Clint Eastwood’s 1968 film, Where Eagles Dare, is certainly a classic project from old Hollywood. It was an extremely intriguing story that on paper, is about a team on a mission to rescue someone from Nazis, but turns into a story of betrayal and high stakes. Directed by Brian G. Hutton, the film received immense critical acclaim, even having an 83% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
The film was so well received, that the highly respected director, Steven Spielberg, revealed that it was his favorite war movie. With this, it is very interesting to find out that the only reason why this movie was made was because of the legendary actress, Elizabeth Taylor.
Clint Eastwood’s Film Was Only Made Because Of Elizabeth Taylor
Clint Eastwood’s film, Where Eagles Dare, had quite the cast. featuring actors like Ingrid Pitt, Mary Uri, Donald Houston, and Richard Burton, it is fair to say the actors in this film were very talented. Interestingly enough, however, the reason why this film was made was not because of the director and producer Eastwood, but Burton himself, as he revealed to the Democrat and Chronicle.
“I decided to do the picture because Elizabeth’s two sons said they were fed up with me making films they weren’t allowed to see, or in which I get killed. They wanted me to kill a few people instead.”
When making this project, the actor was married to the extremely talented actress, Elizabeth Taylor. Taylor had two children at the time, who would often complain that they weren’t able to watch movies by Burton because he would get killed at some point. They instead wanted to watch him in a role where he would kill people instead.
Clint Eastwood’s Film Had A Different Title
Wanting to make this happen, Richard Burton approached the producer, Elliott Kastner, asking him if he had a project that could potentially meet the needs set by Elizabeth Taylor’s children. He asked if a superhero kind of film was available, where his character did not get killed at the end of it.
Richard Burton went to Elliott Kastner “and asked him if he had some super-hero stuff for me where I don’t get killed in the end.”
The producer ended up approaching Alistair MacLean, a writer, whose most books had been turned into a film. He asked him if he had any projects that met these needs, having elements of action, mystery, and suspense. Six weeks later, Kastner was given the script of Castle of Eagles. The title was later changed and Where Eagles Dare was created.