Declan McDonnell

t.co/zHIAdqcaHH On this day, 50 years ago, Alan J. Pakula's "All the President's Men" (1976) premiered in Washington, D.C., USA. When the studio executives saw the shooting script of "All the President's Men" (1976), they felt nervous as it didn't seem to have any entertainment value. They said "Oh God, this looks it’s some television documentary, some CBS white paper.”" Frank Wells, the chairman of Disney called Alan J. Pakula two days before the shoot and said, “Alan, we’ve all just seen the final draft and it looks like it’s going be as dry as dust and dull as dishwater. Everybody thinks I’m an idiot to be doing this.” Pakula knew that they couldn't stop the movie 2 days before the shoot as Robert Redford was producing it & starring in it along with Dustin Hoffman. Wells wanted assurance that they were making a theatrical motion picture with some entertainment value. Pakula assured him of that & said, "Redford and I plan to make a theatrical, entertaining film. It will maintain a sense of truth, but it will be a theatrical film that will be exciting to watch and a rewarding theatrical experience for the audience." After that, Wells didn't ask Pakula anything regarding it. [Source: 'The Directors Take two', Robert J. Emery]