Forum - View topic

NEWS: Actor Donald Sutherland Dies at 88

• Donald Sutherland was instrumental in getting "Animal House" made when he signed on.
  
• He did it as a favor to director John Landis but wanted more money instead of points.
  
• He went on to regret it as the film made $141 million worldwide against a $3 million budget.

Despite the movie's now classic status, studio execs didn't have much faith in "Animal House" at the time. It wasn't until the production promised [Universal Studios boss] Tanen that they could make the film for $3 million that Universal signed on. However, the studio still wanted a star to sell the movie to audiences.

For Universal, "Saturday Night Live" stand-out John Belushi wasn't enough, so director John Landis went to his friend, Donald Sutherland (a huge star by 1978), and asked him for a favor. A hesitant Sutherland ultimately agreed to be in the film, but only after Landis told him that all his scenes could be done in a day.

“I was basically told I had to deliver a movie star or we were shutting down,” Landis told Variety. “The only movie star I knew was Donald. And because he said yes, that’s why we got a green light. All these actors who got their start with that film, from Kevin Bacon to Tom Hulce, owe him a huge debt.”

The studio and the comedy now had its "star." Yet, there was still the important matter of just how much Sutherland would get paid for the one day on set.

Sutherland wanted more cash upfront rather than a stake in the profits

Given the choice to earn a fee of either 2 percent of the film's gross profits or his typical day rate of $25,000, he took the latter. “I told them, ‘No, you need to pay me my daily rate,’” Sutherland told Variety. “So, I got $25,000 for the day, when I could have ended up with $14 million.”

"Animal House" would become one of the most successful comedies ever, pulling in over $141 million at the box office on the $3 million production budget Universal was initially promised. Adjusted for inflation, that's about $674 million in today's dollars.

Despite the insane number of iconic roles, it'll always be Oddball I think of first.

"Always with the negative waves Moriarty, always with the negative waves. "