[1998] MeetJoeBlack - BradPitt

CAST
-Lead Cast-
Brad Pitt  as   Joe Black (Death) /Young Man in Coffee Shop
Anthony Hopkins  as William 'Bill' Parrish
Claire Forlani as Susan Parrish, an internist
 
  -Supporting Cast-
Jake Weber as Drew
Marcia Gay Harden as Allison Parrish
Jeffrey Tambor as Quince (Allison's husband)

David S. Howard as Eddie Sloane

Lois Kelly-Miller as Jamaican Woman
Jahnni St. John as Jamaican Woman's Daughter

- genre -

fantasy.mystery.romance.drama

Censorship Rating : PG-13

- director/producer  -  

MARTIN BREST
[ Scent of a Woman ]

Behind the Scenes

Meet Joe Black is the culmination of two decades of gestation on the part of director/producer Martin Brest and was inspired by a character from the 1920s stage play adapted for the screen in 1934 as Death Takes A Holiday.

"I first saw the original film over 20 years ago," Brest says, "and it intrigued me; haunted me, really. There was a suggestion in the old movie of what might be a great story, but it was a story that had yet to be discovered. We had to start from scratch because rather than do a remake I wanted to explore an element that sparked my interest."

- scenarists /screenwriters -

RON OSBORN & JEFF RENO [ 'Mork & Mindy', 'Moonlighting' ] , 

KEVIN WADE & BO GOLDMAN.

- executive producer -

Ronald L. Schwary

-music-

Thomas Newman

-  production company -

 

Homepage 

http://www.meetjoeblack.com/

Summary( CONTAINS SPOILERS !)  [IMDb]

William Parish  is a multimillionaire who has run a successful empire for the past forty years in New York. But, he feels empty when his wife  (Joan) passes away and also completely convinced that Death is after him now too. He hears strange voices in his head, mimicking his own words that seem phony and also ridiculing him in every possible manner.
 
The film begins at the planning of William's 65th birthday by his elder and somewhat meddlesome daughter, Allison. Meanwhile his youngest daughter Susan, who is an attractive young doctor, meets a handsome and cheery stranger in a café, but fails to learn his name. When they both leave the café to go their separate ways, the young man is hit by a car, and Susan is unaware of this.

It turns out the dreaded skeletal and infamous figure that all men fear, wants a holiday from the taxing eternal responsibility of taking the souls of the dead to the after life.

He chooses William to be his guide and adopts the now once again perfect body of the handsome stranger who was killed by a car. He makes a deal with Will that if he can show him around the world of mortals, then William gets to live a little longer than originally on the schedule of the powers that be. William agrees after much doubt of his own sanity and how well this will actually work, after all Death isn't versed in the customs of the upper class or any human class for that matter.

When Death is introduced to William's family at a dinner at his house, Susan immediately remembers him and is confused and upset by his odd behavior towards her now.


When Death's name is asked by Susan's nosy fiancé (Drew), William replies that he is an old friend of his and that his name is "Joe Black". The family isn't that keen to swallow this, but go along with it, unwilling to question William's statement. As the plot unwinds it shows that Susan isn't in love with her fiancé, Drew.
After all and that she is beginning to realize her true feelings for Joe. This complicates matters, as William doesn't want Death to be involved with his daughter, and that the deal didn't include this. Death has little care for William's feelings and allows Susan to fall for him.


Behind the scenes the weasel like Drew is seeking to sell William from the company and run it himself, by selling the company to a possible buyer and an enemy of William's. Everything comes to a head at Will's 65th birthday that proves to be absolutely perfect.

Joe pretends to be a tax agent for the government and scares Drew into resigning from the company, Susan's life and reinstating William as head of the board again. But it is time for William and Death to go, and much to the pain of Death, he must leave Susan behind.


When Susan follows them to the edge of the garden and the bridge that Death and William disappear over, the cute stranger that she met in the café walks back over.

She realizes that he isn't Joe Black anymore and that she'll never see the intelligent, strange and peanut butter loving man who was Joe, ever again.

- Scene cuts & quotes (click to view) -
[ Lighting could Strike ]
[Death Arrives]
[ Peanut Butter]
[ O-beah]
[ I'm Tired ]
[ Set Your Heart ]
[Death Falls In Love]
[ I will have Susan ]
[ Joe's Goodbye]

click here to view : photos

Behind the Scenes : The story

-Torrent-

source:Link

Trivia 

MeetJoeBlack is an adaptation of stage play 'Death Takes a Holiday' ( previously filmed in 1934 with Fredric March).

***

The Aldrich Mansion is a late 19th century property owned by the Roman Catholic Church (Diocese of Rhode Island) since 1939.

It is located by the scenic Narragansett Bay in Warwick, Rhode Island, south of Providence, Rhode Island.

It was originally owned by Senator Nelson Aldrich. Its construction began in 1896 and was completed some 16 years later. In 1901 Abby Aldrich married John D. Rockefeller, Jr. at the mansion. In 1939, the Senator’s heirs transferred the Aldrich Mansion to the Providence Diocese for a token sum. Our Lady of Providence Seminary relocated to the Aldrich Mansion in 1946.

The estate is currently set on 85 acres (34 ha) (or 75 depending on the source). It consists of the French inspired mansion itself, a coach house, a caretaker's cottage and boathouse.

It was William Parrish(Anthony Hopkin)'s mansion in the 1998 motion picture Meet Joe Black.



Filming also took place in Teaneck, New Jersey and New York.