Altered States

Altered States (1980)

Timing: 1:42 (102 min)

6.7/10
625

6.91/10
5415

6.9/10
42000

All about film

Video 1

Photo 33

Actors and characters

Release date

1980-12-25

Country

United States

Production

Warner Bros. Pictures

Genre

Horror, Science Fiction, Thriller

Budget

$15 000 000

Revenue

$19 853 898

Website

Director

Ken Russell

Actors

William Hurt, Blair Brown, Bob Balaban, Charles Haid, Thaao Penghlis, Miguel Godreau, Dori Brenner, Peter Brandon, Charles White-Eagle, Drew Barrymore
All actors and roles (10)

Scenario

Producer

Howard Gottfried, Daniel Melnick

Operator

Jordan Cronenweth

Composer

John Corigliano

Artist

Jeff Howard

Audition

Howard Feuer, Jeremy Ritzer

Editing

Eric Jenkins
All team (67)

• John Cunningham Lilly, who invented the sensory deprivation chamber and was the first to think of taking drugs in it, was a professional dolphin researcher.
• The full version of the film has a runtime of 150 minutes.
• According to Ken Russell, 26 other people had been offered the opportunity to direct the film for Warner Bros. before him, but they all declined.
• Screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky (1923-1981) refused to acknowledge this film as being based on his novel of the same name (1978). Although the dialogue in the screenplay was taken from his book almost verbatim, he reportedly disliked the film's overall atmosphere. He constantly clashed with the film's director, Ken Russell, and even refused to watch the film before demanding his name be removed from the credits. Therefore, the screenplay was credited to Sidney Aaron (Chayefsky's first and middle names).
• Objecting to Paddy Chayefsky's constant interference in the filmmaking process, Ken Russell banned him from the set altogether. It is claimed that Chayefsky attempted to oust Russell as director through behind-the-scenes maneuvers, but the film was already too far along in production, and all his attempts failed.