The Kentucky Fried Movie—Out of Africa Connection
When ZAZ and Landis were trying to get funding to make the movie, they got help from a friend they knew from Wisconsin, Kim Jorgensen, who ran L.A.’s beloved Nuart Theater. He had connections in the San Francisco theater business who helped them raise the budget, which was just over $600,000.
The Kentucky Fried Movie made more than $7 million and became a cult classic. As Landis explained in Surely You Can’t Be Serious: “Jorgensen ended up making a pile of money from Kentucky Fried Movie, which he used to buy the rights to his favorite book.”
That book was Out of Africa, which became the basis for the 1985 Meryl Streep and Robert Redford film that won seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture, and best director for Sydney Pollack.
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