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One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest will be available on 4K UHD for the first time on Nov. 11, ahead of the film’s 50th Anniversary on Nov. 19
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest was a milestone moment in film and in the lives of its stars.
Danny DeVito, Christopher Lloyd, Michael Douglas and Brad Dourif gathered to talk about the acclaimed film and the unorthodox casting process that launched the careers of the famous ensemble fifty years ago.
“Every one of you guys just delivered. It just blew everybody away,” Douglas recalled of working with the actors on his first foray into producing on the film.
Of auditioning, DeVito recalled, “We would go up and we had the semicircle, and you go up for an audition and it was basically improv.”
“Yeah, she would say things that would stir us up… say something hoping we would start tangling,” Lloyd said.
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Douglas also recalled that there was a significant gap between auditions and shooting, in part due to Jack Nicholson.
“You guys remember Jack was doing another picture? So we postponed the actual shooting for about six months. Then, what we did was the audition process was [a] group therapy session. We started with about five or six groups from New York and LA and began to whittle them down less and less and less,” he shared.
“The postponement of Jack was actually a tremendous blessing for how great this picture was cast.”
Warner Bros.
Speaking with PEOPLE in July about the film’s upcoming anniversary, DeVito shared that many of the friendships forged on the set of Cuckoo’s Nest would endure as the actors’ careers grew and they occasionally reconvened.
“That was the first time I worked with Chris Lloyd,” DeVito says of his future Taxi costar. “We’ve been friends forever, and we talk to each other four times a month, at least, on Zoom.”
At the point of making Cuckoo’s Nest, DeVito and Douglas had already been friends and former roommates for a decade. He and Nicholson have enjoyed a friendship that’s continued on screen and off for five decades.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest will be available on 4K UHD for the first time on Nov. 11, ahead of the film’s 50th Anniversary on Nov. 19.
