The Manhattan Project (film)

The Manhattan Project
Theatrical release poster
Directed byMarshall Brickman
Written byThomas Baum
Marshall Brickman
Produced byMarshall Brickman
Jennifer Ogden
Starring
CinematographyBilly Williams
Edited byNina Feinberg
Music byPhilippe Sarde
Production
company
Gladden Entertainment
Distributed by20th Century Fox
Release date
  • June 13, 1986 (1986-06-13)
Running time
117 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$18 million[1]
Box office$3.9 million (US)[2]

The Manhattan Project is a 1986 American science fiction thriller film. Named after the World War II-era program that constructed the first atomic bombs, the plot revolves around a gifted high school student who decides to construct an atomic bomb for a national science fair. It was directed by Marshall Brickman, based upon his screenplay co-written with Thomas Baum, and starred Christopher Collet, John Lithgow, John Mahoney, Jill Eikenberry and Cynthia Nixon. This film – a box-office bomb whose ticket sales recovered just 21 percent of its budget – was the first from the short-lived Gladden Entertainment.

The film's director and screenplay co-writer Marshall Brickman had established his career as a co-writer on several Woody Allen films. The Manhattan Project was his third film as director, following the comedies Simon (1980) and Lovesick (1983).

  1. ^ Andrew Yule, Hollywood a Go-Go: The True Story of the Cannon Film Empire, Sphere Books, 1987 p136
  2. ^ "The Manhattan Project".