Man's Fate (film)

Last updated
Man's Fate
Directed by Fred Zinnemann
Written by Han Suyin
Based onthe novel Man's Fate by Andre Malraux
Starring David Niven
Peter Finch
Liv Ullmann
Max von Sydow
Production
company
MGM
Release date
  • 1970 (1970)(intended)
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Man's Fate was an abandoned 1969 film adaptation of the novel Man's Fate by Andre Malraux to have been directed by Fred Zinnemann and produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM).

Contents

Pre-production

Following the critical and commercial success of his 1966 film A Man for All Seasons , which won the Academy Award for Best Picture and earned Zinnemann the Best Director Oscar, the filmmaker announced plans to create a film version of André Malraux's Man's Fate (La Condition Humaine), a 1933 novel about the failed 1927 Communist revolution that took place in Shanghai, China, and the existential quandaries facing a group of people whose lives were changed by the event. [1]

"I had an enormous, enormous need to do Man's Fate because that book was a bible to us in my generation," said Zinnemann in a late-life interview. "It was one of the great novels of the '30s and '40s and to be asked to make a film of it was one of the greatest events of my life." [2]

MGM agreed to produce the film. Zinnemann began his career as a feature film director at that studio with the thriller The Seventh Cross (1944). [3]

The screenplay for the film adaptation was created by the Chinese-born novelist Han Suyin, best known for her 1952 book A Many-Splendoured Thing . Zinnemann scouted out locations in Malaysia and Singapore, with interior scenes to be shot at the MGM studios in London, where sets and costumes were created. David Niven, Peter Finch and Liv Ullmann were signed as the stars of the film. [3]

Cancellation

The pre-production process for Man's Fate stretched three years before it reached the production stage. During this period, MGM began to experience severe financial problems. James T. Aubrey, a former production chief for the CBS television network, was hired in 1969 as the studio's new president. One of his earliest decisions was to cancel all planned films that did not show signs of commercial viability. Zinnemann's $US 3 million version of Man's Fate was one of 12 films that Aubrey halted. [4] [5] The production of Man's Fate was canceled one week before filming was to begin. [6] (The others included a big screen version of Tai-Pan by James Clavell. [7] )

Zinnemann would later state that his cast and crew continued working without salaries in the period between the news of the cancellation being made public and the scheduled start of filming on November 24, 1969. "I soon found that no one in the unit wanted to stop rehearsing, salary or no salary," he later recalled. "We worked for three more days until the script was fully rehearsed, scene by scene. Then, after the usual farewell party as if on the set of a real picture, everybody went home." [3]

Aftermath

Zinnemann later sued MGM for damages relating to the cancellation, with the case being settled in his favour in 1973. [3]

The Italian director Bernardo Bertolucci proposed adapting the film in the 1980s to the Chinese government; they preferred his alternative proposal, The Last Emperor , a 1987 biopic based around the life of the Chinese Emperor Puyi.

In 2001, U.S. filmmaker Michael Cimino announced he would write and direct a film version of Man's Fate, [8] with Daniel Day-Lewis, John Malkovich, Uma Thurman and Johnny Depp in the lead roles. The project fell through for lack of funding; Cimino, who died in 2016, never made another feature film.

Related Research Articles

<i>From Here to Eternity</i> 1953 film directed by Fred Zinnemann

From Here to Eternity is a 1953 American romantic war drama film directed by Fred Zinnemann and written by Daniel Taradash, based on the 1951 novel of the same name by James Jones. It deals with the tribulations of three United States Army soldiers, played by Burt Lancaster, Montgomery Clift, and Frank Sinatra, stationed on Hawaii in the months leading up to the attack on Pearl Harbor. Deborah Kerr and Donna Reed portray the women in their lives. The supporting cast includes Ernest Borgnine, Philip Ober, Jack Warden, Mickey Shaughnessy, Claude Akins, and George Reeves.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">André Malraux</span> French novelist, art theorist, and statesman (1901–1976)

Georges André Malraux was a French novelist, art theorist, and minister of cultural affairs. Malraux's novel La Condition Humaine (1933) won the Prix Goncourt. He was appointed by President Charles de Gaulle as information minister (1945–46) and subsequently as France's first cultural affairs minister during de Gaulle's presidency (1959–1969).

<i>Heavens Gate</i> (film) 1980 American Western film by Michael Cimino

Heaven's Gate is a 1980 American epic Western film written and directed by Michael Cimino, starring Kris Kristofferson, Christopher Walken, John Hurt, Sam Waterston, Brad Dourif, Isabelle Huppert, Jeff Bridges, and Joseph Cotten, and loosely based on the Johnson County War. It revolves around a dispute between land barons and European immigrants in Wyoming in the 1890s.

Robert Oxton Bolt was an English playwright and a two-time Oscar-winning screenwriter, known for writing the screenplays for Lawrence of Arabia, Doctor Zhivago, and A Man for All Seasons, the latter two of which won him the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fred Zinnemann</span> Austrian-American film director (1907–1997)

Alfred Zinnemann was an Austrian-American film director and producer. He won four Academy Awards for directing and producing films in various genres, including thrillers, westerns, film noir and play adaptations. He began his career in Europe before emigrating to the US, where he specialized in shorts before making 25 feature films during his 50-year career.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Cimino</span> American film director (1939–2016)

Michael Antonio Cimino was an American film director, screenwriter, producer and author. Notorious for his obsessive attention to detail and determination for perfection, Cimino achieved widespread fame with The Deer Hunter (1978), which won five Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard Brooks</span> American screenwriter, film director and producer (1912–1992)

Richard Brooks was an American screenwriter, film director, novelist and film producer. Nominated for eight Academy Awards in his career, he was best known for Blackboard Jungle (1955), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958), Elmer Gantry, In Cold Blood (1967) and Looking for Mr. Goodbar (1977).

<i>Ben-Hur</i> (1959 film) 1959 American epic film directed by William Wyler

Ben-Hur is a 1959 American religious epic film directed by William Wyler, produced by Sam Zimbalist, and starring Charlton Heston as the title character. A remake of the 1925 silent film with a similar title, it was adapted from Lew Wallace's 1880 novel Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ. The screenplay is credited to Karl Tunberg, but includes contributions from Maxwell Anderson, S. N. Behrman, Gore Vidal, and Christopher Fry. The cast also features Stephen Boyd, Jack Hawkins, Haya Harareet, Hugh Griffith, Martha Scott, Cathy O'Donnell and Sam Jaffe.

<i>Year of the Dragon</i> (film) 1985 film by Michael Cimino

Year of the Dragon is a 1985 American neo-noir crime thriller film co-written and directed by Michael Cimino, and starring Mickey Rourke, John Lone, and Ariane Koizumi. The film follows a tough New York City police captain (Rourke) battling a ruthless Chinese-American Triad boss (Lone). The screenplay, written by Cimino and Oliver Stone, is based on a 1981 novel of the same title by Robert Daley.

<i>Mare Nostrum</i> (1926 film) 1926 film by Rex Ingram

Mare Nostrum is a 1926 American silent war drama film directed by Rex Ingram. It was the first production made by Ingram while in voluntary exile and stars Ingram's wife, Alice Terry. The film is set during World War I, and follows a Spanish merchant sailor who becomes involved with a German spy. It is based on the novel of the same name by Vicente Blasco Ibáñez. Long thought lost, the film has recently been re-discovered and restored.

<i>Mans Fate</i> 1933 novel by André Malraux

Man's Fate is a 1933 novel written by André Malraux about the failed communist insurrection in Shanghai in 1927, and the existential quandaries facing a diverse group of people associated with the revolution. Along with Les Conquérants and La Voie Royale, it forms a trilogy on revolution in Asia.

<i>Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid</i> 1973 film by Sam Peckinpah

Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid is a 1973 American revisionist Western film directed by Sam Peckinpah, written by Rudy Wurlitzer, and starring James Coburn, Kris Kristofferson, Richard Jaeckel, Katy Jurado, Chill Wills, Barry Sullivan, Jason Robards, Slim Pickens and Bob Dylan. The film is about an aging Pat Garrett (Coburn), hired as a lawman by a group of wealthy New Mexico cattle barons to bring down his old friend Billy the Kid (Kristofferson).

<i>Act of Violence</i> 1948 film by Fred Zinnemann

Act of Violence is a 1949 American film noir directed by Fred Zinnemann and starring Van Heflin, Robert Ryan, Janet Leigh, Mary Astor and Phyllis Thaxter. It was produced by Hollywood studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Adapted for the screen by Robert L. Richards from a story by Collier Young, the film confronts the ethics of war and was one of the first to address the problems of World War II veterans.

<i>The Postman Always Rings Twice</i> (1946 film) 1946 film by Tay Garnett

The Postman Always Rings Twice is a 1946 American film noir directed by Tay Garnett and starring Lana Turner, John Garfield, and Cecil Kellaway. It is based on the 1934 novel of the same name by James M. Cain. This adaptation of the novel also features Hume Cronyn, Leon Ames and Audrey Totter. The musical score was written by George Bassman and Erich Zeisl.

<i>The Nuns Story</i> (film) 1959 film by Fred Zinnemann

The Nun's Story is a 1959 American drama film directed by Fred Zinnemann and starring Audrey Hepburn, Peter Finch, Edith Evans, and Peggy Ashcroft. The screenplay was written by Robert Anderson, based on the popular 1956 novel of the same name by Kathryn Hulme. The film tells the life of Sister Luke (Hepburn), a young woman who decides to enter a convent and make the many sacrifices required by her choice.

<i>The Day of the Jackal</i> (film) 1973 thriller film directed by Fred Zinnemann

The Day of the Jackal is a 1973 political thriller film directed by Fred Zinnemann and starring Edward Fox and Michael Lonsdale. Based on the 1971 novel of the same name by Frederick Forsyth, the film is about a professional assassin known only as the "Jackal" who is hired to assassinate French president Charles de Gaulle in the summer of 1963.

<i>The Moonshine War</i> 1970 film by Richard Quine

The Moonshine War is a 1970 American crime comedy-drama film directed by Richard Quine, based on the 1969 novel of the same name by Elmore Leonard. It stars Patrick McGoohan, Richard Widmark, Alan Alda, and Will Geer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James T. Aubrey</span> American film and TV executive

James Thomas Aubrey Jr. was an American television and film executive. As president of the CBS television network from 1959 to 1965, with his "smell for the blue-collar," he produced some of television's most enduring series on the air, including Gilligan's Island and The Beverly Hillbillies.

Louis F. "Bo" Polk Jr. is an American businessman who was briefly president of MGM.

Rodney Patrick Vaccaro is an American screenwriter and film producer. He wrote Three to Tango, a 1999 film which starred Matthew Perry, Neve Campbell, and Dylan McDermott, and in 2001 won the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Children's Special for Run the Wild Fields. He has also written several plays and novels.

References

  1. ↑ "'Malraux': One Man's Fate," New York Times, April 10, 2005
  2. ↑ “Fred Zinnemann” by Fred Zinnemann, Gabriel Miller, Google Books
  3. 1 2 3 4 Zinnemann, Fred. “A Life in the Movies: An Autobiography.” Macmillan, 1992. ISBN   0-684-19050-8
  4. ↑ “Aubrey A Lion in Winter,” Los Angeles Times, April 27, 1986 (fee access required)
  5. ↑ “Hollywood: Will There Ever Be a 21st Century-Fox?”, Time Magazine, February 9, 1970
  6. ↑ "Classic tale enjoys revival," This is London/Evening Standard, May 12, 2001
  7. ↑ Jill Goldsmith and Nicole Laporte, 'When Harry Met Leo, Variety, 10 Sept 2006 accessed 15 April 2012
  8. ↑ “War Stories, The Guardian, December 6, 2001
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.