Development and pre-production Michael Cimino was approached many times to direct an adaptation of
Robert Daley's novel, but consistently turned the opportunity down. When he finally agreed, Cimino realized he was unable to write and direct in the time allotted; The producers already had an approximate start date for the film. He brought in
Oliver Stone, who he had met through his producer and friend Joann Carelli, to help him write the script. Cimino was prompted to seek out Stone after reading, and being impressed by, Stone's (at the time) unproduced
Platoon screenplay. Cimino asked Stone to work on
Year of the Dragon for a lower-than-normal wage as part of a
quid pro quo deal, namely, that
Year of the Dragon producer
Dino De Laurentiis would help in finding the funding for Stone to make
Platoon. Stone agreed to this deal. "With Michael, it's a 24-hour day", said Stone. "He doesn't really sleep ... he's truly an obsessive personality. He's the most
Napoleonic director I ever worked with". Cimino did a year and a half of research on the project.
Casting Because the production was moving so fast, casting began before the script was completed. According to Rourke, the difficulty with playing White was making himself appear 15 years older to suit the character. Cimino drew heavily on the real-life
boxing prowess of Rourke. At first, Rourke did not take his physical training seriously, so Cimino hired
Hells Angels member
Chuck Zito to be Rourke's instructor. Rourke was often quoted in many interviews stating that he loved working with Cimino despite the disapproved reputation he earned himself over the years since his previous box office failures, quoting, "He was a ball of fire. I hadn't seen anyone quite like him". As several scenes were shot in Southeast Asia, several
Hong Kong and
Taiwanese actors were cast in supporting roles. These included
Shaw Brothers veteran
Fan Mei-sheng, and
Tsai Ming-liang regular
Chen Chao-jung.
Year of the Dragon was the film debut of top model-turned-actress
Ariane Koizumi (credited under the mononym 'Ariane'), whose performance was widely-criticized.
Shooting As with
Streets of Fire, most of the film was shot not on location but on soundstages, after meticulous research of various locales which could be passed off as
Chinatown and/or
East Asia. As shooting on-location in
Manhattan Chinatown, the film's primary location, would've been prohibitively expensive, a full-scale recreation of the location was constructed on the De Laurentiis Studios (now
EUE/Screen Gems Studios) backlot in
Wilmington, North Carolina. A week before filming was set to begin, a
hurricane destroyed most of the set, which had to be hastily rebuilt. The sets proved realistic enough to fool even
Stanley Kubrick, who attended the movie's premiere. Cimino actually had to convince
The Bronx-born Kubrick that the film's exteriors were shot on the DEG backlot, and not on location. Other cities used in filming included New York City, Toronto,
Vancouver,
Victoria,
Bangkok and
Chiang Rai. Cimino said he often liked to shoot in different cities, with interiors in one city and exteriors in another. In one scene, Joey Tai and his lawyer Bear Siku (Gerald Orange) walk through a Chinese textile mill, past a guard-rail and into a shoddy apartment building to meet up with two of his assassins. The textile mill was in
Bangkok, the guard-rail was in New York and the apartment building was in Wilmington. When one of the
script supervisors commented that the scene "wouldn't cut" (edit seamlessly together), Cimino bet her $1,000 that it would. Upon seeing the cut, the script supervisor conceded and Cimino won the bet but refused to take the $1,000. The catacombs of Victoria's
Empress Hotel doubled for a
mung bean factory, while the
British Columbia Parliament Buildings doubled for New York City police headquarters. Unlike ''Heaven's Gate'', Cimino was able to bring the film in on time and on budget.
Post-production At the end of the film, White's final line is "You were right and I was wrong. I'd like to be a nice guy. But I just don't know how to be nice". According to Cimino, the final line of White was supposed to be "Well, I guess if you fight a war long enough, you end up marrying the enemy". The studio vetoed the original line, written by Stone. Cimino feels that either the studio or the producers thought the original line was
politically incorrect. ==Release==