When buyers arrived at the 1987 edition of the American Film Market, one film was high on their shopping list: Platoon, writer-director Oliver Stone’s foray into the Vietnam War.
The film had taken years to reach the screen. Stone began the screenplay in the mid-’70s but could find no takers, although it did earn him a job penning the 1978 Turkish prison drama Midnight Express, for which he won his first Oscar. Eventually, Stone struck a deal with producer Dino De Laurentiis, agreeing to write the screenplay for Michael Cimino’s crime movie Year of the Dragon for less than his market rate if De Laurentiis would secure financing for him to direct Platoon. But when the veteran producer couldn’t find a distributor, John Daly of the British production company Helmdale came up with financing for the films Salvador and Platoon and signed Stone to direct both.
With the newly formed Orion Pictures on board to distribute, Platoon began shooting on a $6 million budget in the jungles of the Philippines in 1986. When it arrived in theaters that December, critic Roger Ebert was quick to call it the best film of the year; it would go on to gross $138 million domestically and earn eight Oscar nominations.
Not surprisingly, when the AFM got underway in March, David Lamping, Orion’s senior vp and international sales manager, told The Hollywood Reporter that he’d received a number of inquiries about foreign rights to Platoon, but all territories had been sold a year earlier.
“By and large about 40 percent of our revenues come from foreign, and in some cases more,” he added. A few weeks later, Platoon took home the Oscar for best picture and Stone won best director. Said Stone as he accepted, “Through the award you are really acknowledging the Vietnam veteran, and I think what you are saying is that for the first time you really understand what happened over there, and I think what you are saying is that it should never, ever in our lifetimes, happen again.”
This story first appeared in The Hollywood Reporter’s Nov. 2 daily issue at the American Film Market.
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