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 Post subject: Rick Moranis isn't retired
PostPosted: Wed Oct 07, 2015 1:32 pm 
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Rick Moranis Reveals Why He Turned Down 'Ghostbusters' Reboot: "It Makes No Sense to Me"

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When the new all-female Ghostbusters reboot arrives in theaters next summer, nearly all the living actors from the original 1980s films — Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Sigourney Weaver, et al. — will be doing cameos. But not Rick Moranis, who was offered the chance to appear in a walk-on role but turned it down. "I wish them well," says the 62-year-old comedic legend, who's so stunned by the outcry over his absence in the film that he decided to grant a rare interview with THR. "I hope it's terrific. But it just makes no sense to me. Why would I do just one day of shooting on something I did 30 years ago?"

Contrary to what it says on his Wikipedia page — and to the fact that he barely has appeared onscreen in the past two decades — Moranis is not retired. Not exactly, anyway. He did take an 18-year hiatus from acting after his wife, Ann, died from breast cancer in 1997 to focus on raising his two young children (ever the overprotective father, he won't reveal their names). But now that his kids have grown, the actor ("You know who would be great who I haven't seen in a long time? Rick Moranis," Fred Armisen said when asked about his dream collaborator at THR's Comedy Actor Roundtable in August) is thinking about stepping back in front of the cameras again. He's just really, really particular about which cameras.

"I took a break, which turned into a longer break," he says. "But I'm interested in anything that I would find interesting. I still get the occasional query about a film or television role" — he's repped by the Santa Monica-based endorsement firm Bailey Brand Management — "and as soon as one comes along that piques my interest, I'll probably do it. [But Ghostbusters] didn't appeal to me."

A generation of comics has come and gone since Moranis first came to Hollywood during the early 1980s, riding the craze created by the McKenzie brothers, his Canadian beer-nuts bit with Dave Thomas on SCTV, which became a sort of pre-Internet-era meme (spawning a platinum comedy album in 1982, The Great White North, and a movie in 1983, Strange Brew). Of all the Canadian comics who broke through on SCTV, Moranis was the one who seemed to be building the most momentum. "He's more than a funny actor, he is very creative," says George Wyner, who played Colonel Sandurz opposite Moranis' Dark Helmet in Mel Brooks' 1987 Star Wars spoof, Spaceballs. "I always thought he would make a fantastic director."

Moranis never got the chance to carry a film the way his late countryman John Candy did. But he did land major roles in a series of hits, like Honey, I Shrunk the Kids; Parenthood; Little Shop of Horrors; The Flintstones and, of course, the two Ghostbusters films (in which he played accountant Louis Tully, also known as the Keymaster, harbinger of Gozer the Destroyer). "I was working with really interesting people, wonderful people," says Moranis of his Hollywood heyday before the death of his wife. "I went from that to being at home with a couple of little kids, which is a very different lifestyle. But it was important to me. I have absolutely no regrets whatsoever. My life is wonderful."

Moranis didn't make the break all at once, but gradually disengaged from appearing onscreen. "It wasn't a formal decision," he says. "It began in an already busy year where I declined a film that was being shot out of town as the school year was beginning. But I was fortunate to be able to continue to make a living writing and doing voice work in Manhattan." For instance, he did the voice of Rutt in Brother Bear, Disney's 2003 Inuit adventure (which grossed $250 million worldwide). He also did radio commercials (mostly airing in Canada), released comedy albums (My Mother's Brisket in 2013) and dabbled in writing wry op-eds for The New York Times (like the one in which he counted virtually all his possessions, including "more than 1,000 golf balls"). In other words, he has kept busy.

"Stuff happens to people all the time, and people make adjustments, change careers, move to another city," he says. "Really, that's all I did."

Today he lives alone in a sprawling, art-filled apartment on the Upper West Side (not far from the building where the Ghostbusters once did battle with a giant Stay Puft Marshmallow Man). He doesn't keep up with comedy trends ("I don't know who is out there, and I don't know what they are doing") but spends his time between voice and writing projects watching ESPN and waging occasional battles with his household electronics. "This morning I was in the Apple store for three hours," he says. I made the mistake of downloading iOS 9.1 onto an old iPad, and all hell broke loose." He avoids social media like the plague — "The last thing I need," he says — and would like to change the line on his Wikipedia page that describes him as "largely retired" but doesn't have a clue how to go about doing it.

But whenever he leaves his apartment, he still gets recognized on the streets of New York. "People are very nice when they see me," he says. "They ask me, 'How come they don't make movies like they used to?' We were governed by a certain kind of taste at that time, and there were places we wouldn't go with language and bodily fluids and functions. I think that's what they're nostalgic for."

They're also nostalgic for Ghostbusters movies, but Moranis just couldn't be persuaded by Sony to do Paul Feig's new one. "It's hard to come up with original material," he says. "Occasionally, they get it right or else they wouldn't attempt to do these things. I'm surprised that Disney hasn't done Honey, I Shrunk the Grandkids. But I'm happy with the things I said yes to, and I'm very happy with the many things I've said no to. Yes, I am picky, and I'll continue to be picky. Picky has worked for me."

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/featur ... -he-829779

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 Post subject: Rick Moranis isn't retired
PostPosted: Wed Oct 07, 2015 3:31 pm 
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That makes me happy. I always enjoyed his wide open comedic style. So earnest, possibly pathetic, yet brave.

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 Post subject: Rick Moranis isn't retired
PostPosted: Wed Oct 07, 2015 3:54 pm 
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I don't care what he appears in, I will immediately buy tickets.

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 Post subject: Rick Moranis isn't retired
PostPosted: Wed Oct 07, 2015 4:04 pm 
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Nice that he's happy with his family. Nice that people remember him for the good movies.


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 Post subject: Rick Moranis isn't retired
PostPosted: Wed Oct 07, 2015 4:12 pm 
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:: insert clever title here ::

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:thumbsup:

Hope to see him on the silver screen again someday soon!


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 Post subject: Rick Moranis isn't retired
PostPosted: Wed Oct 07, 2015 4:55 pm 
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No mention of his country music album?

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 Post subject: Rick Moranis isn't retired
PostPosted: Wed Oct 07, 2015 7:16 pm 
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"But I'm interested in anything that I would find interesting."

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 Post subject: Rick Moranis isn't retired
PostPosted: Wed Oct 07, 2015 8:16 pm 
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I heard an interview recently with George Carlin's daughter, Kelly, where she mentions getting a phone call from Rick Moranis. He was troubled because he had learned that her father had been annoyed with Moranis' impersonation of him on SCTV, and wanted to let he know that he had never meant any such harm.

People seem to overlook this, because it apparently didn't appear in the U.S., but in 2007, Moranis did reprise his role as Bob McKenzie on a CBC special called "Bob & Doug McKenzie's Two-Four Anniversary".

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000WM84XQ/?tag=imwan-20

As for this new "Ghostbusters" film, I'm looking forward to finding it in the $5 clearance bin at Walmart in a couple of years.

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 Post subject: Rick Moranis isn't retired
PostPosted: Thu Oct 08, 2015 9:53 am 
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:: insert clever title here ::

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Stumpy Joe wrote:
As for this new "Ghostbusters" film, I'm looking forward to finding it in the $5 clearance bin at Walmart in a couple of years.

:lol:
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 Post subject: Rick Moranis isn't retired
PostPosted: Thu Oct 08, 2015 9:55 am 
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None of you are allowed to see my new Ghostbusters film. Not in a dollar bin, nor as fifteen minutes on cable.


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 Post subject: Rick Moranis isn't retired
PostPosted: Thu Oct 08, 2015 4:43 pm 
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Rick Moranis Interview Expanded: Dirty Jokes, Full-Body 'Spaceballs' Helmet and Slow Motion 'Horrors'

Rick Moranis tells a great story -- so great, in fact, that THR couldn't fit all the details into this week's magazine, where Moranis revealed that he's not retired (just looking for the right project) and explained why he ultimately decided to pass on a cameo in the new Ghostbusters.

Here are seven fun things that didn't make the print story due to limited space:

1) The massive headgear worn for Dark Helmet in Mel Brooks' 1987 film Spaceballs was originally way, way bigger.

"In the original script," Moranis says, "the description of the character was that the whole costume was one gigantic helmet. Then it got scaled back to just an exaggerated version of the Darth Vader helmet. It was very light, actually took one prop guy to maneuver it. Where's it now? The Smithsonian?"

2) The plant from Little Shop of Horrors, Audrey II, took a lot of manpower to bring to life and scenes were literally acted out in slow motion.

The man-eating alien in the 1986 film was not CGI, Moranis says. And the bigger it got, the more people were needed to make it work. "It took 55 puppeteers all working simultaneously to work the final iteration of the plant," Moranis says. "The only way to accomplish it was to slow down the music by a third. When I was on camera with the plant, I also had to slow down my lip syncing and movement by a third." The scenes were shot at 16 frames per second and played back at regular speed, he added.

3) Moranis was a lovable goofball on set.

He says he and George Wyner, who played Colonel Sandurz opposite Moranis' Dark Helmet, loved to crack each other up on set.

"It’s the last day of shooting, and we’re doing this action scene at the end of the movie where there’s some choreography where we’re escaping the ship. So we’re shooting this on the last day, and George attempts to make me laugh by saying, 'So are you going to take the helmet home?' And I heard what he said and I immediately thought of what I was going to counter with. I waited for them to start counting down, and I said to George just before Mel was going to yell 'Action,' I said, 'Yes, I’ll have to reserve the bulkhead.' Of course the take was completely messed up and poor George, I mean it was an okay joke, pretty mediocre joke, but the cruelty of my putting it right before the action call. It was a wonderful way to end the shoot."

4) One of Spaceballs best dirty jokes was improvised.

Moranis says Dark Helmet's erotic doll play scene -- "your helmet is so big!" -- was unscripted and he made it up on the spot.

"What I remember is not feeling that well that day. I think I had a fever. I wasn't at the top of my game, but somehow was able to come up with that. George was so fantastic in that scene. His performance makes the movie. The intensity he creates is what allowed me to be as broad as I needed to be walking around in that outfit."

The doll scene wasn't the only one that pushed boundaries. Moranis says the famous "I'm surrounded by assholes!" scene was "radical" then for a film rated PG.

5) Of all his films, Moranis says he was "luckiest" to land one part in particular.

He doesn't have a favorite film he has done, but Little Shop holds a special place in his heart. "I’m the luckiest guy to get that," Moranis says. "It was timing and I fit the right type. It was an amazing experience. One of the greatest moments of my life was shooting that thing."

6) Entertainment-wise, Moranis is mostly a sports guy.

He especially enjoys ESPN's Pardon the Interruption, hosted by Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon. "They’re sort of the Siskel and Ebert of sports," he says. "Their chemistry is so entertaining to me, and it’s a way to be on top of what’s happening. Helps me to sound like I know what I'm talking about to the guys in my neighborhood." Still, Moranis prefers radio to TV. "I listen to John Batchelor’s show on WABC," Moranis says. "It’s all kinds of things. It’s analysis and opinion on news, but there's also history, and authors and biography, and he covers things in space that are happening. It’s a wonderful show. Sort of a podcast for geezers."

7) He's pretty much as widely loved as anyone would expect.

His former colleagues adore him. Dave Thomas says he knew Moranis had talent the moment they met years ago. "I’m impressed with funny people, and I knew instantly this guy was funny,” Thomas says. “Working with him was real fun, I mean just real gut-busting laughs.” The pair worked together on SCTV where they created brothers Bob and Doug McKenzie. George Wyner said working with Moranis was one of the great joys of his career. "No else but Rick could have played [Dark Helmet]. No one,” Wyner said. “His charm and likability are real and that translates onto the camera.” Frank Oz, the director of the Little Shop was too busy for an extended interview, but said of Moranis: "He's a great friend and a great human being."

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/r ... rty-830412

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 Post subject: Rick Moranis isn't retired
PostPosted: Fri Oct 09, 2015 2:53 pm 
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 Post subject: Rick Moranis isn't retired
PostPosted: Fri Oct 09, 2015 6:27 pm 
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