The production of Eyes of Laura Mars was not remembered as a wholly harmonious star vehicle. Filming ran for 56 days, from October 17, 1977, into early January 1978, across New York City and New Jersey, with producer Jon Peters heavily involved in the project after originally developing it as a vehicle for Barbra Streisand. Once Streisand withdrew, Faye Dunaway inherited the lead role, and reports from the set described a tense relationship between Dunaway and Peters. The friction carried an added layer of industry pressure: Dunaway was an Oscar-winning actress expected to anchor a stylized Columbia thriller, while Peters was a forceful producer whose personal investment in the project had begun with his effort to place his then-girlfriend at its center. The production itself demanded elaborate and potentially stressful location work, including a four-day sequence at Columbus Circle in which Dunaway's character photographed models beside two burning cars. No major public lawsuit or definitive blowup is documented in the source, so the conflict belongs to the category of reported on-set tension rather than a fully chronicled Hollywood implosion. Still, it reflects the volatile creative and personal dynamics surrounding the film's transformation from Carpenter's independent horror concept into a star-driven studio production.
Preparing the daily feature…
AI concept artworkArchive Record · 1970s
The Reported Jon Peters–Faye Dunaway Tension Behind New York's Eyes of Laura Mars
Eyes of Laura Mars / Jon Peters and Faye Dunaway / 1970s
The production of Eyes of Laura Mars was not remembered as a wholly harmonious star vehicle. Filming ran for 56 days, from October 17, 1977, into early January 1978, across New York City and New Jersey, with producer Jon Peters heavily involved in the project after originally developing it as a vehicle for Barbra Streisand. Once Streisand withdrew, Faye Dunaway inherited the lead role, and reports from the set described a tense relationship between Dunaway and Peters. The friction carried an added layer of industry pressure: Dunaway was an Oscar-winning actress expected to anchor a stylized Columbia thriller, while Peters was a forceful producer whose personal investment in the project had begun with his effort to place his then-girlfriend at its center. The production itself demanded elaborate and potentially stressful location work, including a four-day sequence at Columbus Circle in which Dunaway's character photographed models beside two burning cars. No major public lawsuit or definitive blowup is documented in the source, so the conflict belongs to the category of reported on-set tension rather than a fully chronicled Hollywood implosion. Still, it reflects the volatile creative and personal dynamics surrounding the film's transformation from Carpenter's independent horror concept into a star-driven studio production.
The daily feature is taking an intermission. There’s still an entire archive to explore.