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Post by ben on Jul 12, 2006 6:41:41 GMT
Thanks Clouseau, I must have missed it, I'll check it all out tonight when I get home from work and hopefully get more of my website up..
Shall continue the search as well..
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Post by Dreyfus on Jul 27, 2006 9:38:32 GMT
Thats interesting. Not sure why they would make a Clouseau spin-off when Clouseau was already the main character in the Pink Panther films (excluding TPP 63, Tcotpp, Tsotpp, Ttotpp)
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Post by Clouseau on Jul 27, 2006 13:06:28 GMT
Thats interesting. Not sure why they would make a Clouseau spin-off when Clouseau was already the main character in the Pink Panther films (excluding TPP 63, Tcotpp, Tsotpp, Ttotpp) well at the time, Trail, Curse, and Son had not been made, and i think the point was to move away from Clouseau and put the focus on a new character that a younger actor could play so they could continue to make films on a regular basis, instead of letting the series fizzle out as it unfortunately ended up doing... of course, i'm not sure how good the script for The Ferret was, either, so we might be better off with things going the way they did, seeing as how it appears Edwards was pretty much out of fresh ideas, as it was...
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Post by ben on Jul 28, 2006 12:08:46 GMT
They probably just wanted something different..to be inspired, for the longevity of Clouseau
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Post by thecolonel93 on Nov 16, 2006 21:53:28 GMT
There is a great deal of confusion over The Ferret. When Arthur Krim and his executives left United Artists after many years in 1978 (to make way for Andy Albeck and Steven Bach and their monumental bungles like Heaven's Gate and referring to Sellers as "Andre Clouseau" in Revenge's trailer), they formed Orion Pictures on the Warner lot. Blake Edwards was among the first to sign deals with Orion as a show of solidarity for the men who had backed his films for fifteen years. Sellers made his own deal with Orion for the Panther-like Fu Manchu spoof just as he worked with Walter Mirisch on the Panther-like Prisoner of Zenda sendup for Universal in 1978.
The Orion deal was terminated after Edwards wrapped production on "10" over marketing and distribution disputes and the mini-studio's lukewarm reception to Edwards' controversial S.O.B. script. The casualty in the termination of their agreement was The Ferret, a Dudley Moore comedy in the same vein as The Pink Panther. Hanna-Barbera were developing the animated titles which were to be marketed in the same fashion as the Panther.
The Ferret would have seen Moore playing a classical pianist and amateur inventor who learns the father he thought dead is actually a special agent for the UN known as The Ferret. Their reunion is cut short when he is assassinated. When a crime wave strikes the world in the aftermath of The Ferret's death, his less capable son is determined to take on his father's identity and avenge him (a concept that survived in the liner notes to Son of the Pink Panther's soundtrack CD, but not the film). Moore's Ferret is not a bumbler like Clouseau, but an average guy forced to succeed in extraordinary situations. He does, in spite of himself, thanks to determination, his inventor skills, and sheer good fortune.
Orion cut the budget for the film just before shooting was to begin in the Summer of 1979. The project was delayed and eventually cancelled. Edwards shopped it around, but shelved it as Moore's star rose even further after the success of both "10" and Arthur (and his subsequent unwillingness to commit to a series).
Edwards was approached by a former United Artists executive who had set up a television production company, Centrepoint Productions in 1983 for concepts for a series. He suggested The Ferret. A demonstation film was shot, not a broadcast-quality pilot as often reported. Terry Marcel (Edwards' assistant on Strikes Again, Revenge, Trail, and Curse) directed. Steve Guttenberg played Sam Valenti, the Ferret role intended for Dudley Moore. Robert Loggia and Edwards' daughter, Jennifer Edwards co-starred. The format for the intended series was an expensive hour-long comedy without a laugh track to be shot on location in Europe and the US. The format and budget were too much for NBC and any other network or cable outlet and the project died.
Somewhere along the line, the rumor circulated that The Ferret was an official spinoff of The Pink Panther and that Sellers would have guest-starred as Clouseau following the events of Romance. The otherwise faultless Ed Sikov even reported this bit of internet misinformation in Mr. Strangelove. This is, unfortunately, a fabrication on the part of confused and likely hopeful fans who didn't want to let Clouseau die. The official word is the only incarnations of the character were the proposed Orion film and the television demonstration project submitted to NBC in 1984.
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Post by pinkadilly on Nov 17, 2006 15:44:49 GMT
wow thecolonel! this is really amazingstuff ! i had no idea about most of this before i came here!
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Post by ben on Nov 22, 2006 3:48:11 GMT
thecolonel93 that is some outstanding information. So I guess contrary to other reports, Peter Sellers was going to be considered for this movie, but not the character of Clouseau.. I suppose Moore was going to have the starring role in this over Peter.. and he was going to have a new role..
What's the talk about the Romance trailer though?? Andre Clouseau??
And where did you get this info from?
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Post by thecolonel93 on Nov 24, 2006 14:42:21 GMT
Peter Sellers was not going to have a role in THE FERRET. The closest thing to a Sellers-Edwards-Moore collaboration was the alternate opening sequence to "10" where Sellers and Dyan Cannon appeared as themselves at George Webber's birthday party. The scene was reshot because it was felt the celebrity appearances were too distracting for the start of a film. THE FERRET would not have involved Peter Sellers for two reasons. First, he was too big a star to play second fiddle in a Dudley Moore vehicle (this wasn't going to be an all-star comedy like MURDER BY DEATH) and second, Edwards was eager to show he could be successful in a Panther-like comedy without Peter just as Peter was eager to show he didn't need Edwards with ROMANCE OF THE PINK PANTHER. Finally, if you watch the trailer to REVENGE OF THE PINK PANTHER on DVD, you will hear the announcer refer to Sellers as Chief Inspector Andre Clouseau not once, but twice. It was a lamentable error that slipped through due to the mass exodus of UA's entire staff of executives to form Orion Pictures in 1978. The newly hired replacments did their best under extremely difficult situations. There is an excellent book and documentary called FINAL CUT about this era for the studio.
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