It was Jaffe's enthusiasm that helped bring to fruition Columbia Picture's "Fright Night," starring Chris Sarandon, Roddy McDowall and William Ragsdale in a story of a typical small-town teenager with a most atypical--and terrifying--next-door neighbor.
A soft-spoken and reserved man whose demeanor remains that of the literary agent he once was, Jaffe is nonetheless a seasoned veteran in the film business, having served at various times as a press agent, vice-president of Rastar before emabarking on a career as an independent producer. His credits as producer include "The Wind and the Lion" with Sean Connery, "The Demon Seed" with Julie Christie, "Who'll Stop the Rain?" (which brought acclaim to Jaffe and co-producer Dagriel Katzka, as well as prominence to Nick Nolte), "Time After Time" with Mary Steenburgen and Malcolm McDowell, "Jinxed" with Bette Midler, "The Lords and Discipline" with David Keith, and "Little Treasure" with Burt Lancaster, Ted Danson and Margot Kidder. He was also executive producer of "Those Lips, Those Eyes" and "Motel Hell."
"I've collaborated successfully before with first-time directors," says Jaffe, "and I suspected that Tom's sensibilities as writer would carry over into directing, but I must say that the wonderful visual imagination he displayed, and his extraordinary perception about what was 'right' for the film, went beyond anything that I'd imagined. We seemed to be on the same wavelength about almost every aspect of 'Fright Night.'"
Chief among the areas that Jaffe and his director concurred on was casting. About the choice of Roddy McDowall to play Peter Vincent, Jaffe says: "You had a couple of ways to go. You could have cast that part in a very cliched fashion, using actors whose careers were identical to the character's--in other words, actors identified with horror films--but that seemed to us too easy, too catergorizable. Roddy was the perfect choice for that part, I think, both age-wise and in terms of being a super actor. And he has something else going for him, too. Although he had no background as a 'horror' personality, there is still a nostalgia attached to him in the sense that he's a part of our collective memory, a film actor qith whom we've grown up."
Although Jaffe prefers to give credit to others, rather to himself, it was his calm, steady handling of the crisis that allowed "Fright Night" to continue when star William Ragsdale broke his foot halfway through production. "Really, though," the producer says, again deflecting the spotlight, "it was the crew that showed a wonderful espirit de corps."
