‘Quick Change’ At 30: No One Directed Bill Murray Quite Like Bill Murray
The story goes that Bill Murray and screenwriter Howard Franklin developed their adaptation of Jay Cronley’s novel “Quick Change” – released in theaters thirty years ago this week – with Jonathan Demme in mind to direct, but the filmmaker turned it down to make “The Silence of the Lambs.” (That abrupt transition mostly serves as a reminder of what a shift “Silence” was for Demme; “Quick Change” is much more in the mold of his earlier ‘80s films like “Married to the Mob” and “Something Wild.”) They asked Ron Howard, who turned it down because “he didn’t know who to root for.” (“He lost me at that moment,” Murray said.