''Mata Hari'' was an American feature film about

Mata Hari Margaretha Geertruida MacLeod (née Zelle; 7 August 187615 October 1917), better known by the stage name Mata Hari (), was a Dutch exotic dancer and courtesan who was convicted of being a spy for Germany during World War I. She was executed by ...

directed by

David Carradine David Carradine ( ; born John Arthur Carradine Jr.; December 8, 1936 – June 3, 2009) was an American actor best known for playing martial arts roles. He is perhaps best known as the star of the 1970s television series ''Kung Fu'', playi ...

. It starred his daughter Calista Carradine. He started filming it in the 1970s but it has never been released. It was his second directorial effort after ''You and Me''.

Cast

*Calista Carradine *David Carradine *John Barrymore

Production

Carradine later said he got the idea to make the film when he was living with

Barbara Hershey Barbara Lynn Herzstein, better known as Barbara Hershey (born February 5, 1948), is an American actress. In a career spanning more than 50 years, she has played a variety of roles on television and in cinema in several genres, including weste ...

. A Dutch director wrote a film for her and they want to make it in Holland. While there, Carradine started steeping himself in the Mata Hari story. He originally intended it to be a vehicle for Hershey but then they broke up.CALENDAR: MOVIES CARRADINE: DOING WELL, BUT DOING HIS OWN THING Mann, Roderick. Los Angeles Times 1 Apr 1979: l32. Carradine became interested in the project again when his daughter expressed interest in being it. He decided to shoot the film over the years, so Calista could age. He hired a writer and started filming it in 1977 when Calista was 15. He said at the time he expected it to take 17 years to finish. He said it was about "Mata Hari the dancer, Mata Hari the liar, Mata Hari the spy, Mata Hari the free spirit." They went to India for two weeks with about 12,000 feet of film stock and shot some footage. After that, they would film for about two weeks a year every year.Calista Carradine Grows Up ... Tierney, Randall. American Film; New York Vol. 14, Iss. 8, (Jun 1989): 80. In 1979 he said he had shot seven hours of footage. "I'm really excited about it," he said. "It's the high point of my life these days." In 1981, he said "the film will probably not exist at a single level of reality. It may be three movies." In 1989, he said "She's always loved it... It was created for her and at certain times in her life it's been the most important thing in her life. We shoot one or two weeks every year and I edit it in my spare time and write it in my spare time. The writing stays just a little ahead of what we're shooting. The original end date was 1992. We might make that, but we might stretch it out a little longer." In 2004, he said "I'm just about done with the first film. Maybe one more scene to do." Interest in the project was revived when

Richard Linklater Richard Stuart Linklater (; born July 30, 1960) is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. He is known for films that revolve mainly around suburban culture and the effects of the passage of time. His films include the comedies '' ...

shot '' Boyhood'' over a long period of time.'Boyhood' marks a special time for director Richard Linklater Williams, Joe. St. Louis Post - Dispatch; St. Louis, Mo. t. Louis, Mo7 July 2014: D.1.

References

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External links

Mata Hari
at

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1970s unfinished films Films directed by David Carradine