Clint on Clint action
"The William Morris office said, 'We've got this screenplay we'd like you to look at. It's a picture in Europe - an Italian/Spanish/German co-production with European actors.' And I thought, I've been doing a Western all year long, I don't want to do that. But my agent asked me to read it, so I did. It was called El Magnifico Stragnero (The Magnificent Stranger), and I recognized right away it was a Yojimbo rip-off. But I thought it was clever. They didn't want to give me any dough. Just $15,000. I was married at the time, and I thought, I've never visited Germany or Spain and this probably won't be seen more than 35 miles outside of Rome. So [my wife] said, 'What the hell, why don't you do it?'
"I never thought it was going to be anything. Then there were some articles in the trades saying this movie A Fistful of Dollars was doing great business. I had no idea it was our picture [the Italian financiers had changed the film's name without informing Eastwood]. But then the phone started ringing and it was the Italian company saying 'Come on back [for a sequel], this thing is a real phenomenon!' I said, 'I'd like to see the film first.' So they sent it over and I rented a screening room and ran it for some friends and apologized before it started. And when it came on I said, 'Hey, this is pretty good!'"
-Clint Eastwood
My favorite part is the instant recognition of Yojimbo. That Clint...he's a very bad man.
Right. Back to my paper. Damn. I really need to get my paid account back so i can have cowboy icons again...
"I never thought it was going to be anything. Then there were some articles in the trades saying this movie A Fistful of Dollars was doing great business. I had no idea it was our picture [the Italian financiers had changed the film's name without informing Eastwood]. But then the phone started ringing and it was the Italian company saying 'Come on back [for a sequel], this thing is a real phenomenon!' I said, 'I'd like to see the film first.' So they sent it over and I rented a screening room and ran it for some friends and apologized before it started. And when it came on I said, 'Hey, this is pretty good!'"
-Clint Eastwood
My favorite part is the instant recognition of Yojimbo. That Clint...he's a very bad man.
Right. Back to my paper. Damn. I really need to get my paid account back so i can have cowboy icons again...