- Andrew McCarthy, St Elmo’s Fire, 1984. One studio chief called the life-after-college pals “the most loathsome humans” he’d ever read. Nobody liked the script, the song, most casting ideas and the title – one Columbia suit spent 35 memo pages on why it should be Sparks or The Real World and not after an obscure meteorological phenomenon! Co-scenarist Carl Kurlunder told all to Deadline Hollywood for the 35th anniversary in July 2020 – ten days after the death of his co-writer and director Joel Shumacher. They saw hundreds (“if not thousands”) of actors – including Emilio Estevez and Chris Makepeace (from Meatballs) for for the shy sardonic Kevin Dolenz. Among the rejectees were singer Laura Brannigan, Jonathan Cryer, Anthony Edwards, Linda Hamilton, Crispin Glover and Joel felt Madonna would not be keen on an ensemble. After all, the cast was soon called The Brat Pack.
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