George Armitage, the director of Miami Blues and Grosse Pointe Blank, was once attached to make the horror film Witchboard

Just over a week ago, we had to share the sad news that director George Armitage, best known for bringing the world Grosse Pointe Blank and Miami Blues, had passed away at the age of 82. Armitage got his start in the entertainment industry at the start of the 1970s, writing the film Gas-s-s for producer Roger Corman and then going on to write and direct Private Duty Nurses and write Night Call Nurses, also for Corman. By the end of the ’70s, he had written and directed the films Hit Man and Vigilante Force, as well as the TV movie Hot Rods, and wrote the scripts for the film Darktown Strutters and an episode of the TV series Monty Nash. Oddly, he did not earn any writing or directing credits in the 1980s – but, of course, this was not for a lack of trying. In fact, Kevin Tenney, the writer/director of the 1986 horror classic Witchboard, has revealed that Armitage was once attached to direct that film!

Tenney wrote on social media, “I wrote my first feature script in an undergraduate screenwriting class at the USC School of Cinematic Arts, a supernatural thriller called Ouija. I was dating (future wife) Susan at the time, and her roommate’s boyfriend was looking to produce a horror film. He asked to read my screenplay, and the very next week, he and his partner paid me $1,000 for a one-year option. I thought I was rich. Then they hired an up-and-coming director named Geroge Armitage, who’d helmed a couple of low budget Roger Corman thrillers. He and I shared a few phone calls before he finally requested a face-to-face meeting. I braced myself for all the story notes he was no doubt going to bombard me with, but he told me he loved the script as it was. He just wanted to meet me. He was surprisingly down to earth and really amiable. I liked him and was looking forward to working with him. Unfortunately, the producers’ financing fell through, and George moved on to bigger and better things, like directing Miami Blues with Alec Baldwin and Jennifer Jason Leigh and Grosse Pointe Blank with John Cusack and Dan Aykroyd. I moved on to grad school until the original Ouija option expired and was quickly bought and produced by a new company, with me now onboard to direct. Once finished, it was eventually distributed by Samuel Goldwyn Films under the new title of Witchboard. George passed away last week, and even though I hadn’t spoken to him in decades, I felt compelled to honor his passing. He may not have left the biggest mark on the world of cinema, but Grosse Pointe Blank is genuinely one of my all-time favorite films, which I’ve watched more times than I can remember. He was a significant part of my cinematic journey, and I will always think of him fondly and regret that our partnership was so brief.“

It would have been interesting to see what George Armitage would have done with Witchboard – but everything still turned out well. As mentioned, Tenney was able to direct the movie himself and deliver one of my favorite horror films, and Armitage was able to go on to make his most popular films. Armitage’s last directing credit came on the 2004 Elmore Leonard adaptation The Big Bounce, starring Owen Wilson. None of the projects that ended up on his directing filmography were horror movies.

Are you a George Armitage fan, and would you have been interested to see his version of Witchboard? Let us know by leaving a comment below.