The animated movie at least has the benefit of material that fits the genre, much better songs, a colorful graphic style, and another outing for the transmogrifying genie with the voice of Robin Williams.   |  [2] The movie was also a box office bomb and was only able to make back $19 million of its $20 million budget. Roger Soffer: That first script that we were hired to write together was called Men of Iron. Astonished that this genie who had been bottled up for most of the last 5,000 years would supply modern off-the- shelf candy in its highly visible commercial wrappers: M&Ms, etc. Kazaam (1996) Filming & Production. When Kazaam is singing the song "We genie" with Max, if you look closely, when he raps the part, "...and we was in Hades 'cause we moved with the Harem of the Prince of Akabrem..." His mouth is still moving for that split second after he finishes the line, but before they show Max's Face. “Kazaam is a textbook example of a filmed deal,” Ebert wrote, “in which adults assemble a package that reflects their own interests and try to sell it to kids. One year later, he received a lot of attention for directing a successful sci-fi film called The Running Man (1987) and then followed this up with a pair of family/comedy hits: The Cutting Edge (1992) and The Air Up there (1994). In motion pictures that record on film, 35 mm is the most commonly used gauge. Kazaam is a 1996 American fantasy family musical comedy movie.It was directed by Paul M. Glaser and was produced by Paul M. Glaser and Shaquille O'Neal. Max set out to search for his father in the hopes of rekindling their relationship. Kazaam was released on July 17, 1996. “Kazaam” is a textbook example of a filmed deal, in which adults assemble a package that reflects their own interests and try to sell it to kids. Christian Ford: Oh, who the fuck is this? 93 min He suddenly encounters Kazaam during his travels, who pesters Max into making a wish. She’s always been like The Oracle and would frequently tell us things that we didn’t want to hear. [3] Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade of "B+" on scale of A+ to F.[4], Roger Ebert gave the film 1.5 stars, writing: "Shaq has already proven he can act (in Blue Chips, the 1994 movie about college basketball). And in the course of this, he said that he had this idea about a genie and asked Penny if she knew anyone who could maybe write it. Roger Soffer: We might not have been equally desperate (because I was employed by commercial house), so you might have been more desperate than I was. In part because that was kind of the beginning of the end for the partnership between the creators of the Turtles [Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird]. New powers associated with that transformation were the major hook to this film, as well as the addition of a fifth turtle called Kirby (named after comic book legend Jack Kirby). 35 mm film is a film gauge used in filmmaking, and the film standard. With necessity driving the project forward, Glaser quickly set it up at a studio. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism. And then we had a really productive discussion. Younger kids won't find much to engage them. This regular feature is written by Blake J. Harris, who you might know as the writer of the book Console Wars, soon to be a motion picture produced by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg. Uncanny how much this plot resembles “Aladdin and the King of Thieves,” a Disney made-for-video production set for release next month. For even more, visit our Guide to Horror ... if you dare. That happens to other people, but it’ll work out for us. What do kids know, or care, about that? Roger Soffer: And it basically did work out for us. ‘Shaq Life’: Watch Films With the NBA Star to Celebrate New TNT Series. A wrecking ball destroyes an abandoned building, the impact knocking over a magic lamp inside and causing it to land on a boombox. He finds a one-eyed, bitter and half-blind great knight to train him and the story goes on from there. kazaam keanu keeping up with the joneses . One of the things that many writers learn—either quickly, before they start, or over a long, longer period—is that the primary job of a screenwriter in Hollywood is to satisfy other people’s desires. From Saint Maud to The Wicker Man we've rounded up some of our favorite British horror movies that are guaranteed to keep you looking over your shoulder for weeks to come. Over and over. Malik, having taken control of Kazaam's boombox, is now in control of Kazaam himself. So I got the project and I went to a friend of mine [Robert Cort at Interscope Pictures] who had produced two of the movies I had directed, The Cutting Edge and The Air Up There, and asked him if this was something he and his partners would be interested in. Affiliate links used when available. All names, trademarks and images are copyright their respective owners.