It’s an unfortunate fact that many films in development, no matter how promising, sometimes just don’t make it to the big screen. One such film had everything going for it: the acting chops of the incomparable Willem Dafoe in the starring role, the incredible Joan Cusack as the female lead, and director Jeremiah S. Chechik, who also worked on National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation and Gossip Girl. The thriller comedy Arrive Alive started filming in 1990, however, not long after filming started, the first signs of trouble emerged. In fact, it didn’t take long for the film to be scrapped completely. So, what happened?

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The Screenwriters for ‘Arrive Alive’ Wrote ‘Scrooge’

Image via Paramount Pictures

Screenwriters Mitch Glazer and Michael O’Donoghue worked as a team to co-write Arrive Alive. Glazer is credited for an episode of Saturday Night Live in 1981, and similarly, O’Donoghue also had a place with Saturday Night Live as the head writer and supervising producer for a little over ten years. The two had just been met with praise for their film Scrooge in 1988. Considering that Arrive Alive was written by two writers who were proven to get laughs, the film was off to a good start.

The plot for the movie would follow our protagonist Mickey Crews, a Florida detective tasked with the case of a murdered whale trainer. Crews was to be a sleazy character working out of a Miami hotel, who is willing to dog-nap the beloved pet of former exotic danger Joy just to get close to her. It would have been a hilarious and engaging ride, following Crews as an extremely flawed protagonist. The team behind the script would certainly have a fun time writing a thriller comedy with the freedom that an unlikable protagonist gives.

Willem Dafoe Impressed With ‘The Last Temptation of Christ’

Image via Universal Pictures

Glazer and O’Donoghue wrote the script for Arrive Alive with a certain actor in mind for the starring role. They had previously worked with Bill Murray for Scrooge, so they wrote the part of Mickey Crews for Murray specifically. Unfortunately for the writing duo, Murray enjoyed the script but didn’t feel comfortable filming some of the more violent scenes, considering he’d just become a new father.

Without Murray working on the project, the film nonetheless continued into production, replacing Murray with Willem Dafoe, who had just starred in the critically acclaimed film, The Last Temptation of Christ, which is often considered to be one of his breakout roles. Dafoe’s popularity was on the rise, and the studio that was developing Arrive Alive, Paramount, welcomed him onto the project to play the seedy Mickey Crews.

Up until this point, Dafoe mainly took more dramatic roles, so starring in a thriller comedy would be a departure from his usual work and would be a chance for him to showcase even more of his acting range. Arrive Alive signed on Dafoe at the perfect time, hot on the heels of his success from dramatic roles and just before delving into something new. The role of Joy, the exotic dancer-turned-real-estate-agent, was given to Joan Cusack, who was a recurring actress on SNL and who had just worked on the 1987 film Broadcast News and the 1988 film Working Girl. Arrive Alive had plenty of rising stars on the roster, as both Broadcast News and Working Girl were some of Cusack’s earliest popular roles.

The timing for Arrive Alive seemed to be perfect in terms of the main actors, the director, and the producer Art Linson, who had produced The Untouchables in 1987 and who would go on to produce Fight Club in 1999. Unfortunately, the script and the players involved with the making of Arrive Alive just didn’t match up as well as expected.

Willem Dafoe Didn’t Want to Do Slapstick

Image via Sony Pictures 

The particular style of comedy written into the script and the main character Mickey Crews matched perfectly with the actor they had in mind, Bill Murray, but it didn’t turn out to be a good fit for Willem Dafoe. Glazer and O’Donoghue wrote Mickey Crews with a sense of casual sleaze that didn’t pair well with Dafoe’s bright intensity. As a result, studio executives noted that the “comedy” portion of this thriller comedy wasn’t getting through.

Sometimes you can’t be certain if an actor is right for the role or if he is miscast until filming begins. Not three weeks into filming for Arrive Alive, Paramount called for changes to the script, particularly adding more slapstick comedy. This change to the script, and to the humor baked into it, didn’t sit well with Dafoe at all, and it prompted him to back out of the film. Dafoe is an immensely talented actor, but slapstick, he felt, just didn’t suit his style. A mad scramble ensued to find a replacement for the starring role, but the search ended up being a bust. The film was looking more and more like an over-budget disaster in the making to Paramount Pictures. And with no suitable replacement for Dafoe to be found, Mickey Crews was doomed to never make it to the big screen. Arrive Alive was shelved only weeks into filming.

There are plenty of reasons why a promising film doesn’t make it to theaters, but Arrive Alive hit a particularly unfortunate snag. The script, while deemed unfunny by studio execs, was certainly an interesting one, and the people involved with the project were all extremely talented and ready to give it their all. Despite everything the film had going for it, the pieces, all of which seemed perfect in isolation, just didn’t come together or match well. The film was scrapped before it even had the chance to present itself, having lost its star power in Willem Dafoe, and it looked like it would continue a preset pattern into the dangerous area of becoming over-budget unless it was halted. It’s a sad truth that sometimes even potentially great movies, like Matthew McConaughey’s recently-scrapped soccer film Dallas Sting, just don’t get made.

Unfortunately, none of the footage from those first few weeks is available, but the script can be found on Backstory. There’s always hope that someone will pick up the project in the future, but as it stands right now, the revival of Arrive Alive is unlikely.