Harold Ramis
Harold Ramis
Harold Allen Ramiswas an American actor, director, writer, and comedian. His best-known film acting roles were as Egon Spengler in Ghostbustersand Ghostbusters IIand Russell Ziskey in Stripes; he also co-wrote those films. As a writer-director, his films include the comedies Caddyshack, National Lampoon's Vacation, Groundhog Day, and Analyze This. Ramis was the original head writer of the television series SCTV, on which he also performed, and he was one of three screenwriters of the film National Lampoon's Animal House...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionDirector
Date of Birth21 November 1944
CityChicago, IL
CountryUnited States of America
I did a comedy with Al Franken about his character Stuart Smalley, which was really about alcoholism and addiction and codependency. It had some painful stuff in it. When we showed it to focus groups, some of them actually said, "If I want to see a dysfunctional family, I'll stay home."
The rule of thumb for a director or producer - which prevents them from just sticking their names on everything - is that you have to contribute substantially more than 50 percent of the character dialogue and story.
With both Caddyshack and Vacation, it's not like the subjects were serious enough that they engaged my interest for another round. I love the characters, and the actors were great, but I didn't see the need to make another Vacation movie.
My only conclusion about structure is that nothing works if you don't have interesting characters and a good story to tell.
My characters aren't losers. They're rebels. They win by their refusal to play by everyone else's rules.
I've never been a big believer in ghosts or the spirit world, and for me, that was part of the point of the movie, ... What the 'Ghostbusters' represented was the triumph of human courage and human ingenuity. People create their own monsters. Our fears come from within us, not outside.
Plus I'm not so sure Bill was wildly enthusiastic about putting the suit on again,
As much as we'd like to believe that our work is great and that we're infallible, we're not. Hollywood movies are made for the audience. These are not small European art films we're making.
You just make sure you don't screw it up. It's going to work as long as you don't mess it up. Hopefully you have plenty of those moments in a big comedy.
Dan has many interesting sidelines and he's fascinated by the world of paranormal. It's part of his family history, in fact, ... He has relatives he claims were spirit mediums. He also believes in alien visitation and there is some speculation that Dan is an alien. He's so genuinely enthusiastic about the stuff. That's what was on the page when he showed it to us.
They both have this really explosive unpredictable energy. You just don't know what they're going to do,
I totally claim that it was us that turned 'slimed' into a verb,
And then there's some certain physical similarities just in stature and the way they move. They move funny. Belushi used to just walk out onstage, audiences would laugh. And I see that in Jack.
Approaching it skeptically, I wanted to know if you were going to make a sincere scientific investigation, what would be the parameters of that,