Faye Dunaway "The Extraordinary Seaman", a comedy adventure directed by John Frankenheimer and also starring David Niven that she shot right after "Bonnie and Clyde", was released to poor reviews and proved to be a commercial failure. Despite protests from her agent, Dunaway turned down a lot of high-profile projects in order to spend time with Mastroianni. In 1970, Dunaway took a supporting role as a favor to Arthur Penn in his western, "Little Big Man". In a rare comic role, Dunaway played the sexually frustrated wife of a minister who helps raise and seduce a boy raised by Native Americans, played
Faye Dunaway elected to re-edit Kusturica's film, cutting and changing it. Dunaway was dismayed to find that some of her best scenes were left out of the American version. Warner Bros. released the film in United States in 1994 to positive reviews, but little box office. That same year, Dunaway was cast in the short-lived CBS sitcom, "It Had to Be You". Around that time, she was contacted by NBC who wanted her to take on the role of a female sleuth, more in the vein of "Columbo" than "Murder, She Wrote". As the prospective series was being developed, Dunaway contacted "Columbo"