and that you deserve this for voting for Trump, you deplorable son-of-a-bitch!"
Posted on 02/06/2020 2:25:11 AM PST by Bender2
With the death of Kirk Douglas I cannot help but recall the creation of my screenplay I wrote for him and his son Michael.
Back in 1978 I was out in Hollywood trying to peddle two of my screenplays and auditioning for any acting jobs I could. One of those auditions was for as a day player on The China Syndrome of which I did not get but did get to read before Michael Douglas as he was the producer--
My agent at the time back in Dallas, called me a week or so after that, saying she had heard that Michael Douglas was looking for a screenplay to star in with his father, Kirk
"Would Pappy's Tree work?" she asked. I answered her a firm no and knew the other one I had with me would not be up their alley either.
About a year later I am back in Texas, up at Half-Priced Books in Dallas. I came across a dusty 1930ish edition of A Manual for Courts-Martial, U.S. Army,1928 for two dollars. As I held it in my hands, I just knew here was my story for Kirk & Michael. And the title appeared right out of thin air: Duty, Honor, Country.
I worked for about a month and came up with a bare bones plot about a well-known, highly decorated regular Army Officer, the son of a George Patton type General, who in 1954 out of the blue murders with a sub-machine gun his wife and lover who was the officer's long serving 1st Sergeant and the resulting Courts-Martial. I gave it to my agent to read and comment. She replied back it needed a female angle and the only female so far was the wife who got machine gunned on page three.
There it stood for about six months until I awoke one morning knowing just what female MacGuffin the plot need and the tweaking it for it to all come together. Another few months going back and forth from my agent to me for polish and the 3rd draft was ready to be sent on its way.
After a week, my agent called back that there was interest and they would get back to me. Another month passed and finally an offer for a six month option came. Yet it was not from Michael & Kirk's agents, but from another group entirely. We decided to await the yes or no from the Douglas camp.
Finally, they said while there was interest, the script need work. I did another re-write for two weeks and sent back the 4th Draft to them. Another month passed by and finally the Douglas answer was thanks but no thanks.
While I was down that the very people I wrote for did not buy my work, my agent said the six-moth option was still out there. I told her to take it.
and that you deserve this for voting for Trump, you deplorable son-of-a-bitch!"
Thank you for sharing that story and continue your craft as long as you can.
Kirk Douglas didn’t have too many opportunities for comedy but The Villian was hilarious IMO.
https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0080097/
“The Final Countdown” was an intriguing story. Great cast.
I had an uncle who looked slightly like him. We would tease him and ask for his autograph. He’d laugh and insist we stop messing with him, but you could see—it tickled him pink!
He died in his 90s in the 1990s. I visited him at the hospice, and said, “Uncle Marty, wow, I thought you were Kirk Douglas for a minute, there!”
He perked right up. Got to talking about old times.
He died the next day.
Uncle Marty, say “Hello” to Kirk up there for us!
Since “Wall Street” turned out to be such a great role for Michael Douglas, it would have been interesting if there had been a role for Kirk Douglas as Gordon Gekko’s father or mentor mirroring the Charlie and Martin Sheen characters.
Thank you for the interesting personal anecdote.
Funny story, my Dad liked the girl that played the Indian girl in the 1955 The Indian Fighter we had seen years before and it became a running joke between my parents. Mom would occasionally say she sure wished she could cook as well as my Father's Dream Indian. Dad would come back,"That would be nice, wouldn't it?"
So in the early 1960s me, Mom and Dad were at a drive in watching Hatari! which had Elsa Martinelli as the Duke's love interest, spicy Italian hottie Anna Maria 'Dallas' D'Allesandro.
About half way through the film when the natives darkened Dallas' skin in a Mama Elephant ceremony, my Mom said to my Dad that Elsa Martinelli had played the Indian girl my father liked so much in The Indian Fighter
After a second, my father said, "I'll be damned, it is her! Never thought she'd have been an Eye-tie--"
That one is not my favorite, but it is very good. I love the scene where he slaps Patrick O'Neal in the face.
One thing I like about a lot of Kirk's performances is that he can play roguish characters and even downright assholes with a great deal of charm. One of my favorite such roles of his is movie producer Jonathan Shields in The Bad and the Beautiful.
Interesting, thanks for sharing.
Thanks for that ;-). To be honest, I was about 9 years old. I sure did love the oar walking scene, among others. But then, I watched gladiator movies on Saturday afternoons and all the other great stuff before “toxic masculinity?!?” was frowned upon by the ‘wimmen’
Remember “The war wagon” with John Wayne?
That movie was a hoot.
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