The Ferret (??)

[ben]

Following another reading of the "Mr Strangelove" biography (quite a little goldmine), I found that my initial (personal) previous interpretation of a particular movie reference was in fact correct, hence some more (new?) details for your interest

Following(?)/With(?) "Romance of the Pink Panther", there was yet ANOTHER pink panther-RELATED** (**read on) movie that was tentatively in the works prior to Peter Seller's death, however the details for this one at this point are even more vague than Romance as I don't think they even had a storyline or plot for it.

I will post the quote from the biography when I get home tonight and re-edit this post but offhand what I can recall is that the movie was to be called "The Ferret", and it was to feature Peter as Inspector Clouseau yet again, but as aforementioned there was no reference to other characters or storyline or anything else. The only other interesting point was that it was to be a 'spin-off' from the Panther movies, so I guess that means it would have been another "A Shot in the Dark" or something..

EDIT: Here is the quote from the biography

"To the list was added The Ferret; written and directed by Blake Edwards, this comedy on the drawing board was to be a spin-off from the "Pink Panther" series, still involving the character of Clouseau, but redefining the story that surrounded him"

[Clouseau]

interesting... i had heard the name "The Ferret" before, but i always thought what i had heard was that it had something to do with a character who would appear in Romance of the Pink Panther... i hadn't heard of there being another new film planned...

please do keep us posted of any further developments you come across!

[ben]

Another short mention I found on the net
"Despite Sellers’ failing health and mental facilities, Edwards banged out three PANTHER sequels between 1975 and 1978. Then some execs who departed United Artists to found Orion Pictures were interested in doing an Edwards script called THE FERRET. Blake negotiated a three-picture deal with them, including “10” and S.O.B. FERRET disappeared down a development hole, but “10” was a critical and box office smash and S.O.B. (Edwards’ slap at Paramount over its treatment of DARLING LILI) appealed to a number of critics, moviegoers and awards bodies"


www.films42.com/tribute/blake_edwards.asp

I guess I could post it here for my own reference as well, when I put my website up

[ben]

Another mention of it...Well not a mention..rather a rumour someone was discussing

davidpoland.typepad.com/thehotblog/2004/12/dates_already_s.html

"Edwards announced "The Ferret" right after "10" opened in 1979, when Sellers was still very much alive. It may well be that Edwards was fed up with him and was looking for an alternative franchise (especially since he enjoyed working with the far more easy-going Moore), but Sellers' death had nothing to do with it one way or the other. As I understand it, the character was more of a 007 caricature than a Clouseau clone.
(Maybe this indications the inspiration for "Curse of the Pink Panther"?)

[ben]

Here's a special one, taken from an interview Blake Edwards did with PLAYBOY, alongside Julie Andrews

"EDWARDS: About five years before Sellers passed away. I thought he'd refuse to play Clouseau in any more movies, and in the meantime, the Pink Panther had become something of an institution....................It just seemed like a shame to let the movie version end when Peter died, but I thought his character should die, so I was faced with a problem: What do I do about Clouseau?..........................some executives from United Artists left UA to start Orion Pictures, and they desperately wanted something that could replace the Pink Panther. I knew that, so I went to them with a project called The Ferret, which was about an undercover agent who works for only the President of the United States.................it was very serious, very real. Orion got excited about it, and I clearly indicated that in order for me to do The Ferret, the studio would have to let me do "10." So we wound up making a three-picture deal for The Ferret, "10" and S.O.B., and because it was ready to go, we shot "10', first"

This is contradicting everything else I've said now...nonetheless

(Actually parts of this interview are pretty interesting, it was made prior to the release of "Trail of the Pink Panther", Ill put this up on my site - getting close to first stage of completion soon)

[ben]

The Ferret - A pilot was shot?**
(**Not with Sellers though)

www.hotkey.net.au/~nval/scifi/ferretth.htm

THE FERRET

(1985)

A professional musician and amateur inventor discovers that his father is not only still alive, but is "The Ferret", an anti-terrorist agent.

THE FERRET
Centerpoint Productions
[--------------->] Demonstration film - pilot

TRANSMISSION DATE
1985

DIRECTOR
Terry Marcel

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER
[--------------->] Blake Edwards

WRITER
[--------------->] Blake Edwards

CREATOR
[--------------->] Blake Edwards

CAST
Sam Valenti . . . . . . . . . Steve Guttenberg
The Ferret . . . . . . . . . Robert Loggia



And the plot thickens..?

[ben]

Just out of interest also, be aware that a tv show at one stage during 1971 had the title of "The Ferret" with no relation to this movie or Blake Edwards, which is why information isn't easy to come by

EDIT: Anyway that's all I found so far..Sorry

[Clouseau]

interesting finds there, ben!

btw, i thought this was interesting...

The Ferret . . . . . . . . . Robert Loggia

Robert Loggia has further ties to the Pink Panther franchise... he played Al Marchione in RevOTPP, and he played Bruno Langois in both TotPP and CotPP...

[Clouseau]

it would appear that Edwards' script for The Ferret nearly became a TV series in the 1980s... i thought something looked suspicious when, in the information you provided above, it mentioned a "pilot" (which generally refers to the first episode of a TV series), but this mention from IMDB's "other works" page for Blake Edwards kinda brings it all into the light...
imdb.com/name/nm0001175/otherworks

Wrote and produced the unsold television pilot "The Ferret" for NBC in 1984. A sixty-minute comedy with no laugh track which starred Steve Guttenberg, Robert Loggia, and Jennifer Edwards. The title character is a special agent for the United Nations whose disappearance in the pilot leads to an international crime wave. Guttenberg played the title character's son, a jazz musician and amateur inventor who stepped awkwardly into his father's shoes to avenge his death. Hanna-Barbera provided the animated title sequence for what was intended to be a television counterpart to Edwards' "Pink Panther" franchise. Concerns over the size of the budget and the unorthodox (for its day) concept of an hour-long comedy with no laugh track was a bit much for a conservative American network to expect to buy. Edwards' longtime second unit director, Terry Marcel helmed this pilot which was shot on location in Colorado.

also, BlakeEdwards.com's forum is currently under construction, but Google turned up a cached message that seems to mesh with the above quote...

SON [of the Pink Panther] is closer to THE FERRET, a film Edwards proposed for Orion to follow "10". Dudley Moore would play a classical violinist and amateur inventor who discovers his father is a special agent for the UN called the Ferret. When his father is murdered, Moore adopts his father's identity to avenge his death and stop an international crime wave. Of course, Moore would fall down a lot and break things along the way. The project failed to come together. Edwards shot an hour-long TV pilot in 1984 with Steve Guttenberg in the role. Robert Webber and Jennifer Edwards co-starred. It never aired. Edwards developed THE FERRET with Frank Waldman and Tom Waldman--his frequent PANTHER collaborators.

and finally, there's one other post made on another forum that goes into this...
p098.ezboard.com/fscarletstreetcomingattractions.showMessage?topicID=102.topic

Even during Sellers' lifetime Clouseau was going to be retired and replaced with a different character. Had Sellers lived to complete ROMANCE OF THE PINK PANTHER, he would have gone on to a co-starring role (as a comically villainous Clouseau) in THE FERRET which would have starred Dudley Moore. Instead Sellers died, ARTHUR insured Moore wouldn't sign on for a franchise. Edwards proposed Rowan Atkinson but MGM wouldn't bank on an English TV star so they opted for Ted Wass(!). The hideous battles during production of TRAIL and CURSE OF THE PINK PANTHER between studio and creator severely crippled both films. Edwards realized too late in the game that Wass was not working. The results were unsalvagable messes that failed at the box office. Edwards tried resuscitating THE FERRET for television and made a pilot with Steve Guttenberg that failed to sell. Ten years of litigation later, Edwards and MGM tried again with the character of Clouseau's son. Trouble with the rights, financing, casting, and most of all...the script left SON OF THE PINK PANTHER in no better shape than it's most recent predecessor.

unfortunately, none of this seems to be truly verifiable, since no sources are listed, but it is at least interesting...

[Clouseau]

one more uncorroboratable read for you...
p098.ezboard.com/fscarletstreetcomingattractions.showMessageRange?topicID=102.topic&start=1&stop=20

In 1978, United Artists executives formed Orion Pictures and asked Blake Edwards to create a comedy series to replace The Pink Panther films for them. The result was The Ferret which was to star Dudley Moore as a bumbling secret agent. At the same time, United Artists paid Edwards $3 million to allow them to make a Pink Panther sequel without his participation. Sellers was to write the script and Sydney Poitier was to direct.

In 1979, Orion Pictures put The Ferret in turnaround. The excuses vary so I won't guess as to why. United Artists picked The Ferret up but nothing was publicized at the time. Danton Rissner (who was to produce Sellers' next Panther film) was highly critical of the script Sellers and Jim Moloney (co-authors of THE FIENDISH PLOT OF DR. FU MANCHU) wrote. Poitier exited the project and Clive Donner was signed to direct after UA refused to allow Sellers to helm the film (now titled ROMANCE OF THE PINK PANTHER) himself.

In 1980, Sellers and Moloney finally revised the script for ROMANCE shortly before Sellers' death. Production was to begin in August 1980 but was pushed back to early 1981 as Clive Donner was given the thankless task of trying to convince Peter to bring in ghost-writers to help save the project. Donner's meeting with Sellers was to have taken place the week after he died. Sellers was not on speaking terms with the producer and had his wife, Lynne Frederick appointed Executive Producer. Donner's wife, Jocelyn Rickards was designing the sets. The film would have been shot at Studio de Bouglonne in Paris. Sellers had wanted his wife to play the Frog, but UA balked and Sellers had agreed on Pamela Stephenson as his leading lady. Meantime, THE FERRET was still set to star Dudley Moore was to follow ROMANCE in production and was to be re-written to incorporate Sellers and Stephenson as Clouseau and the Frog in supporting roles. This would make THE FERRET a legitimate spin-off the Panther series.

In 1981, MGM merged with United Artists. Dudley Moore was offered the role of Clouseau for ROMANCE OF THE PINK PANTHER. MGM/UA wanted Moore as a permanent replacement, but the actor was now unwilling to commit to a franchise. Moore would play Clouseau only if Edwards were brought in to rewrite and direct ROMANCE. Edwards refused to replace Sellers citing the Alan Arkin fiasco and his own conviction that the character's potential had been exhauted. Edwards suggested utilizing outtakes from RETURN, STRIKES AGAIN, and REVENGE. It's worth noting that Edwards first suggested this to Sellers in 1977, but the actor refused. A fact which allowed Sellers' widow to sue MGM/UA and Edwards after TRAIL's release. Edwards wanted to cast Rowan Atkinson for THE FERRET but MGM/UA were uncomfortable with an actor only known in the UK. For a variety of reasons which have never been sufficiently explained, only a small fraction of the Sellers outtakes were utilized. Edwards' longtime writing partner, Frank Waldman said that originally TRAIL was to have resembled CITIZEN KANE and have featured a male reporter rather than Joanna Lumley. Edwards' newly-appointed executive producer, Jonathan Krane wanted his wife, Sally Kellerman to play the Joanna Lumley role and be the series' new comedic focus. At some point, Ted Wass was cast as a Harold Lloyd clone for CURSE (as THE FERRET finally came to be known). MGM/UA liked the idea of an American and Richard Lester had succesfully resurrected Harold Lloyd's antics for Christopher Reeve in SUPERMAN II (albeit, an homage most audiences were ignorant of).

Roger Moore could only have been cast for one film and as a joke at that. Moore could not possibly have starred in two MGM/UA franchises after all. What's more, immediately following CURSE's release, the studio and Edwards were embroiled in a billion-dollar lawsuit over the series so all thoughts of future Panthers were dead for the better part of a decade.

Edwards did revive THE FERRET as a television pilot starring Steve Guttenberg in 1984. All connection with the Panthers were removed and the concept (while closer to the Orion Pictures project for Dudley Moore than the Panther spin-off for UA) had been altered yet again.

WoW! there's a lot up there to soak up!

[ben]

Oh my god...Where the hell did you find that!??!?

I hope you won't mind me quoting that up in my website Clouseau (Of course your gonna get equal credit for everything)..

I'm so overwhelmed by new discoveries that..That not only covers the story behind 'The Ferret', but that details the events leading up to and following Peter's death in terms of the direction of Clouseau and the Pink Panther..

So we can summarize from that:

-The idea for what eventually became 'Trail of the Pink Panther' was suggested to Peter WHILE HE WAS STILL ALIVE, because Blake felt that they had exhausted all possibilities for Clouseau and the Pink Panther series and wanted to bring it to a close in a matter similar to 'Citizen Kane'

-Perhaps it was based on that (my own assumption), that Peter went to Sidney Poiter to begin work on Romance..but ultimately Sidney actually left the project, and Clive Donner would have ended up producing.. That contradicts all other reports that Sidney Poiter was to have directed it then

-'The Ferret' was definitely going to be the follow up to 'Romance of the Pink Panther'. So we can establish that after 'Romance...' the Pink Panther movie series was going to be put in hibernation and that this new series, 'The Ferret', which was going to be tv based, was going to take over, featuring Peter as 'Clouseau' but in a completely different context, as hinted in the "Mr Strangelove" biography as I quoted from earlier

-'Trail of the Pink Panther' was initially going to be much closer to the Movie CITIZEN KANE then it ended up

***PLOT SUMMARY OF 'CITIZEN' CANE' - Multimillionaire newspaper tycoon Charles Foster Kane dies alone in his extravagant mansion, Xanadu, speaking a single word: "Rosebud". In an attempt to figure out the meaning of this word, a reporter tracks down the people who worked and lived with Kane; they tell their stories in a series of flashbacks that reveal much about Kane's life but not enough to unlock the riddle of his dying breath.

Well the movie (Totpp) did end up similar with the interviews, reporting etc...but perhaps "Trail" was to have a more defined and specific plot than just "oh dern the pink panther's gone missing again, Clouseau get over to Lugash..oh no his plane disappeared...well let's forget about the diamond completely, and just make the rest of a movie a tribute to Peter Seller's history as Clouseau.

I am assuming it didn't end up like this due to legalities as referenced in the article, ultimately why they ended up only using "a minimal amount of sellers footage". My conclusion is that there was a more defined idea of a storyline that could have been executed following review of extensive footage which they had, and obviously their rights were blocked and they were forced to make do with what they had which is why "Trail..." ended up much less successful than what it possibly should have been..

-It looks like even though Blake Edwards himself gave up on the idea of Clouseau and the Pink Panther after "Trail...", I guess "Curse..." was rightful in that he ended up using the abandoned "The Ferret" project for this one last movie in an attempt to give it a new direction, and it possibly have gone further, although as mentioned in the article, there were legal battles so further Pink Panther projects were ultimately discarded..

Does that sound right to anyone else / Clouseau?..

[Clouseau]

well i can't say i mind you quoting it since none of it's my own... it's just stuff i found on the Net, so if anything, i'd say you should quote it as rumors, or qualify it in some way like that, since, as i said, it can't be verified anywhere i've found yet...

in the meantime, we'll have to keep up the search, no?

[ben]

Yeah fair enough..I've got to say though it's the most defined and specific piece of information that I've seen.

I've actually read through that thread and there is a whole lot more information posted..It's all from one specific user with the name Rocky.......When I get home i'm going to have to read through that thread and possibly try to contact that user to see who he is, how he knows so much detail and why he knows it..

[ben]

Hey Clouseau I had a look at the link you posted and I couldn't find where you quoted that information from..Everything I read there was relating to the new remake with Steve Martin..Did you maybe post the correct link or is it on a different thread in that forum or something..?

[Clouseau]

no, the link is correct... search the page for the word "Ferret", and you'll find it...

the thread was evidently created long before details about TPP06 had really come to light, so you may find it difficult to reach the member in question there... i have no idea...