The Lion in Winter

 On this date in 1968, "The Lion in Winter" was released.

The 1966 Broadway play of the same name had not been a success, getting a bad review in the New York Times and losing $150,000. Producer Martin Poll optioned James Goldman's novel "Waldorf" for the movies. They discussed "The Lion in Winter," which Poll read and loved, and hired Goldman to write a screenplay.

Poll was meant to make a film with Joseph Levine and Peter O'Toole, "The Ski Bum" (which would be written by James Goldman's brother William). That project fell through and Poll suggested they do Lion in Winter instead. O'Toole, who was 36 at the time, portrays Henry II at age 50. He had played the same king as a young man in the film "Becket" just four years earlier.

O'Toole said that his first choice for Eleanor of Aquitaine was Katharine Hepburn, but he was not sure she would do this movie so soon after the death of her long time partner Spencer Tracy. As the only two other actresses he could think of for the part, he mentioned Vivien Leigh and Margaret Rutherford.

Hepburn portrayed her own ancestor. She was descended from Eleanor of Aquitaine in numerous lines, from both Eleanor's marriage to Louis VII, King of France, and Eleanor's marriage to Henry II, King of England.

"The Lion in Winter" marked Anthony Hopkins' debut in a full-length theatrical movie. When young Hopkins expressed anxiety about his performance compared to such established names as O'Toole and Hepburn, Hepburn allegedly advised him, "Don't act. Leave that to me; I act all over the place. You don't need to act. You've got a good face, you've got a good voice, you've got a big body. Watch Spencer Tracy, watch the real American actors that never act, they just do it. Just show up and speak the lines." Hopkins later regarded this as the best acting advice he had ever been given.