The threat that almost ruined Ron Howard’s career: “He was trying to kill our movie”
At this point, the only thing that could leave Ron Howard in ruins is a massive scandal or salacious controversy, which isn’t going to happen because he doesn’t seem to have a malicious bone in his body.
He’s spent his entire life in the industry on both sides of the camera, and if anything was capable of derailing his career, it would have happened by now. He’s become so ubiquitous that he can survive the odd flop or critical bust, but his mainstream momentum was almost killed before he’d even got started.
After finally realising the dream and making his feature-length directorial debut on 1977’s Grand Theft Auto, it would be another five years before Howard helmed another movie. His Happy Day commitments got in the way, but once he was freed from Richie Cunningham’s shackles, it was off to the races.
His sophomore effort, Night Shift, was a decent-sized hit that scored strong reviews and earned its star, Henry Winkler, a Golden Globe nomination for ‘Best Actor – Musical or Comedy’, but the jury was still out on whether Howard had the chops to carve out a successful career as a filmmaker.
Of course, those doubts were blown away when Splash was released in 1984. It earned three times as much at the box office as his previous two films combined and was one of the year’s ten highest-grossing titles, earned a Golden Globe nod for ‘Best Picture – Musical or Comedy’, made the Oscar shortlist for ‘Best Original Screenplay’, and launched another legendary career by putting Tom Hanks in his first major big-screen leading role.
The fantasy comedy solidified Howard’s credentials, but the movie almost didn’t happen at all. The concept of ‘twin films’ is a common one, and when Splash entered development, another picture called Mermaid, with Jessica Lange and Warren Beatty attached to star, threatened to go into production first.
Ray Stark was producing the latter, and as Howard recalled to Vulture, “He was trying to kill our movie.” Every major studio in town had turned its nose up at Splash, and he thought he knew why: “I think they were all just looking for excuses to pass because nobody wanted to compete,” knowing the lure of Lange and Beatty was much stronger than the story he wanted to tell.
Disney eventually agreed to back Splash, with Howard admitting the company’s film division “was on its ass at that point,” and Stark didn’t take too kindly to the news, issuing a threat to Brian Grazer. “Stark tried to bully Brian,” he explained. “He said, ‘I’m going to ruin you,’ literally.”
When that didn’t have the desired effect, he suggested that Grazer abandon Splash entirely for a co-producer’s credit on Mermaids. “Brian, without a lot of money in his bank account, had the courage and fortitude to stay with it,” Howard explained. “Even though Disney was a real B-studio at the time.”
If Grazer had caved, then Howard wouldn’t have made his mainstream breakthrough. He was right in sticking to his guns, too, because Lange and Beatty’s Mermaid never even happened.
