The Bearded Trio

Part Three: Out of Africa To celebrate the 35th anniversary of The Color Purple, Mark Marshall who was Steven Spielberg's assistant from 84-88  has graciously decided to share his memories and pictures from the making of that groundbreaking movie.  Mark Marshall - Sept 3rd, 1985, 35 years ago, "The Color Purple," having wrapped location shooting in North Carolina, began its last two days of Principal Photography in Africa - actually Newhall Ranch thirty miles north of Los Angeles.  The picture opened in limited release just 15 weeks later. Part One   Part Two The Bearded Trio - The Site For Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, John Williams and a whole lot more.

Part Two: Whoopi Goldberg Mark Marshall who was Steven Spielberg's assistant from 84-88  has graciously decided to share his memories and pictures from the making of that groundbreaking movie .  Mark Marshall -  When Whoopi Goldberg learned that Alice Walker’s novel, “The Color Purple,” was going to be adapted for the big screen, she wrote to the author and boldly stated that she would be happy to play “a piece of dirt on the floor.”  Alice replied that she knew who Whoopi was and had already sent her info to the producers.  At the time, Whoopi was performing her one-woman show on Broadway, however, due to director Steven Spielberg’s schedule, he was unable to fly to New York to catch a performance.  Instead, he flew Whoopi to Los Angeles and had her perform her entire show in the Amblin screening room before a VIP crowd (including Richard Pryor, Lionel Richie, and Michael Jackson) as well as Amblin Entertainment staff.  The evening was unforgettable, ...

One of the most important films in American cinema is celebrating its 35th anniversary this year. “The Color Purple” was released in Dec. 1985. Mark Marshall who was Steven Spielberg's assistant from 84-88  has graciously decided to share his memories and pictures from the making of that groundbreaking movie.  Mark Marshall -  The motion picture adaptation of Alice Walker’s searing novel, The Color Purple, was released 35 years ago this year.  The movie, directed by the maestro, Steven Spielberg, opened in limited release on Steven’s 39th birthday, December 18, 1985.  It went into wide release two months later.  Over the next few months, I thought I would post a series of set photos that I took throughout the production to commemorate the combined contributions of a brilliant cast & crew.  First up, our prodigious leader, director/producer, Steven Spielberg.  When Steven first expressed his doubts that a white Jewish male could direct the hear...

THE COLOR PURPLE    U.S. Release Date: February 7, 1986    Starring: Danny Glover, Whoopi Goldberg, Oprah Winfrey  Directed by: Steven Spielberg "I'M POOR, BLACK, I MIGHT EVEN BE UGLY, BUT DEAR GOD, I'M HERE. I'M HERE!" - Celie Johnson  This year marks the 35th anniversary of the film adaptation of Alice Walker's novel about a black woman growing up in the deep South at the turn of the century, and dealing with the struggles of abuse while trying to find her identity. This was Steven Spielberg's first serious drama. He was at first reluctant to direct it because he felt insecure about his lack of knowledge of the deep South and thought a black director could relate better to the material. He eventually was convinced by the producers, reminding him that he didn't need to be an alien to direct E.T. Spielberg then welcomed the challenge that would serve to prepare him for the future films EMPIRE OF THE SUN and SCHINDLER'S LIST. The ca...

On this day, December 16 1985, 30 years ago, Steven Spielberg took a very big gamble, with his career as he premiered his latest film, The Color Purple, exclusively in New York (almost 2 months before it went on general release). With The Color Purple he decided to abandon the path of the highly popular Popcorn Movie and return to a much smaller format. It was the second time in his career that he wanted to use a very successful book as a base for his film (the fist one of course being Jaws), this time around he choose Alice Walker's award winning novel. Before anyone had seen the film, opinion was that it would be impossible for a non-African-American director to bring the touching story of Celie to the big screen, but as soon as the film was screened for the first time, critics changed their minds very fast. The film was even nominated for 11 Academy Awards, but was totally ignored in the end, even though Steven did win the DGA in the end (an unusual win, since he hadn't...

30 years ago Steven delivered his first 'serious' film: The Color Purple . Below the first trailer, released during the production proces. And of course, here's the regular trailer too. Ronny. The Bearded Trio - The Site For Steven Spielberg, George Lucas and John Williams THE BEARDED TRIO ON FACEBOOK THE BEARDED TRIO ON TWITTER THE BEARDED TRIO ON GOOGLE+ THE BEARDED TRIO ON PINTEREST CLICK HERE FOR FACTS ON STEVEN SPIELBERG CLICK HERE FOR FACTS ON GEORGE LUCAS CLICK HERE FOR FACTS ON JOHN WILLIAMS

Getting a bit gloomy, because of the weather lately, thought it might be time for a little bit of extra color to add to our page. So here are some of the highlights from a Japanese (?) brochure on The Color Purple , with some amazingly beautiful stills from the film that helped launch the career of Whoopi Goldberg in Hollywood and it didn't harm the career of Oprah Winfrey (who made her motion picture debut in it) either. A good film can't exist without good producers. From top to bottom:  Jon Peters and Peter Guber (both executive producer on The Color Purple )   Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall, and Quincy Jones A bit of chauvinism on my behalf (after all, I'm Dutch):  Menno Meyes made his debut as a scriptwriter, when he delivered the screenplay  and he was one of the nominees for an Academy Award for The Color Purple .  Hope this made your day a bit more colorful. It sure lifted up my spi...