American film director
Martin Brest
(born August 8, 1951) is an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. After his feature debut,
Going in Style
(1979), he directed the action comedies
Beverly Hills Cop
(1984) and
Midnight Run
(1988), which were critical and commercial hits.
Brest then directed
Scent of a Woman
(1992), starring
Al Pacino
, who won the
Academy Award for Best Actor
for his performance. He followed it with
Meet Joe Black
(1998), which received mixed reviews. Brest's next film was
Gigli
(2003). After disagreements between Brest and
Revolution Studios
,
[1]
creative control was taken from him, resulting in a radically re-written and re-shot version of the original film being released,
[2]
which became his first and only non-profitable film
[3]
and, in fact, a
major box office bomb
, receiving scathing reviews. It remains his most recent film to date.
Background
[
edit
]
Brest was born to Eastern European immigrant parents in a working-class neighborhood in
the Bronx
in 1951.
[4]
[5]
[6]
He was influenced by watching
The Honeymooners
as a child, saying in a 2023 interview, "I was a kid watching it in a household that was economically not that different than in the show. I felt like it was a show made for my neighborhood. And that character of
Ralph Kramden
really touched me, that angry soul whose spirit blossoms".
[7]
Brest graduated from
Stuyvesant High School
in 1969 and from New York University's
School of the Arts
in 1973.
[5]
His NYU student film
Hot Dogs for Gauguin
(1972), starring a then unknown
Danny DeVito
and with a small part by then unknown
Rhea Perlman
, was one of 25 films chosen in 2009 by the
National Film Registry
of the Library of Congress to "be preserved as cultural, artistic and/or historical treasures".
[8]
Brest attended the
AFI Conservatory
, where he graduated with a Master of Fine Arts in 1977.
[5]
Career
[
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]
Brest's major studio debut was
Going in Style
(1979), which starred
George Burns
,
Art Carney
, and
Lee Strasberg
.
[9]
Brest was then hired to direct
WarGames
(1983), which starred
Matthew Broderick
, but he was fired three weeks into production amid conflicts with the film's executive producer, and replaced with
John Badham
.
[7]
[10]
The dismissal from
WarGames
left Brest highly pessimistic about his career, until he was recruited by
Don Simpson
and
Jerry Bruckheimer
to direct
Beverly Hills Cop
(1984), starring
Eddie Murphy
.
[7]
[11]
The film grossed over $300 million worldwide
[12]
and received Golden Globe nominations for Best Motion Picture (Musical or Comedy) and for Best Actor (Motion Picture Musical or Comedy, Eddie Murphy), as well as an
Academy Award
nomination for
Best Original Screenplay
.
Brest was in pre-production for
Rain Man
(1988), when he cast
Tom Cruise
in the role opposite
Dustin Hoffman
, before
Barry Levinson
eventually directed the film.
[13]
Brest's next film was the action-comedy
Midnight Run
(1988), starring
Robert De Niro
and
Charles Grodin
.
[14]
The film was another critical and commercial success, earning Brest another
Golden Globe Award
nomination for
Best Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy
as well as a Best Actor Motion Picture ? Musical or Comedy nomination for De Niro.
His work on
Scent of a Woman
(1992) earned him a
Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture ? Drama
. The film also won Golden Globes for
Al Pacino
and screenwriter
Bo Goldman
, as well as a Best Supporting Actor nomination for
Chris O'Donnell
. In addition, the film received four Academy Award nominations:
Best Picture
,
Best Director
,
Best Screenplay (Adapted)
, with Al Pacino winning
Best Actor
.
[15]
Brest's next film,
Meet Joe Black
(1998), starring
Brad Pitt
and
Anthony Hopkins
, was a loose remake of 1934's
Death Takes a Holiday
.
[16]
The film had an American box-office return of $44.6 million, taking in an additional $98.3 million overseas for a worldwide total of $142.9 million.
[17]
Brest wrote and directed
Gigli
(2003), starring
Ben Affleck
and
Jennifer Lopez
.
[18]
During filming, production company
Revolution Studios
took creative control from him, resulting in a radically re-written and re-shot version of the original film being released.
[18]
That version became one of the more notorious films of its time, with a scathing critical reception. A 2014 article in
Playboy
observed that in the then-eleven years since
Gigli
'
s release, Brest "went Full
Salinger
", appearing to have left the entertainment industry completely, without any further credits or major public appearances to his name.
[18]
However, in 2021, he appeared as a featured guest at a screening of
Beverly Hills Cop
and
Midnight Run
in Los Angeles, where he was interviewed by fellow filmmaker
Paul Thomas Anderson
.
[19]
Two years later, he gave an interview to
Variety
in which he reflected:
Once [
Gigli
] happened, I thought I'll never be invited back [to make more films]. Second, I would never be able to operate with the kind of control that a director, I feel, needs and deserves. So that felt like a clear signal it was time for me to back away.
I had a good run, and I enjoyed success and freedom, and that was fantastic. I would've liked it to go on longer, but everybody likes everything to go on longer.
[7]
Brest has received the American Film Institute's
Franklin J. Schaffner Achievement Award
, which "celebrates the recipient's extraordinary creative talents and artistic achievements."
[20]
His essays about art and artists have appeared in various books.
[21]
[22]
[23]
Filmography
[
edit
]
Awards and nominations
[
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]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Gilchrist, Todd (July 18, 2023).
"Director Martin Brest Revisits the Triumphs of 'Beverly Hills Cop' and 'Midnight Run,' and Reflects On His Post-'Gigli' Hollywood Exile (EXCLUSIVE)"
.
Variety
. Retrieved
February 9,
2024
.
- ^
"Martin Brest Directed Beverly Hills Cop, Midnight Run and, Yes, Gigli. Then He Vanished. Why? | Playboy"
. December 22, 2014. Archived from
the original
on December 22, 2014
. Retrieved
February 9,
2024
.
- ^
"Martin Brest - All His Movies Ranked"
.
Death By Films
. Retrieved
February 9,
2024
.
- ^
"Martin Brest"
.
Rotten Tomatoes
.
Fandango Media
. Retrieved
April 5,
2023
.
- ^
a
b
c
Coleman, Bryce.
"Martin Brest"
.
Turner Classic Movies
. Retrieved
April 5,
2023
.
- ^
https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1984/12/06/marty-brest-clicking/41aa6805-a13e-445f-b72e-5974dc41e5cc/
- ^
a
b
c
d
Gilchrist, Todd (July 18, 2023).
"Director Martin Brest Revisits the Triumphs of 'Beverly Hills Cop' and 'Midnight Run,' and Reflects On His Post-'Gigli' Hollywood Exile"
.
Variety
. Retrieved
July 18,
2023
.
- ^
"Michael Jackson, the Muppets and Early Cinema Tapped for Preservation in 2009 Library of Congress National Film Registry"
.
Library of Congress
. December 30, 2009.
- ^
Canby, Vincent
(December 25, 1979).
"Movie: 3 Widowers Try 'Going in Style'
"
.
The New York Times
. Retrieved
October 8,
2018
.
- ^
Brown, Scott (July 21, 2008).
"WarGames: A Look Back at the Film That Turned Geeks and Phreaks Into Stars"
.
Wired
.
- ^
THR Staff (December 5, 2016).
"
'Beverly Hills Cop': THR's 1984 Review"
.
The Hollywood Reporter
.
- ^
"Beverly Hills Cop"
.
Box Office Mojo
.
- ^
Breihan, Tom (June 12, 2020).
"Rain Man's movie-star chemistry holds up better than its depiction of autism"
.
The A.V. Club
. Retrieved
June 19,
2022
.
- ^
Canby, Vincent
(July 20, 1988).
"REVIEW/FILM; DE NIRO AND GRODIN IN CROSS-COUNTRY CHASE"
.
The New York Times
.
- ^
Idasetima, Courtney (December 23, 2017).
"The Cast of 'Scent of a Woman,' Then and Now"
.
The Hollywood Reporter
.
- ^
Maslin, Janet
(November 13, 1998).
"FILM REVIEW; When Death Comes to Call, Serve Peanut Butter"
.
The New York Times
.
- ^
"Meet Joe Black"
. Box Office Mojo.
- ^
a
b
c
Patches, Matt (December 19, 2014).
"MARTIN BREST DIRECTED BEVERLY HILLS COP, MIDNIGHT RUN AND, YES, GIGLI. THEN HE VANISHED. WHY?"
.
Playboy
. Archived from
the original
on December 22, 2014.
- ^
Saito, Stephen (July 26, 2021).
"
"Every Day Was Like, 'How Do We Pull This Off?'" Martin Brest on "Midnight Run"
"
.
Moveable Feast
. Retrieved
September 15,
2021
.
- ^
"Franklin J. Schaffner Award"
.
- ^
Wendy M. ; Siedell Daniel A. Brest, Martin; Blazier (January 1, 2009).
An Unfinished Conversation: Collecting Entique Martinez Celaya
. Boca Raton Museum of Art.
ISBN
978-0-936859-80-4
.
{{
cite book
}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (
link
)
- ^
"Tom Chamberlain: Regardless"
.
Drawing Room
. Retrieved
February 9,
2024
.
- ^
"Text Book Tamy BenTor Miki Carmi"
.
www.spdbooks.org
. Retrieved
February 9,
2024
.
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