A movie with one of the most bizarre and horrific production stories in film history will be screening in Philly on Friday.
"Roar," which was originally released in 1981, will be shown at The Awesome Fest this Friday. The movie was re-released in April, and the crazy tales of its cast and crew literally being mauled by 150 live lions, tiger, jaguars and cheetahs (oh my!) that were kept on set has been resurfacing on several media outlets.
The plot of the film is rather simple, and is based almost completely on the movie's "grindhouse set in mother nature" tagline:
"No animals were harmed in the making of this movie. members of the cast and crew were."
Roar follows wildlife preservationist Hank, who lives harmoniously alongside a menagerie of 100+ untamed animals, including cheetahs, elephants, lions and tigers on a preservation in the African plains. When his wife and children arrive for a visit, a long-brewing battle for dominance between the lions erupts and threatens their very lives.
The movie was written and directed by the late Noel Marshall, who was also the executive producer of the original "Exorcist". The cast included Marshall's then-wife Tippi Hedren and step-daughter, Melanie Griffith, who was a struggling young actress at the time.
Indiewire recently revisited the film's backstory, noting that the experiment started as a preservation effort as Marshall and his family actually lived among the dangerous animals. Indiewire also details some of the more gruesome tales of the movie's production:
...cinematographer Jan de Bont was scalped, requiring 220 stitches; Griffith was mauled by a lion, which required facial reconstructive surgery; an A.D. narrowly escaped death when a lion missed his jugular by an inch; Hedren, who was also attacked by birds on the set of "The Birds," endured a fractured leg and multiple scalp wounds; and Marshall himself was wounded so many times that he was hospitalized with gangrene.
A clip from the movie was recently published on Youtube around the time the film was re-released, in which a then 14-year-old Griffith can be seen struggling as a lion pins her down and refuses to let her go. According to The Daily Beast, Marshall refused to yell cut and stop filming but was able to distract the lion and get it off of Griffith by throwing himself on the floor.
The film will be showing outdoors at Liberty Lands Park, located at 926 N. American Street, on Friday, July 10, at 9 p.m. as a part of The Awesome Fest.