Fiasco: A History of Hollywood's Iconic Flops by Parish James Robert

Author:Parish, James Robert [Parish, James Robert]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780470358641
Publisher: Turner Publishing Co.
Published: 2008-05-02T00:00:00+00:00

It is a rule of human nature that if you forbid people to do something, their curiosity will usually get the better of them and they will endeavor—one way or another—to circumvent the edict. Such was the case on Ishtar, shooting on its faraway, not easily accessible location. The powers-that-be (especially press-shy May and Beatty) demanded a strong cloak of secrecy on the set. This applied not only to the media but even to representatives from Columbia Pictures. Nevertheless, the latter periodically breached the fortress. They were determined to see for themselves what was going on with the “simple” comedy that was becoming so expensive. These occasional studio visitors met with a frosty reception during their Moroccan sojourn and usually returned home knowing little more than when they had arrived.

With the high-profile Ishtar so off-limits, persistent media, as well as industrious studio people, used their ingenuity to connect with those compliant Ishtar production staffers who could be persuaded to sneak out information about the film’s progress. In this scattered fact-finding process, a good deal of misinformation got dispatched and actual data got magnified out of proportion. All this led the press and the film-industry grapevine to focus intently on the runaway production and expose all the artistic and financial excesses actually (or likely to be) going on there. In this atmosphere a good deal of bad word of mouth spread about the picture long before its actual release.

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