Chalres E. Sellier Jr (1943-2011)

Charles E. Sellier Jr passed away at the age of 67 at his home in Idaho. Sellier may have been best known as the creator of GRIZZLY ADAMS, he was also one of the most important independent filmmakers / producers of the 1970's. I didn't think that the New York Times obituary this morning gave a full impact on his legacy. In fact, it didn't even mention some of the most interesting aspects of his career, and didn't even name the studio he created, Sunn Classic Pictures.

Sellier began making wilderness adventure films in the early 1970's. The most famous of these was 1974's THE LIFE AND TIMES OF GRIZZLY ADAMS. Best known for its short lived and well remembered 1977 TV series, the film was first with Dan Haggerty in the title role (even though his dialogue was dubbed by another actor in the film).

While GRIZZLY ADAMS may have been his best known film, he was one of the pioneers of the "speculative documentary". These films, to paraphrase Roger Ebert "asked a lot of questions but answered none".

Usually narrated by Brad Crandall, Sellier produced such films as IN SEARCH OF NOAH'S ARK, IN SEARCH OF HISTORIC JESUS, the reincarnation film BEYOND AND BACK, the Big Foot / Loch Ness doc MYSTERIOUS MONSTERS, THE AMAZING WORLD OF PSYCHIC PHENOMENA, THE BERMUDA TRIANGLE and, my personal favorite, the Abraham Lincoln conspiracy film THE LINCOLN CONSPIRACY. ENCOUNTERS WITH DISASTER, a documentary on tragedies throughout history, was directed by Sellier.

Sellier and his Sunn Classic were geniuses at marketing. Using market research, they would "four wall" the films, that is, renting theatres in towns, saturating the market with advertising, and clean up at the box office. Several of their films were among the most profitable of the 1970's. They were also brilliant at creating tie in paperbacks for each film, many written by Sellier himself.

They moved into TV with GRIZZLY ADAMS, as well as a series of films based on the CLASSIC ILLUSTRATED comic books. The best known of these is the Jeff Goldblum starring THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW. They also had a series THE GREATEST HEROES OF THE BIBLE.

Sunn Classics billed itself as a family friendly studio. All the films were G or PG rated. By the end of the 70's and early 80's they were bought out by another company and started to expand. HANGER 18 was an outer space conspiracy film and THE BOOGENS was an R rated horror film. Soon after, the studio disappeared.

Sellier continued in independent filmmaking, making the PG rated skiing comedy SNOWBALLING. He would follow this up with his most controversial film (also not mentioned in the NY Times piece).

At the end of shooting SNOWBALLING, he received a call from an old friend from NBC during the GRIZZLY ADAMS days. The friend was now in charge of Tri-star and had a film that needed a director quickly. Since Sellier had a crew together, he figured he would either have to let them all go, or he could take the film (which could be shot in Utah where he was located) and give them all more work. He decided to make the film.

The film in question?

SILENT NIGHT DEADLY NIGHT, the Santa Claus as slasher film. While this seems out of place on his resume of G rated family films, if you hear his reasoning, maybe not. He basically did it to help a friend and to give his crew some work. The film, by today's standards, isn't as awful as the resulting protests made it out to be. Sellier himself was a Born Again Christian who would write books about angels and go on to create many religious films. So, it wasn't intended to be an anti-Christmas film. It was just something to give a crew of filmmakers a paycheck.

Sellier would in 1985 direct his final film, the Vietnam Vets turn vigilante film THE ANNIHILATORS and then return behind the camera where he produced many films such as the DESPERADO series of TV films.

In the early 1990's, Sellier rebooted the Sunn name with a new ANCIENT SECRETS OF THE BIBLE series (which can still be seen on cable today). A return to the speculation documentaries of the 1970's, these explored the historical aspects of different Biblica stories. Aaron Eckhart had one of his first roles as Samson on this series.

Unfortunately, during an episode on Noah's Ark, a man was interviewed who turned out to be a hoaxer. After the episode aired, he came out and stated the fact. The network, upset about being duped, and that he wasn't fact checked more, cancelled future series with Sunn.

In the years since, Sellier went on to found GRIZZLY ADAMS PRODUCTIONS. This company began making direct to video documentaries, many religious in nature.

Sellier's impact on film in the 1970's was a great one. He was on the first jury of what would become the Sundance Film Festival. Sunn Classics can be seen as the forerunner of what you would find today on the History Channel or other cable channels.

And GRIZZLY ADAMS will never be forgotten.