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Books we like that are in some way related to iconic(?) film-maker Roger Corman. Please include the Roger Corman Number and a brief explanation

Derek has provided the link to a great tool for figuring out how many degrees (almost) anyone is to anyone here:
The Oracle -

Roger Corman wiki here:
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So we already have a couple of examples..

Derek wrote:
The Day of the Triffids - Corman # of 2
Jason Priestly was in the 2009 movie version of The Day of the Triffids, and Priestly and Corman were both in an episode of "Beverly Hills, 90210" (It's amazing what you can do with the Oracle of Bacon!)

Ivan recommended:
The Fungus - Corman # 2
The author of The Fungus (Harry Adam Knight) also wrote The Carnosaurs. The Carnosaurs was loosely based on Corman's film, Little Shop of Horrors.

Katje recommended: The Poison Diaries - Corman #1
The poison diaries is inspired by Corman's Little Shop of Horrors.

My thought upon seeing the title of this thread was "Who the hell is Roger Corman? Wiki time!", and you made it so easy! Off to learn something...

LOL - You've probably seen his stuff without knowing it. He is the master of B-movie cheapness. My favourite is the Ramones movie - Rock'n'Roll High School. He only cast The Ramones in it because they were cheap to hire. :)

A good excuse to nominate:
I am Legend: And Other Stories - Corman #1
Richard Matheson worked with Corman on the Edgar Allen Poe adaptation films.

Is that number right, Derek? I suck at figuring out what consitutes a degree of separation!

When I gave Day of the Triffids a 2, I figured that the relationship of the book to a person had to be one step (The Oracle of Bacon assumes all relationships are person-to-person), so I Am Legend would be the same:
1. I Am Legend was written by Matheson
2. Richard Matheson worked with Corman on the Edgar Allen Poe adaptation films.

Ruby wrote: "LOL - You've probably seen his stuff without knowing it. He is the master of B-movie cheapness. My favourite is the Ramones movie - Rock'n'Roll High School. He only cast The Ramones in it because t..."

What totally surprised me when I started looking at this is how many movies Corman has actually acted in. I just thought he made movies!

I had a discussion once with my wife about whose fame would last longer: Dylan or the Beatles. Now, we have no argument about who deserves to be remembered longer: it's Dylan, hands down. But I argued that there are dozens (possibly hundreds) of songs that Dylan wrote that future generations will associate with someone else ("All Along the Watchtower", "Mr. Tambourine Man"?), whereas there are very few Beatles covers that aren't immediately recognized as covers. I think Corman might well hold a similar relationship to film, as Dylan does to popular music.

Derek wrote: "I think Corman might well hold a similar relationship to film, as Dylan does to popular music. "

The one major difference being that Corman is really terrible! (I'm not even going to touch the Beatles vs Dylan thing. If the BF caught wind, our lounge room might implode). The Corman wiki was quite an eye-opener for me too, and I love the b-movies.

Ruby wrote: "The one major difference being that Corman is really terrible! (I'm not even going to..."

More terrible than Ringo Starr's singing? (Which I'll contend is worse than Dylan's, because there's no actual music in it.)

I'm so not getting drawn on this one! I'm not a HUGE fan of either TBH, but the BF is.

BRAIN DEAD is a good one, directed by Adam Simon (someone I knew from film school). I was working for Roger Corman's Concorde Films at the time as a TV versions film editor. But none of the films I worked on are worthy of mentioning here.

Suzy wrote: "BRAIN DEAD is a good one, directed by Adam Simon (someone I knew from film school). I was working for Roger Corman's Concorde Films at the time as a TV versions film editor. But none of the films I..."

Actually we're looking for books. (See above) But thanks for playing! :P

Well, here's some facts about the script anyway (which I just looked up, since my memory has been triggered):

The credit that draws the attention is the co-writing credit of Charles Beaumont. Charles Beaumont had been one of the regular writers on the original The Twilight Zone (1959-63) and had delivered scripts for films like Night of the Eagle/Burn, Witch, Burn (1961) and 7 Faces of Dr Lao (1964), as well as several of Roger Corman’s Edgar Allan Poe films � Premature Burial (1962), The Haunted Palace (1963) and The Masque of the Red Death (1964). What is interesting about the credit is that Beaumont died in 1967. The script was one that had been sitting around in Roger Corman’s possession for several years.

JJ wrote: "Ruby wrote: "Corman is really terrible!"

'Terrible' is in the eye of the beholder.... but in my world, Corman is a name to be conjured with. He is a pop-culture god."

I agree!

And for upcoming group read � Slaughterhouse-Five has a Corman number of 3:

1) Slaughterhouse-Five was written by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
2) Kurt Vonnegut appeared, as himself, in the Rodney Dangerfield movie with Robert Picardo
3) Picardo appeared in the TV movie with Roger Corman.

Alternatively, it seems like half the cast of the movie version of Slaughterhouse-Five can be used to generate the same number something like:

1) Actor "A" appeared in Slaughterhouse-Five.
2) Actor "A" appeared in ... with Actor "B".
3) Actor "B" appeared in "Apollo 13" with Roger Corman.

As a near life-long Roger Corman fan, I can't stop myself from weighing in here. I very strongly disagree that he is a terrible director. He made B-movies to be sure, but he made them well (the term 'b-movie' meant the cheaper film of a double feature, not necessarily schlock), and many directors such as Martin Scorsese and Ron Howard have attested how influential Corman's work and methods were on them, especially when it came to doing amazing things on a low budget.

Yes, there are many doggies (but for the most part fun, well-made doggies) among the lot, but for those who think Corman just made trash, here's just a few must-watch films: "Bloody Mama", "The Masque of the Red Death", ''The Intruder". (The last is also notable for having an actual good performance from William Shatner as well.)

Okay, stepping off of soapbox now. To make this a GR discussion, I'll recommend his book How I made a Hundred Movies in Hollywood and Never Lost a Dime, which is very entertaining. Check out the list of great directors and actors who got their starts from him.

P.S. Corman didn't direct "Rock N' Roll High School", but he did produce it.

Whitney wrote: "for those who think Corman just made trash, here's just a few must-watch films: "Bloody Mama", "The Masque of the Red Death", ''The Intruder". (The last is also notable for having an actual good performance from William Shatner as well.)

Hey! Bill (yes, he says I can call him Bill) is awesome.

Derek wrote: "Hey! Bill (yes, he says I can call him Bill) is awesome."

Sorry, shouldn't have backhanded Bill in my defense of Corman. I would like to change the offending sentence to read 'as a bonus, "The Intruder" features a great performance from the immortal William Shatner'.

I do love Shatner, even though I'm not Canadian.

Whitney wrote: I would like to change the offending sentence to read 'as a bonus, "The Intruder" features a great performance from the immortal William Shatner'."

Right, that's what I thought you said :)

JJ wrote: "Ruby wrote: "Corman is really terrible!"

'Terrible' is in the eye of the beholder. I understand that not everyone shares my deep and abiding love for drive-in, trash, and sleaze cinema, but in my ..."

I never said "terrible" was a bad thing. You are talking to the queen of trashy cinema!

Whitney wrote: "P.S. Corman didn't direct "Rock N' Roll High School", but he did produce it."

Never said he did. He did cast The Ramones in it though.