page_title: Island in the Sun (film)
section_title: Development
hierarchical_section_title: Island in the Sun (film) / Production / Development
caption_attribution_description: English: RUINS OF A PLANTATION GREAT HOUSE; PARTIALLY REBUILT IN 1957 FOR THE FILMING OF THE MOVIE, ISLAND IN THE SUN, STARRING HARRY BELAFONTE AND DOROTHY DANDRIDGE; FIRE SUBSEQUENTLY DESTROYED THE RESTORATION
context_page_description: Island in the Sun is a 1957 De Luxe in CinemaScope drama film produced by Darryl F. Zanuck and directed by Robert Rossen. It features an ensemble cast including James Mason, Harry Belafonte, Joan Fontaine, Joan Collins, Dorothy Dandridge, Michael Rennie, Stephen Boyd, Patricia Owens, John Justin, Diana Wynyard, and Basil Sydney. The film is about race relations and interracial romance set in the fictitious island of Santa Marta. Barbados and Grenada were selected as the sites for the movie based on the 1955 novel by Alec Waugh. The film was controversial at the time of its release for its portrayal of an interracial romance.
context_section_description: Darryl F. Zanuck purchased screen rights to the novel for 20th Century Fox in May 1955, prior to publication. However by that stage it had already been accepted for serialization and was the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest Guild choice.  Waugh received $140,000 for the rights.
  Zanuck said he was attracted to the novel because it contained multiple stories. "I like multiple stories," he said. "Either a story should concentrate on two people or it should for me at least have a number of people dramatically integrated. I don't mean the Grand Hotel type of story but people whose lives and emotions - the drama of the story - are knit together."
  Zanuck said there were fourteen major parts, "and six of them it would be difficult to say who was the most important."
  Zanuck also liked the fact the book had "a novel and attractive background" which would suit filming in color and CinemaScope. And he said the novel tackled miscegenation.
  "Our picture is highly controversial, but then I've made controversial pictures before," said Zanuck, who had made Grapes of Wrath, Gentleman's Agreement and Pinky. "I don't know whether I'll ever be able to show the film in the south and it may be objected to in other areas but I am taking my chances because I believe this great story... If a picture has real significance and genuine theme and purpose, my contention is that it can be made no matter how controversial."
  Zanuck said "it is not basically a picture about the color problem but it would not be possible to make a film about the West Indies without dealing with the color question. It is the essence of the life of the place."
  In July 1955 Alfred Hayes was signed to do the script.
  Zanuck eventually left Fox to return to producing. As part of his agreement with Fox, he took the rights to Island in the Sun. It was going to be the second of three films he was going to produce, the first being The Sun Also Rises and the third being The Secret Crimes of Josef Stalin. In the end Island would be made before Sun Also Rises and the Stalin project was never filmed.
  In July 1956 Robert Rossen was hired to direct. Zanuck said Rossen's "reputation was largely made on offbeat, unorthodox subjects - which this is - and I had confidence, which for a producer is absolutely essential, that he was the man."
caption: The ruins of the Farley Hill mansion
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