James Fenwick Abstract

Shadow Cinema and Archival Research: A Case Study of Kirk Douglas and the Scale of Overdevelopment of Unproduced Films

Despite the rise of the New Film History, with its advocating of archival methods, there is still a lack of research on ‘shadow cinema’; that is, unproduced films that are now buried in archives around the world. I will present a case study of one such archive, the Kirk Douglas Papers housed at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Records show that Douglas’ company, Bryna Productions, had nearly 30 projects in development by the end of the 1950s, most of which were never produced. These projects are now nothing more than archival relics, made up of business reports, correspondence, contracts, and often little more than a script title.

I will argue that Bryna operated a business strategy of “overdevelopment”, in which it never intended to produce most of the films that it had in development. But more important, archive documents suggest that this strategy of overdevelopment was a trend common to the new mode of independent production that had transformed Hollywood by the end of the 1950s. With non-exclusive participation deals becoming common place, it pushed production companies towards overdeveloping in a bid to ensure that at least one of their projects would reach production.

I will explore the archival methods that can be employed in the study of shadow cinema to uncover the wider industrial contexts of the American film industry. I will also consider the impact of Bryna’s strategy of overdevelopment on its creative processes.