According to Peter Bogdanovich, Hollywood legend Orson Welles said that actress Cybill Shepherd was born to play Daisy Miller, but he didn't want to direct Daisy Miller (1974).
Third and final project of the production house "The Directors Company" after Paper Moon (1973) and The Conversation (1974). Of the three executive partners of the Directors Company, William Friedkin was against producing Daisy Miller (1974), Francis Ford Coppola was neutral, and Peter Bogdanovich wanted to make it. The movie led to the demise of the Directors Company, co-owned by Friedkin, Coppola and Bogdanovich. Upon the movie's failure at the box office, Friedkin opted to exit the company first.
Peter Bogdanovich asked Orson Welles to direct the movie with Cybill Shepherd in the lead role, but Welles declined. Bogdanovich took over directing duties.
This picture was greenlit during the tenure of Former Paramount Pictures production executive Peter Bart. He has said: "[Peter]Bogdanovich called me soon after completing Paper Moon (1973) to tell me he was going to introduce me to a filmmaker whose work the company should next foster. He appeared a day later in the presence of Orson Welles, corpulent and glowering, who, at the time, was neither young nor promising. Indeed, Welles had fallen into the habit of starting films and then never completing them and, as such, was utterly "unbankable". Bogdanovich felt Welles had one more Citizen Kane (1941) in him. The other [company] directors disagreed, as did I. Welles and Bogdanovich had formed a bond, however, and during their lengthy conversations, Welles had spoken glowingly of a novel by Henry James called 'Daisy Miller' which he felt was a romantic classic. Bogdanovich, who was making a habit at the time of falling in love, heard Welles' comments in the context of a potential film. My instinct was that he was simply urging Bogdanovich to read the novel; an erudite man, Welles' literary recommendations were definitely worth listening to. To my surprise, however, Bogdanovich instantly started prepping a movie based on 'Daisy Miller', to star his girlfriend Cybill Shepherd, an idea that did not stir much enthusiasm within the Directors' Company".
Producer-director Peter Bogdanovich on showing this movie to the Paramount Pictures studio executives: "[Frank] Yablans, the new head of the studio came over to me and I said 'What do you think?' He said, 'It's alright'. I said 'Is that all you have to say?'. 'Well what do you want me to say?". I said, 'It's just alright?'. He said, 'It's fine, it's good but you are Babe Ruth and you just bunted'. From a commercial point of view he was right. It was not a picture that was ever going to be a big hit unless you released it today. It got very good notices. People remember it as having gotten bad notices but the truth is that Paper Moon (1973) got fairly mixed notices. The New York Times didn't like it, Time didn't like it. On the other hand The New York Times raved about Daisy Miller (1974), but it was just not a commercial picture in its day plus at that point Paramount changed hands, Barry Diller came in, Frank [Yablans] was out, it fell between the cracks, and nobody really pushed it. I like the picture. I think it was pretty daring".
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