Sylvester Stallone, Sharon Stone and James Woods Press Conference for "The Specialist" (Mar 1, 1994)

Описание: The Specialist is a 1994 American action thriller film directed by Luis Llosa and starring Sylvester Stallone, Sharon Stone, James Woods, Eric Roberts, and Rod Steiger.[2] It is loosely based on "The Specialist" series of novels by John Shirley. The film was met with negative critical response, but became a box office success, and Gloria Estefan's version of "Turn the Beat Around" became a dance sensation, becoming #1 on Billboard’s Dance Club Songs chart.

Cast
Sylvester Stallone as Captain Ray Quick aka The Specialist
Sharon Stone as May Munro / Adrian Hastings
Brittany Paige Bouck as Young May Munro
James Woods as Colonel Ned Trent
Eric Roberts as Tomas Leon
Rod Steiger as Joe Leon
Mario Ernesto Sánchez as Charlie
Sergio Doré Jr. as Bill, The Strong Arm
Chase Randolph as Stan Munro
Jeana Bell as Alice Munro
Gloria Estefan's husband Emilio Estefan Jr. has a small part as the piano player, recording artist LaGaylia Frazier appears as a singer, and character actor Brent Sexton plays Manny.

Production
Alexandra Seros had written the script back in the 1980s, being inspired by the Specialists series of books by John Cutter, and the films The Conversation and Last Tango in Paris, the script made the rounds until it was optioned and bought by Warner Bros.

Around 1991, Mario Van Peebles was attached to direct the film, but he left.

At one stage, David Fincher was set to direct the film, as Stallone liked Fincher's work, but he was overruled, due to the box office failure of Alien 3, which Fincher had directed.

In January 1993, the Los Angeles Times listed The Specialist as the best unproduced thriller script in Hollywood, based on a poll of forty agents, producers and studio executives.[3][4]

Steven Seagal was offered to star in and direct the film. Seagal was a fan of the script, but he wanted the sex scenes toned down, and wanted $9 million. The studio didn't want to pay Seagal that much money, and offered it to Sylvester Stallone instead.[5]

In his autobiography, Roger Moore stated that he was offered a part in the film, but turned it down, he further stated in the book that once he saw the finished product, he was "glad" he didn't take the part[6]

Once the film went into production, numerous changes were made to the screenplay, with Akiva Goldsman reworking the script. Stallone's character was originally written as a lonely and existential character. According to Seros, Stallone was interested in doing that, but at the last minute reverted to the action character, and Stone's character was made more of a victim rather than a free agent just lacking identity.[7]

Reception
Box office
The Specialist opened in the U.S. on October 7 and grossed $14,317,765 in its opening weekend finishing number one at the US box office. In its second weekend, it grossed $8,972,766, finishing second to the claimed $9.3 million gross of Pulp Fiction, however, others disputed Miramax Films' claimed gross and felt that The Specialist was the highest-grossing for the weekend.[8] The film ended up making back its budget with $57,362,582 at the domestic box office while making another $113,000,000 internationally, giving it a worldwide gross of $170,362,582. It set a Warner Bros. record opening in the Philippines with $1.1 million and had the fifth biggest opening of all time in Spain with a gross of $2.1 million.[9] It was Stallone's third highest-grossing movie at the box office in the 1990s and the second highest overall gross next to Cliffhanger.[10]

Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B−" on an A+ to F scale.[11]