Man On Fire (1987 Film) - Production

Production

The film was originally to have Tony Scott direct, but price became an issue and Elie Chouraqui replaced Scott, who would later go on to direct the 2004 version with Denzel Washington as Creasy.

The film had a French director, an Israeli producer, an Italian scriptwriter, a British cameraperson, and a cast from multiple countries. The primary actors were Americans.

Filming took place in Italy, notably Lombardy and Lazio. The screenplay underwent several revisions. It was released 9 October 1987.

At one point, when A. J. Quinnell read the film script, he inquired about a line that was different from the book's text. The writers of the script responded, "You mean, there's a book...?"

Desmond Ryan of The Philadelphia Inquirer said that the director "has invested a great deal of care in making Man on Fire visually interesting". John H. Richardson of the Los Angeles Daily News said "One thing you have to say for "Man on Fire": If they gave an Oscar for best location scouting, this film should win it. From a palazzo on Lake Como to a huge sun-lit industrial loft to a cavernous underground boat dock, this film has some of the best-looking backgrounds of the year." Caryn James of The New York Times said that the film "is so full of rain it looks like monsoon season on Lake Como, but that makes as much sense as anything else the director and co-writer Elie Chouraqui has imagined."

Ryan said that "he settings and camera-work owe much to Ridley Scott and his disciples, but Chouraqui has forgotten that what you hear matters as much as what you see." Ryan added that "he connections from scene to scene are always arbitrary and occasionally incomprehensible, giving Man on Fire the feel of a movie that was drastically edited".