Fleischer withdrew, and the movie was assigned to Russ Meyer, who had directed "Beyond the Valley of the Dolls" for Fox. Fox was happy with the movie and signed a contract with Meyer to make three more movies: "The Seven Minutes", from a novel by Irving Wallace; "Everything in the Garden" from a play by Edward Albee; and "The Final Steal" from a 1966 novel by Peter George. "We've discovered that he's very talented and cost conscious", said Fox president Richard Zanuck. "He can put his finger on the commercial ingredients of a film and do it exceedingly well. We feel he can do more than undress people."