Brenda Starr is a 1989 American adventure film directed by Robert Ellis Miller based on Dale Messick's comic strip Brenda Starr, Reporter. It stars Brooke Shields, Timothy Dalton, and Jeffrey Tambor.[2]
The film was shot in 1986; however, it was not released for three years because of lengthy litigation over distribution rights. It finally was released in some international markets in 1989 and in America in 1992.[3][4][5]
Plot
Mike is a struggling artist who draws the Brenda Starr comic strip for a newspaper. When Brenda comes to life and sees how unappreciated she is by Mike, she leaves the comic. To return her to her rightful place and keep his job, Mike draws himself into the strip.
Within her fictional world, Brenda Starr is an ace reporter for the New York Flash. She is talented, fearless, and smart, and she is a very snappy dresser. The only competition she has is from Libby Lipscomb, the rival newspaper's top reporter.
Brenda heads to the Amazon jungle to find a scientist with a secret formula, which will create cheap and powerful fuel from ordinary water. There, she must steal the formula from her competition and foreign spies.
Cast
Brooke Shields as Brenda Starr
Tony Peck as Mike Randall
Timothy Dalton as Basil St. John
Diana Scarwid as Libby Lipscomb
Nestor Serrano as Jose
Jeffrey Tambor as Vladimir
June Gable as Luba
Sergio Kato as Jose
Charles Durning as Francis I. Livright
Kathleen Wilhoite as Hank O'Hare
John Short as "Pesky" Miller
Eddie Albert as Police Chief Maloney
Mark von Holstein as Donovan O'Shea
Henry Gibson as Professor Gerhardt Von Kreutzer
Matthew Cowles as Captain Borg
Tom Aldredge as Captain Borg Impostor
Ed Nelson as President Harry Truman
Development
In 1981, it was reported that Deborah Harry would star in a film version of the comic with George Hamilton as Basil St. John.[6] In 1984, a small production company called Tomorrow Entertainment, under Myron Hyman, got the rights to make a movie about Brenda Starr. The idea was to make a low-budget film that could be a high-quality television movie. Tomorrow hired James Buchanan and Noreen Stone to write a script.[7]
Hyman says he began getting calls from Teri Shields, mother of Brooke. "She said Brooke always wanted to be Brenda Starr," said Hyman. "I guess Brenda was something of a role model to Brooke when she was a little girl. Well, Brooke's a lovely girl and I said of course we'd consider her."[8] Eventually, Teri told Hyman that she also had an investor who wanted to put money into the film. This was Sheik Abdul Aziz al Ibrahim, a brother-in-law of Saudi King Fahd. He offered to cover the budget for the film on three conditions:
Brooke Shields played Brenda Starr
the film had to be a first-class production made for theaters, not television
no advance distribution deal was negotiated.[8]
Hyman agreed. Ibrahim's representatives created Mystery Man Productions, a New York-based company, to finance the film.[9] Buchanan and Stone eventually were called to the offices of Mystery Man Productions. "They were not people who had ever made a movie," Buchanan said of the representatives. "They said things like, 'On page 22, you will introduce a dream sequence.' That kind of thing."[7]
Finance came through the Bank of Credit and Commerce International. The Ibrahim family was among the bank's largest depositors.[9] Mystery Man hired Robert Ellis Miller to direct, and Bob Mackie designed Shields' dresses. Delia Ephron came in to rewrite the movie. She subsequently removed her name from the film's credits, using the pseudonym "Jenny Wolkind" instead.[7][10] Mystery Man obtained limited rights to the Brenda Starr character from the Tribune Entertainment Co., owners of the comic strip, in April 1986. But the company failed to obtain television rights, something that proved crucial later.[7][11]
Production
Filming started July 1986. Shields filmed it over her summer break from Princeton, where she was studying. The film was shot in Jacksonville, Florida, and in Puerto Rico. The budget was originally $15 million.[12]
During filming, Timothy Dalton, who had the male lead, was cast as James Bond for The Living Daylights.
Initial spending on the film was from the Ibrahim cash accounts at the BCCI, but midway through the project, Ibrahim began to have second thoughts about the production costs. The film ended up being financed half cash and half in loans from the BCCI.[9][8]