Cancellation
The pre-production process for Man's Fate stretched three years before it reached the production stage. During this period, MGM began to experience severe financial problems. James T. Aubrey, a former production chief for the CBS television network, was hired in 1969 as the studio's new president. One of his earliest decisions was to cancel all planned films that did not show signs of commercial viability. Zinnemann’s $US 3 million version of Man's Fate was one of 12 films that Aubrey halted. The production of Man's Fate was canceled one week before filming was to begin. (The others included a big screen version of Tai-Pan by James Clavell.)
Zinnemmann would later state that his cast and crew continued working without salaries in the period between the news of the cancellation was made public and the scheduled start of filming on November 24, 1969. "I soon found that no one in the unit wanted to stop rehearsing, salary or no salary," he later recalled. "We worked for three more days until the script was fully rehearsed, scene by scene. Then, after the usual farewell party as if on the set of a real picture, everybody went home."
Read more about this topic: Man's Fate (unfinished Film)