Martin Brest | |
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Born | The Bronx, New York City, U.S. | August 8, 1951
Education | New York University (BFA) American Film Institute (MFA) |
Occupations |
|
Years active | 1972–2003 |
Notable work | Beverly Hills Cop Midnight Run Scent of a Woman Meet Joe Black Going in Style Hot Dogs for Gauguin Gigli |
Martin Brest (born August 8, 1951) is an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. After his feature debut, Going in Style (1979), he directed the action comedies Beverly Hills Cop (1984) and Midnight Run (1988), which were critical and commercial hits.
Brest then directed Scent of a Woman (1992), starring Al Pacino, who won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance. He followed it with Meet Joe Black (1998), which received mixed reviews. Brest's next film was Gigli (2003). After disagreements between Brest and Revolution Studios, [1] creative control was taken from him, resulting in a radically re-written and re-shot version of the original film being released, [2] which became his first and only non-profitable film [3] and, in fact, a major box office bomb, receiving scathing reviews. It remains his most recent film to date.
Brest was born to Eastern European immigrant parents in a working-class neighborhood in the Bronx in 1951. [4] [5] [6] He was influenced by watching The Honeymooners as a child, saying in a 2023 interview, "I was a kid watching it in a household that was economically not that different than in the show. I felt like it was a show made for my neighborhood. And that character of Ralph Kramden really touched me, that angry soul whose spirit blossoms". [7] Brest graduated from Stuyvesant High School in 1969 and from New York University's School of the Arts in 1973. [5] His NYU student film Hot Dogs for Gauguin (1972), starring a then unknown Danny DeVito and with a small part by then unknown Rhea Perlman, was one of 25 films chosen in 2009 by the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress to "be preserved as cultural, artistic and/or historical treasures". [8] Brest attended the AFI Conservatory, where he graduated with a Master of Fine Arts in 1977. [5]
Brest's major studio debut was Going in Style (1979), which starred George Burns, Art Carney, and Lee Strasberg. [9] Brest was then hired to direct WarGames (1983), which starred Matthew Broderick, but he was fired three weeks into production amid conflicts with the film's executive producer, and replaced with John Badham. [7] [10]
The dismissal from WarGames left Brest highly pessimistic about his career, until he was recruited by Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer to direct Beverly Hills Cop (1984), starring Eddie Murphy. [7] [11] The film grossed over $300 million worldwide [12] and received Golden Globe nominations for Best Motion Picture (Musical or Comedy) and for Best Actor (Motion Picture Musical or Comedy, Eddie Murphy), as well as an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay.
Brest was in pre-production for Rain Man (1988), when he cast Tom Cruise in the role opposite Dustin Hoffman, before Barry Levinson eventually directed the film. [13]
Brest's next film was the action-comedy Midnight Run (1988), starring Robert De Niro and Charles Grodin. [14] The film was another critical and commercial success, earning Brest another Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy as well as a Best Actor Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy nomination for De Niro.
His work on Scent of a Woman (1992) earned him a Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Drama. The film also won Golden Globes for Al Pacino and screenwriter Bo Goldman, as well as a Best Supporting Actor nomination for Chris O'Donnell. In addition, the film received four Academy Award nominations: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay (Adapted), with Al Pacino winning Best Actor. [15]
Brest's next film, Meet Joe Black (1998), starring Brad Pitt and Anthony Hopkins, was a loose remake of 1934's Death Takes a Holiday . [16] The film had an American box-office return of $44.6 million, taking in an additional $98.3 million overseas for a worldwide total of $142.9 million. [17]
Brest wrote and directed Gigli (2003), starring Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez. [18] During filming, production company Revolution Studios took creative control from him, resulting in a radically re-written and re-shot version of the original film being released. [18] That version became one of the more notorious films of its time, with a scathing critical reception. A 2014 article in Playboy observed that in the then-eleven years since Gigli's release, Brest "went Full Salinger", appearing to have left the entertainment industry completely, without any further credits or major public appearances to his name. [18] However, in 2021, he appeared as a featured guest at a screening of Beverly Hills Cop and Midnight Run in Los Angeles, where he was interviewed by fellow filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson. [19] Two years later, he gave an interview to Variety in which he said he had written two scripts after Gigli, but was unable to get them produced. Reflecting on his career, he said: [7]
Once [Gigli] happened, I thought I'll never be invited back [to make more films]. Second, I would never be able to operate with the kind of control that a director, I feel, needs and deserves. So that felt like a clear signal it was time for me to back away. I had a good run, and I enjoyed success and freedom, and that was fantastic. I would've liked it to go on longer, but everybody likes everything to go on longer.
Brest has received the American Film Institute's Franklin J. Schaffner Achievement Award, which "celebrates the recipient's extraordinary creative talents and artistic achievements." [20]
His essays about art and artists have appeared in various books. [21] [22] [23]
Year | Title | Director | Producer | Screenwriter | Editor | Actor | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1972 | Hot Dogs for Gauguin | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Man on Ferry | NYU student film |
1977 | Hot Tomorrows | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | American Film Institute | |
1979 | Going in Style | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | directorial debut | |
1982 | Fast Times at Ridgemont High | No | No | No | No | Yes | Dr. Miller | |
1984 | Beverly Hills Cop | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | "bathrobe" Hotel Clerk | uncredited role |
1985 | Spies Like Us | No | No | No | No | Yes | Drive-In Security Guard | |
1988 | Midnight Run | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | Airline Ticket Clerk | uncredited role |
1992 | Scent of a Woman | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | ||
1993 | Josh and S.A.M. | No | Yes | No | No | No | ||
1998 | Meet Joe Black | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | ||
2003 | Gigli | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | ||
Alfredo James Pacino is an American actor. Considered one of the greatest and most influential actors of the 20th century, Pacino has received numerous accolades including an Academy Award, two Tony Awards, and two Primetime Emmy Awards achieving the Triple Crown of Acting. He also received four Golden Globe Awards, a BAFTA, two Screen Actors Guild Awards and been honored with the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2001, the AFI Life Achievement Award in 2007, the National Medal of Arts in 2011, and the Kennedy Center Honors in 2016.
Edward Regan Murphy is an American comedian, actor, and singer. He shot to fame on the sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live, for which he was a regular cast member from 1980 to 1984. He is widely recognized as one of the greatest comedians of all time. Murphy has received accolades such as the Golden Globe Award, a Grammy Award, and an Emmy Award as well as nominations for an Academy Award and a BAFTA Award. He was honored with the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor in 2015 and the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2023.
Scent of a Woman is a 1992 American drama film produced and directed by Martin Brest that tells the story of a preparatory school student who takes a job as an assistant to an irritable, blind, medically retired Army lieutenant colonel. The film is a remake of Dino Risi's 1974 Italian film Profumo di donna, adapted by Bo Goldman from the novel Il buio e il miele by Giovanni Arpino. The film stars Al Pacino and Chris O'Donnell, with James Rebhorn, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Gabrielle Anwar, and Bradley Whitford in supporting roles.
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Beverly Hills Cop is a 1984 American buddy cop action comedy film directed by Martin Brest, with a screenplay by Daniel Petrie Jr., and story by Danilo Bach and Daniel Petrie Jr. It stars Eddie Murphy as Axel Foley, a street-smart Detroit detective who visits Beverly Hills, California, to solve the murder of his best friend. Judge Reinhold, John Ashton, Ronny Cox, Lisa Eilbacher, Steven Berkoff, Paul Reiser, and Jonathan Banks appear in supporting roles.
Beverly Hills Cop II is a 1987 American buddy cop action comedy film directed by Tony Scott, written by Larry Ferguson and Warren Skaaren, and starring Eddie Murphy. It is the sequel to the 1984 film Beverly Hills Cop and the second installment in the Beverly Hills Cop film series. Murphy returns as Detroit police detective Axel Foley, who reunites with Beverly Hills detectives Billy Rosewood and John Taggart to stop a criminal organization after Captain Andrew Bogomil is shot and seriously wounded.
Daniel Mannix Petrie Jr. is a Canadian-American producer, writer, and director of film and television. He is best known for pioneering the sub-genres of action comedy and buddy cop films through films like Beverly Hills Cop and Turner & Hooch. He served as President of the Writers Guild of America, West between 1997 and 1999, and then again between 2004 and 2005. He currently serves as the President of the Board of Directors at the Writers Guild Foundation.
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