Bluto, the volcanic Samurai Futaba, “Joliet” Jake Blues, the Cheeseburger Man, a spasmodic Joe Cocker—the list of characters John Belushi brought to life in his all-too-brief but remarkable career only hints at his outsized role in American comedy.
“This guy was pure visionary,” marvels R.J. Cutler, director of the Showtime documentary Belushi about the late film star and original Saturday Night Live cast member. “[His] work remains vital to this very day.”
To make his biographical film Cutler initially reached out to many of Belushi’s famous contemporaries. But that only took him so far.
“I spent a fair amount of time [chatting] with folks who had known John, and I started to feel like the stories they were telling me were kind of lost in the foggy haze of memory. They felt a little like, ‘These are the stories I tell when I tell stories about John Belushi,’” Cutler recalls.
“This guy was pure visionary,” marvels R.J. Cutler, director of the Showtime documentary Belushi about the late film star and original Saturday Night Live cast member. “[His] work remains vital to this very day.”
To make his biographical film Cutler initially reached out to many of Belushi’s famous contemporaries. But that only took him so far.
“I spent a fair amount of time [chatting] with folks who had known John, and I started to feel like the stories they were telling me were kind of lost in the foggy haze of memory. They felt a little like, ‘These are the stories I tell when I tell stories about John Belushi,’” Cutler recalls.
- 1/26/2021
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
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