romancing the stone sailboat scene

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Romancing the Stone

• Thread starter Ameribritalian
• Start date Oct 4, 2009
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Ameribritalian

Just saw the aforemention movie had seen it in the past. At the end Michael Douglas wisks away Kathleen Turner on a beautiful yacht with sails flying on a trailer down 5th ave, NYC. It's a beautiful boat, looks like a brand new Bristol (Ted Hood). Any know what the boat make actually was?  

As per Wiki answers it is a Mason 43  

Just had this Conversation the other Day at the Club Jack's boat is named Angelina and is a 43 foot Mason I understand  

Hermit Scott

what about the sailboat in lost, Elizabeth? It's a center cockpit.  

Was Columbia Still Making Boats Then? I forget when the movie was out early to mid 80s?  

The boat in Lost is Nautor's Swan 57 CC (for Central Cockpit), 57'/17.50m. Current price is generally $500,000 - $700,000 for 1995/98 modelst's a Nautor's Swan 57 CC (for Central Cockpit), 57'/17.50m. Current price is generally $500,000 - $700,000 for 1995/98 models  

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Romancing the Stone

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It may have an awkward title, but "Romancing the Stone" is a silly, high-spirited chase picture that takes us, as they say, from the canyons of Manhattan to the steaming jungles of South America. The movie's about a New York woman who writes romantic thrillers in which the hungry lips of lovers devour each other as the sun sinks over the dead bodies of their enemies. Then she gets involved in a real-life thriller, which is filled with cliff-hanging predicaments just like the ones she writes about. The writer, played by Kathleen Turner , uses her novels as a form of escape. Throbbing loins may melt together on her pages, but not in her life. Then she gets a desperate message from her sister in South America: Unless she flies to Cartagena with a treasure map showing the location of a priceless green jewel, her sister will be killed.

What follows is an adventure that will remind a lot of people of " Raiders of the Lost Ark ," but it will be a pleasant memory. After all the "Raiders" rip-offs, it's fun to find an adventure film that deserves the comparison, that has the same spirit and sense of humor. Turner lands in Colombia, and almost instantly becomes part of the plans of a whole lineup of desperadoes. There are the local police, the local thugs, the local mountain bandits, and the local hero, a guy named Jack Colton, who is played by Michael Douglas .

Movies like this work best if they have original inspirations about the ways in which the heroes can die. I rather liked the pit full of snarling alligators, for example. They also work well if the villains are colorful, desperate, and easy to tell apart. They are. Danny DeVito , from TV's 'Taxi' plays a Peter Lorre type, complete with a white tropical suit and a hat that keeps getting trampled in the mud. He's a gangster from up north, determined to follow Turner to the jewel.

There's also a suave local paramilitary hero named Zolo (Manuel Ojeda), who wears a French Foreign Legion cap and lusts after not only Turner's treasure map but all of her other treasures. And Alfonso Arau plays a rural bandito who turns out to have memorized all of Turner's thrillers.

Movies like this have a tendency to turn into a long series of scenes where the man grabs the woman by the hand and leads her away from danger at a desperate run. I always hate scenes like that. Why can't the woman run by herself? Don't they both have a better chance if the guy doesn't have to always be dragging her? What we're really seeing is leftover sexism from the days when women were portrayed as hapless victims. "Romancing the Stone" doesn't have too many scenes like that. It begins by being entirely about the woman, and although Douglas takes charge after they meet, that's basically because he knows the local territory. Their relationship is on an equal footing, and so is their love affair. We get the feeling they really care about each other, and so the romance isn't just a distraction from the action.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

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Film Credits

Romancing the Stone (1984)

105 minutes

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West End Avenue

Romancing the stone (1984).

Want to know more about West End Avenue in New York, United States as seen in Romancing the Stone starring Michael Douglas, Kathleen Turner and Danny DeVito? Just start scrolling.

** spoiler alert ** Jack Colton waits for Joan Wilder on his boat in the middle of Manhattan.

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Eleventh avenue is known as West End Avenue between 59th and 107th Streets. Both West End Avenue and Eleventh Avenue are considered to be part of the same road. The opening scene in the Will Smith movie 'Hitch', takes place with Smith exiting an 865 West End Avenue apartment building.

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boat, street

Michael Douglas, Kathleen Turner

Though she can spin wild tales of passionate romance, novelist Joan Wilder has no life of her own. Then one day adventure comes her way in the form of a mysterious package. It turns out that the parcel is the ransom she'll need to free her abducted sister, so Joan flies to South America to hand it over. But she gets on the wrong bus and winds up hopelessly stranded in the jungle.

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1984 Soundtrack – Romancing The Stone

Alan Silvestri , Alex Acuna , Bill Reichenbach , Chuck Findley , Gary Grant , Gary Herbig , Jerry Hey , Joe Porcaro , Mike Lang , Neil Stubenhaus , Randy Waldman

1  Logo (Alan Silvestri) 00:28 2  How The West Was Won (Alfred Newman; Ken Darby) 01:41 3  Main Title (Alan Silvestri) 02:34 4  Elaine (Alan Silvestri) 02:14 5  I’m In Trouble (Alan Silvestri) 01:48 6  Bus Ride (Alan Silvestri) 00:44 7  Jack And Joan (Alan Silvestri) 01:06 8  The Gorge (Alan Silvestri) 04:54 9  The Body (Alan Silvestri) 00:49 10  Ransacked Apartment / Zolo (Alan Silvestri) 02:03 11  Bronco Chase (Alan Silvestri) 02:18 12  The Ride (Alan Silvestri) 02:04 13  Senile Samba (Alan Silvestri) 02:29 14  The Dance / They Kiss (Alan Silvestri) 04:55 15  Hotel Escape (Alan Silvestri) 02:01 16  The Stone Revealed (Alan Silvestri) 01:19 17  Mounties! (Alan Silvestri) 02:20 18  The Square (Alan Silvestri) 01:47 19  Over Here / You And Your Sister * (Alan Silvestri) 01:16 20  Tregula (Alan Silvestri) 01:32 21  Struggling For The Stone (Alan Silvestri) 06:03 22  So Long Jack (Alan Silvestri) 01:10 23  The Sailboat (Alan Silvestri) 01:22 24  End Titles (Alan Silvestri) 06:00 25  Piano Bar (Source) (Alan Silvestri) 04:55 26  The Dance (Discrete Cue) (Alan Silvestri) 03:39 27  They Kiss (Discrete Cue) (Alan Silvestri) 02:57 28  End Titles (Alternate) (Alan Silvestri) 05:59

Bass – Arni Egilsson, Milton Kestenbaum, Neil Stubenhaus , Peter Mercurio, Ray Siegel, Richard Feves, Robert Stone, Scott Harper Cello – Armen Ksajikian, Barbara Hunter, Christina Soule, Earl Madison, Eleanor Slatkin, Frederick Seykora, Miguel Martinez, Nancy Stein, Nils Oliver, Raphael Kramer, Raymond Kelly, Rebecca Reese Harp – Ann Stockton, Dorothy Remsen Viola – Alan DeVeritch, Allan Harshman, David Schwartz, Janet Lakatos, Kenneth Burward-Hoy, Myer Bello, Myra Kestenbaum, Pamela Goldsmith, Virginia Majewski Violin – Alfred Breuning, Anatol Kaminsky, Assa Drori, Bernard Kundell, Bonnie Douglas, Dan Turner, Daniel Shindaryov, David Frisina, Debbie Grossman, Dixie Blackstone, Donald Palmer, Dorothy Wade, Haim Shtrum, Harold Wolf, Harris Goldman, Herman Clebanoff, Irma Neumann, Israel Baker, Jack Pepper, Joseph Shoenbrun, Karen Jones, Marshall Sosson, Nathan Kaproff, Oscar Chausow, Patricia Aiken, Paul Shure, Peter Kent, Stuart Canin, Wilbert Nuttycomb

Liner Notes

Producer – Michael Matessino, Nick Redman Producer (Assistant) – Frank K. DeWald Producer (Executive) – MV Gerhard, Matt Verboys Conductor – Alan Silvestri Contractor – Meyer Mike Rubin Edited By – Neil S. Bulk Editor – Tom Carlin Editor (Assistant) – Kathleen Bennett Engineer (Recording) – Ben Rogers Mastered By – Dan Hersch Mixed By – Mike Matessino, Dennis Sands Orchestrated By – James Campbell

Art Direction – Jim Titus Artwork – John Solie

Mastered At D2 Mastering Recorded At Group IV Recording Studios Phonographic Copyright Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation Copyright Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation

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Romancing the Stone

Jack Colton: Wait a minute, he's after you? Who the hell are you? Joan Wilder: Well, I'm a romance novelist. Jack Colton: You're what? What are you doing here? Joan Wilder: I told you, my sister's life depends on me. Jack Colton: Ah, don't give me that shit. I thought you were donating a kidney or something.

An Affectionate Parody of romantic adventures that also qualifies as an example of the genre, this 1984 film was directed by Robert Zemeckis and stars Kathleen Turner , Michael Douglas , and Danny DeVito .

Joan Wilder (Turner) is a successful New York City-based author of mass-market romance novels, with a long-running series centering around the heroine Angelina and her love interest Jesse. Unfortunately, success in Joan's career has not translated into success in her love life. Even her publisher chides her on her unrealistic expectations, and accuses her of waiting around for a Jesse of her own.

Her life changes when a mysterious package arrives in her mail. The return address lists her brother-in-law, who was recently found hacked into little pieces in Colombia. Joan then receives a phone call from her sister, who's being held hostage. Her kidnappers are looking for a very specific map, one that used to belong to her husband. Opening the package, Joan finds the map's now in her possession, and the kidnappers will kill her sister unless she travels to Colombia and delivers it to them in person.

Unfortunately, Joan's knowledge of the locale is limited, to say the least. She starts her adventure by boarding the wrong bus on the advice of a not-so-friendly local. It turns out, the kidnappers aren't the only ones interested in her treasure map. Her troubles worsen when her bus crashes, thrusting her right into the path of a mysterious stranger named Jack T. Colton (Douglas), who – unbeknownst to Joan – is actually the man of her dreams.

Adventure ensues.

The first commercially successful film in the Robert Zemeckis canon. Diane Thomas, the movie's screenwriter, was famously discovered by Michael Douglas working as a waitress. After Stone she seemed on the verge of a great career, before dying tragically in a car accident just a year later. Thus this became the only film she ever wrote . There's now a screenwriting award named in her honor.

A sequel called The Jewel of the Nile was released the following year. Zemeckis was not involved, as he was busy at the time with a little film called Back to the Future , nor was Thomas, although she was still living when it went into production (she's one of the people the movie's dedicated to). Turner, Douglas, and DeVito all returned, however.

The trio actually had the option to do a third Romancing film, but they opted to do The War of the Roses instead.

This film provides examples of:

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     Romancing the Stone  

• Action Survivor : Joan Wilder is a classic case. Starting out as a romance novelist who barely leaves her dowdy apartment, she ventures off to aid her sister and becomes . . . a romance novelist who lives her plot lines.
• Jack Colton. Actually he's more like "adventurer".
• Though Joan's brother in law was one such without the luck Indiana Jones has.
• Adrenaline Makeover : Joan Wilder is a mousy, reclusive romance novelist. But when she gets in over her head in Colombia, Jack T. Colton is there to help her out — for a price. Along the way, after he chops the heels off her shoes and tosses her suitcase full of sensible business suits into the jungle, they ride a mudslide, swing on vines, and do the sort of things she writes about in her novels. By the midpoint of the movie, her hair is down and she's dip-dancing in Jack's arms. By the end of the movie, she's no longer mousy or reclusive. By the sequel, Joan's backslid a little and goes through the transformation a second time.
• Affably Evil : Ira, unlike Zolo, who is Faux Affably Evil .
• Affectionate Parody : Of action-adventure pulp serial movies.
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking - From the opening scene: That was the end of Grogan... the man who killed my father, raped and murdered my sister, burned my ranch, shot my dog, and stole my Bible!
• Artistic License – Geography : The are no rivers in the Córdoba department that drain into the Amazon, the nearest tributary of the Amazon River is over 500 kilometers away.
• A-Team Firing : in a movie full of people shooting at each other with handguns, shotguns, rifles, assault rifles, and even bona fide machineguns, only one extra ever gets hit by a bullet. There's a few more deaths but they either involve knives or crocodiles .
• At Least I Admit It : Ralph, when accusing Jack of being a thief. But at least I'm honest. I'm not trying to romance it out from under her.
• Battle Bolas : Joan's sister Elaine is intentionally incapacitated by bolas thrown by an apparently playing child. The boy then abducts Elaine, recklessly driving her red Shelby Cobra away, setting the plot in motion.
• Big Bad Ensemble : Ira and Ralph and Zolo both want the Stone, but are totally separate factions and bitter enemies.
• Bilingual Bonus : Ralph calls his cousin Ira "maricon", which is Spanish slur roughly translated as "faggot."
• Blatant Lies : Ira's promises that he would never hurt Ralph because "they're the same person" and "I'd never hurt me!" , and especially his promise at the end to send the boat back "very soon". It's no wonder Ralph turns on him .
• Bottomless Magazines : On several occasions, Jack fires many, many more rounds than his shotgun can actually hold without reloading. Subverted at the end when Jack has Zolo in his sights, and hears the dreaded click when he pulls the trigger.
• Bridal Carry : Jesse picks up Angelina like this in the opening (and, hilariously, smoothly mounts a horse with her in his arms).

• Bumbling Sidekick : Ralph would be a Butt-Monkey if he weren't so contemptible as to deserve almost everything that happens to him.
• The Butcher : Zolo, as described verbatim by Ira.
• Call-Back : At the beginning of the film, the villain of the book Joan is writing tells the heroine, "You can die two ways: quick like the tongue of a snake, or slower than molasses in January." During the film's climax, Zolo poses a similar question: "How will you die, Joan Wilder ? Slow, like... a snail? Or fast, like a shooting star?"
• Cat Scare : When Joan returns to her apartment and finds it vandalized , her pet cat Romeo startles her by jumping out at her
• Catchphrase : Ira's "Look at those snappers!"
• Chastity Dagger : The Fake-Out Opening ends with Angelina killing her would-be rapist with a hidden knife. And Joan resorts to a Chastity Switchblade before it's all over.
• Chekhov's Gun : When Joan is getting ready to rush off to Colombia, her publisher Gloria mentions, amongst a list of terrible traits to be found amongst the locals, that there are a lot of "macho men" there who love her books . Later, what looks like a tense gunpoint scene turns into a chance to procure a valuable ally, just because it turns out that Juan the drug-runner is Joan's biggest fan , and reads her novels to his mooks , who are fans too .
• Cloudcuckoolander : Ira (Look at those snappers!) to a degree, but most definitely Juan, the drug-runner and Joan's Biggest Fan .
• Colonel Kilgore : Colonel Zolo, Deputy Commander of the Secret Police , who is implied to be associated with FARC, a leftist paramilitary group who waged guerrilla warfare against the Colombian government from 1964 to 2017.
• Contrived Coincidence : All over the place. The package with the map is too big to fit in the mailbox, so Joan's neighbor gives it to her as she's on her way out to meet her publisher; thus it isn't there when her apartment gets ransacked. When Zolo misdirects Joan into getting on the wrong bus, it happens to take her into the heart of the province where the map says El Corazon is hidden. And of course, Jack's jeep happening to be parked in the middle of the road, causing the bus to crash when Joan distracted the driver and keeping Zolo from kidnapping her.
• Cruel and Unusual Death : Zolo is eaten alive by Ira's crocodiles.
• Deadpan Snarker : Jack Colton.
• Deconstruction : Of the Lovable Rogue (among other archetypes). Joan fantasizes about rugged, rough and tumble men of adventure, and then she actually meets a real one - Jack T. Colton - and finds that the real thing isn't all that easy to deal with.
• Deconstructive Parody : Of the Indiana Jones-esque pulp serial/ Adventurer Archaeologist movies, although clearly one made with a lot of love. Joan discovers that the swashbuckling adventure heroes she writes about in her books are great if you're the hero, not quite as much fun if you're the hapless sidekick/ Damsel in Distress swept along for the ride. Moreover, Jack lives a hard, lonely, and dangerous life, without much capacity to relax or enjoy the comforts that Joan is accustomed to.
• Determined Homesteader : Angelina draws liberally from the archetype.
• Died in Your Arms Tonight : Lampshaded by Jack on how he killed the crocodile. Joan murmurs she doesn't blame the croc at all.
• Disc-One Final Boss : The movie is initially set up with it looking like Ira and Ralph are the main villains due to the kidnapping and ransom plot. Zolo's first appearance is in fact a Red Herring in this regard, since it takes place just before Joan receives the critical phone call—thus suggesting he was sent by them to find the map, and only after he failed to recover it did they call to set up the ransom demand. It isn't until Zolo's real identity is revealed that the viewer realizes who the true Big Bad is, though perhaps the buffoonish nature of Ralph and Ira might have tipped them off sooner.
• After obtaining the map, just when it seems he will pull a You Said You Would Let Them Go on Joan and Elaine, Ira...actually does release them. Then, just when it seems they've gotten away scot-free, gunshots suddenly ring out. It appears that Jack has come to rescue them ...only to have it revealed he's been captured by the Big Bad .
• Another, minor example is the expectation Joan and Jack both seem to have that no one in Colombia speaks English or has access to modern technology. With Joan, being the Naïve Newcomer and Fish out of Water that she is, it is understandable, but Jack has been living there over a year and a half and should know how frequently English is spoken—if not by a random drug runner, then at least by the staff of a hotel which has to deal with foreign tourists.
• And one more: the villagers tell Joan and Jack that Juan has a car. When they have managed to befriend him and ask about it, Juan laughs it off, telling them the villagers were pulling their leg, and that "they must have meant my little mule, Pepe". Cue incredulous looks from the heroes... followed by The Reveal that indeed Pepe is no car .
• Dramatic Thunder : During the confrontation at the fort.
• The Dreaded : The character of Colonel Zolo is truly scary and other characters explain just how bad he is.
• Kidnapper Ira really doesn't like Zolo. Elaine: The man who killed my husband? Ira: The Butcher who killed your husband. A very powerful man with his own private army to back him up. And whether he calls himself "Dr. Zolo, Minister of Antiquities", or "Colonel Zolo, Deputy Commander of the Secret Police ", he's still just a butcher .
• Ralph is also blatantly uncomfortable with Ira’s kidnapping plot, and is genuinely disgusted by Jack trying to con Joan into giving him El Corazon. However, when Zolo's hand is bitten off, the look on his face is pure delight .
• Evil Versus Evil : The finale, where Joan's exchange with Ira is ambushed by General Zolo, who in turn was led there by capturing first Ralph , then Jack . Made literal when Ira's men shoot it out with Zolo's as a means to cover Ira's escape .
• Fake-Out Opening : As if being an Affectionate Parody of Adventurer Archaeologist movies wasn't enough, it opens with one of a romance novel set in The Wild West , complete with Joan's hammy narration.
• Fanservice : The sex scene, which doesn't show off too much of either of them, but as much as possible without losing the PG rating. You can also see Kathleen Turner's nipple at one point.
• Foreshadowing : Joan's publisher Gloria warns her against going to Colombia, saying "Do you have any idea what it's like in Colombia? I do. Your books do very well in these macho countries." Drug lord Juan loves reading her books to his rugged henchmen on Saturday nights.
• Fourth-Date Marriage : Averted. They don't get married until the sequel.
• Then again, he eventually finds and kills said crocodile and retrieves the stone after the fact anyway.
• Fun with Foreign Languages : When Zolo asks Ralph if they've met, Ralph says 'no comprendo'. Zolo asks if he's an American (since when he met Ralph earlier, he was speaking in an American accent). Ralph hastily says in badly broken Spanish, and that he isn't an American, he hates them. Ralph: I hate Americano! I spit on 'em! Ptui! American scum-o! Scum-o! Zolo: Etes-vous Francais? (Are you French?)
• Genre Savvy : When Jack finds nothing but a kid's porcelain bunny at the end of the map and laments all their trouble in search of The Stone, Joan points out that in one of her books, she hid the treasure inside a statue. Guess where The Stone turned up.
• Gorn : Zolo's hand being bitten off by a crocodile is surprisingly bloody.
• Gory Discretion Shot : Zolo being devoured by Ira's pet crocodiles is kept mercifully offscreen.
• Groin Attack : Ouch, poor Jack. Talk about the family jewels
• High Heel Hurt : Joan is trying to hike through the jungle in high heels and keeps falling. Jack grabs them and chops the heels off using a machete. She says, "Those were Italian." He says, "Well, now they're practical."
• Horseback Heroism : Jesse, in the opening scene
• Hostage for MacGuffin : Ira and Ralph's plan vis-a-vis Elaine and the map.
• Done twice, first in an excerpt from one of Joan Wilder's novels and played for comedy: Grogan : You can die two ways: quick like the tongue of a snake, or slower than the molasses in January. Joan, narrating : But it was October. Grogan : I'll kill you, goddammit, if it's the Fourth of July!
• Near the end of the movie proper, Zolo echoes the previous scene, much less humorously: "How will you die, Joan Wilder? Slow, like... a snail? Or fast, like a shooting star?"
• I Call Her "Vera" : An automotive variety, as Juan denies having a car, just a "little mule" named "Pepe". "Pepe" is a custom four-wheel drive bulletproof (and fireproof!) Ford Bronco.
• I Should Write a Book About This
• I Wrote Our Story : Near the end, it's revealed Joan's latest romance novel was based on the events of the film, albeit she included a happy ending before she actually got one.
• I'm Your Biggest Fan : Juan is a huge fan of Joan's books.
• Improbable Aiming Skills : Jesse. Of course, being an In-Universe Marty Stu , it's a given.
• Inevitable Waterfall : After Joan and Jack are racing away from Zolo and his goons in Ralph's car, she decides to reproduce Juan's "Lupe's Escape" ramp jump over the river. But since there isn't a ramp, they end up in the river...and carried downstream until they go over the waterfall, forcing them to jump out of the car to make it through unscathed. Since they end up separated on opposite sides of the river, she with the map and he with the stone, this ups the stakes for the climactic face-off/hostage exchange, making this actually a significant plot point. To further keep the waterfall from seeming like a random danger, it's actually one of the landmarks on the map (and behind which the stone was hidden).
• Intoxication Ensues : Well, when all you have to burn for warmth is kilos and kilos of marijuana, you gotta do what you gotta do. Jack : [ leans back out of a cloud of smoke with a goofy smile on his face ] Yeaaah, that's what I call a campfire .
• Mondo dismal , which Joan and her publisher call men who take advantage of women.
• Juan is half-offended when Joan and Jack say he heard he has a car. No, he has his "little mule", Pepe. Pepe being a tricked-out four-wheel drive Ford Bronco — which is definitely not a car.
• Irony : Jack and Joan take refuge in a crashed drug-smuggling plane, with the pilot a skeleton (wearing sunglasses!) still half-hanging out the window. When they move inside, you can see he's wearing a jacket bearing the logo of The Grateful Dead .
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold : Jack T. Colton and Juan.
• Jungles Sound Like Kookaburras : Kookaburra sounds can be heard in the segments that are set in the Colombian jungle.
• Just Desserts : Zolo's hand is bitten off by a crocodile, and then he drops into a pit of them.
• Karma Houdini : Ira escapes just as the police arrives on the scene, ditching Ralph in the process.
• Karmic Death : Averted. We're led to believe that it's gonna be the villain who always plays with his crocodiles, but it's actually Zolo who gets eaten by them .
• Knight of Cerebus : Zolo. When he's around there's always a sense of threat and fear, particularly where Ira speaks about 'im.
• Latin Land : The story takes place in Colombia.
• Angelina in the opening sequence, which also conceal a dagger.
• Jack takes a few chances to ogle Joan's legs in the jungle.
• MacGuffin : The eponymous stone. Also, the map.
• MacGuffin Title : Romancing the Stone .
• Meaningful Name : At the end of the film, Jack names his newly-purchased boat Angelina , after Joan's fictional heroine.
• "Metaphor" Is My Middle Name : When Joan asks what the T stands for in Jack T. Colton, Jack replies seriously, "Trustworthy."
• Mineral MacGuffin : El Corazon ("The Heart"), an enormous emerald.
• Mixed Metaphor : Joan turns Grogan's metaphors into this. He says he's gonna either kill her 'quick like the tongue of a snake, or slower than the molasses in January.' 'But it was October', she protests. Grogan: I'd kill ya if it was the Fourth of July!
• Modesty Towel : Joan Wilder emerges from the shower with a towel around her.
• Most Writers Are Writers : By a female writer about a female author.
• Mr. Exposition : Ira, with Elaine being an audience stand-in, spells out just how evil Zolo is, as described above in Even Evil Has Standards .
• Ms. Fanservice : Angelina in the opening, played by Playmate Kymberly Herrin.
• Mysterious Middle Initial : Jack gives his name as "Jack T. Colton." While berating him, Joan says (among other things) that "a real man is trustworthy." Later, when she asks what the "T" stands for, he says, "Trustworthy." But we never find out what the "T" really stands for.
• El Corazon is temporarily lost when a crocodile swallows it along with Zolo's hand. Jack Colton gives chase after it, and returns in the final scene with boots made from crocodile-hide.
• Ira also keeps a pit full of crocodiles that he’s weirdly fascinated with, and feeds them steaks and other meats. Zolo later has the misfortune of dropping into said pit, and gets torn apart.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed : It's implied Zolo and his private Colombian army are part of the real-life Colombian guerrilla terrorist group FARC, especially based on their uniforms.
• Noble Demon : Ira.
• Not in This for Your Revolution : Jack joins up with Joan to try to get El Corazon from her, but love and helping her save her sister turns out to be more important than the money...well, mostly.
• Not Me This Time : Invoked by Jack: "Why the hell is the army after me? I haven't done anything...lately!"
• Novelization : Both films had novelizations based on them. They were ghostwritten and, as a nod to the films, their author is listed as "Joan Wilder." Their covers are even done to resemble harlequin romance novels instead of standard movie adaptations.
• Jack gets a good one (both verbal and expression-wise) just after Joan falls down the mudslide, and just before he gets sucked down after her.
• When The Stone is revealed - a gigantic emerald - Jack mutters, "We're in a lot of trouble." Ralph: ( *Click* Hello ) Understatement of the year, asshole.
• One-Film Screenwriter : Diane Thomas, because she died before she could write anything else.
• Only a Flesh Wound : Zolo is so damn tough that he manages to light a cigar and take a few puffs after a crocodile bites his hand off; in effect, he's taking a smoke break while bleeding to death.
• Only in It for the Money : Initially, Jack doesn't have any motivation for getting Joan to her sister besides the money she promised him. Joan: Is nothing that I own sacred to you? Jack: Only your $375.
• Pragmatic Hero : Jack's main hat, which crosses over with Good Is Not Nice . Joan initially hates him for it, but soon comes to really appreciate it. (Jack chops off the heels of Joan's shoes.) Joan: (sighing) These were Italian. Jack: (unmoved) Now they're practical.
• Pragmatic Villainy : Ira. He is perfectly willing to kill if he doesn't get what he wants, but if you play by his rules, he is actually fairly Affably Evil and keeps the promises he makes, and has an extreme distaste for people who are pointlessly cruel for no reason. Bad for business, you see. He also has no qualms abandoning his own brother to the police to take the entire fall.
• Ramp Jump : Lupe's Escape.
• Ransacked Room : The "trash the place" method is used on Joan's apartment near the beginning of the movie. It's all the more shocking to Joan to see her apartment destroyed since at this point she doesn't even know that she has the map yet, let alone that there are bad guys looking for it.
• Rasputinian Death : Zolo gets the kind of send-off a butcher like him deserves. He gets his hand bitten off by a crocodile, face burned with his own cigar, beaten with a wooden slat, set on fire when he falls on a gas lantern, and finally devoured by MORE crocodiles.

• Reality Has No Subtitles : The original theatrical cut and HBO exhibition of the film had English subtitles for the Spanish dialog. Subsequent versions have ditched the subtitles, which invoke this trope.
• Riddle for the Ages : Who hid the Stone in the bunny statue?
• Right-Handed Left-Handed Guns : The right-handed Jack Colton wields a left -handed Remington 870 Wingmaster shotgun for some reason.
• Road Trip Romance : Jack and Joan engage in the kind that happens in Joan's novels.
• Rope Bridge : An aged trestle, actually. Jack was apparently being hyperbolic.
• Everyone seems to have photocopiers, no matter how remote in the Colombian wilderness.
• Whenever he's outgunned, Jack mutters to himself "I should have listened to my mother" (who apparently wanted him to be a cosmetic surgeon).
• Also, random people in the movie (including Ralph) are shown reading Joan's novels.
• Shameful Strip : Grogan orders Angelina to take her skirt off in the opening scene, with an implied threat of rape .
• Shaped Like Itself : Hotel Cartagena, in Cartagena, which is to imply it's a one horse town. note  It's a metropolis.
• Skeleton Crew : The crashed drug-smuggling plane in the Colombian jungle has the mummified corpses of two pilots still in their seats—one even acts as the Peek-a-Boo Corpse . Jack and Joan find refuge from the rain in the fuselage and raid the pilots' personal belongings for food and drink.
• Stab the Salad : A slight variation, since no prop is involved. After bringing Ira the map he wanted in exchange for her kidnapped sister, Joan Wilder has nothing of value left to keep said villain from eliminating her. With the music playing menacingly, Ira growls "Joan Wilder ... you and your sister........ (cheerfully, as the music stops) can go!"
• Stab the Scorpion : Jack and Joan are waiting out a rainstorm in the wreckage of an old plane. He whips out his machete and cuts the head off of a very long snake that was right behind Joan. Then he cooks it for them. Jack: Goddamn bushmaster.
• Standard Snippet : The main theme to How the West Was Won is used, uncredited, during the Fakeout Opening , presumably as a stand-in for "epic exciting Western". The fact Joan is shown wearing headphones when she finishes writing the scene suggests this is actually a case of Left the Background Music On .
• Suggestive Collision : Jack and Joan tumble down a muddy incline together, landing in a shallow pool... with his head between her legs.
• Title Drop : Almost. Ralph says, "At least I'm honest - I'm stealing this stone. I ain't tryin' to romance it out from under her!"
• Throwing Your Sword Always Works : Both played straight and subverted. Played straight in the Fake-Out Opening when Angelina throws the knife strapped to her thigh to kill Grogan. Subverted when Joan tries to pull the same trick on Zolo. He blocks it with the broken board he's using to attack her with, and then tries to kill her with that instead.
• Took a Level in Badass : Joan . She starts out the movie as a mousey, cringing Damsel in Distress , but by the end of it she's throwing switchblades, burning Zolo with his own cigar, bashing him with a broken board right in his handless stump, knocking him onto a lantern , and dodging so that he falls into a pit of crocodiles . How far she's come is first hinted at during the start of hostilities at the fort: when the guns start going off, Elaine (who Joan had initially thought was the stronger sister) screams and cowers on her knees, but Joan doesn't even bat an eye, simply helping her up and dragging her off to safety elsewhere. Later, when Joan's knife gambit doesn't work, Elaine faints. note  Then again, Elaine got a piece of her husband from Zolo, and had been a hostage for days, so her mental health probably wasn't at its best.
• Trashcan Bonfire : There's one at the abandoned fort where Ira tells Joan to come to make the exchange of the map for her sister. It's genuinely creepy.
• Treasure Map : Played straight, thanks to the genre. Joan Wilder is sent a treasure map by her sister for safekeeping. But then the sister is kidnapped and Joan is forced to travel to South America to deliver the map. Inevitably, she and Jack Colton end up following the map themselves. The landmarks on the map are labeled in Spanish (but Jack can read it), and thanks to a couple of Contrived Coincidences (the bus Zolo directs Joan to going into Cordoba, the escape from him and his men leaving the pair right near the pitchfork-shaped tree Tenedor del Diablo) they end up in just the right place to follow the map. In a unique twist, the final hiding place for the Stone is revealed by folding the map so that a drawing of a woman with long hair becomes the waterfall it's behind.
• Vile Villain, Saccharine Show : Not Ralph and Ira who are too buffoonish and incompetent to count, but the sadistic and cruel Zolo is too serious and frightening for an 80's family movie.
• Villainous Breakdown : Zolo completely loses it after a crocodile bites his hand off, and chases after Joan and Elaine trying to murder them.
• Wasn't That Fun? : When Jack faceplanted between Joan's legs after a mudslide. Of course, he was talking about the mudslide, not the faceplant. Probably.
• You Said You Would Let Them Go : Subverted. Ira promises to release Joan's sister if he gets the map. When he gets the map, he says, threateningly, "You... and your sister..." and trails off menacingly, making the audience (and Joan!) think he's going to villainously renege on his promise, only to suddenly turn friendly, smile, and add, "...can go!"
• And I'm the Queen of Sheba : Ralph : Come on, Colton! Where's the Jewel? Al-Juhara : Ralph, I am the Jewel. The Jewel of the Nile. Ralph : Yeah, and I'm a kumquat from Queens!
• And Then What? : Joan's run up against this question at the start. Now that she's actually met, romanced, and sailed off into the sunset with the handsome hero, what comes next? This naturally gives her Writer's Block , so the movie begins with Joan pitching her typewriter overboard after she's unable to resolve a Cliffhanger in her latest novel.
• Artistic License – Religion : The film was excoriated by several critics (Professor Jack Shaheen listed it among the "Worst" films in his documentary Reel Bad Arabs ) for, among several other reasons, misleading audiences into believing that Islam is centered around worship of a "holy man", instead of the same deity as Judaism and Christianity.
• Big Bad : Omar is the Obviously Evil main antagonist who invites Joan to join him and write a biography about him.
• Big Good : The Jewel is this. The titular Jewel of the Nile is not actually a gemstone this time, it is actually The religious title of a person His actual name is Al-Juhara.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer : A quirky inoffensive man with glases and an umbrella is the most dangerous man (to Omar) in Kadir.
• Cat Scare : Joan is taking photographs of The Big Board showing Omar's plans of conquest, with the flash from her camera showing through the windows. There's a camera shot to make it look like someone is about to walk in on her...when a hideous scream breaks out as Omar comes rushing across the courtyard below to dunk his hand in the fountain because it caught fire.
• Comically Serious : Al-Juhara is The Stoic Nice Guy . When Ralph is hanging by his feet, Al-Juhara sighs, "Ralph, this is not the Sufi way." Ralph: What can I say, Jewels? They drive me crazy.
• Commitment Issues : Jack is too free-spirited to marry Joan. He soon gets his priorities straight.
• Deadly Dust Storm : The group encounters a sandstorm as they escape from the city. Luckily, they're driving an F-16 with its wings clipped and they make it through using the afterburner. (Although Jack says "It'll save us or kill us.")
• Death by Adaptation : In the Novelization , Rachid gets killed falling down the big hole Joan and Jack are hanging over, in contrast to him just humorously having his eyebrows and some of his hair singed off by Ralph's fire-breathing trick in the film.
• Death Trap : The villain puts our heroes in one, then describes how it works in lingering detail. Jack asks what kind of depraved mind comes up with such a monstrosity. Joan diffidently informs him it's from one of her novels.
• Deconstruction : Jewel of the Nile is a deconstruction of Happily Ever After . What does happen after the heroes ride off into the sunset ?
• The Dragon : Rachid is this to African dictator Omar.
• Expy : Omar Khalifa is stated to be the setting's equivalent of Saddam Hussein and based on him. However, he's the dictator of a country called Kadir which is close enough to the Nile that tribal people call their spiritual leader its Jewel. In effect, making Kadir probably a stand-in for Libya and Omar a Composite Character of Saddam Hussein and Quadaffi.
• God Guise : Omar intends to fake the Jewel's miracles to unite the tribes behind him for his war of conquest.
• Good Shepherd : The Jewel of the Nile is depicted as this. He's also extremely liberal for his time and place given he has no difficulties with Joan Wilder as an unmarried Western woman in a relationship with Jack (as well as encourages her to marry him).
• Groin Attack : The Nubian warrior grabs Jack by a very sensitive part of his body.
• Ralph intends to keep The Jewel for himself and joins the Sufis out of pragmatism, but by the end, he's gained some moral compass and embraces being on the side of the heroes.
• At the end, some of Omar's guards are seen celebrating the eponymous Jewel's return. A number of them even dance hand in hand with the Sufis.
• Hoist by His Own Petard : Omar ruins his chances of taking over the country by inviting Joan to be his novelist.
• Leave No Witnesses : Omar bombs Jack's boat for this reason. The only reason Jack wasn't on it was because Ralph turns up on the dock looking for revenge, so Jack was stopped from getting on board. As Jack is still sore about Joan running off with Omar, he's more interested in getting payback for his lost boat than saving her, at least at first.
• Lighter and Softer : Jewel is nowhere near as intense as Stone , and has no gore.
• Obviously Evil : Omar is a Downplayed Trope version of this as he's known to be an evil dictator in-universe but charms Joan by appealing to her vanity. Even so, he keeps a torture chamber in his palace where the screams can be heard. Joan: What was that? Omar: Cats.
• The Jewel, himself, plays with this as he destroys the wall of the prison Joan and he are kept in. Joan: It's a miracle. Al-Juhara: Dry rot.
• Meaningful Name : Al-Juhara means "Gift of God" and he's implied to be a miracle worker. It's also appropriate given he's the Jewel of the Nile as his title.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain : Omar fires a rocket launcher at our heroes, causing a rockfall that traps all his vehicles.
• Qurac : Kadir is a military dictatorship desert kingdom with a Muslim majority tribal population.
• Red Herring : When encountering Nubians, Al-Juhara mutters he was hoping to avoid them. No, not because they're violent, but because they'd overly delay his getting to Kadir.
• Say My Name : Omar has a tendency to call out "Rachid!" whenever embarking on some task, even when Rachid is standing right next to him.
• Shipper on Deck : Al-Juhara recognizes that Jack and Joan have a connection, and pushes them together. When Joan impulsively joins the Nubian dance, he questions Jack on his Commitment Issues , giving Jack an epiphany that, yes, he does love Joan.
• Took a Level in Jerkass : Jack has a case of this as he's been overdoing the partying and sailing to the point Joan has become bored. Jack doesn't take this very well.
• Unconventional Vehicle Chase : One of the chase scenes of this film involves Jack, Joan and Al-Juhara trying to escape Omar's forces in an F-16 "Fighting Falcon" (that Jack tore the wings off with his crazy driving), culminating with Jack firing up the jet's afterburner to try to lose Omar's forces in a sand storm.
• Visionary Villain : Omar intends to fake supernatural powers from God in order to create an army to invade his neighboring nations as part of a larger plot to unite the Arab world. He also intends to redeem his publicity problem by getting Joan Wilder, a famous romance novelist, to write a puff piece on him.
• Omar won't risk killing Al-Juhara because he's superstitious himself, though not enough to stop him from impersonating a holy man.
• Jack demands this when Omar puts him and Joan in a sadistic Death Trap , only to eat his words when it turns out Omar is just cribbing from a Joan Wilder novel.

Alternative Title(s): The Jewel Of The Nile

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“Romancing the Stone” from Cartagena 8

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When I told people at home that I was going down to Colombia to write for a few months this fall, there were a few common responses: Why Colombia? When are you going to get a real job again? Isn´t it dangerous there? And most often from the non-disbelieving, where in Colombia?

I wasn´t really sure at the time, but I thought Cartagena sounded like a good idea. On the Caribbean. Warm. There is something about the vibe in coastal towns that I like, though I´m not really one to lay around on the beach or even get in the water that much. So that was the answer I usually gave to my friends.

Romancing the Stone…. in Cartagena

What I didn´t remember at all was that Cartagena was the city where the adventure started in that classic 1980s movie, Romancing the Stone . At least a half a dozen people reminded me of that before I got here and shortly after, so one night at my hotel, I downloaded it from the internet (let´s assume I did that legally) and watched it. Here is my 2010 review of this 1984 flick, that unfortunately I first saw in high school, way too damn long ago.

The tag line for Romancing the Stone on IMDB – the movie database is “A romance writer sets off to Colombia to ransom her kidnapped sister, and soon finds herself in the middle of a dangerous adventure.” It was one of the first action/romance films of that era and there were a number of firsts, or close to firsts, that struck me when I did a little digging.

• Robert Zemeckis was the director. It was only his second directorial effort , the first being the awful Used Cars in 1980, which probably explains why it took him four years to get another job. But he followed up Romancing the Stone with Back to the Future (1985), Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988), and Back to the Future, Part II (1989) and Part III (1990), helping to provide more proof of the axiom that the third movie in almost every series should be erased from everyone´s memory. He went on to later do Forest Gump , Castaway and Contact . This movie was basically the start of his successful career.

• He wasn´t the only one. It was Danny DeVito´s second movie , after his run on television with Taxi, as Louie De Palma (speaking of things I need to download). I say his second movie – there actually were some credits from movies before this one, but I think it is safe to say that he would appreciate everyone forgetting those existed. Not a list of must-sees.

Kathleen Turner, circa 1985

• Which brings us to our two stars. Kathleen Turner had been in Body Heat (1980) and The Man with Two Brains (1983) before this movie, and this movie helped catapult her into a fairly respectable movie star during the 80s, before she completely crapped out in 1990 as a sex symbol. Her roles since then have been completely forgettable, save for a recurring role on Friends and more recently on Californication, where she basically cashed paychecks on the premise of poking fun at her long, long extinguished sex appeal. More on that in a bit.

• Michael Douglas had a long career before Romancing the Stone – if you can believe it, his first credited role was in 1969. He had a good run on The Streets of San Franciso (with remake fever in Hollywood, this has to be on some producer´s desk right now), but his only movie role of note before this one was in the incredibly good The China Syndrome (1979). After this movie, his career took off – Fatal Attraction, Wall Street, War of the Roses, Basic Instinct, Disclosure, American President and so on.

Which brings me back to Katheen Turner´s run as a sex symbol . Michael Douglas´s object of attention, at least movie-wise, in Romancing the Stone and The Jewel of the Nile , was all the rage back in those days.

Catherine Zeta-Jones

And just to throw some salt into that – Michael Douglas´s wife of a decade, Catherine Zeta Jones :

Here´s hoping that he successfully overcomes cancer, but regardless, he had led a hell of a life. And just to throw another log on the fire, he is reportedly worth about $145 million.

I originally said this would be some sort of movie review, so here is my review: good movie, watch it again soon. A bit dated, like most movies from 25 years ago, but a good ride from beginning to end that is worth checking out one more time. Now back to the stuff I like, the things that strike me as funny and/or odd.

• This isn´t particularly surprising, given the political situation in Colombia at the time, but none of the movie was filmed in Colombia . It was done in the States and Mexico, though they did a very nice job of recreating the famous stone walls of Cartagena in one of the final action scenes.

• I think one of the reasons, aside from the Cartagena connection, that people wanted me to watch it was that she was a writer in the movie. Not only a writer, but supposedly a repeat best selling writer. Given the shabby state of her apartment and obvious lack of funds, I found that particular connection a bit depressing.

• She flew Pan-Am from New York to Colombia. Ahhh, those were the days.

• The “stone” of the movie was an emerald . Given how many emerald shops I have seen in this country, I think that picked a pretty accurate precious stone. In fact, 50-95% of the worldwide production of emeralds comes from here, depending on the year and the quality. Colombian natural resources info.

• One of the opening scenes showed an advertising poster for her book. Avon was the publisher and the cost was $3.95.

And last, but not least for those of us that grew up in the 80s, the title song was sung by Eddie Grant. Lord, was he horrible, but did hearing his voice ever bring back a decade´s worth of memories in a flash:

Cartagena is such a beautiful city — here are some more of my pics from there. And more.

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8 thoughts on “ “Romancing the Stone” from Cartagena ”

Old movies are the best! They are cheesy and aren’t at all realistic but they made everyone involved lots of money. How can I get back to the 80s to make a movie, I need a Delorian…

We wrote a favourite movie post this summer and Romancing the Stone was on our list! I have always wanted to go to Cartagena because of this movie! I will always remember Kathleen Turner saying to Michael Douglas “Come with me to Cartagena” And I love when the mafia jungle guys read Joanne Wilders romance books. It’s one great scene in movie history. I don’t normally leave a link to my own posts on a site, but I just want to prove that yes, I was already a fan before your post:-) https://theplanetd.com/8-great-movies-that-inspire-travel

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Where was Romancing the Stone filmed

Romancing the Stone was filmed in Mexico and in New York in the United States of America.

West End Avenue

Scene where Jack Colton waits for Joan Wilder on his boat in the middle of Manhattan.

Scene was shot Eleventh avenue is known as West End Avenue between 59th and 107th Streets. Both West End Avenue and Eleventh Avenue are considered to be part of the same road. The opening scene in the Will Smith movie 'Hitch', takes place with Smith exiting an 865 West End Avenue apartment building. New York

Fort of San Juan de Ulua

Scene where Jack try to save Joan, Elaine and the diamond.

Scene was shot Castle of San Juan de Ulúa is a large complex of fortresses, prisons and one former palace on an island of the same name in the Gulf of Mexico overlooking the seaport of Veracruz, Mexico. Juan de Grijalva's 1518 expedition named the island. Veracruz

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Soundtrack Information

Romancing the Stone

Limited Edition

Varese Sarabande Club (VCL 0702 1012)

Release Date: 2002

Conducted by Alan Silvestri

• Romancing the Stone (1984)
• Alan Silvestri

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Romancing the Stone - Expanded Limited Collector's Edition of 2,000 Units La-La Land Records (LLLCD 1430)

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Romancing The Stone / The Bodyguard Bootleg Album (SCD-98715)

Released: 1998

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20th Century Fox: 75 Years of Great Film Music Varese Sarabande (302 067 059 2 / VSD-7059)

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Cast Away: The Zemeckis / Silvestri Collection Varese Sarabande (302 066 213 2)

Released: February 13, 2001

Formats: CD, Digital (59 min)

Voyages: The Film Music Journeys of Alan Silvestri Varese Sarabande (VSD 5641)

Released: August 29, 1995

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‘Romancing the Stone’ at 35: How Michael Douglas, Kathleen Turner Survived Gators, Rain, and Studio Expectations

“ Romancing the Stone ” looks like a fun adventure romp onscreen, but making the Michael Douglas - Kathleen Turner movie that turns 35 this week was no stroll through the jungle. There were alligators, mud and plenty of back-and-forth with the studio — not to mention a tragedy after it opened.

The romantic comedy adventure opened March 30, 1984 and ended up as the eighth-highest grossing film of the year. It won the Golden Globe for best comedy or musical, and Turner took home the Globe for best actress in a comedy or musical.

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Following in the footsteps of blockbuster “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” “Romancing the Stone” was a real game changer career-wise for star-producer Douglas, who became an even more popular leading man; Turner, who proved she was more than a femme fatale; and Douglas’ friend Danny DeVito, who became a bankable actor and director.

Director Robert Zemeckis went on to become one of Hollywood’s major filmmakers, earning an Oscar for 1994’s “Forrest Gump”; DP Dean Cundey worked on several more films with Zemeckis, receiving an Oscar nomination for 1988’s “Who Framed Roger Rabbit”; and composer Alan Silvestri still collaborates with Zemeckis.

But “Romancing the Stone” was also a bear to make on location in the jungles around Veracruz and Hidalgo in Mexico where the production was beset with rain, mud and creepy crawlies. And of course, all of the stunts and action sequences were done live.

“It was very, very tough,” said Zemeckis. “When the movie was over, I said to my agent who gave me the script, who is now my partner — Jack Rapke — if another script ever comes across your desk that has a slug line in it that says ‘Exterior. Jungle. Night. Rain.’ Never send it to me.”

“We had all kinds of things with the rain,” noted Cundey. “I remember one incident we were on the dirt road, just above the mud slide sequence where Kathleen and Michael go down the slide. We were sitting down preparing for something and there was a little rumble behind us. We looked across the road and the cliff had slid down and covered half the road. Had somebody been standing there, they’d have been covered with mud, or injured.”

Speaking of injuries, that mud slide gave Turner an abrasion worth several stitches. And when Douglas grabbed the tail of an alligator who had eaten the titular stone, the reptile gave him two powerful whacks in the face.

Douglas recalled that the gator, whose jaw was wired shut by trainers, dove into the bay after attacking him.

“We were looking for him,” said Douglas. “Finally, we heard some people yelling a little further down. It was a night sequence and we moved the lights over to where it was. What we didn’t know was the wire had gotten loose and gotten off.”

The two trainers took a boat over to where the gator was and got into the water. “The worst thing happened,” said Douglas. “The alligator took the guy’s hand and spun and took him down and under.”

The other trainer, who was also the man’s brother, went down and wedged the gator’s mouth open to rescue his brother.

“We got him to the hospital in time. His hand was pretty mauled, and he lost a lot of blood. I went to see him. He wanted to whisper something to me, and I leaned over, and he said, ‘My Rolex.’ It turned out he saved losing his hand because the alligator bit down on his watch. We went back to the location, dove in the water and we found this Rolex watch.”

Was it still working?

“I don’t know,” replied Douglas. “It would have been a good commercial.’’

With “Romancing the Stone,” the late screenwriter Diane Thomas created memorable characters and a clever premise: plain jane Joan Wilder (Turner), who writes steamy romance novels featuring a feisty heroine and a handsome adventurer, finds herself in the jungles of Colombia when she gets a frantic call from her sister who has been kidnapped by antiquities smugglers. Joan, of course, is like a fish out of water in the jungles until she’s saved by hunky exotic bird smuggler Jack Colton (Douglas).

There, the two get into more dangerous escapades than in any of her novels.

Douglas loved the script from Thomas, who had been working as a waitress, and was willing to pay. “I remember being criticized for paying so much money for a first-time screenwriter,” he noted. “I said, ‘Well, I don’t care if it was the first time or the tenth time, if the material is good, then the material finds its own value.‘”

When it came to writing the 1985 sequel, “The Jewel of the Nile,” Thomas was busy working on various projects. Still, said Douglas, “she came in and did a little doctoring, a little work for me on the sequel script.”

But what could have been a promising career in screenwriting was cut short.

Thomas, Douglas said, had always wanted a Porsche.

“So, the last time I saw Diane was when I went out to the parking lot and showed her the Porsche that I got her,” he explained. “About only about two months later, she got killed in the car.”

Her boyfriend had been driving when the Porsche struck a telephone poll. Thomas was only 29 when she died.

Though Douglas had won the Oscar for producing the 1975 best picture winner “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” and had produced and appeared in such films as 1979’s “The China Syndrome,” he was thought of more as a television actor due to his starring role in the 1970s detective series, “The Streets of San Francisco.”

“In those days, there was a tremendous amount of separation between television acting and film acting. I wanted to try to get the part, it was very difficult,” Douglas said.

Box office names Clint Eastwood and Burt Reynolds were bandied about to play Jack. Eventually, Douglas was able to hire himself.

As for director, Zemeckis had caught Douglas’ attention with his second film, 1980’s “Used Cars,” which received strong reviews despite underperforming at the box office.

“Michael came to me,” said Zemeckis. “Michael was always a champion of mine. He really kept saying to the studio, ‘I really want the energy that’s in “Used Cards” to be in this movie.’ There was a sort of feeling of we were all on a mission.”

“There was an innocence about the production with all of us,” said Douglas. “It was a kind of location that no studio wanted to come down and visit. We were on our own.”

The studio’s top choice to play Joan was Debra Winger. “She was doing ‘Terms of Endearment’ in Texas and we did stop to see her,” said Douglas. “We couldn’t get a direct answer whether she was committed or not and we had concerns after being down [to Mexico} with Bob on locations and seeing how difficult it was going to be. We were going to need somebody to be a total team player. “

And that was Turner.

“’Romancing the Stone’ was thrilling,” she said. In fact, it was just the project she needed. After a star-making debut as a sexy femme fatale in the 1981 noir “Body Heat,” Turner “had to fight right away to get out of that rut” of being typecast. Her role in Steve Martin’s 1983 comedy “The Man with Two Brains” helped turn her image towards comedy.

“And then when we came to ‘Romancing,’ it’s like, ‘Yeah, okay, she’s sexy and she’s funny but can she be insecure and demure?’ So, then you go in with cut-offs, baggy clothes and no makeup and prove to them that you can be. But it takes so much to convince them.”

She described making the movie as “really fun. It was really a boy’s club, but they let me in because I’m a tomboy.”

That willingness to get muddy came in handy when Turner had to do a scene that involved walking through a marshy area filled with gators. “The trainer, the one who later almost lost his hand, said when they are really [sleeping], they are not so dangerous. But when they start to open their mouth, that’s their power. So, when they start to open their mouth, you step on their head. I said, ‘Like that’s going to happen.’ And they end up cutting the whole damn scene after I did it.”

“As the producer of this show, I was so appreciative of Kathleen,” said Douglas. ”She was just great in it. The situations that we put her in — I just could not imagine any other actress doing that. I was totally enthralled with her.”

And after making “Jewel in the Nile” and DeVito’s dark 1989 comedy “War of the Roses,” Douglas and Turner are reuniting for an episode of “The Kominsky Method,” Netflix’s award-winning comedy series starring Douglas and Alan Arkin. Turner will play one of Douglas’ ex-wives, who is a physician with Doctors Without Borders.

“It was just great,” Douglas said, of shooting the Season 2 episode. “She’s got that wonderful, great voice and acerbic style. It’s not the tone of ‘Romancing.’ It’s more the tone of ‘War of the Roses.’”

It’s no secret that the “studio was very negative” when executives saw the first cut of the film, Douglas said. Zemeckis added, “It wasn’t really like we had a big screening or anything. It was just the main creative executive. We were just kind of looking at it and realized we needed to shore up a lot of Kathleen’s [storyline] — all that stuff at the beginning where she’s generally in her apartment writing by herself. We went back and shot that stuff and it helped her character a lot.”

Still, Zemeckis was fired from his next project for the studio, 1985’s “Cocoon,” before “Romancing” was released. “Cocoon” was given to Ron Howard to direct.

“What happened was for some reason, the guy who was the head of physical production at Fox at the time, he had it out for our movie,” said Zemeckis. “While we were down in Mexico shooting, we found out later he was spewing all this vitriol about how we’re out of control and this director doesn’t know what he’s doing.”

The “Cocoon” producers, Zemeckis said, were “hearing all of this stuff constantly coming out of Mexico. They got nervous, so they fired me. After they saw the movie, they wanted to hire me back on ‘Cocoon.’ I just sort of kind of politely declined after that.”

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