ZAMM.COM

It says a lot about your age if THE THOMAS CROWN AFFAIR you remember seeing starred Steve McQueen & Faye Dunaway (1968) or Pierce Brosnan & Rene Russo (1999).

The original film was a modest success, grossing $14M on a $4.3M budget. The remake, which opened Aug. 6, 1999 via United Artists, cost $48M and did $124.3M worldwide.

The romantic heist thriller, directed by John McTiernan (DIE HARD) and written by Leslie Dixon & Kurt Wimmer, was based on Alan R. Trustman’s 1968 screenplay. McTiernan & Brosnan were no strangers as Brosnan had starred in McTiernan’s 1986 directorial debut, the horror thriller NOMADS.

McTiernan wasn’t available when the project was being put together, so producers Brosnan & Beau St. Clair considered other top directors, including Andrew Davis (THE FUGITIVE), Roger Donaldson (NO WAY OUT) & Mike Newell (FOUR WEDDINGS AND A FUNERAL). By the time they’d done all that, McTiernan was now available — and then made some big changes in the remake’s story.

In the first film, McQueen as Crown committed two armed Boston bank robberies just for kicks. McTiernan thought moviegoers 31 years later would be more receptive to seeing him execute an unarmed art museum heist, which now took place in New York.

By using high heat to neutralize the museum’s thermal security cameras, McTiernan echoed what he did in his 1987 action adventure PREDATOR where thermal cameras broke down as jungle temps topped 90 degrees.

The new CROWN’s heist was set in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, but the Met administrators refused permission for interior filming. McTiernan used the lobby of the New York Public Library, about 40 blocks south on Fifth Avenue, to double for the Met’s lobby. The museum’s exterior was used in several scenes — with the City’s permission.

The works of art seen in CROWN were spot-on reproductions from New York’s Troubetzkoy Paintings since the bright lights needed for filming are likely to damage vintage works of art.

McTiernan included in his remake some references to the original movie — especially by casting Faye Dunaway as Crown’s psychiatrist. In the original, Dunaway starred as the insurance investigator out to unmask Crown as a thief. The 1968 film’s hit song “The Windmills of Your Mind” — with music by Michel Legrand and lyrics by Alan & Marilyn Bergman — won the best original song Oscar. It returns in the remake in a ballroom scene, as background music in other scenes and under the end credits.

In another scene, Brosnan’s dancing at a formal party with his white tie untied and top shirt buttons undone. This apparently reflected Brosnan being under contract then as James Bond and not able to appear in a tuxedo (with a black bow tie) in anything but 007 movies.