An American Werewolf In London A Classic Revisited...

An American Werewolf In London A Classic Revisited...

- Simon Hooper

In 1979 Margaret Thatcher swept to power and would start taking on the unions which had arguably crippled the UK throughout the 70’s and with the British film industry in the doldrums and unions keen to preserve jobs under the new government, it was ironically the actors union Equity who almost drove Universal Studios to relocate one of their productions to France and John Landis horror film was about to become ‘An American Werewolf in Paris’. At the time the film had been written specifically to be shot in London so as to take advantage of the tax breaks for the film industry and with preproduction complete the crew were getting ready to start filming in Wales which was to double for the Moors. The pivotal roles on the production, namely director John Landis, lead actor John Naughton and make up effects maestro Rick Baker had all been granted UK work permits but the British actors union Equity decided to decline a permit for Griffin Dunne who was to play the secondary male lead, instead demanding an American actor who was already a member of their union play the part. For Landis it was too late to recast as Rick Baker had spent months making casts and moulds of Dunne, but secure in the knowledge that the film was bringing much needed jobs to the UK film industry Landis played a game of brinkmanship with Equity and informed them that he was going to relocate the whole film to Paris. Equity, realising that as a union they would actually be responsible for losing jobs, relented and granted Dunne a licence.