Sheena

Sheena (1984)

Part animal. Part legend. All woman.

Sheena's parents are killed while on Safari. She is raised by the mystical witch woman of an African tribe. When her foster mother is framed for the murder of a political leader, Sheena and a newsman, Vic Casey, are forced to flee while pursued by the mercenaries hired by the real killer, who hopes to assume power. Sheena's ability to talk to the animals and knowledge of jungle lore give them a chance against the high tech weapons of the mercenaries.

Date of release
1984-08-17
TMDB
5.6 / 10 (165)
Runtime
1h 57m
Genres
Action, Adventure, Fantasy
Director
John Guillermin

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Box office: $5.8M
  • Budget: $25M
  • Earned 0.2× its budget
  • Filmed in: Kenya
  • Awards: 0 · Nominations: 5

Sheena, also known as Sheena: Queen of the Jungle, is a 1984 superhero film based on a comic-book character that first appeared in the late 1930s, Sheena, Queen of the Jungle.

Production

In 1974, a friend of documentary filmmaker Paul Aratow suggested to him that the comic book Sheena would make a good film. Aratow thought, "Something went off in my head – I realised that it was a most commercial idea, it had action and a sexy, mythic Earth goddess type who was actually one of the true comic-book heroines." Aratow bought the rights, set up a production company with Alan Rinzler, and succeeded in interesting Universal Pictures wit…

The producers then took the project to Filmways, where then-head of production Ed Feldman wanted "to create an out-and-out adventure story, with humour, of course, but basically an elaborate adventure." Feldman had a poster designed illustrating his idea and showed it to Mike Medavoy of United Artists, who agreed to finance a new script. Michael Scheff and David Spector did a screenplay.

When Mike Medavoy left United Artists, the project went into turnaround. Aratow now owed $65,000 to Universal and $85,000 to United Artists for the money they put in the project. Aratow took Sheena to Avco-Embassy, which did a search for possible stars, then also passed. "I realised they just didn't have any money", said Aratow.

Eventually in 1980, Columbia Pictures' head of production Frank Price agreed to finance the movie Sheena with a budget from $7 to 10 million. Bo Derek was mentioned as a possible star, but Aratow says, "all reasonable casting suggestions are welcome". "Girls today need superheroes", said Aratow. "I have a daughter, who is six, who needs someone to look up to. And I want Sheena to be that superhero.

"The comic-book concept was hopelessly outdated," said Aratow. "It involved the killing of endangered species and also had racist overtones. We decided to create our own interpretation of Sheena, Queen of the Jungle. She is a modern, contemporary woman. She is much more cognizant of ecology. She is much less violent. Sheena is an '80s film, so Sheena is an '80s woman living in the jungle. She is in tune with the natural order."

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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