Hopper lives with his Schnabels and Warhols in an architecturally striking Venice compound. Known to a whole new generation as the crazed fan in those obnoxious Nike ads, he also is acknowledged to be a world-class modern-art collector. Hopper certainly defies simple categorization these days.
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"I'm never gonna be offered one, probably, but I don't think there's any kind of movie I can't make." "I would love to do a big action picture, I really would," Hopper said. The commercially successful cop movie "Colors" re-established Hopper's directing credentials in 1988. Other riveting performances have included his weird '60s casualty in "River's Edge" and Christian Slater's self-sacrificing father in "True Romance." Hopper mesmerized audiences with his demented portrayal of Frank Booth in David Lynch's "Blue Velvet" and earned an Oscar nomination for his supporting role as "Hoosiers' " alcoholic basketball fan. But it's really hard people are in such denial about their alcohol and drug use."Įven in the deepest depths of addiction, Hopper continued to work sporadically, making small but memorable appearances in such classic films as Francis Ford Coppola's "Apocalypse Now" and Wim Wenders' "The American Friend." "I'm not an exceptional person, I'm a recovering drug addict-alcoholic. Still rebel enough to dismiss suggestions that he's any kind of role model, Hopper nonetheless agrees that if he could dry out, anybody can:
Hopper said he achieved sobriety a dozen years ago, and he successfully has been navigating 12-step programs ever since. Hopper contends that his last five-year bender involved a daily intake of more than a half-gallon of rum, 28 beers and three grams of cocaine to keep him awake and drinking. "The Last Movie" shoot was wrought with the violent and self-destructive behavior Hopper would exhibit throughout the rest of the '70s and into the '80s. "I figured, probably, that Universal hired me again in case anything went wrong," Hopper joked.
Though it ultimately won an award from the Venice Film Festival, the incoherent fantasia proved virtually unreleasable, even at the height of the hippie era.Īnd it was bankrolled by Universal Pictures, the same outfit that sank a fortune into "Waterworld." Hopper's next directing effort, semiprophetically titled "The Last Movie," was a $1 million fiasco shot in an extended psychedelic stupor in Peru. But the film's co-starring co-writers, Hopper and Peter Fonda, were fated for bumpier career roads-Fonda's paved with poor choices, Hopper's with herculean excess. It was the ultimate counterculture movie, and it made supporting player Jack Nicholson a star. "Easy Rider," a drug-drenched motorcycle odyssey Hopper co-wrote and directed for a mere $340,000, went on to gross nearly $45 million worldwide. And in 1969, he did so-and in the process upended the film industry he'd never quite adjusted to. Kevin Costner, Dennis Hopper, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Tina Majorino, Michael Jeter, R.D.A five-year stint at Lee Strasberg's Actors Studio in the early '60s cooled Hopper down sufficiently, and he appeared in "The Sons of Katie Elder" and "True Grit."īut Hopper, still determined to do things his way, was itching to direct.
Kevin Costner, John Davis, Chuck Gordon, Jeffrey Mueller, Andrew Licht, Ilona Herzberg, Mark Huffam With rumors of internal production battles, out of control budgets, and his other recent boxoffice disappointments, his star power is in question. Costner bet the boat on this one and stands to lose more than just money. The floating set was anchored (not very well, apparently) off the Hawaiian coast and was lost once during a tropical storm. Entertaining, but not riveting, as the budget and PR hype leads one to expect. The bad guys are the Smokers, led by the evil Hopper, who can play these roles in his sleep. Costner, who did just about everything but cater the meals, stars as Mariner, a mutant man-fish who reluctantly helps human survivors search for the mythical Dryland since the polar ice caps melted, flooding the earth. Most of said budget seems to have ended up on screen, which makes for a visually striking, and at times daunting, film. "The Man From Atlantis" meets "Mad Max." Industry knives sharpened with glee before release, with some insiders calling this luck-impaired project "Fishtar" and "Kevin's Gate." With an estimated $150 million budget, the film must look to overseas sales and secondary markets to make any money.