Chaplin (1992)

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Diana Hawkins, my producer partner and long-standing friend to Sheila and me for 40 years, first suggested the idea. I was wondering what to do next, and Di said "Dick, it's absolutely staring you in the face. You worship Chaplin and it is the most incredible story. Why not think of that?"

Everybody wanted to play the part of Chaplin, from Dustin Hoffman down. I was in Marti Baum's, my American agent, office one day, the door opened and this madman put his head around the door and said, "My name's Robert Downey and I wanna play Chaplin. In fact I am going to play Chaplin and I'll murder you if I don't play Chaplin." I tested Robert, and after that there was no one else. All the tricks in the film, like the dancing rolls for instance, he worked on hour after hour. He was absolutely brilliant.

The picture was not as good as it should have been and, in a way, that was my fault. I felt we had to include his extraordinary childhood and beginnings because they influenced the whole of his life. He went to Los Angeles and became the first great producer/director/star. He could write, he could do music, he could direct, he could edit, he could act - everything. He was also a democrat, a passionate man against the worst excesses of the establishment and so many of the things that I personally am opposed to as well. How could I leave any of that out? Chaplin was an absolute genius and I thought Robert's performance wasn't far behind him.

Lord Attenborough

"I worked on the first script. Although there were four other writers subsequently, I have a credit as the Writer's Guild of America decided I had provided the blue print but except my script was entirely different from what was produced. It started completely differently with the two mad polish men who dug up Chaplin's body and held it to ransom. I wanted to point out that Chaplin had a dark side, that's much more me, and I think Dickie is much more inclined to see nothing but goodness in people.

"I think we were an ideal partnership because he is an optimist and I am not, he has unbounded optimism, I less so. I have tremendous respect for Dickie's business acumen, he's a terrier and he was largely responsible in all those cases for getting the money together. It's been enriching to my life to have not only a friendship but also a partnership with Dickie.

Bryan Forbes Screenwriter & co-founder of Beaver Films