Invasion of the Body Snatchers is a 1956 American science fiction horror film produced by Walter Wanger, directed by Don Siegel, that stars Kevin McCarthy and Dana Wynter. Last year, Ryan Gosling told GQ that Harrison Ford punched him in the face while filming Blade Runner 2049. According to Ford himself, yup, it happened, its. L. A. Times entertainment news from Hollywood including event coverage, celebrity gossip and deals. View photo galleries, read TV and movie reviews and more. Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Invasion of the Body Snatchers is a 1. American science fictionhorror film produced by Walter Wanger, directed by Don Siegel, that stars Kevin Mc. Carthy and Dana Wynter. The black and white film, shot in Superscope, was partially done in a film noir style. Daniel Mainwaring adapted the screenplay from Jack Finneys 1. The Body Snatchers. The film was released by Allied Artists Pictures on a double bill with the British science fiction film The Atomic Man. Film Noir Movies Teddy Scares ' title='Film Noir Movies Teddy Scares ' />The films storyline concerns an extraterrestrial invasion that begins in the fictional California town of Santa Mira. Alien plant spores have fallen from space and grown into large seed pods, each one capable of reproducing a duplicate replacement copy of each human. As each pod reaches full development, it assimilates the physical characteristics, memories, and personalities of each sleeping person placed near it these duplicates, however, are devoid of all human emotion. Little by little, a local doctor uncovers this quiet invasion and attempts to stop it. The slang expression pod people that arose in late 2. Hollywood has recently adapted a string of movies for television audiences, and here are a few major ones that you didnt know are happening. The Hollywood Reporter is your source for breaking news about Hollywood and entertainment, including movies, TV, reviews and industry blogs. A-Place-in-the-Sun.jpg' alt='Film Noir Movies Teddy Scares ' title='Film Noir Movies Teddy Scares ' />American culture references the emotionless duplicates seen in the film. Invasion of the Body Snatchers was selected in 1. United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress for being culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant. Psychiatrist Dr. Hill is called to the emergency room of a California hospital, where a screaming man is being held in custody. Dr. Hill agrees to listen to his story. The man identifies himself as a doctor, and he recounts, in flashback, the events leading up to his arrest and arrival at the hospital In the nearby town of Santa Mira, Dr. Miles Bennell sees a number of patients apparently suffering from Capgras delusion the belief that their relatives have somehow been replaced with identical looking impostors. Returning from a trip, Miles meets his former girlfriend, Becky Driscoll, who has herself recently come back to town after a divorce. Beckys cousin Wilma has the same fear about her Uncle Ira, with whom she lives. Psychiatrist Dr. Dan Kauffman assures Bennell that these cases are merely an epidemic of mass hysteria. That same evening, Bennells friend, Jack Belicec, finds a body with his exact physical features, though it appears not fully developed later, another body is found in Beckys basement that is her exact duplicate. When Bennell calls Kauffman to the scene, the bodies have mysteriously disappeared, and Kauffman informs Bennell that he is falling for the same hysteria. The following night, Bennell, Becky, Jack, and Jacks wife Teddy again find duplicates of themselves, emerging from giant seed pods in Dr. Bennells greenhouse. They conclude that the townspeople are being replaced while asleep with exact physical copies. Miles tries to make a long distance call to federal authorities for help, but the phone operator claims that all long distance lines are busy Jack and Teddy drive off to seek help in the next town. Bennell and Becky discover that by now all of the towns inhabitants have been replaced and are devoid of humanity they flee to Bennells office to hide for the night. The next morning they see truckloads of the giant pods heading to neighboring towns to be planted and used to replace their populations. Kauffman and Jack, both of whom are pod people by now, arrive at Bennells office and reveal that an extraterrestrial life form is responsible for the invasion. After their takeover, they explain, life loses its frustrating complexity, because all emotions and sense of individuality vanish. Bennell and Becky manage to escape, but are soon pursued by a crowd of pod people. Exhausted, they manage to hide in an abandoned mine outside town. Bennell leaves a little later, coming upon a large greenhouse farm, where he discovers giant seed pods being grown by the hundreds. When Bennell kisses Becky after his return, he realizes, to his horror, that Becky fell asleep and is now one of them. As Bennell runs away, she sounds the alarm. He runs and runs, eventually finding himself on a crowded state highway. After seeing a transport truck bound for San Francisco and Los Angeles filled with the pods, he frantically screams at the passing motorists, Theyre here already Youre next Youre nextDr. Hill and the on duty doctor dismiss Bennells account until a truck driver is wheeled into the emergency room after being badly injured in an accident. He was found in his wrecked truck buried under a load of giant seed pods. Finally believing Bennells story, Dr. Hill calls for all roads in and out of Santa Mira to be barricaded, and alerts the FBI. ProductioneditNovel and screenplayeditJack Finneys novel ends with the extraterrestrials finally leaving Earth after they find that humans are offering strong resistance, despite having little reasonable chance against the alien invasion the pod people have a life span of no more than five years, so five years after taking over the last human being, the invaders would then have to seek out a new world with new life forms as hosts, leaving behind a depopulated Earth. Budgeting and castingeditInvasion of the Body Snatchers was originally scheduled for a 2. US4. 54,8. 64. The studio later asked Wanger to cut the budget significantly. The producer proposed a shooting schedule of 2. Initially, Wanger considered Gig Young, Dick Powell, Joseph Cotten, and several others for the role of Miles. For Becky, he considered casting Anne Bancroft, Donna Reed, Kim Hunter, Vera Miles and others. With the lower budget, however, he abandoned these choices and cast Richard Kiley, who had just starred in The Phenix City Story for Allied Artists. Kiley turned the role down and Wanger cast two relative newcomers in the lead roles Kevin Mc. Carthy, who had just starred in Siegels An Annapolis Story, and Dana Wynter, who had done several major dramatic roles on television. Future director Sam Peckinpah had a small part as Charlie, a meter reader. Peckinpah was a dialogue coach on five Siegel films in the mid 1. Principal photographyeditOriginally, producer Wanger and Siegel wanted to film Invasion of the Body Snatchers on location in Mill Valley, California, the town just north of San Francisco, that Jack Finney described in his novel. In the first week of January 1. Siegel, Wanger and screenwriter Daniel Mainwaring visited Finney to talk about the film version and to look at Mill Valley. The location proved too expensive and Siegel with Allied Artist executives found locations resembling Mill Valley in the Los Angeles area, including Sierra Madre, Chatsworth, Glendale, Los Feliz, Bronson and Beachwood Canyons, all of which would make up the town of Santa Mira for the film. In addition to these outdoor locations, much of the film was shot in the Allied Artists studio on the east side of Hollywood. Invasion of the Body Snatchers was shot by cinematographer Ellsworth Fredericks in 2. March 2. 3 and April 1. The cast and crew worked a six day week with Sundays off. The production went over schedule by three days because of night for night shooting that Siegel wanted. Additional photography took place in September 1. Original intended ending. The final budget was 3. Post productioneditThe project was originally named The Body Snatchers after the Finney serial. However, Wanger wanted to avoid confusion with the 1. Val Lewton film The Body Snatcher. The producer was unable to come up with a title and accepted the studios choice, They Come from Another World and that was assigned in summer 1. Siegel objected to this title and suggested two alternatives, Better Off Dead and Sleep No More, while Wanger offered Evil in the Night and World in Danger. None of these were chosen, and the studio settled on Invasion of the Body Snatchers in late 1. The 8. 0 best 8. Feature Movies. The big one, the capo di capi, the giant kahuna. Months celebration of 8. Will Empires pick of the greatest film of the decade be Die Hard, Raiders or Blade Runner, or has Caddyshack, well, tunnelled its way to the topFind out below. Click here for 8. First Blood 1. 98. Rambo was forced into the role of one man army superhero for the daft sequels, so its refreshing to revisit First Blood and find a thrilling pulp drama about a PTS sufferer driven over the edge by bullying small town petty mindedness. Sylvester Stallone is a decent actor when given the opportunity, and John Rambo in this film, crucially, is almost believable the crunchy action kept under tight control by director Ted Kotcheff. Its a decent adaptation of David Morrells page turning novel too, although Brian Dennehys Sheriff Teasle gets shorter shrift, and the devastating ending is changed so that Rambo lives. Cinema Paradiso 1. A film that still makes you wish your local multiplex was a bit less, well, multi, the single screened Sicilian cinema in Giuseppe Tornatores Oscar winner glows with the transporting power of the movies. Looking back, it helped catapult its US distributors Miramax typically, Harvey Weinstein was one of the first to spot its marketability to a period of 9. Shakespeare In Love et al, and shifted Italian cinema away from its roots. Never mind all that, though, and immerse yourself into a swooning, sun kissed love letter to movies, friendship and to romance itself. The Man With Two Brains 1. Dr Hfuhruhurr Steve Martin pioneers a new procedure allowing him to transplant human brain into new bodies. Its an out there premise, even coming from the man behind The Jerk, and occasionally feels a bit uneven but it still yields plenty of laughs in what is Martins early 8. Theres also a fair few jabs at male sexual vanity buried within as Hfuhruhurr agonises over whether or not hes lost his moral compass in his pursuit of the perfect woman. Given that he attempts to poison Randi Brooks with window cleaner and throws Kathleen Turner into a bog, were saying he probably has. Into the mud, scum queen3. Akira 1. 98. 8Sometimes, when things arent going our way in the Empire office, we like to fall to our knees in despair and wail to the heavens TETSUOOOO Though, admittedly, the Empire office does not often feature a member of a dystopian Neo Tokyo motorcycle gang mutate into a giant mass of ever expanding limbs through uncontrollable psychic powers. Akira is yet another vision of the future through a distinctly 1. Read Empires account of the making of Akira here. Hd Quality 50 Cent: Refuse 2 Die Watch. Local Hero 1. 98. Big shot Yank goes to Scottish seaside town and magic ensues. Not just the plot but, thanks to Burt Lancasters presence, the reality of Bill Forsyths cosy, Mark Knopfler scored classic. That synopsis barely scraps the surface of Local Heros timeless charm. Its got a lovely, anti Thatcherite moral too, about how money cant buy everything not even if youre an oil tycoon with a powerful telescope who looks a lot like Burt Lancaster. Its fair to say its British producer, David Puttnam, the man also behind Chariots Of Fire and The Killing Fields, had a pretty decent decade. The Killer 1. 98. Adding 3. 7 percent more slow mo to the decade, John Woo exploded out of Hong Kong action cinema and into the international spotlight with a run of badass crime flicks in which Chow Yun Fat wasted ruthless gangsters in big jackets and there would often be doves. Following A Better Tomorrow, Woos pioneering use of gun fu, a lucky charm in Yun Fat and those doves all came together in blazing church set crescendo to this attention grabbing maelstrom of Triad carnage. Nestled amid the awesome pyrotechnics are ageless themes of honour and redemption worthy of Woos main influences, Martin Scorsese and Jean Pierre Melville. Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade 1. Here is the factually correct opinion on which Indiana Jones films are best, in descending order of greatness Raiders, Last Crusade, Temple Of Doom, The Film Which Must Not Be Named. 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Craven doesnt quite nail nightmare logic in the way David Lynch does, but the first Elm Street still manages some extraordinary imagery the rubber wall loom over the bed the marshmallow stairs Amanda Wyss smeared across a ceiling. Not yet encumbered by the baggage to come, Freddys at his most powerful here. Top Secret 1. 98. The second film from the Zucker Abrahams Zucker team was a box office disappointment upon release, and is not remembered as fondly as Airplane The Naked Gun perhaps owing to its odd genre mashups Elvis Presley, war movies, espionage thrillers. A shame, as Top Secret How Silly Can You Get sings Val Kilmer in a German prison during one scene. Answer extremely. The Naked Gun From The Files Of Police Squad The Naked Gun represents ZAZ thats Jerry Zucker, Jim Abrahams and David Zucker near the height of their comic powers alongside co writer Pat Proft. 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If you wondered where they got the idea from for those Stella Artois ads, its somewhere in the DNA of this Provenal fable about a sneaky pair of peasants the great Yves Montand and Daniel Auteuil trying to diddle their way to acres of farmland. Theres a hidden spring, some rabbit farming and a wood nymph. Trust us, its magnifique. Amadeus 1. 98. 4As anyone familiar with Falcos 8.