Roar (1981)

[KCanthony 2]

Cost 17 million to make and was never released, is basically the world's most expensive and possibly longest home movie with a loose plot layed on top, animals weren't trained and collected exclusively for the movie by the filmmaker, aaand you get the point. plenty of fodder

[JefxCrax 1]

Saw this over the weekend, had previously never heard of it until then....

WOW, one of the craziest movies I've ever seen, sure there is absolutely no plot but it stars Tippi Hedron, Melanie Griffith and Togar as Togar.

A quick trip to wikipedia let me know this movie took over 11 years to make and was one of the most accident prone films made in history.

Can't believe I had never heard of this one.

[woodycanuck 2]

WOW. This just played at the Calgary Underground Film Festival. Absolutely bonkers!! I literally can not figure out how this movie was backed for $18 million. I can only imagine how that pitch could have gone.

 

"So, there's this house with over 100 big wild cats in it, and a family arrives and keeps trying to avoid the cats trying to eat them. Then after the family sleeps on it, they decide they love the animals"

"Interesting setup! Ok, what's the story?"

"That's the story"

"Oh... Any chance you could add a secondary plot to stretch this to 90 minutes?"

"How about... funny African guy who is scared of lions?"

"Love it!"

 

 

Roared is a perfect fit for HDTGM. Crazy productions stories, it's basically Tippi Hendren and her family doing all the acting, there is almost no plot, and the plot makes no sense, and there are all sorts of unbelievable scenes. But I think hardly anyone has ever seen it so not sure what to do about that?

[KathleenCarr 1]

I want this to happen so bad!

[JohnIraEdwards 12]

You have a serious omission on your show. You have not done "Roar" yet. This movie is truly ridiculous. The behind the scenes info is mind blowing. A young 14 year old Melanie Griffith almost had her scalp ripped off by a mutha-effin-lion. For real. And it's on effing camera. And it's in-effin-sane. Tiffi Hedren got dinged by an out of control elephant, and delayed production for years to recover from her back injury. Plus about 100 other near maulings, etc. I'm a veterinarian who has worked with lions and leopards, and I was awestruck by what I saw on screen. And affected. Kazam was nothing compared to this movie. Trust me! :-) The only issue is besides buying a 15 dollar DVD on amazon, the only way to see it is to see it at an independent theater. It looks like it may be playing in LA on the 23rd ( http://drafthousefilms.com/film/roar ) but otherwise, no idea. Maybe you guys can get some kind of deal, now that your show is getting kinda famous and stuff.

[ElieB 238]

Guys! Guys! Holy shit! Did anyone hear know that Jan De Bont, infamously shitty director of Speed 2, was mauled and scalped by lions while working as a camera-man for the filming of 1981's Roar?!??!

 

Trailer:

 

This movie seem absolutely insane. Am going to see it later this evening at my local indie theatre (The Mayfair, Ottawa-Canada) and will report back. I assume from the trailer and its amazing IMDB trivia page, that it will be amazing in the worst possible way. For now, I encourage people to skim through said trivia page: http://www.imdb.com/...ref_=tt_trv_trv

 

Cinematographer Jan de Bont was mauled and scalped by a lion on the set. de Bont required over 120 stitches to sew his scalp back from where a lion had bitten his head. After medical treatment, de Bont actually returned to the production to complete his D.O.P. duties.

 

Edit: Bah. I swear I ran a search before posting

Edit edit: o i c. Searching HDTGM forum doesn't include the sub forum. Noted.

[ElieB 238]

Update. This movie is amazing...

It is crazy. Mind boggling. Perfect. The people who made this are paragons of insanity.

 

I was constantly both horrified for the actors and profoundly amused, in rapid succession over and over and over. I don't even want to say any of it was bad because I'm so blown away by the commitment it would have taken to make it. And yet, there has never been a movie that I've more desperately needed to know: How did this get made?

 

You can literally see the fear in the actors for so much of it and its horrifying. But also: JUUUUUUUUUNE! This podcast would be monkey shines animal acting credits debate part 2, electric buggaloo. They literally give animals WRITING CREDITS! What!

[joebronx 16]

Yeah, HDTGM needs to do Roar. It's almost as if they made this movie so that that Podcasts would have something to talk about 35 years later.

 

Word.

[muttnik 476]

For sure with the above sentiment. This movie is upsetting, crazy, and now readily available.

[YuBeast 1]

Reviving this. 

"No animals were harmed in the making of this movie. 70 members of the cast and crew were."

"An unprecedented––and wholly unpredictable––action-adventure, Roar follows wildlife preservationist Hank (The Exorcist producer Noel Marshall in his sole and career-derailing turn as an actor and director), who lives harmoniously alongside a menagerie of untamed animals, including cheetahs, elephants, lions and tigers on a preservation in the African plains. When his wife and children arrive (real-life wife Tippi Hedren, The Birds, and step-daughter Melanie Griffith, Working Girl) for a visit, a long-brewing battle for dominance between two lions erupts and threatens their very lives."