Whatever Happened To John Hughes?

JOHN HUGHES hasn't set foot in Hollywood for years, but his influence has never been more potent. The king of 1980s comedy, Hughes now qualifies as something of a Howard Hughes-style recluse -- he doesn't have an agent, doesn't give interviews and lives far away, somewhere in Chicago's sprawling North Shore suburbs where most of his films were set.

But he has an entire generation of fans in the industry who grew up infatuated with his films, especially a string of soulful mid-1980s teen comedies that helped capture the eternal drama of modern teenage existence. They include "Sixteen Candles," "Pretty in Pink," "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" and "The Breakfast Club," which no less an authority than Courtney Love once called "the defining moment of the alternative generation." Any number of successful actors and filmmakers, from Judd Apatow and Kevin Smith to Vince Vaughn, Ben Stiller and Wes Anderson, are fans, having soaked up Hughes' keen observational humor, love of mischief and shrewd dissection of social hierarchies.

"John Hughes wrote some of the great outsider characters of all time," says Apatow, the writer-director-producer whose new film, "Drillbit Taylor," is loosely based on an old Hughes story idea. "It's pretty ridiculous to hear people talk about the movies we've been doing, with outrageous humor and sweetness all combined, as if they were an original idea. I mean, it was all there first in John Hughes' films. Whether it's 'Freaks and Geeks' or 'Superbad,' the whole idea of having outsiders as the lead characters, that all started with Hughes."

Hollywood is full of older masters who've been mentors to younger acolytes. But Hughes, 58, is the only one who's disappeared without a trace; he quit directing in 1991, moved back to Chicago in 1995 and has basically stayed out of sight ever since.

Keep reading

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See where Hughes' lead characters from his 80s' movies are now.

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Read reviews of "Drillbit Taylor" and about Owen Wilson's failure to do publicity

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Read how it underperformed at the box office

Comments

[rikki52b]

I always wondered why someone didn't take Ferris Buellers Day Off and repackage it for Broadway. It would be a smash hit, the car, music and characters are all made for this. Perhaps Hughes has been approached with no thanks.

[jrb35]

That's all we need. A great movie being destroyed by a bunch of musical theater geeks who think that everything can be improved by adding a song and dance number. Leave it alone and create something original!

[LoRiseAntlers]

Yes,we need more crap recycled and repackaged.There's nothing like taking a middling teen comedy,writing some songs and calling it a musical.

[rmetz74]

I've had the same idea! I mean, it has a PARADE!

[LivingStardust]

Anyone care? Anyone? (Funnier if read in the voice of Ben Stein)

[batgirlevi]

Ben Stein isn't funny.

[LivingStardust]

I didn't say he was. No one who worked for Nixon is intrinsically funny.

[armstp]

Actually I think it is a bit extreme to say that John Hughes has dropped out of sight. He has been very active as both a writer and producer. Only thing he did was move away from directing. Other than that he continues to have a very full hollywood career. I don't think he is any less visable in the media than any other producer or writer, so your article seems like a bit of a stretch...

[BurtR]

The idea of Lake county characters being outsiders makes me want to puke. The reason he isn't producing is because they have all grown up to become commodity traders. He could make one last good movie about the Glenbrook North girls who rub shit in each others faces.

[redfern]

Wow- I could not have said that any better. Although I grew up in Wasp-er-ville myself, I suppose it's a scary idea to analyze why his waspishness has been so popular. Maybe we shouldn't go there.

Bogosian's Suburbia comes to mind as rich kids creating problems for themselves because their parents don't give them the love they want or deserve. You see that same thing in Hughes films.

Less Than Zero nicely took Hughes ideas into a more real place than anything Hughes made (although it's aged badly).

[Rod]

Glenbrook North is Cook County (smart-guy) in Northbrook, formerly known as Shermerville (hence Shermer, IL). But I agree that everyone that was in GBN was more like James Spader in Pretty in Pink than any of Hughes' other characters.

[Bobleblah1]

Having grown up on Chicago's north side and north shore, I get it.
This guy made enough of a mark that he proved his point. He conquered his field.
While LA can be lots of fun, with great weather and pretty girls. There is something more
down to earth about Chicago. As we say back home "less perpetration"
Why deal with the world of dudes with product in their hair driving around in convertible 325i's if you don't have to? You know the type, just enough money to think they are the shit, but not enough money to have a real dignity in their life.
I am close with the family of a major writer and director of some television classics, and that guy doesn't have anything to do with "Hollywood" anymore other than living in the hills. Even for people in Hollywood, Hollywood very often is not the end game. At least one would hope so

[Irons]

Outsiders as lead characters started with Hughes? LMAO.

[JaneaneTheAcerbicGoblin]

I thought that line was hilarious too. "Outsiders as lead characters started with Hughes", man, haven't they heard of Rebel Without a Cause?

Hughes is one of the most overrated filmmakers ever.

[HDR]

I agree. One generation had Brando and Dean. The 80's had Broderick and E.T.?

[robotfog]

I agree too. I don't get it, but then, I don't understand half of what the rest of the population likes.

[wayoutleft]

this is a conflation of cool rebel outsider james dean types, and actual nerds. they are very different types. the nerd movies guys aren't really nerds like supposedly plain girls in the movies aren't really plain (because plain is a whole different thing 4'x6' wide on the screen.) anthony michael hall and his asian buddy are in the nerd direction though. the geeks on beauty and the geek are maybe as geeky as can be publicly presented in entertainment.

[expatstudent]

I should also say that Weird Science is not mentioned here. Not as iconic as his other work, but still one of the funniest. So many great lines....

i also think there was a political incorrectness there that might not translate now. and the brat pack, with FEW exceptions, aren't exactly on the A-list anymore. (though again, in keeping with the article, some are doing great work when they pop up)

[JScott]

Sooo what's he doing in 'retirement'?

[BlueandGreen]

Hughes must have had a miserable adolescence because he seemed to understand teenage angst better than anyone. What high school didn't have every character in Sixteen Candles: the wiseguy, the prom queen, the popular jock, the crushes suffered through from afar? And who could ever forget John Cusack as the pencil necked geek?!

[strifeknot]

I'm hoping he's come to the realization he has no talent, never made anything but unintelligent, crowd-pleasing fare, and has retired from the shame of it all.

[zreeb]

Major motion pictures that are crowd pleasing, what an atrocity!

[rpence]

"An atrocity"--yes, that is a label tailor-made for any film shat out by John Hughes, but particularly Ferris Bueller and Home Alone.

Misanthropic, smug, and poisonous to the mind and soul. That's the canon of John Hughes.

[grayforester]

Before his film career took off I remember he had a couple stories published in the National Lampoon. Mid-seventies. One was about a teenage guy who woke up one morning to find he'd been equipped with the primary genitalia of a girl. Oh, the complications! Now that would have been a great vehicle for Anthony Michael Hall.

[PopeRatzo]

He doesn't make documentaries, though.

[ditsylilg]

I still laugh when I remember the details of that National Lampoon story. Thanks for putting another smile on my face!!

[Earl]

I remember that story, too. Probably the only NL story I do remember.

[robotfog]

I wish. (I'm transgendered)

[Rachel36]

"...the whole idea of having outsiders as the lead characters, that all started with Hughes." As much as I've enjoy John Hughes, I would say this is an inaccurate statement. 'Rebel Without a Cause' or 'The Wild Ones' would be the definitive outsider movies.

[grayforester]

In comedy, Rachel. Keep up.

[LeftRoss]

Hmmm...Outsider in comedic film...

[LeftRoss]

My comment was cut off - it should have continued: Can you say Charlie Chaplin?

[maca]

Outsiders in comedy "invented" by John Hughes? Give me a break. Guess no John Hughes fans ever saw a John Waters film. Now there were some REAL outsiders, not the sanitary, safe, Syd Field approved, "Screenwriting-101" outsiders which populated Hughes films. Make the beautiful girl wear punkish clothes and want to be a drummer in a rock band - wow, that was really pushing the envelope, Hughes. "Whatever happened to John Hughes" is a question to which I had hoped never to hear an answer.

[expatstudent]

Does the Nutty Professor count? lol

[robotfog]

marx brothers.

3 stooges.

W.C. Fields

dead end kids.

[feo]

You all need to read more. Most lead characters in literature have been outsiders. Hey, even Jesus was a weirdo.

[robotfog]

what do you mean "was"? Didn't he arise?

[Rachel36]

I read plenty; the article is about movies.

[WTEffington]

"Little Rascals" anyone?

[loril]

I have vaguely wondered over the years why I never hear about John Hughes anymore...but never realized he went reclusive on us. Maybe he was just there for a moment in one generation's life and now we all have to move on. Too bad. I would be curious to see anything he was involved in.

[LiberalDemIda]

It's John Hughes' movies that has made the 80's such a memorable decade for me. Love his off-beat characters that so fit in the era of Prince, Madonna and Michael Jackson.

[robotfog]

God. I hate that decade. I want to go back with a time bomb and blow it up. (blow up the 1980's)

[DasBoot]

I have been asking myself that very same question for years. Whatever happened to one of the greatest comedy writers/directors of American cinema?

[maca]

I thought this thread was about John Hughes.

[Phaedrusnyc]

"Curly Sue" happened.

[robotfog]

I just looked up "Curly Sue". Thank God he stopped before he destroyed the nineties too.

[JaneaneTheAcerbicGoblin]

One of the greatest writer/directors of American cinema? Talk about hyperbole and wayyy over the top. I think John Ford, Frank Capra, Orson Welles, Stanley Kubrick, William Wyler, Cecil B. DeMille, and a ton of others are way ahead of John Hughes.

John Hughes made one good film, and that was Planes, Trains, and Automobiles. It was good mainly because of 2 great lead performance in Steve Martin and the late John Candy. The Home Alone films were needlessly violent and stupid, and his teen comedies were really quite shallow. He'll just be remembered as a product of the 1980's.

[robotfog]

He lives in new york city and changed from comedies to dramas with the occasional comedy. I hear he divorced Mia Farrow.

[JaneaneTheAcerbicGoblin]

Greatest comedy writers/directors of American cinema? Are you insane?

Talk about hyperbolic and melodramatic.