Rollerball (1975 film)

Rollerball
Theatrical release poster by Bob Peak
Directed byNorman Jewison
Screenplay byWilliam Harrison
Based on"Roller Ball Murder"
by William Harrison
Produced byNorman Jewison
Starring
CinematographyDouglas Slocombe
Edited byAntony Gibbs
Music byAndré Previn
Production
company
Algonquin Films
Distributed byUnited Artists
Release dates
  • June 25, 1975 (1975-06-25) (United States)
  • September 4, 1975 (1975-09-04) (London)
Running time
129 minutes[1]
CountriesUnited Kingdom[2]
United States[3]
LanguageEnglish
Budget$5-6 million[4][5]
Box office$30 million[6]

Rollerball is a 1975 dystopian science fiction sports film directed and produced by Norman Jewison.[7] It stars James Caan, John Houseman, Maud Adams, John Beck, Moses Gunn and Ralph Richardson. The screenplay, written by William Harrison,[8] adapted his own short story "Roller Ball Murder", which had first appeared in the September 1973 issue of Esquire.[9]

Although Rollerball had a largely American cast, a Canadian director, and was released by the American company United Artists,[10] it was produced in London and Munich.[11][12]

Rollerball was a box office success, and critical review were initially mixed but have warmed somewhat over time.

  1. ^ "Rollerball (AA)". British Board of Film Classification. June 25, 1975. Retrieved June 20, 2015.
  2. ^ "Rollerball". ArchiveGrid. Retrieved September 27, 2015.
  3. ^ Vaughn, Stephen (2006). Freedom and Entertainment: Rating the Movies in an Age of New Media. New York: Cambridge University Press. p. 55. ISBN 0521852587.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference varrev was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ "When it comes to the crunch". The Guardian. April 30, 1999. Retrieved May 1, 2019.
  6. ^ "Rollerball, Box Office Information". The Numbers. Retrieved January 22, 2012.
  7. ^ "Rollerball (1975)". British Film Institute. Archived from the original on May 6, 2016. Retrieved March 12, 2018.
  8. ^ "Rollerball (1975) Cast And Crew". MGM. 2000–2007. Retrieved October 3, 2007.
  9. ^ "Contents Lists / The Year's Best Science Fiction No. 7". Index to Science Fiction Anthologies and Collections, Combined Edition, by William G. Contento. 2003. Archived from the original on October 13, 2007. Retrieved October 1, 2007.
  10. ^ Cook, David A. (2000), Lost illusions: American cinema in the shadow of Watergate and Vietnam, 1970–1979, History of the American cinema, Charles Harpole, vol. 9, Simon & Schuster, p. 243, ISBN 0-684-80463-8
  11. ^ Booker, M. Keith (2010). Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction Cinema. Scarecrow Press. p. 66. ISBN 978-0-8108-5570-0.
  12. ^ Vaughn, Stephen (2006), Freedom and Entertainment: Rating the Movies in an Age of New Media, Cambridge University Press, p. 55, ISBN 0-521-85258-7