PRODUCER OF 'THE FURY' WAS 79
Frank Yablans, who produced Brian De Palma's The Fury, passed away of natural causes Thursday at the age of 79, according to the Los Angeles Times and BBC News. In a 1978 promotional interview with Carolyn Jackson, Yablans was asked about his cameo in The Fury, saying it was "something Brian asked me to do." He added, "I've been trying to cut it out of the film ever since, but he won't let go of it." In the same interview, Yablans talked briefly about two scenes he directed in The Fury: one involving a telephone call with Kirk Douglas, and "the Arab sequence in Old Chicago." Yablans characterized all of these as "token contributions," stressing to Jackson that the producer role was his major impact.
In that same interview, Yablans told Jackson that he and De Palma would next be "doing a little film called Home Movies, with college students in New York." He said that after that, the two would be working on The Demolished Man. De Palma would indeed make Home Movies as his next film, but Yablans did not end up producing it. And unfortunately, the pair were never able to mount The Demolished Man, as The Fury, which is well-loved now, was not the hit they'd been hoping it would be.
Prior to taking it to 20th Century Fox, Yablans had begun The Demolished Man with De Palma at Paramount, where Yablans had been president from 1971 to 1975, presiding over the studio as it released the first two Godfather movies, The Conversation, Chinatown, The Parallax View, Harold And Maude, Serpico, Paper Moon, and The Day Of The Locust, among many others.
Updated: Monday, December 1, 2014 4:53 AM CST
Post Comment | Permalink | Share This Post