How Romancing The Stone Got Robert Zemeckis Fired From Cocoon
20th Century Studios By Sandy Schaefer/Feb. 22, 2022 10:52 am EST
There are few directors who have innovated special effects while advancing the art of populist filmmaking like Robert Zemeckis, the tech-whiz behind the “Back to the Future” trilogy, “Who Framed Roger Rabbit,” and “Forrest Gump,” among other landmark movies from the 1980s and ’90s. That may also be why his first two feature-length films — 1978’s “I Wanna Hold Your Hand” and 1980’s “Used Cars” — are often overlooked; on top of being financial duds, they lacked the bells and whistles that would come to define his later work (though not always in a good way). In spite of this, critics were upbeat on both movies from the get-go, and for fair reason. Looking back on them now, it’s all the more apparent they have many of the qualities (stories that unfold like clock-work, great soundtracks, both nostalgia for and satire of historical U.S. culture) that would go on to become hallmarks of Zemeckis’ most widely-adored, effects-heavy output from the decades that came after.
In a way, the commercial failure of “I Wanna Hold Your Hand” and “Used Cars” might have been a blessing in disguise for Zemeckis when he went to direct his third movie, 1984’s “Romancing the Stone.” While executives at the studio formerly known as 20th Century Fox recognized his talent, the fact that he was 0-for-2 at the box office had some of them worried when he came aboard to oversee their now-classic rom-com-adventure. Those concerns only grew when he then signed on to helm another movie for the studio, “Cocoon,” prior to finishing “Romancing the Stone.” This was also a key factor in the events that led to Zemeckis being fired from “Cocoon,” prior to shooting a single frame of footage.
How Romancing The Stone Got Robert Zemeckis Fired From Cocoon
20th Century Studios
By Sandy Schaefer/Feb. 22, 2022 10:52 am EST
There are few directors who have innovated special effects while advancing the art of populist filmmaking like Robert Zemeckis, the tech-whiz behind the “Back to the Future” trilogy, “Who Framed Roger Rabbit,” and “Forrest Gump,” among other landmark movies from the 1980s and ’90s. That may also be why his first two feature-length films — 1978’s “I Wanna Hold Your Hand” and 1980’s “Used Cars” — are often overlooked; on top of being financial duds, they lacked the bells and whistles that would come to define his later work (though not always in a good way). In spite of this, critics were upbeat on both movies from the get-go, and for fair reason. Looking back on them now, it’s all the more apparent they have many of the qualities (stories that unfold like clock-work, great soundtracks, both nostalgia for and satire of historical U.S. culture) that would go on to become hallmarks of Zemeckis’ most widely-adored, effects-heavy output from the decades that came after.
In a way, the commercial failure of “I Wanna Hold Your Hand” and “Used Cars” might have been a blessing in disguise for Zemeckis when he went to direct his third movie, 1984’s “Romancing the Stone.” While executives at the studio formerly known as 20th Century Fox recognized his talent, the fact that he was 0-for-2 at the box office had some of them worried when he came aboard to oversee their now-classic rom-com-adventure. Those concerns only grew when he then signed on to helm another movie for the studio, “Cocoon,” prior to finishing “Romancing the Stone.” This was also a key factor in the events that led to Zemeckis being fired from “Cocoon,” prior to shooting a single frame of footage.
In a way, the commercial failure of “I Wanna Hold Your Hand” and “Used Cars” might have been a blessing in disguise for Zemeckis when he went to direct his third movie, 1984’s “Romancing the Stone.” While executives at the studio formerly known as 20th Century Fox recognized his talent, the fact that he was 0-for-2 at the box office had some of them worried when he came aboard to oversee their now-classic rom-com-adventure. Those concerns only grew when he then signed on to helm another movie for the studio, “Cocoon,” prior to finishing “Romancing the Stone.” This was also a key factor in the events that led to Zemeckis being fired from “Cocoon,” prior to shooting a single frame of footage.
For those unfamiliar: “Romancing the Stone” starred Kathleen Turner as Joan Wilder, a wildly popular romance novelist who yearns to meet and fall in love with someone like the male heroes in her books. However, Joan gets much more than she bargained for when she travels to Colombia to exchange a treasure map for her sister Elaine (Mary Ellen Trainor), who’s been taken captive by a pair of antiquities smugglers (Danny DeVito and Zack Norman) seeking the treasure — a fabled emerald — for themselves. Along the way, Joan gets mixed up with Jack T. Colton (Michael Douglas), an American bird smuggler who ends up helping and, in time, falling in love with her after Joan is waylaid by Colonel Zolo (Manuel Ojeda), a Colombian police officer who’s also after the coveted “Stone.”
As part of a Variety retrospective marking the film’s 35th anniversary, Douglas recalled that studio executives had a “very negative” reaction to the initial cut of “Romancing the Stone” (which, in turn, seemed to confirm their fears about bringing Zemeckis on). Zemeckis then clarified:
“It wasn’t really like we had a big screening or anything. It was just the main creative executive. We were just kind of looking at it and realized we needed to shore up a lot of Kathleen’s [storyline] — all that stuff at the beginning where she’s generally in her apartment writing by herself. We went back and shot that stuff and it helped her character a lot.”
According to Zemeckis, however, it was Fox’s then-head of physical production (whom he didn’t name) who really “had it out for our movie. While we were down in Mexico shooting, we found out later he was spewing all this vitriol about how we’re out of control and this director doesn’t know what he’s doing.” Naturally, the producers of “Cocoon” caught wind of this negative buzz around “Romancing the Stone” and, to quote Zemeckis, “got nervous,” which led to him being fired as the film’s director. Not long after, he was replaced by Ron Howard — himself on the verge of releasing his own breakout hit as a director with 1984’s “Splash.”
As part of a Variety retrospective marking the film’s 35th anniversary, Douglas recalled that studio executives had a “very negative” reaction to the initial cut of “Romancing the Stone” (which, in turn, seemed to confirm their fears about bringing Zemeckis on). Zemeckis then clarified:
According to Zemeckis, however, it was Fox’s then-head of physical production (whom he didn’t name) who really “had it out for our movie. While we were down in Mexico shooting, we found out later he was spewing all this vitriol about how we’re out of control and this director doesn’t know what he’s doing.” Naturally, the producers of “Cocoon” caught wind of this negative buzz around “Romancing the Stone” and, to quote Zemeckis, “got nervous,” which led to him being fired as the film’s director. Not long after, he was replaced by Ron Howard — himself on the verge of releasing his own breakout hit as a director with 1984’s “Splash.”
“It wasn’t really like we had a big screening or anything. It was just the main creative executive. We were just kind of looking at it and realized we needed to shore up a lot of Kathleen’s [storyline] — all that stuff at the beginning where she’s generally in her apartment writing by herself. We went back and shot that stuff and it helped her character a lot.”
Instead, Zemeckis went back in time
Universal Pictures
