The Sinister Saga of Making %22The Stunt Man%22

The Stunt Man is a 1980 American film directed by Richard Rush, starring Peter OToole, Steve Railsback, and Barbara Hershey. The movie was adapted by Lawrence B. Marcus and Rush from the novel by Paul Brodeur. It tells the story of a young fugitive who hides as a stunt double on the set of an antiwar movie whose charismatic director will do seemingly anything for the sake of his art.

Cameron Steve Railsback is a young veteran running from the police. He stumbles onto the set of a World War I movie and isnt sure if he accidentally caused the death of one of the films stunt men. The eccentric and autocratic director, Eli Cross Peter OToole, agrees to hide Cameron from the police if he will take the dead mans place. Cameron soon begins to suspect that Cross is putting him in excessive danger. At a bar one night, another member of the production gets drunk and tells Cameron that Eli almost killed the helicopter pilot during the fatal accident Cameron caused, because he insisted he keep flying in order to get the shot. Cameron falls in love with Nina Franklin Barbara Hershey, the films star, and is devastated to find out that she and Eli slept together before he met her.The boundaries between reality and fiction become increasingly blurred as Cross exercises godlike control over the production. During a screening of some footage for Ninas parents who are visiting the production, a nude sex scene with Nina is shown. Eli appears to be mortified, but allows the footage to play anyway. He waits until Nina is just about to shoot a traumatic scene the next day to tell her that her parents have seen the footage of her naked. It causes her to cry, which seems to be the exact emotion Eli needed from her in the scene. ........

Source: Wikipedia