THE FLIGHT OF LADYHAWKE

Ladyhawke belongs to the type of films known as sword and sorcery which was fashionable during 80´s.

Genesis of Ladyhawke

It was 1982 when the producer Lauren Shuler, partner of The Ladd Company, offered to the director Richard Donner three different scripts, two of them were comedies and the third one was a story that mixed fantasy and adventures titled Ladyhawke. This script was the first work like a writer of Eduard Khamara and soon Donner fancied it although he thought that it was an attractive item but very little worked. The argument was settled in a imaginary Middle Age and turned around a princess, Isabeau D´Anjou, who was in loved of the guard captain, Etienne Navarre, and both suffered the curse from a diabolic bishop who was in loved of Isabeau and when he was aparted by her, lovers were bewitched with a terrible punishment, during the day Isabeau would be transformed into a hawke and during the night, she would be a woman just in the same time that Navarre would be transformed into a wolf. The lovers only could be touched themselves during a few seconds in the sunrise and in the sunsetl. They only would be helped by a little thief, Philippe Gaston the mouse, and a priest, Father Imperious, with a huge knowledge of magic.

Donner remembers: "The script was not very good but it started from a genial idea. I felt my tears when the priest explained the story of the cursed lovers. It was the most pretty tragic love story I´ve ever read. In that moment, I realised that I wanted to direct that film, I called to Alan Ladd Jr. and I told him that I was interested in doing it with the only condition of I could re-write the whole script because some parts were incredible, for instance monsters and horrors which lived under earth".

Building a legend

Two new writers, David Webb Peoples (Blade Runner and Unforgiven) and Michael Thomas, were hired in order to re-write the script. They got to make a better script but it went on very poor, so Webb retired from the project, and Thomas re-writed the text again, getting a very poor results again. Finally, Donner asked for help to Tom Mankiewicz in order to write together the definitive script. "Tom is one of my best friends -Donner remembers- he got to increase the interest of the story, giving it a bit of humor and being sublime the relationship between Isabeau and Navarre". At the end, the result was passed by the director but the project fell down when The Ladd Company canceled the film due to its bad enterpreneurial economic results.

Donner was decided to make the film and got again the Lauren Shuler´s support, the same producer that had offered Ladyhawke at first and both got to make interest to the Warner and also the Fox, so that both majors decided to co-produced the film. Donner and Shuler began to select the actors. "Before I was selected - Donner says - Sean Conery and Dustin Hoffman had said that they wanted to do the film together, Conery had been Navarre and Hoffman, Philippe, It would have been wonderful but we didn´t have enough budget. We had a small budget that ascended to $15 millions. Finally, Sean prefered to do a new film of James Bond and we never received an answer from Dustin althoug I fighted until the last moment for having him into the film. At the end, we got Matthew Broderick, who was excellent in his feature and also, he was fashioned thanks to the film War Games. I think it would have been very difficult to find a better actor. My sister told to me about him. She thought he was a wonderful actor but he was too young for being Philippe. Then, I attended to the play Brighton Beach Memoirs and I felt exhausted. When I went out of the theatre, I thought the presence of Broderick inside the film would change the argument but the film would be whealthier".

The Netherlander Rutger Hauer was selected for Navarre´s feature although at first time, he went to do a supporting feature, Captain Marquet, one of the villains. He convinced to Donner that he was perfect for doing the role of heroic knight; Marquet´s role would be for Ron Hutchinson. Other actors would be John Wood playing the bishop; the veteran Leo McKern would Father Imperious and Alfred Molina would be the wolf hunter Cezar.

Finally, Ladyhawke´s main actress would be Michelle Pfeiffer, in that moment she was an actress with a increased value thanks to the films like Grease 2 and Scarface. According to Donner, Pfeiffer got Isabeau´s feature because she prepared and did the casting to get the role with very enthusiasm. "I had seen to Michelle in Grease 2 - Donner comments- and I thought she was a very good actress and a very beautiful girl but I didn´t believe she was the best candidate for the film. However, the casting director sent to us a video-tape from Michelle´s proof. She wore a wig and did a scene from the film that she had invented, the video finished with a image of a flock of birds with her voice saying "This is the impresion I have taken from Ladyhawke". We enjoyed so much and we thought it was admirable that she dared to do something completely creative and by her own. So, we decided to take a risk and hired her".

On the Set

The movie was filmed in Italia, in Gran Sasso area (Rocca Calascio) and some beautiful real countrysides were taken for the film like the Castle Arquato in Piacenza, the Tower Chiara from Parma, and famous Roman Catacombs.

In the technical team was the famous photograph director Vittorio Storaro. The set was not very difficult, only we can say Rutger Hauer had problems to manage the hawke and in other hand, Matthew Broderick had to do a big effort to film some images under water without the help of stunts; during the last fight between Navarre and Marquet in the cathedral, Hauer and Hutchinson did the most of the shots frightening that the two actors were hurt.

It was a pity that all this effort didn´t get the correspondent incomes so that $18 millions getting in the box-office in USA were not enough to duplicate the production costs and it means that Ladyhawke was a commercial failure.

Poor Lovers chronicle

Although Ladyhawke was not a box-office success, it is one of the best Donner´s works and one of the most interesting adventure films of 80´s. Ladyhawke is one of these rare movies that improves at the same time as the film is getting older, leaving a good remember in the those spectators who watched it at that moment.

Maybe the failure was due to the relate was very classic, even though old fashioned at the moment in which the film was presented for the first time. In that time, fashioned films were made with special effects and fights, for instance, Back to the future, Rambo, Rocky IV and Cocoon getting the most box-office success that year. On the contrary, Ladyhawke was a movie without blood and with simple special effects (the transformations of Navarre and Isabeau into a wolf and a hawke were made with chained shots or edition cuts) and characterized by intimistic feeling. The only modern part of this film is its soundtrack, composed by Andrew Powell and produced by The Alan Parson Project, typically pop. Definitely, Ladyhawke was a product out of time and cross-current.

Ladyhawke is a great movie, magical and adventurous; it is due to the director´s work. The film knows to give us with convintion a romantic story and mixed in a legendary age with imagination and respect. The great moments of the film are those in which bishop´s guards round to Philippe and Isabeau in the top of the tower and she is saved by the former sunbeams that transformed into a hawke during the fall; also the dual transformation scene where Navarre e Isabeau are on the point of touching themselves until the end in which the girl turned again into a bird; and at the end of the film, when the eclipse gives to the movie an astonishing visual and dramatic density .

Definitely, Ladyhawke continues being one of the most wonderful films of Michelle Pfeiffer and one of favourite films of her fans although the time passed.

Extracted from the article: Ladyhawke, a magical and legendary adventure
Written by Tomás Fernández Valentí for IMAGENES DE ACTUALIDAD (ES). Translated by A. de Pablos & Francisco J. González for Michelle Pfeiffer, The Face