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Arts Intel Report

One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest

Jack Nicholson with his Oscar, 1975.

The Cut, South Bank, London SE1 8NB, UK

The two highest-grossing films of 1975? Steven Spielberg’s spellbinding Jaws and Miloš Forman’s groundbreaking One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Starring Jack Nicholson as a charismatic troublemaker with a strabismic gaze, Forman’s film was shot at an actual state hospital in Salem, Oregon. In a recent interview, Danny DeVito remembers asking for permission to sleep there. “They wouldn’t let us,” he told ABC News. “The floor above us had some seriously disturbed people who had committed murder.” The film, based on Ken Kesey’s 1962 novel, went on to sweep the Big Five at the Oscars—Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (Nicholson), Best Actress (Louise Fletcher), and Best Screenplay. The book has now been adapted by Dale Wasserman into a play directed by Clint Dyer. The Morning Show’s Aaron Pierre, Rushmore’s Olivia Williams, and stage actor Giles Terera star. —Jeanne Malle

Photo: © Douglas Kirkland

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