“Don’t You Forget About Me,” a Canadian feature documentary, with no distributor, changed its status after the death of its subject, John Hughes, last Thursday.
Director Matt Austin-Sadowski said that a day after Hughes’ death, the world rights to the low-budget docu were acquired by Alliance Films of Montreal with a U.S. deal.
The feature examines the life and work of the filmmaker behind teen hits “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” “The Breakfast Club” and “Sixteen Candles.”
Actors interviewed in the docu include Ally Sheedy, Judd Nelson, Mia Sara, Kelly LeBrock and Andrew McCarthy. Molly Ringwald, perhaps the actress most associated with Hughes’ hits, refused to take part in the project.
“Don’t You Forget About Me,” which refers to the Simple Minds pop song featured in “The Breakfast Club,” is not a standard biopic. Made without public funding, it’s a 75-minute road trip in which Austin-Sadowski and his producers Kari Hollend, Mike Facciolo and Lenny Panzer head to suburban Illinois in their van to try to find the reclusive Hughes.
Austin-Sadowski, 31, an actor best known for his role in the “Power Rangers: S.P.D.” TV series, said Hughes’ films had a huge impact on him when he was in high school. “He inspired me as a person, going through an awkward adolescence, as many people do,” Austin-Sadowski said. “He took affairs of the heart very seriously, and no other director gave teenagers that sort of treatment at that time.”
