The Business
Peter Medak’s ‘The Ghost of Peter Sellers’
In the new documentary “The Ghost of Peter Sellers,” director Peter Medak revisits the nightmarish production of his 1974 film, “Ghost in the Noonday Sun.” The biggest challenge was the behavior of Medak’s star, Peter Sellers.
By Kim Masters • • 28m ListenIn the early 1970s, Hungarian-born director Peter Medak was an up-and-coming filmmaker. He couldn’t believe his luck when comedy legend Peter Sellers asked him to direct his next film, “Ghost in the Noonday Sun.”
But this pirate comedy quickly ran into trouble — an unfinished script, bad weather, and a literally sinking ship. The biggest problem was Sellers himself. The star fired the film’s producers, and at one point even faked a heart attack to get time off.
From the minute the crew arrived in Cyprus, the shoot was such a disaster that the experience haunts Medak to this day. He revisits that history in the new documentary, “The Ghost of Peter Sellers.”
