Tag: Wash Westmoreland

Samuel Goldwyn Films has released the new trailer and poster for their upcoming film THE LAST OF ROBIN HOOD starring Kevin Kline, Susan Sarandon & Dakota Fanning.

Errol Flynn, the swashbuckling Hollywood star and notorious ladies man, flouted convention all his life, but never more brazenly than in his last years when, swimming in vodka and unwilling to face his mortality, he undertook a liaison with an aspiring actress, Beverly Aadland.

The two had a high-flying affair that spanned the globe and was enabled by the girl’s fame-obsessed mother, Florence. It all came crashing to an end in October 1959, when events forced the relationship into the open, sparking an avalanche of publicity castigating Beverly and her mother – which only fed Florence’s need to stay in the spotlight. THE LAST OF ROBIN HOOD is a story about the desire for fame and the price it exacts.

Written and directed by Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland, the film opens in theaters on August 29th.

Photos – © 2013 A+E Studios; Photo Credit: Quantrell Colbert

By Richard Glatzer & Wash Westmoreland. September 2013.

In 1959, an avalanche of publications with names like “Hush Hush” and “On The QT” pedaled the scandalous story of Errol Flynn; his teenage Lolita, Beverly Aadland; and the girls’ publicity-hungry mother, Florence Aadland. The accounts cast the three in a sordid light – an aging lothario, a morally-lax young woman, and a manipulative Hollywood Mother. But for us, something else came through: a story that somehow spoke to bigger issues – fame and infamy, love and selfishness, predestination and freewill, mortality and immortality – all trapped somewhere behind those tabloid headlines.

We were not the first to glimpse the story’s dimensions. Incensed by the tawdry nature of the national coverage, Florence set about writing her own book, with pulp-fiction writer Tedd Thomey, to set the record straight, and in 1961, The Big Love was published. It received unexpected praise from the likes of William Styron who called it “an American Masterpiece.” It also caught the attention of director Robert Aldrich who tried, unsuccessfully, to float it as a vehicle for Bette Davis. Decades later, Jay and Brooke Allen adapted it for a one-woman show starring Tracy Ullman. None of these incarnations of the story ever broke through significantly. Maybe now, in the fame-hungry age of Twitter, Reality TV, TMZ, LiLo, and the selfie, the story will find a true resonance.

In the film, Flynn says, “Fame is like a religion in this godless country.” Thrust into instant stardom in swashbuckling movies like Captain Blood and The Adventures of Robin Hood, Flynn was an overnight sensation with the movie-going public. But a damning statutory rape trial in 1943 turned him into something like a fallen idol and left him feeling deeply cynical about the nature of celebrity. For Florence on the other hand, access to Hollywood (think ‘Heaven’) was worth of any sacrifice.

When ambitions for herself were thwarted, her daughter became the vessel to fulfill a destiny Florence believed was ‘pre-ordained.’ Beverly, finding herself between these two giant personalities and subject to their projections and desires, ultimately had to find a way to navigate her own path.

Our journey in making this film has been an epic one. When we started talking seriously about the film ten years ago, one key to the story arose above all others – Beverly Aadland was still alive and living in the high desert town of Palmdale. She was notoriously private and skeptical about inquiries into her Flynn years. But after a lot of research, and being vetted by a friend of Beverly’s, we met up in a Mexican restaurant and shared a meal with Beverly and her construction-worker husband, Ron. When the subject of The Big Love came up, Beverly’s hackles rose. “Why is everyone so interested in my mother?” she snapped. “I’m interesting too.”

Over a period of several years, we got to know Beverly. She had a phenomenal memory and could recall conversations word for word. The account she gave of those glamorous, turbulent years seemed untouched by time. Without guile. Honest.

She also introduced us to Ronnie Shedlo, Flynn’s assistant at the time, who was then an independent producer living in London. He too was initially guarded but came to be a great supporter and resource for us. It was he who told us of Flynn’s meeting with Stanley Kubrick who was ironically considering him for Humbert Humbert in Lolita.
We became obsessed with the late fifties – the last golden days of the Hollywood Studio system. Films like Bonjour Tristesse, Strangers When We Meet, North by Northwest gave us inspiring visual references. We wanted to make something that echoed the look of late-period Technicolor – which was about as ‘realistic’ as the 3 strip process ever got.

About three years ago, completely unexpectedly, the ball started to roll. Kevin Kline happened on the script by accident after his manager had read it as a writing sample for another project. He became ‘intrigued.’ Then our dream producers, Killer Films, came on board, as well as A & E networks, who had the fantastic notion of making the kinds of dramas for theatrical release the larger studios often shy away from.

As things picked up speed, Susan Sarandon – the perfect Florence – came on board and finally the wonderful Dakota. We set about figuring out how to produce a film on a modest budget that took you on a journey from Los Angeles, to New York, to Africa, To Cuba, to Vancouver, while shooting it all in Atlanta. It was as a result of the tremendous skills of our dedicated crew that we managed to make that a reality.

The relationship between Errol Flynn and Beverly Aadland is still controversial — today perhaps more so than in the 1950s. We made no justification for it and neither did we want to pass judgment. We simply wanted to show what Beverly experienced and what Florence and Errol went through — their understandings, delusions, manipulations, flaws, hopes, dreams and fears. For, ‘the terrible thing in life,’ Jean Renoir once said, ‘is that everyone has his reasons.’