You're Right! It is the opening ceremony of the tallest building in the world "The Glass Tower," When everyone is up on the top floor partying a fire breaks out in a storage room on the 85th floor. As the fire spreads up the building the people on the top floor must realise that they might die or live. Casting announcements were made in March '74. Designed as an all-star vehicle, the biggest male action star in Hollywood, Steve McQueen, was sought as The Towering Inferno's lead character. As the screenplay was originally written, that character was architect Doug Roberts. Ernest Borgnine was originally asked to play the fire chief and McQueen was going to be the architect. The fire chief had ten pages in the first draft, but Steve had tremendous instinct for the heart of the picture. He felt the role of the architect was pasted together. Steve said, 'If somebody of my caliber can play the architect, I'll play the fire chief.' That's where the idea to cast Paul Newman came in. Newman agreed to play Doug Roberts, and McQueen received equal compensation, as well as an equal amount of screen dialogue. Counting Newman's lines in the script, McQueen requested Silliphant write him 12 additional lines of dialogue to match his co-star's. He also had his lines adapted to his natural manner of speech. For two stars of such magnitude, billing also had to be addressed. The solution was that McQueen's name would appear on the left, Newman's on the right, but higher. Both now appeared to have equal status, although McQueen was actually top-billed. Other signings soon followed: Oscar-winners William Holden (1953, Best Actor, Stalag 17) and Jennifer Jones (1943, Best Actress, The Song of Bernadette); screen legend Fred Astaire; film stars Faye Dunaway and Robert Wagner; television's Richard Chamberlain, Robert Vaughn and Susan Flannery (Days of our lives), fashion model Susan Blakely; football star O.J. Simpson.