Exploring Nothing but Trouble - The Untold Story Behind Dan Aykroyd's Notorious Production

[Music] hellraiser if not for clive barker's 1987 horror film the notorious nothing but trouble may have never happened producer Robert Weiss had been friends with Dan Aykroyd for years they work together on Blues Brothers dr. Detroit and dragnet in September of 1987 Royce had just returned from Europe where he had fractured a rib since he was in town he called a back road and asked him to go to a movie he had one condition no matter what they saw it couldn't be a comedy because laughing caused him a huge amount of pain he suggested they go see a horror film and the film that was playing was Clive Barker's Hellraiser why said he was miserable because the audience was in tears laughing at the film he tried to resist but couldn't help himself and ended up in pain the entire movie on the way home Weiss said Aykroyd hey people want to be scared and laugh at the same time we should deliver that Dan mentioned this to his brother Peter who reminded him of something that happened years earlier Ackroyd's a car fanatic who had frequently drive cross-country when he could it was 1977 two years into Saturday Night Live and he had been commuting from his farm in Canada to the studio in New York around 2:00 a.m. one morning he was speeding through a small upstate New York town and a cop pulled him over for doing 50 in a 32-page the ticket then but the cops said that's not the way it works here and took him eight miles out to a rundown old mansion to stand trial in front of the justice of the peace the cop woke the judge she held what he called a kangaroo court and fined him $50 afterwards she offered for him to stay and have some tea Aykroyd was so fascinated by this he accepted and the two drank tea and talked for four hours the experience was so odd it stayed with him for years he put his own spin on the story and said what if we made a movie about a crazy Justice of the Peace who would am people executed for minor things like traffic violations he took the concept and spent the next six months writing it he originally called it get which he later renamed road to ruin the script was about a hotshot businessman getting lost in a backwoods town while driving a gorgeous neighbor across country they end up being pulled over for speeding and are taken to see a one hundred and six year old judge who has some unusual methods for district meaning justice accurate said first and foremost it's a monster movie an adventure comedy with parody views of horror elements it was a horror comedy he described as Beetlejuice Meets The Texas Chainsaw Massacre the script was filled with oddities Aykroyd based many things like giant mutant twin babies on a bizarre series of dreams he'd been having he placed the events in the fictional town of Vulcan vania which he based loosely on the town of Centralia Pennsylvania Centralia is a ghost town that's been condemned because of a coal fire that's been burning underneath the town since 1962 with the script written they started looking for a director Aykroyd contacted his friend John Hughes and sent him the script Hughes wasn't sold on the idea about went back and forth with Aykroyd about it for roughly a month before finally turning it down he told him he only directs his own material and the reason why it took so long for him to decide on this was something in the script touched on a few his favorite sensibilities Aykroyd then contacted John Landis who directed him in The Blues Brothers Landis didn't like it and turned it down immediately during this time Weiss and Aykroyd were shopping the script around and it caught the attention of Warner Brothers Warner Brothers had a good history with Aykroyd working together on such movies as spice like us and Driving Miss Daisy so they were interested in his idea they held a meeting with them and the Warner brother executives said we want to make this movie with you and John Candy Aykroyd said fine and that he wanted to play the part of the judge in the banker they countered with how about Chevy Chase's the banker chase was a big man at Warner Brothers at the time after doing the three vacation films for them Aykroyd agreed and everyone seemed happy but then they asked who was gonna direct he knew he didn't have anyone lined up and most likely it would take months to find someone not wanting the deal to fall through he said I'll do it the executives talked briefly to themselves and came to the conclusion of why not awkward was excited and yet nervous he had no real desire to direct but knew this was the only way to get his story made with the film greenlit they needed to get the rest of the cast they were able to hire Demi Moore to play Diane she had just finished filming the paranormal love story ghost which would go on to be the second highest-grossing film of 1990 casting her in the film was a huge get they then cast Taylor Negron as Fausto amber Atilla de ma says Reynaldo Aykroyd was to play the justice of the peace judge alvin JP vulcanizer but according to him there was another part they couldn't get anyone to play which was the giant adult baby named Bobo so he agreed to play that part as well his plate was now overflowing he was the writer director producer and was now playing two parts in the film that each required a heavy makeup he was starting to feel the pressure of what he signed up for still the studio had faith in him and gave him a 40 million dollar budget they decide to change the name of the film again from road to ruin to trick house Aykroyd had been in the business long enough to know that in order for him to make it through a production like this he need to hire some major industry veterans he hired the amazing oscar-nominated Dean Cundy to be the DOP Aykroyd had a specific look in mind for the SATs that needed someone who could deliver whatever crazy ideas he threw at them so he hired Williams Sandell to be the production designer Sandell had just finished two massive blockbusters Robocop and Total Recall so he knew he'd be up to the task Aykroyd hit it off with Sandell right away he had some insane ideas and Sandell was more than happy to be able to make them a reality he was a kinetic artist who was excited to design all these machines for the film the makeup designer was David Miller who worked on the Terminator dreamscape and a Nightmare on Elm Street when he met with Aykroyd the design description he gave him for the judge was a pity disgusting old man who looks like a 3,000 year old turtle Miller was excited because that gave him a lot of room to play around with he did for Aykroyd what he did for Robert Englund in The Nightmare on Elm Street he life cast his head and made his mask a three-piece set a nose chin and hood that could be applied in about an hour they changed the name of the project yet again now it would be filming under the title Vulcan vania with all the talent involved Warner Brothers was sure this would be a hit and before filming began they set the release date of Christmas in 1990 the production was huge and took over all the biggest stages at Warner Brothers Burbank studio the Vulcan Heiser mansion was a 90 foot tall building they built at the Warner Ranch in new all California they had tractors digging moats and making holes for the Lincoln Stonehenge they needed this place to look like the family had been accumulating junk for deck ADEs so they set out to acquire as much stuff as possible the set dressers bought every toaster in Los Angeles thousands of them they found an eccentric farmer in Nebraska that much like the judge had never thrown anything away he had barns filled with Ford Model T's old washing machines refrigerators sewing machines and tons of other items they bought the lot off him and sent numerous trucks out to pick them up and deliver them to the sets once there they had a crusher mash all these items up and pile them around the house the Teamsters working on the production were crying as they saw these classic cars either being cut up or flattened while all the Warner Brothers lot they had access to anything in their set dressing and prop departments they took what they could and continued layering the sets even with all this it wasn't enough they needed more the head of production saw things were getting out of control he told Aykroyd you're our little picture this can't go on but it did Val conveniens the studio's little picture while they were filming their big picture the bonfire of the vanities in New York that she was having major problems so all the executives were paying attention to that and were too distracted to see the unbridled insanity that was going on here the design team needs some additional expertise on the set and Sandell recommended special effects supervisor Michael Ann Terry LAN Terry was Spielberg's go-to guy who worked with him on Back to the Future 2 & 3 Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and more land Terry fell in love with the project and came on board to help develop whatever crazy designs Aykroyd cooked up he bought a used roller coaster for $15,000 and reconfigured it to go through the house and at the outside which was only the beginning hydraulic judge's desk sure house loaded with trap doors and secret passageways why not a giant machine that strips flesh from the bone called simply the bone stripper hell yeah no idea was too outlandish for the team the crew loved Aykroyd he gave them the ability to be as creative as they wanted if someone had an idea he was more than happy to listen for example one day the production designer was bouncing ideas off Aykroyd he told him about this restaurant his grandpa used to take him to that would deliver your food on a model train Aykroyd absolutely loved it so they both went to that apart and said they needed $25,000 to make a train set in a dining table the production had gave them the money but really didn't want to he was just defeated at that point as filming came closer Ackroyd's worried turned to panic finally on the first day of shooting he was able to calm himself he realized how lucky he was as a first-time director he had some of the biggest actors at the time Chevy Chase John Candy and Demi Moore as well as one of the greatest groups of technical people any director could hope for still the crew helped Ackroyd through the first few weeks of filming until he had the confidence to do what he wanted to do as he said by that time the crew was in sync with what I wanted that made filming a wonderful experience despite feeling confident he still felt silly giving orders while wearing a giant baby suit initially he was second-guessing himself until he started seeing the crew giving him looks like we believe you mr. director now will you let us do our job since Aykroyd would be playing two roles in makeup as well as directing they need to make costumes he could get in and out of relatively quickly the judge outfit was the life cast mask in costume the Bobo outfit was also a life cast mask but with a full body suit he had to get into that zippered up in the back it took about an hour to get into each outfit he continued directing while wearing the costumes and it truly was a sight to behold seeing a giant 500 pound baby discussing camera angles with the DOP Aykroyd wasn't the only one in makeup John Candy played the dual role of the cop Dennis and eldona the crew had fun with candy when he arrived on set in the eldona costume they wolf whistled at him candy turned around and said boy the things I'll do for a million bucks the majority of the film was shot on the Warner Brothers back lot in stages aside from the occasional location shoot for the town of Vulcan Vania they used an old western back lot set the same one used for High Noon they paved the dirt road and made it look the best they could Aykroyd was fascinated with cars driving fast and Sherriff's he has a huge collection of cop and sheriff badges which he had the design team frame up for use in the court house set Aykroyd loved music as was seen in The Blues Brothers he needed a band for the film so we used his musical connections to get the band digital underground the Humpty dance was a big hit at the time and he was able to get the band to do a segment in the film they shot their scenes over the course of two days mostly in the courthouse set everyone was excited when they arrived but after doing a playback of their song hundreds of times it became tiresome and taxing on everyone Ackroyd on the other hand was having an absolute blast the entire time and loved playing along in the organ the design team made for him one of the extra band members was Tupac Shakur using the name Tupac this was the first time he was in a movie every day the studio was going over the dailies for the film and each time things got weirder to the point where they couldn't believe what they signed up for spending was out of control the studio heads called meetings asking to stop the bleeding but they wouldn't and for some reason the studio let them continue school buses piled on top of each other real working draw bridges that crossed an actual moat a roller coaster that went in and out of a mansion it was a nightmare come to life everything was real the muffler pile was 35 feet high and a hundred and fifty feet long the entire film was done with practical effects except for two scenes the moat and the wide shot of the house they use CG and matte paintings to extend the horizon on both Aykroyd wanted us to be a stylized horror comedy but once filming was underway he drove it more into the absurd no matter what he came up with for better or worse the studio let him do it he tried to inject more sight gags into the film like the scene where his nose clearly looks like a penis for a moment the discoloration in the hotdogs was to imply that yes they were made out of the previous criminals that were sent through the bone stripper well the studio was laying Aykroyd go mad there was a major problem on the set Chevy Chase after a while he was no longer interested in the production he was allegedly very rude to the crew and constantly complaining about everything he was especially mean towards Aykroyd one day in front of the whole crew he was yelling at Aykroyd he was berating him over how much more the studio was paying him for being the star as if that meant he was more valuable to the production than the director it was rumored that Chase was getting paid substantially more than accurate was for his work on the film the crew is furious one of them said they drop a brick on chases head if he ever spoke to Dan like that again they loved Aykroyd and they all bent over backwards to help him make the movie he set out to make it became obvious to everyone that was now just phoning in his performances and doing the bare minimum each day's shooting for the beginning they scouted Centralia Pennsylvania and used the coal fires as the basis for the explosive finale they had mechanisms set up to shake and rip apart the house explosions and tons of pyrotechnics the Train the chase and more escape on was a small piece of track with a working train which was located in the town of Fillmore it's been used in numerous productions from next to water for Elephants while filming they ran into another problem the ending it was written and rewritten a few times but just didn't work finally they decide to have it end with Jason Moore back in their apartment and they find out the judge is still alive then they end on a psych gag of chased crashing through the wall Tex Avery style overall they weren't happy with it but the film needed an ending and this was the best they could come up with to close out the insanity accurate said that what happens in the film really comes from American Life it's taken a comedic nightmarish extremes but the origin is very real there are crazy old judges out there in the woods capable of any kind of behavior he also noted that he knows a family that has two brothers with infant bodies and they're so fat they're not allowed in the house so while the movie is taken to ridiculous extremes that's not good no good no good there is a foundation in reality there Aykroyd also enjoyed the fact that he was able to play a bad guy for once his roles largely hannumas the happy-go-lucky good guy and in this he was an outright insane killer shooting went over schedule by about a week and in the end the whole thing cost about forty five million dollars with the exception of Chevy Chase everyone got along Demi Moore was kind to the rest of the cast and crew she put up with a lot from being manhandled by the giant babies to having to crawl around in some disgustingly dirty environments she was fine with that but seemed most annoyed by Chase complaining on her behalf that her costume for the film was too skimpy John Candy got along with everyone at the end of filming he gave personal thank-you gifts to some of the crew after they finished filming Aykroyd made his director's cut and screened it for the studio needless to say the studio saw Aykroyd's cut of the film and to put it mildly they didn't like it the film was cartoonishly violent and thus too you knew would get an R so they had them ended it down to make sure it only got a pg-13 they figured that would be the only way they might be able to salvage what they considered a mess because of this they had to delay the film from his Christmas 1990 release and rescheduled it to hit theaters in February of 1991 with the new edit the studio is now doing damage control they got rid of the shooting title Vulcan Vania and changed it to nothing but trouble a line Diane says about Chris with the new edit they had a screening for the cast and crew in a local theater none of the producers showed up Aykroyd didn't show up none of the principal cast showed up the folks that were there with a crew and a few of the minor characters they loved the movie and howled with laughter at all the bizarre creations that made it onto the screen everything they dreamed up no matter how absurd Aykroyd liked and was able to get the studio to give them the okay it was one big crazy home movie to them with the movie coming closer to release they hired the famous artist Boris Vallejo to paint a promotional poster for the movie much like he did for the vacation films he painted a brilliant work that encompassed many elements of the movie for whatever reason the studio chose not to use it for the main marketing of the film man instead went with the generic floating head poster the original piece was auctioned off back in 2012 nothing but trouble opened on February 15 1991 in roughly 1600 theaters and was a monumental failure it opened in eighth place and had one of the lowest per screen averages in movie history it made about 8.5 million which didn't come close to recovering it's 45 million dollar budget it made less money than warlock which opened a month earlier in two hundred and sixty-one theaters to be fair the movie that Warner Brothers was having other problems with bonfire the vanities was moved into the Christmas slot that nothing but trouble was gonna have it fared similarly opening in eighth place and taking in about 15 million dollars in its run while the flop initially hurt that was involved it didn't have any long-lasting effects except for Aykroyd he never directed again and the flop damaged his relationship with Weiss so they never worked together again numerous members of the crew who worked on much bigger films in their careers but many of them said this film was the most enjoyable work had in their professional lives the general consensus was they would do just about anything to work with accurate again of course that is likely didn't never happen nothing but troubles one of the most bizarre films ever made it's hated by many loved by few regardless of your feelings in the film one way or the other you can't deny the amount of pure creativity put into this it's like Aykroyd opened his brain and just filmed whatever spilled out and that to the fact that it's done by some of the best talent in the industry so not only is it crazy but it all looks great the sets makeup props everything it's clear all the money they spent was up on the screen the movie looks beautiful in widescreen unfortunately the only version that's currently available is a DVD in full frame it drastically reduces the scale of the film and you really can't appreciate all the work put into this because you can't see a good chunk of it two things about the film that I think messed it up first the studio making them cut it down to pg-13 they show to let it stand as it was they already sank a ton of money into it without question why change it so late in the game it was meant to be a horror comedy but by them cutting out the cartoonish violence it cut out much of the comedy the other was Chevy Chase I think a lot of folks don't identify with the movie because it has no center in something this bizarre you need someone to be the ground which was supposed to be the lead however even before I started looking into this I could tell he was annoyed with the production with him not delivering on what he was paid substantially to do it prevented the film from having a broader appeal than it would have had sure some folks still wouldn't have liked it but overall it would have had a better chance of drawing people into the film if they had someone to root for while the movie is kind of a mess I'm glad it exists while so many films are focused tested to death and tailored to whatever was popular at the time it's refreshing to see something so filled with unbridled passion Aykroyd had his concepts and for better or worse he was able to have the entirety of it visualized he managed to say I've got a film about a crazy 100 and six year old judge that kills people for minor traffic violations and turns them into hot dogs he does this while living in a giant scrap heap surrounded by traps and oh did I mention this is a comedy it boggles my mind that Warner Brothers response to this was great here's four million dollars [Music] we don't want to hear the story of your life we just want to pay the ticket and get the hell out of here I'm sorry judge well look at him he's going on and on this court here with binds you over for a further appearance to be held at four o'clock tomorrow afternoon we show Dean for the public and common good that you be confined here and so for now [Music] you

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Keywords: good bad flicks, goodbadflicks, movie, Exploring Nothing but Trouble, Nothing but Trouble, Dan Aykroyd

Id: 8TFfL1aUDaQ

Length: 21min 5sec (1265 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 12 2018