Both Carr and Stigwood concluded that if they can do it once, lighting can strike again. First to strike was Stigwood with Sgt. Pepper Lonely Hearts Club Band, a Beatles musical staring the Bee Gees, Peter Frampton and George Burns. Some time later, it was Carr's turn with his disco musical Can't Stop The Music, starring The Village People, Steve Guttenberg and Bruce Jenner. (#2) Needless to say, these two films would end up being better known as spectacular disasters, both financially and critically.
This caused Gordon and Silver to make major adjustments to the basic concept of Xanadu, de-emphasizing the roller disco angle and moving more to the traditional romantic fare. Warners soon lost interest in the project and Gordon and Silver were obliged to take the idea elsewhere. It ended up at Universal Studios and was added to the their slate for 1980 along side other releases like 'The Gong Show Movie', '1941', 'The Blues Brothers', 'The Nude Bomb' (a.k.a. The Get Smart Movie), 'The Jerk', 'Somewhere In Time' and 'Flash Gordon' (#3).
With the producers finally settled in the direction of how the project would go conceptually, it was only a matter of time before Olivia's turn would come up for the role of the muse Kira. Soon after the Totally Hot album hit the charts, Olivia agreed to sign on to Xanadu after reading a 20 page treatment of the script. As part of the deal, her manager and then-boyfriend Lee Kramer became the film's executive producer.
While this was going on, Gordon was trying to court the one and only Gene Kelly, who was 68 at the time, for the roll of Danny McGuire. Obviously, Mr. Kelly needs no introduction here....ah, what the hell....
Gene Kelly's film biography contains countless classics as An American In Paris, On The Town and his signature film Singing In The Rain. Along with his good friend Fred Astaire, Kelly defined cinematic choreography, and became a standard-bearer in the 40's and 50's against which all other musical (and some non-musicals) of the period were measured. When not dancing, Kelly showed relentless creative energy by producing and directing features like 'Gigot' (the Jackie Gleason movie, not the beach flick) and 'Hello, Dolly' and starring in non-musical films like the controversial classic 'Inherit The Wind' with Spencer Tracy.
When signed up, Kelly's character was officially named Danny McGuire, which, oddly enough, was the same name as Kelly's role in his 1944 movie 'Cover Girl'. Such influence (or "borrowing") can be also said about Xanadu's basic plot as it has been widely speculated that it's quite similar to Rita Hayworth's 1947 musical, 'Down To Earth', with Rita playing the central roll as a muse.
Born Michael Beck Tucker in Memphis, he grew up near Horseshoe Lake, Arkansas and attended acting classes at Millsap Collage. He took up an acting class as a bet but found his acting career taking him to England for five years, which helped him eliminate his "Old Arkansanian" speech accent. From here, he ended up in the 1978 TV movie 'Holocaust' and 1979 'Mayflower: The Pilgrims Adventure' with Anthony Hopkins. When he got the Sonny Malone part, Michael offered to sing his part, but was turned down.
Picked for director was Robert Greenwald. Greenwald's resume up to this point consisted of theater productions and TV movie projects in both producing and/or directing. Sharon: Portrait Of a Mistress, Katie: A Portrait of a Centerfold, and Flatbed Annie & Sweetie Pie: Lady Truckdrivers was among his then-recent TV chores. Xanadu would be his major motion picture debut.
Now, all that was left was the music itself. Also in tow behind Olivia was her long-time musical partner from the beginning of her solo career, John Farrar. Farrar produced almost all of her recordings and largely pinned her biggest hits, including Have You Ever Been Mellow and Don't Stop Believin'. He was also responsible for the two biggest hits from Grease, Hopelessly Devoted To You (which was nominated for Oscar for best song) and You're The One That I Want. In 1979, Farrar's output of hits for Olivia continued with A Little More Love and Deeper Than The Night.
