Michael Douglas and the rest of the Douglas clan made one major, smart decision before they launched their all-in-the-family movie project, It Runs In The Family.

They hired Fred Schepisi.

The 63-year-old Australian, with sterling credits that include the Australian classic The Chant Of Jimmie Blacksmith and excellent off-beat fare such as Roxanne, Six Degrees Of Separation and Last Orders, is nobody's fool.

Both charming and gruff, articulate and blunt, Schepisi (pronounced SKEP-see) brought the tough-minded outside perspective that It Runs In The Family needed to avoid the pitfalls.

After all, this movie, which opened yesterday, includes Michael Douglas as producer-star, his brother Joel Douglas as associate producer, their divorced parents Kirk and Diana Douglas as co-stars (playing Michael's parents on screen), and Michael's son Cameron Douglas (playing Michael's on-screen son, of course).

All Douglases all the time.

"It's a strange one, this one," Schepisi told The Sun by telephone from his home in New York.

"The first thing I made sure of was that it was a serious project about these fictional characters, and that it wasn't a vanity project. You ask these questions not because you necessarily believe (that the Douglas family members would be a problem) but, when you've got every family member involved, you've got to be wary. Were they aware of the pitfalls? That's the thing you've got to examine.

"So, before you really get involved in something like this, you lay out the parameters as you see them and, if they see them the same way, then you've got a chance to really make something. We had a chance to make a bit of history. And everybody seemed extremely aware of the pitfalls."

The pitfalls? Schepisi lays them out in the interview just as he had in his conversations with the Douglas clan.

"Number one: Not to be a vanity project!

"Number two: Not to confuse real life with the film.

"Number three: Will they all get along together?

"Number four: Not to make it sentimental and have everything resolved.

"Number five: (What is) Kirk's health and his abilities after a stroke?

"Number six: (What about) Cameron's inexperience and his willingness to go through a very intense coaching program?"

When the project was launched, Cameron was essentially a non-actor as well as a former troubled youth.

"All of these things get factored in," Schepisi said, "and they were all aware of it, and we spent a lot of time examining how to avoid any of these pitfalls."

For the most part, they did. The movie, while it is a ragged, edgy, slice-of-life film about a family, is not really about the Douglas family, despite the major involvement of family members. Despite having "a past," including Cameron's problems and the 1951 divorce that ended Kirk and Diana Douglas' marriage when their children were still young, everyone also managed to get along -- all through the shoot.

"I must say, it was pretty extraordinary," Schepisi said. "For them to be thrown together for that long and there not to be even one tiff is something of a miracle.

"It was kind of interesting because they were all doing so well and they were doing a really good project, and they were having a real chance to act."


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