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2014 including popular series, all-time classics, and modern favorites. 2014 and are bound to get every reader turning pages. The Hudsucker Proxy is a 1994 screwball comedy film co-written, produced, and directed by the Coen brothers. Sam Raimi co-wrote the script and served as second unit director. The script was finished in 1985, but production did not start until 1991, when Joel Silver acquired the script for Silver Pictures.

Upon its release in March 1994, The Hudsucker Proxy received mixed reviews from critics and bombed at the box office, but has since gained a cult following. In December 1958, Norville Barnes, a business college graduate from Muncie, Indiana, arrives in New York City, looking for a job. He struggles due to lack of experience and becomes a mailroom clerk at Hudsucker Industries, a large corporation. In the mailroom, Norville is assigned to deliver a “Blue Letter” to Mussburger. The letter is a top-secret communication from Hudsucker, sent shortly before his death. The other executives at Hudsucker Industries decide to produce Norville’s invention in hopes that it will flop and further depress the company’s stock. However, the invention is the hula hoop, which initially fails in obscurity but then becomes an enormous success.

Norville allows success to go to his head and becomes yet another uncaring tycoon. Amy, who had fallen for his naive charm, is infuriated over Norville’s new attitude and leaves him. On New Year’s Eve, Amy finds Norville drunk at a beatnik bar. She apologizes, but he storms out and is chased by an angry mob led by Buzz. Norville escapes to the top floor of the Hudsucker skyscraper and changes back into his mailroom uniform.

He climbs out on the ledge, where Aloysius locks him out and watches as he slips and falls off the building at the stroke of midnight. The first image the Coens and Raimi conceived was of Norville Barnes about to jump from the window of a skyscraper and then they had to figure out how he got there and how to save him. The inclusion of the hula hoop came as a result of a plot device. Despite having finished the script in 1985, Joel explained, “We couldn’t make Hudsucker back then because we weren’t that popular yet. Plus, the script was too expensive and we had just completed Blood Simple, which was an independent film. This was the first time the Coen brothers chose big stars to act in one of their films.

Joel Silver’s first choice for Norville Barnes was Tom Cruise, but the Coens persisted in a desire to cast Tim Robbins. In addition, numerous sequences were filmed in downtown Chicago, particularly in the Merchandise Mart building for the entrance and lobby to Hudsucker Industries and the Hilton Chicago Christmas ballroom. The visual effects supervisor was Michael J. Despite the New York City setting, additional skyscrapers in Chicago, Illinois provided inspiration for the opening sequence of the skyline, such as the Merchandise Mart and Aon Center. To create the two suicide falls, the miniature New York set was hung sideways to allow full movement along the heights of the buildings. Problems occurred when the Coens and cinematographer Roger Deakins decided that these shots would be more effective with a wide-angle lens.

It is thought that the inspiration for the scene in which CEO Waring Hudsucker jumps to his death from the company’s building was inspired by the real life suicide of Eli Black, former chairman of United Brands, in 1975. The score to The Hudsucker Proxy was written by Carter Burwell, the fifth of his collaborations with the Coen Brothers. The studio suggested re-shoots, but the Coens, who held final cut privilege, refused because they were very nervous working with their biggest budget to date and were eager for mainstream success. The film premiered in January 1994 at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. In addition to the film under-performing at the box office, The Hudsucker Proxy opened to mixed reviews from critics. 47 critics were positive, with an average rating of 6. Roger Ebert praised the production design, scale model work, matte paintings, cinematography, and characters.