Zanuck served as CEO of Fox from 1944 to 1956, and many credit his producing skill for the studio’s success. He oversaw many utterly brilliant films (“All About Eve,” and “Twelve O’Clock High” among them), and earned the studio multiple Academy Awards. This was from a time when a producer had a lot of creative control over film projects and could more closely guide (some might say micromanage) pictures to success. Zanuck left Fox in 1956 and tried to make it as an independent, but realized he would need studio backing to make his dream project, a D-Day film based on Cornelius Ryan’s 1959 book “The Longest Day.” He reluctantly returned to Fox in 1962 and set about making his epic.
At the time, Zanuck talked to famed gossip columnist Hedda Hopper about why he left Fox, claiming that cinema was changing for the worse. Notably, he felt that he wasn’t being allowed to control projects anymore and that stars were commanding too much creative power. To quote:
“I just got … fed up with being an executive and no longer being a producer. That’s what the job became. Actors are now directing, writing and producing. Actors have taken over Hollywood completely with their agents. They want approval of everything: script, stars, still pictures. The producer hasn’t got a chance to exercise any authority! Now, I’ve got great affection for Duke Wayne, but what right has he to write, direct and produce a motion picture? What right has Kirk Douglas got? What right has Widmark got? … What the hell? I’m not going to work for them!”
Of course, Wayne, Douglas, and Richard Widmark all read the above interview, and none of them were happy.
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