A 21 Jun 1976 Box brief announced that Bob Fosse had signed a contract with Paramount Pictures Corp. to direct, as well as co-write with Robert Alan Aurthur, an original comedy and musical drama titled All That Jazz, which would represent his fourth feature as a director. Prior to this deal, Fosse and Aurthur had been working on a project for Paramount, with the title Ending. Later, in a 30 Dec 1979 NYT interview, Fosse stated that the idea for All That Jazz evolved from his interest in Ending, a novel by Hilma Wolitzer about dying and grief.
       An item in the 8 Sep 1977 DV reported that Richard Dreyfuss would star in the principal role, with pre-production rehearsals scheduled to begin 30 Jan 1978 in New York City. By this point, Columbia Pictures, Inc. had acquired the film from Paramount. Executive producer Daniel Melnick, who encouraged Columbia president David Begelman to purchase the project, recalled in a 6 Jan 1980 LAT article that the studios had misgivings about how closely the story resembled Fosse’s life, fearing that it was too “self-indugent.” Because of this criticism, Fosse was afraid of discussing the film’s autobiographical content, as he admitted in the 30 Dec 1979 NYT interview.
       Among the multiple connections between Fosse and lead character “Joe Gideon” was the primary similarity of suffering a heart attack while juggling directing duties on two major projects. Fosse was hospitalized while simultaneously preparing the Broadway musical Chicago (New York, 3 Jun 1975) and completing the feature film Lenny (1974, see entry) about comedian Lenny Bruce. Casting actor Cliff Gorman to play stand up “Davis Newman” reinforced the reference to Bruce, since Gorman played the real-life comic on Broadway in Lenny (New York, 26 May 1971).
       As pointed out by reviewers, the character “Audrey Paris” evoked Fosse’s ex-wife Gwen Verdon. Dancer and actress Ann Reinking, who had been involved in a romantic relationship with Fosse for five years, but had separated by the time production began, played a version of herself in the role of girlfriend “Kate Jagger,” as she explained in a 4 Jan 1980 NYT article. When Fosse experienced a more serious heart attack in the hospital, she was present and felt that the corresponding scene in the film was an accurate depiction of Fosse’s real agony and the nurse’s disbelief. However, in contrast to the self-destructive Gideon, Reinking said that Fosse was a “‘model patient’” and unlike her character in the film, she never dated other men while he was hospitalized. She also commented that, regardless of her former romance with Fosse and their earlier collaborations on Broadway, she had to earn the role of Kate in auditions. An item in the 20 Sep 1978 DV reported that Reinking took a leave of absence from the Broadway musical Dancin’ (New York, 27 Mar 1978) to begin rehearsing for the production. An undated HR brief mentioned that Shirley MacLaine, who had starred in Fosse’s film Sweet Charity (1969, see entry), was considered for a part, but no further information was available in the AMPAS library file.
       During the rehearsal period, Dreyfuss withdrew from the production citing “exhaustion,” and the Jul 1978 start date was postponed, according to a 7 Jun 1978 LAT article. A source in the article claimed that the actor had maintained a relentless schedule since working on Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977, see entry). In his 22 Aug 1978 DV column, Army Archerd reported that Roy Scheider was cast as Dreyfuss’ replacement within a few days and mentioned that the same agent represented both actors. Later, in an 11 Sep 1978 DV item, Dreyfuss stated that he actually left the production because of “‘differences with Fosse’” and considered Scheider better suited for the role.
       According to a 1978 HR article, filming was rescheduled for fall 1978. As outlined in production notes at AMPAS library, all location scenes took place in or near New York City, with additional filming at the sound stages of Astoria Studios in Queens, New York. Except for an exterior and a few simple interior shots, Fosse’s favorite rehearsal studio, Broadway Arts, was not used as a practical shooting location, and the space was recreated at Astoria using design techniques to “heighten” the worn appearance of the original. The fantasy sequences designed by Tony Walton were also filmed on Astoria’s soundstages. An apartment in the Central Park West neighborhood was used for Gideon’s home. The hospital scenes were filmed on location at the Lutheran Medical Center in Brooklyn, NY, and on soundstages at New York City’s Pathe Studios. The finale sequence was shot at the Performing Arts Center on the campus of Purchase College, part of the State University of New York, utilizing the Center’s flexible, black box amphitheater. Other New York City locations included The Village Gate in Greenwich Village, where the young Joe Gideon performs, and the Texas Lone Star Café at the corner of Thirteenth Street and Fifth Avenue, the setting for The Stand Up. To stage the cattle call auditions for NY/LA, the production shot at The Palace in Times Square, the same theatre where Fosse’s Broadway musicalSweet Charity opened on 29 Jan 1966. Additional locations within the city were “Pace College, John Jay College, Fiorell’s Restaurant, and the Preview Theatre at 1600 Broadway.” Throughout these various sets and locations, production designer Philip Rosenberg aimed for an overall “spartan” appearance to reflect Gideon’s own understated expression of wealth and status and compared the minimalist design to making a black and white film.
       During production, producer and co-writer Robert Alan Aurther passed away from lung cancer, as reported by a 22 Nov 1978 DV obituary.
       In another major setback, the film was a week away from finishing production when Columbia decided against financing the musical finale, which was estimated to cost $500,000, as well as other scenes, according to the 6 Jan 1980 LAT article. By then, the production budget had escalated from $6 million to $9.5 million. Executive producer Melnick arranged a last minute deal with Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corp. to guarantee completion. After viewing eighty minutes of footage, Twentieth Century-Fox President Alan Ladd, Jr. agreed to invest $5 million and to acquire distribution rights, while sharing in the profits as an equal partner with Columbia.
       The film earned mostly positive reviews. The 16 Dec 1979 LAT represented one of the more enthusiastic opinions in stating that the “spirited autobiography” was a “celebration of the possibilities of film.” The 12 Dec 1979 Var critic praised the energetic choreography and performances, but faulted the story for not fully exploring the motivations for Gideon’s obsessive behavior. In his 20 Dec 1979 NYT review, Vincent Canby wrote that even though the film shared a similar style and autobiographical theme with Federico Fellini’s 8 ½, it was more analogous to “Peter Pan and all other middle-aged boys who have refused to grow up” for its “uproarious display of brilliance, nerve, dance, maudlin confessions, inside jokes and, especially, ego” that he concluded was “great fun.”
       The film received four Academy Awards: Art Direction, Costume Design, Film Editing and Music (Original Song Score and its Adaptation or Adaptation Score) and was nominated in five additional categories: Actor in a Leading Role for Roy Scheider, Cinematography, Directing, Best Picture and Writing (Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen). At the 1980 Cannes Film Festival, the film shared the top prize, the Palme D’Or, with Akira Kurosawa’s Kagemusha.
       All That Jazz was ranked 14th on AFI's list of the 25 Greatest Movie Musicals.
      The following acknowledgement appears in the end credits: “Special Thanks to Serge Diakonoff--Face Masks derived from Serge Diakonoff--Miralda Ou Peintures Sur Un Visage, edited by Bernard Letu.” The second mention of Diakonoff is misspelled in the onscreen credits. End credits also contain the written statement, “The Producers wish to thank the Governor of the State of New York and his staff, and the New York City Mayor’s Office for Motion Picture Production.”