James Goldman’s play, The Lion in Winter, opened on 7 Feb 1966 in Boston, MA, and on 3 Mar 1966 at the Ambassador Theatre on Broadway in New York City. Reviews were mixed, and the Broadway run was set to end, after only ninety-two performances, on 21 May 1966, according to a 5 May 1966 LAT item. The following year, a 16 Aug 1967 Var news item announced that Martin Poll had acquired film rights, and planned to produce the film through his Marpol Productions. James Goldman was brought on to adapt his own script. The 6 Dec 1968 LAT noted that Goldman initially turned down the job, on the grounds that he had never written a screenplay.
       A “Just for Variety” column in the 21 Nov 1968 DV stated that four major film studios declined the project, but Embassy Pictures’ Joseph E. Levine “snapped it up” within two days of hearing Poll’s plans. The 20 Sep 1967 Var confirmed Levine’s involvement, and announced the casting of Peter O’Toole and Katharine Hepburn in the roles of “King Henry II” and “Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine,” originated onstage by Robert Preston and Rosemary Harris. O’Toole was thirty-five at the time of his casting, and had to be aged to play the fifty-year-old King Henry II. Coincidentally, a few years earlier, O’Toole had been nominated for an Academy Award for his portrayal of a young King Henry II in Becket (1964, see entry).
       In the 20 Sep 1967 Var, the project was described as “suddenly-put-together” after production on The Ski Bum, a Poll-Levine collaboration also set to star Peter O’Toole, was postponed. The Ski Bum was ultimately released in 1971 (see entry). In the meantime, “key technical personnel and production crew” who were initially assembled to work on The Ski Bum were transferred to The Lion in Winter crew.
       The budget was listed as $1.5 million in a 29 Nov 1967 Var article. However, later sources, including the 8 Nov 1968 LAT and 21 Nov 1968 DV, cited a production cost of $4 million. Due to a devaluation of the British pound in late 1967, filmmakers were expected to save roughly $200,000 by shooting overseas. Poll, who was paid a producer’s fee, was also set to receive 5–7.5% of the worldwide gross. Meanwhile, O’Toole’s salary was listed in a 1 May 1968 Var item as $1 million – a number that would have constituted one-quarter of the $4-million budget estimate.
       O’Toole aided in the casting process, as noted in the 21 Nov 1968 DV. The actor reportedly reached out to repertory directors with whom he was friends, and flew to meet the actors they recommended.
       Principal photography was originally scheduled to begin on 1 Nov 1967 in Dublin, Ireland. The twelve-week-shoot was due to be in conflict with Katharine Hepburn’s next project, The Madwoman of Chaillot (1969, see entry), slated to begin shooting on 15 Jan 1968. The potential conflict grew when filming on The Lion in Winter was delayed several weeks. Ten days of rehearsals at the Haymarket Theatre in London, England, preceded the 27 Nov 1967 start of production, as confirmed in various sources including an 8 Dec 1967 DV production chart.
       Two months of mostly interior shooting took place at Ardmore Studios in Bray, Ireland, according to the 29 Nov 1967 Var. As noted in a 27 Dec 1968 Var article, shortly into filming, a six-day-per-week, “breakless” schedule (known to Europeans as a “French schedule”) was enacted to allow “uninterrupted working hours” between 8:30 a.m. and 4 p.m. Instead of lunch breaks, which often resulted in creative lulls according to Poll, cast and crew were provided a buffet service. The “round-the-clock” schedule was expected to continue in Arles, France, where production was set to relocate the week of 31 Jan 1968, according to a Var item published that day. Prior to the move, “hurricane force winds” caused damage to sets at Ardmore, which had cost $100,000 to build. Repairs, including fixes to “two wind-cracked towers,” were completed on a rushed schedule. In Arles, interior and exterior scenes were filmed at the Montmajour Abbey, which stood in for the Chinon Castle, as stated in a 14 Feb 1968 Var brief. Improvements were made on the 10th-century structure, including added facades, walls, arches, and doorways. Art director Peter Murton estimated that $100,000 in enhancements were added to the abbey, and local authorities reportedly planned to retain the changes and, subsequently, increase admission fees for tourists.
       Three weeks of filming in Arles were followed by a week in Tarascon, France, where riverboat sequences depicting the arrival of Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine at Chinon Castle were shot, according to the 21 Feb 1968 Var. In early Mar 1968, cast and crew were scheduled to film sequences at a castle in Carcassonne, also in the south of France. On 6 Mar 1968, Var reported that Hepburn had recently completed her work on the picture. Filming continued through 5 Apr 1968, according to a 1 May 1968 Var brief. Final battle sequences were scheduled to be shot in Wales, as stated in the 13 Mar 1968 Var.
       An item in the 18 Mar 1968 DV noted that actor Anthony Hopkins broke an arm during a jousting scene shot in Southern France. The grueling shoot also caused director Anthony Harvey to suffer exhaustion and a case of jaundice, according to the 6 Dec 1968 LAT.
       During production, an item in the 13 Dec 1967 DV reported that The Lion in Winter would be Embassy Pictures’ first roadshow release, and a booking had already been scheduled at the Warner Beverly Hills Theatre in Los Angeles, CA. However, when the film opened in Los Angeles, the 17 Dec 1968 LAT review noted it was playing exclusively at the 4 Star Theatre on Wilshire Boulevard. Months prior to release, Embassy was acquired by the Avco Corporation. The 4 May 1968 NYT detailed Avco’s plans to gain control over Embassy via a stock purchase of $40 million. The newly formed Avco Embassy Pictures Corp. thus distributed the picture, which opened on 30 Oct 1968 at the Lincoln Art Theatre in New York City, grossing $23,178 in its first six days, as stated in the 6 Nov 1968 Var. A benefit screening at the same theater was scheduled to take place on 13 Nov 1968, to raise money for the Girls and Boys Service League, according to a 1 Nov 1968 NYT brief. A Los Angeles premiere, benefitting the UCLA Foundation Children’s Fund, was set to follow on 17 Dec 1968 at the 4 Star Theatre, the 8 Nov 1968 LAT reported.
       Although the 134-minute picture was initially released without an intermission, by late Nov 1968 Avco Embassy decided to add one. The 25 Nov 1968 DV stated that, henceforth, altered reels would be provided to exhibitors. Avco Embassy was said to have based its decision on feedback from “some exhibitors and other industry personnel” who claimed that intermissions added “class” to roadshow presentations. The 15 Apr 1969 DV quoted Poll as saying that he and Levine had disagreed over the intermission; however, Poll agreed to add the break in the spirit of compromise.
       The Lion in Winter received largely positive reviews and was commercially successful. On 19 Mar 1969, DV noted that the film, showing in seventy-one theaters at that time, had taken in $5 million in U.S. box-office receipts, to date.        Academy Awards went to John Barry for Music (Original Score – for a motion picture [not a musical]), James Goldman for Writing (Screenplay – based on material from another medium), and Katharine Hepburn for Best Actress. Hepburn shared the award with Barbra Streisand, who won for Funny Girl (1968, see entry), in the first tie for that award in the ceremony’s forty-one-year history, according to a 16 Apr 1969 NYT brief. Academy Award nominations also went to Peter O’Toole for Best Actor, Margaret Furse for Costume Design, Anthony Harvey for Directing, and Martin Poll for Best Picture. The Lion in Winter was named Best English-Language Film of 1968 by the New York Film Critics Circle, as noted in the 31 Dec 1968 DV, and Best Film by the Foreign Language Press Association, which also named Harvey Best Director, and O’Toole Best Actor, according to the 28 Mar 1969 NYT. Harvey won the Directors Guild of America (DGA) Award for Best Feature Direction, as reported in the 24 Feb 1969 DV, and the picture was chosen for the inaugural Senior Scholastic Merit Award from Scholastic magazine, according to a brief in the 22 Jan 1969 Var.
       A 17 Jul 1968 Var brief stated that Dell Publishing would release a paperback version of Goldman’s screenplay.
       Thirty years after the film’s release, Poll expressed interest in producing a remake, according to a 10 Mar 1999 NYP item. In response to the news, Harvey gave a statement, lamenting that the original film was “languishing in a British vault, rotting away in Technicolor,” and was in desperate need of restoration. Harvey stated, “It’s not that I want to keep Mr. Poll from remaking it; I just wish we could also save the original.” Since Joseph E. Levine had died in 1987, no one had clear ownership of the film. Poll was eventually credited as executive producer on a made-for-television remake, starring Glenn Close and Patrick Stewart, which premiered on Showtime on 25 May 2004. Twelve years later, a “4K restoration” of the 1968 picture was announced in a 6 Nov 2016 LAT listing of upcoming theatrical releases. The restored film was scheduled to be released on 16 Dec 2016 at the Film Forum in New York City, and the Nuart Theatre in Los Angeles.