FILM 2274: THE WITCHES OF EASTWICK (1987)

TRIVIA: In an interview with the Australian magazine Cinema Papers in the early 1990s, director George Miller revealed that the shoot had been extremely difficult, because he was initially unfamiliar with Hollywood-style communication. In a meeting to discuss ways to reduce the budget, Miller volunteered to give up his trailer because he was always needed on the set and had no time to use it. The studio concluded that he was a pushover, so they began to interfere with his production requests. If he asked for fifty extras, the studio would provide a dozen. If he asked for two cameras, they would provide one. Miller decided to fight fire with fire, and refused to shoot each scene until his production demands were met. The studio responded by looking for a new director, but were prevented by Jack Nicholson, who supported Miller and vowed to walk off the production if he was replaced.

According to George Miller, producer Jon Peters suddenly decided he wanted aliens to appear in the movie, even though it didn't make sense with the story. Miller thinks that Peters was influenced by the box-office success of Aliens (1986). He even showed up one day on-set with a stuntman dressed as an alien, and told Miller to put him in a scene, any scene. Miller and Jack Nicholson then left the set until Peters gave up on his fixation.

Bill Murray was originally cast to play Daryl Van Horne.

The opening shot zooming in on the town of Eastwick was originally to feature a seagull flying along with the camera. Visual effects supervisor Michael Owens had great difficulty finding a suitable bird. The plan was to acquire a taxidermy-type bird and put animatronics in it. First, it turned out to be illegal to own a dead seagull in California. When they were able to borrow one, another law stated it to be returned to its legal owner in the same condition it came in. After turning the bird into a rod-puppet of sorts, the team spent weeks perfecting the motion with up to ten puppeteers working simultaneously. In the end, none of their work ended up on-screen, because the opening credits were added to the shot, and the seagull was found to be too distracting.

Despite playing antagonists, Jack Nicholson and Veronica Cartwright were old friends and former lovers, having met while filming Goin' South. They briefly rekindled their affair while making this movie.

Debut American feature film of Australian director George Miller, though Miller had previously directed a segment for Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983).

In 2000, the movie was turned into an award-winning West End (London) stage musical by Cameron Mackintosh. It was adapted from John Updike's novel by Dana P. Rowe and John Dempsey. Among the cast was Lucie Arnaz as Alexandra.