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The Lawnmower Man (film)

The Lawnmower Man
Lawnmower Man.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Brett Leonard
Produced by Gimel Everett
Screenplay by Brett Leonard
Gimel Everett
Based on The Lawnmower Man
by Stephen King
Starring
Music by Dan Wyman
Cinematography Russell Carpenter
Edited by Alan Baumgarten
Lisa Bromwell (unrated director's cut)
Production
company
Allied Vision
Distributed by New Line Cinema
Release date
  • March 6, 1992 (1992-03-06)
Running time
103 minutes
141 minutes (unrated director's cut)
Country United States
Language English
Budget $10 million
Box office $32,100,816 (US)

The Lawnmower Man is a 1992 American science fiction action horror film directed by Brett Leonard and written by Brett Leonard and Gimel Everett. The film is loosely based on the plot of the 1968 film Charly. The Lawnmower Man is named after a Stephen King short story of the same name; but, aside from a single scene, the stories are unrelated. The film stars Jeff Fahey as Jobe Smith, a simple-minded gardener, and Pierce Brosnan as Dr. Lawrence Angelo, the scientist who decides to experiment on him.

The film was originally titled Stephen King's The Lawnmower Man, but King successfully sued the producers for attaching his name to the film and stated in court documents that the film "bore no meaningful resemblance" to his story. An earlier short film, also titled "The Lawnmower Man", is a more faithful adaptation of the short story. It was directed by Jim Gonis in 1987.

After the success of The Lawnmower Man, Leonard would later make another virtual reality film called Virtuosity starring Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe in 1995.

Dr. Lawrence Angelo works for Virtual Space Industries, running experiments in increasing the intelligence of chimpanzees using drugs and virtual reality. One of the chimps escapes using the warfare tactics he was being trained for. Dr. Angelo is generally a pacifist, who would rather explore the intelligence-enhancing potential of his research without applying it for military purposes. His wife Caroline is unhappy with the way he is ignoring her to focus on this project.

Jobe Smith, a local greenskeeper with an intellectual disability, lives in the garden shed owned by the local priest, Father Francis McKeen. McKeen's brother, Terry, is a local landscape gardener and employs Jobe to help him with odd jobs. Father McKeen punishes the challenged Jobe with a belt whenever he fails to complete his chores.


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