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The shoot for a 1973 'zany pirate comedy' goes off the rails when its star Peter Sellers starts sabotaging the production. Director Peter Medak revisits the outrageous shenanigans from the ill-fated set.
It was meant to be a huge success. Featuring Peter Sellers at the height of his fame, and filmed on location in the Mediterranean, The Ghost of the Noonday Sun seemed a dream job for director Peter Medak in 1973. Instead, the film was a disaster from day one.
The never-released film derailed Medak’s career and still haunts him to this day. Determined to try to find closure, Medak returns to Cyprus to dig through the remnants of the shoot, with the help of those who had watched the production lurch from crisis to crisis.
Having split with Liza Minnelli the day before production began, Sellers arrived on set in self destructive mode and wanting to return home. As Medak and others recount, Sellers dramatically tried to sabotage the production, faking a heart attack, firing the producers and skirmishing with co-star Spike Milligan.