# In 1958, Stanley Kubrick wrote a movie specifically for Kirk Douglas. He “didn’t like it”, and that was the end of that

- URL: https://talkfuse.com/story/in-1958-stanley-kubrick-wrote-a-movie-specifically-for-kirk-douglas-he-didnt-like-it-and-that-was-the-end-of-that/
- Published: 2026-10-28T21:15:00+00:00
- Updated: 2026-10-28T23:06:13+00:00
- Original publisher: Far Out
- Original article: https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/stanley-kubrick-wrote-movie-for-kirk-douglas-he-didnt-like-it/
- Topics: Entertainment, Film

## Key points

- Kubrick wrote a crime screenplay for Kirk Douglas in 1958.
- Douglas disliked it, so the film was never made.
- It was based on safecracker Herbert Emerson Wilson’s memoir.

## Summary

Stanley Kubrick wrote a screenplay in 1958 for Kirk Douglas, hoping to work with the actor again after *Paths of Glory*. Douglas disliked it, and the project was dropped, leaving the pair with just two films together: *Paths of Glory* and *Spartacus*.

The unmade film, *I Stole $16,000,000*, was based on the memoir of Herbert Emerson Wilson, a First World War veteran who became a safecracker and led a gang that robbed armoured trucks, bank vaults and department stores. Wilson claimed the gang stole $16 million; he was also convicted of murdering an accomplice. Kubrick later said Douglas’s rejection ended the project, but did not explain what he disliked about the screenplay.

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