Len Blum

Last updated
Len Blum
Born
Leonard Solomon Blum

(1951-12-29) December 29, 1951 (age 72)
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Occupation(s)Musician, composer, screenwriter, yoga teacher, filmmaker
Years active1979–present
Spouse
(m. 1970)
Children1

Leonard Solomon Blum (born December 29, 1951) is a Canadian screenwriter, film producer and film composer. [1]

Contents

Early life

Blum was born into a Jewish family. [2] He attended Westdale Secondary School in Hamilton, Ontario. He later graduated from McMaster University with a Bachelor of Arts in 1975.

Career

He has written many films, specializing in comedy, including Meatballs , [1] Stripes , [1] Heavy Metal , Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone , Beethoven's 2nd , Private Parts , [1] The Pink Panther remake and Over the Hedge . Prior to his film career, early on he was a rock musician and songwriter did studio productions, produced radio commercials.

In 2015, the Toronto International Film Festival created a screenwriter's residency program named after Blum, specifically for up and coming Canadian screenwriters to develop their projects. [3] The inaugural resident was Stephen Dunn. [4] In 2016, Andrew Cividino was announced as the new resident. [5]

Accolades

He won the Genie Award for Best Original Screenplay, in 1980, for the film Meatballs . [6]

Personal life

He has been married to Heather Munroe-Blum since 1970, with whom he has a daughter, Sydney. [2]

Filmography

Related Research Articles

<i>Heavy Metal</i> (film) 1981 Canadian/American film

Heavy Metal is a 1981 Canadian adult animated science fantasy anthology film directed by Gerald Potterton and produced by Ivan Reitman and Leonard Mogel, who also was the publisher of Heavy Metal magazine, which was the basis for the film. It starred the voices of Rodger Bumpass, Jackie Burroughs, John Candy, Joe Flaherty, Don Francks, Martin Lavut, Marilyn Lightstone, Eugene Levy, Alice Playten, Harold Ramis, Percy Rodriguez, Susan Roman, Richard Romanus, August Schellenberg, John Vernon, and Zal Yanovsky. The screenplay was written by Daniel Goldberg and Len Blum.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harold Ramis</span> American actor, comedian, and filmmaker (1944–2014)

Harold Allen Ramis was an American actor, comedian, and filmmaker. His film acting roles include Egon Spengler in Ghostbusters (1984) and Ghostbusters II (1989), and as Russell Ziskey in Stripes (1981); he also co-wrote those films. As a director, his films include the comedies Caddyshack (1980), National Lampoon's Vacation (1983), Groundhog Day (1993), Analyze This (1999) and Analyze That (2002). Ramis was the original head writer of the television series SCTV, on which he also performed, as well as a co-writer of Groundhog Day and National Lampoon's Animal House (1978). The final film that he wrote, produced, directed, and acted in was Year One (2009).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Ironside</span> Canadian actor

Frederick Reginald Ironside, known professionally as Michael Ironside, is a Canadian actor and filmmaker. A prominent character actor with over 270 film and television credits, he is known for playing villains and antiheroes, but has also portrayed sympathetic characters. He is best known for his roles in action and science fiction films, and had his breakthrough performance in the 1981 David Cronenberg film Scanners.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ivan Reitman</span> Canadian filmmaker (1946–2022)

Ivan Reitman was a Canadian film director and producer. He was known for his comedy films, especially in the 1980s and 1990s. Reitman was the owner of The Montecito Picture Company, founded in 1998.

<i>Stripes</i> (film) 1981 film by Ivan Reitman

Stripes is a 1981 American action comedy film directed by Ivan Reitman and starring Bill Murray, Harold Ramis, Warren Oates, P. J. Soles, Sean Young, and John Candy. Ramis wrote the film with Len Blum and Dan Goldberg, the latter of whom also served as producer alongside Reitman. It tells the story of an immature taxi cab driver and his teacher friend who enlist in the United States Army with comical results. Numerous actors, including John Larroquette, John Diehl, Conrad Dunn, Judge Reinhold, Joe Flaherty, Dave Thomas, Timothy Busfield, and Bill Paxton, appear in the film in some of the earliest roles of their careers. The film's score was composed by Elmer Bernstein.

<i>Meatballs</i> (film) 1979 film by Ivan Reitman

Meatballs is a 1979 Canadian comedy film directed by Ivan Reitman. It is noted for Bill Murray's first film appearance in a starring role and for launching the directing career of Reitman, whose later comedies include Stripes (1981) and Ghostbusters (1984), both starring Murray.

Ronald Mann is a Canadian documentary film director.

<i>Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone</i> 1983 film by Lamont Johnson

Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone is a 1983 American-Canadian science fiction action film. The film stars Peter Strauss, Molly Ringwald, Ernie Hudson, Andrea Marcovicci and Michael Ironside. The film's executive producer was Ivan Reitman, and it was directed by Lamont Johnson. The film's music score was composed by Elmer Bernstein. When the film was originally released in theaters it was shown in a polarized, over/under 3-D format. The film became part of the 3-D film revival craze of the early 1980s, being widely released after Comin' at Ya! (1981). The film is about a bounty hunter who goes on a mission to rescue three women stranded on a brutal planet and meets a vagrant teenage girl along the way.

<i>Feds</i> (film) 1988 American comedy film by Daniel Goldberg

Feds is a 1988 American comedy film written and directed by Dan Goldberg, and starring Rebecca De Mornay and Mary Gross. The plot follows two women, the ex-Marine Ellie and Bryn Mawr graduate Janis, who aim to become FBI agents and enroll at the training center in Quantico. The ending credits stated the real FBI did not support the film or assist the production in any way.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Don Carmody</span> American film producer

Donald Carmody is an American-born Canadian film and television producer.

Kate Lynch is a Canadian film, television and stage actress, drama teacher, theatre director and playwright.

Phillip Borsos was an Australian-born Canadian film director, producer, and screenwriter. A four-time Canadian Film Award and Genie Award winner and an Academy Award nominee, he was one of the major figures of Canadian and British Columbian filmmaking during the 1980s, earning critical acclaim and accolades at a time when Canadian filmmakers were still struggling to gain attention outside of North America.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Canadian Film Centre</span> Film school in Toronto, Ontario

The Canadian Film Centre (CFC) is a charitable organization founded in 1988 by filmmaker Norman Jewison in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Originally launched as a film school, today it provides training, development and advancement opportunities for professionals in the Canadian film, television and digital media industries, including directors, producers, screenwriters, actors and musicians.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Daniel Goldberg (producer)</span> Canadian film producer and screenwriter (1948/1949 – 2023)

Daniel Mitchell Goldberg was a Canadian film producer and screenwriter. He was a writer and producer on the films Meatballs and Stripes. He was also a producer of The Hangover film series and received an Emmy Awards nomination for the film The Late Shift.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anne Émond</span> Canadian film director and screenwriter

Anne Émond is a Canadian film director and screenwriter, currently based in Montreal, Quebec.

Jeffrey St. Jules is a Canadian film director and screenwriter, who won the Claude Jutra Award in 2015 for his debut feature film Bang Bang Baby. The film also won the award for Best Canadian First Feature Film at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival.

Andrew Cividino is a Canadian film director and screenwriter. He is best known for his feature film directorial debut Sleeping Giant, which premiered at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival, and for his frequent work as a director on the Emmy winning comedy Schitt's Creek, for which he won a Primetime Emmy at the 72nd Primetime Emmy Awards.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stephen Dunn (director)</span> Canadian director, screenwriter, and producer

Stephen Dunn is a Canadian director, screenwriter, and producer. He made his feature film directorial debut in 2015 with Closet Monster, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival.

<i>Busters Mal Heart</i> 2016 American film

Buster's Mal Heart is a 2016 surrealist mystery film written, directed, and edited by Sarah Adina Smith. It stars Rami Malek, DJ Qualls, Kate Lyn Sheil, Lin Shaye, Toby Huss, Sukha Belle Potter, Lily Gladstone, and Nicholas Pryor.

Robin Aubert is a Canadian actor, screenwriter and film director. He is most noted for his performance in the film The Countess of Baton Rouge , for which he received a Genie Award nomination for Best Actor at the 18th Genie Awards in 1997, and his 2017 film Ravenous , which won the Toronto International Film Festival Award for Best Canadian Film at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Sandra Brennan (2014). "Len Blum". Movies & TV Dept. The New York Times . Archived from the original on 2014-01-29.
  2. 1 2 Gladstone, Bill (1996). "Conversation with screenwriter Len Blum". BillGladstone.ca. Retrieved March 2, 2019.
  3. Pinto, Jordan (July 21, 2015). "TIFF announces Len Blum Residency program" . Retrieved 2016-08-04.
  4. "Stephen Dunn, selected as the inaugural Len Blum Resident". www.filmfestivals.com. Retrieved 2016-08-04.
  5. Erbland, Kate (2016-08-03). "TIFF Adds New Round of Titles, Including 'It's Only the End of the World,' 'Mean Dreams' and More" . Retrieved 2016-08-04.
  6. Maria Topalovich, And the Genie Goes To...: Celebrating 50 Years of the Canadian Film Awards. Stoddart Publishing, 2000. ISBN   0-7737-3238-1.