The Drowning Pool went through a bruising creative identity crisis before cameras ever rolled. In April 1973, producers David Foster and Lawrence Turman hired Walter Hill to adapt Ross Macdonald's novel, with Robert Mulligan attached to direct. Hill later recalled that his screenplay tried to toughen private detective Lew Archer—renamed Lew Harper in the finished film—and give the material considerably more physical action. The producers and studio disliked that approach, arguing that Macdonald's readers were not looking for an action picture. Hill later admitted that they may have been right, but said that following their preferred, more restrained direction would have been a 'highway to dullsville.' He effectively jumped ship to make his directorial debut, Hard Times, and Mulligan also left the project. Hill claimed that after the successive rewrites by Tracy Keenan Wynn, Lorenzo Semple Jr., Eric Roth, and others, only two minor scenes from his version remained in the completed movie.
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AI concept artworkArchive Record · 1970s
Walter Hill Abandons The Drowning Pool After Producers Reject His Hard-Boiled Rewrite
The Drowning Pool / 1970s
The Drowning Pool went through a bruising creative identity crisis before cameras ever rolled. In April 1973, producers David Foster and Lawrence Turman hired Walter Hill to adapt Ross Macdonald's novel, with Robert Mulligan attached to direct. Hill later recalled that his screenplay tried to toughen private detective Lew Archer—renamed Lew Harper in the finished film—and give the material considerably more physical action. The producers and studio disliked that approach, arguing that Macdonald's readers were not looking for an action picture. Hill later admitted that they may have been right, but said that following their preferred, more restrained direction would have been a 'highway to dullsville.' He effectively jumped ship to make his directorial debut, Hard Times, and Mulligan also left the project. Hill claimed that after the successive rewrites by Tracy Keenan Wynn, Lorenzo Semple Jr., Eric Roth, and others, only two minor scenes from his version remained in the completed movie.
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