- Dennis Hopper, The Last Movie, 1970. . Or: The Last Movie or Boo Hoo in Tinseltown! Based on Hopper’s experiences while shooting The Sons of Katie Elder in Mexico (when indigenous natives re-enacted the movie-making), the film won the Critics’ Prize at Venice but The Last Movie was damn nearly The Last Hopper. Well, he shot it in Peru – coke capital of the world! He’d got Stewart Stern, a pal since scripting Rebel Without A Cause, to write it. They argued, split, but always wanted to work together again. ”He fascinated me,” said Stern, “because he had ideas before anybopdy else did.” But their stoned, 98 page treatment interested no one. Anfd Hopper refused to risk record producer Phil Spector’s offer of $1.2m to film the new, 119-page version. Hopper just bided his time… He always intended Kansas, his “stunt man in a lousy Western,” for Montgomery Clift – but he died in 1966. The role needed an older player. Finally, at 34, Hopper explained: “It was easier doing it myself than explain to another actor what I wanted.” He had tested various hopefuls and considered two of John Ford’s family: John Wayne and Ben Johnson, talked to Jack Nicholson, Jason Robards and… Willie Nelson!! My God, Dennis and Willie shooting in Peru… they’d still be there. Buried, probably
- Burt Reynolds, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, 1982. “I can damn well tell,” said co-author Larry L King, quoting the musical’s Sheriff Ed Earl Dodd, “when somebody’s pissin’ on my boots and tellin’ me it’s a rainstorm.” Universal dumping Willie was just the start of King’s headaches with Reynolds and co-star Dolly Parton. “[He] wants to make Smokey and the Bandit Go to a Whorehouse. Dolly’s writing her own songs. I see only a tenuous connection between Whorehouse as we did it and the mess they’re concocting in Hollywood. I suppose she will [wear her outlandish wigs] and probably Burt will wear his, too. I understand they’re both bald.”
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