The Dict - reds

reds, is a movie about the american journalist john reed, who is famous for his book, ten days that shook the world, about the bolshevik revolution, which he witnessed first-hand. the movie was co-written, produced and directed by warren beatty, who also plays the role of john reed. it is said to be warren beatty's baby, he had begun speaking of doing a movie on the journalist since the mid '60s, and had begun to write drafts of it in the '70s, though the process was stalled due to various reasons. he hadn't originally intended to act in the movie or direct it, for producing a film seemed hard enough on it's own, but somehow it happened.
the movie also starred diane keaton (who was in a relationship with beatty at the time) as reed's wife loise bryant (journalist, writer, feminist) and jack nicholson as the famous playwright eugene o'neal. it also features interviews with witnesses of the time, like a documentary, including writer henry miller.
the making of the movie took over two years, and cost 33,5 million$ to paramount pictures. beaty obsessed over the film, and drove his cast crazy - especially diane keaton, who had the most scenes in the film, reds brought the end to their relationship.

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When principal photography began in August 1979 the original intention was for a 15 to 16 week shoot but it would take one whole year to just shoot the film. The process was slow because it was shot in five different countries and at various points the crew had to wait for snow to fall in Helsinki (and other parts of Finland), which stood in for the Soviet Union, and for rain to stop in Spain. Beatty would also not stop the camera between takes and would have it continuously roll. He also insisted on a large number of takes. Paul Sorvino said he did as many as 70 takes for one scene and actress Maureen Stapleton had to do 80 takes of one particular scene which caused her to quip to Beatty, "Are you out of your fucking mind?".

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(see: wikipedia)