The Telephone

The Telephone (1988)

She's on the line... and off the wall.

Crazy out of work actress Vashti Blue spends all her time in her small apartment with her pet owl and her telephone, which she uses to try and solve all her problems with life.

Date of release
1988-01-22
TMDB
4.4 / 10 (30)
Runtime
1h 22m
Genres
Drama, Comedy
Director
Rip Torn

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Awards: 0 · Nominations: 1

The Telephone is a 1988 comedy-drama film written by Terry Southern and Harry Nilsson and the only film directed by Rip Torn.

Production

The Telephone was produced by Hawkeye, a company formed by screenwriter Terry Southern and singer-songwriter Harry Nilsson. According to Southern, "We had this idea about an out-of-work actor who gets so into hallucinatory-type improvisations that he even makes up phone calls to himself." Nilsson and Southern wrote the screenplay with Robin Williams in mind for the main character, and attempted to get the comedian a copy of the script, but Willia…

Filming was shot in only 12 days and it officially began on January 13, 1987, in San Francisco, California.

The film's producers persuaded Goldberg to ignore the film's script and improvise, leading to arguments with Torn, who preferred to direct the film as scripted.

Goldberg states that she was given approval over the film's final cut. The film was screened at the Sundance Film Festival in a version edited by Torn. Unhappy with Torn's editing of the film, Goldberg filed a $5 million lawsuit against New World Pictures and Torn to prevent its release. Following arbitration, the jury found in favor of New World.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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