Photo Opportunity #48

Photo Opportunity #48

For April’s Photo Opportunity I thought we would travel back to 1995 and a great rare shot of Clint alongside actress Meryl Streep. The photo was of course taken during the filming of The Bridges of Madison County. It’s hard to believe that next year marks its 30th Anniversary. The film earned $182 million worldwide and received widespread critical acclaim upon release, with high praise directed towards Streep's performance, earning her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress at the 67th Academy Awards.

Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment bought the film rights to Waller's novel for $25,000 in late 1991, before its publication, by the time of the film's release, the novel sold 9.5 million copies worldwide. Spielberg first asked Sydney Pollack to direct, who got Kurt Luedtke to draft the first version of the adaptation but then bowed out; Ronald Bass was brought in by Kathleen Kennedy and Spielberg to work on the script, but they were unsatisfied with the results. But a third draft by Richard LaGravenese was liked by Eastwood, who quite early had been cast for the male lead, and by Spielberg, who liked LaGravenese's version enough to consider making Bridges his next film after Schindler's List (1993), which was in post-production at the time. Both men liked that LaGravenese's script presented the story from Francesca's point of view; Spielberg then had LaGravenese introduce the framing device of having Francesca's adult children discover and read her diaries. When Spielberg decided not to direct, he then brought in Bruce Beresford, who got Alfred Uhry to draft another version of the script; when Warner Bros, Spielberg, and Eastwood all preferred LaGravenese's draft, Beresford dropped out.

Catherine Deneuve and Isabella Rossellini did screen tests to play Francesca. But despite Spielberg's initial reluctance, Eastwood had advocated Meryl Streep for the role from the beginning. 

This great shot of Clint and Meryl was taken during location shooting in Madison County, Iowa and finds them both in relaxed mood.