A Case of Differing Expectations
an extract from Robert Cettl's book Film Tales: Movie Trivia in the Age of DVD (on sale now in print and soon in e-book)
For the film The Fisher King, producer Linda Obst faced several problems. She was in awe of the script and when considering directors had serendipitously thought of one Terry Gilliam, whose previous work in Monty Python and the Holy Grail made him a natural ironic choice for the project, with its own allusions to the Holy Grail. Traditionally, however, Gilliam only directed his own material. But he had been having a run of box-office flops to that point and his agent made it clear that Gilliam was receptive to material he didn’t write. Thus, the script was sent to Gilliam who loved it and agreed to do the picture. When it came time for the pre-production deal to be made, she naturally thus had to “sell” this prospective film to her boss, over and above the fact that the scheduled director was known for his previous box-office flops. She argued that the film was a “masterpiece about the healing power of grace” and a worthwhile film for the studio to make but according to her, she left knowing that her boss, who eventually approved the picture, felt that the casting gimmick and script was merely gearing up to be a hit as “a summer buddy comedy.” Either way, it proved to be a surprisingly graceful summer hit.