Shooting stars, and stars shot down: Eric Stoltz as Marty McFly in BTTF

Michael Fox was not the original choice to play Marty McFly, despite what people are willing to believe. Fox wasn’t on the published cast list dated 21 August 1984; Eric Stoltz topped the entries, followed by Christopher Howell and Ralph Macchio. Fox never attended a test screening; the published rehearsal call sheets dated 1 November

Headline acts, and acting for headlines: Eric Stoltz in Back to the Future

‘I was distraught and in so much pain. I thought most of my crew was going to quit, because who does this? Obviously, I thought I was going to be somehow pilloried as a horrendous director who didn’t know how to make his movie and didn’t know what the fuck he was doing.’ – Robert

Gamechanger, and changing game shows: the pilot episodes of Who Wants to be a Millionaire?

You take me over the rainbow and up to cloud nine. I’m flying high like a bird in the sky… Originally entitled Cash Mountain, the pilot episodes for the game show Who Wants to be a Millionaire were a world apart from the ground-breaking phenomenon it would later become. Filmed on 12 August 1998 and

Bored clappers, and clapperboards: going Back to the Future with Eric Stoltz

This time, it’s personal. Eric Stoltz was supposedly dismissed from Back to the Future half-way through a split shoot at the Twin Pines Mall on the night of 10 January 1985. The official story is that he wasn’t funny. The actual story is that director Robert Zemeckis was professionally incompetent. Over the years, several incongruities

Death’s design, and designing death: a critique of Final Destination’s concept

‘To die will be an awfully big adventure’ – Peter Pan The flawed conceptualisation of Final Destination precluded the film franchise from outshining the Scream series. While Final Destination succeeded at storytelling, it fell short on character. Despite a cult following, the movies have an understandably poor reputation among critics. The sad reality is that