J. Kingston Pierce (jpwrites@sprynet.com)
Thu, 17 Jun 1999 12:13:21 -0700
>> Why was it necessary to change Lew's last name
from Archer to Harper?
>>
>> Tom
>>
>Paul Newman thought short movie titles beginning with
'H' were lucky for
>him. Those I can remember were (The)Hustler, Hud and
Hombre.
>Mark Blumenthal
>
According to Tom Nolan's authoritative new "Ross Macdonald: A
Biography," this isn't the reason why Newman made the name
changes. On page 261, Nolan explains that before making Ross
Macdonald's novel "The Moving Target" into a movie, United
Artists "wanted to secure exclusive rights to Archer.
[Author Kenneth] Millar wasn't giving those away; he thought
fifty thousand dollars was a fair asking sum--and he was
adamant, he told [agent Ivan] von Auw: `I'd much rather see
the deal fall through than risk having Archer lost in the
clutches of the Warner octopus....I say nuts.' Warners wasn't
willing to pay Millar's price. The studio's solution: use the
book [producer Elliott] Kastner owned but not its title, and
change the detective's name.
[Screenwriter William] Goldman was asked to rename the hero.
`I came up with
"Harper," he said, `because it was almost the same: Lew
Harper, Lew Archer.' Thus the film became `Harper.' Newman's
wife, Joanne Woodward, later claimed on The Tonight Show that
Archer's name was changed because Newman had had two hits
(`Hud,' 'The Hustler') with H titles. Goldman's response: `If
you know anything about the movie business, you know it's all
bullshit.'"
-- Jeff Pierce
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