Milos Forman was looking for the best writer to adapt the hippie anti-war musical Hair for the big screen. The Czech filmmaker already had a growing U.S. following in the wake of The Firemen’s Ball and Taking Off when 1975’s One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest took home five Oscars including best film and best director. And while Michael Weller had zero experience as a screenwriter, he did have a reputation for plays that cast a gimlet eye on the generation that came of age in the era of protest against the Vietnam War and for civil rights. His works included Moonchildren (1971), Loose Ends (1979) and Spoils Of War (1988), which interwove the intensely felt political and personal obsessions of Baby Boomers on the cusp of adulthood.
For Forman, Weller would write two of the most underrated films of their time, Hair (1979) and, two years later, Ragtime. Like his...
For Forman, Weller would write two of the most underrated films of their time, Hair (1979) and, two years later, Ragtime. Like his...
- 12/29/2014
- by Jeremy Gerard
- Deadline
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