[Elvis]

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/h ... ted-857373

Hollywood Flashback: When Warren Beatty Suited Up for the Los Angeles Rams

by Bill Higgins 1/21/2016 12:00pm PST


From left: Dick Enberg, Will Hare, Beatty and Dolph Sweet in a scene from 'Heaven Can Wait.'

"I'm more than ready to rejoin the Rams, but I'll need a week or so to get back in shape," Beatty quips to THR, nearly three decades after his Oscar-nominated football movie 'Heaven Can Wait' hit theaters.

Warren Beatty once played for the Rams. Or at least he did in Heaven Can Wait.

But that was back in 1978, before the football team left Los Angeles for Anaheim, moved on to St. Louis and then announced Jan. 12 its return to a new $2 billion-plus stadium in Inglewood, Calif. The romantic comedy’s plot centers on a Rams quarterback (Beatty) who dies in a Malibu bicycle accident. After his guardian angel (Buck Henry) removes his soul prematurely, the QB learns he was supposed to live much longer. But his body already has been cremated, so he returns to Earth, where he assumes the body of a wealthy industrialist who buys the Rams, becomes the new signal caller and leads his team to the Super Bowl against the Steelers.

The film is loosely based on the Harry Segall play that was turned into the 1941 feature Here Comes Mr. Jordan. THR said Beatty’s 1978 movie “manages to be faithful to the spirit of the original and also … thoroughly contemporary in tone.” It was released as Paramount was having megahits with Grease and Saturday Night Fever.

Heaven joined that club: The $15 million film had a domes tic gross of $82 million (roughly $300 million today) and received nine Oscar nominations (including four for Beatty, then 40, as producer, director, writer and actor). Its success gave Beatty, who co-directed with Henry and co-wrote with Elaine May, the leverage to get Paramount to greenlight Reds — for which he again received noms in the same four categories and won the best director Oscar in 1982.

The Rams had their own uplift after Heaven: Two years later, the team actually played the Steelers in Super Bowl XIV. (Unfortunately, in the real-world version, they lost.) When asked about the team’s move back to L.A., Beatty (now working on a film about a boy, a girl and Howard Hughes) tells THR, “I’m more than ready to rejoin the Rams, but I’ll need a week or so to get back in shape.”

[snackdaddy]

Loved that movie. Especially the part about winning the Superbowl.

[Elvis]

Here's another flashback:

[HAL 9000]

I remember that Rams win vs Pittsburgh on Monday night with Jaworski leading the way, like it was just, well.... 39 years ago. Hindsight.... should have kept Jaws. Reset 39 years later......Rams QB search continues.

[aeneas1]

one of the things that made that movie so special was that they actually used pro team uniforms, actual nfl team colors and logos, unlike most most hollywood sports movies at the time and before, which often used made up team names and/or logos to circumvent league licensing costs... anyway, great movie, altho kinda dated imo, now kinda looks like a tv movie imo...

[CanuckRightWinger]

Warren Beatty was Joe Pendelton the Rams QB and in Training Camp there is a funny scene where all the Rams Coaches ie. Jack Warden's character and all the rest all echo the same vague sentiment about Joe's performance....

"He looks pretty good!"

Dyan Cannon was the scheming Julia Farnsworth trying to kill off her millionaire husband whose body Joe Pendleton inhabits, with a little help for the God-like Mr. Jordan (James Mason).....so she can shack up with Leo Farnsworth's horny account played by Charles Grodin.

One last thing....Dyan Cannon looked oh so hot in that movie!!

[Stranger]

I remember that Rams win vs Pittsburgh on Monday night with Jaworski leading the way, like it was just, well.... 39 years ago. Hindsight.... should have kept Jaws. Reset 39 years later......Rams QB search continues.

I remember that game well too - was in the stands

Didn't Jaws score the only Rams TD on a QB sneak from like the 5yrd line?

[dieterbrock]

Hut, hut, hut, hut, hut, hut, hut, hut, hut... SACK

Lol. Loved that movie

[Stranger]

Warren Beatty was Joe Pendelton the Rams QB and in Training Camp there is a funny scene where all the Rams Coaches ie. Jack Warden's character and all the rest all echo the same vague sentiment about Joe's performance....

"He looks pretty good!"

Dyan Cannon was the scheming Julia Farnsworth trying to kill off her millionaire husband whose body Joe Pendleton inhabits, with a little help for the God-like Mr. Jordan (James Mason).....so she can shack up with Leo Farnsworth's horny account played by Charles Grodin.

One last thing....Dyan Cannon looked oh so hot in that movie!!

Warren Beatty bought the team, that's how he got to play QB.

[moklerman]

Warren Beatty was Joe Pendelton the Rams QB and in Training Camp there is a funny scene where all the Rams Coaches ie. Jack Warden's character and all the rest all echo the same vague sentiment about Joe's performance....

"He looks pretty good!"

Dyan Cannon was the scheming Julia Farnsworth trying to kill off her millionaire husband whose body Joe Pendleton inhabits, with a little help for the God-like Mr. Jordan (James Mason).....so she can shack up with Leo Farnsworth's horny account played by Charles Grodin.

One last thing....Dyan Cannon looked oh so hot in that movie!!

Warren Beatty bought the team, that's how he got to play QB.

Well, ESK does look a little like Uncle Rico!

I don't remember the movie too well so I can't recall if there was much actual game action. But I wonder if Beatty wore #16 so they could use footage of Jaworski to make it work? Someone made a custom Topps card of Joe Pendleton that I thought was cool as hell: