Fantasy comedy released in 1987 signed by the father of the Mad Max saga and starring Jack Nicholson, “The Witches of Eastwick” experienced a real peak of tension on its set due to a totally absurd idea from its producer. ..
Two years after having closed his Mad Max trilogy, George Miller unpinned in 1987 a nice fantastic comedy: The Witches of Eastwick. The pitch? Three mischievous and independent young women languish in the very puritanical little town of Eastwick where many witches accused of trading with the Devil were once burned.
The three women get together every weekend and chatter happily about everything. Until the day when an extravagant character, a certain Daryl van Horne, settles in the most sumptuous residence in the city…
Faced with Susan Sarandon, Michelle Pfeiffer and Cher, Jack Nicholson embodies a character who has everything the Devil himself. But if he chooses to go after these witches and make their lives hell, they obviously won’t let it go…
The Eastwick Aliens
While Miller’s film didn’t quite shine at the box office at the time despite its headliners, grossing just over $63 million, The Witches of Eastwick does not demerit and looks at itself without displeasure.
Except to imagine the potential disaster it could have been due to an obsession of the film’s producer, Jon Peters. As the director reminded, the latter, who had just seen James Cameron’s Aliens, had become obsessed with the idea of confronting the witches with the same creatures. It was for him the potential key to the success of this fantastic comedy still in the making.
Such an obsession in fact, that he even showed up one day on the set with a stuntman dressed in an Alien creature costume, asking George Miller to integrate it into as many scenes as possible. No kidding.
Suffice to say that the film would logically no longer have any relationship with the book written by John Updkike, of which it was the adaptation. Miller and Nicholson walked off the set in protest, only agreeing to return on the condition that the producer give up his latest whim.