ATUK

THE INFAMOUS
"CURSED" SCRIPT

PRESENTED
HERE

PUBLICLY
FOR THE FIRST TIME
EVER!

After many years of searching, and thanks to the generosity
of a fellow collector named Julian DiLorenzo
(who tracked this ultrarare gem down), I have finally unearthed
one of THE most INFAMOUS scripts in the history of Hollywood.

I think it's a very good and funny screenplay
that would have been a good vehicle for Sam Kinison,
who it was obviously adapted for (the numerous "Oh! Oh!"
exclamations throughout being the most obvious indicator).

It probably would have also worked for Chris Farley,
though I cant really see John Candy or Belushi pulling it
off nearly as well. But it's reputation is unfair, and I'm going
to try and rectify it somewhat by making it available to the public
for the first time ever. Read it here ... if you dare (mwahahaha).

While I was transcribing it, I had certain actors and actresses in mind for
various roles in the film to help me visualize what the finished product
might have looked like (which is part of the fun I have in creating these
for this site). In addition to Kinison, I thought about the younger 80's
Keith Gordon for the role of Bishop McKuen (probably because of
his involvement in the Rodney Dangerfield vehicle, "Back to School",
which also had a small but memorable Kinison cameo), and John Glover
(who was outstanding as Brother Leon in the great cult classic which was
directed by Keith Gordon around the same time, "The Chocolate War")
in the role of his father, Alexander McKuen, who isn't your usual shallow
rich man, but someone who actually has remorse for the bad things that
he does and repents at the end, and reunites with his son. I also thought
about Donald Sutherland in the role, but I was probably associating him
with his character in "Ordinary People", with that wealthy character in
similar circumstances at the end of that film with his own wife and son.
I was rather surprised at how Alexander turned out to be a lot better
person than most scripts of this nature portray that sort of character.
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AN EDITED VERSION OF THE
WIKIPEDIA
ENTRY

"Atuk" is the name of an as-yet unfilmed American film screenplay, intended to be a
film adaption based upon the 1963 novel, "The Incomparable Atuk", by acclaimed
Canadian author Mordecai Richler. It is essentially a fish out of water comedy about a
proud, mighty Eskimo hunter who is trying to adapt to life in the big city, with satirical
elements on race, materialism, and popular culture. Peter Gzowski's afterword adds
some historical context, and elaborates on the satirized real-life counterparts of
several of the novel's minor characters, including Pierre Berton.

The script for the proposed film adaption has been in existence since at least the very early 80s,
and although numerous Hollywood film studios have shown an interest in producing the film
over the years, the movie remains unfilmed and the entire project in development hell. The film
script is also renowed for an alleged paranormal curse which, as an urban legend, has been
claimed to have killed all of the actors who have shown an interest in the lead role. These
include John Belushi, Sam Kinison, John Candy, and Chris Farley, and even others who
were allegedly planning to be in the film, or associates of the late leads who had read the
script in their presence, such as Michael O'Donoghue and Phil Hartman, among others.

PLOT

In the novel and the version of the script shown on this site, Atuk is a Canadian Eskimo poet
from Baffin Island, near Hudson Bay in northern Canada. He is the son of an Eskimo woman
and a traveling missionary, who dreams of seeing the world outside, especially New York City,
which he obsesses and learns about extensively through various magazines that he collects and
reads. So Atuk is not completely out of touch with the world, but he knows many things in a
naive and rather innocent way, having only seen pictures of them. He sees his chance to leave the
village when a beautiful documentarian named Michelle Ross and her film crew arrive to film the
village he lives in. After some on camera antics that irritate his disapproving stepfather, a respected
village elder, Atuk stows away in Michelle's plane when her crew takes off from another village.
Michelle has no choice but to take Atuk with her past the Canadian border and into the US.

The two end up in New York City, to Atuk's endless wonderment. Meanwhile, powerful real estate
mogul Alexander McKuen is planning to erect a massive metropolis in an unspoiled nature area
called "The Emerald". McKuen is clashing with environmentalists over the project because they
claim the city will poison the delicate ecosystem there. McKuen is also having problems with his
16 year old son Bishop, a rebellious underage drinker and smoker who is a terror at his school.
Bishop goes joyriding in his family's boat while he is supposed to be grounded, and ends up
crashing near the pier where Atuk is hanging out with some bums (after showing them how
to build an igloo to shield them from the cold), and Bishop begins to drown. Atuk jumps
in and saves his life, and they become fast friends quickly, and Bishop takes Atuk out for a
night on the town, but becomes disgusted when his friends mockingly treat Atuk like an idiot.

Alexander decides to have Atuk stay at their mansion until he can put him up in one of their
lavish hotels, something that McKuen's shrewish (and unfaithful) wife objects to. McKuen
sees the friendly relationship between Atuk and Michelle, and hires her to film a commercial
for him using Atuk in a way that will show McKuen to care about the environment, and Michelle
agrees to do it. McKuen then tells Atuk that the wants him to be a part of an image campaign and
gives him such an uplifting speech that Atuk accepts. Bishop continues to be unmanageable and
ends up being sent off to military school, and he is angry at Atuk for having sold out to his father.
Michelle and Atuk work on the commercial with a seedy media advisor to McKuen (who is secretly
having an affair with Vera), and the advisor forces Atuk to make a cynical commercial which twists his
views about the environment. Atuk is smart enough to realize that he's being misused, and he runs out.

Michelle finds him shortly afterwards at the New York Zoo, having built an igloo house near a
polar bear cage. She gives him a rousing and uplifting speech which again triggers Atuk's pride,
and he rushes to the academy and frees Bishop by commanding the school's German shephards
to pull a makeshift toboggan he has created on the spot. Atuk and Bishop fly to a congressional
hearing about the Emerald deal, and Atuk flies into a huge manic ranting speech that stuns everyone
in the room. McKuen's vision fall apart, but he reconciles with his son, even as Vera leaves in shame
as her affair is exposed. Atuk leaves back to his village, despite Michelle's obvious reluctance to see
him leave. Soon, he wakes up one morning and hears a plane, and Michelle jumps out in a bathing suit
and Hawaiian shirt, and invites him to the beach. Atuk happily accepts, and the two finally admit their
love for each other. The co-pilot turns out to be Bishop. The threesome fly off for warmer climates.

ALLEGED CURSE

The script is infamous for supposedly being "cursed" and partly responsible for the deaths
of several major comedic actors in the 1980s and 1990s. The "Atuk Curse" has become
one of the better known "urban legends" in Hollywood. It's first victim, supposedly, was
John Belushi, who had read the script and was reportedly enthusiastic about taking on
the role of Atuk in 1982. Shortly afterwards, he was found dead of a drug overdose.

Years later, the part was offered to comedian Sam Kinison, who accepted it in 1988. The
version shown on this site is the final shooting script which was used on the first (and last)
day of shooting on the film. Kinison filmed at least one scene for the film before he grew
dissatisfied with the script, and he demanded that parts of it be re-written on the spot,
halting production. He left the set in disgust and refused to return, and the production
company filed a lawsuit against him which was a large part of what made him financially
destitute when it was settled a years later. Not long after that, while some talks were
underway for him to continue the project and finish the film, Kinison dies in a car crash.

The curse supposedly struck again in 1994, when John Candy, who had been approached
for the role of Atuk, was allegedly reading the script when he suddenly died of a heart
attack on March 4th (the day before the 12th anniversary of Belushi's death). It was
around this point in the production's history that the press began to speak of a curse.
Some believe that the curse struck twice that year, since in November, Michael
O'Donoghue died of a cerebral hemorrhage. O'Donoghue was a writer and comedian
who was also a friend of Belushi and Kinison and, the story goes, had read the script
(in some version of the tale they even worked on it) before recommending it to them.

The final victim of the "Atuk curse", to date, was said to be Chris Farley, who idolized
John Belushi. Like his idol, he was up for the role of Atuk, and was allegedly about
to accept it when, also like his idol, he died of a drug overdose in December of 1997.
According to some version, the curse would strike twice more, only six months later in
May 1998, when Farley's friend and former Saturday Night Live cast-mate, Phil Hartman,
was murdered by his wife. Farley is said to have shown the "Atuk" script to Hartman, before
his death, and was encouraging him to take a co-starring role (possibly that of McKuen).

RECENT YEARS

"Atuk" has never been made into a film, and due to it's infamy, in all likelihood it never will be.
A copy of the script was offered on Ebay years ago, and from it came the copy that I used
to transcribe the version that you can read on this site. The curse has been a featured topic
on several TV shows and documentaries, but it has never been available on the net for the
public to read (until now, on this site). The author of the novel on which it is based (Richler)
and the writer of the afterword (Gzowski) both died peacefully in 2001 and 2002,
after enjoying long lives and successful careers.

The movie was referenced in the commentary track for 2004's "Anchorman: The
Legend of Ron Burgundy", in which Adam McKay repeatedly pitches a screenplay
called "Eskimo in New York" to Will Ferrell. Will remarks several times that
he doesn't think it will make a good movie, and refuses to be a part of it.
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FROM A SAM KINISON WEBSITE
(still available on ARCHIVE.ORG )

Haunted Hollywood

The 'Atuk' Curse

By: Neda Raouf

Originally printed in
The Los Angeles Times
Sunday, February 21, 1999

Montgomery Clift hangs out at the Hollywood Roosevelt. Lon Chaney frequents a corner
bus stop. Joan Crawford's dog won't leave her former home. The latest tale to join the
burgeoning ranks of haunted Hollywood lore is the buzz that surrounds a decade-old
script named "Atuk," a comedy about an Eskimo. In its quest to become a film,
it has passed through the hands of famously oversized--and prematurely deceased--
comedians Sam Kinison, John Candy and Chris Farley. The rumored superstition
surrounding the script is news to screenwriter Tod Carroll. "No matter what anybody's
impression was, I think it's either coincidence or practical explanation,"
says Carroll, 51, when reached at his new Tucson, Ariz., home.

Carroll, who penned the 1988 movie "Clean and Sober," based "Atuk" on Canadian author
Mordecai Richler's book, "The Incomparable Atuk," a satire about an Eskimo on his first
trip out of Alaska, which is to New York. Originally, Kinison was attached to the role.
"When it came time to start filming, Sam wanted it rewritten," says Carroll. "Once they
started shooting it, it had accumulated a lot of costs." The production eventually shut
down, and Candy and Farley, among others, read it and expressed interest. United
Artists has retained the rights and the film project remains in turnaround. "I'm not
a superstitious person," Carroll says, "and it doesn't have any meaning to me."

On screenwriting hiatus to write a murder mystery, Carroll hasn't heard about plans
to revive the script, to his disappointment. "With the right actor and right tone,"
he says, perhaps a bit cautiously, "it may have been a nice movie."

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READ IT HERE
in
FOUR SEGMENTS
_______________________________________

ATUK - REEL ONE

ATUK - REEL TWO

ATUK - REEL THREE

ATUK - REEL FOUR

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ATUK LIVES!
OH, OHHHHH!!!

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