The movie began nearly a decade earlier as something much darker. In 1973, Hammer Films screenwriter Jimmy Sangster conceived The Fairytale Man, a horror story intended to star Vincent Price as a dead actor who collected children's souls for the Devil. Producer Harold Cohen, who had previously made television films from Sangster's work, could not raise the financing, and the project went into turnaround. Sangster eventually bought back the rights and sold them to Walt Disney Productions, where studio head Ron W. Miller assigned Mary Rodgers to reshape the material in the wake of the success of Freaky Friday. The theater-centered horror premise was transformed into a family-oriented fantasy comedy involving music, motorcycle racing, children, and adults. Sangster received story credit but not screenplay credit, and later delivered a notably bitter assessment of the rewrite, saying his consolation—besides the money—was sharing a screen credit with Richard Rodgers's daughter, while adding that he wished she had been as good a screenwriter as her father was a musician.
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AI concept artworkArchive Record · 1970s-1980s
From Vincent Price Horror Vehicle to Disney Faustian Comedy
Jimmy Sangster and The Devil and Max Devlin / 1970s-1980s
The movie began nearly a decade earlier as something much darker. In 1973, Hammer Films screenwriter Jimmy Sangster conceived The Fairytale Man, a horror story intended to star Vincent Price as a dead actor who collected children's souls for the Devil. Producer Harold Cohen, who had previously made television films from Sangster's work, could not raise the financing, and the project went into turnaround. Sangster eventually bought back the rights and sold them to Walt Disney Productions, where studio head Ron W. Miller assigned Mary Rodgers to reshape the material in the wake of the success of Freaky Friday. The theater-centered horror premise was transformed into a family-oriented fantasy comedy involving music, motorcycle racing, children, and adults. Sangster received story credit but not screenplay credit, and later delivered a notably bitter assessment of the rewrite, saying his consolation—besides the money—was sharing a screen credit with Richard Rodgers's daughter, while adding that he wished she had been as good a screenwriter as her father was a musician.
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