6/25/2023 0 Comments Tequila sunrise movieThe part went to Mel Gibson, who had been elevated into the stratosphere of Hollywood stardom after the huge success of Lethal Weapon (1987). With production back on, Towne offered the leading role of Dale McKussic, a successful drug dealer trying to get out of the business, to Harrison Ford, who turned it down. Years later, while Towne was in France in his capacity as script doctor on the film Frantic (1988), he showed his screenplay to producer Thom Mount, who signed on to produce and co-finance the project with Warner Bros. over his directorial debut, Personal Best (1982), resulted in the film getting shelved. It was originally slated to begin production in the early 1980s with Warren Beatty in the lead, but Towne’s battle with Warner Bros. "People in the movie business don't hesitate to say: 'We go back a long way. ![]() ''It's a movie about the use and abuse of friendship,'' he explains. According to Towne, ''With melodrama, as in dreams, you're always flirting with the disparity between appearance and reality, which is a great deal of fun." The dynamic is also in part informed by Towne's difficult relationship with Hollywood. Tequila Sunrise harkens back to such Hollywood classics as Casablanca (1942) and The Big Sleep (1946) with its mix of adult relationships, sophisticated banter, crime drama and romantic melodrama, updated to the culture of 1980s Southern California. "My characters get caught, they try even though they don't prevail or even significantly influence events. ''The characters I write about are men who control events far, far less than events control them," is how he described the dynamic to Turan. ![]() When the movie industry shifted from adult stories to action films, blockbuster fantasies and adventures in the course of the 1970s, Towne made the shift to director.Īs he explained to Kenneth Turan in 1988, ''even if someone is scrupulous about your text, tone is finally what's important, and you can't get that if you're not willing to be there and insist on it.'' Tequila Sunrise (1988), Towne's second directorial effort, is an original screenplay built around friendship, loyalty, betrayal and a romantic triangle that pits longtime friends, now on opposite sides of the law, against one another. And along with writing such landmark films as The Last Detail (1973) and Shampoo (1975), Towne was one of the most in-demand script doctors for decades, performing structural surgery and providing uncredited rewrites or additional scenes on such films as Bonnie and Clyde (1967), The Godfather (1972) and The Parallax View (1974). ![]() He's been nominated for four Academy Awards for his screenplays and won for Chinatown (1974), one of the great American films of the 1970s. And even if it doesn't quite hold together, the movie's got a fantastic look to it (courtesy of the great cinematographer Conrad Hall), and the three stars bring depth and dimension to their well-written roles.Robert Towne is one of the great American screenwriters. There's a big deal going down with a drug lord (the late Raul Julia), but as it twists and turns, Towne's story is really more about personal loyalties and individual honor. Their personal and professional conflicts are intensified by their love for the same woman, a waitress (Michelle Pfeiffer) at the Italian restaurant they both frequent. Critical reaction was decidedly mixed, but there's plenty to admire in this silky, visually seductive film about a drug dealer (Mel Gibson) whose best friend from high-school (Kurt Russell) is now working for the Los Angeles sheriff's drug detail. ![]() Robert Towne is one of Hollywood's most celebrated screenwriters, but because his directorial efforts have been few and far between, anticipation was high when this star-powered crime story was released in 1988.
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