10 Things to Know About 'Sheena' (1984)

10 Things to Know About Sheena Queen of the Jungle

10 “Everything you Want Your Daughter to Be”

Sheena Producer, Paul Aratow, speaking to the San Francisco Chronicle in June of 1983, said of why they decided to make Sheena, Queen of the Jungle:

“The whole idea of bringing Sheena to the big screen was to create a strong female character.”

He continues

“She stands for all the things you want your daughter to be”

9 The Animals Were Flown in

Despite Sheena Queen of the Jungle being shot on location in Kenya, the animals featured in the film came from Hollywood. In an effort to have the best trained animal actors available, the producers of Sheena went with animals from Herbert Well’s Animal Actors of Hollywood.

8 8 Years, 4 Studios, and 3 Turnarounds

Producer Paul Aratow left the world of academia in the early 1970s to pursue a Hollywood dream. He went in the direction of documentaries until a friend recommended Sheena Queen of the Jungle as a potential movie property. Aratow brought his concept for Sheena to Hollywood in 1974, earning a deal with Universal that went into turnaround after a year and a half of development. Avco-Embassy Pictures bought the project next before it became clear the company didn’t have the money to make the film.

The film finally ended up at Columbia Pictures with a greenlight and a $25 million dollar budget in June of 1983.

7 The Worst Deal Ever

Paul Aratow was new to Hollywood which may explain why in 1974 he made the worst deal imaginable for Sheena Queen of the Jungle. According to Aratow:

“There are many kinds of turnaround deals, I had one of the worst. Every six months, the option would expire, and I had to give Universal $65,000 (the money the studio put into the film), or they could take the project away from me.”

It gets worse

Remember we mentioned four studios were involved along the way? The third of the four studios was Filmways which took the project to United Artists and soon, the film was put into turnaround once more, this time meaning that Aratow owed Universal $65,000 dollars and $85,000 dollars to United Artists. According to Aratow, he refinanced his car four times and contemplated suicide until he realized he couldn’t afford the razor blades.

6 Days of Our Lives

Before settling on Tanya Roberts to star as the statuesque Sheena, one of the actresses in the running for the role was Days of Our Lives star Leann Hunley. That’s at least, according to Leann Hunley who mentioned being considered for the role of Sheena in an August 1983 interview with columnist Richard King. Hunley claimed to be discussing the role despite being only 5 feet 5 inches tall and producers looking for an actress several inches taller than that for the role. We can find no other source connecting Hunley to the role beyond Hunley herself.

Oh, and Tanya Roberts had been announced as winning the role of Sheena in May of 1983.

5 Tonya Over Farrah?

Robin Leach, pre-Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous, was a gossip columnist and in May of 1983 he scooped everyone when he wrote that Tonya Roberts had won the role of Sheena over her fellow Charlie’s Angels alum, Farrah Fawcett. Rumors about Fawcett being difficult to work with plagued Fawcett’s career despite her making well reviewed moves to drama in The Burning Bed and on the New York stage in Extremities.

4 Casting Directors Went to Health Clubs to Try and Find Sheena

1500 actresses tested for the role of Sheena before Tanya Roberts won the role. The film’s casting department got so desperate to find a Sheena that matched their physical qualifications for the role that they expanded beyond Hollywood actresses and into the world of Health Clubs across the country where women were encouraged to submit photos and resumes for a chance to be considered for the role of Sheena. Allegedly.

Some gossip columnists later suspected that the casting search for Sheena may have been an early form of guerrilla marketing, a cheap way to get free publicity from the health club boom of the early 1980s. Considering that the role allegedly came down to a pair of Charlie’s Angels stars, there appears to be some truth to the gossip.

3 Tanya Roberts Already had the Role in August of 1982?

The casting of Sheena Queen of the Jungle was altogether odd. Rumors began swirling in 1982 with Conan the Barbarian’s Sandahl Bergman a subject of speculation as well as rising television star Rebecca Holden, and Miss USA Shawn Weatherly. However, in a strange discovery, we found an interview in August of 1982 with Tanya Roberts where the eventual star of Sheena stated that she was waiting for financing on the film to be settled before she would take on the role of Sheena.

This appears to indicate that nearly a year before the formal announcement that Roberts had won the role, and while casting rumors and a massive nationwide cattle call was undertaken for the role of Sheena, Roberts already had the role.

2 No Jodie Foster Was Not Approached for the Role of Sheena

The internet, specifically the IMDB trivia section, has been pushing a rumor that Jodie Foster was in line for the role of Sheena, Queen of the Jungle. Why? I have no idea. Foster’s a brilliant actress with real chops who was coming off the trauma of being dragged into the attempted assassination of the President and was committed to graduating from Yale University at the time of the Sheena casting.

Foster is also 5 feet 3 inches tall and generally lacking in the physical attributes that would have made her right for the role.

1 A Spectacular Flop

Sheena arrived in theaters on August 17th 1984 and flopped spectacularly. Thanks to production issues, repeated script changes and the challenges of shooting on location in Kenya, the budget for Sheena ballooned to over $25 million dollars. The film would return only $4.5 million dollars at the box office.