Why hasn't John Waters directed a movie in 14 years?

You can't shock people anymore.

He can't get financing. He's been open about that.

But he really doesn't have to work anymore, and he has books for his creative outlet.

Who has a sense of humor anymore ? Especially his brand of humor ?

He’s funny on Bill Maher.

Grooming that moustache takes up most of his day.

He ran out of ideas.

It's hard to be shocking when you've become dull and outdated.

The last couple of films were really bland and boring.

But we'll always have Hairspray, Cry Baby and Serial Mom

If I had a franchise for printing money like Hairspray, I'd sit on my ass too.

Finance Trouble

His last few movies were bombs at the box office and he has been thrown on the scrapheap of Hollywood.

What R1 said - then again, Waters wasn't just about shock. He was about campy camp. Over the top camp. He likely realizes that in this day of rabid snowflakes looking to be offended at every turn, and the out of control plague of "trans" people that he would be hounded and irritated to shit with anything similar to his traditional brand. Could you see him doing Female Trouble now? The trans folks would crawl out of every hole and crack in the country and go out the window for the way a "trans man" (i.e. Divine like character) was offensive and hurtful. Theaters would shut it down, etc. etc. etc.

R9 Were any of his movies actually hits?

His guest stint on the Simpsons made him millions of dollars.

Fun fact: I had dinner with him in college, but with a group of people. I later met him and was with him a few hours at a party in PTown a few years back. I absolutely love and adore John Waters, but he's not the nicest guy in the World unless your're 20 and pretty or a 40s something nelly bear/dragqueen who'll be his jester. I suppose with the shit he put up with early on, he feels entitled to be a diva snob in his old age. That's cool. I guess.

I loved Pecker. Especially Memawmaw.

My first viewing of a movie of his was the first time I actually would have walked out of a movie. My date was so excited to see it, though, I didn’t. That romance didn’t last long.

I love all of his shit.

R16 same!

He's over 70 years old. We seem to assume all people in the entertainment industry don't want to retire. Why?

DL doesn't go for passive aggression, r13. Say you think he's a...

I'm sure he will be the only one that could adequately handle the ultimate film chonicalling the tRump presidency.

John’s signature style is crazy.

And he, himself has stated in the past that “crazy” is sexy when you’re 25, but in senior years, it’s just pathetic.

He could do a spoof of "Cocoon" where all the characters are people from his past movies.

He belongs on Netflix.

[quote] He can't get financing. He's been open about that.

I read that too. Many directors have the same problem, even very well known ones. It's this franchise action film obsession, for one.

I just hope he is happy for the rest of his life, he made me laugh harder than any other movie maker.

He’s waiting for the Manson Family to be released from prison. He wants to make them movie stars.

Pats...He's 72

He doesn't need to. Trump's America IS a John Waters movie.

[quote] He likely realizes that in this day of rabid snowflakes looking to be offended at every turn, and the out of control plague of "trans" people that he would be hounded and irritated to shit with anything similar to his traditional brand. Could you see him doing Female Trouble now? The trans folks would crawl out of every hole and crack in the country and go out the window for the way a "trans man" (i.e. Divine like character) was offensive and hurtful. Theaters would shut it down, etc. etc. etc.

Au contraire, Waters is pretty beloved by all segments of the LGBT and queer community. His art is whip smart and full of compassion. He doesn't punch down. He would be fine.

You're building a fantasy in your mind.

Disney actually hired him to lend his voice to some Mickey Mouse cartoons. It's just as well, since he's reached the same point in his career that gave us John Huston's Dodge Commercials and Orson Welles in [italic]The Muppet Movie[/italic].

[quote]I read that too. Many directors have the same problem, even very well known ones. It's this franchise action film obsession, for one.

His predictions from [italic]Cecil B. Demented[/italic] about mainstream theaters becoming nothing but franchises, like a diet of nothing but the highest-carb items at McDonald's,

[quote]He doesn't need to. Trump's America IS a John Waters movie.

I disagree. At least in Waters' films there were genuine moments of joy, love, tenderness, and compassion, even something as gently absurd as the "where do eggs come from" scene in [italic]Pink Flamingos[/italic].

What's wrong with Orson Welles in "The Muppet Movie"? The movie is a classic, and it's a funny segment.

[quote] What's wrong with Orson Welles in "The Muppet Movie"? The movie is a classic, and it's a funny segment.

Nothing at all. But unlike Welles or Huston, Waters does not direct other people's screenplays. He was willing to make an exception for a proposed movie version of [italic]A Confederacy of Dunces[/italic], (presumably with Divine as Ignatius J. Reilly and possibly also as his mother) but they couldn't make a deal and Divine's death ended that possibility as it did for almost everyone else attached to it.

Everyone gets old and crotchety and he’s too tired to make another one. His body of work is brilliant, retirement well deserved. What is sad is not so much him being done is that no one new has really come along since. Nothing coming out is really funny or shocking. PC has made sure of that

I wish Amazon would hire him to be director of their new Tolkien series.

I wish he'd made a movie about Wilbur Mills and Fanny Fox, with Divine in both roles...it would have been a masterpiece.

And no one knows what I'm talking about, do they?

divine died 30 years ago.

♡♡♡OP! Love wording, attitude..the whole schpiel. NYer? WW

His last movie, "A Dirty Shame" was terrible, completely unfunny, I don't think I laughed once.

R38, it was funny though not as hilarious as previous movies of his.

R36, R35 isn't talking in the present tense.

Waters does very well on the lecture circuit and has made a massive amount of money from the Hairspray musical.

In interviews Waters is pretty funny and irreverent, I'm guessing he has it down pat, since he probably gets the same questions over and over again. About the only time he's ever gotten very serious and somber is when he's asked about Leslie Van Houten, the Manson follower who has become a friend and who he has advocated parole for. When he has spoken about her, he's dead serious but the only thing I can think of is the spray painted wall that says "FREE TEX WATSON".

His films, once so funny and outlandish, turned mediocre once he started using well known actors and odd celebrity guest stars like Patty Hearst. His wonderful cast of characters (Divine, Edith Massey, David Lochary) died off, and I guess he thought he could make movies with real actors but it never really worked. He's passe. But he's well enough so he doesn't need to make movies anymore. He lobbies for the release of his dear friend Leslie Van Houten from prison. That alone makes him an incredible asshole. He used to communicate with Tex Watson, too. That is SO fucked up.

Waters is a genius, but, his hard-on for the Manson family ain't cute. He probably thinks it makes him look "edgy", instead, he just looks like a fool.

I think the main issue is lack of funding. He had been working with New Line Cinema which got bought by Time Warner and turned from a genuine independent movie company into something bland. Really, the only way for him to get a film made these days is to do it how he did it when he was in his 20's and, when you're in your 70's, that's not as easy as it once was. One would assume he makes enough off of the Hairspray musical to fund it himself.

He should direct gay porn. Like, with actual plots and attempts at acting. This is his next superstar right here.

He made the fatal error of trying to please the mainstream.

Doesn't he also do your actual art now? He had an exhibition a few years back with stuff like giant bottles of poppers and other kitschy doodads.

r38 you didn't find Ursula Udders hilarious?

[quote]He doesn't need to. Trump's America IS a John Waters movie.

Funny you say that. As I watched Trump and his family walk up on stage after winning on the night of the election, I immediately thought of this scene:

(John Waters, like Andy Warhol got a lot right about America and the future that awaited us)

I loved his stuff.

Actually, R48, that scene predicted the entire Reality TV phenomenon more than Trump.

What is reality TV, but people humiliating themselves in public, because they will do ANYTHING to be famous? Crawl naked through the jungle or eat worms on national TV, with entire staffs of writers dreaming up new ways to torment them? Only it's on a larger scale than he ever imagined...

For situations like that, R50, the Japanese have long has the West beat.

No, R47, I didn't find it funny in the least, that looks like a scene out of one those God-awful "Porky's" movies.

His last few movies were unwatchable. THAT’S why he can’t get funding.

[quote] PC has made sure of that

And the irony is that the same left that used to champion the off-color and the vulgar as being constitutionally protected speech have now become advocates of de facto censorship.

His DVD commentaries for his last several movies have been far more entertaining than the movies themselves.

[italic]Serial Mom[/italic] and [italic]Pecker[/italic] are the best of his post-Divine films. The two after that were wildly uneven at best. Mel Brooks gave up movies for similar reasons.

Yes, r55. His director's commentary of Mommie Dearest is priceless!

It is hilarious that R6 derides some of his movies as being bland and not shocking enough, but then brings up Cry Baby and Hairspray--the 80s movies that marked his departure from being shocking. Those were just mainstream films, and were a far cry from his Female Trouble, Deperate Living, and Pink Flamingos days.

Serial Mom is the closest thing to his old, offensive style, and even that was more than 20 years ago. Everything since has sucked.

And yes. I want to like him, but the friendship with the Manson clan is not charming or edgy; it is just fucked up. And it reeks of Truman Capote's obsession with those In Cold Blood killers. It's just creepy.

He is better at lecturing and film commentaries now. His groundbreaking camp film days are over.

[quote]And yes. I want to like him, but the friendship with the Manson clan is not charming or edgy

And many people in the mainstream film industry are six degrees or less from Charles Manson to begin with.

That is a far cry from directly, personally befriending them, R59.

[quote] That is a far cry from directly, personally befriending them, [R59].

Now you tell me!

How about that book about hitchhiking across America. Only to find out it was fiction.

And after he called out John Steinbeck for doing the same thing in [italic]Travels with Charley[/italic].

[quote]His last movie, "A Dirty Shame" was terrible, completely unfunny, I don't think I laughed once.

I love the film. I've seen it at least three times. I love the frantic energy. Yes, it's not a perfect film or really extreme in any way when compared to his earlier work but it's still outrageously funny. Tracey Ullman is P-E-R-F-E-C-T in her role.

Tracy Ullman is a pretty unique talent.

Another thing to consider: who are his successors-in-interest? Who's the Don Bluth to his Walt Disney? The DePalma to his Hitchcock?

Almodovar is his scion. I'd be really surprised if Pedro didn't know his work. Though Pedro has calmed down ("matured"?)

r67 They're friends. I remember John saying in an interview that he talks to Pedro a lot; they talk about each other's partners or something like that.

Ullman gave "A Dirty Shame" far more effort than the film deserved, however, "A Dirty Shame" lost millions. Let's face it: how many people are going to pay to see a movie starring Tracey Ullman?

I think part of it is that the thing that he found and mined, the kind of weird arty underground scene, has actually been mainstreamed and made into a commodity in many ways.

Also, in the era of YouTube, odd people can just pop up on there and do their thing.

So the kind of cultural pathways he found just aren't there. Or they've already been exposed.

I went to Camp John Waters and it WAS EVERYTHING. and I’m going again. Best money I ever spent

[quote]He doesn't punch down.

He punches up, and up is where the money is. One of the threads running through [italic]Cecil B. Demented[/italic] is mainstream Hollywood filmmaking crowding out everyone else. After that movie, it became harder and harder to get movies made in Baltimore unless they were mainstream. Even the makers of the 2007 version of [italic]Hairspray[/italic] decided it would be cheaper to shoot in Toronto.

[quote] I think part of it is that the thing that he found and mined, the kind of weird arty underground scene, has actually been mainstreamed and made into a commodity in many ways.

I think that's arguably true. He's a victim of his own success in that sense.

[quote]Let's face it: how many people are going to pay to see a movie starring Tracey Ullman?

She went from that to the Disney TV version of [italic]Once Upon a Mattress[/italic] with Carol Burnett, thereby reinforcing the [italic]Annie[/italic]/[italic]Serial Mom[/italic] connection, as does this [italic]Law and Order: SVU[/italic] episode with Carol and Matthew Lillard:

He's become a "personality", and lost the artist. I don't think he works very hard at developing anything new. Like what happened to Orson Welles.

Doesn't he have a long-term partner now, too? And as has already been mentioned, he's made a lot of money out of the Hairspray musical, so he's rolling in dick and dough.

He ran out of ideas long ago, and his last few films were commercial failures, and I say this as someone who actually likes all of his films.

R74, If by "long term partner" you mean early 20s male prostitutes that charge by the hour, yeah he has a partner.

Dirty shame was funny at the time, and I enjoyed it, but like his later movies ultimately it is amusing but not nearly as good as his earlier films.

Unfortunately, he's a tedious narcissist, like all celebrities or even semi-famous people like him. Only interested in people who are more famous than he is. Unless it's a trashy nobody criminal type he wants to have sex with or pay for sex.

He also has an unhealthy obsession with serial killers, foolishly believes they can be cured/rehabilitated, and even tried to get that Manson cunt Leslie Van-Houten out of prison. His books besides the one he wrote about himself in the 1980s or early 1990s are not that well written.

Even Spielberg Allen and Scorsese have said getting financing is difficult. Pretty much all day they have projects unfilmed.

Do you think it's possible he's made more money from the Hairspray Broadway musical (plus, national tours, international productions and licensing for regional productions) than he's made from all his films combined?

Indubitably, r77

License fees pay the bills for decades.

Somebody should a film about the early days of Waters, Divine and the Dreamlanders.

political correctness?

I didn't realise he was pals with the Mansons, he and Johnny Depp would get on very well.

When an 11 yo can go online in the privacy of his own bedroom and watch a 47 yo transvestite hooker get fucked by a three legged German Shephard, what else is there left to put on film?

John Waters making a film now would be like going to the library to read Newsweek magazine on microfiche.

R16

I don't like it.

And I don't actresses bending down and eating it.

John Waters is chilling in his Baltimore mansion. He has plenty of money and he's probably not even thinking about making films anymore.

He's done.

There's a documentary about the Dreamlanders online, r79, I think it was YouTube but you should google it. It's out there somewhere.

Society caught up with John Waters long ago.

There's nothing shocking any more. It's all on the internet now. Everything.

His breakout film was Pink Flamingos, you could never do anything like that or Female Trouble and make any kind of cultural impact today.

He writes books now. Try reading, OP.

[quote] If by "long term partner" you mean early 20s male prostitutes that charge by the hour, yeah he has a partner.

No, he definitely has a long-term partner now. He just seems really content in recent interviews. Rolling in money and respect and greeted by fans all over the world whenever he promotes one of his books. It's a shame he won't make any more films, but I guess he's made his mark.

I think that the success of his films relied heavily on Divine presence in them...I did not particularly enjoy his last movies....

He creeps me the fuck out. I used to like his stuff, well, I pretended to like it, when I was a teenager. When you mature you see that he's a sick fuck and not funny and into dark shit because he's a freak.

R75 - Kelt, is that you?

Waters disgusts me for palling up to Tex Watson. and for introducing Johnny Depp to Van Houten. What was he so enthralled by? Watson's born-again Christian schtick? Or his stabbing a pregnant woman + Frykowski + Sebring + Shea + the La Biancas + possibly two others to death? Waters is a sociopathic fuck.

John is ashamed of the crazy movies he's famous for.

He thinks they're only appropriate for young directors to make because they're immature and crazy.

Lots of Jealous Jolines in this thread. :(

R91 needs to be injected with rabies.

That's very true R91, and R93. I can understand why teenagers and young adult men and women who are 18-early 20s would be the same way, but once you mature or really learn what he's into and how he's obsessed with serial killers to the point of actually going to the Manson trials, and visiting and advocating the parole of the Manson family members you realize how fucked up he is. In his book he wrote about his obsessions or an interview he said how he basically is a sociopath or was diagnosed like this.

I can understand someone being intrigued by true crime, or serial killers, but going to the trials, and advocating for the Manson family members to be paroled since you believe that they are cured and reformed? That's idiocy.

"And the irony is that the same left that used to champion the off-color and the vulgar as being constitutionally protected speech have now become advocates of de facto censorship."

What a load of bullshit.

John recently said he could make another movie but he would be okay with not doing another one. He still wants to make a children’s movie, the one genre he hasn’t done. He hasn’t retired or given up.

He should do something with Kathleen Turner again.

[quote]And the irony is that the same left that used to champion the off-color and the vulgar as being constitutionally protected speech have now become advocates of de facto censorship.

That's very true R54.

I loved his essay about how he went alone to a Saturday morning matinee and all the fraus went all torches and pitchforks on him

I enjoy some of his shtick, but in general, I'm not big on edgy for the sake of edgy.

His early movies still have the power to shock, but by Polyester, they seemed more quaint than anything.

Three or four weeks ago he had a featured guest spot on SVU as an internet porn king. He wasn't as creepy or effective as the role called for.

He’s retired assholes!

OP--you're being tedious. He's discussed the difficulties in getting funding numerous times over the years. He's able to make a nice living with his books and personal appearances.

A Confederacy of Dunces with Divine and John Waters directing would have made a goddamn fortune! He’s probably the only one who could get it on film in a half decent way.

Ugh. This saddens me.

Todd Solondz seems to have taken the baton from him. He's what Waters would have been if he'd grown as a writer/director.

Oh, that’s exciting, r109!! No shade whatsoever that is a GREAT director for CoD.

But who could be Divine! It would be a complete and total re-envisioning.

VERY interesting.

I always enjoyed his interviews more than his movies.

He also seemed to really lose something when Divine died. His movies post Divine definitely were lacking.

I would love to see him come back with SERIAL GRANDMA, starring Kathleen Turner (in her current shape) as Beverly Sutphin, newly released from a federal prison and living in a nursing home.

This time she'd get to off her annoying relatives and neighbors Sam Waterston, Ricki Lake and Mink Stole, as well as a supporting cast of other people in the nursing home that would include Cicely Tyson, Elinor Donahue, Mamie Van Doren and Cloris Leachman.

With cameos by Post Malone and Tank (of Tank and the Bangas) as the nursing home employees who cheer on Beverly's every crime.

And all I'd want is to see Beverly stalking and killing someone who uses a cellphone by putting it on speaker and holding it in front of their face in PUBLIC.

He could barely get financing when he was actively making films.

And most of his post Hairspray films - except for Serial Mom - were either middle of the road or failures financially or critically.

r16 and r17, I loved his shit so much, I actually ate it.

I think he apologized for some of the Manson love in one of his books, especially Tex Watson but still promotes the release of Leslie van Houten (who really should be paroled).

As for universal love from the LGBTQ community, I think that's very much not accurate. I have a sneaky suspicion there's a whole slew of SJWs just aching to rag on him but not until after he's gone because they know he's Teflon coated...JW is an icon to many gay people.

R113, she didn’t go to prison though.

Would watch the hell out of that r113