I misspoke (miswrote?) in my preview of Money last week.
In the post, I said that the character of Lorne Guyland in Money was based on Kirk Douglas, who later would actually play Lorne Guyland in the movie adaptation of Money.
That’s incorrect, at least the second part.
There hasn’t been a film version of Money, unless you include the BBC adaptation. Lorne Guyland was based on Kirk Douglas, that’s true. But that connection came from Martin Amis’s experience working with Douglas when he was writing the screenplay for the movie Saturn 3.
This comes from an interview with Martin Amis by The Independent:
Q: Is it true that the Lorne Guyland character in Money was based on Kirk Douglas and, if so, did old Kirk really stand naked in front of you and ask ‘Is this the body of a 65-year-old man?
A: Lorne Guyland was, let us say, inspired by Kirk. He didn’t go nude for me but, on the set, he was always ripping his clothes off. Movie stars are funny that way, or they used to be. During the same shoot I had dinner with Harvey Keitel in his room at Claridge’s, and he was stripped to the waist throughout. It was a hot night, I admit. Kirk was very bright, and very sweet in his way. As he said to the director (who was soon to be fired), “The thing is, John, I’m unbelievably insecure.” He was, again, naked at the time.
The naked reference, presumably, is from a scene in Money that I’ve yet to encounter. And apparently Kirk Douglas liked to be naked.
From what I’ve gathered, Saturn 3 was the only screenplay that Martin Amis ever wrote. The film was released in 1980 and starred Douglas, Keitel, and Farrah Fawcett.
The first half of this trailer for Saturn 3 reminds me of one of those old school museum films you had to watch on a field trip when you were a kid. Then it morphs into some sort of hokey, 1980s horror sci-fi movie. Wait a minute, maybe that’s because it is a hokey, 1980s horror sci-fi movie.
Enjoy.
