The Booter

The Booter is a 1987 American caper film set during the prohibition era of the late 20s-early 30s starring James Caan and Robert Downey Jr. as two bootleggers who go through various lengths to illegally smuggle alcohol all while avoiding the authorities from knowing. Phoebe Cates, Peter Coyote, Mickey Rooney and Fay Wray also appear in supporting roles.

The film was noted for it's over-budget production costs and took a total of six-years to make. Released on November 27, 1987, the film recieved generally positive reviews, despite this along with a heavy marketing blitz, it became a box-office dissapointment, this along with Astro Boy (1988) would mark the end of Andy's successful auteur run, resulting in him becoming a director for hire for the rest of his career. 15 years later, Andy would assemble a director's cut that restored many deleted scenes that were cut from the original release in order to get a PG-13 rating, this version would be released in theaters by MGM in 2002 to critical acclaim.

Plot
TBA

Cast

 * James Caan as Louis "Big Louie" Archie
 * Robert Downey Jr. as Ricky "The Stick" Romero
 * Phoebe Cates as Maya Weston
 * Peter Coyote as Chief Moran Coleman (based on Morgan A. Collins)
 * Mickey Rooney as Mr. Biggie
 * Fay Wray as Cynthia Romero

Production
Carl Andy had been interested in making a film about the prohibition era ever since reading Kenneth Allop's book in the late 1970s. In an interview with Variety "It's interesting to look back and see how much had changed, given that we all take alcahol for granted now, but what really promted me to make this movie was all the panics over Dungeons & Dragons and now the emergence of MTV and animation for older audiences getting a similar pushback. As a big believer in freedom of expression, I felt such a story would be more relevant than ever, a way of telling the audience that this has happened before. At the same time however, it's not really a message movie, I always feel the audience should be entertained at the same time and witness the renactment of a bygone era and all it's glory". On Janurary 1, 1982, It was announced that Andy and Warner Bros. in association with The Ladd Company would serve as co-producers of the film with Andy directing and William Kennedy writing the screenplay. However Andy's film Faith of a Rabbi premiering later that year became a box-office flop. This forced Andy to put the project on hold until he could make a profitable project after a series of underperformers like Talkie, Horseshoe, and Sea of Troubles.

Meanwhile, William Kennedy had departed to help co-write The Cotton Club, a film also set in the late-20s, Kennedy had assured Andy he did not copy any elements from his script into The Cotton Club and promised to return once it was complete. Meanwhile Andy had completed shooting The Boy from the Blue, a film which would reignite Andy's directorial career along with the succesful series Toons from Around the World on HBO, meanwhile The Ladd Company, one of the production companies that joined, was suffering financially thanks to failures like Once Upon a Time in America and Twice Upon a Time, ending their association with Warners by 1984. Andy had offered to continue production with Warner but the budget they demanded was $30,000, less than what Andy would have expected, When he did not accept these demands, the project was sold back to him, thus forcing Andy to find another studio. He considered 20th Century Fox whom had distributed The Boy from the Blue, but the studio felt that the film's violent content wouldn't make for a good follow-up to the more family friendly film.

Finally Andy had arranged a deal with Orion Pictures, a relatively new studio whom Andy had worked with before, having backed his brother Joseph Andy's films Little Caesar (1981) and Cross Country Chase (1983) which Carl Andy produced. Andy had also known co-founders Arthur B. Krim, Eric Pleskow and Mike Medavoy durring their time at United Artists, which distributed most of Carl Andy's past films such as Toby. Orion had also helped Andy distribute various international animated films in the US through his "Carl Andy Presents" series of theatrical releases.

REST TBA

Home Media

 * 1988 Orion Home Video VHS/Betamax
 * 1988 Image Entertainment Laserdisc (under license from Orion)
 * 2000 MGM Movietime VHS
 * 2002 MGM Home Entertainment Director's Cut DVD
 * 2015 Kino Lorber Blu-ray (under license from MGM/Fox)
 * 2022 Kino Lorber Ultra HD (under license from MGM)