MovieChat Forums > Poltergeist III (1988) Discussion > Retrospective with director Gary Sherman

Retrospective with director Gary Sherman

posted 14 years ago by CharleyBrewsterrr
13 replies | jump to latest

http://www.killerfilm.com/spotlight/read/late-night-classics-poltergei st-iii-35518

Jason Bene: There has been a lot of chatter on the internet about the ending of the film and was there an alternate ending.

Gary Sherman: [Laughs] There’s a lot of talk about it by a lot of people that I think need a life. It’s a movie. It’s what it is and this is not the ending that was supposed to be on the movie. Dick Smith and the people working with him did not have all of the FX ready in the time that we were given shooting the original film in Chicago. We couldn’t shoot the end in Chicago because we didn’t have enough of the proper crew. I was up to my eyeballs busy. It was unfortunate.

The funny thing is that fans have PROOF that the original ending was shot....there are many pictures available of it...and yet the director lied about it for years and claimed it was never made...even contrary to other people who worked on the project and spoke about it having been filmed. Those fans need to get a life? Well, all the director had to do from the beginning is tell the truth. Why lie about it for so long? In his own words, it's just a movie. Why is it important enough to him to blatantly and repeatedly lie about it?

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Whose idea was it for the word "Lisp" to have an "S" in it?

[–] Seaton86 14 years ago

Thank you, SolarSailor...you are exactly right.

Here's ALL the evidence (I apologize for it being so long, but I wanted to be sure I built a strong case):

http://www.poltergeistIII.com/gorezone.html

And here's all the photos, including one of the camera crew FILMING the original ending on location in Chicago in late June, 1987:

http://www.poltergeistIII.com/originalending.html

[–] TheSolarSailor 14 years ago

Yes, I read that stuff the other day when visiting your site. Very interesting, comprehensive, and informative. It's amazing that the director still manages to stick his fingers in his ears and sing lalalalalala whenever anyone brings the issue up.

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Whose idea was it for the word "Lisp" to have an "S" in it?

[–] JackForrester 12 years ago

Wow, fans of the movie are eager for some new material (which is completely normal) and Gary Sherman says they need to "get a life"? What a douchebag...

[–] tecnogaming 10 years ago

Exactly.

When people defend this movie, all you need to do is show them the comment of Gary Sherman sending them to "get a life"...

The movie was plagued with problems, it was a disaster and should had never been shown in the first place.

NONE of the actors wanted the movie to go out after Rooke's death.

Alex Vojacek

[–] 10 years ago

[deleted]

[–] kaydie-fee 8 years ago

I still think he's being liberal with the truth there - they filmed an ending in the summer of 1987, the movie was wrapped up and done, he obviously doesn't want that original ending to be seen for whatever reason, the 17 minutes he's referring to is the new ending MGM wanted and was planned before Heather passed away, after she died he had to do the ending with the double.

[–] trekkie313 8 years ago

The ending scenes after the finale were already shot. The whole ending before re-shoots are about 5-6 pages. Nowhere close to the 17 Gary says.

Earlier drafts did have more things going on in the finale, but most were cut for budget.

Listen, do you smell something? -Ray Stantz

[–] ravi02 7 years ago

I have to agree with Mr. Sherman.

Seriously, what is so compelling about this supposed "alternate ending" that people are so interested in? And over Poltergeist III - a film nobody outside this board even remembers or gives a s--t about! I mean my local restaurant changing one of their dishes is more of an interesting mystery than this BS.

I feel like all you conspiracy-obsessed whackjobs really do need to get lives.

[–] kaydie-fee 7 years ago

You must have gave a sh-t to read that interview and comment on the P3 board about it, there is no 'conspiracy' to be obsessed with - Gary Sherman lied about shooting the original ending, it very obviously was shot and now some people want to see it - that's all there is to it - what's so strange about people wanting to see deleted footage from a movie?? most blu rays and dvds have deleted scenes on them, I'm sure all the people who buy and watch them aren't 'whackjobs'

[–] ravi02 7 years ago

You must have gave a sh-t to read that interview and comment on the P3 board about it

Yes, I read the interview out of curiosity that there might be something interesting about this whole controversy. But, as you said yourself - there is nothing to it, which is why I'm baffled as to why so many of you on this board are so fascinated by this "original ending". And all this over Poltergeist III? A terrible film that nobody with a healthy mental state should even care about?

If Gary Sherman doesn't want to talk about it and considering he finds the whole period of making the film to be painful, why keep bringing this up? Leave the poor man alone and find better things to do.

[–] kaydie-fee 7 years ago

This is the IMDb Poltergeist 3 board isn't it? Where people come to discuss Poltergeist 3, Yes? Why are you so surprised that posters want to discuss the alternate ending to.....dun dun dunnn...Poltergeist 3?! It's not that weird
You're blowing things wayyy out of proportion, Nobody has personally gone to Gary's house and interrogated him or hounded him, if he doesn't want to talk about then fine, it doesn't mean we can't.
You act like there's thousands of posts on here about P3's original ending and that everytime anyone mentions it Gary Sherman's P3 spidey-sense goes off and he dies a little more inside, why would he give a *beep* about what people say on here? maybe if he'd actually told the truth from the beginning people wouldn't be so curious about the whole thing, it was pretty idiotic of him to say the ending was never filmed when there's photos all over the internet of it and a bunch of people who worked on the movie say it was.

[–] FilmBoy (1079) 2 years ago

No - it's the MOVIECHAT board dun dun dunnnnnnnnnn

So 12 yrs on - can we see the alternate ending somewhere?