Editing Roger Corman (section)

=== ''The Wild Angels'' ===
After a year of not directing, Corman took a leave of absence under his contract with Columbia to make a film for AIP, the first biker movie, ''[[The Wild Angels]]''. It starred [[Peter Fonda]] and [[Nancy Sinatra]], from a script by Griffith; [[Peter Bogdanovich]] worked as Corman's assistant. The film opened the 1966 Venice Film Festival and was hugely successful at the box office, making over $6 million on a $350,000 budget and kicking off the "biker movie" cycle.<ref>[[Joan Didion]] said she went to see ''The Wild Angels'' because "there on the screen was some news I was not getting from the ''New York Times''. I began to think I was seeing ideograms of the future." Didion, Joan; ''The White Album''; (1979) p.100</ref>

He wanted to make a film about the [[Manfred von Richthofen|Red Baron]], but Columbia turned it down because of ''[[The Blue Max]]'' (1966). He proposed a movie about the [[St Valentine's Day Massacre]] and also an adaptation of the novel ''Only Lovers Left Alive''.<ref name="columbia"/> [[Nick Ray]] was meant to be making ''Only Lovers'' in Britain.

Corman did begin directing ''Long Ride Home'' with [[Glenn Ford]] at Columbia. However, Corman left production a few weeks into the shoot in June 1966 and was replaced by [[Phil Karlson]].<ref>{{cite news|id={{ProQuest|155465611}}|author=Martin, B. |date=July 1, 1966|title=Train on a 'foreign' track.|newspaper=Los Angeles Times}}</ref> The film was retitled ''[[A Time for Killing]]'' (1967).

Corman received an offer to direct a studio film, ''[[The St. Valentine's Day Massacre (film)|The St. Valentine's Day Massacre]]'' (1967), for 20th Century Fox, starring [[Jason Robards]] and [[George Segal]]. He did not enjoy the restrictions of working for a major studio. He was given a $2.5 million budget and made it for $400,000 less.<ref name="AIP">Mark McGee, ''Faster and Furiouser: The Revised and Fattened Fable of American International Pictures'', McFarland, 1996, p. 266</ref> Corman, an independent director, was most comfortable in his own style:  shoestring budgets and shooting schedules measured in days, rather than weeks. Nonetheless, it is generally considered one of his best films as a director.{{cn|date=May 2024}}

Corman was meant to follow this with ''Robert E. Lee'' for United Artists at a budget of $4.5 million.<ref name="columbia">{{cite news|id={{ProQuest|155444364}}|author=Thomas, K.|date=June 10, 1966|title=Cormann—whiz kid of the B's|work=Los Angeles Times}}</ref> It was not made. Neither was a story Corman optioned, ''The Spy in the Vatican''.<ref name="auto789">{{cite news|id={{ProQuest|155433741}}|author=Martin, B.|date=July 12, 1966|title=Filmways inks Jack Clayton|newspaper=Los Angeles Times}}</ref>