THREE KINGS 321
convincing cinematic repre sen ta tion of the First Indo- China War that achieves the
highest level of historical authenticity.
Three Kings (1999)
Synopsis
Three Kings is an American war film/black comedy written and directed by David O.
Russell from a story idea by John Ridley. The film stars George Clooney, Mark Wahl-
berg, Ice Cube (aka O’Shea Jackson Sr.), and Spike Jonze as four U.S. Army soldiers
on a quest for stolen gold in the midst of the 1991 uprisings in Iraq against Saddam
Hussein following the end of the First Gulf War.
Background
In the annals of Hollywood the creative genesis of Three Kings is unique. In July 1995
John Ridley, an African American stand-up comic turned screenwriter, undertook
an experiment to see how fast he could write and sell a film. He wrote a screen-
play entitled “Spoils of War” in seven days. Eigh teen days later he sold it to War-
ner Bros. In May 1997 filmmaker David O. Russell (Flirting With Disaster) saw a
brief description of Ridley’s script (“Heist set in the Gulf War”) in the Warner Bros.’
script log. Inspired by the concept, Russell spent the next 18 months researching
and writing his own, original script based on the same broad premise (Russell
claims he never read Ridley’s screenplay but the two reached a private agreement,
with Ridley being given a “story by” and co- producer credit for his idea). After
securing a $48 million production deal with Warner Bros., Russell sought to cast
the lead role of Archie Gates, which was originally written with Clint Eastwood in
mind. After Eastwood passed on it, it was offered to Nicolas Cage, Mel Gibson,
Jack Nicholson, Nick Nolte, and Dustin Hoffman. They all turned it down, where-
upon Russell revised the role as a younger character and reluctantly cast George
Clooney. A star on the hit tele vi sion series ER since its inception in 1994, Clooney
was ready to quit TV and transition to film work. He was very much taken with
the Three Kings script and lobbied hard for the role. Russell wrote the part of Con-
rad Vig for film and music video director- producer Spike Jonze, even though he
had never acted in a film before. The rapper Ice Cube (Boyz n the Hood) was cast as
Chief Elgin, Mark Wahlberg (The Basketball Diaries) as Troy Barlow, and Saturday
Night Live alumna, Nora Dunn, as Adriana Cruz.
Production
The opening scene of Three Kings was filmed on a dry lake bed outside Mexicali,
Mexico, but most of the film was shot in Arizona, near the abandoned Sacaton Cop-
per Mine, about six miles northwest of Casa Grande, between Tucson and Phoenix,
where toxic mining chemicals had wiped out all vegetation. Facsimile Iraqi villages
were constructed on a high plateau composed of tailings left over after the extrac-
tion of the mineral ore. Many of the extras were played by actual Iraqi refugees, all
of whom were recruited from the Iraqi community in Dearborn, Michigan (called