George Armitage, the visionary filmmaker behind Grosse Pointe Blank and Miami Blues, died at 82.
His niece confirmed to TMZ that Armitage died last Saturday, surrounded by his family, including his wife, son, daughter -in -law and grandchildren.
The cause of death has not been revealed.
Armitage is a director and screenwriter with a talent for combining crime and comedy, Armitage has left his mark with the Cult -Hit of 1997 Grosse Pointe Blank, starring John Cusack as a hitman who navigates a high school reunion.
He also leaned the dark comedy Miami Blues from 1990, which contained Alec Baldwin in one of his most memorable early roles.
Armitage, born in Hartford, Connecticut, moved to Beverly Hills as a child.
George Armitage, the visionary filmmaker behind Grosse Pointe Blank and Miami Blues, died at 82
Armitage is a director and screenwriter with a talent for combining crime and comedy, Armitage has left his mark with the Cult -Hit of 1997 Grosse Pointe Blank, starring John Cusack as a hitman who navigates a high school reunion
'Yes, I went everywhere. I surfed and we did some street races, a lot of cruising, listening to music, it was a great time, a great time to become a teenager, “he told film commentary.
It was there, just 15, that he met his future wife Sharon.
The two remained inseparable and built a marriage that lasted an incredible 62 years.
His filmmaking trip started with Gas-SSS from 1970, a counterculture satire that attracted the attention of the legendary producer Roger Corman.
Their collaboration helped to shape the career of Armitage, so that he was worked on a series of Edgy, unconventional projects that confirmed his reputation as a bold, genre-bending narrator.
Grosse Pointe Blank was the first film Armitage directed without having a writing credit.
'I probably could have, but I didn't want it, because I was scared … There was a first writer who was doing great, when John Cusack and Steve Pink, who is now directing, and because the writers' guild is crazy with the way in which They handle the credits, I decided that if I threw my name in the mix, the percentage for everyone would fall and they would be sewn out, “he told the outlet.
“But I did as much as someone did in terms of writing.”
His film trip started with Gas-SSS from 1970, a counterculture satire that attracted the attention of the legendary producer Roger Corman; (Miami Blues with Alec Baldwin)
He continued: 'The script, when I met John [Cusack] And the writers were 132 pages. I said, “Look, I do nothing more than 100 pages.”
They said, “Okay”, and they wrote again and it came back 150 pages.
“So I said,” Okay, you are fired, “and I spent most of the pre-production with rewriting the scenario and getting it up to 102 pages.
“Then we would improvise, and I noticed that some of the things I had cut away was in the improvisations, she brought back things that I had cut away, but we had a good time with it.”
