Animal House - John Belushi

In the summer of 1977, a young director named John Landis first met Belushi. Landis had just

finished up his first film, The Kentucky Fried Movie,which was a low budget satire of other films and

TV. Landis wanted John to play the part of Bluto Blutarsky in National Lampoon's Animal House,

and had already sent John a script. The movie was about a naughtyboy fraternity, the Delta " Animal

House ," which had waged a war against taste, sobriety,

society, grades, the dean, woman, and just about everything

else! Universal Studies had issued Landis an ultimatum: Get

Belushi to play Bluto or their would be no movie. John

agreed to do the movie and signed a contract for $35,000

not bad considering he had no real film experience.

Their was originally a part of John's bud Aykroyd as

D-Day. The motorcycle riding fanatic, and John really

wanted him to take that role. But, Dan wanted to write

and turned it down. While waiting for filming to begin John

signed a contract to do Going South, directed by and starring Jack Nicholson.

John Landis set out to find a college campus

to begin filming, since they couldn't afford an expensive

Hollywood set. After over 50 colleges had turned them

down, The University of Oregon at Eugene finally gave

them permission. They had 30 days to finish the on-

wanted to stay within budget.

Landis wanted John to use his facial expressions for its full effect, he even cut lines from John so that

he would have to rely upon them even more.When John entered a scene he took it over, and Landis

started to adjust the movie around Bluto's exits and entrances. John played the role of Bluto

to perfection . Animal House was about to launch John into super stardom. The movie premiered on

July 28, 1978, and went on to become the highest grossing comedy of its time.