1982, author/director Barry Levinson made one of the large feature debut of all time with ”Diner“A critically acclaimed and Oscar-nominated gem about a group of guys struggling to understand and communicate with women in 1959 Baltimore. To film Showed a fantastic collection of future talents that included Kevin BaconPaul Reiser, Mickey Rourke, Ellen Barkin, Steve Guttenberg, Daniel Stern and Tim Daly – but Levinson had an equally impressive role for another “Diner“Related projects that never had a chance to build an audience.
In 1983, Levinson wrote and directed a pilot for a “Diner” – -TV series intended for CBS – if only the network retrieved it. “It was a very good pilot, I thought,” Levinson told IndieWire, noting that he had found excellent replacement for the actors in the film. Paul Reiser returned to play his role, but James Spader went in to fill Kevin Bacon’s shoes and Michael Madsen was thrown in the part played by Mickey Rourke. “They were absolutely fantastic,” Levinson said.
When Levinson prepares his latest film, “The Alt knight“For release, he is philosophical when it comes to CBS’s refusal to order” Diner “for series. “I’ve made different pilots over the years, and some come through, and others don’t,” he said. “” Homicide “came through,” Oz “came through, but others never hit the screen.” Levinson takes some comfort in a story he heard about CBS chairman Bill Paley later admitted that it was a mistake to let “Diner” die. “Probably he said,” We should have picked it up. “Is it for real, or did someone it and told me it? I don’t know, but I think it’s like that.”
Levinson credits the presence of “Diner” the movie to an unlikely source: Comedy Legend Mel Brookswith which Levinson worked as a writer on “Silent Movie” and “High Anxiety” in the late 1970s. “We worked together for over three years,” Levinson said. “I would tell him stories about the restaurants at lunch, and one day he told me:” You should write it as a movie. “I had never thought about it. I said,” Really? “
Brooks recommended that Levinson looked at Federico Fellinis “in Vitelloni” as a model, but Levinson had not seen it and could not find a copy. “Then it wasn’t like you could pull it up on streamers,” Levinson said. “I never got to see it, but that idea was put in my head and I just started writing.” Long after he ended the script Levinson realized that he had been influenced by another movie: Paddy Chayefsky’s “Marty”, both the 1953 -TV version and the 1955 feature film that won Oscar for best image.
“The line,“ What do you want to do tonight, Marty? “I don’t know Ang, what do you want to do?” I thought was amazing, “said Levinson. The most common line I have ever heard, but for me it might as well have been Shakespeare. Basically the two lonely guys but they did not talk about being alone. And I did not think about it then, but when I wrote” you, I tried. Their sensitivity and frustration and where to go with their lives.
The combination of Mel Brooks and Chayefsky was clearly instrumental, but Levinson says he didn’t realize it until years later. “You don’t necessarily know the impact in your life when they happen,” he said. “You don’t go,” Oh yes, I remember this. “It just got stuck there.”
