The Producers (2005 film)

Last updated

The Producers
The Producers (2005).jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Susan Stroman
Screenplay by
Based on
The Producers
by
  • Mel Brooks
  • Thomas Meehan

The Producers
by Mel Brooks

Produced by
Starring
Cinematography
Edited by Steven Weisberg
Music by
  • Glen Kelly
  • Mel Brooks
Production
companies
Distributed by
Release date
  • December 16, 2005 (2005-12-16)
Running time
134 minutes [1]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$45 million [2]
Box office$38.1 million [2]

The Producers is a 2005 American musical comedy film directed by Susan Stroman and written by Mel Brooks and Thomas Meehan based on the eponymous 2001 Broadway musical, which in turn was based on Brooks's 1967 film of the same name. The film stars an ensemble cast led by Nathan Lane, Matthew Broderick, Uma Thurman, Will Ferrell, Gary Beach, Roger Bart, and Jon Lovitz. Creature effects were provided by Jim Henson's Creature Shop.

Contents

The film was released in the United States by Universal Pictures in a limited release on December 16, 2005, followed by a wide release on December 25. It garnered generally mixed reviews from critics and was a commercial failure, earning $38 million worldwide from a $45 million budget. [2]

Plot

In 1959, following the flop of the Broadway theatrical musical Funny Boy (based on William Shakespeare's Hamlet ) ("Opening Night"), the show's washed-up producer, Max Bialystock, hires the neurotic Leo Bloom as his accountant. In studying Max's books, Leo panics when he discovers a $2,000 discrepancy. While shuffling numbers, he notes that, as a flop is expected to lose money, the IRS will not investigate its finances. He jests that by selling an excess of shares and embezzling the funds, a flop could generate up to $2 million. Max asks for Leo's help with the scheme, only for the latter to refuse ("We Can Do It").

Returning to his old accounting firm, Leo starts fantasizing about being a Broadway producer ("I Wanna Be a Producer"). Leo quits his job and forms "Bialystock & Bloom" with Max. Searching for the worst play ever written, they find Springtime for Hitler , an admiring musical tribute to Adolf Hitler written by ex-Nazi soldier Franz Liebkind. To acquire Franz's rights to the musical, they perform Hitler's favorite song and swear the sacred "Siegfried Oath" to him ("Der Guten Tag Hop-Clop").

Next, Leo and Max meet with failing, transvestite director Roger De Bris and his assistant Carmen Ghia. Roger is reluctant to direct, but when Leo and Max suggest he could win a Tony Award, he agrees on the condition that the play be more "gay" ("Keep It Gay"). Back at their office, a Swedish woman named Ulla appears to audition. Although Leo points out that they have not started casting, Max hires her as their secretary until they audition her later ("When You've Got It, Flaunt It").

To gain backers to fund the musical, Max has dalliances with several elderly women ("Along Came Bialy"), allowing him to raise the $2 million. Leo laments about the dangers of sex distracting him from his work, and shares a kiss with Ulla ("That Face"). At auditions for the role of Hitler, Franz, angered at a performer's rendition of a German song, storms the stage and performs it himself ("Haben Sie gehört das Deutsche Band?"). Based on the performance, Max hires Franz to play Hitler.

On opening night, as the cast and crew prepare to go on stage, Leo wishes everyone good luck, to which everyone warns it is bad luck to say "good luck" on opening night, and that the correct phrase is to say "break a leg" ("You Never Say Good Luck on Opening Night"). Franz leaves to prepare and literally breaks his leg in a fall. Max enlists Roger to perform the role in his place, and Roger accepts.

As the show opens, the audience is horrified at the first song ("Springtime for Hitler"), and people begin leaving out of disgust until Roger enters as Hitler ("Heil Myself"). Roger, playing Hitler very flamboyantly, causes the audience to misinterpret the play as satire, resulting in the show becoming a smash. Terrified the IRS will learn of their crimes, a dispute breaks out between Leo and Max, but stops when Roger and Carmen come into the office to congratulate them. Furious at Roger for making the play successful, Max angrily confronts Roger for his actions, and even goes as far to physically torture Carmen when he tries to defend Roger. Franz then appears and attempts to shoot all four of them for breaking the Siegfried Oath by mocking Hitler, only to attract the police. As Max and Franz attempt to evade the police, Franz breaks his other leg.

Arrested for his tax fraud, Max is imprisoned while Leo elopes with Ulla to Rio de Janeiro ("Betrayed"). About to be sentenced, Max is saved by Leo, who returns to defend him ("'Til Him"). The judge, realizing Leo and Max are inseparable, sentences them both to five years at Sing Sing Prison with Franz. Writing and producing a new musical in prison ("Prisoners of Love"), Leo, Max, and Franz are pardoned by the governor for their work, allowing them to collaborate with Roger and Ulla and release Prisoners of Love. The play's success means Max and Leo go on to become successful Broadway producers.

In a post-credits scene, the cast sings "Goodbye!", telling the audience to leave the theater.

Cast

Puppeteers (Franz Liebkind segment)

Lane, Broderick, Beach, and Bart reprised their roles from the stage musical. Nicole Kidman was originally cast as Ulla, but backed out of the project due to other commitments. Ernie Sabella who co-starred alongside Lane and Broderick in The Lion King makes an uncredited cameo appearance as a singing drunk in a deleted scene. [3]

Soundtrack

The Producers Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
The Producers album cover.jpg
Soundtrack album by
ReleasedNovember 16, 2005
Genre Broadway
Label Sony
Producer Doug Besterman

All tracks are written by Mel Brooks

No.TitlePerformer(s)Length
1."Overture" Mel Brooks 0:43
2."Opening Night"Bryn Dowling, Meg Gillentine, and Cast1:46
3."We Can Do It" Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick 3:57
4."I Wanna Be A Producer"Matthew Broderick and Cast6:14
5."Der Guten Tag Hop-Clop" Will Ferrell, Nathan Lane, and Matthew Broderick1:57
6."Keep It Gay" Gary Beach, Roger Bart, Nathan Lane, Matthew Broderick, Brent Barrett, Peter Bartlett, Jim Borstelmann, Kathy Fitzgerald, Jai Rodriguez, and Cast5:53
7."When You Got It, Flaunt It" Uma Thurman 3:11
8."Along Came Bialy"Nathan Lane, Eileen Essell, Debra Monk, Andrea Martin, and Cast3:52
9."That Face"Matthew Broderick and Uma Thurman4:16
10."Haben Sie Gehurt Das Deutsche Band?"Will Ferrell1:19
11."You Never Say Good Luck On Opening Night"Gary Beach, Roger Bart, Will Ferrell, Matthew Broderick, Nathan Lane, and Cast1:34
12."Springtime For Hitler - Part 1" John Barrowman, Gary Beach, Uma Thurman, Michael Thomas Holmes, Ronn Carroll, and Cast3:40
13."Heil Myself"Gary Beach0:52
14."Springtime for Hitler - Part 2"Gary Beach, Uma Thurman, and Cast3:01
15."You'll Find Your Happiness In Rio"Julio Agustin, Sebastian La Cause, J.C. Montgomery, and Chris Vasquez1:10
16."Betrayed"Nathan Lane4:26
17."Til Him"Matthew Broderick, Nathan Lane, and Cast3:10
18."Prisoners Of Love (Broadway)"Gary Beach, Uma Thurman, Nathan Lane, Matthew Broderick, Will Ferrell, Michael McKean, and Cast2:16
19."Prisoners Of Love (Leo And Max)"Matthew Broderick, Nathan Lane, and Cast1:27
20."There's Nothing Like A Show On Broadway"Mel Brooks3:42
Total length:1:07:15

Additional tracks: 21) "The Hop-Clop Goes On" 3:34, 22) "Goodbye!" 0:37, 23) "The King Of Broadway (Bonus Track) 4:38

Reception

Box office

The film grossed $19 million at the box office in North America and another $18 million overseas, which brings the worldwide total of $38 million. The film’s failure was partly due to its competition with King Kong , The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe , Fun with Dick and Jane , and Memoirs of a Geisha .

Critical response

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 50% based on 153 reviews, with an average rating of 5.4/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Despite the rich source material, The Producers has a stale, stagy feel more suited to the theater than the big screen." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 52 out of 100, based on 36 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale. [4]

A positive review from Betty Jo Tucker of Reel Talk said: "Outrageous musical numbers evoke most of the laughs in this movie funfest. Eat your heart out, Rockettes, because here comes a little old ladies' chorus line ('Along Came Bialy') to rival your success. Watch out, real-life producers, for an actor named Gary Beach ('Heil Myself'). Never, and I mean never, hire him if you want your play to flop! And stop spinning in your grave, Florenz Ziegfeld. Those 'Springtime for Hitler and Germany' showgirls are all in good fun. Finally, congratulations to director Susan Stroman, for making this Broadway gem into a film that old-time movie musical fans like me can cheer about." [5]

Nathan Rabin wrote: "Between the rough start and an ending that lingers too long, there's a solid hour or so of terrific entertainment that serves as both a giddy tribute to Broadway musicals and a parody thereof. Thirty-seven years after Brooks declared war on taste and propriety, The Producers has lost its power to shock or offend, but it's retained its ability to amuse." [6]

Roger Ebert cited difficulty in reviewing the film due to familiarity with the original 1967 film. However, he did state that the new version was "fun" and gave it three out of four stars. Said Ebert: "The new movie is a success, that I know. How much of a success, I cannot be sure." [7]

In addition to these positive reviews, it was nominated for four Golden Globes (including nominations for actors Ferrell and Lane).

Most negative reviews suggested that the performances were tuned more for the theater rather than for film. Stephanie Zacharek observed: "The Producers is essentially a filmed version of a stage play, in which none of the characters' expressions or line readings have been scaled down to make sense on-screen. Every gesture is played out as if the actors were 20 feet away in real life, which means that, by the time the performers are magnified on the big screen, they're practically sitting in your lap. The effect is something like watching a 3-D IMAX film without the special glasses." [8]

In addition to these negative reviews, it was nominated for five Stinkers Bad Movie Awards (Worst Director, Worst Remake, Worst Actor for Broderick, Least Dynamic Duo for Broderick and Lane, and Worst Song for "Keep It Gay") along with winning a special "Annie Award", which criticised the decision to sell tickets for the film for an additional $2.50; the name reflects a decision similarly used by the film Annie .

Jimmy Kimmel Live sketch

On February 28, 2016, a five-minute short film serving as a sequel to The Producers, entitled Trumped, was released on Jimmy Kimmel Live! , with Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick reprising their roles as Max Bialystock and Leopold "Leo" Bloom. The film follows Bialystock & Bloom having formed their own Political Consultants business, which has since fallen on hard times. Bloom realises that under the right circumstances more money can be made from a losing candidate than from a winner. They choose Donald Trump as a candidate, only for him to become a political phenomenon. [9]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mel Brooks</span> American actor, comedian and filmmaker (born 1926)

Melvin James Brooks is an American actor, comedian, filmmaker, songwriter, and playwright. With a career spanning over seven decades, he is known as a writer and director of a variety of successful broad farces and parodies. A recipient of numerous accolades, he is one of 19 entertainers to win the EGOT, which includes an Emmy Award, a Grammy Award, an Academy Award, and a Tony Award. He received a Kennedy Center Honor in 2009, a Hollywood Walk of Fame star in 2010, the AFI Life Achievement Award in 2013, a British Film Institute Fellowship in 2015, a National Medal of Arts in 2016, a BAFTA Fellowship in 2017, and the Honorary Academy Award in 2024.

<i>The Producers</i> (1967 film) Film by Mel Brooks

The Producers is a 1967 American satirical black comedy film written and directed by Mel Brooks and starring Zero Mostel, Gene Wilder, Dick Shawn, and Kenneth Mars. The film is about a theater producer and his accountant who scheme to get rich by fraudulently overselling interests in a stage musical purposely designed to fail. They find a script celebrating Adolf Hitler and the Nazis and bring it to the stage. Because of this theme, The Producers was controversial from the start and received mixed reviews. It became a cult film and found a more positive critical reception later.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Matthew Broderick</span> American actor (born 1962)

Matthew Broderick is an American actor. His roles include the Golden Globe–nominated portrayal of the title character in Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986), the voice of adult Simba in Disney's The Lion King (1994), and Leo Bloom in both the Broadway musical The Producers and its 2005 film adaptation. Other films he has starring credits in include WarGames (1983), Glory (1989), The Freshman (1990), The Cable Guy (1996), Godzilla (1998), Election (1999), Inspector Gadget (1999), You Can Count on Me (2000), and The Last Shot (2004). Broderick also directed himself in Infinity (1996) and provided voice work in Good Boy! (2003), Bee Movie (2007), and The Tale of Despereaux (2008).

<i>An Alan Smithee Film: Burn Hollywood Burn</i> 1997 American mockumentary film

An Alan Smithee Film: Burn Hollywood Burn is a 1997 American mockumentary black comedy film directed by Arthur Hiller, written by Joe Eszterhas and starring Eric Idle as a director unfortunately named Alan Smithee, a traditional pseudonym used in Hollywood for directors disowning a project. The film follows Smithee as he steals the negatives to his latest film and goes on the run.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nathan Lane</span> American actor (born 1956)

Nathan Lane is an American actor. Since 1975, he has been seen on stage and screen in both comedic and dramatic roles. Lane has received numerous awards, including three Tony Awards, six Drama Desk Awards, two Obie Awards, the Olivier Award, three Emmy Awards, and a Screen Actors Guild Award. Lane received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2006 and was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 2008. In 2010, The New York Times hailed Lane as "the greatest stage entertainer of the decade".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Martin Short</span> Canadian and American actor and comedian (born 1950)

Martin Hayter Short is a Canadian and American actor, comedian, and writer. Short is known as an energetic comedian who gained prominence for his roles in sketch comedy. He has also acted in numerous films and television shows. He has received various awards including two Primetime Emmy Awards, and a Tony Award. Short was awarded as an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2019.

<i>Freddy Got Fingered</i> 2001 surreal black comedy film directed by Tom Green

Freddy Got Fingered is a 2001 surreal black comedy film directed by Tom Green in his feature film directorial debut and written by Green and Derek Harvie. Green stars in the film as a childish slacker who wishes to become a professional cartoonist while dealing with his abusive father's behavior. Its plot resembles Green's struggles as a young man trying to get his television series picked up, which would later become the MTV series The Tom Green Show. The title of the film refers to a plot point where Green's character falsely accuses his father of sexually abusing his brother, the eponymous Freddy.

Springtime for Hitler: A Gay Romp With Adolf and Eva at Berchtesgaden is a fictional musical in Mel Brooks' 1967 film The Producers, as well as the stage musical adaptation of the movie, and the 2005 movie adaptation of the musical. It is a musical about Adolf Hitler, written by Franz Liebkind, an unbalanced Nazi originally played by Kenneth Mars.

<i>The Stepford Wives</i> (2004 film) 2004 film by Frank Oz

The Stepford Wives is a 2004 American science fiction black comedy film directed by Frank Oz from a screenplay by Paul Rudnick and starring Nicole Kidman, Matthew Broderick, Bette Midler, Glenn Close, Christopher Walken, and Faith Hill. The second feature-length adaptation of Ira Levin's 1972 novel of the same name following the 1975 film of the same name, it received generally negative reviews from critics and was a box office failure, grossing $103 million worldwide on a $90–100 million budget.

<i>North</i> (1994 film) 1994 American comedy drama adventure film

North is a 1994 American comedy-drama adventure film directed by Rob Reiner. The story is based on the 1984 novel North: The Tale of a 9-Year-Old Boy Who Becomes a Free Agent and Travels the World in Search of the Perfect Parents by Alan Zweibel, who wrote the screenplay and has a minor role in the film.

Roger Bart is an American actor and singer. He won a Tony Award and a Drama Desk Award for his performance as Snoopy in the 1999 revival of You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown.

Henry Goodman is a RADA trained British actor. He has appeared on television and radio, in film and in the theatre.

<i>The Producers</i> (musical) 2001 musical written by Mel Brooks

The Producers is a musical comedy with music and lyrics by Mel Brooks, and a book by Brooks and Thomas Meehan. It is adapted from Brooks's 1967 film of the same name. The story concerns two theatrical producers who scheme to get rich by fraudulently overselling interests in a Broadway musical designed to fail. Complications arise when the show is a surprise hit. The humor of The Producers draws on exaggerated accents, caricatures of Jews, gay people and Nazis, and many show business in-jokes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Treacy Egan</span> American actor and singer

John Treacy Egan is an American actor and singer known for starring in the Broadway productions of The Producers and The Little Mermaid.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brad Oscar</span> American actor

Brad Oscar is an American musical theatre actor, known for his Broadway performances in musicals such as The Producers, Something Rotten!, Big Fish, Spamalot, The Addams Family, Mrs. Doubtfire and Wicked.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sarah Jessica Parker</span> American actress (born 1965)

Sarah Jessica Parker is an American actress and television producer. She is the recipient of numerous accolades, including six Golden Globe Awards and two Primetime Emmy Awards. Time magazine named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2022.

<i>The Nutcracker in 3D</i> 2010 musical fantasy film by Andrei Konchalovsky

The Nutcracker in 3D is a 2010 3D Christmas musical fantasy film adapted from Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's 1892 ballet The Nutcracker. Directed, co-written and produced by Andrei Konchalovsky, the film stars Elle Fanning, Nathan Lane, John Turturro, Frances de la Tour, Richard E. Grant and Yulia Vysotskaya, with Charlie Rowe and Shirley Henderson as the Nutcracker. Set in 1920s Vienna, the plot follows a young girl who receives a magical doll that is revealed to be a prince and embarks on an adventure to save his kingdom from the Rat King.

"Springtime for Hitler" is a song written and composed by Mel Brooks for his 1968 film The Producers.

References

  1. "The Producers (12A)". British Board of Film Classification . November 30, 2005. Retrieved September 30, 2013.
  2. 1 2 3 "The Producers (2005) - Box Office Mojo".
  3. Susman, Gary (December 10, 2004). "Nicole Kidman drops out of Producers movie". Entertainment Weekly . Retrieved December 15, 2023.
  4. "The Producers". CinemaScore . Retrieved June 3, 2018.
  5. Tucker, Mark Lubischer and Betty Jo. "ReelTalk Movie Reviews".
  6. The Producers Archived February 3, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
  7. Ebert, Roger (December 16, 2005). "The Producers review". RogerEbert.com. Retrieved January 26, 2007.
  8. Zacharek, Stephanie,"The Producers" Archived July 19, 2006, at the Wayback Machine , Salon, retrieved January 26, 2007
  9. Trumped" Starring Matthew Broderick & Nathan Lane