INSANELY BRILLIANT

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest arrived in cinemas 50 years ago. MARION MCMULLEN looks at the making of the groundbreaking movie

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It won five Oscars and was one of the biggest box office hits of 1975, but One Flew Over The Cuckoo's nest was originally turned down by nearly every major studio.

Hollywood star Kirk Douglas first bought the film rights to Ken Kesey’s novel in the 1960s after reading an early galley form of the book before it was even published.

He was drawn to the free spirit of McMurphy, a disruptive yet charismatic petty criminal transferred from prison to a mental institution where he rouses up the inmates.

Kirk starred as McMurphy when he later mounted a stage version, with a cast including St Elsewhere actor William Daniels and Young Frankenstein and The Producers star Gene Wilder, hoping to rustle up some interest in turning it into a film. The production opened on Broadway on November 13, 1963 and closed after 82 performances.

Kirk's actor son Michael had made his name on the TV series The Streets Of San Francisco and discovered that his family owned the rights to One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest.

He purchased the film rights from his father and decided to produce it himself. He approached Marlon Brando and Gene Hackman to star in the movie, but they both turned it down before Jack Nicholson was eventually cast.