Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

The production began with Alex Cox, who scripted it with Tod Davies. Cox fell out with producer Laila Nabulsi, the studio chose between them, Nabulsi stayed, Cox was paid off. Terry Gilliam rewrote the material with Tony Grisoni. Then came a credit fight. The Writers Guild would not drop Cox and Davies: its rule makes a writer director prove he wrote well over half the script. Gilliam objected that the book had been adapted several times before, each drawing on the same scenes. On resubmission Gilliam and Grisoni took first position on the credit, Cox and Davies second. Gilliam closed a New York book signing by leading a BBC crew outside and burning his Guild card. It was selected for competition at Cannes in 1998. The commercial side did not follow: made for 18.5 million dollars, it took 10.7 million in North America. The telling sticks to Duke’s perception: the desk clerk becoming a moray eel, the bar patrons lizards, put on screen flatly rather than flagged afterwards, so the drug state is the film’s register, not an exception. A good fit if you accept staying inside Duke’s eyes with no cut back to the real. Not for anyone waiting for the assignment to be filed or somebody to pay for it, since the film ends where it started.