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Just watched Ishtar. Supposedly E May wanted to spoof the On the Road movies of Bing Cosby and Bob Hope. On location! With Warren Beatty and Dustin Hoffman. Interestingly enough, the film opens with a pair of down on their dollars wannabee singer-songwriters comparing themselves to Simon and Garfunkel. But wait, what if S & G had been cast as the leads!? WB & DH each got $5.5 million with Beatty getting $.5 more to produce. Might have saved a mint and gotten some soundtrack worthy songs to boot!
Budget: $40 million. Box office: $14.4 million. The loss to the studio is even more, I believe, as it gets 60% the box office, or about $8.5 million.
I could barely get through the Cosby/Hope movies as a kid. It was clear they weren't taking anything seriously. The sets were back lot, painted backgrounds, the scripts couldn't find any cliches to leave out, and ever so often there would be some excuse for Bing to Sing.
Ishtar cheated in a Sinatra tune in the background a few times because B & H were not so good at singing.
Still, I did laugh a few times.
Revu2
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