According to a 15 Oct 1967 NYT article, producer-director Sidney Lumet signed a three-picture deal with Warner Bros.-Seven Arts, Inc., after completing production on Bye Bye Braverman (1968, see entry) for the studio. The Sea Gull was set to be the first of the three films, all of which would be made “on a modest budget and with complete artistic freedom.” The cost of The Sea Gull was estimated at $750,000, although a 3 Dec 1968 LAT brief later stated that the picture was brought in for $830,000. Lumet was paid “virtually nothing,” while principal cast members James Mason, Vanessa Redgrave, Simone Signoret, and David Warner agreed to work for reduced salaries of $25,000 each. Initial plans were made to shoot in Sweden and England, but production ultimately took place entirely in Sweden.
       LAT stated that Lumet had read eleven different English translations of Anton Pavlovich Chekhov’s 1896 play, Chayka (a.k.a. The Sea Gull), but had found them all “either pedantic and stilted or terribly modern and full of colloquialisms.” He discussed a new translation with British playwright Peter Shaffer before commissioning Baroness Moura Budberg to write it, according to NYT. Budberg had previously adapted Chekhov’s Three Sisters for a production at the National Theater, which Lumet had seen and admired. She also served as the “word-and-technical advisor” on the set of The Sea Gull, the 3 Oct 1968 DV noted. Although Lumet claimed that the screen adaptation would strictly follow Chekhov’s original work, the 24 Dec 1968 NYT film review noted that the last line of the play, “in which the doctor tells Trigorin to get Arkadina out of the room,” was removed. Also, the scene of “Konstantin’s” suicide was moved “from the house to the lake,” and while the act took place entirely offstage in the play, Konstantin’s dead body was shown in the film.
       Following an “intense” rehearsal period, as described in LAT, principal photography began on 22 Aug 1968 in Stockholm, Sweden, according to a production chart in the next day’s DV. To make use of the “bright summer mornings,” shooting hours began at 7:30 a.m. and ended at 4:30 p.m., the 30 Aug 1968 DV reported. Filming was completed in twenty-nine days.
       A world premiere in New York City was scheduled to take place on 22 Dec 1968, just four months after the start of filming, which necessitated a sped-up post-production. Lumet took out an advertisement in the 12 Dec 1968 DV to thank those who helped deliver an answer print by 6 Dec 1968, naming sound mixer George Groves and his crew members Gordon Davis , Dan Willin, Francis Scheid , and Sam Goode, as well as editor Rudi Fehr, and Technicolor’s Earl Knettles and Norman Strifert.
       A special screening was arranged on 19 Dec 1968 for actors and actresses currently appearing in Broadway shows, as noted in the 25 Dec 1968 Var. Following the 22 Dec 1968 New York City opening, and subsequent release in Los Angeles, CA, on 25 Dec 1968, the picture received mixed reviews. In a positive critique, Var mentioned that the 141-minute running time was comprised of three acts “separated by long fades.” The first act was cited as sixty-nine minutes, the second act thirty minutes, and the third act forty-two minutes.
       The Sea Gull was named Seventeen magazine’s “Picture of the Month” for Jan 1969, according to the 23 Jan 1969 DV.
       Although Lumet was quoted in the 15 Oct 1967 NYT as saying that his film marked the first English-language screen adaptation of Chekhov’s play, the 1 Sep 1926 Var noted that Charlie Chaplin had financed an earlier version of The Sea Gull, directed by Joseph Von Sternberg and starring Edna Purviance. However, Chaplin was not satisfied with the final product. The 11 Apr 1984 DV obituary for Paul Ivano, who had made his debut as director of photography on the Von Sternberg picture, claimed that Chaplin had “shelved and reputedly destroyed it,” but noted that film critic John Grierson, one of few who to have viewed it, had “called it the most beautiful film ever made up until that time.”
       After signing a multiple-picture deal to appear in films directed by Lumet, Jill Townsend was reportedly cast, as noted in the 11 Dec 1967 DV.