Willard Huyck | |
---|---|
Born | Willard Miller Huyck, Jr. September 8, 1945 Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
Occupation(s) | Screenwriter, film director |
Years active | 1969–2013 |
Spouse | |
Awards | National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Screenplay 1973 American Graffiti New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Screenplay 1973 American Graffiti |
Willard Miller Huyck, Jr. (born September 8, 1945) is an American retired screenwriter, director and producer, [1] best known for his association with George Lucas. [2]
Huyck and Lucas met as students at the USC School of Cinematic Arts and became members of Francis Ford Coppola's American Zoetrope group of filmmakers. Along with his wife Gloria Katz, Huyck wrote screenplays for films including American Graffiti , Lucky Lady , Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom , and Radioland Murders ,. [1] They also performed uncredited script polishing on the original Star Wars: Episode IV- A New Hope . [3] [4]
Huyck also directed four films, which he co-wrote with Gloria Katz: Messiah of Evil , French Postcards , Best Defense , and Howard the Duck . [2] The latter film received universally negative reviews at its release, but in subsequent years has become a cult classic. [5] Katz and Huyck also wrote and produced the NBC television films "A Father's Homecoming" and "American River." Willard Huyck is a current member of the Writers Guild of America and Directors Guild of America.
In addition to their work in the film industry, Katz and Huyck are well known as art collectors, having collected Indian miniature paintings beginning in the 1970s. This collection was sold at a Sotheby's auction in New York City in 2001. In subsequent years, they amassed a collection of Japanese photography that spanned from the late 1850s to the present. This collection was acquired in 2018 by the Smithsonian's National Museum of Asian Art. [6] The couple also wrote a photographic catalogue of the collection entitled "Views of Japan," designed and edited by Manfred Heiting and published by Steidl. Huyck is a member of the J. Paul Getty Museum Photography Council.
Huyck married Katz in 1969. [7] They remained married until her death in 2018. They have one daughter, Rebecca, born in 1983.
Year | Title | Director | Writer | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
1968 | The Devil's 8 | No | Yes | |
1973 | American Graffiti | No | Yes | |
1974 | Messiah of Evil | Yes | Yes | Also uncredited producer and actor Role: Zombie in a car |
1975 | Lucky Lady | No | Yes | |
1979 | French Postcards | Yes | Yes | |
1984 | Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom | No | Yes | |
Best Defense | Yes | Yes | ||
1986 | Howard the Duck | Yes | Yes | |
1994 | Radioland Murders | No | Yes |
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1977 | Star Wars | Script doctor | Uncredited |
1979 | More American Graffiti | Based on the characters created by | |
2009 | Remembering Messiah of Evil | Special thanks | Video documentary short |
2013 | A Fuller Life | Thanks | Documentary film |
Year | Title | Writer | Executive producer | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
1988 | A Father's Homecoming | Yes | Yes | |
1989 | Mothers, Daughters and Lovers | Yes | Yes | |
2008 | Secrets of a Hollywood Nurse | Yes | No | Also actor Role: Electronic Larynx Man |
American Graffiti is a 1973 American coming-of-age comedy-drama film directed by George Lucas, produced by Francis Ford Coppola, written by Willard Huyck, Gloria Katz and Lucas, and starring Richard Dreyfuss, Ron Howard, Paul Le Mat, Charles Martin Smith, Candy Clark, Mackenzie Phillips, Cindy Williams and Wolfman Jack. Harrison Ford and Bo Hopkins also appear. Set in Modesto, California, in 1962, the film is a study of the cruising and early rock 'n' roll cultures popular among Lucas's age group at that time. Through a series of vignettes, it tells the story of a group of teenagers and their adventures throughout a single night.
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom is a 1984 American action-adventure film directed by Steven Spielberg from a script by Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz, based on a story by George Lucas. It is the second installment in the Indiana Jones film series, and a prequel to Raiders of the Lost Ark. The film features Harrison Ford who reprises his role as the title character. Kate Capshaw, Amrish Puri, Roshan Seth, Philip Stone and Ke Huy Quan, in his film debut, star in supporting roles. In the film, after arriving in British India, Indiana Jones is asked by desperate villagers to find a mystical stone and rescue their children from a Thuggee cult practicing child slavery, black magic, and ritual human sacrifice in honor of the goddess Kali.
Dudley Nichols was an American screenwriter and film director. He was the first person to decline an Academy Award, as part of a boycott to gain recognition for the Screen Writers Guild; he would later accept his Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay in 1938.
The Ladies Man is a 1961 American comedy film directed by and starring Jerry Lewis. It was released on June 28, 1961, by Paramount Pictures.
James Francis Ivory is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. He was a principal in Merchant Ivory Productions along with Indian film producer Ismail Merchant and screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala. The trio is known for making film adaptations of stories by authors such as E.M. Forster and Henry James. Their body of work is celebrated for its elegance, sophistication, literary fidelity, strong performances, complex themes, and rich characters.
Gary Douglas Kurtz was an American film producer whose list of credits includes American Graffiti (1973), Star Wars (1977), The Empire Strikes Back (1980), The Dark Crystal (1982) and Return to Oz (1985). Kurtz also co-produced the 1989 science fiction adventure film Slipstream, which reunited him with Star Wars star Mark Hamill.
More American Graffiti is a 1979 American coming-of-age comedy film written and directed by Bill L. Norton, produced by Howard Kazanjian. The film, shot in multiple aspect ratios for comedic and dramatic emphasis, is the sequel to the 1973 film American Graffiti. While the first film followed a group of friends during the evening before they depart for college, the sequel depicts where they end up on consecutive New Years Eves from 1964 to 1967.
Lionel Chetwynd is a British-American screenwriter, director and producer.
Radioland Murders is a 1994 American comedy thriller film directed by Mel Smith and executive produced by George Lucas from a story by Lucas. Radioland Murders is set in the 1939 atmosphere of old-time radio and pays homage to the screwball comedy films of the 1930s. The film tells the story of writer Roger Henderson trying to settle relationship issues with his wife Penny while dealing with a whodunit murder mystery in a radio station. The film stars an ensemble cast, including Brian Benben, Mary Stuart Masterson, Scott Michael Campbell, Michael Lerner, and Ned Beatty. Radioland Murders also features numerous small roles and cameo appearances, including Michael McKean, Bobcat Goldthwait, Jeffrey Tambor, Christopher Lloyd, George Burns, Billy Barty, and Rosemary Clooney.
Howard the Duck is a 1986 American superhero comedy film directed by Willard Huyck and starring Lea Thompson, Jeffrey Jones, and Tim Robbins. Based on the Marvel Comics character of the same name, the film was produced by Gloria Katz and written by Huyck and Katz, with George Lucas as executive producer. The screenplay was originally intended to be an animated film, but the film adaptation became live-action because of a contractual obligation. While several TV adaptations of Marvel characters were aired, this was the first theatrical release since the Captain America serial of 1944.
Gloria Katz was an American screenwriter and film producer, best known for her association with George Lucas. Along with her husband Willard Huyck, Katz's credited screenplays include American Graffiti, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and Howard the Duck. Katz was Jewish.
The 39th New York Film Critics Circle Awards, 27 January 1974, honored the best filmmaking of 1973.
Messiah of Evil is a 1973 American supernatural horror film co-written, co-produced, and co-directed by Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz, and starring Marianna Hill, Michael Greer, Anitra Ford, Royal Dano, and Elisha Cook Jr. Its plot follows a woman who travels to a remote coastal town in California to find her missing artist father; upon arrival, she finds herself in the midst of a series of bizarre incidents.
Lucky Lady is a 1975 American comedy-drama film directed by Stanley Donen and starring Liza Minnelli, Gene Hackman, Burt Reynolds and Robby Benson. Its story takes place in 1930 during Prohibition in the United States.
Apocalypse Now is a 1979 American epic war film produced and directed by Francis Ford Coppola. The screenplay, co-written by Coppola, John Milius, and Michael Herr, is loosely inspired by the 1899 novella Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, with the setting changed from late 19th-century Congo to the Vietnam War. The film follows a river journey from South Vietnam into Cambodia undertaken by Captain Willard, who is on a secret mission to assassinate Colonel Kurtz, a renegade Special Forces officer who is accused of murder and presumed insane. The ensemble cast also features Robert Duvall, Frederic Forrest, Albert Hall, Sam Bottoms, Laurence Fishburne, Dennis Hopper, and Harrison Ford.
The Dirty Dozen is the nickname for a group of filmmaking students at the USC School of Cinematic Arts within the University of Southern California during the mid-late 1960s. The main group consisted of budding directors, screenwriters, producers, editors, and cinematographers. Through innovative techniques and effects, they ended up achieving great success in the Hollywood film industry.
French Postcards is a 1979 coming-of-age romantic comedy-drama film directed by Willard Huyck, who co-wrote the screenplay with Gloria Katz. It stars Miles Chapin, Blanche Baker, Mitch Hoefer David Marshall Grant, Valérie Quennessen, Debra Winger, Marie-France Pisier, and Jean Rochefort. The film was shot on location in central Paris, and had a contemporary time setting, with American students being used as extras.
The 8th National Society of Film Critics Awards honored the best filmmaking of 1973. Voting by nineteen members of the society took place on 2 January 1974 and winners announced that day. Citations were presented to the winners in a ceremony on 20 January 1974. Both the voting and the ceremony occurred at the Algonquin Hotel in Midtown Manhattan.
Herbert Waide "Bert" Hemphill Jr. was an American collector of folk art.