<P> Actor Kirk Douglas--who had originated the role of McMurphy in the 1963--1964 Broadway stage version of the Ken Kesey novel--had purchased the film rights to the story, and tried for a decade to bring it to the big screen, but was unable to find a studio willing to make it with him . Eventually, he gave the rights to his son Michael Douglas, who succeeded in getting the film produced--but the elder Douglas, by then nearly 60, was considered too old for the McMurphy role, which ultimately went to 38 - year - old Jack Nicholson . </P> <P> Douglas brought in Saul Zaentz as co-producer . </P> <P> The film's first screenwriter, Lawrence Hauben, introduced Douglas to the work of Miloš Forman, whose 1967 Czechoslovak film The Firemen's Ball had the sort of qualities they were looking for . Forman flew to California and went through the script page by page and outlined what he would do, in contrast with other directors who had been approached who were less than forthcoming . Forman wrote in 2012: "To me (the story) was not just literature but real life, the life I lived in Czechoslovakia from my birth in 1932 until 1968 . The Communist Party was my Nurse Ratched, telling me what I could and could not do; what I was or was not allowed to say; where I was and was not allowed to go; even who I was and was not ." </P> <P> Saul Zaentz, a voracious reader, felt an affinity with Kesey, and so after Hauben's first attempt he asked Kesey to write the screenplay, and promised him a piece of the action, but it didn't work out and ended in a financial dispute . </P>

Who flew over the cuckoo's nest cast