LE TIGRE (Andrzej Żuławski, 1990) (unproduced)

[Jox]

LE TIGRE quoted in the recent book on Zulawski by Jérôme Estais, Andrzej Zulawski, sur le fil (LettMotif editions)

[Jox]

Mentioned by Dolph in an interview from the Sitges festival:

Por desgracia, Lundgren nunca llegó a trabajar con Zulawski, con el que iba a rodar la frustrada 'Le tigre' a principios de los 90: "Se situaba en los 50, en la Guerra de Vietnam. Era una especie de aventura sobre una mujer enamorada de un tigre".

http://www.elperiodico.com/es/noticias/ ... ll-5503835

[Jox]

A MUST-READ and detailed article on the genesis of LE TIGRE by Zulawski's scholar, friend and collaborator Daniel Bird who had never heard of the project before I personally told him about it, which even sparked new interest of the director to work on the script again more than 20 years later!

Żuławski’s Tiger: The Art-House Action-Adventure That Never Was
http://culture.pl/en/article/zulawskis- ... -never-was



EDIT:
I realise the article is just missing more about this part:

Cannon wasn't involved for long, they first signed with Zulawski in 1988 (with no script yet) as part of their prestigious directors they wanted to get like Godard, Zeffirelli, Konchalovski etc; so they didn't mean it as a cheap action flick, the script was penned in the following months but nothing happened since they were getting deeper and deeper into trouble...

Then it was a new company, ABBA Entertainment, that picked up the script and revived it in late 1989 / early 1990, attaching Dolph to star in it because he was a hot bankable name in pre-sales back then and they pre-sold territories for $7 million total which was pretty much the budget (to shoot in Thailand or the Philippines).

It made a big deal at the film markets like AFM and Cannes, and scheduled to start lensing a few months later in the summer... but one of their projects filming (a non-erotic film with Tracy Lords) got shut down in the middle of production because one of the partners (Jerry Kutner) was arrested for embezzlement, and that was it...

I read a draft of the script and it was crazy (APOCALYPSE NOW meets MOBY DICK meets MEN OF WAR with a white tiger, opium and shamanism)...

I never stopped dreaming about this since I heard about it in a French action film magazine ("Impact") back then (that's when I thought Dolph deserved to be in more than action films)...

[Jox]

Trade advert, AFM, February 1990

[Jamesflavell]

https://www.flickeringmyth.com/2020/03/ ... never-was/

Owes a lot to the previous article, perhaps - but does at least offer acknowledgement and thanks to JD.

[Jox]

I wanted to offer some contribution but sadly not in a position to at the moment...

But really I've been longing to give a proper treatment to this doomed project as well as all the other unproduced projects that Dolph had been more or less involved with at a later date. Either as a chapter / appendice in my long-term Dolph book, or perhaps even in a solo "DL development hell" book...

Owes a lot to the previous article, perhaps - but does at least offer acknowledgement and thanks to JD.

I know the author of this one below pretty well too, and he gave me credit for bringing that old project up to him, which brought him to have Zulawski himself look at it again (in a more New Wave or Godard-esque way)...!
https://culture.pl/en/article/zulawskis ... -never-was

[NomediumDofalie7]

Hello! With this Le Tigre is Jox ready to take over? Unfortunately the virus blocks everything Le Tigre sounds bad the tiger is other

[Jox]

NomediumDofalie7, I'm sorry I don't understand what you are saying or asking?

This is an old "unproduced" project that was supposed to be made 30 years ago, in 1990.

It will never be made (and author/director Andrzej Zulawski passed away 4 years ago).

[Jox]

6 pages on LE TIGRE in the upcoming French book about Zulawski for which I was interviewed.
https://lechatquifume.myshopify.com/col ... j-zulawski

[Moltisanti]

Cool! Should be interesting.

[Jamesflavell]

Le Tigre 'brochure' for sale on ebay - there are further pictures, suggesting some kind of proto-pressbook.

https://www.ebay.de/itm/304235510879?ha ... SwaQBhm-e0

[JuV]

Le Tigre 'brochure' for sale on ebay - there are further pictures, suggesting some kind of proto-pressbook.

https://www.ebay.de/itm/304235510879?ha ... SwaQBhm-e0

That seems like a solid price. I sadly don't have room for if. Hopefully someone here gets it!

[Jox]

there are further pictures, suggesting some kind of proto-pressbook.

It's a foldout brochure with Dolph's half tiger face on front and it unfolds into this large banner. It includes brief synopsis and early credits, which the company Abba gave to buyers (distributors)* with this b&w portrait of Lundgren as well as short biographies about him and director Andrzej Żuławski...

* (The then co-producer John Rodsett told me that the project had made about $7 million in pre-sales.)

That seems like a solid price. I sadly don't have room for if. Hopefully someone here gets it!

I already own one that I found one about 20 years ago.