Hotel Dallas

Patrick Duffy on why he was interested in the project: "For years, Larry Hagman would tell me how he took personal credit for defeating communism [in Romania]. I used to take that with a grain of salt, but over the years, I had the strangest series of coincidences. I was at the Washington correspondents' dinner, and the Romanian ambassador ran over to shake my hand and tell me how important Dallas (1978) was to defeating the communist regime. Then, just last June, I was in Monte Carlo with my wife and the same thing happened: The Romanian ambassador there came over, his eyes welled up with tears, and he took his pin - of the Romanian flag - and pinned it on my jacket." [Hollywood Reporter 2016]

The film follows a real-life Romanian oligarch who, in the 1990s, not only styled himself after character J.R. Ewing (Larry Hagman) from Dallas (1978), but also built the Hotel Dallas, a resort modeled after the series' Southfork Ranch, in the southeastern Romanian city of Slobozia. There's also a small-scale replica of the Eiffel tower. It all still exists today and can be visited.

Co-director Livia Ungur on Patrick Duffy: "We approached him with a rough cut after the Romania shoot. We found his manager's email on IMDb and wrote to him cold. We never thought he would agree, as we obviously could not pay the fees that he deserved. But less than a month later, we were shooting with Patrick in L.A. He was so brave to take a chance on this crazy project made by complete unknowns. And, of course, his performance was flawless." [Indiewire 2016]

Co-director Livia Ungur on the film's unusual form: "The film is about the relationship between fantasy and reality, so it made sense to include both." [2016]