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Joe Camp, a pioneering filmmaker who created the groundbreaking “Benji” franchise, which brought a lovable dog to the masses in a live-action film and became a smash hit, died Friday at his home in Bell Buckle, Tennessee. He was 84 years old. .
The cause was an unspecified illness, his son, director Brandon Camp, said in a statement.
Joe Camp started thinking about directing at age 8, but initially encountered decades of rejection. While attending the University of Mississippi, he attempted to transfer to UCLA film school, but was rejected. After college, Camp dabbled in advertising at McCann Erickson’s Houston office and then at Norsworthy-Mercer, an agency in Dallas, while writing scripts for unproduced sitcoms.
In 1971, Camp and James Nicodenius, a director of photography, formed their own production company, Mulberry Square Productions, based in Dallas, far from the traditional centers of the film and television industry, Los Angeles and New York.
The idea for “Benji” came from watching the Disney animated film “Lady and the Tramp” in the late 1960s with his first wife, Carolyn (Hopkins) Camp. Afterward, Mr. Camp observed the facial expressions of his own dog and wondered if a real-life movie could be made starring a real-life story told from the dog’s perspective.
“I went to sleep with the clear idea that dogs talk if you really pay attention to them,” Camp said. told The Associated Press in 2003.
With little professional experience, Camp feverishly came up with a one-shot script (his first feature film) in which an adorable stray dog would save two children from a kidnapping. She raised $500,000 and shot the film in 12 weeks in 1973.
He initially had trouble finding a dog trainer to work on the film, until famous trainer Frank Inn agreed to participate. But no Hollywood studio was interested in distributing it. So Mr. Camp did it independently through his production company.
“Making the first ‘Benji’ movie was like wading through a minefield of closed doors, unplanned disasters, catastrophic mistakes and a notable void of money, knowledge and experience,” Camp said. he wrote on his website.
“Benji” was released in 1974. It would go on to gross around $40 million (approximately $250 million in today’s dollars) and shattered perceptions about how to make successful movies. It was one of the highest-grossing films of the year, along with “Jaws” and “The Towering Inferno.”
Camp made several other “Benji” films, including 1977’s “For the Love of Benji”; 80s “Oh heavenly dog” starring Chevy Chase and Jane Seymour; “Benji the Hunted” from 1987 and “Benji: Off the Leash!” of 2004 There was also a CBS children’s show in 1983, “Benji, Zax and the Alien Prince.”
“If we do it well enough, the dollars will take care of themselves,” Camp told the New York Times in 1975.
“Benji” was rebooted as a 2018 film for Netflix and was co-written by Camp and his son, Brandon, who also directed the film.
Mr. Camp, inspired by walt disney vision, he insisted on creative control over his films and that there would be no profanity of any kind. He recalled that during negotiations with studios to distribute “Benji Off the Leash,” an executive at one of the studios argued that sexual innuendo and obscenities were something kids increasingly wanted in their programming.
“I said, ‘Do you have kids?’” Camp recalled to The Telegram & Gazette in 2004.
After the executive said yes, Mr. Camp responded: “‘Do you give them what they want or what you think they should have?’ And that ended the conversation pretty well.”
Joseph Shelton Camp Jr. was born on April 20, 1939 in St. Louis. His father, Joseph Shelton Camp, was an insurance executive and his mother, Ruth Wilhelmina Mclaulin, a homemaker. Mr. Camp is survived by his wife, Kathleen; his two sons, Joe and Brandon; and his stepsons, David Wolff, Dylan Wolff and Allegra Wolff. His first wife, Carolyn, whom he married in 1960, died in 1997 of a heart disorder at age 58.
After “Benji: Off the Leash!” disappointed with the box office, Mr. Camp turned to a new love: horses. He wrote several books, including the 2009 memoir, “The Soul of a Horse: Life Lessons from the Herd,” about his journey to become a rider.
But it is the “Benji” series for which Mr. Camp will be best remembered. For decades, he defied Hollywood’s demands to tell moving stories the way he wanted.
“The goal is to say, ‘If this dog can do it, if I can do it, this idiot from the South can do it, anyone can do it.’ If you try hard enough and don’t give up,'” Camp said. The Associated Press in 2003. “That’s what the ‘Benji’ movies are about.”