WTF Happened to Robert Zemeckis?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 28 ก.ย. 2024
- Robert Zemeckis was one of the most prominent directors of the eighties and nineties. His string of hits is almost unmatched. Think about it - Romancing the Stone, the Back to the Future Trilogy, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Forrest Gump, Cast Away, What Lies Beneath, etc. This is why it’s so bizarre that a live-action Disney Pinocchio movie directed by Zemeckis and starring his best favorite leading man, Tom Hanks, was essentially dumped to streaming. It came and went without much fanfare, while it would have been a cinematic event fifteen years ago. WTF Happened?
In this episode of WTF Happened to this Celebrity, we dig into Zemeckis’ career, which began with the underrated pair I Wanna Hold Your Hand and Used Cars before Romancing the Stone made him an A-lister. We dig into how he was actually fired from Cocoon because the Fox brass thought Romancing the Stone would flop, leading to him making Back to the Future with pal Steven Spielberg. We dig into the then-impossible idea of mixing live-action and animation in Who Framed Roger Rabbit, show some love to Forrest Gump, and examine some underrated gems like Death Becomes Her.
But WTF Happened to Robert Zemeckis? In the 2000s, Zemeckis became a proponent of Motion Capture technology, leading to The Polar Express and Beowulf, movies which are a little uncanny valley if you revisit them today. Even if he’s not quite the mega-watt hitmaker he once was, with films like Welcome to Marwen being disastrous, he’s still capable of making gems like the fantastic Denzel Washington movie Flight. In this episode of WTF Happened to this Celebrity, which is written (with Mathew Plale), narrated and edited by Taylor James Johnson, we dig into the director’s life, legacy and future.
What’s your favorite Robert Zemeckis movie? Let us know in the comments!
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“Spaceman From Pluto” was not the original title. It was an idea from Universal’s President Sid Sheinberg that mortified the filmmakers. Spielberg cleverly talked him out of the change by sending him a note back saying essentially “thanks Sid, great joke, we all had a big laugh about it”
You know I was thinking, 'Wasn't that Sid Sheinberg who suggested that?' Only Spielberg would have the balls to mock the ideas of a studio president. 😂
Stopped watching as soon as he said that
Well... that's only the first blunder in this video.
Thank you, ajy true back to the future fan knows that.
Also, Michael J Fox was always the first choice for Marty, but the showrunner on Family Ties didn't want to release Fox from his responsibilities on that show.
So BTTF went ahead with Eric Stoltz until it didn't, after which a deal was hastily cobbled together where Fox worked his regular hours on Family Ties during the day and shot BTTF at night and on weekends (often only getting a few hours of sleep every night and explaining why a lot of BTTF's scenes are set at night).
Robert is a good filmmaker, Roger Rabbit was an amazing showcase of his talent. He’s been going through a slump which is a shame honestly
Fred quimby produced the Yankee Doodle mouse aka mouse at war 1943 music by Scott Bradley quiet please 1945 with billy bletcher directed by William hanna music by Scott Bradley written by pinto Colvig
Interestingly so has his buddy Spielberg
@@DickTracyFanboy spielberg's latest one looks like it's actually going to be good
@@chrisjfox8715 Yes 👍 I hope that both Spielberg and Zemeckis can reinvigorate the success they showed during the 80s 🤞. But seems highly unlikely 🥲.
spielberg's latest was shown at sundance. can find reviews on youtube. it is mediocre/bad.
Contact (1997) means so much to so many astronomers, radio astronomers, xenobiologists and seti researchers. He deserves some recognition for that.
His earlier movies were so good like Romancing The Stone, Back To The Future, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Forrest Gump, and Cast Away
The last great movie he made was The Walk
I did love The Walk
Fred quimby produced pet reeve 1954 with daws butler June foray directed by William hanna Joseph Barbara music by Scott Bradley animation department by Ivan spence Kenneth muse poose cat 1954 with Stan freberg William hanna directed by William hanna and Joseph Barbara music by Scott Bradley sound department by Jim faris two mouseketeers 1952 with William hanna francoise brun cottan music by Scott Bradley hiccup pup 1952 with daws butler William hanna directed by William hanna and Joseph Barbara music by Scott Bradley
@@joseaguilera6355 *allied
The walk is too damn underrated
“Who Framed Roger Rabbit” still blows my mind 🤯
The fact that he made Back to the Future absolves him of any bad films he’s ever made. That movie is just as popular today as it was 37 years ago.
I agree 💯,first movie I saw as a kid and is still my favorite movie of all time.everyone loves b2tf.
First non cartoon movie I saw at age 5. Still my favorite.
Death Becomes Her for me. That movie gives him a pass for the last decade.
Back To The Future, Forrest Gump, and Cast Away, classic movies he made
@@Mr.Nyongo we rented that 30 years ago. Then I got a fever and was not able to watch it then the tape had to be returned. The only I thing remember was the 360 head turn and limbs going out of places. I'm in my early 40s now and I still haven't seen it.
It’s kinda heartbreaking seeing Robert Zemeckis lose his edge, with his latest blunder being the 2022 Pinocchio film on Disney+. He was known for so many classics, but he’s now known for creating more blunders than wonders. Again, it’s depressing and heartbreaking at the same time.
He's on my list of top 10 directors of all time
Robert defined my childhood in the 80s and 90s
I'm a 2000s kid and same.
Yeah mine to
Beowulf is an amazing movie and I won't hear anyone say otherwise. It was limited by the technology of the time, but it was integral in pushing that technology forward. It was a great modernization of an 1000 year old story that people thought could never be modernized. And it was Neil Gaiman's first big entry to big budget film making. All the while having amazing over the top performances by all its stars. It doesn't get anywhere near as much respect as it deserves.
I agree 100%! I simple don’t understand the hate this flick gets…
@@thelasseigne1 because it was a disgustingly pointless futile attempt at using CG tech that cinema didn't need. Any film maker who pulls the post-2000s Jim Cameron move of dick riding digital everything is basically being a fucking moron and responsible for the abhorrent cinematic landscape we've been subjected to the last 22 years.
It is a great movie. That first Grendel scene was frightening
Well, it had a big budget, but at the same time it's not a cliched, streamlined Hollywood soap opera, by having a more strange, more disturbing, more unconventional story and story building, so there was no way it wouldn't get shat on. If it's big budget, then only cliched, by-the-book, conventional movie making is real movie making, anything else is doomed to be received as stupid or pretentious.
"Back to the Future" is one of the few "solid trilogies", as I like to call them. That is, a trilogy in which you can debate which of the three is best, but even the weakest of them (whichever of them you think it may be) is just an amazing film all the same. Only because of that (and "Who Framed Roger Rabbit"), Zemeckis deserves to have an eternal spot in movie history.
By the way, if you are curious, other franchises that I would call "solid trilogies" would be the original "Star Wars", "Lord of the Rings" and "How to Train Your Dragon". "Indiana Jones" and "Toy Story" used to be there too... but unfortunately they ain't trilogies anymore (and no, I'm not playing the "Kingdom of the Crystal Skull doesn't exist" game). I'd also include the "Captain America" trilogy, except for the fact that being part of the MCU also disqualifies it, given Cap receives character development outside of the trilogy as well.
The back to the future ride at universal studios in Orlando was one of my favorite rides of all time. I was really bummed when they decided to scrap it. It was like the Spider-Man ride at islands of adventure to me. Which they scrapped too!
Ditto…it was fantastic…did you check-out Captain EO at Disney?
@@thehonesttruth8808 no. We have a timeshare in Orlando. So we visit every year. I’ve been going to islands of adventures since it opened. What park is it at in Disney? The Magic kingdom?
When did they scrap Spider-Man?
I think a traditional, Golden Age set Superman movie would be a perfect comeback movie for Zemeckis.
Back to the Future trilogy, Roger Rabbit, Forrest Gump, Contact, Cast Away, The Polar Express, Romancing the Stone and Flight are his masterpieces. Yes he’s made garbage films, but The Walk, Used Cars and Allied and Death Becomes Her are still solid films.
"Flight" was probably the last good movie he made that I liked and Denzel performance was powerful. Underrated movie
The Back to the Future Trilogy and Who Framed Roger Rabbit were childhood favourites of mine when I was in Primary school and Forrest Gump a High School favourite. Post 2000 my favourite of his is Flight thanks to Denzel Washington's powerhouse performance.
I'll always love and appreciate Zemeckis for the great works of art he gave us. And still heartbroken over not getting Yellow Submarine 2 as the original was a childhood favorite of mine. Sooner or later I need to see its sequel by someone.
Any director would give anything to have some of those movies on their resume
Zemeckis was an innovative director, making classics like Back to the Future, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, and Forrest Gump. But now, his recent films lack the certain charm and creativity those older films had.
Just sad
Allied was alright. It had a few good things about it, but nowhere on par with his previous movies
Fred quimby produced salt water tabby 1947 directed by William hanna Joseph Barbara music by Scott Bradley part time pal 1947 directed by William hanna Joseph Barbara music by Scott Bradley
The two films I hate are The Witches and Pinocchio
He did some of the best hollywood movies of all time then his career in 2000s started to slow down in quality
I watched an interview with Tom Hanks just days ago. In it, the interviewer made the same mistake you did stating that there was six months between the shooting of fat Tom Hanks and thin Tom Hanks in Castaway. Tom Hanks corrected the interviewer by telling him it was one year between the two shootings, and the only reason the studio allowed this was because Zemeckis volunteered to make a movie in the interim, as you mentioned. Also, Hanks told the interviewer, that while he was quite thin for that second shooting, CGI was used to make him look even more skinny.
And that he was injured and had to get off the diet for awhile
can you do wtf happened to robert rodriguez next?
Death becomes her is a CLASSIC. At least in my circle of friends. We all love how funny it is.
I love these videos. Keep pumpin out the hood work man.
I meant good not hood
They are amazing
Fred quimby produced by the night before Christmas 1941 directed by hanna and Barbara
thanks for watching! I appreciate the kind words!
The Music Box Theatre in Chicago is about to have a film festival devoted to the films of Robert Zemeckis. This is really making me look forward to seeing his films again, some I haven't seen in years and a few I'll be seeing for the first time. It will have 20 features plus a compilation of his short films. They could not get film prints of Disney's A Christmas Carol, The Witches, and Pinocchio (2022). Apparently, there are no prints available to theaters for the latter two, as they're strictly streaming.
Really??? Forrest Gump is not as good as Pulp Fiction or Shawshank Redemption???? WHAAAAAT, joblo sometimes is just wrong
I love Beowulf. You got to get the unrated version.
Honestly I love his movies, the old ones and also the new ones like a christmas carol, the polar express, great director 👍🏆👍🏆👑🥇👑🥇👏😊🎖🎖😁🏅👍🏆👑👑🥇
It's funny that nobody talks about "Beowulf," because it was a bigger box office success when Disney re-made it as "Maleficent." Both films are subversions of an older mythological story. Both feature an elderly king who promises the hand of his daughter and the crown to the man who can slay a supernatural Angelina Jolie. A guy fails to slay her, but claims he succeeded, becoming king. However, years later she returns to seek revenge with the help of a man who turns into a dragon.
For the good that Ro wet has given us I can forgive all of the bad. He’s still doing things that I would never be able to do.
ONE of the last great film makers out of the 80's, he just needs to do ONE or TWO more to end out his career if he chose to.
One of my favorite movies of all time is Contact.
In his Forrest Gump DVD commentary, Zemeckis said he became depressed after finishing the film. I think he burned himself out with the effort.
Back to the Future was one of my favorite movies of all time and I’m glad to watch The Polar Express, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Cast Away, A Christmas Carol, Forrest Gump, and he is a very talented man ❤❤❤
Somewhere along the line, Zemeckis became completely uncomfortable working with groups of actors. It's very weird how many projects he has directed lately that involve a single human actor, or, at least, one at a time. This includes his weird CGI films such as Tom Hanks doing nearly every character in Polar Express, to Jim Carrey doing every character in A CHRISTMAS CAROL, to whatever that Steve Carell movie was about the photographer's imaginary world. Now he has stooped to directing a Disney live-action CGI remake of Pinocchio, with Tom Hanks, and a couple of other humans, in a washed out CGI world of mostly dullness.
I miss the days when Robert Zemeckis used to make great films like the Back to the Future trilogy, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Forest Gump, Contact, Cast Away, Polar Express, Beowolf and The Walk. Instead of crap like The Witches 2020 and Pinocchio 2022.
I love Zemeckis's movies but I do think he's become over reliant on CGI and, a lot of the time, it goes into uncanny valley territory! The one thing no one can say anything about is Polar Express's score, it's amazing!
You make it sound like getting an Oscar performance from Denzel Washington is some sort of challenge
Death becomes her was and is one of my favorite movies 😩💖💖💖💖 it’s a classic in my opinion
one thing to add. The walk suffered from feeling un neccessary, as the documentary made the year before was a big hit, and extremely well made.
I have most of his movies in my collection. Probably with John Hughes my favorite director
Polar Express was the beginning of the end of his impressive run. I think many veteran filmmakers lose their creative edge as they grow older because young filmmakers are naturally the innovators *and* their interests change. Zemeckis already did the blockbuster thing in his heyday. He can retire tomorrow with his Oscar and oversized savings account, and never look back.
Polar Express has aged so well, it’s a masterpiece
Contact and the first two BTTF films are his masterpieces.
No love for 3??it isn't perfect but is still pretty damn good and a thousand times better than 99percent of the sequels we see today.
I usually agree with what the team at JoBlo critiques in a movie, but I don't agree with them just basically skimming over Contact. My, astronomy minor, wife's favorite movie? Contact. Several of her friends who went to get majors, and Phd's favorite movie growing up? Contact. Many of his movies had deep lasting impact in pop culture, and his way of making movies is now common place, but for an all out impact on the world, Contact. They just can't gloss over that.
Your back narrating these videos
I still can't handle that cartoon shoe going into the dip scene from Who Framed Roger Rabbit...poor lil' shoe.
I can honestly say that I've seen all 3 b2tf's 300 +times a piece,so in total it would be over a 1000 times in my 40 year old life.god I love those movies and that's what got me interested in time travel so much and sci Fi as a whole.i still think time travel is possible but I believe we can only transfer are consciousness
Threw time.
Man do I miss his early work
He has so many great movies, an amazing career! Love most of them 👍
Beowulf is so criminally underrated
I don't care what anyone says, I love Beowulf and think it's a fantastic fantasy epic
Who’s here after seeing the trailer for his new movie, ‘HERE’, with Robin Wright & Tom Hanks..
Love the humor and funny inflections! Reminds me of the channel "ambiguous amphibian". Are there others?
nothing happened hes still a legend. my fav director of all time. super under rated...next question.
I watched What Lies Beneath again last night and it's still the best film Hitchcock never made. Always surprised by how little attention it got at the time. Also, y'know, Contact. WHAT a film.
What is the music playing in the background from 14.41 and on ?! It has been used in ages, and I just wanna know the title now!
That pick-up truck in RtS looks a lot like the one Marty wanted in BTTF
"Because it's time all the time,"
I just saw the Pinocchio remake, and...I'm wondering too. 😵💫
He needs to make another back to the future. It would be the ultimate legacy sequel ever.
"What's with the Life preserver??? DORK thinks he's gonna' drowned!!!" (Back to the Future) LOL! Love Bob's movies!!!! Romancing the Stone might be my favorite! Great memories with that film!!!
Robert Zemeckis movies have basically become tech demos. Like, Pinocchio LOOKS amazing.
like they said in Entourage, once a star--always a threat. Bob Z probably has about 10 more years directing...who knows what the future holds.
I love all three Back to the Future movies!!!!!
Contact is his most meaningful film and one of my favorite films of all time, but it helps that Carl Sagan was the author of the story.
Why didn't Zemeckis realize how creepy those motion capture "actors" looked on the screen? Wasn't there anyone who could simply tell him, "Hey, these guys look like wax dummies brought to life"? Was he surrounded by "yes people", like Lucas was when he wrote and directed the second "Star Wars" trilogy? He made some very entertaining movies, that stand the test of time. But his obsession with leading the industry into the future led to a dead end.
Robert Zemeckis is a master of comedic timing, as well as handling special effects. This was demonstrated with his first few movies, which were all comedies and all brilliant or at least funny: I Wanna Hold Your Hand, Romacing The Stone, Back To The Future, and Who Framed Roger Rabbit. It was when he became a "serious" director that his movies started going down the tubes. His best "serious" movies were Contact and Castaway, and Flight; while I consider his biggest hit, Forrest Gump, to be a hideous live-action cartoon disguised as a "serious" drama. "Contact" was entirely about two-dimensional characters who revolved one three-dimensional character, namely Jodie Foster's Ellie; and Castaway was largely about Tom Hanks (doing an excellent acting performance) doing what was still a comedy, though one without obvious laughs. The editing, action, and essentially his entire time on that island were done in the manner of slapstick comedy, though meant to be portrayed as a serious story. And then there were his CGI motion-capture movies, each of which were worse than the previous one. "A Christmas Carol" in particular highlights that he knows special effects and slapstick comedy, but understands nothing about actual drama or character development.
Damn you tried to bury Zemeckis but just reminded me how amazing he is.
I love Robert Zemeckis he’s a great Director and has done so many amazing films ! Here are my Top 5 movies from him
1. Back To The Future Trilogy
2. Forrest Gump
3. CastAway
4. The Polar Express
5. Romancing The Stone
I love Beowulf. Watched it to death as a kid with all my cousins
Excellent cast as well
Dude we watch polar Express every holiday season and my children absolutely love it.
Wish he'd do interviews
Some of his recent films are interesting. Beowulf is a masterpiece for me. The Walk is vey good. Marwen is good. Yes, there are some « accidents » (maybe too many I agree) but this guy takes risks. I’ll always respect Robert Zemeckis.
Are you kidding, Forrest Gump blows away all those other movies. It's universality far exceeds the others.
You should do Tim Burton, who also started out strong until he lost his way
i think, "Welcome to Marwen" is underrated, because it is so special and not a movie for everybody.
I like a lot of his work very much. The last one of his movies I watched was Allied, but I think you're right about Flight being his last good movie. I had high hopes for Welcome to Marwen, but I still haven't seen it. So many poor reviews. Thanks.
i always thought he'd be a perfect fit to make a ghostbusters movie or even star wars, along with steven spielberg and james cameron..but iirc all of them didn't want to touch them..
The Walk is one of my fav movies and Philippe Petit personally worked with Gordon Levitt through the filming so like it or not, the accent is okay to me, lel
He was going to remake Yellow Submarine and in 3D. I am glad he was not allowed to.
I think Zemeckis got so caught up in the technical side of filmmaking in his later years that he forgot that the backbone of any good film is the story. That's why I believe "Flight" was his last good film.
Zemeckis' directing career is literally a sign of the times.
The 80s was the best; so was back to the future, romancing the stone, and who framed Roger rabbit.
The 90s were good, as was Forrest Gump, castaway. The 2000s , meh, polar express, Christmas carol.
Is it any wonder Pinocchio, in the wokester/cancel culture era, is crap? Whatever ghouls currently running that rat company produce such literal garbage these days.
I believe That one scene of Pinocchio smelling the horse sh*t in the street, for what seemed an eternity, was zemeckis' subconscious way of telling his audience, "hey, it's a sh*ty world and I want this movie to reflect that right now"
He's one of my favorite directors. I never disliked his most recent movies, they were just mediocre
Same here. His last great film was the movie “Flight”
He's been making OK films
Fred quimby produced the framed cat 1950 with daws butler Lillian Randolph directed by William hanna and Joseph Barbara music by Scott Bradley sleepy time Tom 1951 with daws butler Paul frees directed by William hanna and Joseph Barbara music by Scott Bradley
This guy was highly connected, his Back to the future depictions of 9/11 and The Walk are absolutely mind bending. If you haven’t seen the insane connections please take a look for yourself.
I dont know. But Pinocchio is a pretty shameful display from the man who gave us Forrest Gump, Cast Away, the Back to The Future trilogy and Who Framed Roger Rabbit
Whaaaaat part 3 is like kinda my favorite as a kid
Great video as always. But also:whatever the fuck happened to Joss Whedon?
Dude, BEOWOLF is one of the best films Hollywood has ever made. The script is AMAZING. And the visuals broke new ground so now people can go nuts with "films" like THOR: LOVE & THUNDER or DR. STRANGE 2... mainstream movies that actually look FAKE more than a decade after BEOWOLF.
BTTF was never called Spaceman From Pluto - that was a title change recommendation from Sid Sheinberg which everyone was dead against.
17:13; sees a picture of Leslie Zemeckis.
he was brilliant in the day
The Back to the Future Trilogy, Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, Forrest Gump, What Lies Beneath and Cast Away.
Great video. He has made some amazing movies, thanks for doing this one❤
He was a director of many big hits. How can he be worth only a relatively puny $60M?
He made one perfect film, BttF, then one legit special effects masterpiece, WFRR, and then everything after that was CGI-driven s**t with a half life of a few months before being forgotten, sucking the air and money out of the room that otherwise would have gone to better filmmakers.
Allied was a quite good film. With two terrific performances.
And by the way, yes, Forrest Gump is better than Pulp Fiction imo.
I still don’t understand the argument that Pulp Fiction should have won over Forrest Gump.
Academy Award Winner Robert Z ! 😎👍✊👌👊🍁♈
I seem to be one of the few people that actually liked Beowolf.
Bob Gale wrote Back To The Future, not Zemeckis
Nobody needed Roger Rabbit 2 or “a new spin” on Yellow Submarine. The world was spared that mess.