Michael Schultz

Michael Schultz

Birth : 1938-11-10, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA

History

Schultz was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the son of Katherine Frances (née Leslie), a factory worker, and German American Leo Schultz, an insurance salesman. After his undergraduate work at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and Marquette University, he attended Princeton University, where in 1966 he directed his first play, a production of Waiting for Godot. He joined the Negro Ensemble Company in 1968, which brought him to Broadway in 1969. His breakthrough was directing Lorraine Hansberry's To Be Young, Gifted and Black, which he restaged for television in 1972. Schultz' earliest film projects combined low comedy with profound social comment (Honeybaby, Honeybaby and Cooley High), reaching a peak with the ensemble comedy Car Wash (1976) and Which Way Is Up? (1977), starring Richard Pryor. In 1978, Schultz took the reins of the musical Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band with the largest budget ever entrusted to an African-American film director to that date. However, upon its release, the project was a commercial and critical failure. Schultz would go on to make prominent films such as Scavenger Hunt (1979), Carbon Copy (1981), and Disorderlies (1987). More recently, Schultz has worked in television, piloting episodes of such style-conscious series as The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles and Picket Fences, as well as an abundance of made-for-TV movies. In 1991, Schultz was inducted into the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame.

Profile

Michael Schultz
Michael Schultz

Movies

I Am Richard Pryor
Self - Filmmaker
The life story of Richard Pryor (1940-2005), the legendary performer and iconic social satirist who transcended racial and social barriers with his honest, irreverent and biting humor.
Richard Pryor: Omit the Logic
Self
Mike Epps, Richard Pryor Jr. and others recount the culture-defining influence of Richard Pryor - one of America's most brilliant, iconic comic minds.
Directors on Directing
Self
A look at the development of film making and its contribution to the social and political times form the perspective of Black film makers.
Woman Thou Art Loosed
Director
An adaptation of Bishop T.D. Jakes' self-help novel, chronciling a woman's struggle to come to terms with her legacy of abuse, addiction and poverty.
L.A. Law: The Movie
Director
The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones: My First Adventure
Director
In the first film in the series, in May 1908, famed Professor Henry Jones Sr. is invited to give lectures all over the world. He takes along his wife and son, and invites his former tutor Miss Helen Seymour to teach Henry Jr. during the trip. Their first stop is Cairo, Egypt. When Junior, who prefers to be called 'Indy' and Miss Seymour visit the pyramids, they are invited by T.E. Lawrence (another former student of hers) to join an archaeological dig. When the mummy disappears and a priceless headpiece is stolen, young Indy gets his first taste of adventure. On their next stop in Tangiers, the family stays with Professor Jones' former class mate Walter Harris. Indy befriends a young slave named Omar who belongs to Emily Keen. The two of them get into trouble when they Indy insists on visiting the market place to see a salted head displayed on a pole. Caught by slave traders, they are end up at an auction from which only Harris can attempt to rescue them.
The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones: Tales of Innocence
Director
In the sixteenth film in the series, in 1917, Indiana Jones is working to get Austrian deserters safely to the allies side in the Italian Alps. In his spare time, he is wooing an Italian beauty named Guiletta. When he finds out another man is vying for her attention, Indy and his new pal, ambulance driver Ernest Hemingway, make plans to crush Indiana's competitor by smothering Guiletta with presents and compliments. Afterwards, Indiana is begrudgingly ordered to Casablanca to find a traitor who is selling arms to the Berber rebels. Traveling incognito, he is joined by American novelist Edith Wharton and journalist Lowell Thomas. Indy and Edith soon find themselves attracted to each other despite their age difference.
My Last Love
Director
Love and life can never be planned. That's the message of the heartwarming love story of Susan Morton, a single mother facing a terminal illness who finds unexpected romance and a larger life lesson at a most difficult time. Susan moves to California with her daughter after being diagnosed with cancer. Enter young lover Michael Blake, who teaches Susan that all of life is a precious gift.
Killers in the House
Director
Bank robbers on the run from the police invade a mansion and take the owners hostage.
Phat Beach
Executive Producer
A hefty homeboy borrows his dad's Mercedes and goes to the beach with his friends for wild sun & fun.
The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones: Travels with Father
Director
In the fourth film in the series, in 1910's Russia, a few acts of clumsiness puts Indy at odds with his father who is greatly displeased with Indy. Indy runs away into the Russian countryside and wakes in the morning on a haystack. He encounters colorful Gypsies, fierce Imperial Cossack troops, and an odd, cantankerous old man named Leo Tolstoy, who is in full agreement that "hell" is other people. Later, in Greece, Indy meets Nikos Kazantzakis, the writer who would some day write Zorba the Greek.
The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones: Hollywood Follies
Director
In the twenty-second and final film in the series, in 1920's Hollywood, Indy is working as assistant to Hollywood movie mogul Carl Laemmle, who charges him to get notoriously megalomaniacal director Erich Von Stroheim to complete his latest epic on time and on budget... or else!
Day-O
Director
A five-year-old named Grace creates an imaginary friend, because her parents only pay attention to the new baby, Tony. Now at 35, his sole friend reappears to help her.
Livin' Large!
Director
A young black reporter begins to lose his identity.
Hammer, Slammer, & Slade
Director
After he retires from the police force, a veteran cop is framed for robbery but his friends, a rookie and three ex-cops, come to his rescue.
The Great American Sex Scandal
Director
Film highlighting the courtroom antics of the jury.
Tarzan in Manhattan
Director
The ape man flies to New York, where cabby Jane and her father help him rescue Cheetah from a madman.
Rock 'N Roll Mum
Director
Dyan Cannon portrays Annie Hackett, an aspiring singer and suburban mother of two, who rocks and rolls her way through her household chores. When one of her songs is bought by a hip record executive for his label's biggest star, Darcy X (Dynasty's Heather Locklear), Annie is unexpectedly drafted into doing the demo record. To everyone's surprise, Annie's demo version becomes a hit, and Annie finds herself being groomed into a sexy Madonna-like idol! But the fun and fantasy of Annie's hot new image hit a sour not when she is told that her identity, her past - and her children - must remain a secret!
The Spirit
Director
A legally dead police detective decides to battle crime as a masked superhero.
Disorderlies
Director
As not-quite-orderlies who're downright Disorderlies, rap-music favorites The Fat Boys rule. Playing the freewheeling caretakers of the frail Dennison, they stir up a comedic culture clash in Palm Beach society that only proves laughter is the best medicine this side of a tax refund.
Timestalkers
Director
History professor Scott McKenzie makes an anachronistic discovery in a photograph from the Old West and he is soon joined by beautiful time-traveler Georgia in a time-skipping adventure to stop her colleague from the future from erasing her from existence.
Krush Groove
Producer
Russell Walker is a young, successful manager of rap performers, handling acts for the Krush Groove label, including Run-DMC and The Fat Boys. When Run-D.M.C. has a hit record and Russell needs more money to press more copies, he borrows it from a street hustler and soon regrets his decision.
Krush Groove
Director
Russell Walker is a young, successful manager of rap performers, handling acts for the Krush Groove label, including Run-DMC and The Fat Boys. When Run-D.M.C. has a hit record and Russell needs more money to press more copies, he borrows it from a street hustler and soon regrets his decision.
The Last Dragon
Director
A young man searches for the "master" to obtain the final level of martial arts mastery known as the glow. Along the way he must fight an evil martial arts expert and rescue a beautiful singer from an obsessed music promoter.
The Jerk, Too
Director
Navin Johnson heads to Los Angeles to attend the wedding of his pen pal, Marie. On the way, he runs across a gang of hobos whose leader, Diesel, takes him to Las Vegas after learning of his skills at poker.
For Us, the Living: The Story of Medgar Evers
Director
This film is the true story of Medgar Evers, a successful insurance agent who moves to Jackson, Mississippi to direct the regional headquarters of the NAACP. Fighting segregation and racist politics, Evers becomes a leader in the black community.
Earth, Wind & Fire in Concert
Director
Earth, Wind & Fire: In Concert was recorded at the Oakland Coliseum on December 30-31, 1981 for broadcast on HBO. This brilliant performance by the Grammy-winning flamboyant funk group captures the hard-driving rhythms, the soothing melodies, the scintillating horns and the special effects that have dazzled concertgoers around the world. Included are "Sing a Song," "Fantasy," "Shining Star," "Kalimba Tree," "Let Your Feelings Show," "In the Stone" and "Phoenix Intro."
Benny's Place
Director
Time begins to catches up to a tough factory worker who is feeling threatened by younger men at work and at play.
Carbon Copy
Director
A middle-aged married wealthy white corporate executive is surprised to discover that he has a working-class black teen-age son who wants to be adopted into the almost-exclusively-white upper-middle-class community of San Marino, California.
Bustin' Loose
Co-Director
After ex-con Joe Braxton violates his probation he is given a second chance, all he has to do is drive a group of special kids across the country.
Scavenger Hunt
Director
An eccentric games inventor dies and leaves behind an inheritance worth hundreds of millions of dollars - which will only be given to the person or team, amongst his family and hired help, who wins a madcap scavenger hunt.
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
Director
A small town band makes it big, but loses track of their roots, as they get caught up into the big-time machinations of the music biz. Now, they must thwart a plot to destroy their home town. Built around the music of The Beatles, this musical uses some big name groups like Peter Frampton and Aerosmith.
Which Way Is Up?
Director
Richard Pryor plays three roles - a beleaguered, sex-starved farm worker named Leroy Jones; the farm worker's randy old father Rufus; and the hypocritical town preacher Rev. Lenox Thomas - and Pryor has never been so outrageously funny. The lives and love lives of these three men cross and crisscross as Leroy tries to get his life back on track.
Greased Lightning
Director
This film is based on the true life story of Wendell Scott, the first black stock car racing champion in America.
Car Wash
Director
This day-in-the-life cult comedy focuses on a group of friends working at Sully Boyar's Car Wash in the Los Angeles ghetto. The team meets dozens of eccentric customers -- including a smooth-talking preacher, a wacky cab driver and an ex-convict -- while cracking politically incorrect jokes to a constant soundtrack of disco and funk. Some of the workers find romance as the day moves along, but most are just happy to get through another shift.
Cooley High
Director
In the mid-1960s, a group of high school friends who live on the Near North Side of Chicago enjoy life to the fullest...parties, hanging out, meeting new friends. Then life changes for two of the guys when they are falsely arrested in connection with stealing a Cadillac. We follow their lives through to the dramatic end of high school.
Ceremonies in Dark Old Men
Director
Russell B. Parker, a former vaudeville hoofer, is a man of big dreams but small ambitions. He hardly works at all in fact, often spending the time incessantly playing checkers with his friend, William Jenkins. Parker lives with Theopolis and Bobby, his two unemployed sons, and Adele, his hard-working daughter. The ghost of his dead wife, a woman who drove herself into an early grave working to support the family, nags at his conscience.
Honeybaby, Honeybaby
Director
Liv, a mercenary, is drawn into a mission to rescue a kidnapped politician. He travels to the volatile Mideast and is assisted by Laura, a translator, where their lives are imperiled.
To Be Young, Gifted and Black
Director
A mosaic biopic on Lorraine Hansberry, based on the stage play combining her unpublished writings, letters, and diaries.
Together for Days
Director
A black radical activist and a young White woman find themselves drawn to one another during the politically and racially-charged atmosphere of early 1970s America.
Segal
Self
A documentary focusing on the life and career of actor George Segal.