'Life Moves Pretty Fast' - Ferris Bueller's day off
“Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” wasn’t just another John Hughes teen comedy. It featured Matthew Broderick as a charismatic high schooler obsessed with taking a day off to take in the city of Chicago with Mia Sara and Alan Ruck as his accomplices.
Made for a paltry $5 million, the film opened June 11, 1986 — 40 years ago Thursday — and grossed $70.7 million, making it the 10th best-selling movie of the year. In 2014, “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” would be selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Film Registry.
John Hughes Fourth Directing Assignment
John Hughes
What does a 36-year-old filmmaker do after he scores giant hits writing “Mr. Mom” and “National Lampoon’s Vacation” and writing and directing “Sixteen Candles,” “The Breakfast Club,” “Weird Science” and “Pretty in Pink”?
He takes time off, of course. Because life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.
Oh, sorry. That was a quote from Matthew Broderick in John Hughes’ next big writing-and-directing hit, “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.” Hughes developed the storyline for the film on Feb. 25, 1985, before filming began for “Pretty in Pink.” He successfully pitched the project the next day to the chief of Paramount Pictures.
Once Paramount was on board, Hughes filled out the rest of his script in less than a week. “I know how the movie begins,” he said. “I know how it ends. I don’t know the rest, but that doesn’t seem to matter. It’s not the events that are important, it’s the characters going through the event.”
Like so many of his other films, Hughes shot “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” in his old stomping grounds of Chicago and its suburbs.
Hughes brought in his fourth directing project for less than $5 million. It opened nationwide on June 11, 1986 and went on to gross $70.7 million.
NBC commissioned a spinoff TV series in 1990 that Hughes tried hard to block. He failed, but the series was canceled after just 13 episodes.
'Ferris Bueller, You're My Hero'
“Certain guys would have played Ferris,” Hughes said, “and you would have thought: ‘Where’s my wallet?’ I had to have that look. That charm had to come through.” Although Hughes had Matthew Broderick in mind while he was writing the story, he offered the part to Anthony Michael Hall. Hall was busy, so Hughes also considered Jon Cryer, Johnny Depp and Eric Stoltz.
The star of Hughes’ “Pretty in Pink,” Molly Ringwald, wanted to play Ferris’ girlfriend, Sloane. Laura Dern also auditioned for the role. Mia Sara was 18 years old — only a year older than the character. Hughes told her he felt like he’d need an older actress to play the role but he said she surprised him with the elegance she showed in her audition.
Hughes based Cameron on an old high school friend who was “sort of a lost person,” he said. He offered the part to Emilio Estevez and also considered John Candy. Alan Ruck — who had auditioned for the part of Bender in “The Breakfast Club” and was already friends with Broderick, appearing with him on stage in “Biloxi Blues” — got the role despite being 29 years old.
Cameron’s father’s car is meant to be a Ferrari 250 GT California Spyder. Only 104 were ever made. The cars are worth $16.8 million today. The car in the film — there were three of them, actually — was a fake fiberglass shell, mounted on a British MG chassis. Producers received angry letters from car enthusiasts who through it was a real Spyder car and that it was really wrecked.
In Hughes’ original script, Ferris had tried to help Charlie Sheen’s character, Garth Volbeck, but Garth dropped out of school and became a druggie. Sheen stayed awake for 48 hours to pull off the drugged-out look he was aiming for. Sheen said later that watching his performance in this movie makes him want to punch himself in the mouth.
The brief part of the economics teacher was played by former Richard Nixon speechwriter Ben Stein. Nixon had introduced Stein to William Safire of the New York Times, who had introduced him to film executives. Filling idle time between takes, Stein began a fake lecture to student extras. Hughes caught part of it and said let’s do it again on camera.
The parade scene was filmed over two days in downtown Chicago. Radio DJs urged folks to come to the fake parade. More than 10,000 showed up. Broderick’s dance moves were choreographed by Kenny Ortega, who’d go on to choreograph “Dirty Dancing.” Broderick was slowed down a bit, however, after injuring his knee filming the scene running through neighbors’ yards.
Broderick had to learn “Danke Schoen” for the parade scene. He also sang “Twist and Shout,” which was reissued as a single and peaked at No. 23 in the Hot 100, 22 years after its original release. Paul McCartney said he loved the movie but disliked the marching band playing over the song. Hughes said he was crushed that he had offended a Beatle.
As a youngster, Hughes had loved visiting the Art Institute of Chicago. Originally, Hughes had Ferris, Cameron and Sloane visit the Art Institute after the parade. Studio executives hated it and wanted it cut. Hughes simply moved it to before the parade, where the scene worked a lot better. He did, however, trim a sequence where the three visited a strip club.
Broderick and Jennifer Grey — who played his sister in this film and went on to greater fame a year later in “Dirty Dancing” — became a couple while filming “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.” Also, the actors who played their parents — Lyman Ward and Cindy Pickett — got married in 1986 and had two children together. They were divorced in 1992.
