With an overall consensus on what needed to be lost, the question of what to include became more crucial than ever. “There were only two thin chapters that were remotely autobiographical.” “Remember, the book was basically a compilation of dirty jokes,” Kalesniko says. “I always got the sense that they felt the odds of success were very good, as long as we weren’t faithful in tone to the book,” Kalesniko says.Īccording to the screenwriter, that meant losing much of the raunchiness that fans were expecting.
“That friend still hasn’t spoken to me to this day, but believe me it was worth it.”įrom the very beginning, the producers were aware that certain changes needed to be made from the literary source material. “When I mentioned that I was being considered to adapt his book, an East Coast friend of mine replied that if I did, she would never speak to me again,” Kalesniko says. “I’d like to think that gave me a fresh perspective since I had no preconceived notions,” he says.īefore signing on, Kalesniko saw firsthand that Stern’s brand of humor might be a difficult sell for some movie audiences.
Kalesniko, who shares a writing credit on the film with Len Blum, knew nothing about Stern before he was approached to work on the project. I remember a note about Stern riding an elephant down Fifth Avenue at one point.” I don’t know if I ever really understood their intention. They wanted to make it more of a spectacle, I guess. “Not by Stern, but by the original producers. “I was the very first writer on the film, and the first one fired,” says screenwriter Michael Kalesniko. Stern, whose development deal with Rysher Entertainment gave him final script approval, reportedly rejected upwards of 22 drafts and revisions. Avildsen (“Rocky”) attached, the film’s early delays were primarily centered on story issues. The culmination of a challenging development process that originally saw Oscar-winning director John G.
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