Hotchka Movies by the Decade feature #204 :: June 20•26 – HOTCHKA (2024)

The Summer movie season has begun and while there are some notable pre-1975 film — 1975 is generally viewed as the start of the Summer Blockbusters with the release of Jaws — most of the biggest titles appear in the later decades beginning with 1984. In fact, four of the five films released in 1984 — all on the same day — achieved some form of notoriety, good or bad, and one went on to become a true classic that is still spawning TV series adaptations and film sequels and reboots today. And an interesting fact about this week’s movies — three of them contain exclamation points in the title! So scroll down to see all the movies that premiered this week over the last century, and tell us which of your favorites are celebrating milestone anniversaries.

1924

• June 20 – The Valley of Hate (USA, Russell Productions)
• June 21 – Wanderer of the Wasteland (USA, Famous Players-Lasky Corporation)
• June 22 – Another Scandal (USA, Tilford Cinema Corporation)
• June 22 – Changing Husbands (USA, Famous Players-Lasky Corporation)
• June 22 – Dark Stairways (USA, Universal Jewel)
• June 22 – Unguarded Women (USA, Famous Players-Lasky Corporation)
• June 22 – Western Luck (USA, Fox Film Corporation)
• June 23 – Revelation (USA, Metro-Goldwyn Pictures Corporation)
• June 24 – Romance Ranch (USA, Fox Film Corporation)

Dark Stairways, Unguarded Women and Romance Ranch are lost films.

Wanderer of the Wasteland was the second feature film to be shot in two-color Technicolor. A print survived into the 1960s and was held by director Irvin Willat. He discovered the nitrate film had decomposed in 1971. His daughter stated after his death that when he made the discovery he went into his bedroom and cried for three hours.

Another Scandal is based on the 1923 novel of the same name by Cosmo Hamilton. The film is considered lost. A print of Changing Husbands is preserved in the Library of Congress collection. Unguarded Women was adapted from a Saturday Evening Post story titled ‘Face’, written by Lucy Stone Terrill. Revelation was based upon a popular novel, The Rosebud of a Thousand Years. The film has been preserved by MGM.

1934

• June 21 – Hollywood Mystery (USA, Fanchon Royer Pictures)
• June 22 – Here Comes the Groom (USA, Paramount Pictures)
• June 22 – The Life of Vergie Winters (USA, RKO Radio Pictures)
• June 23 – Dr. Monica (USA, Warner Bros. Pictures)
• June 25 – Murder at the Inn (UK, Warner Brothers-First National Productions)
• June 26 – Music Hall (UK, Julius Hagen Productions)

Murder at the Inn and Music Hall have no known US theatrical release dates.

Dr. Monica was adapted from a Polish play by Maria Morozowicz-Szczepkowska. The film ran into issues with the Hays Office which demanded many changes to the script before it would be approved, including dialogue about the potential dangers of childbirth.

Murder at the Inn was produced by the British subsidiary of Warner Bros. as a ‘quota quickie’ to help bolster the flagging British film industry. Music Hall was also a quota quickie.

1944

• June 20 – Attack! The Battle of New Britain (USA, short, U.S. War Department)
• June 21 – Song of the Open Road (USA, Charles R. Rogers Productions)
• June 22 – The Last Horseman (USA, Columbia Pictures)
• June 23 – Forty Thieves (USA, Harry Sherman Productions)
• June 23 – South of Dixie (USA, Universal Pictures)
• June 24 – Range Law (USA, Monogram Pictures)
• June 24 – The Yellow Rose of Texas (USA, Republic Pictures)

Attack! The Battle of New Britain is a documentary/propaganda film by the US military that details the New Britain campaign, which was part of the New Guinea and Solomon Islands Campaigns during World War II.

Song of the Open Road marked the film debut of Jane Powell. Powell’s real name was Suzanne Burce, but prior to the release of the film MGM assigned her the name Jane Powell, which was the name of her character in the film. Powell made such an impression that MGM signed her to a contract to make a number of musicals through the mid-1950s. This was the next to last film of W.C. Fields. His last film was released nine days later. The film earned three Oscar nominations for Best Original Song (‘Too Much in Love’), Best Music, Best Art Direction, Black-and-White.

Forty Thieves was the last Hopalong Cassidy film produced for United Artists. Range Law was the ninth film in the ‘Marshal Nevada Jack McKenzie’ series.

1954

• June 20 – The Desperado (USA, Silvermine Productions)
• June 21 – Dangerous Cargo (USA, A.C.T. Films Productions)
• June 21 – The Sleeping Tiger (UK, Victor Hanbury Productions)
• June 22 – Johnny Dark (USA, Universal International Pictures)
• June 22 – The Seekers (UK, George H. Brown Productions)
• June 24 – The Caine Mutiny (USA, Columbia Pictures)
• June 25 – Paid to Kill (USA, Hammer Films)

Dangerous Cargo originally opened in the UK in May 1954. The House Across the Lake originally opened in the US on April 16, 1954 as Heat Wave. The Sleeping Tiger was released in the US on October 8, 1954. The Seekers opened in the US on May 2, 1955 as Land of Fury. Paid to Kill was released in the UK as Five Days.

The Desperado is based on the 1950 novel of the same name by Clifton Adams.

The Sleeping Tiger was the first British film directed by Joseph Losey, under the pseudonym Victor Hanbury as he had been blacklisted during the McCarthy era. American stars Alexis Smith and Alexander Knox were fearful of how working with Losey would affect their careers.

The Seekers was the first major international studio film shot in New Zealand. It was adapted from the novel of the same name by New Zealand author John Guthrie.

The Caine Mutiny is based on Herman Wouk’s Pulitzer Prize-winning 1951 novel of the same name. It was the second highest grossing film in the US in 1954. The film was nominated for seven Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Actor for Humphrey Bogart. Bogart actively sought the role and the studio used that to their advantage, forcing Bogart to settle for his less than usual $200,000 fee. Van Johnson saw his casting as a breakthrough that broke him out of his usual pattern of lighter roles. A Navy rifleman saved Johnson’s life while in the water as a shark approached him. Director Edward Dmytryk had previously been blacklisted, and the success of the film helped revive his career. It was the first of four films for actor Robert Francis, who was killed during the takeoff of a private plane on July 31, 1955. The film was shot on location at Pearl harbor, the San Francisco Bay area, and Yosemite National Park. The film was touted as containing the longest continuous courtroom scene without a cut, running to 977 feet, surpassing a scene in The Life of Emile Zola. The Navy was uncomfortable with the portrayal of a mentally unbalanced man as the captain of one of its ships and with the word ‘mutiny’ in the title, but they eventually agreed to cooperate, offering access to ships, planes and combat boats. The film contains text at the end stating there had never been a mutiny aboard a US Navy ship.

1964

• June 21 – Hide and Seek (UK, Spectrum Films)
• June 22 – We Shall See (UK, Merton Park Studios)
• June 23 – A Shot in the Dark (USA, The Mirisch Corporation)
• June 24 – Flipper’s New Adventure (USA, Ivan Tors Productions)
• June 24 – Robin and the 7 Hoods (USA, Warner Bros. Pictures)
• June 24 – The Masque of the Red Death (UK/USA, Alta Vista Productions)
• June 25 – Circus World (USA, Samuel Bronston Productions)
• June 26 – Sette contro la morte (West Germany, Cinedoris S.P.A.)

Hide and Seek originally opened in the US on March 11, 1964. We Shall See has no known US theatrical release date. Sette contro la morte was released in the US on December 24, 1965 as The Cavern.

We Shall See was adapted from the 1926 novel We Shall See! by Edgar Wallace. It was part of the long running Edgar Wallace Mysteries film series.

A Shot in the Dark was the first sequel to The Pink Panther, although it was the first film in which Peter Sellers was able to give Inspector Clouseau his idiosyncratically exaggerated French accent. It is also the first film to include Commissioner Dreyfus, played by Herbert Lom, as well as André Maranne as Dreyfus’s assistant François and Burt Kwouk as Clouseau’s stalwart manservant Cato, all three of whom would become series regulars. Elke Sommer plays murder suspect Maria Gambrelli. The character returns in 1993’s Son of the Pink Panther butplayed by Claudia Cardinale, who played Princess Dala in The Pink Panther. The film wasa not intended to include Clouseau as it was adapted from the French play L’Idiote by Marcel Achard. The relationship between Sellers and director Blake Edwards deteriorated to the point they vowed to never work together again after completing the film. They reconciled four years later and collaborated on The Party and three more ‘Pink Panther’ films.

Flipper’s New Adventure is known in some countries as Flipper and the Pirates, and is a sequel to Flipper. The film was released before the premiere of the Flipper TV series, and outperformed the first film.

Robin and the 7 Hoods features an uncredited cameo by Edward G. Robinson. The film was produced by Frank Sinatra, and introduces the hit song ‘My Kind of Town’, which received an Oscar nomination for Best Original Song.

The Masque of the Red Death was based upon the 1842 short story of the same name by American author Edgar Allan Poe, and incorporates a subplot based on another Poe tale, ‘Hop-Frog’, with another subplot taken from Torture by Hope by Auguste Villiers de l’Isle-Adam. It was the seventh of eight Poe films made by Roger Corman. Corman planned the film as a follow-up to House of Usher, but felt at the time its plot elements were too close to those of The Seventh Seal and worried people would think he was stealing from Ingmar Bergman. He eventually decided to move forward with it anyway. Delays in production were also caused by Corman not being happy with any of the scripts he received. Multiple versions of the Poe story were also in development at the time, with one producer claiming he had Vincent Price as his star. Many of the film’s castle sets were left over from Becket, which was shot a year earlier and won a BAFTA for the sets, and earned an Oscar nomination for Art Direction. It was one of the first color films by cinematographer Nicolas Roeg. To qualify as a British film and receive tax credits, the producer was listed as George Willoughby, even though Corman was the real producer. The film was preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2019.

Circus World was released as The Magnificent Showman in the UK. Nicholas Ray was assigned to direct by he suffered a heart attack while filming 55 Days at Peking. He was replaced with Frank Capra, who had creative differences with the co-writer James Edward Grant and star John Wayne, who was replaced with Henry Hathaway. The film was initially announced as Those Were the Days, then retitled Circus under Capra’s direction. David Niven and Claudia Cardinale were announced for the cast, but Niven was replaced with Rod Taylor and Rita Hayworth had joined the cast as well. Taylor left the project as he was unhappy with the size of his role and was replaced with John Smith. It is suspected now that Hayworth was experiencing the effects of early onset Alzheimer’s disease at age 46, often late to the set, forgetting her lines, and often drunk and abusive on set. Wayne had looked forward to working with her, but came to despise what he believed was her unprofessional behavior.

Sette contro la morte was the last film for Edgar G. Ulmar as director.

1974

• June 20 – Chinatown (USA, Long Road Productions)
• June 21 – That’s Entertainment! (USA, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer)
• June 21 – Where the Red Fern Grows (USA, Doty-Dayton Productions)
• June 23 – The Groove Tube (USA, limited, Syn-Frank Enterprises)
• June 26 – A Very Natural Thing (USA, Montage Creations)
• June 26 – Emmanuelle (France, Trinacra Films)
• June 26 – For Pete’s Sake (USA, Rastar)
• June 26 – The Nine Lives of Fritz the Cat (USA, Steve Krantz Productions)
• June 26 – Three the Hard Way (USA, Allied Artists Pictures)
• June 26 – Truck Turner (USA, Sequoia Pictures)

Emmanuelle was released in the US on December 15, 1974.

Chinatown was Roman Polanski’s last film directed in the United States. It was nominated for 11 Academy Awards, winning for Robert Towne’s Best Original Screenplay. It won Golden Globes for Best Drama, Best Director, Best Actor (Jack Nicholson) and Best Screenplay. It was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry in 1991. Nicholson directed and starred in a sequel, The Two Jakes, also with a screenplay by Towne. It did not match the acclaim of the original. Jane Fonda was considered for the role of Evelyn Mulwray but Polanski insisted on Faye Dunaway. Polanski appears in a cameo as the gangster who cuts Gittes’ nose. The effect was accomplished with a special knife which could have actually cut Nicholson’s nose if Polanski had not held it correctly.

That’s Entertainment! was a compilation film created to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It was successful enough to spawn two sequels and the related 1985 film That’s Dancing! The film’s various segments were hosted by past MGM stars like Frank Sinatra, Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire, Peter Lawford, Debbie Reynolds, Bing Crosby, James Stewart, Elizabeth Taylor, Mickey Rooney, Donald O’Connor and Liza Minnelli, representing her mother Judy Garland. The host segments were among the last filmed on the famous MGM backlot, which had already been sold to developers with the sets about to be demolished.

Where the Red Fern Grows is based on the 1961 novel of the same name by Wilson Rawls. The film was shot on location in Oklahoma.

The Groove Tube was derived from sketches shot on videotape and shown at the Channel One Theater on East 60th St. in New York. Compilations of sketches from these presentations were taken on tour to college venues, and based on audience responses, the best-received sketches were restaged on film with most of the original actors reprising their roles. The line from the news desk satire, ‘Good night, and have a pleasant tomorrow’, was used by Chevy Chase to close out his ‘Weekend Update’ segment on Saturday Night Live, although he does not appear in that segment of the film. Children of a Lesser God director Randa Haines was the film’s script supervisor.

A Very Natural Thing was one of the first films about gay relationships intended for mainstream, commercial distribution, a response to Love Story. The original title was For as Long as Possible. The film has an optimistic ending, a rarity for gay relationships stories at the time.

Emmanuelle was director Just Jaeckin’s feature film debut. The film is based on the novel of the same name by Emmanuelle Arsan, which had been filmed previously in the late 1960s but in a less explicit manner. Actress Sylvia Kristel claims to have auditioned for the film by accident, walking into the wrong door which she thought was for a commercial audition. Kristel reprised the role in two sequels.

For Pete’s Sake served as the basis for the Hindi film Aap Ki Khatir.

The Nine Lives of Fritz the Cat is a sequel to Fritz the Cat, adapted from the R. Crumb comic strip. Neither Crumb nor original director Ralph Bakshi had any involvement in the sequel. Fritz voice actor Skip Hinnant was the only cast member to participate in the film. None of the film’s storyline are based on Crumb’s comics. Louisa Moritz, Pat Harrington Jr. and Glynn Turman are among the voice actors. It was the first American animated film to receive an R-rating (whereas the original received an X).

The plot for Three the Hard Way has been copied and parodied in I’m Gonna Git You Sucka (1988) and Undercover Brother (2002).

Truck Turner is also known as Black Bullet. The film’s star, Isaac Hayes, also scored the music for the soundtrack. The film was released as a double feature with Foxy Brown. The film’s story was originally about a white bounty hunter, and written for Lee Marvin, Robert Mitchum or Ernest Borgnine. The producer said they couldn’t get any of them so it became a ‘Black picture’.

1984

• June 22 – A Breed Apart (USA, Hemdale)
• June 22 – Rhinestone (USA, 20th Century Fox)
• June 22 – The Karate Kid (USA, Delphi II Productions)
• June 22 – The Pope of Greenwich Village (USA, United Artists)
• June 22 – Top Secret! (USA, Kingsmere Properties)

A Breed Apart concerns the need to protect the bald eagle, which was an endangered species at the time. When the film reels were sent back to Los Angeles from North Carolina, one reel was lost and the film had to be substantially reorganized around the missing footage, which explains incomplete sub-plots and no back story for the character Malden.

Rhinestone is based on the song ‘Rhinestone Cowboy’. The film was a flop but earned Dolly Parton two top ten hits. Sylvester Stallone reportedly turned down Romancing the Stone for Rhinestone. Fox and Paramount were both interested in the screenplay, but Paramount’s Michael Eisner didn’t like the script enough to get into a bidding war with another studio. Fox would then not make the film without major stars and immediately wanted Parton, but finding an actor who would not be wiped off the screen by her, as many felt Burt Reynolds was in The Best Little whor*house in Texas, was difficult. The agency that handled both Parton and Stallone told the studio to cast both or neither. That was the end of discussion. Stallone’s agents had also wanted him to direct the film. In fact, Stallone did direct but no one told credited director Don Zimmerman. Stallone rewrote Phil Alden Robinson’s script twice, the second worse than the first. Robinson was asked to restore the charm of the characters, which Stallone removed, while keeping the dialogue Stallone wrote for himself. Robinson said the problem with the script was the awful dialogue Stallone had written but reluctantly agreed to do the rewrite. Stallone then restored most of the changes he had made, changing the story about a strong-willed Southern woman determined to own a restaurant in Manhattan to the story of a New York cab driver miraculously winning a Country-Western singing contest (a change that Parton apparently never objected to, with all saying she was a joy to work with). Stallone then forced out the camerman, and his relationship with Zimmerman quickly deteriorated. Zimmerman was fired after three weeks of production, replaced with Bob Clark, who had directed Porky’s and was represented by the same agency as Stallone. All of Zimmerman’s footage was thrown out. Clark was notified that he could not make changes to the script without first consulting Stallone. Stallone later said he regretted making the film.

The Karate Kid writer Robert Mark Kamen petitioned heavily for the inclusion of Pat Morita, who received Best Supporting Actor Oscar and Golden Globe nominations and saw his career revitalized. The film was Ralph Macchio’s second major feature following The Outsiders. Many actors were considered for the role including Sean Penn, Robert Downey Jr., Charlie Sheen, Jon Cryer, Emilio Estevez, Nicolas Cage, Anthony Edwards, C. Thomas Howell, Tom Cruise, Eric Stoltz and D. B. Sweeney. The studio originally wanted Toshiro Mifune as Mr. Miyagi, but the actor did not speak English. Morita had been rejected because of his association with comedy and Happy Days. Crispin Glover lost the role of Johnny to William Zabka, who scared Macchio during his audition. Helen Hunt and Demi Moore were considered for the role of Ali, but lost to Elisabeth Shue, who was cast partly from a Burger King commercial she appeared in. The film was the feature debut for both Shue and Zabka. Valeria Harper was considered for the role of Lucille, but the studio wanted Randee Heller.

The Pope of Greenwich Village was adapted by screenwriter Vincent Patrick from his novel of the same name. Geraldine Page was Oscar-nominated for Best Supporting Actress. The film was originally intended to be the first on-screen pairing of Robert De Niro and Al Pacino, and Michael Cimino was to direct. Eric Roberts and Mickey Rourke were cast, but script rewrites would have delayed the start of mandated production start time, so Cimino parted ways with the studio. The film was released as Village Dreams in Europe.

Top Secret! is the film debut of Val Kilmer. Key portions of the film parody The Conspirators. Kilmer was cast after the directors saw him in the play Slab Boys, with Sean Penn and Kevin Bacon.

1994

• June 24 – A Man in Uniform (USA, Miracle Pictures)
• June 24 – Shopping (UK, Channel Four Films)
• June 24 – The Lion King (USA, Walt Disney Pictures)
• June 24 – Wyatt Earp (USA, Kasdan Pictures)

A Man in Uniform originally opened in Italy on April 29, 1994, and is also known as I Love A Man in Uniform.

Shopping opened in the US on February 9, 1996. It is the directorial debut of Paul W. S. Anderson, and the first major role for Jude Law. Law met his future wife Sadie Frost on the film.

The Lion King was the feature directorial debuts of Roger Allers and Rob Minkoff. The story is modelled on Shakespeare’s Hamlet, with influences from the Biblical stories of Joseph and Moses. The film was not initially intended to be a musical. It was the highest grossing film of 1994, and the second highest grossing film of all-time behind Jurassic Park. It was the highest grossing animated film of all time before Finding Nemo, and it is still the highest grossing traditionally animated film of all time. The film was originally written as a treatment titled King of the Kalahari. The completed script was titled The Lion King, which was completed on January 19, 1990. Rewrites were needed, and completed in May 1990 with the new script titled King of the Beasts. More rewrites were undertaken, and the story was retitled again to King of the Jungle. After several more months of rewrites the title was changed once again to The Lion King, with the setting changed from a jungle to a savannah. The characters of Mufasa and Scar were also made brothers in the newest script. The film was the first feature-length Disney animated film to be an original story. Nathan Lane originally auditioned for Zazu, and Ernie Sabella auditioned for a hyena. The two were appearing on Broadway in Guys and Dolls, and were asked to audition for hyenas. The directors laughed at their performances and decided to cast them as Timon and Pumba. The hyenas were then considered as a reunion for Cheech and Chong but Tommy Chong was unavailable. His character was changed to a female hyena voiced by Whoopi Goldberg, who insisted on being in the film. Rowan Atkinson was not interested in doing voice work but was convinced by a friend to voice Zazu. Atkinson later expressed how it ended up becoming a very special film. Matthew Broderick only worked with another actor once during the three years he worked on the film, and only learned that Moira Kelly voiced Nala at the film’s premiere. Development of the film coincided with that of Pocahontas, which most of the Disney animators chose to work on believing it was more prestigious than the movie about a lion cub.

Wyatt Earp was released six months after Tombstone, which told basically the same story. Unlike Tombstone, the film was not a success. Star Kevin Costner was originally involved with Tombstone, but disagreed with screenwriter Kevin Jarre over the direction of the film, leaving the project to start his own Wyatt Earp film. The project was intended to be a six-hour mini-series before Costner joined. Costner then threw his weight around to convince most of the major studios to refuse to distribute the rival film.

2004

• June 23 – White Chicks (USA, Revolution Studios)
• June 25 – Fahrenheit 9/11 (USA, Dog Eat Dog Films)
• June 25 – The Notebook (USA, Gran Via Productions)
• June 25 – Two Brothers (USA, Pathé)

White Chicks was nominated for five Razzie Awards including Worst Picture, Worst Actress for the Wayans brothers (in drag), Worst Director, Worst Screenplay and Worst Screen Couple. It lost in all categories to Catwoman and Fahrenheit 9/11. Still it grossed over $113 million worldwide and has become a cult classic.

Fahrenheit 9/11 debuted at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival and won the Palme d’Or, the highest festival award. At the time it was the highest grossing documentary of all time with over $220 million, until Michael Jackson’s This Is It surpassed it in 2009. The film was to be released by Miramax, at the time owned by Disney which refused to let Miramax release the film. None of the execs would screen the film. The Weinstein brothers finally settled with Disney by paying back the studio the $6 million budget and formed their own distribution company which partnered with Lions Gate Entertainment and IFC Films to distribute it in the US. When the film received an R-rating, director Michael Moore appealed for a PG-13. The appeal was denied and some theaters allowed unchaperoned teenagers to attend the film, defying the MPAA. After winning at Cannes, the film also won three Razzie Awards: Worst Actor (George Bush), Worst Supporting Actor (Donald Rumsfeld) and Worst Screen Couple (Bush & Condoleezza Rice).

The Notebook was based on the 1996 novel of the same name by Nicholas Sparks. Steven Spielberg originally wanted to make the film in 1998 with Tom Cruise. Spielberg was unable to take on the film due to his busy schedule. Jim Sheridan took over in 1999 but departed in 2000 for In America. Martin Campbell was in talks to direct but Nick Cassavetes got the job. George Clooney and Paul Newman were to play the young and old Noah, but Clooney told Newman they didn’t look enough alike. Hayden Christensen was considered for the role but Cassavetes wanted an ‘unknown’ and went with Ryan Gosling. Gosling felt he couldn’t be more wrong for the part, but he moved to Charleston, South Caroline for two months to prepare. James Garner initially thought the script was for a TV movie. Jessica Biel, Britney Spears, Jaime King, Jane McGregor, Jennifer Lawrence, Kate Beckinsale, Kate Bosworth, Amy Adams, Mandy Moore, Scarlett Johansson, Claire Danes, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Ashley Judd, and Reese Witherspoon auditioned for the role of Julie, and it came down to Spears and Rachel McAdams, with McAdams winning the role. McAdams also spent time in Charleston to familiarize herself with the surroundings. She also took ballet and etiquette classes, and had a dialect coach to master the Southern accent. Bradley Cooper was considered for the role of Lon Hammond, while the studio wanted Cole Hauser, but James Marsden was eventually cast. The film was shot mostly in South Carolina, with the wintry battlefield scenes shot outside of Montreal. A Broadway musical based on the book and film opened on March 14, 2024.

About 30 tigers were used for Two Brothers, mainly from French zoos, with some from Thailand as well.

2014

• June 20 – Jersey Boys (USA, Malpaso Productions)
• June 20 – Think Like a Man Too (USA, Will Packer Productions)
• June 23 – Rebound (USA, Will Packer Productions)

Jersey Boys is based on the 2004 Tony Award-winning jukebox musical of the same name. The rights for the film were acquired in 2010 by GK Films with Jon Favreau on board to direct. Warner Bros. put the film into turnaround in November 2012, and by June 2013 Clint Eastwood was attached as director. Unusual for Eastwood, he asked for a rewrite of the screenplay, feeling that the first draft was missing a lot of things. Eastwood insisted on casting actors from the show over objections from the studio which wanted more bankable stars. His choice for Frankie Valli was between Broadway’s John Lloyd Young and the West End’s Ryan Molloy, with Young winning the part over Valli’s personal favorite, Molloy.

Think Like a Man Too is the sequel to Think Like a Man, which is based on Steve Harvey’s 2009 book Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man.