Last Saturday, the American Cinematheque hosted a Michael Douglas marathon to celebrate the release of the actor/producer’s new memoir, “One Helluva Ride.” After audiences spent the day at the Egyptian Theatre watching “Romancing the Stone,” “The War of the Roses,” and “Falling Down,” Douglas joined me on stage for a lively career conversation. The marathon then resumed with a screening of David Fincher‘s “The Game.”
The film that kicked off the day, “Romancing the Stone,” also yielded some of Douglas’ best stories. The 1984 action-comedy-romance made Douglas a movie star, but when he acquired Diane Thomas’ script as a producer, he didn’t intend to play dashing adventurer Jack Colton. “I was a big producer,” Douglas said, reflecting on winning an Oscar for producing “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.” “I’m a studio film producer, but I’m a TV actor.”
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At the time, Douglas’ main claim to fame was starring in the television cop drama “Streets of San Francisco,” in an era when actors rarely crossed over from TV to movies. Even though Douglas became a major player in Hollywood after producing two successful films, “Cuckoo’s Nest” and “The China Syndrome,” the studios wouldn’t sign him as a leading man. “I produced this movie called ‘Starman’ with Jeff Bridges,” Douglas said. “I would have liked to have played that part, but I was not approved. Jeff was.”
For “Romancing the Stone,” Douglas offered the role to Clint Eastwood and Burt Reynolds, but they both passed because they saw Jack as a second lead behind the heroine, Joan Wilder. He then went to Paul Newman, Robert Redford, Sylvester Stallone, and other actors approved by the studio — all of whom told him no. Ultimately, Douglas knew one actor wouldn’t say no to him, so he cast himself in the part, and the studio had little to do since everyone on their list had passed.
They also didn’t have high expectations for “Romancing the Stone” to begin with. “I remember the big picture they were all betting on was ‘Rhinestone,’ with Sylvester Stallone and Dolly Parton,” Douglas said. “Romancing the Stone” was a negative pickup for the studio, meaning Douglas was on the hook as producer for cost overruns, but also that he was left largely alone during the shoot. Working with director Robert Zemeckis, who had made two critically acclaimed but commercially unsuccessful pictures (“I Wanna Hold Your Hand” and “Used Cars”) and was one flop away from director jail, Douglas and co-star Kathleen Turner created a classic.
The studio didn’t see it that way when Douglas screened the first cut for them. “They did not like it,” Douglas said. The studio provided extra money for reshoots, not realizing that Douglas had already spent everything he was entitled to because the cost reports hadn’t come back from Mexico yet. “They committed to the reshoot, and then they found out, ‘Holy shit, they’re not under budget, they’re over budget.'” Douglas, Zemeckis, and Turner scrambled to shoot some new material that fleshed out the two main characters and added some comedy, and the result was Zemeckis’ first hit as a director and Douglas’ as a leading man.
Inevitably, the studio wanted a sequel, which led to one of the most stressful experiences of Douglas’ career, the 1985 release “The Jewel of the Nile.” The trouble began early, when Douglas spoke with Kathleen Turner about bringing her back. “Kathleen and I were carrying on during ‘Romancing the Stone,'” Douglas said, referring to an affair they kept secret for over 40 years until he revealed it in his memoir. “When the movie ended, I went back to my wife Diandra, and we ended our romance. Then, Kathleen became a huge star.”
When Douglas approached Turner about reteaming for “Jewel of the Nile,” she was newly married and filling her dance card with exciting projects like Francis Coppola’s “Peggy Sue Got Married” and the Steven Spielberg-produced comedy “The Money Pit.” When Turner told Douglas she planned to do the latter picture, not a “Romancing the Stone” sequel, he reminded her that the first film’s contract gave him an option on her services for a second movie.
Turner’s solution was to hire infamous litigator (and Donald Trump mentor) Roy Cohn to represent her in a legal battle with Douglas. Douglas ultimately won the case, but realized he had a major problem as he headed to Morocco for the production. “I thought, ‘Now I’ve got to go make this sequel with a woman who hates my guts,'” Douglas said.
A disgruntled costar was the least of Douglas’ problems. 10 days before the movie began shooting, a plane crash killed several of Douglas’ friends and collaborators, including his AD and production designer. “Because of the technicalities in Morocco, I couldn’t get the bodies out of the country,” Douglas said. “So at the hotel I have cast and crew arriving to start the movie, and three widows grieving in the bar, waiting until I can get their husbands out. And my leading lady is there under duress, looking at me like I’ve gotta watch my back or she’s going to kill me.”
Ultimately, Turner came around and became a trusted collaborator once again — she even reunited with Douglas for “War of the Roses” and the Netflix series “The Kominsky Method.” But Douglas’ problems on “Jewel of the Nile” were far from over. Once again, he was working under a negative pickup deal with the studio, which meant he was responsible for the bank loan that paid for the movie, a loan Fox would repay upon delivery. When the Moroccan authorities tried to shake down the production for two million dollars, this became a problem.
“We had three days left of shooting, and the Moroccan health department came to my office and said, ‘I’m sorry to tell you, but we’re going to have to quarantine the company for six weeks,” Douglas said. “We think one of your crew members has hepatitis.” When the health department asked for two million bucks to make the problem go away, Douglas saw he was being extorted — and when he called the studio for assistance, they made it clear it was his problem.
A call to the U.S. Ambassador in Morocco didn’t help. “He said, ‘Now you know the difference between a democracy and an autocracy,'” Douglas said. Frantic and worried he’d have 110 cast and crew members from around the world stranded in Morocco, Douglas talked with his brother Joel, who was working on the movie, and they came up with a solution. A member of the production team stole a stamp pad from the local customs inspector and stamped everyone’s passports — but the question remained: how to transport them and all their equipment out of the country without the government catching on.
“I found a Russian cargo plane and chartered it out of Paris,” Douglas said. “ Then, I called the customs department, and the guy came down to the desert, and I gave him a little envelope and thanked him for all his help. And he had helped a lot.” Douglas then asked the customs official for one last favor: to make the little airport in Ouarzazate, where they were shooting, “an international airport for about two hours.” With one call from the customs official to the control tower, Douglas’ plan to flee Morocco with his cast, crew, and equipment was underway.
“Everything just kept going up into this plane,” Douglas said. “The Chapman crane, the costume truck, the camera truck…and it was too hot to take off.” Because of the weather, Douglas and his team had to sit on the tarmac for an hour and a half, fearing the whole time that the Moroccan authorities would catch on to their plan and show up to quarantine or arrest them. “Finally it cooled off, and that’s how I got out of Morocco.”
Michael Douglas‘ new memoir “One Helluva Ride” is now available from Grand Central Publishing.