Riding on the success of the highly acclaimed
Chinatown,
Roman Polanski began to write a screenplay for a swashbuckling adventure film called
Pirates alongside his regular collaborator Gerard Brach. "I feel like doing something entertaining," he said in 1976. "I feel like doing something I would like to see. I'm a great customer of
Disneyland. Everytime I go on the
pirates' ride I think I would like to do a film." Originally, Polanski intended for
Jack Nicholson to play the central role of Captain Thomas Bartholomew Red, a grizzled old pirate, and Polanski would play Red's sidekick. However, complications arose partially due to the enormous fees that Nicholson was demanding. (According to Polanski, when Nicholson was asked what exactly he wanted, he replied, "I want
more.") Polanski also wanted
Isabelle Adjani to play the female lead. When production was postponed, he made
The Tenant instead, which he rewrote for Adjani. In 1976, he said that he aimed to make
Pirates the following year in England and Malta, and that he would act in the film but play only a small role. However, production was postponed further after Polanski was arrested in California in 1977 on charges including rape by use of drugs of a minor. Polanski subsequently fled the United States. In October,
Arnon Milchan announced that he would produce the film, which would be shot in
Tel Aviv the following year at a budget of $24 million. Milchan would build a studio there at a cost of $2.5 million, which would have a marine tank. The film would have no major names, as all the money would go into special effects and the set. Polanski called the film "a comedy adventure, in the style of '
Treasure Island' or that Disneyland pirate ride, the kind of thing you dream of as a child". Co-writer Brach called it "a classical, stereotypical story, on which I worked very hard in order not to do something foolish". Polanski's legal issues meant that the film could not be made in the US. He said: The people who finance films don't care what your personal problems are, your image, whatever. They're interested in figures. They look them up the same way an insurance company does. And they know that if they spend $5 million or $6 million, $10 million on a film by me, their risk is quite limited. But once you have a subject complicated, more ambitious, like
Pirates, even if you have a delightful script and great enthusiasm, even if you promise them heaven, they are afraid. That has nothing to do with my legal problems in America. What do they care for it? Do you think that they have a moral streak in them, that they really hesitate? In May 1983,
Universal Studios agreed in a memo to provide two-thirds of the budget of
Pirates, then estimated at $28 million. Six months later, there was a studio shake-up, and Universal pulled out. By this stage, Ben Ammar had already invested $8 million. He could not find a new distributor. As late as January 1984, Polanski still hoped to cast Jack Nicholson.
Nastassja Kinski, who had been in Polanski's
Tess, was going to be the female lead. Two months before production began,
Dino de Laurentiis, who would release the film in Europe, arranged a deal with MGM/UA worth $9.5 million. Ben Ammar raised the additional funding from three other banks. By February 1984,
Michael Caine was attached as the lead. By April, Caine was out and
Rob Lowe was being discussed as his sidekick. Eventually, Walter Matthau agreed to play the lead, and Cris Campion, a French rock drummer, signed on as his sidekick. "I didn't like the script," said Matthau. "I didn't understand the script. First it was the ship against the pirates, then the pirates against the ship, then the ship against the pirates. I didn't think it was funny or adventurous or anything. And the thought of swimming and climbing and duelling on one leg for five or six months in Tunisia didn't appeal to me. It was my youngest son Charlie who changed my mind. He said, 'You gotta take it, Poppa. You'll get to work with Roman Polanski, one of the great directors today. It's an open-air part that could change your career.'" ==Filming==