Phil Alden Robinson (director of Field of Dreams<\/i>) adapted WP Kinsella’s wonderful book Shoeless Joe<\/i> for the screen, ruthlessly chopping it up, streamlining the many stories into one: Ray’s journey to reconcile with his father. Throughout the entire time of filming, the project was called Shoeless Joe<\/i>. Robinson was incredibly attached to the title, because of his affinity for the book, and his deep heartfelt wish to embody the work faithfully.<\/p>\n
Filming completed and the studio started to do test previews. Immediately, it became apparent to the producers that the title was a problem. Audience members thought the movie was going to be about a homeless person. Or, people with more baseball knowledge thought that it was going to be a historical picture with Costner playing Shoeless Joe. There was much confusion. The title didn’t work. It did for the book, but not for the movie.<\/p>\n
So Larry Gordon, one of the producers, suggested a new title to Robinson: Field of Dreams<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Robinson was horrified. He thought it was a terrible title. It sounded like a commercial for something – Field of Dreams – with 50% less calories!<\/i> No, no, no – the movie, which he had now worked on for up to 5 years, including his time working on the adaptation, HAD to be called Shoeless Joe<\/i>!!<\/p>\n
But Larry Gordon insisted: The audiences weren’t getting it. The title Shoeless Joe<\/i> had to go. Field of Dreams<\/i> it had to be.<\/p>\n
Robinson eventually caved. But first, he made a cringing embarrassed call to Kinsella (who, all along, had been totally happy with what Robinson had been doing. Kinsella loved the adaptation, thought everything was great, he’s a laidback hippie type of guy).<\/p>\n
Robinson got Kinsella on the phone and said, “Well, I have some bad news … I’ve been told that Shoeless Joe<\/i> doesn’t work as a title. The title has to be changed.”<\/p>\n
Kinsella replied breezily, before even hearing what the new title would be, “Oh, that’s fine. Anyway, the publishers forced<\/em> me to call it Shoeless Joe<\/i>. My original title was Dream Field<\/i>.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Phil Alden Robinson (director of Field of Dreams) adapted WP Kinsella’s wonderful book Shoeless Joe for the screen, ruthlessly chopping it up, streamlining the many stories into one: Ray’s journey to reconcile with his father. Throughout the entire time of … Continue reading