Midnight Run on Arte: the duo you escaped!

Midnight Run is one of the most emblematic films of the “buddy movie” subgenre, carried by Robert De Niro and Charles Grodin. The story is simple: Jack (De Niro) is a bounty hunter who is asked to recover Jonathan “the Duke” Mardukas (Grodin). An easy mission, if the latter was not both wanted by the FBI and the mafia!

Initially, director Martin Brest had just shot Beverly Hills Cop and starred in Funny Spies. He wishes to have for his new filmmaker project Harrison Ford (who has just played in Witness and Mosquito Coast) and Chevy Chase, with whom he shot in Funny Spies. Except that this idea falls through, and Brest is looking for new actors.

And precisely, after playing the role of the ruthless Al Capone in The Incorruptibles, Robert De Niro would like to play in a comedy. Having just been rejected by Big in favor of Tom Hanks, De Niro consoles himself with the buddy movie imagined by Martin Brest.

It remains to find who will play the second main character, facing him. Except De Niro, with his demanding career choices, wasn’t known for being a box office champion. The Paramount studio, which owns the rights to the film, is therefore thinking of opposing a popular star to it.

The scenario calls for this second character to be called John Mardukas. Except the studio wants the gender changed in order to allow Cher to star in the film. Although she had tried her luck at the cinema since 1967, it was in 1987 that the career of the singer was successful with three films: Dangerous Suspect, The Witches of Eastwick and Éclair de lune, which earned her the Oscar for Best Actress.

The idea would also have been to add sexual tension between the two characters, but Martin Brest strongly opposes the idea.

ANGELI-RINDOFF / BESTIMAGE

Paramount does not disassemble and offers him other actors, male this time. Other names circulate then, among which those of Bruce Willis (pre Die Hard) or Albert Brooks, but it is a third which holds the attention. Like Cher, he too has just shot a great success, Good Morning, Vietnam, for which he was nominated for an Oscar.

This is obviously Robin Williams, who has read the script and finds it to his liking. He agrees to be received for an audition. Except that in the meantime, Martin Brest received another actor, Charles Grodin. He is not known, but his chemistry with De Niro pleased the director, who does not wish to meet Williams, who will never have a chance on this feature film. The following year, he will play in The Circle of Dead Poets, which again earned him an Oscar nomination.

Buena Vista Pictures Cast

Meanwhile, Paramount, which does not want this duo, resells the film rights to Universal, with the De Niro-Brest-Grodin package included. The new studio will trust Brest and validate its casting choices. Midnight Run will be a huge success, to the point of being dubbed by RollingStone30 years after its release, the “Casablanca du buddy movie”.

To note that Charles Grodin and Robert De Niro will meet again for the needs of The Comedian, in which the second plays an aging stand-up comic, and the first one of his fellow comedians. The Comedian also cast Lois Smith, who also appeared in the credits of Midnight Run.

Three sequels to Midnight Run will see the light of day, but none with the original cast.

De Niro’s next project has a massive cast:

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