Happy Throwback Thursday! Today our throwback year is 1986. One of the biggest movies that came out that year was Ferris Bueller’s Day Off!
The movie was written, co-produced, and directed by John Hughes. It starred Matthew Broderick, Alan Ruck, and Mia Sara, with supporting roles from Jennifer Grey and Charlie Sheen. Hughes wrote the screenplay in less than a week. Filming started in September 1985 and wrapped in November, featuring many iconic Chicago landmarks like Sears Tower, Wrigley Field, and the Art Institute of Chicago.
Hughes had Broderick in mind as he wrote the screenplay, saying that he was the only actor who could pull off the role. Other actors who were considered for the lead included Jim Carrey, John Cusack, Johnny Depp, and George Clooney.
Alan Ruck had auditioned for the role of Bender in The Breakfast Club. Hughes remembered him and cast him as 17-year-old Cameron Frye, even though Ruck was 29 at the time. Broderick and Ruck were friends before the movie, having acted together on Broadway. They even shared a trailer on the set of the movie!
Hughes said Ben Stein was an easy and early choice for the role of the economics teacher. Before he started acting, Stein was a lawyer and a speechwriter for Presidents Nixon and Ford. Stein’s famous monotonous lecture on the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act wasn’t scripted – Stein picked the topic after Hughes asked him to speak about something he knew a lot about. The lecture was originally supposed to happen off camera, but the student extras laughed so hard Hughes decided to put Stein on camera for his speech.
Ferris and his friends aren’t driving a real Ferrari in the movie. Three replicas of a Ferrari 250GT California Spyder were created for the film. One of the “replicars” sold at auction in 2020 for $396,000.
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off was released on June 11, 1986. It was the 10th-highest-grossing film that year, earning $70 million over a $5 million budget. A spin-off film is in the works for Paramount+. Titled Sam & Victor’s Day Off, it will focus on the two valets who took Cameron’s father’s Ferrari on a joy ride.
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