Never Made Movies - No.9 David Carradine's Mata Hari
The Kung Fu star sought to tell the spy's story in real time!
At the height of his fame, Kung Fu star David Carradine embarked upon a ludicrously ambitious, completely self-financed project which would see his daughter Calista play the infamous she-spy Mata Hari.
The plan was for Carradine Sr to shoot footage every year to capture his daughter maturing. Arguments that other productions got away with casting different actors to play characters at different stages of their lives were completely wasted on Carradine, who insisted on filming the ageing process for real.
Designed to span 20 years, Mata Hari ought to have hit screens during the summer of 1998. That it didn’t appear was seen as evidence that Carradine had either run out of money or interest. And with the director now dead and Boyhood a part of our movie lives, Hari hardly seems to Mata anymore.