Mr. Kastner relished many of his partnerships. He made three movies with Brando and five with Burton, including “Equus” (1977), based on the psychological stage drama by Peter Shaffer, who wrote the screenplay.  In the 1970s, Mr. Kastner also indulged an affection for noir material, producing (with others) adaptations of three of Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlowe novels: one with Elliott Gould as Marlowe, a contemporary update of “The Long Goodbye” (1973), and two with Robert Mitchum, “Farewell, My Lovely” (1975) — a remake of the 1944 film “Murder, My Sweet” with Dick Powell — and “The Big Sleep” (1978), another remake, set in England, of the 1946 original with Humphrey Bogart.  Elliott Kastner was born in Manhattan on Jan. 7, 1930. His father died when he was very young, and he was raised by his mother in Harlem. He attended the University of Miami and served in the Army after World War II. At some point — sources conflict about whether it was before or after his military service — he worked in the mailroom at the William Morris Agency in New York, before moving to Los Angeles and going to work for MCA, the powerful talent agency, in 1959.  In the early 1960s, after MCA merged with Decca Records, which owned Universal Pictures Lew Wasserman, the president of MCA, installed Mr. Kastner as vice president of production at Universal. He left after two years to be an independent producer, a move considered to be audacious at the time, as was his method for producing the 1966 film “Kaleidoscope,” though it has since become commonplace: he financed it privately, selling the finished product to a studio, Warner Brothers.  Mr. Kastner was married and divorced twice. He is survived by a son, Dillon, and a daughter, Milita, both of London. He is also survived by three stepsons, the children of his second wife, Tessa Kennedy, from a previous marriage. In addition to Cassian Elwes, they are Damian Elwes and the actor Cary Elwes, all of Los Angeles.  Mr. Kastner, no stranger to lawsuits, was known as a contentious negotiator, impossible to dissuade. Asked about Mr. Kastner’s reputation in Hollywood, Jay Kanter, a longtime movie executive who knew him for more than 50 years, said: “Some good, some bad. He was relentless in pursuing what he wanted. I mean dogged in his pursuit.”  Cassian Elwes told a story to illustrate. When Mr. Kastner was producing “The Missouri Breaks,” he knew that Jack Nicholson had just moved into a house near Marlon Brando’s, and he courted them both, yielding to demands both large and small, including hiring Arthur Penn, whose work both men liked, to direct. In the end, Mr. Elwes said, Mr. Kastner resorted to subterfuge.  “He told both of them that the other had committed,” Mr. Elwes said.  An obituary on Friday about the movie producer Elliott Kastner erroneously credited a distinction to one of his productions, the 1977 movie “Equus.” It was not in fact the first movie with a screenplay by the playwright Peter Shaffer. (“The Public Eye,” in 1972, was the first screenplay for which Mr. Shaffer received screen credit; he also worked on a screenplay for the 1963 film “Lord of the Flies,” although it was not used.)  A version of this article appears in print on July 2, 2010, on Page A23 of the New York edition with the headline: Elliott Kastner, 80, Dies; Produced Literary Films. Order Reprints| Today's Paper|Subscribe
Mr. Kastner, a filmmaker with an affinity for literary writers, produced films like “Equus,” “Harper” and “The Long Goodbye.”