Molly Ringwald remembers John Hughes!

The New York Times talks to Molly Ringwald about working with the late John Hughes and their relationship.  Here are some highlights.

From the New York Times:

Mr. Hughes, who died last year at age 59, will be the subject of a two-day celebration,“John Hughes: We Can’t Forget About Him,”being held by the Film Society of Lincoln Center. (A. O. Scott of The New York Timesappraised his work here.) On Sunday, the society will show five of Mr. Hughes’s films, including “Sixteen Candles” and “Pretty in Pink,” at the Walter Reade Theater. And on Monday, a screening of “The Breakfast Club” at the Paris Theater will be followed by a Q. and A. with Ms. Ringwald and her cast matesAnthony Michael Hall, Judd Nelson and Ally Sheedy, conducted by Kevin Smith.

It’s often said about John that he was a rare adult who knew how to write for young actors. Could you sense that just from his screenplays?

Absolutely. So many scripts I would read – and I still find this to be the case – whenever there was a teenager, it just does not sound remotely like a teenager. It sounds like it’s written by an adult for a kid. And then the kid actor is trying themselves sound like a kid, and they just don’t. For some reason, when I read John’s dialogue, it was totally unique. It was like his own language. But it made sense. I didn’t necessarily hear anybody that was talking like that. But we could.

I read “Sixteen Candles” in the back of my parents’ car, and I kept laughing out loud. And I was reading them these random bits of the script, and they were like, all right, we’ll take your word for it, it’s funny.

Was it bittersweet for you as your film career diverged from John’s?

Yeah. I was ready to graduate, as it were. I really wanted to work with other people, and I think I was sort of nervous about only being associated with this one director. If I look back on it, I try not to have regrets about anything, but I do wish that I would have not worried about that so much. I wish, in a way, that I wasn’t in such a hurry to grow up. Because when you’re that age, you just think, Nobody’s going to see me as a grown-up. And you don’t realize how fast you’re a grown-up. [laughs] I always felt like John and I would work with each other again. I liked the movies he did after, and as I said in my Op-Ed piece, they’re really wonderful movies but I feel like his heart wasn’t connected to those movies in the same way.

Did you continue to keep in touch with him during this time?

Not really, no. He kind of sequestered himself. He moved back to Chicago. He didn’t really have much to do with Hollywood. I can’t speak for him, but I felt like he felt rejected in some way by me. But I did write him a letter when I was living in Paris, and I got back this enormous bouquet of flowers, so I felt good to know that I did connect with him, that he read what I wrote and it meant something, so I’m really grateful for that.

Check out the full article here: http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/17/she-wont-forget-about-him-molly-ringwald-remembers-john-hughes/

Where are they now? Shermer, Illinois

Last week’s “Where are they now?” Walley World post was so popular and we got so many e-mails we are showcasing another Griswold location!

This week we are profiling the Griswold’s home and John Hughes’s fictional town of Shermer, Illinois!

John Hughes fans already know that his films, including the Vacation films are set in the fictional town of Shermer, Illinois a suburb of the Chicago metropolitan area.

The original Griswold House used in National Lampoon’s Vacation was filmed in Chicago, where as, the other Griswold houses used in European, Christmas and Vegas were all filmed on the Warner Brother’s backlot.  As a reference to the Griswold’s home state Chevy Chase wears a black Chicago Bears hat in all four Vacation films.

Shermer, Illinois is home to not only the Griswold’s but the Bueller’s (Ferris Bueller’s Day Off), the Baker’s (Sixteen Candles) the gang from the Breakfast Club and many more!  Shermer is said to be based on the hometown of John Hughes, Northbrook, Illinois which was originally named Shermerville.  John Hughes’ high school, Glenbrook North High School and some surrounding High Schools were often used as the high schools in his films including Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.  Shermer also borrows the real life Northbrook zip code 60062

The Breakfast Clubs school interiors and football field were filmed at Hughes High School, Glenbrook North High School which in real life is located on Shermer Rd. in Northbrook Illinois.  The exteriors of the school and Library were filmed at Maine North High School Located in Des Plaines, Illinois.  Maine North High School, Glenbrook North High School, New Trier High School (West Campus), and Niles East High School have all been filmed as Shermer High School.

An ongoing theme in Hughes depiction of Shermer is the contrast of its resident’s wealth.  Films like The Breakfast Club, Pretty in Pink, Career Opportunities and Some Kind Of Wonderful all show rich and poor kids living and attending the same schools, something which Hughes has spoken about when talking about his own experiences growing up in Northbrook, Illinois.

With the death of John Hughes the days of Shermer are gone but are far from forgotten.  With films like Dogma where two characters “Jay and Silent Bob” travel to Illinois looking for Shermer only to find that it is fictional town and shows like NBC’s Community making almost weekly references to the Hughes films and it’s Shermer residents it looks like the dream of Shermer lives on.

Check out these links for more on Shermer:

The official Northbrook Website: http://www.northbrook.il.us/

Pictures from then and now: http://home.xnet.com/~madman/index.html

A complete list of John Hughes films: http://www.riverblue.com/hughes/films.html

Shermer at Wikipedia.org: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shermer,_Illinois

Griswold house: thanks to Braden

Ferris and sixteen pictures from: http://home.xnet.com/~madman/index.html

John Hughes To Get Special Oscar Tribute

Be sure not to miss this year’s Oscars Sunday night which will feature a stand alone tribute to John Hughes. 

Hughes is best known for writing and/or directing some of our favorite films from the 1980’s - National Lampoon’s Vacation, Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, European Vacation, Weird Science, Pretty in Pink, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Planes Trains & Automobiles, Uncle Buck, Christmas Vacation, and Home Alone. 

Read more: John Hughes To Get Special Oscar Tribute | /Film http://www.slashfilm.com/2010/02/17/john-hughes-to-get-special-oscar-tribute/#ixzz0hKM4flxA