Posted by There aren’t just houses, castles, or cursed places; there can also be films. Such is the case with “Atuk,” a film that was never made due to the death of all the actors interested in playing the lead role.
The deaths
Let’s start from the beginning: the screenplay for the film Atuk (which means “grandfather” in the Inuit language) is based on the book “The Incomparable Atuk,” written by Canadian author Mordecai Richler. In 1971, Norman Jewison bought the rights to adapt it for film and began writing the script.
The first person to read the lead role was John Belushi in 1982, and he immediately showed interest in playing it. Shortly thereafter, however, in March of the same year, he died of an overdose.
The next actor to want to play the lead was Sam Kinison, who also had the opportunity to make changes to the script.
After revising some scenes, the project stalled due to financial problems.
Once the problems were resolved, Sam was ready to shoot the film, but he died in a car accident in 1992.
In 1994, the part went to John Candy, but before filming could begin, the actor died of a heart attack.
In November of the same year, Michael O’Donoghue, who had worked on the screenplay, died of a brain hemorrhage. He had also encouraged Belushi and Candy to get involved in the film.
With so many deaths behind it, the film began to earn the title of “cursed film” and the project was abandoned. However, it was revived in 1997, but once again the film claimed another victim: Chris Farley, who died of an overdose while in negotiations to play the lead role.
The last death, to date, was that of Phil Hartman in 1998, who was murdered by his wife while reading the script.
It is said that the script was put up for sale on eBay, but no one has heard anything about it since. Perhaps these are just coincidences, but six deaths do not seem like a coincidence.