Production History
According to The Hollywood Reporter in December 1978, Sellers was negotiating to direct the film himself, but the studio opted for Sidney Poitier instead. Poitier pulled out in 1979 because of delays in Sellers and Moloney delivering the script. The first draft was submitted in December 1979. Clive Donner was attached to direct at that time.
United Artists executive Steven Bach details the studio's poor reception to this draft in his book Final Cut. The deal nearly fell apart until Sellers' wife, Lynne Frederick, was brought aboard as executive producer. Studio executive, Danton Rissner, was set to produce and Sellers and Moloney completed a rewrite just days before Sellers' death in July 1980.
While Bach indicates he was pleased with the rewrite, Donner has stated he was scheduled to meet with Sellers the week after his death to discuss further rewrites. Donner's wife, designer Jocelyn Rickards, was preparing drawings for the film, which was set to shoot at Studio de Boulogne in Paris. Pamela Stephenson would have joined Sellers, Herbert Lom, Burt Kwouk, Graham Stark, André Maranne and longtime Sellers friend Max Geldray on the film.
After Sellers' death, the studio attempted to keep the project alive by bringing in Dudley Moore as Clouseau. Moore, who had been planning a Panther-style spy comedy with Blake Edwards called The Ferret, at Orion, was only interested in playing the role one time to give the series the conclusion its star intended. The studio wanted Moore to commit to a multi-picture deal and began trying to convince Edwards to come aboard to direct and rewrite the Sellers-Moloney script.
Edwards rejected the idea of using Sellers' script and instead suggested the series could be revived with a new character. The results of these negotiations were 1982's transitional film, Trail of the Pink Panther, utilizing Sellers' outtakes from 1976's The Pink Panther Strikes Again, and 1983's failed relaunch, Curse of the Pink Panther, with Ted Wass as incompetent New York police detective Sergeant Clifton Sleigh.
Romance of the Pink Panther is referenced in the 2004 biopic The Life and Death of Peter Sellers, but the film erroneously depicts the project as belonging to Blake Edwards, with Sellers uninterested in reprising his most famous role.
Read more about this topic: Romance Of The Pink Panther
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