Starman (1984)

In the late 1970s, Columbia Pictures had a multipicture development deal with actor/producer Michael Douglas. In 1980, Douglas bought the script to a sci-fo concept called Starman from Bruce A. Evans and Raynold Gideon and urged Columbia to take it up. Douglas loved the humor and pathos within the story, where an alien race has been studying Earth and has figured out everything about it except for humans and our behavior. Columbia had just scored a big hit with Steven Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind, the film that saved the studio from certain bankruptcy, so this seemed a sensible investment. They also wanted to keep Douglas onboard with their studio. Columbia accepted, with Douglas taking an executive producer’s role.

In addition to Starman, Columbia wanted a follow-up to Close Encounters. Steven Spielberg wasn’t interested in doing another, but he also didn’t want a franchise he kicked off to be tarnished like Jaws, so he would produce. The project he came up with was called Night Skies, initially a farm-under-siege-by-aliens sci-fi/horror concept very much at odds with the tone of Close Encounters. So at odds that Spielberg had a change of heart and decided to repackage Night Skies by developing a subplot within the film, one where a kindly alien and an autistic boy form a friendship. The new direction blossomed into E.T. the Extraterrestial.

After conducting market research,  Columbia told Spielberg that his E.T. concept was limited in appeal only to kids and the story veered too close to Starman. They decided to ride Starman, which had additional appeal to adults and women (due to a romantic subtext). They put E.T. into turnaround and asked for a proper sequel to Close Encounters. By this point, E.T. became a passion project for Spielberg, who asked Universal to buy it out and he would direct. Universal gave Columbia $1 million for their turnaround fees, plus 5% of their profits if they postponed Starman until at least six months after E.T.‘s release. Feeling that E.T. would be no more popular than a typical live-action Disney release, which wasn’t much in the early 1980s, they accepted.

However, creative differences and E.T.‘s monumental success sent a wave of panic among the brass at Columbia Pictures, who demanded it be reworked completely. They churned through six directors: Mark Rydell (who left after the first day due to artistic disagreements with Michael Douglas), John Badham (who left for WarGames two days after viewing E.T. and didn’t want to unflattering comparisons), Adrian Lyne (who left after six months for Flashdance when the studio decided to turn Starman into a comedy concept), Tony Scott (who wanted Broadway star Philip Anglim to play Starman, and who was passed over due to the commercial and critical drubbing he took for his style-over-story filmmaking exemplified in 1983’s The Hunger), Peter Hyams (who took too mundane an approach, jumping ship to make 2010: The Year We Make Contact, released the same day as Starman), and finally John Carpenter.

Carpenter was putting the finishing touches on Christine when he was hired. Columbia admired his reputation for delivering quality films on time and within budget. He said he wanted to make a fairy tale rather than a science fiction film, more The Wizard of Oz than Close Encounters of the Third Kind.  But it was grounded in a road-trip movie. It would have a romance and comedy bent, akin to Frank Capra’s It Happened One Night or Hitchcock’s The 39 Steps, where a man and woman get to know each other romantically through dire circumstances if it had a sci-fi premise. Columbia approved this approach because it was a less expensive approach than an effects extravaganza.

Carpenter had just suffered a box office disappointment with The Thing followed by a modest performer with Christine.  Carpenter wanted a change of pace from the darkness of some of his films, looking for something beyond his comfort zone that would allow him to grow as an artist. Here was a chance to show he could make a successful romance, comedy, adventure, road movie. He wanted to prove he was a good versatile director, not just someone interested in horror-based themes.

In addition to the six directors, five writers were attached: the original script and first revision by Evans and Gideon, Edward Zwick (a writer Douglas respected and future acclaimed director), Diane Thomas (who also scripted Romancing the Stone for Douglas), and Columbia’s resident script doctor, Dean Riesner. Prior snags had to do with the extraterrestrial’s appearance, what its ship looked like, and its superpowers. Riesner was brought in specifically to differentiate Starman from E.T. because the public would see the film as nothing more than a rip-off in its current state, but not too much because they wanted to tap into the same crowd.

John Carpenter caught wind of another similar project coming out in 1984, The Brother from Another Planet, from John Sayles, who wrote the script for the project that would turn into E.T., Night Skies. After attending a screening, Carpenter told Riesner to redraft a new script that concentrated Starman more as a love story, perhaps make it a road trip comedy in the vein of Frank Capra’s It Happened One Night. Carpenter also wanted the tone to stay upbeat and amusing, having Reisner remove heavyhanded political elements and scenes like the Starman blowing up the government bad guys with a laser blast.

Carpenter decided that they wouldn’t show the alien as anything but an energy orb transforming into Scott Hayden. In an early version of Riesner’s script, the alien was to be transparent enough to see its innards. Carpenter told Riesner to make him a complete human rather than make him have alien physical traits so they could concentrate more on the romance and adventure aspects he felt audiences would be more interested in following.

The final plot: An alien race intercepts Voyager II, a space probe describing Earth, effectively inviting aliens to visit. These aliens take Earth up on the offer, sending a scout pod to see what we’re up to. American fighter jets greet it and the alien scout crashlands up in the American backwoods in Wisconsin. Using DNA found in the hair in recent widow Jenny Hayden’s photo album, he transforms himself into the likeness of Jenny’s dead husband, a house painter named Scott (Bridges). Now, not-Scott must get to a rendezvous point at Meteor Crater, Arizona to get back to the mothership before he dies, but SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) and the FBI want him to experiment on.  The alien has no choice but to kidnap Jenny (Allen) to assist him.

The Screenwriters Guild had to have arbitration to give credit to Bruce Evans and Raynold Gideon. Carpenter was angry that Dean Riesner, who came into the project early in late 1981 and wrote the last seven drafts over the next two years, did not get credit for his script revisions, despite two Writers Guild arbitrations. Carpenter dedicated the film to Dean Riesner, which also caused some controversy with the Writers Guild as that is usually reserved for deceased collaborators or sources of inspiration. The Alan Dean Foster novelization includes his name, however. 

Although he came in late, Columbia called it “John Carpenter’s Starman” in ads. Market research found that putting John Carpenter’s name above the title increased interest, and his name wouldn’t necessarily denote a horror film.

Michael Douglas at one point considered starring but became too involved with Romancing the Stone take the role. By this point, his star was rising as a box office performer and he had all but given up trying to get Starman made, so Columbia called many of the shots without him. Other than making a few suggestions on casting changes and some notes on an early cut, Douglas’s involvement in the production was minimal after hiring Carpenter.

For the cast, the studio wanted younger 20-something stars, suggesting Tom Cruise for Starman and Mariel Hemingway or Diane Lane for Jenny. Carpenter met with the 22-year-old Cruise and would have had no problem making the film with him, but he was deemed too young to be Jenny’s longterm soulmate. In December of 1983, 26-year-old Kevin Bacon was slated to star, but Carpenter changed his mind after auditioning 33-year-old Karen Allen. Allen clicked instantly as Jenny, tough yet vulnerable in a convincing way. Feeling the male lead should her age, Jeff Bridges was sought, not just because of box-office appeal, but there is both a boyish and manly quality to him which worked for the role. Carpenter had wanted him for other films, Escape from New York and The Thing, but it didn’t work out timing-wise.

Bridges rehearsed Starman’s physical movements with his dancer friend Russell Clark, who Bridges already thought of as someone otherworldly, Bridges also observed how his young daughters, 3 years and 16 months old, learning to walk, talk, and observe how the world works. He also ornithology, basing his head movements on birds. Bridges kept a picture of a bird on his script as a cue. Dean Riesner claimed that he wrote the film as a “women’s picture” but Bridges managed to steal all the scenes with his performance.

Karen Allen, who butted heads repeatedly with Steven Spielberg on Raiders of the Lost Ark for not valuing input from actors, says that Starman was one of the most pleasurable experiences of her screen acting career. She found Carpenter a refreshing change of pace for working with his actors on motivation and shape how they might behave in certain situations, even if not in the script or his storyboards. For instance, the script depicted Jenny in complete fear of the alien assuming her husband’s body, but Allen felt she’d be more conflicted, repulsed but still intrigued enough to explore the possibility that he is in there somehow, and find his presence comforting much more quickly.  Allen saw the role as a challenge in achieving and maintaining an emotional state of mind throughout, especially in something that she would never experience in real life. 

Charles Martin Smith was cast without auditioning, receiving a phone call from Carpenter, who he had never worked with before but Carpenter was a fan of his work due to his inherent likeability and had tried a couple of times before, but he was busy.

Despite minimal effects sequences, they hired some of the best technical crews in Hollywood. Joe Alves had worked on Close Encounters, hired to scout locations and perform second-unit directorial duties. Make-up effects were handled by three major talents: Dick Smith, Rick Baker, and Stan Winston. They shared duties in the scene in which the alien uses Scott’s DNA to go from an embryo to a full-grown man. Baker made the infant, Winston created the effect of the infant turning into a boy, and Smith handled the boy turning into a man. All of them complained about being asked to do effects work with severely limited budgets that will have audiences expecting eye-popping visuals that aren’t there.

Visual effects by Industrial Light and Magic enhance the arrival and departure sequences. Some have bad-mouthed the effects work, including Alves, who said they delivered effects that were not what he asked for. Alves said that the title of Starman should have been changed so that audiences wouldn’t anticipate an effects-dominated film. Some sci-fi buffs complain that the mothership ending plagiarized an obscure 1982 film from New World Pictures starring Robert Carradine called Wavelength, which had a similarly shiny, orb-like spacecraft that reflects its surroundings. Alves stated that they had no knowledge of Wavelength and similarities are pure coincidence. He had conceived of a Saturn-like ship before he had ever heard of the film and its chrome-like similarities.

Although the premise strains believability, and there are many contrivances to get the film to work, it remains entertaining and packed with an emotional punch. Bridges is endearing in this Oscar-and-Golden Globe-nominated performance as the fish-out-of-water alien having to adjust to a world he has never known. That Oscar nomination would be the only one earned by a feature film directed by John Carpenter. It also marks the first  (and still only) Oscar nomination for someone playing an extraterrestrial.

The love story is rushed but feels genuine thanks to the committed performances by Bridges and Allen. Charles Martin Smith good in a supporting role as the SETI agent with a conscience. Richard Jaeckel, who Carpenter was also a longtime fan of due to his intimidating screen presence, is slimy as the US State Department bureaucrat out to capture this proof of extraterrestrial life to perform experiments on him presumably.

It was a somewhat personal movie in many ways for John Carpenter. His son John Cody was born during the production, though he would leave Adrienne Barbeau at this time. During the production, Carpenter met Sandy King, who was the script supervisor on Starman. They married in 1990 and remain so to this day.

As there were many locations to set up and technical considerations, the actors had to entertain themselves during their downtime. Karen Allen took to knitting. Bridges began a hobby he would do throughout the rest of his career while making this film, at the encouragement of Allen. He photographed the behind-the-scenes goings-on for his films with his Widelux camera given to him by his photographer wife.  He compiles these pictures into albums for the cast and crew.

The plot is a bit murky, starting off with a missing piece one would think would be vital to understanding what’s going on, namely, the reason that the alien has decided to come to Earth only to be picked up right away to go home. We get a vague reference to him being a mapmaker, and an explorer, which is, for the purpose of this thoughtful romantic sci-fi concept, good enough.

Christ allusions and a wink that the Starman comes from a heavenly place are there, though not explicit or overbearing.

The film is not just a love story between a woman and alien, but also a love for America, a cross-country depiction of America’s finest assets – its beautiful locations and helpful people. As with most Carpenter stories, working-class people are the heroes, while the government is the obstacle to total greatness.

Starman benefits from its sense of humor without losing dramatic tension. Some contrivances abound. A young man with a hot rod offers to give Jenny a ride, presumably because she is an attractive woman, but there’s no rationale for why later, when encountering a roadblock, he decides to set off an explosive distraction to assure her safety, never to see her again.

It has one of the best science fiction scores from the 1980s, but Carpenter didn’t do it as he normally might. It’s by Jack Nitzsche, who also scored a 1981 Jeff Bridges film called Cutter’s Way. Carpenter loved the work, honoring the theme by including it on his 2017 album, “Anthology: Movie Themes.” Featured prominently in the film is “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” by the Rolling Stones. The film depicts it as a song on the “Voyager Golden Record” sent into space containing sounds, images, and greetings in many languages meant to serve as a hello from the people of Earth. However, that song does not appear on the real golden record (it actually is “Johnny B. Goode” by Chuck Berry.)

Perhaps not coincidentally, “Satisfaction” features piano and tambourine by the composer, Jack Nitzsche. Michael Douglas was high on Nitzsche’s work since he composed One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (a Douglas production) and wanted him to do Starman. Nitzsche also worked for Douglas a few months later for The Jewel of the Nile. Nitzsche received a Golden Globe nomination for the score.

The soundtrack includes a duet between Jeff Bridges and Karen Allen, covering an Everly Brothers’ classic, “All I Have to Do Is Dream” featured in an acoustic performance within the home movie footage at the beginning of the film. They sang together during their downtime in the film. They made a music video for the song to promote the film, with Karen Allen also playing the harmonica. They still get together occasionally to sing, with Allen sometimes appearing on stage with Bridges’ and his band, the Abiders.

Starman never cracked the top 5 on any weeks of its release but word of mouth was kind. It stayed a modest earner through the holidays and took in $28 million overall in the US. Unfortunately, they spent more than they made after factoring in marketing and post-production costs.

A much underrated and overlooked gem by Carpenter. Although Carpenter’s name is above the title, some of his horror fans were disappointed a seeing him take on such a light and romantic film and generally disregard it among his overall body of work. 

• In 1986, Michael Douglas produced a TV show for ABC, “Starman” starring Robert Hays and Erin Grey. It’s set 14 years after the events of the movie, featuring the Starman (assuming a different body) and his teenage son searching for the missing Jenny Hayden. It only lasted one season but did have an instant cult following among science fiction fans who met for “Celebrations.”
• Michael Douglas asked Carpenter to direct Fatal Attraction but he hated the script, which he called a knockoff of Play Misty for Me, which was, coincidentally, written by Starman‘s Dean Riesner. Instead, one of the directors that Carpenter replaced on Starman, Adrian Lyne, took the gig.
• In 2016, co-producer Michael Douglas was involved with developing a remake with Shawn Levy as director and Arash Amel as the screenwriter. The new version promised to have a younger cast, but little was heard of this project after its announcement
• In 2018, Jeff Bridges revealed that he and Karen Allen have discussed coming back for a Starman sequel.

Qwipster’s rating: A

MPAA Rated: PG for violence, brief nudity, and language
Running Time: 115 min.

Cast: Jeff Bridges, Karen Allen, Charles Martin Smith, Richard Jaeckel, Robert Phalen, M.C. Gainey, John Carpenter (cameo)
Director: John Carpenter
Screenplay: Bruce A. Evans, Raynold Gideon