Production Year of the Dragon (film)

1 production

1.1 pre-production
1.2 casting
1.3 shooting
1.4 post-production

production
pre-production

michael cimino approached many times helm adaptation of robert daley s novel, consistently turned opportunity down. when agreed, cimino realized unable write , direct in time allotted; producers had approximate start date film. brought in oliver stone, whom cimino met through producer , friend joann carelli, him write script.

cimino prompted seek out stone after reading, , being impressed by, stone s (at time) unproduced platoon screenplay. cimino asked stone work on year of dragon lower-than-normal wage part of quid pro quo deal, namely, year of dragon producer dino de laurentiis provide funding stone make platoon. stone agreed deal, although de laurentiis later reneged on it, forcing stone obtain funding platoon elsewhere.

michael, s 24-hour day , said stone. doesn t sleep … s obsessive personality. s napoleonic director ever worked . cimino did year , half of research on project.

while dino de laurentiis gave director cimino final cut in contract, de laurentiis sent cimino side letter said, notwithstanding contract, not have final cut. information revealed when producers of sicilian sued cimino on length of film.

casting

because production moving fast, casting began before script completed. originally, stone , cimino had either nick nolte or jeff bridges in mind role of stanley white, after seeing mickey rourke in pope of greenwich village , working him on heaven s gate, cimino changed mind. according rourke, difficulty playing white making himself appear 15 years older suit character. cimino drew heavily on real-life boxing prowess of rourke. @ first, rourke did not take physical training seriously, cimino hired hells angel rourke s instructor. rourke has quoted in many interviews loved working cimino despite disapproved reputation earned himself on years since previous box office failures, quoting, ball of fire. hadn t seen quite him .

rourke paid $1 million.

shooting

as streets of fire, of film shot not on location on soundstages in wilmington, north carolina, after meticulous research of various locales passed off little china and/or orient. sets proved realistic enough fool stanley kubrick, attended movie s premiere. cimino had convince bronx-born kubrick film s exteriors shot on deg backlot, , not on location.

other cities used in filming included new york city, toronto, vancouver, victoria, thailand, bangkok , shangirey. cimino said liked shoot in different cities, interiors in 1 city , exteriors in another. in 1 scene, joey tai , lawyer walk through chinese textile mill, past guard-rail , shoddy apartment building meet 2 of assassins. textile mill in bangkok, guard-rail in new york , apartment building in wilmington. when 1 of script supervisors commented scene wouldn t cut (edit seamlessly together), cimino bet $1,000 would. upon seeing cut, script supervisor conceded , cimino won bet refused take $1,000.

unlike heaven s gate, cimino able bring film in on time , on budget.

post-production

at end of film, white s final line right , wrong. d nice guy. don t know how nice . according cimino, final line of white supposed well, guess if fight war long enough, end marrying enemy . studio vetoed original line, written stone. cimino feels either studio or producers thought original line politically incorrect.