Roger Corman - Other Work

Other Work

He also directed one of William Shatner's earliest appearances in a lead role with The Intruder (aka, The Stranger 1962). Based on a novel by Charles Beaumont, the film, made for approximately USD$80,000, is known for its treatment of segregation and civil rights.

The late 1960s saw Corman and his films give a voice to the counter-culture of the time. In 1966, Corman made the first biker movie with The Wild Angels. It starred Peter Fonda and Nancy Sinatra and opened the 1966 Venice Film Festival. In 1967, The Trip, written by Jack Nicholson and starring Peter Fonda, began the psychedelic film craze of the late 1960s and was the American entry at Cannes that year. Joan Didion said she went to see The Wild Angels because "there on the screen was some news I was not getting from the New York Times. I began to think I was seeing ideograms of the future."

In 1970, Corman founded New World Pictures which became a small independently owned production/distribution studio, making many cult films such as Women in Cages (1971), Death Race 2000 (1975), Rock 'n' Roll High School (1979), Galaxy of Terror (1981), Children of the Corn (1984), and the Joe Dante film Piranha (1978). Corman's distribution side of New World brought many foreign films to mass audiences in the United States for the first time, including the works of Ingmar Bergman, François Truffaut, Federico Fellini, and Akira Kurosawa. In a ten-year period, New World Pictures won more Academy Awards for Best Foreign Film than all other studios combined. Corman eventually sold New World to an investment group in 1983 and later formed Concorde Pictures and New Horizons.

Corman's penultimate film as director was Von Richthofen and Brown (1971). Corman had always wanted to make an aviation movie, being a pilot himself. He then returned to directing once more with Frankenstein Unbound (1990). In total, Roger Corman has produced over 300 movies and directed more than 50.

In 2009, Corman produced and directed alongside director Joe Dante the web series "Splatter" for Netflix. The protagonist of the film is portrayed by Corey Feldman, and the story talks of the haunting tale of rock-and-roll legend Johnny Splatter. He also started contributing trailer commentaries to Dante's web series Trailers From Hell.

Corman produced the 2010 films Dinoshark and Dinocroc vs. Supergator for the Syfy cable television channel. Dinoshark premiered on March 13, 2010. Sharktopus, a Syfy production, premiered in September 2010.