The Pilot

The Pilot (1980)

He's the best damn pilot in the sky. Drunk or sober.

Mike Hagan is a pilot in passenger service and candidate for the honor "Best Pilot of the Year". Nobody knows that he's got private sorrows - he's an alcoholic. A stewardess notices his regular visits of the toilet and reports it.

Date of release
1980-11-26
TMDB
6.9 / 10 (6)
Runtime
1h 32m
Genres
Action, Drama
Director
Cliff Robertson

Casting

Interesting facts

The Pilot is a 1980 American action-drama film by director and star Cliff Robertson and is based on the novel of the same name by Robert P. Davis. The movie had a notably troubled production.

Production

The film was based on a novel by Robert Davis. Film rights were bought by real estate developer Gregory Earls. It was originally going to star George Kennedy.

Eventually Robertson agreed to star and co write. He was to be paid $300,000 plus a percentage of the profits. The budget was set at $1.5 million originally.

The film was shot in Florida in November 1978 in Marathon, Palm Beach and Opa Locka. Davis began as director but was replaced by Robertson during filming. Filming was difficult and the budget blew out. Ronee Blakely was hired to play a role but was fired during the shoot. The film finished four weeks' behind schedule and a reported $700,000 over budget (accounts vary).

Davis hired Emil Smith as an aviation consultant; Smith won a judgement against Davis for unpaid fees of $7,725, and Davis sought to recover the amount against his partner Gregory Earls. There were several other law suits involving the film. "The picture got out of control and there was no money to pay for it," said Davis.

Robertson's director's cut of the film was trimmed by Earls by 22 minutes. "It's been an unhappy experience for me," said Robertson. "Cliff gave it his best shot but he was overwhelmed by the material," claimed Earls.

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

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