Michael Douglas on his relationship and legal battle with Kathleen Turner and nearly landing in a Moroccan prison during 'Jewel of the Nile'

To celebrate the release of his new memoir, the actor/producer regaled the American Cinematheque crowd with stories about making the movies — including the 1985 sequel "Romancing the Stone," starring a leading lady who wanted him dead.

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Last Saturday, America's Cinematheque hosted a Michael Douglas marathon to celebrate the release of the actor/producer's new memoir, One Helluva Ride. After the audience spent the day at the Egyptian Theater watching The Stone Lover, The War of the Roses and Falling Down, Douglas joined me on stage for a lively professional chat. The marathon then resumed with the screening of David Fincher's The Game.

The film that debuted, "Stone Romance," also featured some of Douglas' best stories. The 1984 action-comedy-romance made Douglas a movie star, but when he got the script from Diane Thomas as producer, he didn't intend to play the intrepid adventurer Jack Colton. "I was a big producer," Douglas said of winning an Oscar for producing "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest." I'm a studio film producer, but I'm a TV actor. RELATED STORIES Jacob Tierney Created the Hit Series "Fierce Rivalry" — Then Wrote a Book About It, "The Hunger Games" and "Love Story" Producers Nina Jacobson and Brad Simpson to Speak at IndieWire's Upcoming Filmmaking Summit

At the time, Douglas' main claim to fame was starring in the TV crime drama "The Streets of San Francisco" during an era when actors rarely crossed over from television to movies. Although Douglas became a major Hollywood star after producing two hits, "The Cuckoo's Nest" and "The China Syndrome," the studios did not sign him as a leading man. "I produced this movie called Starman with Jeff Bridges," Douglas said. "I would have loved to play that part, but I wasn't approved. It was Jeff."

For Romancing the Stone, Douglas offered the role to Clint Eastwood and Burt Reynolds, but both passed because they saw Jack as secondary to the heroine, Joan Wilder. He then approached Paul Newman, Robert Redford, Sylvester Stallone and other studio-approved actors – all of whom said no. In the end, Douglas knew that an actor wouldn't say no to him, so he cast himself in the role, and the studio had little to do because everyone on their roster had been cut.

They also didn't expect much to start Romancing the Stone. "I remember the big picture they were all betting on was 'Rhinestone' with Sylvester Stallone and Dolly Parton," Douglas said. "Romancing the Stone" was a negative pickup for the studio, meaning Douglas was on hand to raise costs as producer, but he was also left largely alone during filming. Working with director Robert Zemeckis, who had made two acclaimed but commercially unsuccessful films ("I Wanna Hold Your Hand" and "Used Cars") and was one step away from the director's prison sentence, Douglas and co-star Kathleen Turner created a classic.

When Douglas showed them the first cut, the studio didn't see it that way. "They didn't like it," Douglas said. The studio provided additional money for the reshoots, not realizing that Douglas had spent everything he was entitled to because the cost report had not yet returned from Mexico. Douglas, Zemeckis, and Turner committed to reshoots and then realized, "Usually, they're low-budget, they're high-budget."

Inevitably, the studio wanted a sequel, which led to one of the most stressful experiences of Douglas' career, the 1985 release of Jewel of the Nile. Trouble started early, when Douglas talked to Kathleen Turner about getting her back. "Cathleen and I carried on through the romance of Stone until she revealed it in her memoir," Douglas said, referring to a relationship they kept secret for more than 40 years. "When the movie ended, I went back to my wife Diandra and we ended our relationship. Then Kathleen became a big star."

When Douglas approached Turner about reprising his role for Jewel of the Nile, she was newly married and filling her dance card with exciting projects like Francis Coppola's Peggy Sue Got Married and Steven Spielberg's comedy Money Pit. When Turner told Douglas he intended to do the second, he reminded him that the contract for the first film gave him the option to make the second film.

Turner's solution was to hire infamous attorney (and mentor to Donald Trump) Roy Cohen to represent him in a legal battle with Douglas. Douglas eventually won the case, but found himself in big trouble as he headed to Morocco for production. "I thought, 'Now I have to make this sequel with a woman who hates my guts,'" Douglas said.

An unhappy actor was the least of Douglas' problems. 10 days before filming began, a plane crash killed several of Douglas' friends and colleagues, including his AD and production designer. "Due to technical issues in Morocco, I was unable to get the bodies out of the country," Douglas said. "So at the hotel, I have the cast and crew who have come to start the movie, and three grieving widows at the bar, waiting for me to get their husbands out. And my leading lady is there under duress, looking at me like I have to watch my back or she's going to kill me."

"We were three days into shooting, and the health department in Morocco came to my office and said, 'I'm sorry to tell you, but we have to quarantine the company for six weeks,'" Douglas said. "We think one of your crew has hepatitis." When the health department asked for two million dollars to fix the problem, Douglas saw that he was being extorted—and when he called the studio for help, they made it clear that it was his problem.

Contacting the US ambassador in Morocco did not help. "He said, 'Now you know the difference between democracy and autocracy,'" Douglass said. Maddened and worried that 110 cast and crew from around the world would be stranded in Morocco, Douglas talked to his brother Joel, who was working on the film, and they came up with a solution. A member of the production team stole a bead from the local customs inspector and stamped everyone's passports—but the question remained: how to get them and all their equipment out of the country without the government noticing.

"I found a Russian cargo plane and leased it from Paris," Douglas said. Then I called the customs office and the man came to the desert and I gave him a small envelope and thanked him for all his help and he had helped a lot. Douglas then asked the customs agent for one last favor: make the small airport in Ouarzazate, where they were shooting, "an international airport for about two hours." With a call from the customs officer to the watchtower, Douglas's plan to escape Morocco with his cast, crew and equipment was set in motion.

"Everything was going up on this plane," Douglas said. Chapman crane, clothes truck, camera truck... and it was too hot to take off. Because of the weather, Douglas and his team had to sit on the asphalt for an hour and a half, because the whole time the Moroccan authorities were acting on their plan and coming to quarantine or arrest them. "Finally the weather cooled down and that's how I got out of Morocco."

Michael Douglas' new memoir One Helluva Ride is available now from Grand Central Publishing.