Before They Were Stars: J.J. Abrams Writes “Gone Fishin'”

By the time you read this, Star Wars: The Force Awakens will probably have broken the all-time box office record. Not bad for a director who once co-wrote a comedy which earned the Leonard Maltin review: “This film really smells”. J.J. Abrams started out in Hollywood by writing some notable spec scripts under the name “Jeffrey Abrams”, including the James Belushi/Charles Grodin comedy, Taking Care of Business, the Harrison Ford drama, Regarding Henry, and the Mel Gibson time travel drama, Forever Young. However, nothing on Abrams’ filmography looks as out-of-place as his co-writing credit on Gone Fishin’, a 1997 slapstick comedy in which Danny Glover and Joe Pesci get into all sorts of wacky shenanigans on a fishing trip. I’ve never actually sat through this film, but the trailer for it looks SO bad! Man, wouldn’t The Force Awakens have been so much better if the whole movie was Han and Chewie fishing?