 The film had already won the Grand Prize at the Venice Film Festival  when Dennis Hopper (qv) delivered the film to Universal. Lee  Wasserman, who had overseen the production and was in charge of the  Universal independent subsidiary at the time, wanted Hopper to recut  it. Hopper adamantly refused. Wasserman then said that if he did not  recut the film, then it would only play for a limited time in the  U.S. and that it would not even see the light of day in Europe even  though European audiences were anxiously awaiting its European  release, after it won the Venice award. Hopper still would not recut  the film and refused to speak to Wasserman for years. In a recent  interview, however, Hopper said that he has forgiven Wasserman.