Ishtar is a 1987 comedy film, directed by Elaine May and starring Warren Beatty and Dustin Hoffman as "Rogers and Clarke", a duo of incredibly untalented lounge singers who travel to Morocco looking for work and stumble into a four-party Cold War standoff. It also starred Isabelle Adjani and Charles Grodin and was shot by Vittorio Storaro. The songs in the film were written by Paul Williams, with additional help from Hoffman and May.

Ishtar began shooting in 21 October 1985 and wrapped on 24 March 1986. Having Oscar winner Warren Beatty (1981 - Reds) and Oscar winner Dustin Hoffman (1979 - Kramer vs. Kramer) in the starring roles, they felt confident in the product. The production was fraught with problems. Reshoots didn't wrap until roughly June 1986, pushing the release date back to May 1987.

The movie ran significantly over budget in production, to $30 million, due largely to unanticipated problems with desert filming, and was a financial flop, generating $14,375,181 in North American box office receipts. Its high-profile disastrous performance at the box office is part of the film's enduring bad reputation. Ishtar was nominated for Worst Picture in the 1987 Golden Raspberry Awards. The movie received overwhelmingly poor reviews, and holds a 19% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. blank">Rottentomatoes.com "Ishtar" has since became synonymous with "_box office flop." robert_parish.htm" target="_blank">A Chat with James Robert Parish

Echoing a similar box office flop earlier in the decade, _Heaven's Gate, Columbia Pictures' then parent company, The Coca-Cola Company, became the subject of jokes. Coca-Cola spun off its entertainment holdings into a separate company called Columbia Pictures Entertainment.

Two terrible lounge singers get booked to play a gig in a Moroccan hotel but somehow become pawns in an international power play between the CIA, the Emir of Ishtar, and the rebels trying to overthrow his regime. Written by Stern