King Solomon's Mines (1985 film)

King Solomon's Mines
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	J. Lee Thompson
Written by	Gene Quintano James R. Silke
Based on	King Solomon's Mines 1885 novel by H. Rider Haggard
Produced by	Yoram Globus Menahem Golan
Starring	Richard Chamberlain Sharon Stone Herbert Lom John Rhys-Davies
Cinematography	Alex Phillips Jr.
Edited by	John Shirley
Music by	Jerry Goldsmith
Distributed by	The Cannon Group
Release date	November 22, 1985 (1985-11-22)
Running time	100 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$11 million[1] or $12.6 million[2]
Box office	$15,057,465[3]

King Solomon's Mines is a 1985 action adventure film, and a film adaptation of the 1880 novel of the same name by H. Rider Haggard. It stars Richard Chamberlain, Sharon Stone, Herbert Lom, and John Rhys-Davies. It was produced by Cannon Films. It was adapted by Gene Quintano and James R. Silke and directed by J. Lee Thompson. This version of the story was a light, comedic take, deliberately referring to, and parodying, the Indiana Jones film series (in which Rhys-Davies had also appeared). It was filmed outside Harare in Zimbabwe. The film was made and released exactly 100 years after the release of the novel on which the film is based.^[4]

King Solomon's Mines was followed by a sequel (filmed back-to-back), Allan Quatermain and the Lost City of Gold (1986). It was originally planned to be the first in a trilogy, and there were two attempts to film a third movie: first, a film that would have been based on She and Allan, another Haggard novel, and then a film which would have been titled Allan Quatermain and the Jewel of the East, to be directed by producer Menahem Golan. Neither attempt was successful, in part due to the financial failure of Lost City of Gold.