Roger Corman Celebrates 'Piranha' 32 Years Later

(Aug. 20) -- Folks in Hollywood used to say that filmmaker Roger Corman was the only guy in Tinseltown who could negotiate a deal in the booth, use the booth as a set and finance the film using the change in the coin slot.

Of course, that was when phone booths were still common.

These days, it's hard to find a phone booth, but Corman, 84, is still around and still making the type of movies that would be perfect at drive-ins -- if those weren't disappearing.

His latest epic is "Sharktopus," an action flick about a strange creature that is, true to its title, half shark and half octopus.

The film, which stars Eric Roberts, premieres Sept. 25 on the Syfy Channel.

Corman keeps moving forward, but today he's looking back at one of his personal favorites, "Piranha," a stirring drama about a top-secret military laboratory conducting genetic research on piranha for the purpose of developing the most lethal form of biological warfare imaginable.

The film debuted in 1978 disguised mainly as an exploitation flick designed to capitalize on the popularity of "Jaws," from a few years back.

However, the film turned out to be better than anyone expected, earning rave reviews and big box office returns thanks to a script by future indie film legend John Sayles and future "Gremlins" director Joe Dante.

It also became one of Corman's biggest-grossing flicks and inspired two sequels -- one that Corman wasn't involved with that was directed by "Avatar" mastermind James Cameron, and another for Showtime that he did work on.

In addition, it has inspired "Piranha 3D," a remake that hits theaters today. Corman is not involved, but -- astute businessman that he is (his autobiography is titled "How I Made 100 Movies in Hollywood and Never Lost a Dime") -- he is piggybacking on the "Piranha" publicity juggernaut by releasing his original on DVD.

But why shouldn't he? He's very proud of the film.

"I view all my films and the filmmakers who've worked for me as my children," Corman told AOL News. "That said, 'Piranha' is one of the more successful of my 'kids.' It is one of the biggest hits we had and one of the films I'm most pleased with."

Corman credits the success to the script written by Sayles, who has become a highly acclaimed independent filmmaker known for films like "Eight Men Out," not movies about piranhas being used as weapons.

"The script was full of action, sci-fi, horror and humor," Corman said. "I believe it's important to give audiences something to laugh at or they'll laugh at something you don't want to laugh at."

As the producer, Corman kept his work mainly to pre-production and post-production, but he did let the filmmakers take advantage of his incredible ability to make the best of a notoriously small budget.

"We had trouble figuring out how to build piranhas that could move under water," he said. "We tried various thin wires and towed them. Finally, we put the fish on thin metal rods that were painted the color of water."

The fact that no one mentioned the cheap special effects in a negative way is proof his penny-pinching paid off.

"Some of the big-budget films of today have great special effects, but they take precedence over the storyline," he said. "My new film, 'Sharktopus,' represents the first time we've used computer graphics. It did cost money, but not as much as, say, 'Transformers' because we emphasize the story."

Corman has given breaks to major filmmakers like Ron Howard, Martin Scorsese and James Cameron. In fact, Cameron claims he's a graduate of the "Roger Corman Film School."

As a result, many of Corman's lessons have become part of filmmaking lore. For instance, he is credited as saying that if you have nudity in a film, put it in the first reel because that's the only part of the film that theater owners look at when they're considering a picture.

"I don't think I said that exactly," Corman clarified. "I believe in making the first reel as exciting as possible to really make it top-heavy to get people into the film. In fact, I remember telling Joe to cut out some of the nudity in 'Piranha' because I felt it distracted from the excitement of the film."