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I'll Do Anything

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I'll Do Anything
Illdoanythingposter.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed byJames L. Brooks
Written byJames L. Brooks
Produced byJames L. Brooks
Polly Platt
StarringNick Nolte
Albert Brooks
Julie Kavner
Joely Richardson
Tracey Ullman
Whittni Wright
CinematographyMichael Ballhaus
Edited byRichard Marks
Music byHans Zimmer
Production
company
Distributed byColumbia Pictures
Release date
  • February 4, 1994 (1994-02-04)
Running time
115 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$40 million
Box office$10 million

I'll Do Anything is a 1994 American comedy-drama film written and directed by James L. Brooks. While a large part of the film is a satire of the film industry, it also skewers relationships from various angles. Its primary plot concerns a down-on-his-luck actor who suddenly finds himself the sole caretaker of his six-year-old daughter.

Plot

In 1980, on the night he fails to win an Emmy Award, Matt Hobbs proposes to his longtime girlfriend Beth. He says the only thing holding him back is his dedication to his career, one which may not always work out, and Beth says that's one of the things she loves most about him. Seven years later, with a baby crying and no job for Matt, Beth is overflowing with resentment. By 1993, the pair have been divorced for several years and are living on opposite coasts. Matt auditions for a role in pompous, self-absorbed, and clueless film producer Burke Adler's new project but fails to get the part. He does however agree to chauffeur Adler occasionally. Matt flies to Georgia to pick up his daughter Jeannie for what he believes is a brief visit and discovers Beth is facing a prison term and Jeannie will be living with him for the duration of her sentence. The two return to Hollywood and struggle with their new circumstances and building a relationship (Matt hasn't seen the six-year-old since she was four). When Matt goes in to make a screen test for a lead in a film, he leaves Jeannie with a friend at the studio, and when he picks her up he's stunned to learn she's been cast in a sitcom. There are multiple sub-plots, including one focusing on Matt's relationship with staff script-reader Cathy Breslow and another concerning test screening analyst Nan Mulhanney and her tumultuous relationship with Adler.

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Cast

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Albert Brooks

Albert Brooks

Albert Brooks is an American actor, comedian, and filmmaker. He received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor for 1987's Broadcast News and was widely praised for his performance as a ruthless Jewish mobster in the 2011 action drama film Drive. Brooks has also acted in Taxi Driver (1976), Private Benjamin (1980), Unfaithfully Yours (1984), and My First Mister (2001). He has written, directed, and starred in several comedy films, such as Modern Romance (1981), Lost in America (1985), and Defending Your Life (1991). He is also the author of 2030: The Real Story of What Happens to America (2011).

Julie Kavner

Julie Kavner

Julie Deborah Kavner is an American actress. Best known for her voice role as Marge Simpson on the animated television series The Simpsons, Kavner first attracted notice for her role as Brenda Morgenstern, the younger sister of Valerie Harper's title character in the sitcom Rhoda, for which she won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series. She also voices other characters for The Simpsons, including Marge's mother, Jacqueline Bouvier, and sisters Patty and Selma Bouvier.

Joely Richardson

Joely Richardson

Joely Kim Richardson is an English actress. She is known for her roles as Julia McNamara in the FX drama series Nip/Tuck (2003–10) and Katherine Parr in the Showtime series The Tudors (2010). She has also appeared in films such as 101 Dalmatians (1996), Event Horizon (1997), The Patriot (2000), Return to Me (2000), Anonymous (2011), the Hollywood film adaptation of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011), the remake of Endless Love (2014), the thriller Red Sparrow (2018), and The Turning (2020).

Chelsea Field

Chelsea Field

Chelsea Field is an American actress.

Joely Fisher

Joely Fisher

Joely Fisher is an American actress and singer, the daughter of singer Eddie Fisher and actress Connie Stevens, and half-sister of actress Carrie Fisher. Her breakthrough came in 1994, starring as Paige Clark in the ABC sitcom Ellen, for which she received a Golden Globe Award nomination. Fisher later starred in the 1999 comedy film Inspector Gadget and had leading roles in the Lifetime comedy-drama Wild Card (2003–2005), and Fox sitcom 'Til Death (2006–2010).

Anne Heche

Anne Heche

Anne Celeste Heche was an American actress, known for her roles in a variety of genres in film, television, and theater. She received numerous accolades, including a National Board of Review Award and multiple Emmy Awards.

Ian McKellen

Ian McKellen

Sir Ian Murray McKellen is an English actor. With a career spanning over six decades, he is noted for his performances on the screen and stage in genres ranging from Shakespearean dramas and modern theatre to popular fantasy and science fiction. Regarded as a British cultural icon, he has received various accolades, including a Tony Award, a Golden Globe Award and six Laurence Olivier Awards, in addition to nominations for two Academy Awards, five BAFTA Awards and five Primetime Emmy Awards.

Angela Alvarado

Angela Alvarado

Angela Alvarado is an American actress and director. She was the wife of singer Draco Rosa.

Maria Pitillo

Maria Pitillo

Maria Pitillo is an American retired actress. She has starred in films and on television, most notably as Audrey Timmonds in Godzilla (1998). She also had a recurring role on the TV series Providence.

Jake Busey

Jake Busey

William Jacob Busey is an American actor. Among his most prominent roles have been serial killer Johnny Bartlett in 1996's The Frighteners, Ace Levy in 1997's Starship Troopers, Kyle Brenner in 2001's Tomcats, Aiden Tanner in the 2014–2016 TV series From Dusk till Dawn: The Series, and Sean H. Keyes in the Predator franchise.

Harry Shearer

Harry Shearer

Harry Julius Shearer is an American actor, comedian, writer, musician, radio host, director and producer. Born in Los Angeles, California, Shearer began his career as a child actor. From 1969 to 1976, Shearer was a member of The Credibility Gap, a radio comedy group. Following the breakup of the group, Shearer co-wrote the film Real Life (1979) with Albert Brooks and worked as a writer on Martin Mull's television series Fernwood 2 Night.

Ken Page

Ken Page

Ken Page is an American actor and singer. Page created the role of "Ken" in the original Broadway production of Ain't Misbehavin', and played the role of "Old Deuteronomy" in both the original Broadway and filmed stage productions of Cats. Page is also known as the voice for Oogie Boogie in The Nightmare Before Christmas franchise.

Production

Originally I'll Do Anything was conceived and filmed by James L. Brooks as an old-fashioned movie musical and parody of "Hollywood lifestyles and movie clichés", costing $40 million.[1] It featured songs by Carole King, Prince, and Sinéad O'Connor, among others, with choreography by Twyla Tharp.[1] When preview audience reactions to the music were overwhelmingly negative, all production numbers from the film were cut and Brooks wrote several new scenes, filming them over three days and spent seven weeks editing the film. Brooks noted: "Something like this not only tries one's soul - it threatens one's soul."[1] He later said of the film,

I conceived the story as a musical because musicals have a heightened sense of reality. Through song you can get closer to the truth. But even before I had any music I believed I had a complete script. I wrote it like any script. As far as the music was concerned, I only knew where I wanted the songs to go. [...] The point is that with or without musical numbers, the story worked.[1]

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James L. Brooks

James L. Brooks

James Lawrence Brooks is an American director, producer, screenwriter and co-founder of Gracie Films. His television and film work includes The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Taxi, The Simpsons, Broadcast News, As Good as It Gets, and Terms of Endearment.

Musical film

Musical film

Musical film is a film genre in which songs by the characters are interwoven into the narrative, sometimes accompanied by dancing. The songs usually advance the plot or develop the film's characters, but in some cases, they serve merely as breaks in the storyline, often as elaborate "production numbers".

Carole King

Carole King

Carole King Klein is an American singer, songwriter, and musician who has been active since 1958, initially as one of the staff songwriters at the Brill Building and later as a solo artist. Widely regarded as a highly significant and influential musician, King is the most successful female songwriter of the latter half of the 20th century in the US, having written or co-written 118 pop hits on the Billboard Hot 100. King also wrote 61 hits that charted in the UK, making her the most successful female songwriter on the UK singles charts between 1962 and 2005.

Prince (musician)

Prince (musician)

Prince Rogers Nelson, commonly known mononymously as Prince, was an American singer-songwriter, musician, and record producer. The recipient of numerous awards and nominations, he is widely regarded as one of the greatest musicians of all-time. He was known for his flamboyant, androgynous persona; his wide vocal range, which included a far-reaching falsetto and high-pitched screams; and his skill as a multi-instrumentalist, often preferring to play all or most of the instruments on his recordings. Prince produced his albums himself, pioneering the Minneapolis sound. His music incorporated a wide variety of styles, including funk, R&B, rock, new wave, soul, synth-pop, pop, jazz, and hip hop.

Sinéad O'Connor

Sinéad O'Connor

Shuhada' Sadaqat is an Irish singer-songwriter. Her debut album, The Lion and the Cobra, was released in 1987 and charted internationally. Her second album, I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got received glowing reviews upon release and became her biggest success, selling over seven million copies worldwide. Its lead single, "Nothing Compares 2 U", was named the number one world single in 1990 by the Billboard Music Awards.

Choreography

Choreography

Choreography is the art or practice of designing sequences of movements of physical bodies in which motion or form or both are specified. Choreography may also refer to the design itself. A choreographer is one who creates choreographies by practising the art of choreography, a process known as choreographing. It most commonly refers to dance choreography.

Twyla Tharp

Twyla Tharp

Twyla Tharp is an American dancer, choreographer, and author who lives and works in New York City. In 1966 she formed the company Twyla Tharp Dance. Her work often uses classical music, jazz, and contemporary pop music.

Reception

I'll Do Anything received mixed to positive reviews from critics. It currently holds a rating of 61% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 18 reviews.

In his three-star review in the Chicago Sun-Times, Roger Ebert called it "one of those offcenter comedies that gets its best moments simply by looking at people and seeing how funny, how pathetic, how wonderful they sometimes can be . . . it's a bright, edgy, funny story about people who have all the talent they need, but not all the luck . . . It is helpful, I think, to simply forget about the missing songs, and recognize that I'll Do Anything is a complete movie without them - smart, original, subversive."[2] Janet Maslin of The New York Times described it as "droll" and "improbably buoyant."[3]

Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade "B−" on scale of A to F.[4]

Box office

The film was a box office failure. Produced on a budget of $40 million, I'll Do Anything grossed only a little over $10.4 million, making it one of the worst performing films of the year when compared to its cost.[5]

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Rotten Tomatoes

Rotten Tomatoes

Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang. Although the name "Rotten Tomatoes" connects to the practice of audiences throwing rotten tomatoes in disapproval of a poor stage performance, the original inspiration comes from a scene featuring tomatoes in the Canadian film Léolo (1992).

Chicago Sun-Times

Chicago Sun-Times

The Chicago Sun-Times is a daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has the second largest circulation among Chicago newspapers, after the Chicago Tribune. The modern paper grew out of the 1948 merger of the Chicago Sun and the Chicago Daily Times. Journalists at the paper have received eight Pulitzer prizes, mostly in the 1970s; one recipient was film critic Roger Ebert (1975), who worked at the paper from 1967 until his death in 2013. Long owned by the Marshall Field family, since the 1980s ownership of the paper has changed hands numerous times, including twice in the late 2010s.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert

Roger Joseph Ebert was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert became the first film critic to win the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism. Neil Steinberg of the Chicago Sun-Times said Ebert "was without question the nation's most prominent and influential film critic," and Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times called him "the best-known film critic in America."

Janet Maslin

Janet Maslin

Janet R. Maslin is an American journalist, best known as a film and literary critic for The New York Times. She served as a Times film critic from 1977 to 1999 and as a book critic from 2000 to 2015. In 2000, Maslin helped found the Jacob Burns Film Center in Pleasantville, New York. She is president of its board of directors.

The New York Times

The New York Times

The New York Times, also referred to as the Gray Lady, is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2022 to comprise 740,000 paid print subscribers, and 8.6 million paid digital subscribers. It also is a producer of popular podcasts such as The Daily. Founded in 1851, it is published by The New York Times Company. The Times has won 132 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any newspaper, and has long been regarded as a national "newspaper of record". For print, it is ranked 18th in the world by circulation and 3rd in the United States. The newspaper is headquartered at The New York Times Building in Times Square, Manhattan.

CinemaScore

CinemaScore

CinemaScore is a market research firm based in Las Vegas. It surveys film audiences to rate their viewing experiences with letter grades, reports the results, and forecasts box office receipts based on the data.

Year-end lists

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Music

One of the original songs meant to be performed in the film is heard during the closing credits and is included on the soundtrack album released by Varèse Sarabande, along with four instrumental tracks by the film's composer, Hans Zimmer.[9] While other versions of songs penned by Prince resurfaced on some of his later projects, Girl 6 and The Vault: Old Friends 4 Sale, none of the actual performances from the movie were ever officially released.

Although James L. Brooks has mentioned he would like to release a director's cut restoring the musical numbers and including a making-of documentary, that project has yet to come to fruition. The film's commercially released version is available on DVD.

In a 2013 interview, Zimmer said that a release of the musical version is unlikely: "The deal structure on those songs was so complicated and so expensive, and it would cost so much money in rights to put it out.” [10]

In an interview on Off Camera with Sam Jones, Jackson Browne stated that his song "I'll Do Anything", released on the 1993 album I'm Alive was originally written to be the title song for the movie. It was to be a comedic song sung by Albert Brooks where he is begging a test audience to favorably review his latest film.

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Soundtrack album

Soundtrack album

A soundtrack album is any album that incorporates music directly recorded from the soundtrack of a particular feature film or television show. The first such album to be commercially released was Walt Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the soundtrack to the film of the same name, in 1938. The first soundtrack album of a film's orchestral score was that for Alexander Korda's 1942 film Rudyard Kipling's Jungle Book, composed by Miklós Rózsa.

Varèse Sarabande

Varèse Sarabande

Varèse Sarabande is an American record label, owned by Concord Music Group and distributed by Universal Music Group, which specializes in film scores and original cast recordings. It aims to reissue rare or unavailable albums, as well as newer releases by artists no longer under a contract. The label's name was derived from combining French-born composer Edgard Varèse's last name with the musical term sarabande, a slow Spanish dance.

Hans Zimmer

Hans Zimmer

Hans Florian Zimmer is a German film score composer and music producer. He has won two Oscars and four Grammys, and has been nominated for two Emmys and a Tony. Zimmer was also named on the list of Top 100 Living Geniuses, published by The Daily Telegraph.

Prince (musician)

Prince (musician)

Prince Rogers Nelson, commonly known mononymously as Prince, was an American singer-songwriter, musician, and record producer. The recipient of numerous awards and nominations, he is widely regarded as one of the greatest musicians of all-time. He was known for his flamboyant, androgynous persona; his wide vocal range, which included a far-reaching falsetto and high-pitched screams; and his skill as a multi-instrumentalist, often preferring to play all or most of the instruments on his recordings. Prince produced his albums himself, pioneering the Minneapolis sound. His music incorporated a wide variety of styles, including funk, R&B, rock, new wave, soul, synth-pop, pop, jazz, and hip hop.

Girl 6 (album)

Girl 6 (album)

Girl 6 is the soundtrack album to the Spike Lee film of the same name. All songs were written by Prince. It was released on March 19, 1996, by Warner Bros. Records. The album consists of mostly previously released songs from Prince and related artists such as the Family, Vanity 6, and the New Power Generation. The three previously unreleased tracks are "She Spoke 2 Me", "Don't Talk 2 Strangers" and "Girl 6", which was newly recorded for the soundtrack.

The Vault: Old Friends 4 Sale

The Vault: Old Friends 4 Sale

The Vault: Old Friends 4 Sale is the twenty-second studio album by American recording artist Prince. It was released on August 24, 1999 by Warner Bros. Records. The album was submitted to Warner Bros. Records in 1996, complete with artwork at the same time as Chaos and Disorder, but released three years later, shortly before Prince's Arista album release Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic. The album was recorded from 1985 through 1996. It was the last album to be released by Warner Bros. to fulfill his 1992 contract obligations.

Director's cut

Director's cut

A director's cut is an edited version of a film that is supposed to represent the director's own approved edit in contrast to the theatrical release. "Cut" explicitly refers to the process of film and game editing; in preparing a film for release, the director's cut is preceded by the assembly and rough editor's cut and usually followed by the final cut meant for the public film release and video game release.

Documentary film

Documentary film

A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in terms of "a filmmaking practice, a cinematic tradition, and mode of audience reception [that remains] a practice without clear boundaries".

DVD

DVD

The DVD is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind of digital data and has been widely used for video programs or formerly for storing software and other computer files as well. DVDs offer significantly higher storage capacity than compact discs (CD) while having the same dimensions. A standard DVD can store up to 4.7 GB of storage, while variants can store up to a maximum of 17.08 GB.

I'm Alive (Jackson Browne album)

I'm Alive (Jackson Browne album)

I'm Alive is the tenth studio album by American singer-songwriter Jackson Browne, released in 1993. The title track, "I'm Alive", reached No. 18 on the Album Rock Tracks chart and No. 28 on the Adult Contemporary chart. Other singles released from the album were "Everywhere I Go" and "Sky Blue and Black".

Source: "I'll Do Anything", Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, (2023, January 9th), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I'll_Do_Anything.

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References
  1. ^ a b c d Robert W. Butler (1994-02-03). "Anything to save the movie James L. Brooks dumped the music, rewrote the scenes and did more filming for 'I'll Do Anything'". The Kansas City Star. p. E1.
  2. ^ Ebert, Roger. "I'll Do Anything movie review (1994) | Roger Ebert". www.rogerebert.com/. Retrieved 2021-11-07.
  3. ^ Janet Maslin review in The New York Times, February 4, 1994
  4. ^ "Cinemascore". Archived from the original on 2018-12-20.
  5. ^ "World's Champs & Chumps". Variety. February 13, 1995. p. 7.
  6. ^ Maslin, Janet (December 27, 1994). "CRITIC'S NOTEBOOK; The Good, Bad and In-Between In a Year of Surprises on Film". The New York Times. Retrieved July 19, 2020.
  7. ^ Simon, Jeff (January 1, 1995). "Movies: Once More, with Feeling". The Buffalo News. Retrieved July 19, 2020.
  8. ^ Lovell, Glenn (December 25, 1994). "The Past Picture Show the Good, the Bad and the Ugly -- a Year Worth's of Movie Memories". San Jose Mercury News (Morning Final ed.). p. 3.
  9. ^ I'll Do Anything soundtrack at SoundtrackCollector.com
  10. ^ Kyle Buchanan (November 5, 2013). "Hans Zimmer Tells Juicy Stories About the Classic Films He's Scored". Vulture.com. Retrieved June 22, 2015.
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