written by Richard O\u2019Brien\u00a0<\/a>and directed by Jim Sharman. Tim Curry and O\u2019Brien played Frank-N-Furter and Riff Raff, respectively.<\/p>\nThe movie follows \u201csweethearts Brad and Janet,\u201d who are \u201cstuck with a flat tire during a storm, and discover the eerie mansion of Dr. Frank-N-Furter,\u201d a mad scientist.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Dr. Frank-N-Furter had just brought his newest creation, Rocky, to life as the couple arrives.<\/p>\nTim Curry, Barry Bostwick, Susan Sarandon in the musical movie. \u00a920thCentFox\/Courtesy Everett Collection<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\nBostwick reminisced, \u201cI think it was perfect for the film because we were strangers in a strange land.\u201d<\/p>\n
O\u2019Brien noted: \u201cOne of the nicest things about that is Susan Sarandon and Barry Bostwick came across from America and into a world which we already inhabited, which was fantastic because that was exactly what was supposed to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt couldn\u2019t have been more truthful and more obvious and rehearsing was a dream because we all knew what we were doing, and they came in, the green virgins, and it was perfect.\u201d<\/p>\nSusan Sarandon, Tim Curry, Jonathan Adams (in wheelchair), Barry Bostwick, Patricia Quinn. \u00a920thCentFox\/Courtesy Everett Collection<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\nPatricia Quinn (Magenta),\u00a0Nell Campbell\u00a0(Columbia) and\u00a0Christopher Malcolm\u00a0(Brad) all reprised their stage roles for the on-screen project. <\/p>\n
\u201cRocky Horror\u201d became one of the best-selling movie musicals of all time \u2014 grossing $115 million off a $1 million budget.<\/p>\n
50 years ago, the movie was set to open in New York on Halloween, but the studio scrapped that plan. Tim Deegan, from Fox, came up with his after-dark idea.<\/p>\n
Midnight screenings weren\u2019t anything new, but this was the first time one of the midnight showings would be held for a Fox musical.\u00a0<\/p>\nBarry Bostwick, Susan Sarandon in the film. 20th Century Fox Film Corp. All rights reserved. Courtesy: Everett Collection<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\nDeegan admitted to The Post at the time that there was \u201cno pressure within the company to release this picture.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cRocky Horror\u201d then opened at the Waverly on April Fool\u2019s Day, 1976. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the first time a major studio has ever opened a film here on such a small and eccentric scale,\u201d penned Post movie critic Frank Rich that July.<\/p>\n
The movie\u2019s director and co-writer, Sharman, first experienced a \u201cRocky Horror\u201d screening in New York in 1978, when he visited from Australia.<\/p>\nSusan Sarandon, Barry Bostwick are caught while the cast sings \u201cTime Warp.\u201d \u00a920thCentFox\/Courtesy Everett Collection<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\u201cI rolled up to the Waverly at midnight and bought a ticket, like any punter,\u201d Sharman told The Post.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe ritual was well established by then and the interplay between the movie, the audience, the cosplay and the party seemed fun. I was relieved that the movie had found its audience,\u201d he continued. \u201cA surreal homage to late-night movies was already on its way to becoming an ultimate late-night movie.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sharman said both the musical and movie were never meant to ride the traditional path.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe show began in abandoned cinemas and rock clubs,\u201d he added. \u201cIt only faltered once, when it went mainstream, on Broadway. And the movie didn\u2019t catch fire in mainstream release either. But it did in late night. Why?\u201d<\/p>\nRichard O\u2019Brien, Susan Sarandon, Barry Bostwick, Patricia Quinn in a still from the movie. \u00a920thCentFox\/Courtesy Everett Collection<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\nSharman noted that a main reason was how they shot the film.<\/p>\n
\u201cA mainstream version would have had celebrity rock stars and a big budget. We honored \u2018Rocky Horror Picture Show\u2019s\u2019\u00a0B-movie premise. We\u00a0confused A-and-B-movie tropes. We shot it fast and loose on low budgets, with tight schedules, in chilly studios, with iconic visuals. And we kept faith with a virtually unknown but brilliant, sexy cast that a cult audience could embrace and make their own,\u201d he explained.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel that\u2019s at least part of the reason why \u2018The Rocky Horror Picture Show\u2019 is\u00a0celebrating its 50th Anniversary<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source celebrity.land \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Time is fleeting! But we\u2019re taking it back to 1975\u2026 On Friday, the \u201cRocky Picture Horror Show\u201d celebrated 50 years since the horror musical was first released. Barry Bostwick, 80, portrayed Brad Majors alongside Susan Sarandon, 78, who played Janet Weiss. The co-stars opened up about joining the cult classic film in the documentary \u201cStrange […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2054199,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25174],"tags":[350497,21751,21741,21799,21912,345885,353106],"class_list":["post-2054198","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gossip","tag-casting","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-film","tag-movies","tag-musicals","tag-susan-sarandon"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Rocky-Horror-casting-director-reveals-the-genius-way-he-got.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2054198","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2054198"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2054198\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2054199"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2054198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2054198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2054198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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