The movie life of Gene The French Connection''

Roy Scheider loved by his friends

Although D'Antoni was the "creator," he was not involved in the sequel, " The French Connection 2." The director role was also handed over from William Friedkin to John Frankenheimer. Instead, D'Antoni produced and directed " The Seven-Ups" (1973), starring Roy Scheider. The character Buddy, a member of the special crimes unit played by Scheider in this film, was somewhat reminiscent of what happened to Cloudy in "The French Connection."

And he directed the car chase scene with even more speed. Bill Hickman, who did the car stunts in this film, was Steve McQueen's stunt double in " Bullitt ," Gene Hackman's in "The French Connection," and Roy Scheider's stunt double in "The Seven-Ups." In that sense, Philip D'Antoni is a producer who was fascinated by car chases and changed the history of car chases.

"The Seven-Ups" Trailer

The fact that Roy Scheider was loved and trusted by his colleagues is evident not only from the fact that he teamed up with D'Antoni again in "The Seven-Ups," but also from the fact that director William Friedkin also teamed up with him again in " The Wages of Fear " (1977).

And here's another anecdote. When D'Antoni tried to adapt The French Connection into a film without using any big-name actors, many film studios were unsurprisingly hesitant. However, the two people who gave the go- Signs for the film were Richard D. Zanuck, son of Darryl F. Zanuck, head of 20th Century Fox, and David Brown, who turned around the company when it was in financial difficulty at the time.

“The French Connection” (C)2017 Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Unfortunately, Zanuck and Brown had been fired from their jobs at 20th Century Fox by the time The French Connection was released after an internal dispute, so their names are not in the film's credits. However, the two later founded a film production company and invested in the talent of a young director. The resulting film was Jaws , directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Roy Scheider, of course.

Text: Takeo Matsuzaki

Film critic Graduated from Tokyo University of the Arts, Graduate School of Film and New Media, majoring in film. After working on TV and movie sets, he turned to writing specialized in movies. Currently appearing on TV, radio, and online distribution programs such as ``Plus'' and ``Japan Group.'' He has contributed numerous articles to ``Kinema Junpo'', ``ELLE'', movie theater pamphlets, etc. Currently, he is a member of the Kinema Junpo Best Ten selection committee, a judge for the ELLE Cinema Awards, the Tanabe Benkei Film Festival, and the Creators Factory section of the Kyoto International Film Festival. Co-authored “Modern Movie Terminology Dictionary” (Kinema Junposha) and others.

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