Screenwriter Tom Schulman’s script, originally titled The Stand, was sold in a bidding war to producer Andrew G. Vajna, who had recently departed from Carolco Pictures and established his own Cinergi Productions. The 7 Feb 1992 DV review noted that the sale took place on “the crest of Hollywood’s big-spending spree for original scripts,” with Vajna paying Schulman roughly $3 million, and spending an additional $1 million on rewrites by Sally Robinson and an uncredited Tom Stoppard. According to a later article in the 7 Aug 1992 DV, the script sold for the lesser amount of $2.5 million. Additionally, it stated that Cinergi paid “as much as $20 million” for the combined services of Schulman, director John McTiernan, and lead actor Sean Connery. A production budget of $40 million was cited in the 26 Apr 1991 DV. Vajna funded development before Walt Disney subsidiary Hollywood Pictures came on board to produce, with Buena Vista Pictures Distribution set to release the film in the U.S. Worldwide rights were retained by Cinergi.
       The title was changed to The Last Days of Eden, as noted in a 15 Feb 1991 DV production chart. Filming was initially set to begin 25 Feb 1991, but was slightly delayed to early Mar 1991. By 18 Apr 1991, the picture was listed as "untitled." A 26 Aug 1991 DV brief referred to the film by its final title, Medicine Man.
       Although a 15 Mar 1991 DV production chart listed Tom Rolf as editor, he did not remain with the project.
       On 4 Mar 1991, principal photography began in a 125-acre section of the jungle in Catemaco, Mexico, 100 miles south of Veracruz. According to a 16 Feb 1992 LAT article, John McTiernan had originally planned to shoot in Palenque, Mexico, where he had filmed Predator (1987, see entry), but upon returning, the director had found the jungle depleted by a hotel development and other tourist attractions. After Palenque, potential filming locations had also been scouted in Central America, Venezuela, and Borneo. Although the story takes place in the Amazon, McTiernan avoided filming there due to the rampant cases of yellow fever and jaundice that had afflicted crewmembers on the Brazilian set of At Play in the Fields of the Lord (1991, see entry). Filmmakers imported fifty-seven non-English speaking Brazilian Indians to appear as background actors, as noted in the 26 Apr 1991 DV. Principal photography was completed by 1 Jul 1991, according to a DV article published that day. Later that month, a second unit was scheduled to film exteriors in Brazil, “during the season when the [rain] forests are burned.” The 5 May 1991 Orlando Sentinel stated that several scenes called for Sean Connery and co-star Lorraine Bracco to be filmed in treetops, 70--125 feet in the air.
       Sean Connery gave a controversial interview to Premiere magazine, in which he claimed to have been extremely uncomfortable during filming, as stated in the 22 Jan 1992 Las Vegas Review-Journal. Connery described the food as “appalling,” complained that everybody but himself got sick, and lamented that there was nowhere to go near the set except for a tennis court, which he likened to “the beach at Dunkirk.” The actor also expressed disdain for the “noise of the insects and wildlife,” and reportedly abandoned set three days early, leaving filmmakers to finish without him. In a 15 Feb 1992 Orlando Sentinel article, McTiernan defended the conditions on set, arguing that, unlike the ill-fated productions of Werner Herzog’s Fitzcarraldo and At Play in the Fields of the Lord, no crewmembers had been lost to serious illnesses. By the end of production, McTiernan claimed that only about six people had endured stomach viruses. The director refused to comment on Connery’s accusations that he had failed to properly guide Lorraine Bracco’s performance.
       While the 5 May 1991 Orlando Sentinel stated that the film would be a Christmas 1991 release, a later item in the 13 Sep 1991 USA Today stated that domestic release had been tentatively scheduled for the fall, before being delayed until the next year.
       The Los Angeles, CA, premiere took place on 5 Feb 1992 at the El Capitan Theatre, as noted in a DV item of the same date. The event benefitted environmental conservation groups including the Natural Resources Defense Council, Rainforest Alliance, and the Nature Conservancy.
       Medicine Man was routinely panned by critics, as was Lorraine Bracco’s performance. In a 23 Feb 1992 LAT article, Bracco responded to negative reviews by arguing that McTiernan had directed her against her instincts. Bracco also responded to rumors that she had been difficult on set by stating, “[the production] was a horrific creative experience for me and I did the best I could under the circumstances.” In its opening weekend, the film ranked number one at U.S. box office, taking in $8.5 million, as reported in the 14 Feb 1992 Austin American Statesman. However, a 7 Aug 1992 DV article noted that Medicine Man ultimately was a commercial failure, costing a reported $55 million, and grossing only $45.5 million, leading Andrew Vajna to reconsider and potentially “refocus” the core business model of Cinergi Productions, which had only produced Medicine Man in its first three years of existence.
       On 18 Apr 1991, DV announced that actress Charlene Dallas sued Tom Schulman, Cinergi Productions, Creative Artists Agency, and Hollywood Pictures for $10 million, claiming copyright infringement on a screenplay she had written, Endangered Heart, about “a strong-willed woman who travels alone to Amazon rain forest to find an eccentric, philosophically bent biochemist, who seems to have found a cure for a human ailment in the petals of a nightblooming flower – an epiphyte growing high in the rain forest canopy.” Schulman’s attorney vehemently denied that his client stole from Dallas’s script. The outcome of the lawsuit could not be determined as of the writing of this Note.
       End credits include the following statements: “The producers wish to gratefully thank the Credit Lyonnais Bank Nederland, N.V., for its assistance… and the government and people of Veracruz, Mexico, for their help and support”; “Special thanks to: rigging equipment supplied by – Pigeon Mountain Industries, Inc./PETZL, Grip, Safety & Rescue Systems/ROLLGLISS, Troll Safety Equipment, Ltd., Latchways Limited, Miller Equipment and Rock Solid Manufacturing; Corning Incorporated; Cemex Lumber Export, Santarem, Brazil; Volkswagen De Mexico S.A. de C.V.; Kawasaki Mule 4x4 furnished by Kawasaki Motors Corp., USA; LucasArts Editing Systems – editDROID™; NoNoise Processing by John Polito, Audio Mechanics, Inc.”