A Hands-Off Approach

Sometimes, production companies constantly try to meddle with movies. In an effort to make sure that their money's being well-spent, they—often with the best of intentions—drive their directors crazy and almost destroy would-be classics. (This was kind of the situation when Francis Ford Coppola made The Godfather.)

On the other hand, there are cases where the production company has so little money riding on the film that they don't interfere and don't really care too strongly about what happens. This allows the writer and director free rein, permitting their creativity to develop without interruption. Fortunately, this is basically what happened with A Man for All Seasons.

Fred Zinnemann, the director and producer, explained how Columbia Pictures approached the project:

"As far as Columbia was concerned this was a very modest, and in a box office sense, totally unpromising project. It had many counts against it: 'Nobody wants to see a costume movie'; very little action, let alone violence, no sex, no overt love story and, most importantly, no stars, in fact hardly any actors that the US public had ever heard of.

"No wonder the budget was tiny and no attention was paid to us by the front office during the shooting—this is of course always a blessing." (Source)

But there were some studio suggestions—the production company wanted the great Laurence Olivier to play More. But Zinnemann made sure that Paul Scofield, who had already handled the role with genius on stage, got the part.

Weaknesses Turned Out to be Strengths

Yet, despite all these supposed problems with the story—no sex, no violence, no mega-stars—A Man for All Seasons won big at the 1966 Academy Awards, scooping up Best Picture, Best Director, Best Cinematography, Best Actor, and Best Cinematography (Color).

And even though, as Zinnemann pointed out, there were no stars familiar to American audiences in the film, some of these actors went on to have massive success: John Hurt got his start playing Richard Rich, and would later be the guy who had an alien burst out of his chest in Alien; Vanessa Redgrave, who wordlessly played Anne Boleyn, would become an extremely successful actress in in films as different as Howard's End and Mission: Impossible.

And, oh: Robert Shaw, aka Henry VIII himself, would later play the shark-hunting fisherman Quint in Jaws.

So, its weaknesses weren't really weaknesses, and it was packed with future stars. It's a great example of a movie largely (or even entirely) driven by dialogue that still was a smash hit.