead, one watches with growing disinterest as Jerry sabotages his career (as a writer on a thinly veiled version of "ALF"), his marriage of convenience to his British wife (Elizabeth Hurley) and his relationship with their newborn child.
To further erode the involvement factor, first-time director Veloz, who shared screenwriting credits on "Natural Born Killers", structures Stahl's odyssey as one big flashback, restlessly moving back and forth in time as he spins the story of his life to Kitty (Maria Bello), a fellow user and potential love interest, from their cheap hotel room. Again, any willingness to connect with the film is thwarted by all the intrusive shifting and narration.
Despite the liabilities, "Permanent Midnight" is not without a few inspired sequences, including one speed-induced scene during which Jerry and his dealer constantly slam their bodies against a high-rise plate glass window. In another surreal instance, he's pulled over by a perplexed cop for going what looks like 5 mph down an empty street in a seriously drugged-up state, oblivious to the baby, in a day-old diaper, at his side.
The supporting cast also have their moments. Hurley is convincing as Jerry's green-card bride who nevertheless falls in love with him and initially tries to help him overcome his problems. Also good are Liz Torres as another of his drug buddies and Janeane Garofalo as an agent who's a fan of his work. The real Stahl pops up in a cameo as a jaded doctor.
On the other end of the camera, cinematographer Robert Yeoman, who effectively evoked heroin's purple haze in Gus Van Sant's "Drugstore Cowboy", does yeoman work here. And aural contributions from the likes of Prodigy, Moby and Morcheeba add an appropriately wired texture to composer Daniel Licht's trippy score.
PERMANENT MIDNIGHT
Artisan Entertainment
Director-screenwriter: David Veloz
Producers: Jane Hamsher, Don Murphy
Based on the book by: Jerry Stahl
Executive producer: Yalda Yehranian
Director of photography: Robert Yeoman
Production designer: Jerry Fleming
Editors: Steven Weisberg, Cara Silverman
Costume designers: Louise Mingenbach,
Lori Eskowitz
Music composer: Daniel Licht
Music supervisor: Jeff Rabhan
Casting: Ronnie Yeskel, Richard Hicks
Color/stereo
Cast:
Jerry: Ben Stiller
Sandra: Elizabeth Hurley
Jana: Janeane Garofalo
Kitty: Maria Bello
Nicky: Owen C. Wilson
Vola: Lourdes Benedicto
Craig Ziffer: Fred Willard
Dita: Liz Torres
Running time -- 97 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
- 9/14/1998
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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