Moonstruck screenwriter John Patrick Shanley remembers a brief tug-of-war between Norman Jewison and Lawrence Kasdan over who would get to direct the beloved 1987 romantic comedy starring Cher and Nicolas Cage.

“Norman Jewison read it and he said, ‘I want it.’ Then, like the next day, Larry Kasdan read it, called up, and said, ‘I want it,’” Shanley recalled during a Q&A following a screening of film at the Middlebury New Filmmakers Festival in Middlebury, Vermont on Saturday.

Jewison is known for directing In the Heat of the Night (1967) and Fiddler on the Roof (1971), both of which earned him best director nominations at the Oscars, in addition to Moonstruck. Kasdan is known for writing and directing The Big Chill (1983) and Silverado (1985), and for co-writing Star Wars films including The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Return of the Jedi (1983). Kasdan also wrote Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981).

Moonstruck stars Cher as Loretta Castorini, an Italian-American widow living in New York’s Brooklyn Heights neighborhood. No sooner than she has accepted a marriage proposal from her clueless boyfriend Johnny Cammareri (Danny Aiello), she accidentally falls in love with his younger brother, Ronny (Nicolas Cage).

Although producing partners on both Kasdan and Jewison’s teams didn’t initially like the script for Moonstruck, Shanley says both directors were incredibly keen on doing the movie. But Jewison got there first, beating Kasdan to the punch.

“My agent said, ‘You’re too late. Norman Jewison just optioned it,’” Shanley recalls. “So then Larry Kasdan called Norman and said, would he be willing to step aside and let Larry direct the movie? Which was the biggest favor he could have done me, because then Norman, no way he wasn’t going to direct that. So it was one of those things people talk about from time to time, very, very fortunate, where everything just comes together.”

In a statement to MovieMaker, Kasdan confirmed that that is indeed what happened.

“The story is completely accurate. Norman went on to make a perfect film from the script. A movie I revere. John Shanley remains my good friend to this day,” he said.

After Moonstruck, Shanley went on to write and direct 1990’s Joe Versus the Volcano starring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan, 2008’s Doubt starring Meryl Streep, Viola Davis and Philip Seymour Hoffman, and 2020’s Wild Mountain Thyme starring Emily Blunt, John Hamm, and Jamie Dornan.

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More on Moonstruck From Screenwriter John Patrick Shanley

Cher and Nicolas Cage in Moonstruck, MGM

Shanley says he never cared about anyone’s opinions on Moonstruck because had the time of his life writing it.

“I didn’t worry about stuff like that,” he said in response to a question asking how he knew he had something special. “I was enjoying writing it so much that that’s all that mattered to me. I mean, that alone was such a ride, such a joyous thing.”

“I was living in a tenement up in Washington Heights at the time, and I had a white princess phone. When it would ring, I’d pick it up, and whoever it was, I would say, ‘Listen to this!’ and I would read whatever part of the screenplay I was on,” he added.

“I remember reading some of it to John Turturro. I remember reading some of it to Jeannine Edmunds, my agent, and many others. And it was just a pleasurable time for me to be alive. I felt very bohemian. My apartment had holes in the walls and cracked windows. I played opera and I would write this thing, and I was like, ‘I’m the luckiest guy in the world.’ And that’s before anybody got involved.”

Shanley said it was Jewison’s idea to cast Cher as the lead in the film.

“Norman asked me who I thought should play Loretta Castorini, and I named a couple of New York theater actresses, because that was my lexicon. And Norman said, ‘How about Cher?’ And I said, ‘Yeah, she’d be great if you can can get.’ He called up Cher and he got Cher,” Shanley recalled.

But Cher was a little hesitant to take the role at first, he said.

“Actually, Cher said she had a very tight schedule. She had two movies already she’d committed to, and she had one slot left, and she was a little ambivalent. She said to Norman, ‘I think I should tell you before we sign on the dotted line that some people feel I’m difficult.’ And Norman said, ‘Are you more difficult than Julie Garland?’ That shut her up,” Shanley joked.

It was thanks to Cher that Nicolas Cage ended up playing the hot-headed, bread-baking romantic lead, Ronny.

“She wanted Nick Cage. That was her idea, though he was significantly younger than her. And when you look at the movie, thank God,” he says. “The guy is just so handsome. To start with that, he’s an amazing personality and actor and everything else, but he was gorgeous to look at. I’m sitting here today going, it’s hard to believe there are people like that who look like that in the world.”

Main Image: Cher and Nicolas Cage in Moonstruck, MGM