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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
Entertainment
David Smith in Washington

Michael Douglas on One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest: ‘My half of the producing fee I gave to Dad’

Saul Zaentz and Michael Douglas accepting their Oscars
Saul Zaentz and Michael Douglas accepting their Oscars Photograph: Snap/Shutterstock

His early career was defined by the Vietnam war with early roles in political films such as Hail, Hero! and Summertree. So it felt natural for Michael Douglas, just 31, to make his first foray into producing with One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, a tale of one man raging against the system.

Fifty years since its release, Douglas is struck how Cuckoo’s Nest resonates anew in today’s landscape. “It’s about as classic a story as we’ll ever have and it seems timeless now, with what’s going on in our country politically, about man versus the machine and individuality versus the corporate world,” the 81-year-old says via Zoom from Santa Barbara, California.

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