Editing Indecent Proposal (section)

==Production==
===Development===
[[Paramount Pictures]] bought the rights to Jack Engelhard's 1988 novel ''[[Indecent Proposal (novel)|Indecent Proposal]]'' for $120,000.<ref name="Welkos">{{cite news |last1=Welkos |first1=Robert W. |title=Another Flap Over a Movie's Net Profits |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1995-09-12-ca-44986-story.html |access-date=15 June 2023 |work=[[Los Angeles Times]] |date=1995-09-12 |archive-date=June 14, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230614144358/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1995-09-12-ca-44986-story.html |url-status=live }}</ref> [[Adrian Lyne]] signed on to direct, reuniting with producer [[Sherry Lansing]], with whom he had worked on ''[[Fatal Attraction]]''.<ref name="afi" /> Lyne had a falling out with past collaborator [[Stanley Jaffe]], who wanted the film to be released by Christmas season of 1992 and thus allotted for limited [[post-production]] time.<ref name="afi" />

The film was originally planned as a vehicle for [[Tom Cruise]] and [[Nicole Kidman]], with [[Warren Beatty]] as John Gage.<ref name="afi" /><ref>{{cite news |last1=Wuntch |first1=Philip |title=Lyne Surprised by Response to 'Proposal' |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1993-04-15-9304150348-story.html |access-date=15 June 2023 |work=[[Dallas Morning News]] |via=Chicago Tribune |date=April 15, 1993 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20230610074412/https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1993-04-15-9304150348-story.html |archive-date=June 10, 2023}}</ref> Kidman and [[Isabelle Adjani]] screen tested for the role of Diana.<ref name="afi">{{cite web |title=Indecent Proposal (1993) |url=https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/67156 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190831010452/https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/67156 |archive-date=2019-08-31 |access-date=15 June 2023 |website=[[AFI Catalog of Feature Films]]}}</ref> Cruise backed out amidst speculation that the film's morals conflicted with his new involvement in the [[Church of Scientology]].<ref name="afi" /> [[Robert Redford]] accepted the part of Gage on the condition that his character be adjusted to be less of a villain.<ref name=Brett/> He turned down the $4 million salary initially offered to him in exchange for gross profit participation from the film's box office.<ref name="afi" />

[[Johnny Depp]],<ref name="afi" /> [[Tim Robbins]],<ref name="afi" /> and [[William Baldwin]]<ref>{{cite news |date=April 17, 1992 |title=Baldwin In Line For 'Indecent Proposal' |work=[[Orlando Sentinel]] |url=https://www.orlandosentinel.com/1992/04/17/baldwin-in-line-for-indecent-proposal/ |url-status=live |access-date=2010-10-24 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120908043608/http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/1992-04-17/entertainment/9204160160_1_william-baldwin-indecent-proposal-terry-gilliam |archive-date=2012-09-08}}</ref> were among the actors considered for the role of David Murphy. [[Woody Harrelson]] dropped out of the film ''[[Benny & Joon]]'' to commit to the role, resulting in a lawsuit from [[MGM-Pathé Communications|MGM-Pathe Entertainment]] that was settled out of court.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Brew |first=Simon |date=2015-11-03 |title=9 Actors Who Were Sued for Quitting Movies |url=https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/9-actors-who-were-sued-for-quitting-movies/ |access-date=2023-06-15 |website=[[Den of Geek]] |language=en-US |archive-date=September 24, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230924113448/https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/9-actors-who-were-sued-for-quitting-movies/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="afi" />

===Writing===
Of the script, screenwriter [[Amy Holden Jones]] said there were multiple third-act changes to the script, made primarily by men.<ref name="NYPost">{{cite news |last1=Stewart |first1=Sara |title=The truth behind the sexy scenes of '90s thriller 'Indecent Proposal' |url=https://nypost.com/2023/04/05/indecent-proposal-popular-1990s-erotic-thriller-turns-30/ |access-date=15 June 2023 |work=[[New York Post]] |date=April 5, 2023 |archive-date=August 5, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230805100056/https://nypost.com/2023/04/05/indecent-proposal-popular-1990s-erotic-thriller-turns-30/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Jones initially wrote the ending with Diana leaving Gage of her own accord, without prompting from Gage.<ref name=Short>{{Cite news |last=Kempley |first=Rita |date=April 18, 1993 |title=Selling Women Short |newspaper=The Washington Post |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/style/1993/04/18/selling-women-short/c98de2f9-4c9b-472a-87dd-d68ce34d8671/ |access-date=June 15, 2023 |archive-date=November 6, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171106193216/https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/style/1993/04/18/selling-women-short/c98de2f9-4c9b-472a-87dd-d68ce34d8671/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

Jones said: "I always had a lot of trouble with the movie after [David and Diana] split up. The men in charge, and particularly Redford, decided to make [Gage] very sympathetic. In the original script, it was a clear journey where she came to realize that she was his next acquisition. There were four or five people that Redford cycled through to work on his character. In my draft, what she said to him was that you can’t buy love, and then she left him. He had that changed, because Robert Redford couldn’t be left."<ref name=NYPost/>

Jones added: "I thought [Diana] should leave both men at the end. I brought it up several times [in studio meetings], including once the movie was [[greenlit]]. And that was basically laughed at. No one would consider it, really."<ref name=NYPost/>

[[William Goldman]] says he was brought in to work on the script after [[John Cusack]] had turned it down. "They couldn’t get anyone to do it," he said. "I wrote a draft and I don’t think they changed anything. I don’t know why the actors decided to do it or didn’t do it, but it was an enormous success so that’s good for me."<ref>{{cite book|last=Cleese|first= John|title=Professor at Large: the Cornell Years|publisher=Cornell University Press|year= 2018|chapter=Screenwriting Seminar: John Cleese and Bill Goldman October 14, 2000}}</ref>

===Filming===
Filming began in [[Las Vegas]] in June 1992.<ref name="Vegas">{{cite news |title=Looking back at Robert Redford's made-in-Las Vegas movies |url=https://www.reviewjournal.com/entertainment/entertainment-columns/christopher-lawrence/looking-back-at-robert-redfords-made-in-las-vegas-movies/ |access-date=15 June 2023 |work=[[Review Journal]] |date=October 18, 2018 |archive-date=May 28, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230528134006/https://www.reviewjournal.com/entertainment/entertainment-columns/christopher-lawrence/looking-back-at-robert-redfords-made-in-las-vegas-movies/ |url-status=live }}</ref> The casino scenes were filmed at the [[Las Vegas Hilton|Westgate Las Vegas]].<ref name="Vegas" /> After a month in Las Vegas, the production moved to southern California, where locations included the [[Echo Park]] neighborhood and a [[Santa Barbara, California|Santa Barbara]] mansion that stood in for Gage’s home.<ref name="afi" />

Lyne decided to feature the novel ''[[Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women]]'' in a scene because author [[Susan Faludi]] had notably criticized Lyne’s film ''Fatal Attraction''.<ref>{{cite news |last1=James |first1=Caryn |title=FILM; 'Backlash' Pops Up As Prop du Jour |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1993/06/20/arts/film-backlash-pops-up-as-prop-du-jour.html |access-date=15 June 2023 |work=The New York Times |date=June 20, 1993 |archive-date=June 29, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220629155029/https://www.nytimes.com/1993/06/20/arts/film-backlash-pops-up-as-prop-du-jour.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="deVries">{{cite news |last1=de Vries |first1=Hilary |title=Adrian Lyne, the 'Indecent' Pro |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1993/04/17/adrian-lyne-the-indecent-pro/5664ad9b-a37d-4e20-9895-f05a178d43bf/ |access-date=15 June 2023 |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |date=April 17, 1993 |archive-date=December 12, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211212010025/https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1993/04/17/adrian-lyne-the-indecent-pro/5664ad9b-a37d-4e20-9895-f05a178d43bf/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

Lyne completed post-production work on the film roughly two weeks before its opening in April 1993.<ref name="afi" />

===Differences between novel and film===
Engelhard's novel contained cultural friction that the screenwriter left out of the movie: the main character, named Joshua, is Jewish, and his billionaire foil is [[Arab]].<ref name="Brett">{{cite news |last1=Brett |first1=Anthony |date=4 November 2021 |title=Misogynistic nightmare or sexy escapism? The uncomfortable legacy of Indecent Proposal |work=[[The Daily Telegraph|The Telegraph]] |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/films/0/misogynistic-nightmare-sexy-escapism-uncomfortable-legacy-indecent/ |url-status=live |access-date=15 June 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211104081838/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/films/0/misogynistic-nightmare-sexy-escapism-uncomfortable-legacy-indecent/ |archive-date=2021-11-04}}</ref> In a review of the novel, ''[[The New York Times]]'' summarized its themes as "the sanctity of marriage versus the love of money, the [[Jew]] versus significant non-Jews such as [[shiksa]]s and [[Sheikh|sheik]]s, skill versus luck, materialism versus spirituality, [[Israel]] versus the [[Arab]] countries, the past versus the future, and the religious world versus the secular one."<ref>{{cite book|url=https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/product-description/0967407419/ |title=From the Author |date=September 2001 |publisher=ComteQ |isbn=9780967407418 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210628011509/https://www.amazon.com/dp/0967407419 |archive-date=2021-06-28  |via=[[Amazon.com]] |access-date=2010-07-23 |url-status=live}}</ref>