Rhinestone

Rhinestone (1984)

She's bet everything, and we mean everything, that she can turn this New York cabbie into an overnight sensation. He has other things in mind. But he's never had a trainer like this one!

After a big-time country singer brags that she can turn anybody in to a country-singin' star, she's out to prove she can live up to her talk when she recruits a cab-driver as a country singer. He's scheduled to sing at a big-time NYC country night club and she puts her ample powers to work in preparing her protege.

Date of release
1984-06-22
TMDB
4.9 / 10 (133)
Runtime
1h 51m
Genres
Comedy
Director
Bob Clark

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Awards: 2 · Nominations: 7. Including: Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Actor; Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Original Song

Rhinestone is a 1984 American musical romantic comedy film directed by Bob Clark from a screenplay by Sylvester Stallone and Phil Alden Robinson and starring Stallone, Dolly Parton, Richard Farnsworth and Ron Leibman. It is based on the 1975 hit song "Rhinestone Cowboy" written by Larry Weiss. Although a critical and financial failure, the film spawned two top 10 country hits for Parton on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart.

Production

Sylvester Stallone reportedly turned down Romancing the Stone (1984) to make Rhinestone. He was paid $5 million and a percentage of the gross. Executives at both Fox and Paramount expressed interest. Paramount's interest evaporated after president Michael Eisner reviewed the project and liked it but not enough to get into a bidding war with another studio.

However, when Sherry Lansing departed Fox, her successor, Joe Wizan, reviewed all projects in development. Wizan felt the Rhinestone script could not move forward unless they could get major stars for it. He and several Fox executives reviewed the list of actors who could co-star with Dolly Parton.

Sylvester Stallone was tentatively set to do a film for Paramount before beginning production on Rhinestone for Fox. The Paramount producers, Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer, were encountering the same problems as their Fox counterparts, after offering Stallone the lead in Beverly Hills Cop, Stallone told the Paramount executives he wanted to make a few changes and then proceeded to rewrite the script.

When Fox bought his script, they initially told Robinson it was their intent that he do any rewrites, if needed; but they were sincere from the outset, making Robinson aware they could not promise this. A meeting was scheduled by the studio for Stallone and Robinson to discuss script changes. The studio wanted Stallone to supervise Robinson in the rewrite. But the morning of the meeting Robinson was disinvited.

The studio was not happy with Stallone’s new revisions. Robinson’s original Rhinestone script was a small movie about a strong-willed Southern woman determined to own a restaurant in Manhattan. By the time Stallone's revisions were completed, it had become the story of a New York cab driver's miraculous victory in a country western singing contest, a contest that parlayed Parton's character Jake Farris into going to bed with her sleazy boss Fredd…

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