Noel Marshall

As director, Marshall wrote, co-produced, and starred in the film Roar (1981), which revolved around big cats and featured actress Tippi Hedren, his stepdaughter Melanie Griffith, and his sons, John and Jerry. The idea for the film happened when Hedren finished filming Mr. Kingstreet's War in Africa. Both Marshall and Hedren saw a game warden's house in Zimbabwe overrun by lions, and learned about awareness for endangered animal and big cat species. The two conceived an idea for a film that the family could be a part of, which would center around many African cats.[7] Marshall wrote the script, and gave the film a working title, which was Lions, Lions and More Lions.[8] He also convinced Japanese and British investors to provide the funds for the movie.[4] Marshall and Hedren approached animal trainers for support on the training of numerous big cats, and were told the idea was impossible, dismissing them both as "brainsick" and "completely and utterly insane" to allow big cats on-set without at least two experienced trainers for each animal.[9][4] Hedren had originally wanted actor Jack Nicholson to play the role of biologist Hank, but Marshall himself took the role.[4]

Production started in Santa Monica, California, in 1976; shooting for the film was scheduled to last six months but took 3 years to shoot, and 11 years to make.[10][11] During that time, Marshall and his family began housing lions first at his Sherman Oaks home, a property he bought in Santa Clarita, and later in Acton, California.[12][13] The animal cast eventually reached to 132 lions, tigers, leopards, cougars, and jaguars.[11] Roar was accident-ridden due to the injuries inflicted on the cast and crew that were caused by the animals. Over 70 people are believed to have been injured, giving the film the title of the "most dangerous movie ever made".[14] Marshall's attacks from the lions during scenes were life-threatening; his wounds from the scratches and lion bites became infected and later gave him gangrene.[15] It took him years to recover from the injuries he sustained on-set.[10] Other accidents included a flood from a broken dam, a fire, destroyed equipment, financial issues, and a feline virus which plagued most of the big cats.[12]

Marshall used the proceeds from his executive position on The Exorcist to help fund the film, leading some of the crew to believe it was plagued by the "curse of The Exorcist" due to its financial association.[9][16] After two years of production, most of the financiers had already pulled their money out.[17][9] The finances restricted Marshall and his family from paying the animals' food bills and paying for the damages caused became a burden; investors gave payments of up to $1 million, but this barely paid back the debt. This resulted in their four houses being sold in order to pay the debt, and the entire production crew was fired to compensate for the losses.[12] Marshall and Hedren decided to continue the production and rebuilt the sets that had been destroyed, and hired many different crew members to finish the film.[9] The film's budget thus increased due to the issues and cost $17 million altogether. When it finally released outside of the U.S. in 1981 it received negative reviews and brought in $2 million[N 1] worldwide.[18] It was screened for only a week in theaters.[13][19]

After the filming of Roar, the big cats used were moved to the Shambala Preserve, established by Hedren.[12]

Marshall was slated to produce a film adaptation of the 1978 biographical novel Shadowland by William Arnold after Marie Yates, then Arnold's literary agent, negotiated a movie deal with Marshall. The rights for the film, called Frances, were sold by Yates to Brooksfilms, the production company of Mel Brooks. Marshall claimed that he offered her a better position in the film's production if she gave Brooks the rights without paying Marshall fees as co-producer, and to take Arnold out of the contract and easily "fuck Marshall". Arnold ended up filing a lawsuit against the company and producer Jonathan Sanger for copyright infringement.[20]

A later film where Marshall was also credited as producer was A Night in the Life of Jimmy Reardon (1988), starring River Phoenix,[21] though he never directed or acted in another film again.[15] He left show business to run marketing for an HMO in Florida. The Daily Beast reports that he was working on a film script before his death.[22]