Ghost Film Biography

The girl notices that her boyfriend is grunting something. When she asks him what was the matter, he explains that he is so happy that he is afraid, no matter how his happiness is left. I love you very much, ”the heroine tells him with tears of happiness in her eyes. The main commercial hit of the year in the United States was “one home”, the third and fourth place were occupied by “dancing with wolves” and “beauty”, the five “ninja turtles” closed ...

And in second place was the best Hollywood picture of ghosts-the mystical tragicomedy “Ghost”. When you see Hollywood cinema about the other world, you automatically assume that his screenwriter adheres to Judeo-Christian mystical views: “God, Hell, Paradise, Angels, Demons, Ten Commandments ...” Especially if the author has a European name. But in modern America, the surname has not been talking about anything for a long time, and the Hollywood screenwriter may well turn out to be not only a Christian, Jew or an atheist, but, for example, a Buddhist.

Such as the author of "Ghost" Bruce Joel Rubin. For Rubin, who came to religion after long and tense spiritual searches, faith in the teachings of the Buddha is not a rebellion against the Jewish faith of the ancestors, but a deeply felt belief. In his youth, he traveled to Southeast Asia and lived in a Nepal monastery, where he studied Tibetan Buddhism, and after returning to the United States, Rubin began to teach meditation.

And although the name of one of the most famous films “Jacob's Staircase” is a quote from the Bible, the screenwriter, when composing the tape, was inspired not so much by Scripture as the Tibetan “Book of the Dead”, classical Buddhist text, describing the stages of dying and reincarnation. Why is the “ghost” usually mistaken for a film saturated with Western mysticism? Because, if you do not go into details, the Buddhist and Christian description of the afterlife can be confused.

So, both Christians and Buddhists believe in hell - with the difference that stay in the Buddhist hell is not forever. The souls of the dead are reborn with a particularly bad karma, and they stay there until they are excited of their karma and deserve rebirth in a more pleasant world. Buddhists believe in paradise - as in the place of rebirth for worthy people, who, however, did not reach enlightenment and did not join the Buddha in Nirvana.

Also, both Christians and Buddhists believe in spirits “stuck” after death on earth. Therefore, a convinced Buddhist may well, without applying for his faith, write a story about the afterlife, which does not shock Christians with his “otherness”. Death and related experiences occupied Rubin from early childhood, when he once saw on the street a dying little girl shot down by a car.

This tragedy deeply shocked him and predetermined his youthful spiritual searches and thoughts. It seems to be an interesting topic for the film. ” At that time, Rubin was already at forty, but his Hollywood career was just beginning, since he spent it away from California as a “housewife’s husband”, his wife first wrote a dissertation, and then worked as a teacher of art history.

The first film, according to his brain storm, was set up in the year, and after that his wife convinced him to transport his family from Illinois to Hollywood so that Bruce was easier to look for a buyer for his new scenario developments, among which there was a “ghost”. Starting the project with thoughts about Gamlet, Rubin quickly left them and focused on what it was like to be a ghost, a ghostly witness who sees what is happening on Earth after his death, but cannot change anything and cannot even talk to the living.

Or can it be? .. So in the plan of the Ghost a new key character appeared-the medium that the ghosts hears, conveys their words alive and turns out to be an important figure in the events unfolding after the death of the main character and his turning into a ghost. Trying different “fillings” for this storyline, Rubin settled on the one that was closest to him, a faithful and loving husband.

Although the script was supposed to be fascinating and action -packed, with the participation of the mafia, the main theme of the film was supposed to be the main character’s love for his girlfriend - the love who holds the guy on earth until he saves his beloved from the traitor and his criminal accomplices in the plot was laundering “dirty money” in a bank where he works with the main character.

The comedic aspect appeared in the script later. Once Rubin told his colleagues about his plot, and they noticed that it would be ridiculous if the medium turned out to be a fraudster who claims to hear the voices of the dead, but in fact only deceiving people. So far, he does not meet with the main character and does not find that he still has a mystical gift.

Initially, Rubin believed that this was a male role, but after the character was rethought, he decided to make it an eccentric black woman with a colorful past and sharp tongue. The main characters, of course, have always been planned by white. The addition of the comedy to the scenario expanded the genre range of “ghosts” almost to the limit.Drama, melodrama, science fiction, comedy, criminal cinema, and closer to the final, is also a militant and horror ...

as Rubin was later joked, only the musical was not enough.

This was impressive, but also a problem, since the “ghost” was not easy to offer producers who usually prefer scenarios with a clearly defined genre. The screenwriter even had to change the agent, because his previous representative surrendered without a fight and announced that the “ghost” was impossible to sell. Not only because the script is written at the junction of many genres, but also because "films about ghosts are not interested in anyone." At least if the ghost is the main character, and not a villain like Freddie Kruger.

The agent’s catch was also that Rubin was known to anyone during the work on the “Ghost”. Fortunately for the script, after moving to Hollywood, his author quickly overgrown with professional connections, and at the beginning of the second half of the X “Ghost” it was possible to attach at the Paramount studio. However, it was clear to everyone that this was not the project “only add the budget”.

Such a complex and multifaceted narrative needed a director who would convey all his aspects with equal brilliance, and Rubin was sure that only the titanium of the caliber of Martin Scorsese would cope with the project. Scorsese, however, was not at the disposal of the studio. But with representatives of Paramount, Jerry Zucker was well familiar. Also, Jerry was not going to spend his whole life, parodying other people's films.

He wanted to create a movie that others would respectfully parody. When Tsucker asked Paramount if her “readers” had an interesting scenario, he was advised “Ghost” and noted that this was the best scenario that was seen in the studio in those years. The director, however, was not too impressed with the name and theme of the script. Therefore, he, having brought the “ghost” home, did not immediately began to read it, but threw it into a stack of texts, to which he hoped to get when he had a free time.

Perhaps Tsucker would never have opened Rubin's script if his wife had not done it before. Mrs. Zucker read the Ghost, was impressed with his sentimentality and advised her husband to pay attention to the script. When Tsucker followed the advice of his wife, he was most amazed that the “ghost” was not like ordinary Hollywood scenarios about ghosts. It led the narrative from the point of view of the deceased character, and it was absolutely confident in the existence of the afterlife with strict, thoughtful laws.

In a single scene, the Ghost did not try to present the matter as if the main character dreamed that her husband became a ghost recall that in the classic “Wizard of Oz Country” Dorothy at the end of the film wakes up and finds out that her adventures were just a dream, and something similar happens in the final of the “Nightmare on Vyazov Street” and “Friday”. In cynical, such firmness in faith deserved respect.

And, of course, Tsucker, who at that time was a young husband, he married in a year, was subdued by a strong and sincere romantic feeling that piercing the script. Rubin, however, was not at all conquered by the track record of Tsuker. According to the screenwriter, when he found out that his brainchild was interested in the director of the Airplane, Rubin wept with horror and resentment.

Yes, there were funny scenes in the Ghost, but it was not a comedy, and Rubin was frightened that the tsucker would turn his plan into a booth with jokes in each frame. When future co -authors first met, Rubin decided that his worst suspicions were confirmed. The tsucker from the threshold announced the screenwriter that he intends to significantly change the text, because he was not satisfied with much, and Rubin found that it was a prelude before the blocked "ghost" in the farce.

After all, before that he was told about his script only good! Rubin was not yet an experienced Hollywood, and he did not know that at the studios for everyone they find pleasant words, which, however, rarely cost real deeds. But if a person criticizes your composition and offers exits, then this means that he is sincerely interested in the project. When Rubin realized this, he gave Tsucker a chance to convince himself, and soon they became friends.

The director really wanted to make a picture more funny and less gloomy than in the original text, but only in order not to allow the love of the main characters to drown in criminal showdowns, which is why the mafia does not appear in the film on the screen - the villain only communicates with his “bosses” by phone. Tsucker intended to emphasize the mental warmth of the characters, make the plot more intriguing, clarify financial fraud, because of which all the cheese brow unfolds, and also increase the role of a medium and not allow it to die in the finale.

Yes, the death of a secondary positive character, and even with a dubious past, is a traditional element of an American dramatic denouement. But why kill a living person, if in the final the already killed main character goes to heaven more precisely, to the Buddhist paradise? One death was quite enough. Moreover, in the version of Tsucker, the heroes in the climax were not opposed by the Mafiosi detachment, but by all two villains, the representative of the Banditor.

When Rubin and Tsucker found a compromise on all editors, they started joint work on the script. It took them about 20 editions to compose a text that they considered worthy of film adaptation. Most of the torment was delivered to them by a computer-criminal line. They did not immediately feel the plot that would be at the same time understandable to the audience and more or less believable.

After all, banking financial frauds are an esoteric occupation in its very nature. In which, as it sometimes turns out during large -scale crises, even people who are engaged in and earn billions of dollars are poorly understood. Since the project was led by one of the American super -studios, Tsucker could take any Hollywood superstar to the main roles. However, he quickly discovered that none of the superstars did not want to play Sam Whita, the title hero of the Ghost.

For performers like Harrison Ford and Bruce Willis, this was not enough a heroic character who only powerlessly watches what is happening around and reacts to what was happening, but cannot change anything. Willis, by the way, later realized that he was in vain abandoned the role of the ghost. And he agreed to play in the “sixth feeling” so as not to miss his second chance to become famous in the image of the deceased.

So far, famous and not too famous Hollywoods over and over again politely showed Tsuker assistants on the door. The list of those who refused is now read as a superstar “Hu from Hu”: Mel Gibson, Tom Hanks, Kevin Kostner, Johnny Depp, Alec Baldwin, David Dutins and many others ..., Rubin saw Patrick Suezi, “Dirty Dances”. And the “House on the road” preparing for the rental of the militant.

The actor frankly talked about death in the year of his father. When Suezi wept, the screenwriter thought that “ghost” needed just such a guy - sensitive, courageous, pretty and with the body of the dancer. Zucker about Suezi did not even want to hear. He saw Sam with a stylish New York banker, and Suezi in the “House by the Road” portrayed a provincial bouncer, and this was his main role-attractive “guys from the people”.

When Rubin and Tsuker went to see the “house”, the director after the session left the hall and convincedly said: “Only through my corpse.” However, unlike other celebrities, Suezi was ready to play the ghost, and he really wanted to get a role and play a great love on the screen, which reminded him of his feelings for his wife Lise Niemi, the couple got married in M, and they lived together for 34 years, up to the death of Suezi in the year.

And since Tsucker did not want to offend the actor, which he liked humanly very much, the refusal without trial, he allowed Suezi to come to the audition. He so powerfully played a climax in which the hero, who had not previously recognized his girlfriend in love, first says with feeling: “I love you” that Lisa Weinstein, one of the producers of the film, burst into tears.

Zucker immediately recognized his mistake, and the picture found Sam Whita. Finding the performer of the role of Molly, the main character of the film, was somewhat easier, since many wanted to play this role. True, not all. Mag Ryan, for example, refused to Tsucker. Among the applicants was the Australian Nicole Kidman, and the director sent from behind the ocean of the video test.

However, he wanted to hire the actress known in the States, and Kidman was not included in the short list. But her test caught the eye of several casting assistants, and they say that it was thanks to her that Kidman played Tony Scott with Tom Cruz, who came out in the same year with a “ghost”. In the end, Demi Moore, the star of the romantic tragicomedy of the year “What happened last night” and the then wife of Bruce Willis, got the role.