Firestarter (1984 film)

Last updated

Firestarter
Firestarterposter84.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Mark L. Lester
Screenplay by Stanley Mann
Based on Firestarter
by Stephen King
Produced by
Starring
Cinematography Giuseppe Ruzzolini
Edited by
  • David Rawlins
  • Ronald Sanders
Music by Tangerine Dream
Production
company
Distributed by Universal Pictures
Release date
  • May 11, 1984 (1984-05-11)
Running time
114 minutes [1]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$12 million [2]
Box office$17.1 million (US/Canada) [3]
$18.9 million (worldwide rentals) [2]

Firestarter is a 1984 American science fiction thriller horror film based on Stephen King's 1980 novel of the same name. [4] The plot concerns a girl who develops pyrokinesis and the secret government agency known as The Shop which seeks to control her. The film was directed by Mark L. Lester, and stars David Keith, Drew Barrymore, Martin Sheen and George C. Scott. Firestarter was shot in and around Wilmington, Chimney Rock, and Lake Lure, North Carolina.

Contents

A miniseries follow-up to the film, Firestarter: Rekindled , was released in 2002 on the Sci-Fi Channel and a remake feature film produced by Blumhouse Productions was released on May 13, 2022.

Plot

As college students, Andy McGee and Vicky Tomlinson participated in an experiment in which they were given a dose of a low-grade hallucinogen called LOT-6. While the other participants suffered terrible side effects, the experiment gave Vicky and Andy telepathic abilities; Vicky can read minds and Andy can control others to do and believe what he wants, though the effort sometimes gives him nosebleeds, limiting this otherwise very strong power. Now married, they have an eight-year-old daughter named Charlene "Charlie" McGee, who has pyrokinetic abilities (the power to control heat and fire) and can also see the near future.

Andy comes home from work one day to find Vicky murdered and Charlie abducted, with evidence suggesting Vicky was also tortured before being killed; the family had already suspected that the government agency that sponsored the experiment, the Department of Scientific Intelligence ("The Shop"), was watching them, with the government wanting to weaponize Charlie's power. Andy finds Charlie and rescues her by blinding the agents, and for the next year they are on the run.

Farmer Irv Manders and his wife Norma take in the pair; Andy tells Irv the truth so that when The Shop arrives, he is ready to stand with them. However, Charlie quickly dispatches the agents when they arrive. They go on the run again, but Andy's power has weakened. They go to a secluded cabin and prepare to go public with their story. Unfortunately, the head of The Shop, Captain James Hollister, sends agent and assassin John Rainbird to capture them and stop the release of information. To protect themselves, Andy writes letters to major newspapers, unintentionally revealing their location. After capture, father and daughter are kept separated. Andy is medicated and subjected to tests, and given drugs which decrease his powers. Meanwhile, Rainbird pretends to be "John", a friendly orderly employed by The Shop to gain Charlie's trust and encourage her to submit to the tests.

Charlie's powers increase exponentially. She continually demands to see her father as they promised. Andy is revealed to be faking the acceptance of his drugs, so his powers have never decreased and it was all a ruse to make Hollister drop his guard. Once alone on a walk far from the house, Andy uses his power to get information from Hollister (such as "John"'s true identity) and arranges to leave with Charlie that night. He slips Charlie a note and she immediately tells John/Rainbird about the escape. Since he has wanted to kill Charlie since first hearing about her, he hides in the barn so he can kill Andy as well. Charlie enters the barn first and Rainbird successfully convinces her to start climbing up the ladder to him.

His plan is foiled once Andy enters and Charlie instead runs to her father. She tells him that "John" is present and asks if they can take him with them. She is saddened and angered to find out the truth, yet believes Rainbird when he states that he will not kill her father if she comes to him. To save his daughter, Andy orders the still mind-controlled Hollister to shoot at Rainbird. However, Rainbird kills Hollister, after which Andy, using his powers, causes Rainbird to leap to the ground, breaking his leg. Rainbird shoots Andy in the neck, fatally wounding him. He then fires at Charlie but she detonates the bullet and engulfs Rainbird in the ensuing fire, killing him. Before Andy dies, he pleads with her to use her powers to bring the facility down. The entire security team arrives and she eliminates them one by one with her powers and makes her way off the property. Charlie hitchhikes back to the Manders' farm and is welcomed back. Shortly after, Charlie and Irv arrive in New York City to tell her story to the media.

Cast

Production

During filming of The Thing , Universal offered John Carpenter the chance to direct the film, who hired Bill Lancaster to adapt the novel into a screenplay, which Stephen King approved of. [5] Months later, Carpenter hired Bill Phillips to write another version with Richard Dreyfuss as Andy, but when The Thing underperformed financially, Universal replaced Carpenter with Mark L. Lester, who brought Stanley Mann to write a screenplay that stayed closer to the novel than the abandoned screenplays that Carpenter had commissioned.

Lancaster's father Burt, originally cast as Captain Hollister, had to withdraw following heart surgery and was replaced by Martin Sheen. [6] [7]

Produced by Dino De Laurentiis, the film was the first to be shot at his new studio complex in North Carolina. [8] Shot in and around the city of Wilmington, North Carolina from September 12 to November 26, 1983, [9] it was the first film shot there after the commission of the North Carolina Film Office, and is regarded as launching the city as what is now a burgeoning hub of film and television productions. [10] Over 1,350 film and television projects have been produced in Wilmington since Firestarter. [11]

De Laurentiis had searched unsuccessfully for a Gone with the Wind -style location that would suit the vision of the film. After encountering an issue of Southern Accents magazine that featured the historic Orton Plantation near Wilmington, De Laurentiis, producer Frank Capra Jr., and Martha De Laurentiis travelled to the area for a location scout. They decided the property would be perfect as the headquarters for the evil government agency that was to track down Charlie (Barrymore). [8]

De Laurentiis approached James and Luola Sprunt, who at the time owned Orton, and surprised them by asking to buy the property so he could set the home ablaze for a dramatic scene in the film. They declined, but offered to let the production use the property for exterior shots and some small interior scenes. A smaller scale replica of the main house was built for the actual fire scene. [12] Having since been used in dozens of films and television shows since Firestarter, Orton is now owned by Louis Moore Bacon.

Mark Lester recalled, "The underlining tone is the CIA and corruption. I got my hands on a book about real experiments that the CIA did with college kids and LSD and hallucinagenic drugs, so that part was true. Dino wanted to make an anti-CIA movie and I guess Firestarter has a lot of that political paranoia about secret agents killing people and stuff."" [13]

Reception

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes , 38% of 34 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 5/10.The website's consensus reads: "Firestarter's concept hews too closely to other known Stephen King adaptations, though it's got nice special effects (including scenery-chewing George C. Scott)." [14] Metacritic assigned the film a weighted average score of 50 out of 100, based on seven critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". [15]

Roger Ebert gave the film two stars out of four, and wrote, "the most astonishing thing" about it was "how boring it is...there's not a character in this movie that is convincing, even for a moment, nor a line in this movie that even experienced performers can make real;" and, "we don't feel sorry for Barrymore because she's never developed as a believable little girl -- just a plot gimmick." [16]

After seeing a rough cut, Stephen King declared it “One of the worst of the bunch” of the adaptations of his work he had seen, dubbing it “flavorless.” He and director Mark Lester later fought over the comments, though King told Cinefantastique[ citation needed ] he feels Firestarter’s producer was responsible for its failings. [17] [18] However, he did find favor in one scene (where Charlie is trained by her father to cook bread into toast), saying he wished he'd thought of it.

Colin Greenland reviewed Firestarter for Imagine magazine, and stated that "I suspect the story was ruined before it ever got to the actors: spoilt by oversimplification and the surgical removal of all King's narrative intelligence. The great final conflagration comes as a relief. Yet another movie with all its conviction reserved for the special effects." [19]

Soundtrack

Firestarter
Soundtrack album by
Tangerine Dream
ReleasedJuly 1984
Recorded1984
Genre Electronic music
Length41:39
Label MCA
Tangerine Dream chronology
Risky Business
(1984)		Firestarter
(1984)		 Flashpoint
(1984)

Firestarter is the twenty-second major release and fifth soundtrack album by the German electronic music group Tangerine Dream.

AllMusic rated the soundtrack four out of five stars. [20]

No.TitleLength
1."Crystal Voice"3:07
2."The Run"4:50
3."Testlab"4:00
4."Charly the Kid"3:51
5."Escaping Point"5:10
6."Rainbirds Move"2:31
7."Burning Force"4:17
8."Between Realities"2:53
9."Shop Territory"3:15
10."Flash Final"5:15
11."Out of the Heat"2:30
Total length:41:39

Personnel

Reboot

In April 2017, Jason Blum and Akiva Goldsman announced that they were rebooting Firestarter for Universal and Blumhouse, with Goldsman co-writing with Scott Teems. [21] In December, 2019, Keith Thomas was announced as director. [22] In September 2020, Zac Efron was cast as Andy McGee. [23] In February 2021, Michael Greyeyes was cast to play John Rainbird. [24] Production commenced in May, 2021. In June 2021, Ryan Kiera Armstrong was cast in the lead role of Charlie McGee. [25]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Drew Barrymore</span> American actress (born 1975)

Drew Blythe Barrymore is an American actress, talk show host, and businesswoman. A member of the Barrymore family of actors, she has received several awards and nominations, including a Golden Globe Award, in addition to nominations for nine Emmy Awards and a British Academy Film Award. She was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time in 2023.

<i>The Craft</i> (film) 1996 film by Andrew Fleming

The Craft is a 1996 American teen supernatural horror film directed by Andrew Fleming from a screenplay by Peter Filardi and Fleming and a story by Filardi. The film stars Robin Tunney, Fairuza Balk, Neve Campbell, and Rachel True. It follows four outcast teenage girls at a Los Angeles parochial high school who pursue witchcraft for their own gain and subsequently experience negative repercussions.

<i>Charlies Angels: Full Throttle</i> 2003 American film by McG

Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle is a 2003 American action comedy film directed by McG and written by John August, and Cormac and Marianne Wibberley. It is the sequel to 2000's Charlie's Angels and the second film in the Charlie's Angels trilogy, which is a continuation of the story that began with the television series of the same name by Ivan Goff and Ben Roberts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dino De Laurentiis</span> Italian-American film producer (1919–2010)

Agostino "Dino" De Laurentiis was an Italian film producer and businessman who held both Italian and American citizenship. Following a brief acting career in the late 1930s and early 1940s, he moved into film production; alongside Carlo Ponti, he brought Italian cinema to the international scene in the post-World War II period. He produced or co-produced over 500 films, with 38 of his Hollywood films receiving Academy Award nominations. He was also the creator and operator of DDL Foodshow, a chain of Italian specialty foods stores.

<i>Cats Eye</i> (1985 film) 1985 American anthology horror film directed by Lewis Teague

Cat's Eye is a 1985 American anthology horror thriller film directed by Lewis Teague and written by Stephen King. It comprises three stories: "Quitters, Inc.", "The Ledge", and "General". The first two are adaptations of short stories in King's 1978 Night Shift collection, and the third is unique to the film. The cast includes Drew Barrymore, James Woods, Alan King, Robert Hays and Candy Clark. The three stories are connected by the presence of a traveling cat and Barrymore, both of whom play incidental roles in the first two and major characters in the third.

<i>Firestarter</i> (novel) 1980 novel by Stephen King

Firestarter is a science fiction-horror thriller novel by Stephen King, first published in September 1980. It tells the story of a young girl, Charlie McGee, with the ability of pyrokinesis, whose destructive force a ruthless government agency tries to harness for their own purposes. In July and August 1980, two excerpts from the novel were published in Omni. In 1981, Firestarter was nominated as Best Novel for the British Fantasy Award, Locus Poll Award, and Balrog Award. In 1984, it was adapted into a film. A miniseries follow-up to the film, Firestarter: Rekindled, was released in 2002 on the Sci-Fi Channel and a remake from Blumhouse Productions was released on 13 May 2022. The book is dedicated to author Shirley Jackson: "In Memory of Shirley Jackson, who never needed to raise her voice."

<i>Silver Bullet</i> (film) 1985 film by Dan Attias

Silver Bullet is a 1985 American horror film based on the 1983 Stephen King novella Cycle of the Werewolf. It stars Gary Busey, Everett McGill, and Corey Haim, with Megan Follows, Terry O'Quinn, Lawrence Tierney, Bill Smitrovich, Kent Broadhurst, David Hart, and James Gammon in supporting roles. The film is directed by Dan Attias, written by King and produced by Martha De Laurentiis.

Mark L. Lester is an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. He is known as a prolific director of cult films, including the disco musical Roller Boogie (1979), the vigilante thriller film Class of 1984 (1982), the Stephen King adaptation Firestarter (1984), the Arnold Schwarzenegger action film Commando (1985), the action-comedy Armed and Dangerous (1986), starring John Candy, Eugene Levy, and Meg Ryan and the buddy movie Showdown in Little Tokyo, starring Dolph Lundgren and Brandon Lee.

<i>Firestarter: Rekindled</i> 2002 television film directed by Robert Iscove

Firestarter: Rekindled is an American two-part television miniseries. It serves as a sequel to the 1984 film adaptation of the 1980 Stephen King novel Firestarter. It stars Marguerite Moreau as now-adult Charlie McGee, along with Danny Nucci, Dennis Hopper, and Malcolm McDowell as Charlie's old nemesis from the original story, John Rainbird. It debuted as a Sci Fi Pictures miniseries on the Sci Fi Channel over two nights in March 2002.

De Laurentiis Entertainment Group (DEG) was an entertainment production company and distribution studio founded by Italian producer Dino De Laurentiis. The company is notable for producing Manhunter, Blue Velvet, the horror films Near Dark and Evil Dead II, King Kong Lives, and Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, as well as distributing The Transformers: The Movie.

<i>Maximum Overdrive</i> 1986 film by Stephen King

Maximum Overdrive is a 1986 American horror film written and directed by Stephen King, in his only directorial effort. The film stars Emilio Estevez, Pat Hingle, Laura Harrington, and Yeardley Smith. The screenplay was inspired by and loosely based on King's short story "Trucks", which was included in the author's first collection of short stories, Night Shift, and follows the events after all machines become sentient when Earth crosses the tail of a comet, initiating a worldwide killing spree.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Greyeyes</span> First Nations actor

Michael Greyeyes is a First Nations actor, dancer, choreographer, director, and educator.

The Razzie Award for Worst Remake, Rip-off or Sequel is an award presented at the annual Golden Raspberry Awards for the worst film adapted from some forms of original or previous material. This category covers films that are sequels, prequels, remakes, reboots, spin-offs, film adaptations of other media franchises, mockbusters and "rip-offs".

<i>Children of the Corn</i> (1984 film) Film by Fritz Kiersch

Children of the Corn is a 1984 American supernatural horror film based on Stephen King's 1977 short story of the same name. Directed by Fritz Kiersch, the film's cast consists of Peter Horton, Linda Hamilton, John Franklin, Courtney Gains, Robby Kiger, Anne Marie McEvoy, Julie Maddalena, and R. G. Armstrong. Set in the fictitious rural town of Gatlin, Nebraska, the film tells the story of a malevolent entity referred to as "He Who Walks Behind the Rows" which entices the town's children to ritually murder all the town's adults, as well as a couple driving across the country, to ensure a successful corn harvest.

<i>Pyrokinesis</i> (film) 2000 film by Shūsuke Kaneko

Pyrokinesis, also known as Crossfire, is a 2000 Japanese crime thriller/horror/romance/science fiction film co-written and directed by Shusuke Kaneko. The film is about a woman with pyrokinetic powers seeking to avenge the murder of her friend's sister.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Drew Barrymore filmography</span>

Drew Barrymore is an American actress and producer. She is the recipient of numerous accolades, including a Golden Globe and a Screen Actors Guild Award, as well as seven Emmy Award nominations and a BAFTA nomination. She achieved fame as a child actress with her role in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. Following a highly publicized childhood marked by drug and alcohol abuse, she released an autobiography Little Girl Lost. She appeared in several successful films, such as Charlie's Angels, Never Been Kissed, Poison Ivy, Boys on the Side, Mad Love, Batman Forever, Scream and Ever After. She starred with Adam Sandler in the films, The Wedding Singer, 50 First Dates and Blended. Other films included Firestarter, Never Been Kissed, Donnie Darko, Riding in Cars with Boys, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle, Fever Pitch, Music and Lyrics, Going the Distance, Big Miracle, and Miss You Already. She also starred in her directorial debut film Whip It. She won a SAG Award and a Golden Globe for her role in Grey Gardens. She starred in the Netflix series Santa Clarita Diet and currently hosts the syndicated talk show The Drew Barrymore Show.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Carpenter's unrealized projects</span> Unmade works by the American filmmaker

The following is a list of unproduced John Carpenter projects in roughly chronological order. During a career that has spanned over 40 years, John Carpenter has worked on projects which never progressed beyond the pre-production stage. Some of the films were produced after he left production.

<i>Firestarter</i> (2022 film) 2022 film by Keith Thomas

Firestarter is a 2022 American epic science fiction horror film directed by Keith Thomas, from a screenplay by Scott Teems, based on Stephen King's novel of the same name, and a remake of the 1984 film of the same name. The film stars Zac Efron, Ryan Kiera Armstrong, Sydney Lemmon, Kurtwood Smith, John Beasley, Michael Greyeyes, and Gloria Reuben. It is produced by Jason Blum and Akiva Goldsman under their Blumhouse Productions and Weed Road Pictures banners, respectively, alongside BoulderLight Pictures and Night Platform.

Scott Teems is an American film director, screenwriter, and producer best known for his work on That Evening Sun (2009), The Quarry (2020), Halloween Kills (2021), Firestarter (2022) and Insidious: The Red Door (2023).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Films and television shows produced in Wilmington, North Carolina</span>

Film and television shot/produced in Wilmington, North Carolina, are usually independent and/or low-budget films, mainly due to Wilmington being relatively more affordable than other cities to film in. Other reasons for Wilmington's appeal include its local university (UNCW), its location on the coast, the presence of many historic buildings/sites, and vast swamps and waterways outside of Wilmington. It has remained the largest film and television production area in North Carolina since the 1980s, when the first major productions started to be made in the region.

References

  1. ↑ "FIRESTARTER (15)". British Board of Film Classification . May 15, 1984. Retrieved January 24, 2015.
  2. 1 2 De Laurentiis PRODUCER'S PICTURE DARKENS: KNOEDELSEDER, WILLIAM K, Jr. Los Angeles Times 30 Aug 1987: 1.
  3. ↑ "Firestarter (1984)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved August 11, 2011.
  4. ↑ Canby, Vincent (1984). "Firestarter". The New York Times .
  5. ↑ Maddrey, Joe (February 15, 2016). "5 Stephen King Adaptations That Died in Development Hell". blumhouse.com . Archived from the original on October 30, 2016. Retrieved November 16, 2016.
  6. ↑ Mell, Eila (2005). Casting Might-Have-Beens: A Film by Film Directory of Actors Considered for Roles Given to Others. McFarland. ISBN   9780786420179.
  7. ↑ "Burt Lancaster Plans To Undergo Surgery". The New York Times . August 16, 1983. Retrieved July 3, 2017.
  8. 1 2 "'Firestarter' lit a fire in local film that still burns 35 years later". Archived from the original on May 10, 2019. Retrieved February 20, 2024.
  9. ↑ "AFI|Catalog".
  10. ↑ "Cape Fear Museum showcases Wilmington's rich film history". www.wral.com. WRAL. July 22, 2016. Retrieved January 8, 2017.
  11. ↑ "Filming Location Matching "Wilmington%2C North Carolina%2C USA" (Sorted by Popularity Ascending)". IMDb .
  12. ↑ "Cape Fear Unearthed premieres special 'Firestarter' anniversary episode".
  13. ↑ Cribbs, John (2011). "The Films of Mark L Lester". The Pink Smoke.
  14. ↑ "Firestarter (1984)". Rotten Tomatoes. September 2, 2014. Retrieved May 16, 2023.
  15. ↑ "Firestarter Reviews". Metacritic . Fandom, Inc. Retrieved May 14, 2022.
  16. ↑ Ebert, Roger (January 1, 1984). "Firestarter Movie Review". RogerEbert.com. Retrieved October 29, 2016.
  17. ↑ Why Stephen King Hates Firestarter's Movie Adaptation – Screen Rant
  18. ↑ Ewing, Darrel & Myers, Dennis (June 1986). "King of The Road". American Film. Retrieved April 22, 2017.
  19. ↑ Greenland, Colin (August 1984). "Fantasy Media". Imagine (review) (17). TSR Hobbies (UK), Ltd.: 47.
  20. ↑ Allmusic review
  21. ↑ Miska, Brad (April 28, 2017). "Blumhouse is Remaking Stephen King's 'Firestarter' #Overlook". Bloody Disgusting.
  22. ↑ Sneider, Jeff (December 16, 2019). "Blumhouse's 'Firestarter' Remake Heats Up with 'The Vigil' Director Keith Thomas". Collider. Archived from the original on December 17, 2019.
  23. ↑ Sneider, Jeff (September 29, 2020). "Zac Efron to Star in Firestarter Remake from Blumhouse". Collider . Retrieved January 5, 2021.
  24. ↑ D'Alessandro, Anthony (February 11, 2021). "Michael Greyeyes Joins Blumhouse's Stephen King Pic 'Firestarter'". Deadline. Retrieved February 11, 2021.
  25. ↑ D'Alessandro, Anthony (June 2, 2021). "'Firestarter': Blumhouse Reboot Of Stephen King Classic Finds Its Charlie In Ryan Kiera Armstrong – First Look". Deadline Hollywood . Retrieved June 2, 2021.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.