Richard Attenborough attempting to get the project made for 18 years. He directed the screen version of the musical "A Chorus Line" (1985) and the anti-apartheid drama "Cry Freedom" (1987). He was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Director for both films. His later films as director and producer include "Chaplin" (1992) starring Robert Downey Jr., as Charlie Chaplin and "Shadowlands" (1993), based on the relationship between C. S. Lewis and Joy Gresham (the star of the latter was Anthony Hopkins, who had appeared in four previous films for Attenborough: "Young Winston", "A Bridge Too Far", "Magic" and "Chaplin"). Between
Charlie Chaplin finding a new distributor was independence; Sydney Chaplin, then his business manager, told the press, "Charlie [must] be allowed all the time he needs and all the money for producing [films] the way he wants ... It is quality, not quantity, we are after." In June 1917, Chaplin signed to complete eight films for First National Exhibitors' Circuit in return for $1 million ($ million today). He chose to build his own studio, situated on five acres of land off Sunset Boulevard, with production facilities of the highest order. It was completed in January 1918, and Chaplin was given freedom