This Month in Filmmaking History – May 2022

Marine science educator and animator Stephen Hillenburg created the "SpongeBob SquarePants" cartoon series, which debuted on Nickelodeon on this day in history in 1999. It went on to be one of the most successful American animated series in history. The series follows a sea sponge and his friends, and many of the stories are based on Hillenburg's textbook about undersea life, called "The Intertidal Zone." It was renewed for a 13th season last year and has spawned three film spinoffs and more than $13 billion in merchandising revenue.

The Danish black comedy film "Festen," known as "The Celebration" in English, premiered on this day in history in 1998. It is the first example of a Dogme 95 film, which was a Danish artistic movement that limited filmmakers to specific production and narrative rules as a challenge to traditionally expensive Hollywood films. The rules were meant to go back to basics, focusing on traditional values of a story such as acting, theme, plot, avoiding special effects, and even post-production sound editing. Screenwriter Mogens Rukov and director Thomas Vinterberg wrote the screenplay based on a story told on a Danish radio station by an abused young man. It turned out later that the man made up the story.

After a 25-year hiatus on production for "Spider-Man," multiple scripts, and numerous production companies, this summer blockbuster broke weekend box-office records when it finally debuted on this day in history in 2002. Columbia Pictures optioned all previous versions of the screenplay, including elements from an earlier version by James Cameron. David Koepp was hired to finish the script, which was later rewritten by Scott Rosenberg and polished by Alvin Sargent. The story is based on the Marvel Comics character, and the film got two sequels. "Spider-Man" is credited with redefining the superhero genre in film. Cameron, Rosenberg, and Sargent reportedly voluntarily relinquished script credit to Koepp.

Considered by many experts to be one of the best French films in history, "The 400 Blows" debuted on this day in history in 1959. François Truffaut and Marcel Moussy wrote the screenplay, which was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay in 1960. The film was also Truffaut's directorial debut. It follows a rebellious Parisian boy, a character who is a semi-autobiographical representation of Truffaut. He won the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Director and was nominated for the Palme d'Or.

David Franzoni, John Logan, and William Nicholson are credited with the historical action drama "Gladiator," which debuted on this day in history in 2000. Franzoni pitched the initial screenplay and wrote the first draft, inspired by Daniel Mannix's novel "Those About to Die." After director Ridley Scott was attached, he hired John Logan to fix the dialogue in Franzoni's script. Two weeks before filming began, a third writer, Nicholson, was hired after actors complained that the screenplay had problems – and lead actor Russell Crowe expressed that frustration loudly. He reportedly stormed off set often and rewrote many lines himself, at one point attempting to rewrite the entire thing on the spot. Ultimately, "Gladiator" was a huge success, winning five Academy Awards and grossing nearly $460 million on a $103 million production budget.

Stephen Sommers both directed and wrote the 99' action horror "The Mummy," along with writers Lloyd Fonvielle and Kevin Jarre. The story is based on a 1932 film by the same name, though many details were changed. It follows an adventurer who accidentally awakens a spirit in the City of the Dead. Critics give the film mixed reviews to this day, but it was a box office success, grossing $416 million worldwide and reportedly coming in under its $80 million production budget.

Did you know that the ending in "Friday the 13th" wasn't in the shooting script and was a suggestion by the film's makeup designer? Victor Miller wrote the horror script, which was initially titled "A Long Night at Camp Blood." The new title, "Friday the 13th," was director Sean S. Cunningham's idea. Cunningham had previously worked with Wes Craven and was also inspired by John Carpenter's "Halloween," telling Miller that he wanted to give audiences jump-out-of-your-seat feeling, with even more of a rollercoaster ride than his predecessors. The movie was supposed to end with Alice floating on the lake, but makeup designer Tom Savini suggested bringing in Jason for more of a "chair-jumper" ending. It's proof that great ideas can come from anyone!

While perhaps best known as the host of The Oscars each year, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences does so much more than hand out entertainment awards. Since its first official meeting of just 36 people on this day in history in 1927, the Academy has grown into an organization with nearly 10,000 motion picture professional members with the goal of advancing the arts and sciences of motion pictures. Louis V. Mayer, head of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), said he wanted to create an organization that wasn't a union but could still mediate labor disputes and improves the industry's image. But, as the years went by, the Academy became more focused on awards of merit. It now holds the Governor's Awards for lifetime achievement, the Scientific and Technical Awards, the Student Academy Awards, the Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting, and operates the Margaret Herrick Library and the Pickford Center for Motion Picture Study.

On this day in history in 1969, Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin formed one of the most famous comedy troupes of all time, Monty Python. Their sketch series, "Monty Python's Flying Circus," aired 45 episodes on BBC and spun off books, musicals, films, and stage shows. The team played with the conventions of comedy and television, creating something new and unique in the process, a style that's often referred to as "Pythonesque." While Idle reportedly wrote alone, Jones and Palin and Cleese and Chapman wrote in pairs, and after a few days, the troupe would get together to decide what was funny. Majority ruled. The various sketches are united with the common thread of Gillian's animations, often bridging disparate storylines.

Happy birthday to Academy Award-winning screenwriter Alan Ball! Ball wrote the screenplays for "American Beauty" (for which he won an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay), and he also created the series "6 Feet Under" and "True Blood." Ball is also a director and producer and says his Buddhist faith influences his filmmaking style.

Happy birthday to George Lucas! Most famous for the "Star Wars" and "Indiana Jones" franchises, Lucas is both a filmmaker and an entrepreneur. He founded LucasFilm, LucasArts, and Industrial Light & Magic and is one of the most financially successful filmmakers of all time. While he's been nominated for four Academy Awards, he's never won a competitive honor. He was, however, awarded the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award, an honorary statuette for achievement in creative production.

Guillermo Arriaga wrote the screenplay for "Amores Perros," which premiered on this day in history in 2000. The film, part crime, part thriller, and part comedy-drama, earned a nomination for Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards. It also won the Ariel Award for Best Picture from the Mexican Academy of Film. The story follows three separate stories connected by a car accident, with heavy themes of inequality, violence, and disloyalty. Dogs are also important to all of the characters somehow, and the film's depiction of dogfighting in Mexico City is said to have played a role in Mexico's outlawing of dogfighting in 2017.

Fifteen people received what is now known as an Oscar award on this day in history in 1929 at a private dinner hosted by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel in Los Angeles. That would later be considered the very first Academy Awards presentation, though it wasn't broadcast via radio until 1930. The first televised broadcast was in 1953, and now, the awards show that honors artistic and technical achievement in film is broadcast worldwide. To this day, it's considered one of the prestigious awards in entertainment.

Abbas Kiarostami wrote, produced, and directed the Iranian drama "Taste of Cherry," which premiered on this day in 1997. The film won the Cannes Film Festival Palme d'Or. The story and style are considered minimalist, with long, leisurely shots and no background music. The film is about a man who wants to commit suicide but first attempts to hire someone who can bury him after he does so. He meets three people, and the last agrees but not without first telling a story about how he, too, wanted to commit suicide but changed his mind after tasting mulberries. The ending of the movie, without revealing too much, breaks the fourth wall.

The Mexican horror-drama film "Cronos," written and directed by Guillermo del Toro, debuted on this day in history in 1993. Although it was Toro's first feature-length film, it is now recognized by cinema experts as one of the great Spanish-language horror films of all time for its originality, mythology, and acting. The plot centers on a mysterious device that is meant to give its user eternal life. The device is rediscovered after being hidden for 400 years. Toro created a sequel, released in 2010, titled "We Are What We Are."

The animated feature "Shrek" debuted on this day in history in 2001, helping to solidify DreamWorks Animation as a worthy competitor against Pixar. The story, written by Ted Elliott, Terry Rossio, Joe Stillman, and Roger S.H. Schulman, was loosely based on a book by the same name, written by William Steig. One of the film's producers discovered the book through his kids and pitched the idea to DreamWorks. "Shrek" was a box-office and awards-season success, winning the first-ever Oscar for Best Animated Feature.

"Do the Right Thing" was written by Spike Lee, who also stars in the film that premiered on this day in history in 1989. It's about a neighborhood in Brooklyn experiencing increased racial tensions, ultimately ending in violence. Lee said he got the idea for the screenplay after watching an episode of "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" that centered around the concept that hot weather brings out violence in people and recent racial incidents in which two African Americans were killed. He wrote the script in just two weeks, and it went on to be nominated for Best Original Screenplay at the Academy Awards.

Though it is the fourth film to be released chronologically, "Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace" begins the Skywalker saga and is the first in the prequel trilogy. The film debuted on this day in history in 1999, nearly 25 years after George Lucas wrote and directed "Star Wars" in 1977. Lucas felt that computer-generated imagery, or CGI, had finally advanced far enough to make his vision for the film a reality. Though it was the second highest-grossing film worldwide that year behind "Titanic," critics gave the movie mixed reviews. Most praised the CGI but felt the screenplay and Jar Jar Binks and Anakin's characterization fell flat. "Attack of the Clones" followed in 2002, and "Revenge of the Sith" rounded out the trilogy in 2005.

Wong Kar-Wai wrote, produced, and directed "In The Mood For Love," which premiered on this day in history at the Cannes Film Festival in 2000. The Hong Kong romantic drama tops many best-of lists and is considered one of the great works of Asian cinema. The plot centers on a man and a woman whose spouses had an affair and the love connection that eventually develops between them. Critics praised the actors' performances and Wong Kar-Wai's "profoundly moving reflections on life fundamentals," including not just love but loss, betrayal, loneliness, and the passage of time. The film was nominated for but did not win the Palme d'Or at Cannes that year.

Screenwriter Leigh Brackett was hired to write the sequel "Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back," but she passed away before she could see the film come to fruition. Following her death, George Lucas outlined the entire Star Wars saga and wrote a next draft of "The Empire Strikes Back" himself, then brought on screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan, who had just completed writing "Raiders of the Lost Ark." Upon completion, the film was another huge success and remains one of the top-grossing films to this day, adjusted for inflation. The movie proved that a sequel could be as good if not better than an original film. Many critics consider this film, also referred to as Episode V, to be the best in the Star Wars saga. It premiered on this day in history in 1980.

Bong Joon-ho, Ha Won-jun, and Baek Chul-hyun wrote the screenplay for the highly anticipated South Korean monster film, "The Host," which premiered on this day in history in 2006. The film's release followed Joon-ho's successful film, "Memories of Murder," so "The Host" was released on a record number of South Korean screens upon its debut. The story follows a man whose daughter is kidnapped by a monster. Joon-ho said a deformed fish with a crooked spine that washed up in the Han River inspired the monster. Critics in the U.S. gave the film high marks upon its release in American markets in 2007.

The South Korean Western "The Good, the Bad, the Weird" premiered on this day in 2008 at the Cannes Film Festival, inspired by Sergio Leone's "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly." Directed and written by Kim Jee-woon and co-written by Kim Min-suk, there are two versions of the script – one for the Korean market and one for the international version of the film released in the U.S. in 2010. The Korean version features several more minutes of footage and a more upbeat ending. Critics praised the film as a brilliant mashup of East meets West, but some felt it was overly violent and the screenplay overly simplistic. It remains one of the highest-grossing films of all time in South Korea.

Though the name might suggest it, screenwriter Randall Wallace is not related to the lead character in his epic drama "Braveheart" in any way. The film premiered on this day in history in 1995. Wallace was inspired to write the story of the medieval Scottish legend William Wallace after visiting Scotland to discover his familial roots. The screenplay caught the attention of the director, producer, and actor Mel Gibson, and the film went on to earn 10 Academy Award nominations, including Best Screenplay. It won five Oscars.

Terrence Malick's highly praised film "The Tree of Life" premiered on this day in history at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival, taking home the prestigious Palme d'Or Award that year. The film features big-name talent, including Brad Pitt and Sean Penn, and centers on a man's childhood memories from growing up in Texas in the 1950s while exploring the origins of life. Malick first started the screenplay for what would become this film back in the 70s but didn't pick up the idea again until the 2000s. The story was considered an ambitious and challenging undertaking. Penn would later say that while the screenplay was "one of the most magnificent" he had ever read, it was difficult to convey the same emotion on screen. He said he felt like a more conventional narrative would have made the film stronger without lessening its overall impact. Still, the film tops many best-of lists.

Guillermo del Toro wrote and directed "Pan's Labyrinth," which debuted in Spanish on this day in history in 2006 at the Cannes Film Festival. The story is original but draws on many inspirations, including dreams that del Toro experienced, fairy tales, roman mythology, and themes from his earlier film, "The Devil's Backbone." One of the movie's lead actors describes a meeting with del Toro, where the filmmaker described every detail of the film over two and a half hours, despite there being no screenplay yet. When the screenplay was finished, the actor said it was exactly the same as del Toro's description a year prior. "Pan's Labyrinth" was nominated for five Oscars, including Best Screenplay, and won three.

Author, journalist, and naval intelligence officer Ian Fleming was born on this day in history in 1908. Before his death in 1964, he would write 11 novels that told the stories of James Bond, an officer in the Secret Intelligence Service known as MI6. Those stories now rank among the top-selling books of all time, and of course, have inspired a pop-culture obsession with Bond, from films to more books, to cars, clothing, and martinis shaken, not stirred. Fleming once revealed that he would write approximately 2,000 words per day over three to four hours in the morning and one hour in the evening, never looking back to read what he wrote so he could continue to move forward.

The world met Marlin, Nemo, and many other memorable undersea characters on this day in history in 2003, with the premiere of the animated feature "Finding Nemo." Inspired by events in his own life, Andrew Stanton developed the story for the film, and he, along with David Reynolds and Bob Peterson, completed the screenplay. Stanton said his experience going to the dentist and looking at the fish tank as a young child, and his feeling of protection over his son sparked the idea for the film. A photo of clownfish in National Geographic Magazine led to the father-son fish characters in the film, Marlin and Nemo. The film was the first Pixar movie to win the Best Animated Feature Oscar at the Academy Awards, and it was nominated for Best Original Screenplay.